Shout! Factory Enters Distribution Agreement for the Unicron Trilogy and Transformers Animated

Was season 4 of animated cancelled before it was made or was it made and then cancelled?

This is hopefully great news for Season 3 of Animated finally getting released. It'd be great if we could get RID and the Japanese Beast Wars series as well. Wishful thinking I know. It'd be nice though.

I already own all three UT series on DVD from the Rhino and Paramount sets, but Animated in HD widescreen with season 3 would be nice.

The bonus content will also be a big factor in my deciding to double dip on these as I have for G1 and Beast Wars (but not JG1, as I haven't yet bough the Shout! DVDs of those).

sixshot20 wrote:Was season 4 of animated cancelled before it was made or was it made and then cancelled?

There was no season 4 made.

sixshot20 wrote:Was season 4 of animated cancelled before it was made or was it made and then cancelled?

It was canceled before it was made, while they where making season 3, so most of the stuff that was meant to lead into season 4 was removed from season 3.

Animated is an instant import.

Flux Convoy wrote:This is hopefully great news for Season 3 of Animated finally getting released. It'd be great if we could get RID and the Japanese Beast Wars series as well. Wishful thinking I know. It'd be nice though.

I would love to see RID finally get released... Still one of my favorite series

Excellent! I will probably pick up Animated, and maybe the Unicron Trilogy if it comes in a box set. But I still don't even have the Japanese Collection, so that would be a long way off.

Fingers crossed for an Animated boxset on Blu-Ray!

If the Unicron Trilogy stuff also has the Japanese versions with subs, it's instabought!

I'd love the Japanese Beast Wars stuff too, but is BWII a no-go because of the Mexican stereotype jokes from the Jointrons? Considering how mutilated the subs on Shout!s Japanese G1 stuff ended up, I've gone from patient to pessimistic on it and Neo.

And I love Animated so much that I already bought season 3 on DVD...from my local bootlegger, partly to force him to stock it for others. But that was before the HUB reruns; please release it all in widescreen on BluRay and make my copy obsolete, SF!

here to echo the Animated Blu-Ray requests. If I want crappy quality, I'll stream or torrent it. If I'm going to spend money, I want it in crisp, full-size, HD quality. Will gladly pay for it.

Oh yes, Animated in HD, and finally in widescreen.

Damn, my mouth is watering right now

Holy crap. I forgot it was Widescreen. Yeah, that would be a game changer. I hope they don't skimp on the release... and that they do this thing right!

i COULDN'T CARE LASS ABOUT THE CRAPPY ANIMATED SERIES

BUT TO GET MY HANDS ON ARMADA, INSTANT BUY!!!!!!!!!!!

:O

I will be getting this for sure,

RiD, BWII, BWNeo, and Japanese versions of the Unicron Trilogy are all highly unlikely.

For RiD, it's still in business limbo since the last ones to own it were Disney and Saban didn't buy it back, so Disney could still have it.

For BWII and BWNeo, the only reason Shout! Factory was able to release the subbed versions of the three JG1 series is because Metrodome had already done so several years ago. Thus, there were already existing subtitle scripts available for them to use. BWII and BWNeo have never received any full subtitle treatment all the way through, and thus have no subs readily available for Shout! to use.

The reason for these two having never been fully subbed is mostly because of how hard these two were to come by for many years. Neither was released on DVD until 14 years after each's original broadcast, leaving no high quality digital copies of the original masters available to use during those 14 years. The only things that were available (of you can call it that) during that period were VHS tapes of the shows that have since become long out of print and exceedingly hard to come by on the secondary market (you'd have better luck finding the Fountain of Youth before finding complete, good quality video sources for these two shows back then). But now that we have DVDs for both, that's one step in the right direction. But, the DVDs themselves are EXTREMELY expensive (being worth roughly $300 USD each).

