New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

No noses? No problem! Zombiebots? Sure, why not. A confusing new canon that allows loose and contradictory material? And now a new sequel show with an entirely different art style that takes place way in the future!
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Shockwave
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

Post by Shockwave »

138 Scourge wrote:Jeez, by six-thirty AM, I've already been up for two hours and started work and whatnot.

So..with any luck Hulu will have this? It feels weird for me to say after how much I hated the look of Prime, but this new show looks really good. At least as far as the animation goes. I'm interested enough to check it out.
There (or were) several episode clips on youtube which actually show quite a bit and really let you get a feel for the show. So far, I'm in!
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

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I need to actually watch those clips, since I am quite interested in the show. There's a giant lobster Decepticon who turns into a muscle car, and his name is Bisk. Biiiiisk! He better get a toy!

As long as we're comparing, I leave for work about 6:30am, though I've got a short drive.
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

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Depending on if I get the early shift, I start work at 630am. Otherwise, I wouldn't be up that early.
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

Post by 138 Scourge »

Plus side of getting to work at six, though? Getting off at 2 is really nice. So is the commute both ways with no traffic.

But yeah, I watched a lot of clips on YouTube, and the show looks perfectly serviceable and really visually appealing. Bisk is rad as hell, and I also dig...Thunderhoof? That decepticon with the antlers? Also particularly like Grimlock's voice.

It'll be worth checking out at least because it's gotta be better than the last show, right?
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

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Can anyone explain to my why CN consistently puts TF in a shitty timeslot? The TF movies make money hand over fist and while the toys aren't selling as much as they used to, it's still a massively popular franchise. Don't they want a slice of that pie? They've been giving death slots to TF shows since Armada. What gives?
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

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Almighty Unicron wrote:Can anyone explain to my why CN consistently puts TF in a shitty timeslot? The TF movies make money hand over fist and while the toys aren't selling as much as they used to, it's still a massively popular franchise. Don't they want a slice of that pie? They've been giving death slots to TF shows since Armada. What gives?
I was wondering the same thing. It doesn't make sense to me either.
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

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Almighty Unicron wrote:Can anyone explain to my why CN consistently puts TF in a shitty timeslot? The TF movies make money hand over fist and while the toys aren't selling as much as they used to, it's still a massively popular franchise. Don't they want a slice of that pie? They've been giving death slots to TF shows since Armada. What gives?
TF isn't an in-house show. CN consistently gives shit slots to EVERY boys' action cartoon that they didn't create, and even a few that they do.

Maybe it's actually payback for that HUGE push they gave Armada and how badly it fucking sucked? Like, Armada was on Goddamn Toonami in 2002, arguably part of the heyday for it.

I don't have cable so I wouldn't be able to watch this on CN anyway, and if I did, I work until literally 6:30am anyway, and don't get home usually until about 7. So!
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

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Onslaught Six wrote:
Almighty Unicron wrote:Can anyone explain to my why CN consistently puts TF in a shitty timeslot? The TF movies make money hand over fist and while the toys aren't selling as much as they used to, it's still a massively popular franchise. Don't they want a slice of that pie? They've been giving death slots to TF shows since Armada. What gives?
TF isn't an in-house show. CN consistently gives shit slots to EVERY boys' action cartoon that they didn't create, and even a few that they do.

Maybe it's actually payback for that HUGE push they gave Armada and how badly it fucking sucked? Like, Armada was on Goddamn Toonami in 2002, arguably part of the heyday for it.

I don't have cable so I wouldn't be able to watch this on CN anyway, and if I did, I work until literally 6:30am anyway, and don't get home usually until about 7. So!
Regardless of how bad Armada sucked, how were its ratings?
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

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So this show premiered in Australia a couple weeks ago, and thus is available online if you know where to look. I’ve watched the first five episodes so far (I think up to seven are out, at least) and I’m really liking it so far.

