Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Gustavo mutters about TF:Prime "Convoy"
56 views
Skip to first unread message
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Oct 15, 2015, 2:02:13 AM10/15/15
to
"Convoy" is the ninth episode of the first season of TF:Prime, and the fourth episode of the season proper (the first five episodes are a standalone miniseries). The show is still beginning to find its feet a little at this point, and the mix of humor and seriousness doesn't always hit the right balance.
Whereas G1 very often had a "one and done" plan (especially in Seasons 2 and 3) where each episode (or few episode arc) ended up resetting the continuity to some known state, and TF:Armada/Energon/Cybertron usually had a massive season long story that made each episode an impenetrable mess, TF:Prime follows the pattern of Beast Wars. Each episode is generally a stand-alone episode, with a beginning, middle and end, but there are overarching story arcs and themes that take seasons to develop in some cases.
This episode manages to briefly touch upon each of the Autobots, and their human sidekicks up to that point, so it is a little busy in that regard. It's also a major turning point for Jack, the teenaged boy sidekick, as he is beginning to take a more active role in humanity's safety. Or he's being cajoled into it by a pretty girl. Either way, up until this point, Jack has been entirely reactive, responding to the threats that face him, but never stepping into harm's way.
Jack is probably my favorite character in the series, but a lot of his starring episodes are either pretty continuity heavy, and don't make good introductions to the series, or they get bogged down in cliches with Femme Fetalebots (Airachnid is not my favorite character).
The episode opens with Special Agent Fowler on the radio, calling to bawl out the Autobots for bringing Decepticons to Earth. This is, apparently, a common behavior for Fowler, and the writers often play him up to be a bit of an ignoramus, and give him slapstick gags. Fowler has been shot down, presumably by Decepticons, and feels the need to explain a huge amount of exposition. He is transporting the Dingus, some massively dangerous McGuffin, across the country in the weirdly massive cargo hold of a F-22 fighter, which he pilots without a flight suit, because he is that bad ass.
During all the exposition, we have a few nice character moments. Miko considers Fowler to be something of a laughing stock, and finds it hysterical that he has been shot down again. Ratchet scoffs at anyone's interest in Earth technology. Raf is appropriately concerned about being irradiated.
Ratchet is a very different character than any of the previous Ratchets we have encountered. He has the grumpy curmudgeon thing of TF:Animated Ratchet, but he is also a bigot and a coward. He does not think of humans as his equals, or even really worth paying much attention to. And, he avoids going into battle if he can ever avoid it, staying in the base and manning the controls to the ground bridge while other Autobots head out and make direct contact with the enemy. Not all of this comes out in this episode, of course, because it is a long term characterization, but he's a really well developed character, and the voice actor always gives a great performance where this backstory really informs the character's emotions and reactions.
Ratchet is the type of character that would normally get a spotlight episode where we learn that he's really not bad, he's just a bit of a curmudgeon, but it's all in good fun. This never happens in TF:Prime, and when we do get episodes that give him more of the spotlight, we learn that his strengths are there in spite of his weaknesses, and he remains a bigot and a coward. I absolutely love that.
Jack hasn't said a word yet, has he? He has stood and glared, with his unruly dark bangs hanging down, being a little bit distant and gloomy and utterly determined. Jack might also be described as a coward, but in his case it is more excusable -- he's a teenaged boy, suddenly thrust into the world of giant robots trying to kill him, and he would rather have none of it.
Miko is some kind of insane freak who craves danger. I never really liked Miko until I wrote a fanfic about her being killed... With her reckless disregard for her own safety, it is only a matter of time before her luck runs out, isn't it?
Anyway, after Fowler and Optimus lay down a whole lot of exposition about why the Dingos cannot be transported by the ground bridge, and Fowler has asked if they have any better ideas (great voice acting there, where we see his bravado vanish for a moment), we see Optimus, Bulkhead and Bumblebee in a field by Fowler's downed fighter (which no one seems to have noticed, and which did not burst into flames or anything when Fowler crash landed it gouging a massive chunk out of the ground). Optimus tells Fowler to not touch anything in his cab, and we get a bit of Fowler the buffoon.
The animation for Fowler the Buffoon in this scene has always bothered me. The fingers are too fluid, and don't move like human fingers. It really is a testament to the rest of the animation that you can see a gesture like this and be bothered by it. The animators also play a bit with focus, making the fingers in the foreground slightly fuzzy as if they are out of focus -- I wish they wouldn't do that. It treads lightly into the uncanny valley.
Humor in Transformers is one of those things that bothers me almost universally. I find that it almost always falls flat, and the show has to work extra hard to surpass the failures of humor. The only show that did it well was TF:Animated, and mostly during the serious moments (the episode where Optimus is explaining his regrets to Ratchet, and Ratchet offers to reprogram him so he won't feel that anymore, for instance). I could imagine someone watching the Fowler The Buffoon scene, and just cringing. But, I mostly just stare vacantly at it, and wait for it to end. Life is difficult when you don't find most attempts at humor to be humorous.
The title sequence for TF:Prime is excellent. It is moody and depressive as it showcases the Autobots and their human sidekicks, and then the music kicks into an upbeat little march when the Decepticons appear. TF:Prime consistently has the best music of any of the Transformers shows, in my opinion, although the first closing theme for Galaxy Force was lovely.