Also, back when Metrodome was subbing the three JG1 cartoons, they were able to do so since the right to those three shows were included in a bundle with the G1 cartoon rights back when Metrodome got to do that series. Meanwhile, BWII and BWNeo were not made by the same company as the JG1 cartoons, so their rights belong to someone else entirely; someone whom Hasbro has never done business with.


And as for subbed versions of the Japanese Unicron Trilogy, this is unlikely since the subbed DVDs of the JG1 cartoons sold poorly and did not meet Shout! Factory's sales expectations. Subbed anime just doesn't sell well on the mainstreamm U.S. DVD market, thus it's mostly a niche appeal.

I would love to get my hands on the Animated set and since I have not worked my way through the Trilogy this would be a great way for me to do so.

Sabrblade wrote:And as for subbed versions of the Japanese Unicron Trilogy, this is unlikely since the subbed DVDs of the JG1 cartoons sold poorly and did not meet Shout! Factory's sales expectations. Subbed anime just doesn't sell well on the mainstreamm U.S. DVD market, thus it's mostly a niche appeal.

But would that rule out including the Japanese versions via subs and angle options on the regular box sets? Or was Micron Legend really so thoroughly redrawn that it wouldn't be practical?

Since these series have gotten western DVDs before, going that extra mile for the sake of claiming the most complete release ever might be worth it to compel anyone who already has them to double dip. There was also that one Superlink ep that was left out of Energon: if no dub track exists, they'd have to at least include a sub of it to release the complete collection.

Bumblevivisector wrote:But would that rule out including the Japanese versions via subs and angle options on the regular box sets? Or was Micron Legend really so thoroughly redrawn that it wouldn't be practical?

Since these series have gotten western DVDs before, going that extra mile for the sake of claiming the most complete release ever might be worth it to compel anyone who already has them to double dip.

The three series weren't dubbed uncut, so dual-audio w/ subs wouldn't work.

Bumblevivisector wrote:There was also that one Superlink ep that was left out of Energon: if no dub track exists, they'd have to at least include a sub of it to release the complete collection.

Not when the missing Super Link episode isn't counted as a part of the Energon dub.

The Paramount DVD set was a complete collection, yet it did not contain the undubbed episode.

It's like how Scramble City isn't counted as part of the English version of the G1 cartoon despite it still existing as a part of the Japanese version of the G1 cartoon.

Sabrblade wrote:The three series weren't dubbed uncut, so dual-audio w/ subs wouldn't work.

Which is why I mentioned angle options. Hasn't that been attempted with different international edits of material on the same disc, beyond just alternate openings and bumpers?

And the "lost" Superlink ep would still be a bonus feature worth pursuing. "More complete than ever," is just good press-release hype, as long as there's some truth to back it up.

Though as for past precedents, were there any improvements in Shout!s Beast Wars rerelease, or was it exactly like Rhino's? If not, we probably can't expect much beyond the glitches in the Cybertron set not reappearing.

Bumblevivisector wrote:Which is why I mentioned angle options. Hasn't that been attempted with different international edits of material on the same disc, beyond just alternate openings and bumpers?

I don't know what that means.

Bumblevivisector wrote:Though as for past precedents, were there any improvements in Shout!s Beast Wars rerelease, or was it exactly like Rhino's?

The masters of Beast Wars used by Shout! Factory were the same ones used by Rhino.

Bumblevivisector wrote:If not, we probably can't expect much beyond the glitches in the Cybertron set not reappearing.

What glitches?

Do you mean the missing footage of episode 3? That was fixed in later releases of Paramount's DVD box set, and those who got the faulty version were allowed to call in for replacement discs with the corrected episode.

This is great news! I was just recently scouring the interwebs for the TFs: Cybertron DVD set, but only found a few used ones that were way overpriced over the original list price. I'm glad I held back on clicking on the "Buy Now" button.

Deathscythetransform wrote:i COULDN'T CARE LASS ABOUT THE CRAPPY ANIMATED SERIES

BUT TO GET MY HANDS ON ARMADA, INSTANT BUY!!!!!!!!!!!

