The Movie

Oh how the memories flood back. It's a shame cartoons aren't made like this anymore. If they were, I'd still be watching them. Actually, I still watch cartoons but am now reserved mainly to the educational type, ala PBS, due to my young ones at home. Today cartoons seem too quirky, and adult-like in their humor. I suppose they're good in their own way, but they just don't appeal to me like the good old toons of the mid to late 80's.

For the uninitiated, Transformers is a cartoon that began running in America in the mid 80's. It stared intelligent robots from a far off planet that could transform into other mechanical devices. It's basically your basic battle of good vs. evil, with the Autobots constantly battling the evil Decepticons. It quickly captured the imaginations of kids everywhere, (including yours truly) and the wallets of their parents. Because with the introduction of the cartoons, came the toys. Toys come and go, but I still think these old toys are cool. I wish I still had just half of my old collection. Anyway, the show is an icon for those who grew up with it, and is still one of my favorites today.

Transformers - Season 2, Part 2 is the second collection of episodes that rounds off the entire 2nd season. There are 25 episodes on this set, which is a whole lot of stories. I totally forgot how many episodes ran in a full season of the original Transformers series. I wish modern cartoons would follow this trend. Each episode is a stand-alone show, negating the requirement of watching previous episodes to fill you in on what's going on. This is nice. Usually an episode will choose just a few Autobots to star in that show. In hindsight this is a wonderful trait because it gives you an entire episode to get to know the personalities and particular abilities of each Transformer. This is one of the aspects that made the show very appealing to me as a child.

Season two is where the show started to depart from the realm of shoot-em-up children's entertainment, and headed into the direction of semi-hardcore sci-fi. We see episodes that take place on far off planets with alien life forms inhabitants, as well as numerous outer space battle sequences. But Transformers probably became the cult hit that it did because of the non-stop action. There's never an uncomfortable lapse of time that doesn't include the nasty Decepticons coming to rain on the Autobots parade. There's plenty of laser blasts and transforming to go around so there never is a dull moment. And to top it all off, each episode has somewhat of a good moral to learn from it. Now how many modern day network cartoons have that going for them? Not many.

As a set this is a great collectors item for fans of the show. The episodes look decent, although suffer from various dust and debris throughout the print. And the audio is better than it has ever been. The special features are kind of a downer though, and I can only hope for meatier extras to come on the later sets. But if you're a diehard fan of the show, you'll buy this set no matter what.

The episodes:

The Golden Lagoon
The God Gambit
Make Tracks
Child's Play
Quest For Survival
The Secret of Omega Supreme
The Gambler
Kremzeek!
Sea Change
Triple Takeover
Prime Target
Auto-Bop
The Search For Alpha Trion
The Girl Who Loved Powerglide
Hoist Goes Hollywood
The Key To Vector Sigma Part I
The Key To Vector Sigma Part II
Aerial Assault
War Dawn
Trans-Europe Express
Cosmic Rust
Starscream's Brigade
The Revenge of Bruticus
Masquerade
B.O.T.


The DVD

Video:
Transformers - Season 2, Part 2 is presented in 1.33:1 full screen. The picture as a whole looks decent, and considering the age of the source material, I really didn't expect much better. As expected, it suffered from the occasional blemish and dust debris, but this is not devastating to the overall look. Colors looked a little fuzzy and tended to bleed together, but this is exactly as I remembered the show looking back in 1985. There was also a hint of edge enhancement, but it was far from annoying. The show looks its age, especially since the animation is so outdated, but the DVD format has been kind to the Transformers. All in all, this is a fine video transfer.

Audio:
Amazingly enough, Transformers comes with a fantastic Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Now this won't rattle your windows, or make you duck for cover during the flybys, but it is a huge step up from the original TV show. Audio is nicely separated, with most of it coming from the front three speakers. However, the rears do get used quite often especially in the battle scenes. I was pleasantly surprised by this audio track, and commend Rhino for including it.

Extras:
Not much for extras here. Included are interviews with original writers Flint Dille and Buzz Dixon. It was interesting to hear them talk about the show, but I kept wishing for interviews from the original voice talent. Also, if Rhino is listening, I'd like to see some of the original toy TV commercials, and maybe some behind the microphone footage if there is any.


Final Thoughts:
Watching this Transformers set brought back fond memories. Strangely I remember each and ever episode as if I had watched them just last week. I love this show, and all the ways it allowed my imagination to go wild. I don't believe it would be hard at all to get young kids today to like the show, but in all honesty most who buy this set will be older men who grew up with the show as a child. If you want a jolting blast from the past, Transformers - Season 2, Part 2 is definitely what the doctor ordered. Highly Recommended