‘Transformers’ Transform and Roll Out on Animated DVD

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 3, 2008

If you just can’t get enough Transformers in your diet, and the anticipation for next summer’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen isn’t doing it for you, there’s always the animated television show to curb your appetite.

Transformers Animated debuted last year in the wake of Transformers mania following the release of Michael Bay’s car commercial/Hasbro epic. Things have finally come full circle for the fans, considering the series first became popular in the 80s with an animated television show.

Now, Paramount and Hasbro have released a DVD of the animated series pilot, Transformers Animated: Transform and Roll Out. Like a traditional series pilot, this one provides a backstory and origin of the famous transforming machines and how they make it to earth.

The series takes place in Detroit in the 22nd century. A group of Autobots, led by our hero Optimus Prime has discovered the Allspark. Their mission is to keep it away from the Decepticons, who have attacked them in space. The Autobots escape with the Allspark and crash land on earth, where a battle begins between the rival robot gangs.

The Autobots team up with their “organic life form” pals (i.e., the humans). In order to remain disguised from the prying eyes of the humans, the Autobots transform into normal-looking vehicles.

Transform and Roll Out is a clear reboot of the series from the 80s, featuring everything we want to see in a Transformers show: robots blowing things up. It’s not as kick-ass as Michael Bay’s film from last year, and it’s definitely geared more for kids than the adults that flocked to the multiplex last summer. In this sense, it’s much more like the original series from the 80s, but it still delivers on the robot front.

In a clear grab for the children’s programming audience, Bumblebee (who looks more like his classic counterpart than the Camero from Bay’s film) befriends the eight-year-old Sari Sumdac, the daughter of a scientists who uncovers some of the robots’ secrets. I’ll admit that I’d be thrilled if the cute Sari never showed up in a live-action Transformers movie, but she works to a degree in the series.

If you want more of the Transformers in the newly stylized animated form, you can check it out on Cartoon Network. To get the full background of the show, check out Transform and Roll Out.

However, if you’re one of those people who need a fix before the new movie comes out next year, this will do, but realize it’s much more like the traditional animated series for kids.

THE UPSIDE: A good way to get your Transformers fix before the Fallen get their Revenge next summer.

THE DOWNSIDE: Leans back to the children’s television audience from the original series.

ON THE SIDE: There are not many special features, except for two short animated bits with the Autobots, which actually are pretty funny in their own right.

Read more articles by Kevin Carr