This so much ^^^

It baffles me to no end as to how anyone could possibly consider something like Armada to be objectively superior to something like Animated.

Sabrblade wrote:It baffles me to no end as to how anyone could possibly consider something like Armada to be objectively superior to something like Animated.

It doesn't surprise me, if they watched Armada 10 years ago when they were a kid, it would hold a special place in their heart. This is of course assuming they are pretty young, and Armada being their first exposure to Transformers.

YRQRM0 wrote:

Deathscythetransform wrote:i COULDN'T CARE LASS ABOUT THE CRAPPY ANIMATED SERIES

BUT TO GET MY HANDS ON ARMADA, INSTANT BUY!!!!!!!!!!!

This so much ^^^

yup

of all the unicron trilogy, armada was the best

energon wasn't a decent sequel and cybertron was a good series in itself, but lacked the tragedy Armada had...

and armada was a real cartoon, not a cgi program

viruscarnage wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:It baffles me to no end as to how anyone could possibly consider something like Armada to be objectively superior to something like Animated.

It doesn't surprise me, if they watched Armada 10 years ago when they were a kid, it would hold a special place in their heart. This is of course assuming they are pretty young, and Armada being their first exposure to Transformers.

Yeah, when I was 5, Voltron was the only cartoon I ever (briefly) liked better than TF, so the Toonami reruns as I finished high school left me shocked at what a rushed mess it was in translation. When I was that young, I was blind to animation glitches, and weird inconsistencies made me assume it was just going over my head (the fact that Robotech genuinely did just that didn't help either), and Armada likely had a similar effect.

Watching it in my early 20s, I thought Armada's chief merit was that it started out so bad that it couldn't help but get better as it progressed, making it fun to follow. But you have to look at the bigger picture. What made Armada special was it being the one and only time since G1 that a leg of the TF franchise launched as a triple-threat, with an entirely new toyline, comic series, and cartoon, each medium charging full steam ahead onto its own blank canvas! (Note: G2's 'toon wasn't original, Energon's media were effectively rollovers of Armada, and Animated and Prime's comics are little more than appendices to their cartoons) Even if most other TF cartoons are better once the nostalgia blinders come off, that doesn't diminish the memory of the full Armada experience, of which the cartoon is just frequently the most-discussed.

This effect is multiplied further by the company Armada kept on Saturday evenings. I waxed nostalgic about that aspect back in the Armada 20 Anniversary thread, so I won't repeat all that except to clarify that it wasn't Toonami just then. I don't think any other TF 'toon was fortunate enough to be part of a block of cartoons that long and awesome (I think it was 7:00 to 1:00), not even G1. Even if you also have Justice League, HeMan, Samurai Jack, and classic G.I.Joe, there's surely some we've all forgotten, so I'll gladly buy all of Armada to help me remember.

Bumblevivisector wrote:

viruscarnage wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:It baffles me to no end as to how anyone could possibly consider something like Armada to be objectively superior to something like Animated.

and it baffles me to no end as to how anyone cant respect other peoples' opinions:

I hated Animated because to the style of the designs. I works nicely with teen titans, but giving a chin a mile long to starscreamis still a bad move for me. I've tried real hard to watch Animated, and though the stories were entertaining, and the humour nicely done, visually it was uttely ugly for me.

A lot of people loved the series and THAT IS FINE' I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT AT ALL

sure the unicron trilogy was poorly received in the west of the globe but the style of animation wasbeautifully executed, the robots well detailed and the Minicon's gimmick was well thought, though sometimes poorly executed.

I was in my 20's when armada was released, and when Energon was released, I was a bit dissapointed. As for Cybertron, its just a series into itself ans shouldn't have been included in the unicron trilogy.

its just my opinion... after all, I'm just a Transformers fan who likes different stuff...

