Cartoon Network sent out a press release and the above image about the new Transformers animated series, slated for 2008.
The eye-popping 2-D animated series is a new twist on the original high-octane, animated action-adventure series with new characters alongside legends such as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Each episode will present a standalone storyline featuring everyday heroes who do good deeds that triumph over evil. Transformers Animated series will be co-produced by Cartoon Network Studios.
Twenty-six, half-hour episodes will be produced as well as a 90-minute special of Transformers Animated which is scheduled for release in early 2008 on Cartoon Network in the U.S. Matt Youngberg (“Teen Titans,” “The Batman”) is the supervising director, Derrick Wyatt (“Teen Titans”) will provide the character designs and Sam Register (“Ben 10,” “Teen Titans”) will serve as executive producer of the series. Marty Isenberg (“Danny Phantom,” “X-Men,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) acts as head writer.
Set on Earth in the near future in Detroit, the alien Transformers are thrust into a world populated by humans and automatons. As visitors to Earth, the Transformers–Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Prowl, Bulkhead and Ratchet–work in the human world, interacting with the ‘natives’ in exciting and humorous ways. Transformers Animated has been created to showcase the heroic Autobots working together to battle the evil Decepticons and save Earth with kid-relatable plot lines filled with humor, distinctive character personalities, and dynamic action.
You can read the full press release on Seibertron.com
June 26th, 2007 at 9:14 am
You would think they couldn’t take the show any lower they do something like this.
Why dos every American animated show have to be to cartoony.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:25 am
because it’s a show about cars that turn into robots. that was originally created as a kid’s show.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:27 am
But I liked this 20 years ago, shouldn’t it have grown and matured with me?
June 26th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Seeing as most of the Teen Titans production crew is working on this, who wants to bet we’ll get wacky anime-esque face vaults too?
June 26th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I keep staring at that picture and have no clue what the hell I’m supposed to be looking at.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I keep staring at that picture and have no clue what the hell I’m supposed to be looking at.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:53 am
So much that you had to post twice?
Looks alright to me. A bit more stylised than I’d like, perhaps, but that’s what I thought of Teen Titans too at first.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Do they have to screw everything up? I know transformers was a cartoon to start but does it have to be this crappy looking nowadays?
June 26th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I’m just wondering why they have to point out in the title that this is animated. As if the TransFormers have never been animated before.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Prime does look kind of like animated Hellboy.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Well, they certainly don’t look Japanese-influenced anymore. Yay for America. I guess.
June 26th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
It’s just a marketing still. I’ll judge it when I see it in action.
Originally, the show was called Transformers: Heroes in-house, but, well, a very popular broadcast television show is currently using the Heroes name and kind of have their hooks in tight. The “Animated” name could be used to show that these vehicles are brought to life, i.e. “animated.”
Yeah, the property has been around for over 20 years. But, like all other toyetic properties, it’s not aimed towards adults. Every reintroduction is made with kids in mind rather than older fans. Whether it was Beast Wars, Robots in Disguise, Armada/Cybertron, or Animated, all these shows are aimed towards younger audiences. We tend to get the comics which are almost always aimed towards older fans.
June 26th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
I can’t say I’m not a little disappointed. I’ll give it a shot though, it can’t be worse than Aramada/Cybertron/Energon.
By the way, I would say Beast Wars was pretty firmly aimed at older viewers. Obviously the target was the young’ns, but they had the older viewers in mind all the way through the process.
June 26th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Jeff Harris: True. I myself am waiting to see it in motion before passing full judgement, but I still think the designs -still or not a still- look kinda… not all that right.
On a positive note though, it does work well for the ‘bulkier’ characters, like that one on the far right.
And as for Beast Wars, yeah that was aimed at kids, but it certainly did get into some semi-dark territory that none of the other shows on Fox Kids -at the time- ever approached. ‘Code of Hero’, anyone?
June 26th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
god that looks awful.
June 26th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
I like Wyatt’s designs. Simplified and sleek, they should translate well into 2D animation.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:44 am
I haven’t liked much from this franchise since the old days but it is somewaht comforting that a cartoon I loved as a child resonated with enough people that is has stuck around for a couple decades now.
I’ll definitely check this out.
p.s. lighten up fanboys
June 27th, 2007 at 8:47 am
American animation originally was straight faces and human formed bodies why don’t thy return to that instead of turning every thing into a Bugs bunny cartoon.
(p.s. lighten up fanboys)
Fanboys kept this thing alive for 20 years, so they owe us some consideration.
I just wish they would make a full season like the animated movie.
June 27th, 2007 at 11:18 am
I don’t think anybody else noticed this but these um…”Transformers” look like monkeys. Look at Bumble Bee’s positioning. Look at all the faces and shoulder-arm dimensions. Monkeys anyone? Teen Transformers Go?
PS. I like Beast Wars (all of them and I watched them as a kid) and Armada the rest sucked eggs.
September 21st, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Doesnt it piss u off when cartoon network put our transformer cartoon on in the early morning when they should have played it at 4:30 in the afternoon. That is when transformers always played when i was a little on getting off of school to watch my favorite cartoon in the whole wide world. Dont u hate when they try to ruin our childhood when they do such things like that. They should also tell us when there going to play the episodes more clearly on the commercials. They hardly even give the cartoon more repect then that. Which they should if it wasnt for transformers there whouldnt be such cartoons as dragonball z or digimon or any cartoon like they have today. All i want is for cartoon network to give more repect to us an the cartoon.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Damn!! American animators can go straight to hell!!
December 29th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I can’t believe that they messed up this cartoon after the movie did so well. What were they thinking. It is horrible and I can’t even watch it. That makes me feel like they didn’t realize what was done to make the movie a hit because they went a total different direction.