After a glorious opening sequence -- is TF:Prime the only show that has a scene before the opening sequence? It's something that I didn't even notice until now -- we get a brief scene of the human sidekicks standing around as Ratchet explains that they will be driving for hours. The body language on Miko and Jack is really well done, although Miko's yawn might be a bit much. Raf just stands there dully, and might as well be some kind of animatronic squirrel -- his character model is too far from human to do subtlety.
And Fowler the Buffoon is pressing Optimus's horn, beeping at a slow moving truck. Kup eventually gets out of the way. Optimus asks Fowler if that was necessary, and Fowler does a "Oh, don't tell me you are one of those text book drivers..." thing.
Fowler's characterization is all over the place in the first season. He's a frumpy, middle-aged James Bond who apparently solely responsible for coordinating the US Government's entire response to alien robots living in a missile silo. He is impatient and temperamental. Incredibly loyal to his country and his friends, but perhaps not to his government. And, sometimes, he is portrayed as a buffoon.
These complicated, flawed characterizations are what I like about the show, and it takes time to develop, often over many episodes. The complicated, flawed way that the characters are depicted -- sometimes Fowler is incredibly competent, sometimes he is a buffoon -- is one of the things that frustrates me most about the show. It's great when the characters are flawed, but it sucks when the characterizations are flawed.
We get an ominous helicopter calling in the ground troops, and then go back to Fowler, now showing a more serious side, thanking Optimus for "saving his bacon", but then twisting it into a bit of an accusation, saying that if Optimus and the Transformers had all stayed away from Earth, his bacon would not need saving. It's a great little moment for Fowler, where he uses his flippancy as a cover for his bitterness. He doesn't really mean to accuse Optimus, except for the fact that he really does mean it -- he's just not happy that he means it.
Optimus replies with a question: "Are you suggesting that no evil existed on your world before we arrived?" It's a good question, and one that completely telegraphs the plot of this episode.
Fowler hems and haws, and offers to put on the radio, and then notices the helicopter in the side mirror, and recognizes it as the helicopter that shot him down. He asks who it was, and offers several possible names, none of which are the worst Transformer name we have heard.
(As an aside, I doubt a helicopter can really shoot down a fighter)
A bunch of green sports cars pull up and surround Bulkhead, but Optimus orders him to stay in robot mode. Fowler mutters that it is a whole team of Decepticons, and Ratchet, back at base, looks at the scanner and decides that they must be using some kind of cloaking technology -- this isn't just Ratchet being wrong, and dragging out the surprise for the viewer, it is Ratchet underestimating humans and not considering them to be a threat at all.
When one opens a sunroof and a soldier in a scuba suit stands up pointing a gun, the threat is revealed as human. Optimus relays this back to the base, Jack and Raf are surprised, Miko roots for their deaths, and Ratchet rubs his chin.
There's a very nice action scene, where we can see the leader of the attackers giving orders, and we can see Fowler getting car sick and nearly puking. Fowler was just flying a plane without a flight suit, and now he is ill. Fowler the buffoon, again.
As cars are flipped, the animators make sure to show us that the occupants are fine. It's a lot like the little Cobra pilots who always bail out in time.
Fowler gets to leave Optimus' cab and have a fist fight. For a flabby, middle-aged man, he can hold his own. He does, however, accidentally drop someone from the side of the truck at 60mph. We are not shown that attacker surviving. Shit happens. You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. The fucker probably deserved it. Etc. Shit's getting real.
As Fowler gets back into the cab, a voice on his walkie talkie says "I hope you take care of the Dingus better than you take care of your captives," reinforcing the offscreen death or mutilation of the man Fowler let fall. Fowler has a brief dialog with the man in the helicopter, who identifies himself as Silas, and his organization as MECH, and exposits that they may be interested in the Dingus for reasons other than money.
A few years before this, IDW began their Machination storyline, where evil humans were interested in Transformers technology, so this makes MECH seem like a cheap retread. I cannot actually defend it against that, since it feels like a cheap retread to me, just in a different medium.
After an ominous commercial break, we focus on Silas in the helicopter, as he gives a short monologue. "There's a war brewing, between the new world order and the newest. The side that wins will be the one with the most innovative technology." One of the MECH soldiers demonstrates his innovative technology by firing grenades at the back of Optimus's trailer, and then detonating them by pressing a button on his grenade launcher, exposing the Dingus.
Unfortunately, the MECH soldier also exposes Arcee, who goes racing out in motorcycle mode (with a fake driver), bounces off the soldier, and causes a collision that makes a MECH car flip and explode, killing everyone inside. Sucks to be them.
Fowler taunts Silas, but Optimus reprimands him. "Do not take Silas lightly. Megatron preached the same ideology before plunging Cybertron into the Great War that destroyed our world."
TF:Prime is one of the "Cybertron is a dead planet" continuities, along with the Movieverse and G1, and it is an important part of the backstory that the Transformers have completely destroyed their world. The presence of Transformers on Earth really is an extinction-level threat to humanity, and Agent Fowler is right to be bitter about it.
Ratchet then radios in and tells Optimus to prepare for Phase 2. This is overheard by Starscream and the Decepticons. Starscream shows more military genius in 10 seconds than G1 Megatron ever did over two seasons, by ordering the Vehicons to use the distraction as a chance to kill Autobots. I don't mean to say "TF:Prime is good, because G1 wasn't" -- they are different series with different audiences at different times -- but we have the Decepticons being a credible threat even when they are ultimately just a distraction. This is, after all, the same series that had the Decepticons kill the Autobot scout Cliffjumper in the first five minutes of the first episode, and the Decepticons have a strategy of striking the Autobots when they are at their weakest.