Deathscythetransform wrote:

Bumblevivisector wrote:

viruscarnage wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:It baffles me to no end as to how anyone could possibly consider something like Armada to be objectively superior to something like Animated.

and it baffles me to no end as to how anyone cant respect other peoples' opinions:

I hated Animated because to the style of the designs. I works nicely with teen titans, but giving a chin a mile long to starscreamis still a bad move for me. I've tried real hard to watch Animated, and though the stories were entertaining, and the humour nicely done, visually it was uttely ugly for me.

A lot of people loved the series and THAT IS FINE' I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT AT ALL

sure the unicron trilogy was poorly received in the west of the globe but the style of animation wasbeautifully executed, the robots well detailed and the Minicon's gimmick was well thought, though sometimes poorly executed.

I was in my 20's when armada was released, and when Energon was released, I was a bit dissapointed. As for Cybertron, its just a series into itself ans shouldn't have been included in the unicron trilogy.

its just my opinion... after all, I'm just a Transformers fan who likes different stuff...

Armada ... animation ... beautifully ... executed?
Wow, those are four words I never thought I would ever see so close to each other in one sentence.

Deathscythetransform wrote:and it baffles me to no end as to how anyone cant respect other peoples' opinions:

I used the word "objectively", meaning I wasn't referring to opinions. Had I used the word "subjectively" then I would have been, but I was not.

For example, I objectively recognize The Avengers as the best of the recent Marvel films, but I subjectively think Captain America was more enjoyable for me.

Deathscythetransform wrote:As for Cybertron, its just a series into itself ans shouldn't have been included in the unicron trilogy.

But it was the best part of the trilogy.

Cyberton was kinda annoying with the repetitive transformation sequences


and yeah armada was beautifully executed to my opinion. anyway, as I said, I'm happy these series will be distributed and I look forward to get my hands on Armada... the 1st series ever that gave us a true unicron toy

Yeah, I liked the animation, the kids weren't annoying, we got an epic battle with Unicron... there was a lot going for it.

Deathscythetransform wrote:Cyberton was kinda annoying with the repetitive transformation sequences

Which were filled in with additional dialogue to liven up the dead air.

Deathscythetransform wrote:and yeah armada was beautifully executed to my opinion.

Are you referring to the "art style"? Cuz that did look good.

It was the "animation" (the actual movement and manipulation of the onscreen objects within the art style) that was plagued by errors and oddities consistently throughout the series run.

From the sound of your previous post, it seems like you were thinking of the former rather than the latter.

Deathscythetransform wrote:the 1st series ever that gave us a true unicron toy

The only non-Mini-Con toy in the whole toyline that was really up to par with the levels of articulation set by the toyline's post-1994 predecessors (other toys came close, but lacked things like knees or elbows or rotating waists, etc.).

gothsaurus wrote:the kids weren't annoying,

And how many years has it been since you watched the cartoon?

gothsaurus wrote:we got an epic battle with Unicron...

That he mostly just stood still and did nothing for.

well. I meant not annoying next to Kicker's whining.

gothsaurus wrote:well. I meant not annoying next to Kicker's whining.

Kicker was more "spiteful" than "annoying". He evoked more feeling of hatred than mere irritation.

But, yeah, I've actually been re-watching Armada these past few months, and it's really saying something when Fred is the best-written of the human allies.

Oh yeah. I liked Fred. Guess it's time to re-watch.

gothsaurus wrote:Oh yeah. I liked Fred. Guess it's time to re-watch.

That wasn't a complement about him from me.

"Hey come on, Billy! Wait UUUUUUP! My therapist says I shouldn't exert myself! Hey WAAAAAAIT! I can't take much more of this! I didn't even get to finish my second lunch! PLEEEEEASE! WAAAAAAH!"

OK, now I'm convinced that there must be two Armadas, the one you've been watching that was awesome, and the one I watched with animation that got so bad it made G1 look like Disney animation, children that made me miss Daniel, terrible plots, and fight scenes that looked like they worked on Final Fantasy "I'll patiently stand here and wait my turn to attack you" logic.

Man, I want to watch your Armada, where can I get that?

