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The Program
You know, I don't think I ever
cried so much at a movie as I did when Optimus Prime bought the farm in the 1986
Transformers movie. There I was, a 15-year-old uberdork, who had
faithfully been following the epic saga of the Autobots battle against the evil
Decepticons for the previous two years, and now here came the culmination of all
my hopes and desires: a feature-film adaptation that not only shook up the
status-quo of the series, but promised to rocket my favorite
characters into new and exciting settings and storylines. But before the
realization of this event can occur, they go and kill Optimus Prime, the beloved
leader of the Autobots and paragon
of
bravery, morality, power, and honesty, all wrapped up in a big-rig package that
usually finds itself host to racks of Benzedrine and truck stop dollies. Unbelievable!
Yeah, it was a pretty powerful moment, but The
Transformers was a fairly important milestone in the cultural evolution of
Generation X'ers everywhere. Millions tuned into the daily adventures of the
transforming cybernetic beings from Cybertron, as the evil Decepticons attempted
to rape the Earth's natural resources in order to procure Energon, while the
brave, kind-hearted Autobots stood up in battle to defend our planet from
Decepticon domination. Sure, most of the plots were redundant as hell. Sure, the
animation was extremely
limited
in nature. And most definitely, these cartoons were little more than 22-minute commercials
for Hasbro's extended and best-selling line toys. But man, those cartoons were great!
For a
kid, anyhow...
Let's
face it: nostalgia has a huge part in skewering our memories of the greatness of
The Transformers. I immediately dropped my hard-earned shekels when the
first box set of classic Transformers episodes were released
on DVD... and watched a few episodes before I turned off the DVD player and sold
the lot on eBay. Fifteen years later, I found that they did not hold up well.
Sure, I got a kick out of revisiting my old friends, but that was mostly because
while watching them, I was 13 again. But that sort of happy regression therapy
only lasted for a short while, and I found myself happy to leave The
Transformers back where they belonged, smack dab in the mid
1980s.
Still, I liked the attention given to charm and personality
in that series, two elements sorely lacking in the new Transformers:
Armada cartoon. The beloved transforming robots were brought back in 2002
to revitalize a once-successful toy line and capitalize on the nostalgia of an
entire generation who had now acquired disposable income. Unfortunately,
Transformers: Armada, while a serviceable cartoon in its own right, is
a pale shadow of the original. We still have the Autobots and Decepticons, still
led by Optimus Prime and Megatron, only this time both sides are battling over a
third "race" of Transformers called the Minicons -- powerful Transformers from
Cybertron who fled to Earth millions of years ago. It was disheartening to see
that the robots seemed to have lost their individual personalities and quirks
that made them so endearing in the past. Furthermore, they are saddled with a
group of annoying kids who act as the human element of the show. The Hispanic
kid Carlos has one of the worst faux-Latin accents I've ever heard, but that's
the least of their problems. The kids are annoying beyond description, and take
precious attention away from what people are really tuning in for: to watch
giant transforming robots whup tail on each other.
I
don't think Transformers: Armada is necessarily a bad cartoon. The
animation, while far from perfect, is worlds above the stiffness of the
original. There is an obvious attempt to give the series a sense of scope,
adventure, and story that the original series lacked (for awhile, anyhow; later
seasons showed more focus on an overreaching arc and multipart stories). But it
lacks the charm, warmth, personality, and style of the original series. On the
whole, Transformers: Armada is simply just another average cartoon. A
moderate diversion, perhaps, but the series is far from memorable. If it didn't
have the nostalgic goodwill of the original Transformers to coast on,
the show would be little more than an
afterthought.
Transformers: Armada - Flashbacks collects
four episodes of the series onto a single DVD. The following episodes are
included on this disc:
Trust
Past Part
1
Past Part
2
The DVD
Video:
Transformers Armada: Flashbacks presents all
four episodes of the TV series in their original full-frame aspect ratio of
1.33:1. The overall quality of the video is very pleasant. The presentation is
clean and sharp, with no noticeable compression noise or wear evident throughout
the transfer, and agreeable levels of image detail and sharpness. Colors are
acceptably vibrant and bright, while I did notice some occasional murkiness and
loss of detail in darker scenes, and a tad of edge-enhancement during a few
scenes. Still, these are few and far in between. The episodes look worlds
better than they did on satellite or digital cable.
Audio:
The audio is presented in Dolby Digital
2.0, and is wholly acceptable if unremarkable. You will find very little in
terms of directional effects, aggressive surround activity, impressive dynamic
range, or booming LFE activity. What you will encounter is an acceptable
reproduction of the show's original soundtrack without fuss or muss. Dialog is
clean and bright without seeming overpowered by the score or special effects.
There is minimal but acceptable levels of surround activity, usually in
conjunction with highlighting the show's synth/rock score or enhancing
background or ambient noise. Again, you won't find anything overly impressive
here, but the audio presents a solid and satisfying presentation of the
material.
Extras:
There are
no extras on this disc.
Final Thoughts
Fans of Transformers: Armada will probably get the most joy out of
watching Transformers: Armada - Flashbacks (and the similarly
styled release, Transformers: Armada - Best Battles). The discs are
reasonably priced at $15 a pop, and can be found online at or around the $10
range. Furthermore, while these bare-boned releases have no extra material, the
presentation of the source material is bright, colorful, and very satisfying. So
question is really: are the episodes worth it? For Transformers: Armada
fans, the question is a total non-issue. For curious old-school
Transformers fans that have never seen the new series, definitely give
these episodes a rental first. There's nothing utterly compelling about this
release, both in terms of content and special features, but fans of the series
will most likely be satisfied with the decent presentation of the material while
waiting for the inevitable seasonal box sets. |
Buy: