I received three rather startling emails recently.  Startling because: A) they contained pretty good punctuation, 2) they in no way mentioned articles I had written about a crappy Japanese anime or bands that suck, and III) they didn't express an overall hatred for me, my family, and any of my body parts.  Perhaps most shocking of all was that they requested that I do another review of The Transformers.  Well, how can I refuse that?

Megatron goes for a little trip to New York.  While there, he decides it might be fun to convert to the city into "New Cybertron," replacing buildings and roads with metal structures.  The Autobots charge into action, but Optimus is captured and disassembled.  Adding insult to injury, Megatron uses Prime's parts to create various weapons.  Luckily, Prime has recently been studying the works of The Amazing Kreskin and uses his newfound telekinetic powers to summon all his parts, which Ratchet puts back together.  In the end, the Autobots drive off the Decepticons and rebuild New York sans any explanation whatsoever.

Several of the shots in this episode feature skylines of New York City... with the World Trade Center!  I immediately began twitching and crying, proving that it's good that movie makers and television producers cut out any scenes featuring the towers.

• The episode begins with Scavenger knocking out the foundation for the Empire State Building.  After he belts out a few rocks, Mixmaster comes in and shoots some sort of fluid which just dissolves the foundation.  Why even have Scavenger in the first place?  Unless it was just an excuse to use several characters in order to remind kids to run right out to their favorite store to get them.
• After taking out the foundation of the Empire State Building, it simply sinks--whole--into the ground.  Something tells me that the building would have suffered at least some structural damage.
• The Autobots drive to New York?!  Granted, they never actually say where the Autobots' headquarters is, but it has to be faster to have Skyfire fly them.
• After capturing Prime, Megatron zaps him with some doodad in the stomach, completely incapacitating him.  That's all it takes to knock out the mighty Optimus?  Why didn't Megatron do this sooner?
• Prime gets disassembled but uses his remarkable mind control powers to use his forearms to flip over Megatron.  He must be pretty strong to be able to defy the laws of Physics like that.
• The Constructicons use parts of Prime to build an "Alligaticon."  For some reason, though it has two legs, only one of them is Prime's arm.  Why not use them both?  Surely not just so they could have Prime's arm as the cannon on top the Empire State Building.  And what did they use for the other leg?
• At the end, just after Optimus is put back together, another shot of New York City shows that it's completely restored.  Sure would have been nice if they'd have clued us in on how that was done.

CHANGED PREMISES

• Megatron can now understand Lazerbeak's caws without having Soundwave play back the information.  "What's that, Lazerbeak?  Timmy's trapped in a well?"
• This could be more a case of "Danimal's Crappy Memory" more than an error, but I'm pretty sure that Frenzy used to have a different weapon other than pile drivers.  In this episode though, he's got 'em.
• Megatron's entire ambition seems to have changed in this episode.  All he normally wants is to collect energy, build the ultimate weapon, and conquer the universe.  Now he just wants to turn New York into a metal city, which would use up a considerable amount of energy and resources.  Why?

 

ANIMATION FLUBS

• Overall, this was a pretty strangely animated episode.  All of the characters were made "fatter" and colored "brighter" as if to make them look cute.  No attempts were made to make them look like they were made out of metal, and there were lots of painting mistakes.  Normally I don't mention those (unless it's a whole character painted wrong), since there was a lot of detail on these characters, so to miss a stripe or paint this guy's hands light blue instead of medium blue really doesn't matter to me.  However, two errors were consistently made in this episode:  Megatron's shoulder cannon (which becomes his barrel in gun mode) is black and Soundwave's shoulder cannon is bright red several times.
• Right at the beginning, Lazerbeak flies into a sewer and opens the door to Decepticon headquarters using some beams he shoots out of his eyes.  As the camera cuts to a close up, the beams keep going but Lazerbeak has vanished.
• Also, throughout most of this sequence, Lazerbeak keeps "freezing," like they took too many frames of certain cels.  This is especially noticeable when he transforms into cassette mode.
• As Megatron chastises the Constructicons at the beginning, his fusion cannon vanishes.
• As mentioned earlier, Scavenger wastes his time by knocking away some of the foundation just to have Mixmaster dissolve it all in just seconds.  Between their two attempts, the foundation manages to regenerate itself.
• Trailbreaker rolls out with the Autobots, then remembers he has to go back to turn off the iron.  He rejoins the Autobots for one scene in New York, then goes to see a movie instead.
• When Scavenger busts the ceiling to pull Prime down from Central Park, the cracks he makes go over him, making it look more like he accidentally cracked the camera lens.
• As soon as Optimus us captured, Megatron flies up through the hole in the ground and away from the Autobots.  Then in the next scene he's instantly back in Central Park.
• Then, as the new metal Empire State Building is raised, Megatron goes from standing in Central Park to being in front of a bunch of buildings.
• Back at Decepticon headquarters, on overhead shot has some yellow guy standing there.  He looks like Bumblebee, though I can't figure out what he'd be doing there.
• While wrecking New York City, Bonecrusher turns into Scrapper in the next shot, and when he speaks, he's got Sideswipe's voice.
• Trying to control the "Alligaticon," Optimus shoots out some telepathic rings, a trick he learned from Aquaman.  Unfortunately, the rings go nowhere near the alligator and stop completely abruptly.
• Jazz drops in for a quick appearance after a commercial break, then decides to go back home to watch his soaps.
• Bluestreak falls into a hole in the street (how did he not see it?) and almost gets hit by a train driven by Frenzy.  When he falls, Scrapper says "you're just in time to take the A Train!" even though he's nowhere in this scene at all.
• Spike and Bumblebee break into Megatron's headquarters.  He turns, chases them for quite some time, and somehow ends up back where he started.
• Buzzsaw is painted like Lazerbeak the first time we see him.
• Devastator just couldn't decide if he wanted to have two separate eyes or a visor in this episode, so he keeps switching between them.
• As the Autobots climb the Empire State Building, Ironhide's grappling hook switches from his right hand to his left.

- Danimal