Dead Metal wrote:OK, now I'm convinced that there must be two Armadas, the one you've been watching that was awesome, and the one I watched with animation that got so bad it made G1 look like Disney animation, children that made me miss Daniel, terrible plots, and fight scenes that looked like they worked on Final Fantasy "I'll patiently stand here and wait my turn to attack you" logic.

Man, I want to watch your Armada, where can I get that?

The awesome one can't be "watched", only "read", for it is the Armada Dreamwave comics.

Sabrblade wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:OK, now I'm convinced that there must be two Armadas, the one you've been watching that was awesome, and the one I watched with animation that got so bad it made G1 look like Disney animation, children that made me miss Daniel, terrible plots, and fight scenes that looked like they worked on Final Fantasy "I'll patiently stand here and wait my turn to attack you" logic.

Man, I want to watch your Armada, where can I get that?

The awesome one can't be "watched", only "read", for it is the Armada Dreamwave comics.

Yea those are pretty good, but comics aren't animated and we've heard how beautiful the animation of that awesome Armada version is so I would like to share the experience.

Dead Metal wrote:Yea those are pretty good, but comics aren't animated and we've heard how beautiful the animation of that awesome Armada version is so I would like to share the experience.

Well, there is also the PS2 video game that was both awesome and had really good animation.

Yeah the game and comic do help sway in the favor of Armada out of the three. And agreed, it's only "good" taken in context of being the best of the three in the "trilogy."

But come on. Fred had some great lines, like that one about "my mom says I have a glandular problem." Comedy gold!

gothsaurus wrote:Yeah the game and comic do help sway in the favor of Armada out of the three. And agreed, it's only "good" taken in context of being the best of the three in the "trilogy."

How is Armada better than Cybertron? The latter actually had memorable characters with personalities, multiple ongoing plotlines, definitive story arcs with clear defined objectives, a higher level of hand drawn animation, voice acting that sounded like the actors had a better grasp on their roles, writing that was competent enough to work with the material they had, and best of all, no hasty rushing to meet unreasonable deadlines.

gothsaurus wrote:But come on. Fred had some great lines, like that one about "my mom says I have a glandular problem." Comedy gold!

I liked him better when he was Eddy in Ed, Edd, n' Eddy. He didn't whine every five minutes.

Well, for one ... the comics and video game were better.

gothsaurus wrote:Well, for one ... the comics and video game were better.

Hmm... Never thought to compare the Armada comics or video game to the Cybertron cartoon. Will have to think on that one.

But, yeah, I was referring to the Armada toon.

Yeah, I think I was just happily surprised by the G1-ish animation ... after so many seasons less-expressive CGI. But you're right, there's a lot that was better about Cybertron. At least we can all agree Energon was NOT the best of the three (??) Ha ha ha.

gothsaurus wrote:Yeah, I think I was just happily surprised by the G1-ish animation ... after so many seasons less-expressive CGI. But you're right, there's a lot that was better about Cybertron. At least we can all agree Energon was NOT the best of the three (??) Ha ha ha.

Rampage had more and better expressions than any of the characters in any of the Unicron Trilogy.

Dead Metal wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:Yeah, I think I was just happily surprised by the G1-ish animation ... after so many seasons less-expressive CGI. But you're right, there's a lot that was better about Cybertron. At least we can all agree Energon was NOT the best of the three (??) Ha ha ha.

Rampage had more and better expressions than any of the characters in any of the Unicron Trilogy.

Yeah, the Beast Era's CGI was very expressive. It was the CG of Energon, RobotMasters, and Cybertron that was anything but (most of the time).

Observe this the scene from its beginning to its end (at the 5:00 mark) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eIRanMWh9nE#t=186

Take notice of the facial and body feature expressions. Eye movement, mouth shapes, blinking, shoulder positions, head positions, motion and position of the arms; the overall body kinesthetics of these two is astounding for mere 1998 CG, on par with today's work.

