Topic awaiting preservation: Transformers: Armada blows konkey

I have always loved cartoons. Probably always will.

It was a Sunday morning. I had gotten up at 6 am to watch the first episode of Transformers. Yes, a young teenager up that early on a weekend just to watch a cartoon. I freely admit to my nerdiness.

Man, Transformers just plain rocked. Bitchin', even. The world ceased to exist when it was on.

Then the movie came out and rocked and was bitchin' and all that. One thing that surprised me about the movie is that it kept the continuity of the Transformers' universe.

Then Beast Wars came out. I only saw a few episodes. Something about the animation seemed way too sub-par, and that turned me off. However, the writers did their best to keep the continuity. Why, there was even an episode with Star Scream's ghost. I thought that was cool.

Now this Armada crap is out, and I can't take it any more! Almost everything that made Transformers so cool is gone. Star Scream is alive and he's a whiney little bitch, and it sucks. They re-wrote a chunk of their history to accomodate for the mini-cons and it sucks. The vast majority of the dialog sucks. Armada just plain sucks.

The thing that really yanks my chain is the lack of energon in the Armada story. In the original, fighting for energon added another dimension. It wasn't just the story of an on-going war, but a story of basic survival. That element of basic survival made it more tooth-n-claw and less about lasers. Know what I mean?

Armada sucks.
I just had to get that off of my chest.

Yep, armada is plain crap.

My fav was Beast machines, though it was hardly a Transformers series. :P

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I dont remember much of transformers, but I have to admit that almost all modern day new released animated series suck ass big time....I remember the classic tom and jerry, man I love those.
The only recent animated cartoons I have liked were, trigun and cowboy bebop....there was also one very retarded cartoon only 6 eps called "fooly cooly" man I got a kick out of it!
I havent seen evangelion yet but I bet its supposed to be very good...

In my oppinion the Japs seem to take over the animation world, there is nothing good like a mature storyline with good animation that always grabs your attention.

ohh well I hope america can catch up with animation someday, I am sick of disney channel crap...I hate disney! they only care about making money nowdays....back in the old days they alwasy released very well done fairy tales, but nothing original, even though they always used up ideas I still respected them for good work they have done...but nowdays its crap, right after lilo and stich was a big hit, the bastards already made some low budget animated crapy series....what a lame-os

Nickelodeon has always proved to be a good resources for good, silly cartoons. same goes for Fox.

There is not much anime i truly like, but yeah, anime seems to be the current thing.

And you want hardcore animation thingy (not explicitely cartoons) check underground canadian/european stuff. there is tons of good stuff, but really hard to find.

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I've never been that big on animation, really, I can't stand most of it. I used to love it, when I was "little," I'd watch anything that came on TV, mostly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Those guys were awesome. Then the movies ruined 'em. Umm...I watched Transformeres, but Beast Wars kinda sucked IMHO. And GI Joe: They. Were. Awesome.

Current animation, not much. Fox seems to be filled with shitty anime, like Pokemon and, well, just about everything else. Noir and Serial Experiment Lain are, IMHO, the two best (ever) animated TV shows to be released. Ever. Everything about them was done right: They had character depth, not stupid character depth, like Fox's stuff, but characters that you actually felt for, great, stylish animation and a well developed interesting story, albeit not exactly a kid freindly story, as Noir is about two (hitwomen?) and Serial Experiments Lain is just, well, confusing as fuck. I own both (OAV's).

WJ - I wholeheartedly concur. I was really excited when Armada came out. Another Transformers series! Or so I thought. It sucks and blows. Beast Wars was different, but was cool in its own way. I'll never get over the use of Weird Al's "Dare to be Stupid" in that scene with the Junkions (IIRC) in the movie! Too cool!

I, for one, am tired of every new cartoon looking like a Japanese rip-off (Teen Titans, Armada, etc.).

As for there being few good cartoons out there, I say Justice League, old Dexter's Laboratory, Batman Beyond, The Zeta Project (at least the first season; never saw it again after that)... and the coolest cartoon series ever: Gargoyles.

Season Two of Gargoyles had some of the coolest (and longest, for a cartoon) story arcs on TV, and included elements of Shakespeare (Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream), super hi-tech, magic, mythology... you name it! Great stuff... so of course they cancelled it, moved it to ABC (given that it was a Disney creation right before Disney bought ABC), renamed it "Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles", ruined it, then cancelled it again. I haven't seen a cartoon since that can stand up to some of those Gargoyles episodes.

wj: Do not feel alone. I was a Transformers fan too, but I do not care for armada either, they suck. Long ago I was a fan of the Thundercats. The only reason why I watch cartoons is because I am a Yu-Gi-Oh! junkie, say what you will about the new animes, but this one really caught my attention for certain reasons. Pokemon is ok... at best. Still love Scooby Doo though, old campy animation but good story lines. 25 years old and I still get a kick out of cartoons.

[This message has been edited by Wolfen (edited 10-08-2003).]

I could talk cartoons forever. I'll do my best to stick to a few thoughts.

