Shmegalamonga: Superheroes Two: Part 9.5, All The Rest (Part 1.5)

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Superheroes Two: Part 9.5, All The Rest (Part 1.5)

Cartoons off notable franchises that aren't DC or Marvel characters.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)

Yeah, the cutesie one that started out with promise, but got increasingly ridiculous.
It was on for TEN seasons!!

Yeah, this is more fondly remembered by a generation slightly younger than me....
Like, these kids just turning thirty?
This was their Transformers.
They ate it right up.

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997)

See here.

Thankfully, this only lasted a season.
Okay, technically not a cartoon, but....I dunno, it's gotta go somewhere.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)

A bit more faithful to the comic books.
This one hung on for six seasons.

And, it spawned the film "Turtles Forever".

Which, as mentioned there, crossed them over with the original animated Turtles, and the black & white comic book Turtles.
...Saban Turtles weren't invited.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)

The newest one.
Seems to be a CG reboot of the '03 one.

Like I said here, I got off the Turtle ride awhile ago.

Could have sworn there were more shows than this,...I guess the long-ass runs they had is what deceived me.

Transformers (1984)

So, it's the classic story handed down from ancient times...
Intelligent alien robots come to Earth, emulate human vehicles, and devices, continue their extra-galactic war here.
How many times have we heard this one, eh?

This one had the classic characters known now as "generation 1".

This series spawned the movie...

Which, I've fawned over enough by now.

Transformers (1986)

Seasons 3-4 picked up after the movie, which itself was set in the (then fictional) time of 2005.

This part of the series featured the all new characters introduced in the film, which are now known as "generation 2".

Spawned the arcs that became VHS movies "Five Faces Of Darkness", and "The Return Of Optimus Prime".

Transformers: Beast Wars (1996)

A CGI sorta-continuation of the old series continuity.

A new generation of Transformers from 400 years in the future of the original characters goes back in time 3 million years into Earth's past, and they emulate animals, instead of machines.

In later episodes, they encounter the Generation 1 Transformers in stasis.

The best written, and most fondly remembered incarnation of the series.

Transformers: Beast Machines (1999)

A sequel to "Beast Wars".

This one is outright loathed by many fans.
I think it goes a bit overboard....

Like, okay, they ruined the characters the way "Aliens 3", ruins "Aliens", and the ending turned all Transformers into organisms, and, there was some bullshit kung-fu/zen/yoga spirituality going on, and...oh, okay, yes, it ruined Transformers.

But, it's the distant future, and you can easily clip it off your canon, and forget it.

Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2001)

Um, anime style Transformers.

There's human children sidekicks, and a cutesie anime-girl holographic computer, and....and it's just awful.
Everyone deletes this from their memory faster than "Beast Machines".

Transformers: Armada (2003)

So, it's another go at anime style Transformers, and this time, it didn't totally suck.

So...you could kinda crowbar this into the original continuity between Generation 1 and 2.

This is the one with "Mini-cons", which were tiny Transformers that folded up into little cubes, and hooked onto the bigger Transformers, and unlocked different features on the toys.
In the show, it unlocked powers.

This was a rehash of the whole "Powermasters", idea from the end of the 80's toy line.

Don't worry, this bullshit was gone by the next series.

Transformers: Energon (2004)

A sequel to "Armada", and featured the Transformers done cel-shaded CG style, alongside conventional animated anime humans.

This one, they fought Unicron from the movie, and...this is meant to be a reboot timeline, but, the English dubbed version, you could still kinda squeeze this in before "Transformers The Movie".

I mean, in real time, we were up to 2004, and, this series made it up to '05, and TFTM was set in an imaginary '05, so....you could see this as them catching up.

Transformers: Cybertron (2005)

The sequel to "Energon".
This time, full-on regular shaded CG,but still alongside cel animation characters, and backgrounds.

You could pretend this happens after "Generation 2", specifically, post Optimus resurrection.
Doing so, you finally get the conclusion to that universe.

Then, "Beast Wars", happens, and makes it a time loop.

Transformers Animated (2007)

A reboot.

So....I guess they were going for the style of "Batman: The Animated Series", and "Superman The Animated Series", and, a bit of "Teen Titans", and...for robots to look and move like the humans in those, the Transformers essentially have to be made of cubes of gelatin (not literally), and, it's very odd...but, somehow, it works.

Very loosely based on the Michael Bay universe.

Transformers: Prime (2010)

Another reboot, visually based on the Bayverse, but, it's own thing again.

Full CG, it's written and animated to the quality of "Beast Wars", but, featuring reboot versions of the classic Generation 1 characters.
Jeffrey Combs is Ratchet in this one.

This is the Goldilocks incarnation.
Just right.

Robocop, and
Robocop: Alpha Commando