The Vehicon in front responds, "Yes, Lord Starscream," and does some hand-over-heart salute. The Vehicons seem like more than just drones in this series.
We get a nice little action scene in a train tunnel, as Bulkhead transforms and blows up the entrance so they cannot be followed, and Bumblebee leaps on the train and knocks. It is probably supposed to be a surprise, but it is obvious that they are transferring the Dingus.
Meanwhile, Silas's helicopter is surrounded by flying purple cars, very similar to how the Autobots were surrounded by MECH cars. But, the Vehicons have little interest in MECH and open fire on Optimus. This surprises Silas, who clearly believed that these were military flying purple cars.
The Air Vehicons are perfectly absurd.
This also brings up a plot hole -- Fowler is not calling in for backup of any kind. Sure, they wanted to travel with a low profile, but at the first sign that this was going wrong, he should have contacted someone for air support.
Optimus's trailer is detached and destroyed, and several states are not destroyed, so Silas realizes that the Dingus is not in the trailer, and it must have been transferred to the train.
Vehicons transform and corner the Autobots. The Autobots have no choice but the expose themselves, transform and fight for their lives. Starscream should have sent more. And we get Fowler being a buffoon and Silas learning that the rumors of the Transformers are true.
We get the start of a very nice action scene. Each Autobot has an entirely different fighting style -- Arcee is a karate expert, Bumblebee is a boxer, Bulkhead is a bruiser, and Optimus is a barbarian. The choreography of the animation models is really well done. I get bored by action scenes in general, but this I can happily watch.
I also like that the animation models have scratches along the edges and corners of the Autobots.
Silas calls to taunt Fowler, and we get a flashback to the transfer of the Dingus, and Silas saying that he has a train to catch. Fowler calls Optimus, distracting him and getting him beaten with a log and knocked down the side of a cliff.
And we are back at the base, where the kids are reacting to the news. Jack thinks they need to do something, Raf suggests that they come up with Phase 3, and Miko wants to go on the train and punch people. Ratchet is having none of this. Jack agrees with Ratchet, that is would be suicide, and Miko points out that if the Dingus goes off, it will an end to several states. This all makes Miko sound much more rational than she is.
Ratchet explains that it would be nearly impossible to groundbridge someone onto a moving train. And Raf asks if that is still a problem if they know the exact location of the train, and then presumably breaks every level of security on this whole operation to get it.
MECH launches an electrocutomatic at the train, and electrocutes the single guard, right before Jack and Miko take the groundbridge in.
It might not be apparent, but this is the first time that Jack is deliberately putting himself in harm's way. It's a jump for the character, and the first steps on his path of becoming a hero. And, this is in an episode devoted to showing us that humans can be as evil as Decepticons. TF:Prime is often a very dark and gloomy show, but Jack's slow development is one of the bright spots -- things aren't as terrible as they seem, and we have control over how we react to them. It's something that we aren't really beaten over the head with either.
Raf sends the train down a different fork, the MECH pilot takes a brief break from flying the helicopter to repel the freakishly deformed child and destroy his computer, and Ratchet complains.
MECH is cutting through the roof of the train, and the Autobots are still fighting Vehicons. Optimus awakes to see the helicopter on the train.
Inside the train, MECH is still cutting open the roof. Miko grabs the first weapon that she can see, an axe. Jack glances over and does the same, only all that is left is a fire extinguisher. As the roof falls in, Miko threatens the MECH soldiers with her axe, and Jack looks on and then tries to follow her bravado with the fire extinguisher.
I really like the animation in that sequence, as it shows just how much Jack is following Miko's lead, and how insecure he is doing it.
The technical proficiency of the animation is truly remarkable, and probably the best we have gotten for Transformers cartoons to date. Part of this is that the technology really has improved to the point where these things are easier, and we have had recent big-budget animated films exploring how to evoke emotion with stylized figures, but also, it's just well done.
We also see just how stupid this plan was -- they were concerned with getting onto the train, and not what they would do once they got there, and it was only dumb luck that they didn't get shot to death by MECH. But, Silas sees Optimus running to the rescue, and orders a retreat. Miko compliments Jack on his fierceness, and grabs onto his arm while hanging off the side of the train.
Silas blows up the track ahead of the train, starting the next sequence -- the cliched "stop the train before everything blows up" bit. It really is a slow moving cliche.
We also see that Jack immediately takes command as is incredibly level headed, while Miko begins to lose her focus when things aren't going according to her plan. It's something that we have seen from Jack before -- he handles crises well. And then Ratchet cannot bridge them out, and Jack falls apart and starts to pity himself, so Miko steps up a bit, and then starts planning her will.
But it is Optimus to the rescue, of course. And the rest of the Autobots are still pounding on Vehicons. Silas mutters some threats, and flies away. Optimus gives a little speech about Decepticons in human skin and we are done. And the rest of the Autobots had finished killing the Vehicons a few moments before.
This is a very human-centric episode. For the most part, the Decepticons are just a random distraction to keep the Autobots out of the action. And, the two main themes -- the emergence of a human threat in the form of Silas and MECH, and Jack taking his first steps towards becoming a hero -- are very well balanced.
