I got my first taste of the Hub Network’s new Transformers series a few months back when I reviewed Darkness Rising, which had the first five episodes of the twenty-six episode season. Set out to appeal to Transformer veterans and to rope in new viewers alike, Prime does a great job of using the vast lore of the Transformers universe to create story and character driven episodes.
In a nutshell, the premise of Prime is the age old battle between the Autobots and Decepticons. Megatron intends to conquer the universe and Optimus Prime is intent on stopping him and preserving all life, everywhere. In Prime, the story takes place on the Earth. Hasbro decided to focus on just a small group of Autobots and Decepticons, while also including three young human buddies of the Autobots. I think this decision works well given that the series expends a lot of effort into developing its characters and their relationships. Prime doesn’t shy away from action either, though, and the balance Hasbro has been able to strike for this first season is admirable.
When I reviewed the Darkness Rising, which was DVD only, I was not all that impressed with the presentation quality. Now that I am experiencing the series on Blu-ray, the difference is simply night and day. Animation generally tends to look extremely good in HD, and that is certainly the case here. The depth and vibrance of the colors, and the detail in the character’s faces and armor, is actually quite captivating. Hasbro has done a great job keeping the visuals very interesting, using a lot of different environments throughout the first season and putting detail where it counts. I was leery about the CG look of Prime before, but I’m sold on it now, given the quality of the work and how amazing it looks in HD.
The 5.1, and optional PCM Stereo audio, is solid as well. Most of you may know that Peter Cullen and Frank Welker (Optimus and Megatron back in the 80s, and also in Prime) are here and bring a nostalgic sense of authenticity to the whole affair. Other voice-acting and effects are very good too, and include folks like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, but as someone who remembers watching G1 many years ago, Peter and Frank are a most welcomed talent to Prime. I am however disappointed that there are no subtitles whatsoever.
The Limited Edition comes packaged in an eye-catching removable box containing a blue four-disc case. The inside label of this case contains disc-contents in terms of what episodes are on each disc. I didn’t notice one, but an asterisk or some kind of marking indicating which episodes had commentary (I think I counted fifteen of the twenty-six did, which is very impressive) would have been good to see. Regardless, appearance and functionality are good up to this point, and on into the disc menus. The menus are laid out simply and attractively. In addition to the four disc case, there is a full color 96 page comic from Dark Horse in the box that does a great job of introducing you to the Prime universe.
Extra features in this set include audio commentaries for fifteen of the twenty-six episodes. These audio commentaries are voiced by a variety of producers and voice actors. Most sets do not include this much commentary, so kudos to Hasbro and Shout! for pulling this many together. The other three features are:
-Making Of (11m, HD) – This is as much a promotional video as anything, but I found it interesting nonetheless. What you have here is several folks from Hasbro talking about how the idea for the show came about and what they wanted to do with it, etc. Lots of clips from the series as well as plenty of behind the scenes footage is shown.
-Toy Featurette (16m, HD) – Several Hasbro employees including Creative Directors and Marketing people talk about what goes into making decisions for the series and the toy-line. I found it stunning that they said it takes about two years to go from toy concept to on the market, I had always assumed the turn around time was far less than that. As with the Making Of feature, this is well worth a watch.
-Season 2 Teaser (20s, HD) – Yes, just twenty seconds. In this ultra brief teaser, we see Knockout welding a Decepticon tattoo on Optimus Prime. Or at least that was my takeaway from it.
Transformers Prime is one of the better new cartoons I have seen in some time. Hasbro did a great job with the first season and Shout! also deserves a nod for putting this set together.
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