The AUTOBOTS settle into their new home base, an abandoned automobile manufacturing plant, but the ancient assembly line machinery seems to have developed a mind of its own.

*goes to check TV*

New episode? Yey!

The Angry Archer has an awesome voice and vocabulary. I wouldn't mind him returning in a later episode.

Ut oh... Megs is reawakening! Is it me or is that bot he picked up similar to the little drone BM Megatron shortly inhabited after his body was destroyed? Although on second look, it's not as big as I thought it was....

-Lio Kaiser.

So far so good. I laughed out loud at the Archer's double face plants. And when they showed footage of Screamer bragging. Oooooooo.


Edit: Buwa ha! Prowl's a kitty!

I need to be not at work and at home watching this...NOW!

Megatron is not too happy about his current condition. Sari shouldn't have tried to get into her dad's private lab. Megatron now has technopathic abilities. That's not good. I loved the part where Megatron screamed, "STARSCREAM!" after he learned of Starscream's treachery.

Mmm. Solid. Comedy archetypes included.

I liked it. Prowl is my favorite.

Nice, Megatron awakens and is NOT happy with his current...situation.

Answer Studio did a great job on the animation for this episode. I thought it looked considerably more detailed and dynamic than "Transform and Roll Out".

Happy tohear more of Burton's Megatron; I definately dig it. I shudder to think of what the Japanese will do with their dub of the show. Turn him into a bumbling oaf that screams like a girl? Well, there's already a precedent.

I'm finally warming up to Prowl with this episode. I thought he came off the least interesting in "Roll Out".

I just noticed for the first time that they draw Bumblebee with a black "kitty nose", with his horns looking like "kitty ears". I dunno whether I should loathe that or not.

Not a bad episode over-all! A good introduction to the bots' new base and a look into Prowl's "room". I wonder where he got the cat-holding-onto-a-tree-branch poster?

The ending was pretty, dare I say, cute, and it looks like Bumblebee is finally appreciating Prowl's ideals, even just for a game. This was pretty much a Prowl episode, and I don't mind that, considering we got enough of Ratchet and Prime in the movie special.

Of all the Autobots, Ratchet got the least screen time, and that's fine as I said he got his shine time in the movie, but I'm sure he'll come to the forefront again really soon. I think it was interesting how Prime wasn't really much of a "leader" in ths factory fiasco, and it shows that he's still growing into that position. All hell broke loose, and it was pretty much every bot for themselves, but he did his best to save Bulkhead, but like everyone else he was caught in the machines. I wonder if the writer's remembered G1's "Day Of The Machines" on this one... Not exactly Torq 3, but Megatron is just as menacing even with factory equipment.

-Lio Kaiser.

Well, after the great premiere, what we got here was a throw-away episode. Aside from the quick introduction or Archer, and the awakening of Megatron, absolutely nothing happened in this episode to advance the story arc.

Hmm. Okay opinion: I like how Sari's key is being used, but not in a total McGuffin way. The Angry Archer was funny (I couldn't help but wonder what the TF people at Hasbro thought of him XD ) Frag, Screamer is gonna be in soooo much trouble. And Prowl, ah Prowl. He was so amusing in this ep, almost as if he was partly Hound too Heh heh.

More fun stuff. While I'm dying for it, I think it's a good idea that they aren't jumping right into the Autobot/Decepticon battles right off.

Letting us get to know the characters first? Color me impressed.

Definite improvement in animation quality.

Great characterization and humor; Burton's Megatron fits the bill perfectly. Is it next Saturday yet?

Well, according to the credits, it was an Answer Studio episode, and while I'm not a huge fan of the flappy mouth animation that mimics anime, the animation for everything else was SLICK. Fantastic animation, and the action sequences had the awesome choreography I've come to expect from the Teen Titans crew.

Great all around.

It might be a "throw-away" in a sense of not furthering the overall story-arc, but it helped with characterization, especially Prowl. It also revealed that Sari's key is more of a key-to-technology than to just the Autobots.

-Lio Kaiser.

Well Prowl came off well in this episode and at least "Angry archer" didn't last long. Overall not great but not terrible oh except the animation which continues to be sub par. This show has a lot of panning and drawn out scenes and as nothing is drawn amazingly well in the first place its disappointing.

This isn't the Unicron Trilogy, the show isn't going to be one long story arc. Think of it more like Beast Wars, with a combo of standalone and overreaching stories.

I really liked it. As has been said before, the animation even looked better. Megatron is a head who wants his body back. Shades of Unicron.

Angry Archer = Green Arrow on a bad day.

Filler or "throw away" episodes are what keeps it from being a 10 episode series. Individual episodes that slowly build into an overreaching arc are a fun way to go. I think Megatron waking up, learning of the Autobots' location and that they still had the allspark, knowing Starscream was responsible, and making his first sorray against them certainly helped advance the plot a good bit in any case.

I liked it, got up early this morning just to watch it. Very cool episode, I thought, it did look animated a bit better. Though that could be because there were less random humans wandering around. Megs is showing himself to be pretty crafty, not just a dumb brute. The diagnostic drone idea was definitely in effect.