The humor is "good for Transformers", which of course means that it often falls flat and perhaps we would have been better off if they didn't even try.
And, while a lot of the plot elements are cliche, they are done well, and mostly just serve as a backdrop for the character development.
I really like that the kids basically don't save the day. They might have delayed MECH for an instant or two, just by surprising them, but even that is debatable. Jack was heroic, but ineffective, and quickly got in over his head and wasn't sure what to do. But, it really is his first steps down the path of becoming an effective hero. It's an episode that has a fair number of flaws, but really rises above them.
Whereas G1 very often had a "one and done" plan (especially in Seasons 2 and 3) where each episode (or few episode arc) ended up resetting the continuity to some known state, and TF:Armada/Energon/Cybertron usually had a massive season long story that made each episode an impenetrable mess, TF:Prime follows the pattern of Beast Wars. Each episode is generally a stand-alone episode, with a beginning, middle and end, but there are overarching story arcs and themes that take seasons to develop in some cases.
This episode manages to briefly touch upon each of the Autobots, and their human sidekicks up to that point, so it is a little busy in that regard. It's also a major turning point for Jack, the teenaged boy sidekick, as he is beginning to take a more active role in humanity's safety. Or he's being cajoled into it by a pretty girl. Either way, up until this point, Jack has been entirely reactive, responding to the threats that face him, but never stepping into harm's way.
Jack is probably my favorite character in the series, but a lot of his starring episodes are either pretty continuity heavy, and don't make good introductions to the series, or they get bogged down in cliches with Femme Fetalebots (Airachnid is not my favorite character).
The episode opens with Special Agent Fowler on the radio, calling to bawl out the Autobots for bringing Decepticons to Earth. This is, apparently, a common behavior for Fowler, and the writers often play him up to be a bit of an ignoramus, and give him slapstick gags. Fowler has been shot down, presumably by Decepticons, and feels the need to explain a huge amount of exposition. He is transporting the Dingus, some massively dangerous McGuffin, across the country in the weirdly massive cargo hold of a F-22 fighter, which he pilots without a flight suit, because he is that bad ass.
During all the exposition, we have a few nice character moments. Miko considers Fowler to be something of a laughing stock, and finds it hysterical that he has been shot down again. Ratchet scoffs at anyone's interest in Earth technology. Raf is appropriately concerned about being irradiated.
Ratchet is a very different character than any of the previous Ratchets we have encountered. He has the grumpy curmudgeon thing of TF:Animated Ratchet, but he is also a bigot and a coward. He does not think of humans as his equals, or even really worth paying much attention to. And, he avoids going into battle if he can ever avoid it, staying in the base and manning the controls to the ground bridge while other Autobots head out and make direct contact with the enemy. Not all of this comes out in this episode, of course, because it is a long term characterization, but he's a really well developed character, and the voice actor always gives a great performance where this backstory really informs the character's emotions and reactions.
Ratchet is the type of character that would normally get a spotlight episode where we learn that he's really not bad, he's just a bit of a curmudgeon, but it's all in good fun. This never happens in TF:Prime, and when we do get episodes that give him more of the spotlight, we learn that his strengths are there in spite of his weaknesses, and he remains a bigot and a coward. I absolutely love that.
Jack hasn't said a word yet, has he? He has stood and glared, with his unruly dark bangs hanging down, being a little bit distant and gloomy and utterly determined. Jack might also be described as a coward, but in his case it is more excusable -- he's a teenaged boy, suddenly thrust into the world of giant robots trying to kill him, and he would rather have none of it.
Miko is some kind of insane freak who craves danger. I never really liked Miko until I wrote a fanfic about her being killed... With her reckless disregard for her own safety, it is only a matter of time before her luck runs out, isn't it?
Anyway, after Fowler and Optimus lay down a whole lot of exposition about why the Dingos cannot be transported by the ground bridge, and Fowler has asked if they have any better ideas (great voice acting there, where we see his bravado vanish for a moment), we see Optimus, Bulkhead and Bumblebee in a field by Fowler's downed fighter (which no one seems to have noticed, and which did not burst into flames or anything when Fowler crash landed it gouging a massive chunk out of the ground). Optimus tells Fowler to not touch anything in his cab, and we get a bit of Fowler the buffoon.
The animation for Fowler the Buffoon in this scene has always bothered me. The fingers are too fluid, and don't move like human fingers. It really is a testament to the rest of the animation that you can see a gesture like this and be bothered by it. The animators also play a bit with focus, making the fingers in the foreground slightly fuzzy as if they are out of focus -- I wish they wouldn't do that. It treads lightly into the uncanny valley.
Humor in Transformers is one of those things that bothers me almost universally. I find that it almost always falls flat, and the show has to work extra hard to surpass the failures of humor. The only show that did it well was TF:Animated, and mostly during the serious moments (the episode where Optimus is explaining his regrets to Ratchet, and Ratchet offers to reprogram him so he won't feel that anymore, for instance). I could imagine someone watching the Fowler The Buffoon scene, and just cringing. But, I mostly just stare vacantly at it, and wait for it to end. Life is difficult when you don't find most attempts at humor to be humorous.
The title sequence for TF:Prime is excellent. It is moody and depressive as it showcases the Autobots and their human sidekicks, and then the music kicks into an upbeat little march when the Decepticons appear. TF:Prime consistently has the best music of any of the Transformers shows, in my opinion, although the first closing theme for Galaxy Force was lovely.
