First Look at Nickelodeon's Transformers: Earth Spark Show

MaximalNui wrote:My sole concern is that, like previous CG shows for the brand, they'll have to rely heavily on a short cast and lots of repaints for background characters. Then again, that might not be a bad thing; it's what forced Beast Wars to focus more on character writing than product shilling.

One interesting thing to note is that the kid mentions "you're a Transformer". With a tone that implies he already knows what that is.

Which, to me, can mean one of three things: either he finds out early what Transformers are and is reacting to something else also being a Transformer (which sounds...rather manipulative and convoluted editing, but not impossible); or Transformers as a brand is well-known on Earth and he discovers real ones exist, like in Digimon Tamers (which would be confusing at first, but bold and new for the franchise); or Transformers are relatively well-known in this continuity and he's surprised to have met one (far more likely and in line with other continuities we had).

Actually, come to think of it, for a franchise where one of the main taglines is "Robots In Disguise", there's plenty of continuities where the existence of Transformers is well-known to the public, or at least the government.

cloudballoon wrote:TFP & TMNT 2012 were the best toons from that time even for an old bloke like me to LOVE. Both still aged very well. They're well scripted, with spot-on voice acting, top notch animation and CG sets designs. Nothing on them say "cheap." There are precious few TV series that I'll rewatch, these 2? Oh yeah.

ZeroWolf wrote:

MaximalNui wrote:My sole concern is that, like previous CG shows for the brand, they'll have to rely heavily on a short cast and lots of repaints for background characters. Then again, that might not be a bad thing; it's what forced Beast Wars to focus more on character writing than product shilling.

One interesting thing to note is that the kid mentions "you're a Transformer". With a tone that implies he already knows what that is.

Which, to me, can mean one of three things: either he finds out early what Transformers are and is reacting to something else also being a Transformer (which sounds...rather manipulative and convoluted editing, but not impossible); or Transformers as a brand is well-known on Earth and he discovers real ones exist, like in Digimon Tamers (which would be confusing at first, but bold and new for the franchise); or Transformers are relatively well-known in this continuity and he's surprised to have met one (far more likely and in line with other continuities we had).

Actually, come to think of it, for a franchise where one of the main taglines is "Robots In Disguise", there's plenty of continuities where the existence of Transformers is well-known to the public, or at least the government.

The best with regards to keeping themselves secret was Rescue Bots, who only revealed themselves to the public in Season 4

-Kanrabat- wrote:Is this what will replace Cyberverse?

-Kanrabat- wrote:Regardless, I'm surprised to see the return of humans.
I'm currently at season two in Cyberverse. I find the complete absence of humans unsettling and creepy.

Sabrblade wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

MaximalNui wrote:My sole concern is that, like previous CG shows for the brand, they'll have to rely heavily on a short cast and lots of repaints for background characters. Then again, that might not be a bad thing; it's what forced Beast Wars to focus more on character writing than product shilling.

One interesting thing to note is that the kid mentions "you're a Transformer". With a tone that implies he already knows what that is.

Which, to me, can mean one of three things: either he finds out early what Transformers are and is reacting to something else also being a Transformer (which sounds...rather manipulative and convoluted editing, but not impossible); or Transformers as a brand is well-known on Earth and he discovers real ones exist, like in Digimon Tamers (which would be confusing at first, but bold and new for the franchise); or Transformers are relatively well-known in this continuity and he's surprised to have met one (far more likely and in line with other continuities we had).

Actually, come to think of it, for a franchise where one of the main taglines is "Robots In Disguise", there's plenty of continuities where the existence of Transformers is well-known to the public, or at least the government.

The best with regards to keeping themselves secret was Rescue Bots, who only revealed themselves to the public in Season 4

And only after a small alien invasion by the Velgrox forced their hand, even.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Is this what will replace Cyberverse?

Yes.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Regardless, I'm surprised to see the return of humans.
I'm currently at season two in Cyberverse. I find the complete absence of humans unsettling and creepy.

The lack of humans in Cyberverse was due to budget constraints. Hasbro gave them such a small budget that gradually got bigger over time, but the makers had to fight tooth and nail just to get a few seconds of screentime for a single human child seen that one season 1 episode with the roadside billboard.

MaximalNui wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

MaximalNui wrote:My sole concern is that, like previous CG shows for the brand, they'll have to rely heavily on a short cast and lots of repaints for background characters. Then again, that might not be a bad thing; it's what forced Beast Wars to focus more on character writing than product shilling.

One interesting thing to note is that the kid mentions "you're a Transformer". With a tone that implies he already knows what that is.