As for the key, I'm glad they are showing there can be problems when it's used. Maybe that will lead to Sari cutting down on her use of it a bit. Assuming they ever find out it was her fault in the first place. As for Sari herself, she remains cool.

The Autobots....heh. Never thought I'd see them playing twister, or having a slumber party. Prowl was pretty cool in this one, and it made me remember him standing still while birds landed on him in the premiere. He and Bumblebee had some good back and forth.

My final analysis is good episode.

After watching the mini-movie and now this, I can say that these don't feel like commercials for toys. I haven't once looked at the screen and thought "I want that!" This could be good, it could be bad. The show is definitely more tolerable than past attempts, but I don't have the idea of catching them all ingrained in my being.

I'm really trying to like this, but the whole slumber party stupidity pretty much overwhelmed whatever good there was in this episode.

Damn, missed the first 6 minutes (and evidently, the Angry Archer- double-damn!)

-Hmmmm. Certainly wasn't expecting Megatron to reawaken so early on in the show; figured they'd save that for a "big moment". Not that I'm complaining; it gets things off to a good start, avoids delaying the inevitable, and I'm certainly not going to complain because the writers defied my expectations. I'm certain they know what they're doing and that they have more than enough stories they can get out of the "Megatron's a big head stuck in a lab" scenario to justify introducing it at this point in the series.

-Sari's key, the deuce ex machina- as much as it physically pains me to say anything negative about this otherwise flawless show, it does seem that it's going to get a LOT of usage, for every purpose imaginable. Hnn. Maybe it'll have repercussions further down the line. We can only hope...

-Speaking of Sari, did anybody else notice that after she helps Ratchet out in the big climax, she literally disappears until after the crisis is over? This is a GOOD THING. Now, don't get me wrong, Sari is the IMO the most likeable human sidekick since Sam Witwicky (and he was the most likeable human sidekick since... ever), but it was a refreshing change of pace from previous shows. If this were Japanese written, you can be sure they'd cut back from the Autobots to Sari frantically cheering "You can do it, Bumblebee! I believe in you!" and assorted nonsense until you wanted to reach through the TV and wring her pretty little neck.

-On that note, it's nice to see the Autobots doing typical "human" things (if somewhat awkwardly) in their free time, such as playing Twister or watching television. This is something that was prevalent in G1, where the Autobots regularly played football, basketball, or had snowball fights, or even in Beast Wars with Rattrap's playing video poker or fighting games. It's been sorely lacking however in most recent show, due to the strict, boring barrack-esque atmosphere in most Autobot bases seen in the Unicron Trilogy shows.

-Not an episode-specific note per se, but I just now noticed that, like the "Decepticons fly, Autobots roll" distinction, Animated marks the return of the "Autobots have blue eyes, Decepticons have red eyes" rule- and, like with the flight rule, it's much more consistent with it than G1 ever was.

Because far be it for Transformers to be like people and to try and have fun and have recreational activities.

I believe that the series is doing a much better job on focusing on the Autobots' attempts to understand organic life, especially humans. You must remember that in the feature-movie "Transform and Roll Out," the Autobots mistakely believed that the vehicles on Earth were intelligent and even thought that the humans were the machines' pets. Prowl seems to have become a nature lover as he is greatly interested in understanding and learning about organic life. In my opinion, Megatron's disgust and anger at his body-less state (well he still has one hand, but that doesn't count) was well done. Megatron's statement at the end, "I will have to use my Cybertronian technology to...aid Dr. Sumanc in order to gain a body," does not bode well for everyone.

BTW, there's a rumor floating around the net that Blackarachnia and Optimus Prime were once good friends. I'm not sure if this is true, but the information I have looked up does state that Blackarachnia was once an Autobot, but she became a freak of nature after a mishap with the Allspark transformed her into a techno-organic lifeform. In my opinion, this adds depth to the villains, making them more realistic and believable, something that Stan Lee does with his villains.



BTW, Speedbreaker, there are rumors that some of the Decepticons don't all have alt modes consisting of flying craft. According to what I've read, Shockwave has a tank alt mode, Soundwave turns into a station wagon, Lockdown transforms into a car, Blitzwing can transform into either a tank or a jet, and Blackarachnia turns into a spider.

Also, Arcee is set to appear in a future episode! When Blackarachnia and Arcee show up, I can imagine Sari asking the Autobots the big question, "Umm...Why do you have female Cybertronians?"

Ummmm... I know they don't all have flying alt modes. We all do. This is far from "rumors" and has been common knowledge for a while. Still, that doesn't mean they can't fly; in the G1 cartoon, all the Decepticons, even ones with ground-based alt modes like the Constructicons could fly in robot mode.

That's true.

Bumblebee seems like a younger Rattrap.

Did anyone else notice that Angry Archer is essentially Lord Bravery?