After a glorious opening sequence -- is TF:Prime the only show that has a scene before the opening sequence? It's something that I didn't even notice until now -- we get a brief scene of the human sidekicks standing around as Ratchet explains that they will be driving for hours. The body language on Miko and Jack is really well done, although Miko's yawn might be a bit much. Raf just stands there dully, and might as well be some kind of animatronic squirrel -- his character model is too far from human to do subtlety.
And Fowler the Buffoon is pressing Optimus's horn, beeping at a slow moving truck. Kup eventually gets out of the way. Optimus asks Fowler if that was necessary, and Fowler does a "Oh, don't tell me you are one of those text book drivers..." thing.
Fowler's characterization is all over the place in the first season. He's a frumpy, middle-aged James Bond who apparently solely responsible for coordinating the US Government's entire response to alien robots living in a missile silo. He is impatient and temperamental. Incredibly loyal to his country and his friends, but perhaps not to his government. And, sometimes, he is portrayed as a buffoon.
These complicated, flawed characterizations are what I like about the show, and it takes time to develop, often over many episodes. The complicated, flawed way that the characters are depicted -- sometimes Fowler is incredibly competent, sometimes he is a buffoon -- is one of the things that frustrates me most about the show. It's great when the characters are flawed, but it sucks when the characterizations are flawed.
We get an ominous helicopter calling in the ground troops, and then go back to Fowler, now showing a more serious side, thanking Optimus for "saving his bacon", but then twisting it into a bit of an accusation, saying that if Optimus and the Transformers had all stayed away from Earth, his bacon would not need saving. It's a great little moment for Fowler, where he uses his flippancy as a cover for his bitterness. He doesn't really mean to accuse Optimus, except for the fact that he really does mean it -- he's just not happy that he means it.
Optimus replies with a question: "Are you suggesting that no evil existed on your world before we arrived?" It's a good question, and one that completely telegraphs the plot of this episode.
Fowler hems and haws, and offers to put on the radio, and then notices the helicopter in the side mirror, and recognizes it as the helicopter that shot him down. He asks who it was, and offers several possible names, none of which are the worst Transformer name we have heard.
(As an aside, I doubt a helicopter can really shoot down a fighter)
A bunch of green sports cars pull up and surround Bulkhead, but Optimus orders him to stay in robot mode. Fowler mutters that it is a whole team of Decepticons, and Ratchet, back at base, looks at the scanner and decides that they must be using some kind of cloaking technology -- this isn't just Ratchet being wrong, and dragging out the surprise for the viewer, it is Ratchet underestimating humans and not considering them to be a threat at all.
When one opens a sunroof and a soldier in a scuba suit stands up pointing a gun, the threat is revealed as human. Optimus relays this back to the base, Jack and Raf are surprised, Miko roots for their deaths, and Ratchet rubs his chin.
There's a very nice action scene, where we can see the leader of the attackers giving orders, and we can see Fowler getting car sick and nearly puking. Fowler was just flying a plane without a flight suit, and now he is ill. Fowler the buffoon, again.
As cars are flipped, the animators make sure to show us that the occupants are fine. It's a lot like the little Cobra pilots who always bail out in time.
Fowler gets to leave Optimus' cab and have a fist fight. For a flabby, middle-aged man, he can hold his own. He does, however, accidentally drop someone from the side of the truck at 60mph. We are not shown that attacker surviving. Shit happens. You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. The fucker probably deserved it. Etc. Shit's getting real.
As Fowler gets back into the cab, a voice on his walkie talkie says "I hope you take care of the Dingus better than you take care of your captives," reinforcing the offscreen death or mutilation of the man Fowler let fall. Fowler has a brief dialog with the man in the helicopter, who identifies himself as Silas, and his organization as MECH, and exposits that they may be interested in the Dingus for reasons other than money.
A few years before this, IDW began their Machination storyline, where evil humans were interested in Transformers technology, so this makes MECH seem like a cheap retread. I cannot actually defend it against that, since it feels like a cheap retread to me, just in a different medium.
After an ominous commercial break, we focus on Silas in the helicopter, as he gives a short monologue. "There's a war brewing, between the new world order and the newest. The side that wins will be the one with the most innovative technology." One of the MECH soldiers demonstrates his innovative technology by firing grenades at the back of Optimus's trailer, and then detonating them by pressing a button on his grenade launcher, exposing the Dingus.
Unfortunately, the MECH soldier also exposes Arcee, who goes racing out in motorcycle mode (with a fake driver), bounces off the soldier, and causes a collision that makes a MECH car flip and explode, killing everyone inside. Sucks to be them.
Fowler taunts Silas, but Optimus reprimands him. "Do not take Silas lightly. Megatron preached the same ideology before plunging Cybertron into the Great War that destroyed our world."
TF:Prime is one of the "Cybertron is a dead planet" continuities, along with the Movieverse and G1, and it is an important part of the backstory that the Transformers have completely destroyed their world. The presence of Transformers on Earth really is an extinction-level threat to humanity, and Agent Fowler is right to be bitter about it.
