Thursday, May 24, 2007

My top ten favorite moments from The Transformers: Season One, but only the first five

This week being the thirtieth anniversary of The Good Star Wars has got all sorts of people looking back on how fantastic that franchise was. I was reading DvdActive's Top Twenty Favorite Star Wars Moments and I thought hell, I can rip that off and put together my favorite top ten moments from the first season of The Transformers. Since I'd like to keep this a somewhat short read, here's the first five. The list runs in chronological order from the first TF episode and is 100% Hayden Christensen free.

My other car is a triangle
One of the biggest problems I had with the Go-Bots cartoon was the robots had earth vehicle modes even before they came to earth. HUGEST PLOT HOLE EVER! It was never explained! The Transformers actually took the time to flesh out their origin story. The Transformers cartoon started off showing that these giant robots really were aliens with their own original alternate modes from four million years before human civilization existed. (Never mind that they spoke english and had names like "Bumblebee"). The landscape of their home planet Cybertron and their pre-earth alt modes really shined in the opening sequence of the very first episode "More Than Meets the Eye (part 1)". What's sad is that nowadays if a Transformer character so much as gets a new paintjob in the cartoon there's a toy of the redeco on the shelves at TRU before the paint job dries in the cartoon. Back in '84 we never got toys inspired by the original Cybertronian alt modes and this was one mortal sin that wouldn't be corrected until recently.

STFU PROWL!
In the years since the original cartoon aired, the character of Optimus Prime has become immortalized as the most wonderful super perfect robot Jesus that has ever lived. And I've noticed that the Autobots in the newer cartoons are all cocky, self assured ass kickers with G-Dub programming, ready to preemptively strike those dumbass Decepticons. But back in '84 it wasn't that way at all. The Autobots in season one were portrayed as unwilling pacifists forced in to a war they were ill prepared to fight, and Optimus wasn't always the cool headed, patient compassionate leader he'd be remembered as. One of my favorite moments comes from MtMtE part 3 where it looks like the Decepticons have totally handed him his ass as he falls from near orbit after trying to stop Megatron's spaceship from flying away. The Autobots see him crash land and when Prowl and Jazz rush up to Prime they repeatedly ask if he's okay. Optimus, feeling disappointed in himself and realizing the Decepticons have won, gets totally fed up with all the concern being displayed towards him and he snaps! "I SAID I'M FINE!" he yells at his troops. This is the Optimus I found fascinating as a kid. He sometimes cracked under the burden of the guilt he felt from bringing the Decepticons to the earth. Too bad he turned into a parody of himself starting with season two.

Flight of the Bumblebee
The chase sequence from Transport to Oblivion where Bumblebee flees from Starscream and Skywarp is fantastically animated. It's one of the very few examples of "full" animation done in the whole series. The landscape rotates around and behind Bumblebee as he hauls ass trying to escape the jets, who are shown doing all sort of aerial acrobatics themselves trying to keep up. The whole segment is just so beautiful to look at that for a second you forget that there's no way a Volkswagen beetle would be able to outrun a couple of F-15s.

Aw Slag!
What's better than Wheeljack and Ratchet building robot Dinosaurs in the episode "S.O.S. Dinobots"? How about those robot dinosaurs totally trashing the Ark as soon as they're brought online! Apparently Wheeljack built the Dinobots with only two modes of operation: "OFF" and "Homicidal rampage". Hard to see how he missed that one. I liked the early characterization of the DInobots' personalities as dimwitted, independent tough guy survivalists. Unfortunately like Prime they would be reduced to parodies of themselves during the second season and by the movie the once mighty rebel powerhouses were reduced to comedy relief.

How to make friends and irritate Starscream
The moment that Skyfire changed sides from Autobot to Decepticon Decepticon to Autobot (thanks Moon Masters) totally floored me. I never saw it coming. I had never seen the Jetfire toy in stores and I didn't have a 1985 catalog when I first saw the episode "Fire in the Sky", so I didn't know the Jetfire/Skyfire character existed outside of the cartoon. Nowadays the Transformer character with an ambiguous allegiance has become a staple of the cartoons, but back when I saw this it was a plot twist that gave me whiplash. The emotional climax of the episode is Skyfire's unveiling of his Autobot business card and the Decepticon ass kicking rampage that he subsequently goes on had me jumping up and down. Later when Skyfire is entombed in the ice I cried along with Spike. Although Prime's line "He will live forever, so long as freedom exists" did nothing to console me, I thought it sounded quite profound in an "I'm only eleven years old" kind of way.

5 comments:

Weasel said...

The list runs in chronological order from the first TF episode and is 100% Hayden Christensen free.

That makes it super-awesome in my book. :)

(Never mind that they spoke english and had names like "Bumblebee").

I alwyas thought we were hearing a translation, since the feeble human brain would not be able to comprehend the sheer awesomeness of the Cybertronian language. The same goes for the names; for as you might know, Bumblebee's Cybertronian name is more awesome than the English language can ever hope to describe. ;)

The whole segment is just so beautiful to look at that for a second you forget that there's no way a Volkswagen beetle would be able to outrun a couple of F-15s.

Dude. It's. Bumblebee.

Bumblebee. Is. Awesome. Trust me. :)

Unfortunately like Prime they would be reduced to parodies of themselves during the second season and by the movie the once mighty rebel powerhouses were reduced to comedy relief.

Yeah, let's just forget that "mello" Grimlock ever exsisted. It will make the universe a better place.

The emotional climax of the episode is Skyfire's unveiling of his Autobot business card and the Decepticon ass kicking rampage that he subsequently goes on had me jumping up and down.

I thought he might switch sides. His eyes kinda gave it away for me. (They were blue, like Bumblebee's and every other Autobot.) When he did, I wanted to yell. Most awesome moment ever!

Later when Skyfire is entombed in the ice I cried along with Spike.

I almost did. But my mother was in the room so I tamped it down. I would never have heard the end of it otherwise.

So, when do we get to see the next five? I need a geek fix! ;)

Evil King Macrocranios said...

I wish I could tell you that I have lots of other non-Transformers blog ideas because I'm such a well rounded person and those will have to come first, but I'm pretty pathetic so the next part will probably be tomorrow. I have the pictures but I don't have all my thoughts written out yet. Plus I'm really bad at time management.

Does this really seem all that geeky? Transformers is being discussed so often by 'normal' people that I thought it was mainstream by now. Plus thinking of myself as geeky brings a certain stigma I don't like and I still think I'm pretty normal.

Honestly this response you wrote wasn't what I was expecting. What you were supposed to do was disagree with everything and tell me I was wrong and how could I forget the time they said "robot chicken" and the drama would ensue.

naladahc said...

"Super Perfect Robot Jesus" will now be my next band name.

Evil King Macrocranios said...

I've always liked "Doctor Archeville and the Ultimate Doom".

Heavyarms said...

Wait, wait, wait.
...and Optimus wasn't always the cool headed, patient compassionate leader he'd be remembered as. He sometimes cracked under the burden of the guilt he felt from bringing the Decepticons to the earth.

You mean to tell me that Optimus Primal was NOT the first heroic transformer that was infallible, and prone to make mistakes? What sort of revisionist history is this? Optimus Prime has always been perfect, just like he always had the Autobot Matrix of Leadership.

 

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Evil King Macrocranios was voted king by the evil peoples of the Kingdom of Macrocrania. They listen to Iron Maiden all day and try to take pictures of ghosts with their webcams.