The premise is basic, but that’s not a bad thing. I didn’t mind the early ‘villain of the week’ plots in Animated, but I know some people took issue with the use of human villains in that case. RID15 here takes that same formula, but uses a different Decepticon threat each week, and the result is an entertaining setup. One thing that’s interesting is that the Decepticons aren’t all merely animal-themed, they each actually represent a different species or subclass of Decepticon. So Hammerstrike is a Sharkticon, Chop Shop is a ‘Combiner’, and there’s ‘new’ classifications like Underbite the Chompazoid and Terrashock the Buffaloid (Bisk sadly doesn’t stick around long enough to find out what his class is. Seacon, maybe?). Grimlock’s ‘Dinobot’ status seems to fall into this in this case as well (it’s also still very unclear if he’s at all related to the previous Grimlock from this continuity). It makes each episode interesting just in seeing what new Decepticon is going to show up and how they’ll work. The only hints of an ongoing plot so far are Steeljaw skulking around (he makes a hell of an impression in the one episode he’s been in though) and Optimus seemingly stuck between life and death on his journey while he also guides Bumblebee on his, but those aren’t brought up super-often, and I’m fine with that. The singular episodes have been entertaining enough on their own so far that it doesn’t matter.

The characters definitely help. I figured I was gonna like Strongarm, and she doesn’t disappoint, being an amusing spin on an eager new recruit, and being the most by-the-book member of the team along with that. Grimlock acts as adorable as he looks, I love the big lug, and am eager to delve into his backstory (also like that he’s still got his Decepticon symbols five episodes in). Fixit’s WAY more entertaining than I ever would have expected, though it is bothersome that we haven’t seen him transform once yet. Even Sideswipe is a decent character who contrasts well with the others. Overall, I really like the dynamic of the team. A ragtag group of miscreants isn’t an original setup at all, of course, but this is one of the most disparate I’ve seen in some time, consisting of two cops teamed up with two actual criminals, with the lines of cooperation not always falling where you’d expect (love how well Bumblebee and Grimlock work together). The humans are mostly inoffensive, though their costumed infiltration antics in a couple episodes were fun, and I enjoyed the arc of Rusty’s football subplot in the Chop Shop episode (And his new friend Hank is just awesome. Why couldn’t she be the main human character?!).

The aforementioned Decepticons do very well in the personality department too. They’re just so goddamn characteristic. Bisk shows up for maybe five minutes, and we still get a full understanding of his personality, motivations, and style. Terrashock, a one-episode character like all the rest so far, is astoundingly complete as a character, given that we found out his occupation along with a full personality range regarding his intelligence, motivations, even his worries and fears! Chop Shop is an absolute barrel of fun, being a unique take on a concept with a very cool personality (and voice). The biggest crime is that we won’t get toys of most of these guys; the Decepticons of the Week are easily the best part of the show so far, and I’ll actually miss them later in the show’s run when a bigger overarching plot inevitably kicks in.

Really though, the show is just so *fun*, and that’s what makes it work. After the perpetual sourpuss that was TFPrime, which turned me off over a little over half a season and just demotivated me from watching again, it’s so great to have a TF cartoon that’s lightened up and can have robots turning into stuff smashing each other in fun and creative ways. There are hardly any times when the show quiets up and gets ‘heavy’, with Optimus’s scenes being the main ones that stick out, and even those are cut short by him fading out basically going “Naw, this is getting too serious, I’ll be back later”. There’s a lot of humor, from basically everyone (even Bumblebee), and it does it for me. It also makes it easier to overlook some moments that may be actually-stupid, writing-wise. Grimlock trapping Hammerstrike in a plain steel drum might be idiotic and implausible anywhere else, but when we just had a shark-robot fighting by skating across oil spilled on the ground, I don’t mind as much. This is a show where Grimlock busts through a wall and yells “Oh Yeah!” in homage to the Kool-Aid Man, and I have no problem with that.

That’s a lot of words. Sorry, but I really am enjoying this show, I could just gush more about it. Definitely watching the latest couple episodes when I get home today.
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Re: New cartoon: Robots In Disguise

Post by Onslaught Six »

Sounds like it's actually cool and fun. Hasbro seems to be taking the route of actually making the damn thing for kids, which is probably a step in the right direction.

Imagine a GI Joe show with this tone, though. Which would basically just be the Fenslerfilms dubbed PSAs given life.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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