Which, to me, can mean one of three things: either he finds out early what Transformers are and is reacting to something else also being a Transformer (which sounds...rather manipulative and convoluted editing, but not impossible); or Transformers as a brand is well-known on Earth and he discovers real ones exist, like in Digimon Tamers (which would be confusing at first, but bold and new for the franchise); or Transformers are relatively well-known in this continuity and he's surprised to have met one (far more likely and in line with other continuities we had).

Actually, come to think of it, for a franchise where one of the main taglines is "Robots In Disguise", there's plenty of continuities where the existence of Transformers is well-known to the public, or at least the government.

The best with regards to keeping themselves secret was Rescue Bots, who only revealed themselves to the public in Season 4

And only after a small alien invasion by the Velgrox forced their hand, even.

Also Car Robots/RID 2001. If I recall correctly, only the token human (and his father once they rescue him from the Predacons) ever finds out who the Autobots are.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Is this what will replace Cyberverse?

Yes.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Regardless, I'm surprised to see the return of humans.
I'm currently at season two in Cyberverse. I find the complete absence of humans unsettling and creepy.

The lack of humans in Cyberverse was due to budget constraints. Hasbro gave them such a small budget that gradually got bigger over time, but the makers had to fight tooth and nail just to get a few seconds of screentime for a single human child seen that one season 1 episode with the roadside billboard.

Pretty much. Also, they didn't feel they could do the usual B-plots that come with human sidekicks given their runtime. Which makes it especially weird that the show even bothers to go to Earth in the first place; at least Beast Wars had the excuse of being in the distant past before humanity existed.

MaximalNui wrote:My sole concern is that, like previous CG shows for the brand, they'll have to rely heavily on a short cast and lots of repaints for background characters. Then again, that might not be a bad thing; it's what forced Beast Wars to focus more on character writing than product shilling.

william-james88 wrote:

MaximalNui wrote:My sole concern is that, like previous CG shows for the brand, they'll have to rely heavily on a short cast and lots of repaints for background characters. Then again, that might not be a bad thing; it's what forced Beast Wars to focus more on character writing than product shilling.

Why not look at Cyberverse. That was a CG show and it had a huge cast of characters. In the end, it will all depend on the story. As you said, a small (or big) cast doesn't spell out how good a show will be.

MaximalNui wrote:Also Car Robots/RID 2001. If I recall correctly, only the token human (and his father once they rescue him from the Predacons) ever finds out who the Autobots are.

Autobot_Benz wrote:The fact that two of the guys who worked on that god awful Rise of the TMNT show are working on this gives me no hope.

Yes Ciro who worked on TMNT 2012 is also working on it but my point stands

-Kanrabat- wrote:I find the complete absence of humans unsettling and creepy.

o.supreme wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I find the complete absence of humans unsettling and creepy.

Is that just because part of it is set on modern day Earth ? I usually find a lack of humans to make most shows better, ( most notably Beast era shows) but Cyberverse just wasn't for me, and it wasn't because of a lack of humans.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

o.supreme wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I find the complete absence of humans unsettling and creepy.

Is that just because part of it is set on modern day Earth ? I usually find a lack of humans to make most shows better, ( most notably Beast era shows) but Cyberverse just wasn't for me, and it wasn't because of a lack of humans.

No humans makes sense in the right setting.
But when there's an actual WAR waged by extraterrestrials on Earth soil and not a single human delegation or army show up to intervene, it's there that my suspension of disbelief reach its limits.

o.supreme wrote:Gotcha . There's a whole subset of Pixar fans that are disturbed by the Cars franchise wondering where all the humans went. I guess it's kind of like that

-Kanrabat- wrote:No humans makes sense in the right setting.
But when there's an actual WAR waged by extraterrestrials on Earth soil and not a single human delegation or army show up to intervene, it's there that my suspension of disbelief reach its limits.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:No humans makes sense in the right setting.
But when there's an actual WAR waged by extraterrestrials on Earth soil and not a single human delegation or army show up to intervene, it's there that my suspension of disbelief reach its limits.

For me, with Bayformers, it was the opposite. I grew up with Toho films. Humans are there to scream, run away and/or be ineffective military fodder. That normally ends up doing one of the two former options. Being active participants in an Alien war, which uses technology far more advanced than our own? I don't buy it for a second. Let alone when our technology can harm a giant alien robot

-Kanrabat- wrote:But in Cyberverse, they could at least have shown the humains TRY to resist a bit. Even if in the end, they can't do shizz. À la Godzilla.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:But in Cyberverse, they could at least have shown the humains TRY to resist a bit. Even if in the end, they can't do shizz. À la Godzilla.

No. They could not. As I have told you twice already in this very thread, they had no budget, whatsoever, to do anything with humans. As I told you the first time, they had to fight tooth and nail just to get mere seconds of screentime for that one little kid in that one scene in that one episode of season one.

