Transformers Animated (franchise)



Transformers Animated is the latest television-supported Transformers franchise, which began in December 2007. The latest re-imagining of the Transformers brand brings a highly dynamic and stylized look to the toys and fiction.

The franchise consists of the following components:
 * A cartoon series
 * A comic book series
 * A toyline

The cartoon began with a 3-episode mini-movie, first aired on Cartoon Network on December 26, 2007, and followed by a full 13-episode season, which started airing in January. The toyline, however, did not hit stores till the late spring of 2008, due to the ongoing popularity of the 2007 movie toys.

The series has adopted a new visual art style and form of storytelling which has not been used before in Transformers. The changes in design were created in an attempt to attract the modern youth viewer. The new art style incorporates a more "organic" feel to the Transformer characters. This style of art and character movement was introduced to emphasize dramatic movements and to allow the animator to express more emotion than in previous series.

Homages
Even more so than Energon, Transformers Animated is saturated with frequent and obvious references and homages to Generation One and other lines, possibly intended as a celebration of the Transformers' 25th anniversary year. In addition to the obvious fact that most characters are based on earlier incarnations, are the following items of note:


 * Grimlock's speech pattern is cribbed from his Generation One counterpart.


 * Bulkhead's color scheme slightly resembles Generation One Hound.


 * Megatron's Earth mode is based on Battlestars Super Megatron.


 * Omega Supreme's alt mode is based on the Generation One Ark, the Autobot spaceship.


 * The Decepticon spaceship is based on the Generation One Nemesis.


 * Meltdown's Fusion creature are based on the Decepticon Pretenders Bomb Burst and Submarauder.


 * Shockwave's role as a double agent, along with his multiple humanoid modes, just like Generation One Punch / Counterpunch.


 * Soundwave's "Electrostatic" redeco is based on the Soundblaster, Generation One Soundwave's resurrected form from the Japanese continuity.


 * Wreck-Gar's voice actor is "Weird Al" Yankovic, who provided a song for the soundtrack to The Transformers: The Movie specifically, the song played during a scene on the Planet Junk, home of Generation One Wreck-Gar.


 * The Headmaster Unit is derived from the Headmaster technology in Generation One.


 * At the end of "Predacons Rising", Blackarachnia and Wasp / Waspinator awaken in Africa surrounded by a gorilla, a rat, a rhino and a cheetah, referencing the crew of the Axalon in Beast Wars.


 * Arcee, Blurr and Rodimus Prime are voiced by their original voice actors from the film The Transformers: The Movie.


 * Corey Burton reprises his role as Shockwave.

Trivia

 * This is the second Transformers series (the first being Beast Machines) wherein a strict separation is made in the type of weaponry used by either side. According to Derrick J. Wyatt, "To me the Autobots were built as a labor force, and the Decepticons were created as the Military. This is one reason that the Decepticons use military weapons, while the Autobots use 'tools' (ex: Optimus Prime's axe) to fight with."


 * An early working title for this incarnation was Transformers: Heroes.


 * This franchise is the first to show so many Cybertronian alt-modes during the show. Most of the other continuities either have just one episode where their cybertronian alt-modes are seen or include just a few characters who don't take Earth alt-modes.


 * Bulkhead is the only Earth autobot NOT to be named after a Generation one character. His name is taken from a character in the Energon (anime). The Energon (anime) Bulkhead (Energon) becomes a Helicopter.