Official Synopsis:
The historic struggle of good vs. evil is brought to life again in this all-new Transformers animated series! In the 22nd century, Detroit is the hot spot for all manner of techno-geeks, industrialists and all things robotic. It's where the future is, and where money is being made thanks to the city's thriving robotics industry. Of course that means Detroit is also the hot spot for all things criminal, evil, and that brings us to our story.

50 light years earlier, a young ragtag group of Autobots led by Optimus Prime stumble upon the most important artifact in Transformers history; the Allspark! The Decepticons are in hot pursuit of the Allspark and its secrets to controlling the universe. Now Optimus Prime and his new band of Autobots must fight for their lives and the future of Cybertron. The Autobots are able to escape the Decepticons and crash-land in Lake Erie on the unknown planet called Earth, where they remain in stasis for 50 years.

Our story begins when Optimus Prime and his young team are awakened from stasis, just in time to help the new "organic life forms (humans)" fight the evil villains in Detroit, but in order to save the humans and fight off the criminals they have to convert into their robot forms! In doing so, they save the day and become heroes, destined to fight all evil on the planet Earth and beyond!
  
Our Take:
It’s only natural that following the wake of the live action Transformers film we get an animated venture of the same nature aimed at a younger audience. Of course, Transformers Animated is based off the toy line of Transformers and not the film Transformers, but lets face it, from a marketing stand point it’s like a sister film.

The original Transformers cartoons were just slightly before my time (I was more of the Beast Wars era) so I’m not here to complain about what a crappy cartoon this show is in comparison to what has come before it. What I will complain about, though, is the animation. While I don’t love the ninja-sleek look of the new bots, I don’t hate them either; also I actually quite enjoy the bright color tones of the show. What I don’t enjoy are the anime influences, the weird shapes and curvy lines. They’re awful. And if anything, Transformers is one show that should be devoid of any and all anime style, but instead we get transformations in the vein of a Poke’-ball opening up and popping out a Squirtle.

The rest of the downfalls for Transformers Animated come through in the form of the voice talent. Now, like I said, I’m not a Transformers purist or anything but isn’t Optimus Prime supposed to be the end-all and be-all of manliness? Then why, I ask, did the creators get a woman to voice him for this show? That’s a bit of an overstatement, as it’s not actually a woman voicing him, but man, oh man, does it sound like it.

Special features include:

* Animated Shorts (3 minutes) – Two short clips featuring two Autobots and a quick scheme with each of them.

I’ve complained a fair bit about Transformers Animated: Transform And Roll Out, but the biggest thing to complain about is that this disc is only the first three episodes of the show. The full first season is being released in August so…just wait a few more weeks before buying anything. And despite the shows’ lacking nature, the story isn’t half bad and I can only imagine it getting better as the season progresses.

Overall Picture:
Movie: C+
DVD: D

- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer