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Transformers, The: The Complete First Season

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    Ian Jane
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  • Transformers, The: The Complete First Season

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    Released by: Shout! Factory
    Released on: 6/16/2009
    Director: Various
    Cast: Various
    Year: 1984

    The Movie:

    In 1984, Hasbro unwittingly gave pop culture the world over a swift kick in the balls when it unleashed The Transformers onto an unsuspecting and surprisingly hungry public. Boys (and girls) the world over would run home from school every day to take in the weekly animated adventures these robots in disguise. The ability to turn from an average every day vehicle (or in some cases, a gun, a dinosaur, or a Walkman) into a bad ass robot was something that, for whatever reason, just clicked with the kids of the eighties and it's something that really hasn't gone away twenty-five years later, thanks to spin off series' galore, an animated movie, a big budget dumbed down Hollywood film and sequel, and of course, plenty of very cool toys.

    The series revolves around the Autobots, lead by the noble Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons, lead by the sinister Megatron, two warring factions from the planet of Cybertron who have unwittingly crash landed on the Earth when our series begins. They bring their conflict with them to their new home and soon find themselves battling it out across the globe, each side hoping to find the energy source it needs to return back to their native planet. And that's more or less it, kids. Good guys fight bad guys while the fate of a world hangs in the balance. This series deviates only slightly from countless other children's shows in that, like the competing Go-Bots (who were not so much robots in disguise as they were might robots and mighty vehicles), they had the super cool ability to transform.

    The first season, which introduces us to the core charcters - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Jazz and Spike on the Autobots side and Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave comprising the Decepticons - also brought about The Dinobots, a group of robots that could change into, you guessed it, Dinosaurs as well as the Constructocons, a group that not only change from robots into construction vehicles but who can also join together and form a giant robot kind of like Voltron. Of course, as these characters all made their way through their various adventures, kids around the planet bugged the crap out of their parents to buy them the corresponding toys and Hasbro made millions.

    The complete list of episodes that make up the first season of the series is:

    Disc One:

    More Than Meets The Eye, Part 1 / More Than Meets The Eye, Part 2 / More Than Meets The Eye, Part 3 / Transport To Oblivion / Roll For It / Divide And Conquer / Fire In The Sky / S.O.S. Dinobots

    Disc Two:

    Fire On The Mountain / War Of The Dinobots / The Ultimate Doom, Part 1 / The Ultimate Doom, Part 2 / The Ultimate Doom, Part 3 / Countdown To Extinction / A Plague Of Intersections / Heavy Metal War

    A lot of the episodes had some sort of message to them, convoluted as it may have been and wrapped in robot on robot violence. The series emphasized team work and the goody-goody Autobots made for pretty cool role models at the time. While the stories were, in hindsight, simple to a fault the varied characters and super cool transformation scenes kept kids coming back in droves, a phenomena which rightfully carries on to the present.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Well, aside from the fact that the fullframe transfers contained in this collection are interlaced and as such may be subject to some ugly combing artifacts depending on your home theater set up, the picture quality is pretty good. The colors are appropriately bright and bold without looking too overcooked while the black levels stay strong throughout the duration of the series. Detail levels look about as good as can be expected - the animation style employed on this series is a little more minimalist than, say, the newer Transformers animated series - but generally, everything looks quite nice here and the episodes look just as good if not better than they did when originally broadcast on television a quarter century ago (yup).


    Audio options are supplied in English and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks for each of the episodes in this collection. While a 5.1 mix would have made the action scenes a little more fun, it wouldn't have made it sound like the series we all know and love. The stereo tracks get the job done nicely even if they obviously don't have as much depth. Dialogue stays clean and clear and there aren't any problems at all with hiss or distortion. Sound effects and the musical score are mixed in with the dialogue nicely and never overpower anything they shouldn't. This isn't reference quality material, but again, the show sounds just as good or slightly better here on DVD than it did on television.

    The beefiest of the supplements in this set is Triplechanger: From Toy To Comic To Screen: The Origins Of The Transformers. This twenty minute featurette includes input from the series' executive producers Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal, Marvel Comics series writer Bob Budiansky and a bunch of people who currently work in Hasbro's marketing department and handle the Transformers stuff for them. There are some neat clips here and some cool covers from the various comic book spin offs, but it would have been more appropriate for this release had it featured more people who actually worked on the animated series itself. That said, fans of the various Transformers comic book series' that have appeared over the years will definitely dig this.

    Those who like to print things will be keen on checking out the printable Transport to Oblivion script which has also been included in this set. Rounding out the extras on the third disc are a collection of super cool vintage Public Service Announcements featuring the Transformers and, even better, a nice assortment of archival Hasbro toy commercials advertising the toy line.

    It should also be noted that inside the shiny metallic cardboard slipcase is a limited edition Autobot magnet as well as a booklet (containing credits and synopsis information for each episode in this collection), and some inserts advertising some Transformers comic books and the Transformers Fan Club.

    The Final Word:

    While it might have been cool to hear some commentary tracks, Shout! Factory has otherwise done a very nice job on this re-release of the complete first season of this now legendary animated series, truly the one that started it all. The episodes look and sound pretty good, the retrospective documentary is a treat for fans and the old vintage PSAs and commercials are a mainline injection of nostalgia for those of us who grew up on this nonsense (and especially for those of us who never grew out of it!).
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