Ratchet then radios in and tells Optimus to prepare for Phase 2. This is overheard by Starscream and the Decepticons. Starscream shows more military genius in 10 seconds than G1 Megatron ever did over two seasons, by ordering the Vehicons to use the distraction as a chance to kill Autobots. I don't mean to say "TF:Prime is good, because G1 wasn't" -- they are different series with different audiences at different times -- but we have the Decepticons being a credible threat even when they are ultimately just a distraction. This is, after all, the same series that had the Decepticons kill the Autobot scout Cliffjumper in the first five minutes of the first episode, and the Decepticons have a strategy of striking the Autobots when they are at their weakest.
The Vehicon in front responds, "Yes, Lord Starscream," and does some hand-over-heart salute. The Vehicons seem like more than just drones in this series.
We get a nice little action scene in a train tunnel, as Bulkhead transforms and blows up the entrance so they cannot be followed, and Bumblebee leaps on the train and knocks. It is probably supposed to be a surprise, but it is obvious that they are transferring the Dingus.
Meanwhile, Silas's helicopter is surrounded by flying purple cars, very similar to how the Autobots were surrounded by MECH cars. But, the Vehicons have little interest in MECH and open fire on Optimus. This surprises Silas, who clearly believed that these were military flying purple cars.
The Air Vehicons are perfectly absurd.
This also brings up a plot hole -- Fowler is not calling in for backup of any kind. Sure, they wanted to travel with a low profile, but at the first sign that this was going wrong, he should have contacted someone for air support.
Optimus's trailer is detached and destroyed, and several states are not destroyed, so Silas realizes that the Dingus is not in the trailer, and it must have been transferred to the train.
Vehicons transform and corner the Autobots. The Autobots have no choice but the expose themselves, transform and fight for their lives. Starscream should have sent more. And we get Fowler being a buffoon and Silas learning that the rumors of the Transformers are true.
We get the start of a very nice action scene. Each Autobot has an entirely different fighting style -- Arcee is a karate expert, Bumblebee is a boxer, Bulkhead is a bruiser, and Optimus is a barbarian. The choreography of the animation models is really well done. I get bored by action scenes in general, but this I can happily watch.
I also like that the animation models have scratches along the edges and corners of the Autobots.
Silas calls to taunt Fowler, and we get a flashback to the transfer of the Dingus, and Silas saying that he has a train to catch. Fowler calls Optimus, distracting him and getting him beaten with a log and knocked down the side of a cliff.
And we are back at the base, where the kids are reacting to the news. Jack thinks they need to do something, Raf suggests that they come up with Phase 3, and Miko wants to go on the train and punch people. Ratchet is having none of this. Jack agrees with Ratchet, that is would be suicide, and Miko points out that if the Dingus goes off, it will an end to several states. This all makes Miko sound much more rational than she is.
Ratchet explains that it would be nearly impossible to groundbridge someone onto a moving train. And Raf asks if that is still a problem if they know the exact location of the train, and then presumably breaks every level of security on this whole operation to get it.
MECH launches an electrocutomatic at the train, and electrocutes the single guard, right before Jack and Miko take the groundbridge in.
It might not be apparent, but this is the first time that Jack is deliberately putting himself in harm's way. It's a jump for the character, and the first steps on his path of becoming a hero. And, this is in an episode devoted to showing us that humans can be as evil as Decepticons. TF:Prime is often a very dark and gloomy show, but Jack's slow development is one of the bright spots -- things aren't as terrible as they seem, and we have control over how we react to them. It's something that we aren't really beaten over the head with either.
Raf sends the train down a different fork, the MECH pilot takes a brief break from flying the helicopter to repel the freakishly deformed child and destroy his computer, and Ratchet complains.
MECH is cutting through the roof of the train, and the Autobots are still fighting Vehicons. Optimus awakes to see the helicopter on the train.
Inside the train, MECH is still cutting open the roof. Miko grabs the first weapon that she can see, an axe. Jack glances over and does the same, only all that is left is a fire extinguisher. As the roof falls in, Miko threatens the MECH soldiers with her axe, and Jack looks on and then tries to follow her bravado with the fire extinguisher.
I really like the animation in that sequence, as it shows just how much Jack is following Miko's lead, and how insecure he is doing it.
The technical proficiency of the animation is truly remarkable, and probably the best we have gotten for Transformers cartoons to date. Part of this is that the technology really has improved to the point where these things are easier, and we have had recent big-budget animated films exploring how to evoke emotion with stylized figures, but also, it's just well done.
We also see just how stupid this plan was -- they were concerned with getting onto the train, and not what they would do once they got there, and it was only dumb luck that they didn't get shot to death by MECH. But, Silas sees Optimus running to the rescue, and orders a retreat. Miko compliments Jack on his fierceness, and grabs onto his arm while hanging off the side of the train.
Silas blows up the track ahead of the train, starting the next sequence -- the cliched "stop the train before everything blows up" bit. It really is a slow moving cliche.
We also see that Jack immediately takes command as is incredibly level headed, while Miko begins to lose her focus when things aren't going according to her plan. It's something that we have seen from Jack before -- he handles crises well. And then Ratchet cannot bridge them out, and Jack falls apart and starts to pity himself, so Miko steps up a bit, and then starts planning her will.
But it is Optimus to the rescue, of course. And the rest of the Autobots are still pounding on Vehicons. Silas mutters some threats, and flies away. Optimus gives a little speech about Decepticons in human skin and we are done. And the rest of the Autobots had finished killing the Vehicons a few moments before.
This is a very human-centric episode. For the most part, the Decepticons are just a random distraction to keep the Autobots out of the action. And, the two main themes -- the emergence of a human threat in the form of Silas and MECH, and Jack taking his first steps towards becoming a hero -- are very well balanced.
The humor is "good for Transformers", which of course means that it often falls flat and perhaps we would have been better off if they didn't even try.
And, while a lot of the plot elements are cliche, they are done well, and mostly just serve as a backdrop for the character development.
I really like that the kids basically don't save the day. They might have delayed MECH for an instant or two, just by surprising them, but even that is debatable. Jack was heroic, but ineffective, and quickly got in over his head and wasn't sure what to do. But, it really is his first steps down the path of becoming an effective hero. It's an episode that has a fair number of flaws, but really rises above them.
Zobovor
Oct 16, 2015, 3:53:36 PM10/16/15
to
On Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 12:02:13 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> Ratchet is a very different character than any of the previous Ratchets we
> have encountered. He has the grumpy curmudgeon thing of TF:Animated Ratchet,
> but he is also a bigot and a coward.
He reminded me a lot of the Animated version of Ratchet.
> Ratchet is a very different character than any of the previous Ratchets we
> have encountered. He has the grumpy curmudgeon thing of TF:Animated Ratchet,
> but he is also a bigot and a coward.
> Miko is some kind of insane freak who craves danger.
> The animation for Fowler the Buffoon in this scene has always bothered me.
> The fingers are too fluid, and don't move like human fingers. It really is a
> testament to the rest of the animation that you can see a gesture like this
> and be bothered by it. The animators also play a bit with focus, making the
> fingers in the foreground slightly fuzzy as if they are out of focus -- I
> wish they wouldn't do that. It treads lightly into the uncanny valley.
> Humor in Transformers is one of those things that bothers me almost
> universally. I find that it almost always falls flat, and the show has to
> work extra hard to surpass the failures of humor.
> I could imagine someone watching the Fowler The Buffoon scene, and just
> cringing. But, I mostly just stare vacantly at it, and wait for it to end.
> Life is difficult when you don't find most attempts at humor to be humorous.
Damn, you know what is really funnier than it has any right to be? The new Muppets series on ABC. I am constantly laughing out loud at that show, and I never laugh out loud at anything. Seriously. I am a total curmudgeon. Also, I have a really off-beat sense of humor, so I don't find things funny that I think most people do.
> After a glorious opening sequence -- is TF:Prime the only show that has a
> scene before the opening sequence? It's something that I didn't even notice
> until now
> He is impatient and temperamental. Incredibly loyal to his country and his
> friends, but perhaps not to his government. And, sometimes, he is portrayed
> as a buffoon.
> Optimus replies with a question: "Are you suggesting that no evil existed on
> telegraphs the plot of this episode.
It came off as haughty and sanctimonious. And it kind of absolves Prime of the responsibility for anything that happens on Earth as a result of the Transformers' presence. "We blew up a school? We destroyed a hospital? What, are you saying this planet never saw an explosion before we landed here? Allllllrighty then."
> As cars are flipped, the animators make sure to show us that the occupants
> are fine. It's a lot like the little Cobra pilots who always bail out in time.
> It is probably supposed to be a surprise, but it is obvious that they are
> transferring the Dingus.
> The humor is "good for Transformers", which of course means that it often
> falls flat and perhaps we would have been better off if they didn't even try.
Zob (insert filler joke to be replaced later)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Oct 17, 2015, 5:39:45 AM10/17/15
to
On Friday, October 16, 2015 at 12:53:36 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 12:02:13 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > Ratchet is a very different character than any of the previous Ratchets we
> > have encountered. He has the grumpy curmudgeon thing of TF:Animated Ratchet,
> > but he is also a bigot and a coward.
>
> He reminded me a lot of the Animated version of Ratchet.
Animated Ratchet is not a coward. Nor is he really a bigot.
> On Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 12:02:13 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > Ratchet is a very different character than any of the previous Ratchets we
> > have encountered. He has the grumpy curmudgeon thing of TF:Animated Ratchet,
> > but he is also a bigot and a coward.
>
> He reminded me a lot of the Animated version of Ratchet.
> > Miko is some kind of insane freak who craves danger.
>
> Maybe she's addicted to the dopamine rush. She probably shoplifts just for the thrill of it, too.
> > Optimus replies with a question: "Are you suggesting that no evil existed on
> > your world before we arrived?" It's a good question, and one that completely ?
> > telegraphs the plot of this episode.
>
> It came off as haughty and sanctimonious. And it kind of absolves Prime of the responsibility for anything that happens on Earth as a result of the Transformers' presence. "We blew up a school? We destroyed a hospital? What, are you saying this planet never saw an explosion before we landed here? Allllllrighty then."
> > The humor is "good for Transformers", which of course means that it often
> > falls flat and perhaps we would have been better off if they didn't even try.
>
> In their defense, humor is very difficult to write effectively. It's probably even harder in children's programming because you have to worry about being offensive, or too mature, or risking it going right over the heads of the target audience.
> Of course, this was a mostly action-driven episode and the stakes were high, so too much humor would have seemed out of place. When the situation is very serious, you risk ruining the tension and having the characters come off as flippant, like they don't care about the outcome of the episode. (The old Ninja Turtles cartoon actually did this all the time, and that was part of its unique appeal. The Turtles were well aware that they were cartoon characters, that they had to wrap up plot points before the episode was over, etc.)