Ryan's wishlist:

Transformers Animated Box Set
Beast Wars II
Beast Wars Neo
Robots In Disguise (I've already got the UK DVDs, but it would be awesome for everyone to get this too)

Seibertron wrote:Ryan's wishlist:

Transformers Animated Box Set
Beast Wars II
Beast Wars Neo
Robots In Disguise (I've already got the UK DVDs, but it would be awesome for everyone to get this too)

The first I could see happening very easily.

The second two are a whole different can of worms.

The last one is... also a can of worms (of the Disney variety), but probably has a far better chance of happening than the two Beast Wars series.


Primarily, the biggest factor in how Shout! Factory was able to release the three Japanese G1 series is because the UK (and Australian) subtitled DVD releases for those three already existed. The Shout! versions just used those as a based to work off of.

Whereas neither of the two Japanese Beast series have had any subtitled DVD release for Shout! to use as a base. A major reason for this is due to neither having ever been released in Japan on DVD until just a couple of years ago, along with these two series being owned by a different company from Toei (who was the studio who made the three JG1 cartoons). Said company, Production Reed, is also one that has never done business with Hasbro before, even.

I think our best hope for ever seeing these two officially released in subtitled DVD form would be to generate enough interest and desire for them since anyone whose ever been willing to watch them, or even subtitle them unofficially, lost interest in them over time for how silly and childish they were. I myself would even just be happy if some unofficial fansubbing group could get them subbed all the way through, as has happened for the likes of Super Link and Galaxy Force.

Sabrblade wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:Yeah, I think I was just happily surprised by the G1-ish animation ... after so many seasons less-expressive CGI. But you're right, there's a lot that was better about Cybertron. At least we can all agree Energon was NOT the best of the three (??) Ha ha ha.

Rampage had more and better expressions than any of the characters in any of the Unicron Trilogy.

Yeah, the Beast Era's CGI was very expressive. It was the CG of Energon, RobotMasters, and Cybertron that was anything but (most of the time).

Observe this the scene from its beginning to its end (at the 5:00 mark) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eIRanMWh9nE#t=186

Take notice of the facial and body feature expressions. Eye movement, mouth shapes, blinking, shoulder positions, head positions, motion and position of the arms; the overall body kinesthetics of these two is astounding for mere 1998 CG, on par with today's work.

I've always assumed that the Beast Wars cartoon was very expensive, which is why it could only do 52 episodes over 3 years whereas they went with cheaper animation for the Unicron Trilogy, but were able to produce 52 episodes for one season (basically 3 times as many episodes for the same time period). I'm assuming that this approach was to allow more characters to be featured instead of having a smaller cast of characters which means less products featured. I like the Transformers Prime approach better with cameo appearances but am aware that they still had limitations with cost which still restricted the number of characters that could be in the show (hence why Beast Hunters was only 13 episodes instead of 26 ... again, an assumption, but probably correct considering the history of Transformers cartoons).

Seibertron wrote:I've always assumed that the Beast Wars cartoon was very expensive, which is why it could only do 52 episodes over 3 years whereas they went with cheaper animation for the Unicron Trilogy, but were able to produce 52 episodes for one season (basically 3 times as many episodes for the same time period). I'm assuming that this approach was to allow more characters to be featured instead of having a smaller cast of characters which means less products featured.

Interesting theory.

On another note, regardless of CGI, there's a lot of anime out there that tend to run for 52 episodes, as that's something of a standard procedure for anime in general, with story arcs that run either 13 or 26 episodes in length. Formats of four 13-episode arcs or two 26-episode arcs, bringing the total episode count to 52, seem to be quite popular choices for anime companies.

Whereas Beast Wars's 52-episode length was something of happy coincidence since they made each season with an uncertainty of whether they'd get another season or not, and the decision to end the show happened to fall in late in the development for season 3, explaining the rather quick feeling of the last three episodes (like introducing and then quickly killing off Tigerhawk after they'd just introduced Megatron's new dragon form).