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Transformers Prime: Season One Blu-ray Disc Review

Transformers Prime: Season One (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray]

TRANSFORMERS PRIME: SEASON ONE (2011, Blu-ray released March 6, 2012 – MSRP $64.99)

THE SERIES: ★★★½☆ 
VIDEO: ★★★☆☆ 
AUDIO: ★★★★☆ 
EXTRAS: ★★★★☆ 
BLU-RAY: ★★★½☆ 


Toymaker Hasbro and their animation partners re-imagine their iconic robotic universe yet again in the new all CGI-animated series Transformers Prime. The complete first season is now collected in a 4-disc Blu-ray set from Shout! Factory.

    “Transformers Prime” deepens the epic mythology of both the Autobots and Decepticons, while starting fresh for a new generation of fans. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Arcee, Ratchet, Bulkhead, and many others are back to “roll out” against Megatron’s latest attempt to conquer Earth. And Megatron proves to be more powerful than ever, having acquired a rare element that allows him mastery over life itself. “Team Prime” may be few against the Decepticon hordes, but they find increased strength via bonds forged with three human teenagers. Make no mistake, “Transformers Prime” delivers heavy metal action, and nail-biting suspense – but it also takes the human drama to levels as yet unseen by the franchise.

I can’t even count the number of times the Transformers story has been told in cartoon form. Beginning with the original animated series in the early ’80s, the “Robots in Disguise” have reemerged and been re-imagined for television innumerable times in hand-painted cel and computer generated versions through the ensuing decades. The latest addition to the small-screen franchise is Transformers Prime and, unsurprisingly, it takes a lot of its cues from the blockbuster series of Michael Bay films, from its selection of characters, style of robot-battling action and design, right down to Autobot leader Optimus Prime’s retractable faceplate and lips. The thing is, it manages to do just about everything better than the big budget Hollywood films!

The stories, spearheaded by the screenwriters of the feature films, are tight and actually quite inventive (all I’m going to say here is that I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of “robot zombies”!) and the robots themselves imbued with more character than their big screen counterparts. But the best part of the series is, without question, the exceptional choreography in the battle scenes. The CGI robots bend and flip like trained gymnasts or, at least, actors well versed in the Yuen Woo Ping method of extreme cinematic martial arts and, for a change, are easily discernible from their metallic brethren. No more wondering just who is fighting who. At the core of the show and grounding it in the spirit of the franchise is the return of the original voice actors of Optimus Prime and the villainous Megatron. Peter Cullen and Frank Welker really make the show feel like Transformers. Things aren’t all sunny on this side of Cybertron, though. The CGI animation looks rather low-budget at times and the designs, and often the writing, of the human characters are embarrassingly bad. I’m sure I’m not the first person to wish that the show only featured fighting robots.

And that brings us to talking about the transfer. Sigh. I really wish I had spectacular news on this front but Transformers Prime: Season One doesn’t always look great on Blu-ray. The CGI animation looks sharp and colours pop but there are times when there’s so much banding on screen you’d think it was an artistic choice. I can’t help but wonder if it’s a result of the way the animation is processed before making it to Blu. It’s very possible that the colour-banding and often prevalent aliasing are do to some dip in quality in the animation production stream and that the Blu-ray presentation is faithful to the broadcast masters that result. There’s no way to know for sure. Thankfully, the robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track picks up some of the technical slack and delivers an impressive display of dynamic sonic bombast, considering its source. I wouldn’t put this audio track up against the best from Hollywood but this is great stuff all the same.

There’s a nice selection of bonus goodies to be found on the 4-disc boxed set, including a crap-ton of stellar audio commentary tracks, featuring various members of the cast and creative teams in addition to executives from Hasbro! The fourth disc in the set contains the rest of the extras, including a “Making of” doc that manages to cram a lot of info into a very brief 11-minutes and a complimentary piece focusing on the toys, which runs 16-minutes in length. The disc is rounded out with a trailer for the second season of the series, which you’ll be happy to watch after being left in the lurch by the cliffhanger that closes out Season One!

Special Features:

  • Original Making of Special
  • 15 Audio Commentaries with the Creative Team and Voice Cast
  • Toy Featurette
  • Season Two Teaser Debuted at New York Comic-Con 2011

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  1. [...] READ MORE: Transformers Prime: Season One Blu-ray Disc Review [...]

    Posted by Top New Blu-ray releases for the Week of March 6 | March 11, 2012, 4:35 pm

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