Zobovor
Oct 18, 2015, 1:52:40 AM10/18/15
to
On Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 12:02:13 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> The technical proficiency of the animation is truly remarkable, and probably
> the best we have gotten for Transformers cartoons to date. Part of this is
> that the technology really has improved to the point where these things are
> easier, and we have had recent big-budget animated films exploring how to
> evoke emotion with stylized figures, but also, it's just well done.
I've been wanting to respond to this but I haven't been able to adequately express my thoughts.
> the best we have gotten for Transformers cartoons to date. Part of this is
> that the technology really has improved to the point where these things are
> easier, and we have had recent big-budget animated films exploring how to
> evoke emotion with stylized figures, but also, it's just well done.
For starters, I feel like we really need to distinguish cel-animation from CGI animation. They're such completely different animals that I actually get annoyed when they're both referred to as "animation" without further disclaimers. I mean, the Muppets isn't considered animation though it's much closer to CGI than it is to hand-drawn animation. This is a gripe I have with the Universe, not with you specifically, but it needed to be said.
Most CGI is so utterly devoid of life and individualistic flair that I hate to watch it. If you have a extremely expressive set of characters and an extraordinarily talented team of animators, they can make the characters look convincing and alive. Gollum in Lord of the Rings is amazing. The characters in Toy Story 3 can emote with surprising subtlety (the character models were completely rebuilt from the ground up specifically for this purpose). Those are arguably the height of modern-day CGI. Then at the very bottom of the barrel you have all these cookie-cutter kids' shows like Special Agent Oso or Bubble Guppies that have all the appeal and charm of a corpse. There's a deadness and lifelessness to the characters. It's almost morose to watch these cadavers being dragged across the screen.
On a note that I promise will become relevant in a moment, I recently decided to buy Darkwing Duck on DVD. Only the first two volumes of 27 episodes apiece were ever released, so I'm still missing a handful of really good episodes from 1992-93, but it's a start. I taped all the episodes when they were originally in syndication, but I don't have a working VCR any longer so it's been a few years since I've actually seen any episodes. I'd forgotten what a delight the show was.
Darkwing Duck probably represents the end of the truly organic, completely human-created era of animation. Pocahontas (from 1995) was the first Disney film colored by computer instead of painting cels by hand, and it has an artificial taste to it. It's like the exact opposite of the problems with 101 Dalmatians where all the ink lines are so thick as a result of the photocopying process. In Pocahontas, the lines are too smooth and perfect. It doesn't look like the characters were drawn with human hands using ink pens.
Darkwing's episode duties were actually farmed out to a bunch of different animation teams. It was apparent from its first airing that different installments were drawn by different artists with their own unique styles, but recently I've been documenting which episodes were handled by which studios. Not coincidentally, my favorite episodes, and the ones I enjoy watching the most, were handled by Disney's animation branch in Japan (they stopped using Toyko Movie Shinsha after DuckTales and Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers). There are actually a large quantity of lesser episodes handled by Sunwoo Animation from South Korea (who were capable of emulating the look of the Disney characters in a technically proficient but slightly unpolished way) or Kennedy Cartoons (whose characters all had this jiggly, rubbery Tiny Toons quality to them). In addition to their Japan branch, Disney also had animation studios from Australia and France working on the show, and each one brought something different to the table.
I cannot stress enough how much I love it when the individualistic artistic flair comes through in these episodes. The bad ones are less entertaining with occasional nice moments, but the good episodes, the truly, exceptionally good ones... I can watch them repeatedly without tiring of them. Disney seemed to have the same mandate as Warner Brothers wherein their characters were generally expected to be constantly moving (as in, literally animated) and not just standing there completely still with only their lips flapping (you can thank Hanna-Barbera for introducing that cartoon staple, but it also carried over with alarming frequency to dozens, if not hundreds, of Japanese anime).
You don't get that artistic flair with CGI. Ever. Either you have an experienced puppeteer who can squeeze an expressive performance out of a character, or a less experienced puppeteer who does a less impressive job dragging the puppet around. Pixar understands the use of body language, so even with the limited models in Toy Story 1, they manage to tell a convincing story with images alone. Most CGI does not do this. It was better in the early days because it was such an expensive and time-consuming process, so animators took the extra time to come up with the best character performance possible so they wouldn't have to film any retakes. Nowadays, the cost has gone down and there are many dozens of studios churning out half-assed CGI now.
What I am getting at is that I do not consider animating a CGI model to be a form of art, not in the same way as actually hand-drawing characters in succession. The actual design of a CGI character might be a form of artistic expression (I like the squared-off style of the animals in Madagascar, for example). Some CGI does truly reach a level of excellence and becomes an art form unto itself, but it's rare. There's a holiday special called "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas" that's really quite exceptional. It takes the look and feel of the classic Disney characters and they translate to CGI beautifully. It's as if they came to life. Compare this to, say, the Netflix attempt at bringing Inspector Gadget back in CGI. It's a complete travesty. It's like they took the charm of the original animated designs and sucked it all out with a vaccuum cleaner.
Okay, so with all that being said... it's so hard for me to find enjoyment in this kind of budget-level CGI or really be able to praise it for its artistic merit.
Zob (this is what I do while I wait for my wife to come home from work)
0 new messages