The old Tom & Jerry - the only Hanna-Barbara toons that I have ever liked. If I remember correctly, the immortal Chuck Jones (RIP) did the first ones.

I literally just heard a rumour of a CG Transformers movie in the works. Mixed blessing?

I wish I would have paid more attention to Gargoyles. I feel like I missed out on a very thing.

I've been really not liking Disney lately. The animated sequels to movies are just plain yucky. Not to mention murdering stories like Hunchback and Pocahontas. And the over-whelming evidence that some of their movies are rips, like Lion King and Atlantis.

Although, Gummi Bears was a damn fine toon. Wait... wasn't Inspector Gadget a Disney toon? I liked Gadget as well.

Adult Swim was a bold move my Cartoon Network - and a very welcome one. Haven't been able to watch it lately, though, or Toonami: Midnight Run. Kids are fun, they seriously cut into my late night toon watching.

I've definitely more to say, but I'll wrap it up for now with my original: Armada sucks konkey dong.
Thanks for the support on that. I am not alone.

WJ - You may not have to miss out on Gargoyles. Not only are episodes shown nightly (if not nightly then nearly nightly) and weekends on ToonDisney (Disney's all animation channel), but I've heard that they will release the series on DVD next year, to mark the 10th anniversary of the series premiere. (10 years! Has it really been that long? Damn!)

So there's definitely hope. Heck, there's even talk of a movie being possible, if the DVD does well. Of course, they'll probably screw it up, but one can hope...

I really like Anime, but T: Armada sucks.

My faves are -

Akira
Ghost in the Shell
Cowboy Bebop

which are pretty obvious choices.

I thought beast wars was cool...

I don't know how but I somehow managed to get myself hooked on the Digimon: Spirit Evolution series.

I remember when the actual game of digimon was available, it was a huge fad. Eveyone had one or two of those little pocket monsters, and after lunch we'd go outside and a nice shady place to duel them. That was about 5-6 years ago, though.

Ahh, nostalgia.

I have to wholeheartedly agree about Armada not living up to the old school transformers level. I mean, come on, I still get tingly when I hear "You've got the touch". Now it's been hacked to pieces.

I also really enjoyed Beast Wars. They did a pretty good job with the continuity, and I loved the animation. I think that and Roughnecks:Starship Troopers chronicles were the best CG shows on TV ever.

(Quick Blurb: If you ever, ever get the chance, read Starship Troopers the book by Robert Heinlein. It is 1000 times better than the movie, although I thought the movie rocked. The political commentary alone is worth it, and the depth involved in the book just couldn't be portrayed in a mere 2 hours.)

Oh, and the new head honcho in Armade is no optimus prime. He isn't even on par with rodimus prime.

And G.I. Joe will forever have a place in my heart. For years I wanted to join whatever armed forces I could get into.

The other day, I actually watched some cartoons while I was nursing a hangover and I feel truly saddened with what kids are watching today. Well, okay, I was a pokemon junkie for a while and Dragonball Z fan, but I think the biggest draw was that behind every episode was a larger story arc that pervaded everything, just like the original Transformers and GI joe.

i am just suprised that no one mentioned Space Ghost. *Still like Yu-Gi-Oh better though.*

Ooh! Ooh! Who remembers these four classics?

Centurions
He-Man (and the Masters of the Universe!...By the power of Grayskull!)
M-M-M-M-Mask!
Ring Raiders

Okay, for the record, Beast Wars SUCKED. At least in armada they are robots and not pseudo anamorphic crap that doesn't so much transform as unzip. Not that armada is good mind you, o.g. transformers was awsome. I remember when the movie came out everyone was talking about who died and how much ass Optimus kicked. It was Empire Strikes Back all over again... (Luke, I AM your father...) I still have the soundtrack on cd around here somewhere... (you've got the touch... dooo doooo you've got the poooweeerr..) hehe

G.I. Joe. Yup. They started showing those on tv again.. the old episodes. Yo Joe!

Gargoyles was a solid cartoon with good animation and voice talent.

The Digimon series was a solid show too. Surprsed me, I was expecting another Pokemon. Ironic this was brought up, I just found my old digimon keychain game the other day. The batteries were still good!

All the DC in the last few years was solid, IMHO. Batman, Batman & Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League.

Not the most intellectual stuff in the world, but I'd have to say the cartoon network stuff is a favorite time waster for me. Dexter's Lab, PPG, Johnny Bravo, DBZ... Spongebob fits into this category, but that's Nicktoons (consequentially the only decent thing on Nickelodeon.

Now, you can't go mentioning Mmmask without mentioning Visionairies and Inhumanoids.

How about Reboot? mmm.. hexidecimal is a babe

Speaking of TMNT, weren't they releasing a CG version of that show? What ever happened to that?

I won't even get started on the anime front, anime rocks. 'nuff said.


It's only after we've lost everything...
That we're free to do anything...

The movie was the best thing ever to happen to Transformers. Not only did it prove that Leonard Nimoy could play a villain, it also was one of the best bits of cartooning ever to happen.

Then I saw Akira.