Transformers: Prime

Transformers: Prime, also known as Transformers: Prime –The Animated Series, is an American computer-animated television series based on the Transformers toy franchise by Hasbro. It airs on the The Hub in the United States. The series broadcast its first two episodes on Friday, November 26, 2010, at 4:00pm Eastern/3:00pm Central on The Hub television network, as a special preview. It broadcast officially on Monday, November 29, 2010, at 6:30pm Eastern/5:30pm Central. On February 11, 2011, the series started to air new episodes, under the name of Transformers: Prime – The Animated Series. Other channels air the series internationally. A second season has been announced,^[1] and is slated to air in February 2012.^[2][3][4]

The series has received universal acclaim, as well as a positive amount of viewers. Transformers: Prime is rated TV-Y7-FV, despite its darker, more violent tone. Many references/Easter eggs to other Transformers continuities have appeared in the series.

Overview

Mini-Series

It has been three years since the Decepticons last attacked Earth and the Autobots still await their return. After the death of Cliffjumper, the Autobots fight to protect the Earth from the Decepticons and befriend three young humans and face the returned Megatron who has been missing for three Earth years. Megatron plans to use Dark Energon to raise an undead army of Cybertronians and defeat the Autobots. The Autobots destroy his space bridge and Megatron is believed killed in the process. Starscream becomes the new Decepticon leader.

Season 1

After Megatron's apparent death, new Decepticon leader Starscream does not stray from Megatron's path and recruits several new Decepticons. Starscream attempts many missions to destroy the Autobots and find their headquarters, while keeping a shard of the "last" remaining Dark Energon that he took out of Megatron's chest. In the episode "Out of His Head", Megatron returns after an incident where he Takes control of Bumblebee's mind. Megatron then reclaims leadership of the Decepticons, keeping a strict eye on Starscream. After Starscream uses Megatron's share of Dark Energon, he tries to find more to once again bring back his "un-dead army". At the end of the episode "Partners", Starscream became an independent and hasn't been seen or heard from ever since. During the final four episodes of the season, the Autobots unwillingly team up with Megatron to battle a legendary threat to Earth's existence,^[5] Unicron.^[6] To defeat Unicron, Optimus uses the Matrix of Leadership. With this sacrifice, he not only loses the Wisdom of the Primes but also his memories of the war and his comrades, and joins Megatron as a Decepticon under his old name, Orion Pax.

Season 2

Following the events of the "One Shall Rise" three-part episode, the Autobots attempt to recover Optimus Prime's memories in order to regain his leadership of the Autobots. Season 2 was set to begin airing November 28, 2011, but was pushed back to early 2012.^[7]

Characters and Locations

Many notable Transformers characters appear in the series, while a group of non-fictional and fictional locations appear also. The first designs of the characters were first shown off at Botcon 2010, at its panel. The designs were also shown off a 2nd time at San Diego Comic Con 2010.

Episodes

A total of 52 episodes have been produced. Only half, 26 episodes have been aired.

Production

Concept

After the success of High Moon Studios' third-person shooter game Transformers: War for Cybertron, Hasbro set the continuity of the series in War for Cybertron's. Hasbro created a 400-page Transformers production bible, titled the "Binder of Revelation", for Prime.^[10] Whereas the movies were about a boy and his car, the dynamic between the kids and the robots on the show was meant to be more like The Iron Giant.^[11]

Animation

Digitalscape Company Limited, famous for their work on such titles as Soul Calibur III, Ninja Gaiden, and Dead or Alive Paradise, was made responsible for the CGI Animation of Transformers: Prime.^[12] Although Digitalscape ran a job fair looking for a talent to work on the production, Polygon Pictures ultimately won. Jose Lopez, character designer, described the animation of the series as "groundbreaking mix of 2D animation and CGI."^[13] A show on the level of Transformers: Prime' would take about two years to produce, but the animators only had ten months, so five episodes were animated at a time (hence the monthly gaps during a season).^[14]

Cast

• Adam Baldwin – Breakdown^[15]
• Reggie Bannister – Museum Guard (ep. 10)
• Steven Blum^[16] – Starscream, Vehicons, M.E.C.H. Navigator (ep. 16)
• Clancy Brown – Silas^[17]
• Jeffrey Combs – Ratchet,^[18] M.E.C.H. Soldier #1 (ep. 9)
• Peter Cullen – Optimus Prime^[19]
• Nathan Fillion^[7][20] –
• Richard Green – Skyquake^[21]
• Tania Gunadi – Miko Nakadai^[22]
• James Horan – Wheeljack^[23]
• Ernie Hudson – Agent William "Bill" Fowler^[15]
• Dwayne Johnson – Cliffjumper^[24]
• David Kaye^[25] –
• Josh Keaton^[26] – Jack Darby,^[15][27] M.E.C.H. Navigator (ep. 9), Starter Guy (ep. 11), Tailgate^[28]
• Alexandra Krosney – Sierra^[29]
• Sumalee Montano – Arcee^[15]
• John Noble – Unicron^[30]
• Daran Norris – Knockout,^[31] Vehicon (ep. 22)
• Andy Pessoa – Rafael "Raf" Esquivel^[32]
• Markie Post – June Darby^[33][34]
• Brad Raider – Vince^[35]
• James Remar^[36] –
• Kevin Michael Richardson^[26] – Bulkhead,^[15] Vehicons, Makeshift,^[37] Science Fair Judge (ep. 6), Fast Willy^[38] (ep. 11), M.E.C.H. Commando (ep. 16), Decepticon Miner (ep. 22)
• Tony Todd – Dreadwing^[23][7][20]
• Gina Torres^[36] – Airachnid^[39]
• Frank Welker – Megatron,^[40] Vehicon (ep. 8)