There were no other onscreen humans besides that brief cameo because there was no money to afford them. Hasbro gave them the barest minimum of a budget to work with. That's why the majority of Decepticons on Earth in the first season were just color-swapped Seekers.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Humans were not even mentioned, nor suggested. That's wack.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Not even 5 minutes out of 4 seasons.
Seriously?

At that point, yeah, that city is Squirrel City.

Sabrblade wrote:More combat footage is seen in this Hasbro corporate reel video.

The uniform-wearing human woman is also seen using a laser gun of her own.

https://twitter.com/Hasbro/status/1494363619622064137

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:No humans makes sense in the right setting.
But when there's an actual WAR waged by extraterrestrials on Earth soil and not a single human delegation or army show up to intervene, it's there that my suspension of disbelief reach its limits.

For me, with Bayformers, it was the opposite. I grew up with Toho films. Humans are there to scream, run away and/or be ineffective military fodder. That normally ends up doing one of the two former options. Being active participants in an Alien war, which uses technology far more advanced than our own? I don't buy it for a second. Let alone when our technology can harm a giant alien robot

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:More combat footage is seen in this Hasbro corporate reel video.

The uniform-wearing human woman is also seen using a laser gun of her own.

https://twitter.com/Hasbro/status/1494363619622064137

Don't we see that same shot in the teaser?

Deadput wrote:If humans can't hurt them, than that should mean that they couldn't even hurt each other.

Deadput wrote:Like if the Decepticons could just squash the military in a couple hours than what would ever be the point of them disguising each other and being Deceptive? It makes the story more interesting when the Decepticons actually have a good reason not to go all out.

Deadput wrote:Transformers has never been at it's best with the absence of humans and never will.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Deadput wrote:Transformers has never been at it's best with the absence of humans and never will.

Agree to disagree on that one.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Not even 5 minutes out of 4 seasons.
Seriously?

At that point, yeah, that city is Squirrel City.

Those were just snippits I picked out from memory.

Plus, five minutes would take up half of a whole episode. That's expensive.

Sabrblade wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Deadput wrote:Transformers has never been at it's best with the absence of humans and never will.

Agree to disagree on that one.

Beast Wars was not absent of humans.

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:No humans makes sense in the right setting.
But when there's an actual WAR waged by extraterrestrials on Earth soil and not a single human delegation or army show up to intervene, it's there that my suspension of disbelief reach its limits.

For me, with Bayformers, it was the opposite. I grew up with Toho films. Humans are there to scream, run away and/or be ineffective military fodder. That normally ends up doing one of the two former options. Being active participants in an Alien war, which uses technology far more advanced than our own? I don't buy it for a second. Let alone when our technology can harm a giant alien robot

I on the other hand find it awfully boring when the Transformers couldn't be hurt by human weaponry, sure not like hand guns or anything, but a round from a tank is going to hurt literally anything that isn't at least a Combiner, let alone more brutal means of offensive like airstrikes, etc.

If humans can't hurt them, than that should mean that they couldn't even hurt each other.

Like if the Decepticons could just squash the military in a couple hours than what would ever be the point of them disguising each other and being Deceptive? It makes the story more interesting when the Decepticons actually have a good reason not to go all out.

It ended up being too far in the extreme in the Bay films, but the answer will never be to make them invincible to human stuff, because of the reasons I stated and it gives humans little relevance in the franchise that only works when their around, Transformers has never been at it's best with the absence of humans and never will.

Their Aliens, not gods.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Deadput wrote:If humans can't hurt them, than that should mean that they couldn't even hurt each other.

Except their weapons, are as highly advanced as they are. Human weapons in contrast, are primitive and mostly ballistic based. Ion Cannons, Particle Cannons, Fusion Cannons etc, etc are on another level to bullets, shells and missiles. It amounts to the evolutionary equivalent of medieval archers battling fighter jets.

A part of the fandom tends to forget the Transformers are highly advanced artificial alien life forms. Not Earth-based robots that morph into cars.

Deadput wrote:Like if the Decepticons could just squash the military in a couple hours than what would ever be the point of them disguising each other and being Deceptive? It makes the story more interesting when the Decepticons actually have a good reason not to go all out.

Infiltration. When IDW first started (and was good). It went into specifics on this. Cybertronians being 'Robots in disguise' isn't a method exclusive to Earth. It is a long term strategy employed where ever Transformers land. Because they typically have smaller numbers and fuelling concerns. It is never stated in any fiction to be due to fear.

MaximalNui wrote:Honestly, my issue was never with not showing humans; it's with even bothering setting the series on present-day Earth if they're never going to meaningfully interact with humans. Why couldn't this be an alien planet, or another Cybertronian colony?

Sabrblade wrote:Though, we know the real reason the show had to be set on Earth: The backstory lore that Hasbro pushed on the Cyberverse people says that Earth is the planet the AllSpark landed on, so the show had to take place there until the AllSpark was found.