Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Transformers cartoon reboot sounds dreadful

From AICN, Cartoon and Hasbro execs said the new series, "Transformers Animated," will be significantly different than the others, adding humor, never-before-seen characters and a new premise in which the Autobots fight evil humans in Superhero fashion much more frequently than they battle the Decepticons -- the traditional "Transformers" lore since the property launched as a toy in 1984.

"We've used the basic Transformers and characters as a springboard, but then we're pretty much reimagining the whole thing," said Bob Higgins, senior vp programming and development at Cartoon Network. "What we're doing with it is basically turning it into a superheroes story. We're really excited that we're able to take this decades-old property and hopefully turn it into something that kids haven't seen or expected from a Transformers series before."

6 comments:

Octopunk said...

"We're really excited that we're able to take this decades-old property and hopefully turn it into something that kids haven't seen or expected from a Transformers series before."

That is, something that sucks.

This doesn't sound like it's guaranteed to suck, but I don't see why they're so gung-ho about altering something that worked so well in the first place it generated a fan base that grew up and is right now poised to give the movie millions of dollars.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

"Sucks" is all relative though. Just because it's poised to make $ doesn't say anything about quality. (Refer to Wayans brothers.) I'd argue that the original cartoon sucks in that it doesn't withstand adult that Star Wars or the Twilight Zone does. It's still safe to say that they'll go out of their way to find new ways to suck.

I'm feeling argumentative today... beware!

Octopunk said...

"in that it doesn't withstand adult that Star Wars or the Twilight Zone does."

I think you left a word out, Argue Boy.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

"Adult scrutiny" was how it was supposed to read... The argument still stands!!!

Octopunk said...

Mr. Pants, I respectfully submit that you are out of contol today.

What are you arguing here? The old cartoon sucked, the movie's gonna suck despite the money it'll make, and the new cartoon's gonna suck too? That's not argumentative, that's just being Johnny CrankyPants. What I said has nothing to do with the actual, genuine quality of any of those things.

The problem seems to be that Hollywood is desperate to find old properties to resurrect, but then fall over themselves getting excited about the bold new take they're going to apply this time. Why this odd combo of retro-fuckery? Only the truly innovative people seem to know how to keep these precious things intact (LOTR, X-Men).

Johnny Sweatpants said...

In this one I was objecting your (assumed) insinuation that the original cartoon is worthy simply because the movie will make ass-loads of money.

I was also arguing for the sake of arguing. My official thoughts on Transformers are 1) If you look at the original cartoon now, it sucks. 2) The movie is banking on nostalgia, assuming most "fans" (former children) will see it before revisiting the suspect source material. Don't get me wrong, the movie may very well be great fun but that's beside the point. 3) This new cartoon has suck coming out of it's ears.

Malevolent

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