I really liked it. I dare say Corey Burton's performance is my favorite version of Megatron yet.

crap!
I forgot about the new episode today.
I knew there was something i forgot to do before I did that sleep thing last night.
oh well at least its going to re broadcast tomorrow morning

I thought they were going to rerun the whole mini-movie before the new episodes started.....
or have i not been paying attention and they already did that

This episode got a huge *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE* out of me. Loved, especially when Ren Faire Reject got pwned.

Prowl's warming up on me. A tad bit with the whole Zen thing of stillness but nonetheless shines here. He's got his own freaking giant bonsai, even if it's not the right type of tree. Filler/throwaway this may appear to be, but it helps add depth to the characters.

I see Sari probably learning the responsibility of using that Allspark powered key of hers, but that's just me.

Megatron here RAWKS. Burton does it wonderful, especially with that "STARSCREAM!!!" on checking the newsreel. Previous Megatrons haven't gotten me on the edge of my seat, save 2K7 Megatron.

Love the Angry Archer bit in the beginning. Hawkeye/Green Arrow on a bad day, not to mention his speech pattern that's Shakespeare/Robin Hood - esqe. XD

Animation here is much nicer. I'm loving how they're trying to keep the size differences between the Autobots and around them consistent; previous series always seem to have that difficulty, save GF.

Didn't Prowl fly in the movie?

How long 'till this gets torrented, do you think?

No, I think those were just high pressure air boosters that allowed temporary hovering and improved jumping.

Dunno, but it's on Youtube.

Angry Archer amused me. He isn't British. He's just a Ren Faire prat.

Nah, I'm pretty sure he just jumped really high, albeit with the help of boosters IIRC.

I still feel like my opinion of this show is kinda treading ground...some good, some bad.

Nice to see some characterization (in this case, Prowl) but I have the unfortunate feeling it'll disappear after this episode, like a typical super hero cartoon...something happens, a character learns something, and then it's forgotten again. I somehow doubt we'll really see Prowl acting much like an Earth creature, or Bumblebee listening to Prowl's specific advice, again.

I was worried this episode would be totally throwaway, and then Megatron woke up (due to Sari, maybe you shouldn't be sticking your key in every slot you find, eh girl?), thankfully pushing the plot somewhat ahead. I really like how Megatron shows such utter disdain for all the Autobots, mainly because it's true...they're a crew of glorified maintenence bots, with an academy dropout, a bumbling oaf, a wannabe ninja, an over-the-hill war veteran and an untrained kid. Hopefully that's something they keep up...Starscream's disregard of them seemed more like in G1, where the villians disregarded everyone just because they're villians, whereas Megatron here is actually believable.

Animation was better, but still flawed in some places. When Bumblebee first started running on his wheels (saying something about "this is a job for ____ on wheels!") it looked like he was moving in slow motion. But the spot right before that with Prowl walking in the room and Ratchet jumping in the way was really nicely done. So it's still very hit and miss.

Overall the show still feels too much like a kid's superhero show for me to really get into it. It doesn't feel so much like Transformers as a regular superhero show where the superheroes happen to have names like "Optimus". There's no real gravitas to the proceedings...not when Sari can get hundreds of bolts shot at her direction for the big commercial break, only to avoid harm by standing in place and dancing. Ugh.

Love the animation this time around. VERY expressive. And seeing Bumblebee use his wheels in robot mode and Prime's partial transformation is the kind of stuff Transformers should do more often.

Fun little episode. I thought the slumber party thing was fitting... I mean, Sari's a little girl who now has friends who know nothing about humans, of course she's going to try and introduce them to what she thinks is important and cool. That's what kids do.


M "And, Well, Some Adults" Sipher

G1 was basically Kids Sci-Fi super hero show. The difference between G1 and Animated really is that when we watched G1, we were kids. Now, we are no longer children. (those of us who watched G1 on Television when it was first shown).

Nah, I'm pretty sure he just jumped really high, albeit with the help of boosters IIRC.

It whas bloody fantastic. That's what it whas.

THIS is what I have been looking for in Transformers. THIS is also surprisingly the high quality anime take on it that I've been dreaming about. Its pretty much everything I wanted short of a GATTAIFEST (and we don't know what the second batch of 26 episode holds).

Yes, *SQUEEEEEEE* is a way of phrasing it. Can't wait to next week. I hope it keeps up.

Mouths are fine, DrSpengler needs to chill out and I need Prowl even more now.

This episode did NOT disappoint me at all. I can already tell the Animated writers are serious about character development to an extent we haven't seen since the Beast Era- it was nice to see a new dimension added to Prowl's personality beyond "mysterious badass who doesn't play by the rules", and this show's take on Megatron is downright creepy.

That was great. Prowl's great, Angry Archer's good. Megs is disabled in the backround, but he's still able to do stuff. Wonderful! I love how Bumblebee used his wheels in robot mode, and how they use robot mode stuff in alt mode.

What's wrong with it feeling like a superhero show? I've always felt the Autobots were like superheroes.

Damn, Megatron kicked their asses and he didn't even have to be there to do it.

edit: WTF doublepost

So awesome.

More please.


...hmm, I've got a feeling I'll be saying that in every thread. Anyway, yeah, I'm really liking the characterisation all round.