First-Aid wrote:Hmmm...the style reminds me of a combination of the new "Spectacular Spider Man" cartoon combined with the CGI "Iron Man: Armored Adventures". Not a big deal for me with one exception: why, in an elite military outfit, is there a fat man? From a strictly logical standpoint, these should be the top physical specimens in the US. THen again, I suppose my own argument about kids relating has to be in there- for kids who are overweight, they have a character to relate to. Kinda like Bulkhead from TF: ANimated was kinda the big, dumb, overweight, clumsy kid. It's a dumb stereotype, to be sure, but I suppose it helps them identify better.
Speaking of stereotypes, I wonder if that's why Arcee isn't pink. "Female" doesn't necessarily equate with "pink" anymore and, since this is a cartoon aimed primarily at the male child demographic- should a toy come out- what little boy would want a PINK action figure? I mean, it's almost like having a flippin Barbie doll...
Interesting point about Bulkhead, that hadn't even crossed my mind before. For some reason, I immediately thought of Tanaka from Genshiken (an otaku-lifestyle anime, for those not familiar), the stereotypical overweight otaku. Come to think of it, that show is rife with stereotypes, although that all fits perfectly well within the context. But giving overweight children someone to relate to might not completely cover it, though. I suspect that characters based around negative stereotypes like that are often included in order to encourage acceptance from the "cool" crowd or, in this case, the "fit" crowd. The same thing was done on a massive scale with race issues, and it seems to have really helped with the acceptance thing. Just look at Nickelodeon - when I was growing up, it was nothing but white kids on the comedy shows. Nowadays, there are quite a few largely all-black shows, and all of the others always feature various minorities as regulars. And look at Static Shock - that's a prime example of how to largely transcend issues of race in Saturday morning cartoons. Of course, it walks a fine line - making the token white sidekick an eloquent gadget nerd - but no one noticed that, and if they did, no one cared. Pretty much everyone I knew who had watched it loved it, and no mention of race was ever made in talking about it.
And you're right about "female" not equating with "pink" anymore. With the rise in gamer/geek/fan girls, pink has taken a backseat to colors more traditionally associated with boys. I've even spoken to some girls that were raised with neutral bedroom colors so as not to influence their nature in any way, so the times they are a-changin. Granted, most nerdy females aren't that into mecha/robot destruction shows like this (you're right on it being a boys' audience), but the ones who would watch it and enjoy it would likely be put off by a pink foo-foo token female character like G1 Arcee, with her motherly instincts and whatnot. They'd want to see a female that could function as one of the boys, holding her own with the rest of the male cast. If you watch a lot of anime, you'll notice that most shows that try to cater to a wider audience typically throw in one or two of these types of characters to offset the typical foo-foo helpless female archetype that the
boys want to see.
And as for G.I. Joe, well, that's the same sort of Bulkhead/token fattie syndrome at play, as you said. I'm not very familiar with the Joe characters at all, but I'm assuming he'll be used as more of a long-distance explosives expert character, rather than a melee brawler. Also, from what little I know about G.I. Joe, I'd assume that since the members are specially hand-picked, there could always be more than meets the eye with this dude. But in reality, that wouldn't matter - he wouldn't be able to hold his own with the other team members. That kind of thing almost gives overweight kids a false hope, in my opinion.
For the love of-... WHY?! I just want to see robots for once! They always have to put in humans so we have "someone to relate to". We have plenty of Autobots that already cover that, i.e. Optimus, Bumblebee, etc. Can't we have a series like War for Cybertron for once? Not necessarily as gritty, but with a semi darker tone like "Batman: The Animated Series", or close to it? I'd be fine if it was just the robots, plain and simple. 
Seriously, why are their noses six inches wide?
Well, at least he's not puke green.