Crew

• Susan Blu – Voice Director (Ep. 1 –11)
• Duane Capizzi – Supervising Producer, Head Writer
• Nicole Dubuc – Staff Writer^[41]
• Marsha Griffin – Staff Writer^[41]
• David Hartman – Supervising Director, Art Director
• Jeff Kline – Executive Producer
• Joseph Kuhr – Staff Writer^[41]
• Alex Kurtzman – Executive Producer
• Jose Lopez – Character Designer^[13]
• Matthew Margeson – Music Arranger (Ep. 15—)
• Steven Melching – Staff Writer^[41]
• Roberto Orci – Executive Producer
• Steven Puri – Producer^[41]
• Mandy Safavi – Producer^[41]
• Jamie Simone – Voice Director (Ep. 12—)
• Therese Trujillo – Supervising Animation Producer^[41]
• Brian Tyler – Composer (Ep. 1—)

Merchandise

Hasbro has manufactured Transformers: Prime merchandise.

Toy line

The official launch date of the toy line is December 1, 2011. The release date of July 2011 was incorrectly stated during BotCon 2011, but the December 1, 2011 date was later confirmed by the Hasbro Brand Team.^[42] Although earlier resources stated that the line would launch on October 1, 2011^[43] or October 11, 2011.^[44]

Mobile media

Ruckus Mobile Media is to deliver Transformers: Prime innovative storybook apps for Android, and iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch). The app will deliver immersive reading experiences with interactive storytelling including title specific activities, coloring and read-and-record functions.^[45] The app was slated to release in May 2011,^[45] but was not released.

Comic books

IDW Publishing has released a group of comic books based on Transformers: Prime. A comic book prequel was released on October 13, 2010 in the United States. Followed by a October 26, 2010 Canadian release date. Adaptations of episodes (usually two episodes per comic book) from the series are currently being released, similar to the Transformers Animated comic books.

Home media

Shout! Factory produced a DVD featuring the 5-parted mini-series, "Darkness Rising" released on December 6, 2011.^{[46][47][48][49]} The 5 episodes will be "sewn" together as one big story, and will not be in separate episodes to make a more movie-like presentation.^[49] Shout! Factory is in talks with Hasbro to add animatics and concept designs for characters and backgrounds to the DVD, as special features.^[49]

Music

Film composer Brian Tyler serves as the music composer for Transformers: Prime. Matthew Margeson is the music arranger for the series, first arranging the fifteen episode of the series. The music features large sized live orchestra, a rarity in contemporary television scores.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack or score was confirmed in March 2011,^[50] and was later made free of charge on Brian Tyler's website.^[51] The soundtrack was later removed at Hasbro's request.

All songs written and composed by Brian Tyler. 

Broadcast

The original broadcast of Transformers: Prime on The Hub has been announced to have done extremely well. During the second week of broadcasting many sources showed an increase in ratings. A one hour sneak peak of the first two episodes of the series was broadcast on The Hub on November 26, 2010. Airing started on November 29, 2010 and continued to December 3, 2010, with the official Season 1 launch airing February 11, 2011.

International release

In the United States, Transformers: Prime airs on Hasbro and Discovery Communications-owned television network, The Hub. Additionally several other countries have also aired the series on their country-exclusive channels or overseas versions of other channels. With a premiere date of January 9, 2011 in Canada,^[53] the series airs on a Corus Entertainment kids network,^[54] Teletoon, with new episodes airing on Sundays at 12:00pm Eastern/11:00am Central. Transformers: Prime will air in Spain on Boing and in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Middle East the series will air on Cartoon Network. Transformers: Prime started airing in the United Kingdom, on September 5, 2011.^[55][56] Nickelodeon started airing the series, on September 4, 2011.^[57] The show had debuted on Cartoon Network Arabic for a pan-Arabian audience on September 8, 2011.^[58] In Italy, Transformers: Prime airs on Italia 1. The Italian premiere date was September 11, 2011.^[59] In Singapore channel Okto has been announced to be the broadcaster of Transformers: Prime.^[60]South Korean public broadcaster EBS has also picked up Transformers: Prime.^[60]

Marketing

Hasbro got the Toys R Us, located in New York City, Times Square to cover all of the outside of the store in Transformers: Prime.^[61] Billboards were bought, one appeared in New York.^[61] Additional advertisements were added to comic books backings.^[62] A giant statue of Optimus Prime (modeled after his Transformers: Prime design) was shown off at San Diego Comic Con 2010.^[63] The statue was later moved to the location of New York Comic Con 2011, where Hasbro's debuted their involvement in the convention.^[64]

Reception

Awards and nominations

Transformers: Prime has won two Daytime Emmy Awards, and received four other nominations. It was the first Transformers show to be nominated at the Daytime Awards since Beast Wars, back in 1996.

References

External links

• Transformers: Prime at Hubworld
• Transformers: Prime at the Internet Movie Database
• Transformers: Prime at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Can Hub Rally Rivals to Play with Hasbro?, Advertising Age, May 17, 2010
• Transformers-Prime.com