This show has a lot of potential, and a lot of interesting concepts. But it squandered what it does have with too few episodes and distracting voice acting.
Not all the voices are bad. Starscream in particular stands out as an excellent incarnation of the character. Megatron isn't bad either. But sadly the worst offender is the the character you listen to most: Optimus Prime. The main issues are in tone. I'm fairly sure its the direction, but unless he's talking completely monotone, he just sounds too angry. Always so angry sounding, and it damages his character. Instead of a good leader questioning himself and his judgement, which is what it seems like the writers wanted, it seems more like an idiot who yells alot but thinks he's deep. Its amazing what bad voice direction can do. There are other characters with similar problems, notably scorpinok, who's practically incomprehensible.
The next issue is the length. The writers clearly had a lot they wanted to do, and they did it. And it seems like a good amount for a regular season of TV. But instead it was all squashed into 6 episodes a piece. Every situation that seems like it could be an entire arc by itself ends up lasting 2 episodes maximum, or even 1. Its less notible in part 1, but in part 2, as they move between locations its easy to notice how quickly they move on, but also how long they linger in places.
There are many things I do like. The quintesson storyline, everything with the decepticons on their own, Jetfire's arc, even some of the stuff with prime. I'd just like it a lot better if the voices weren't off, and we had time dwell on things
Not all the voices are bad. Starscream in particular stands out as an excellent incarnation of the character. Megatron isn't bad either. But sadly the worst offender is the the character you listen to most: Optimus Prime. The main issues are in tone. I'm fairly sure its the direction, but unless he's talking completely monotone, he just sounds too angry. Always so angry sounding, and it damages his character. Instead of a good leader questioning himself and his judgement, which is what it seems like the writers wanted, it seems more like an idiot who yells alot but thinks he's deep. Its amazing what bad voice direction can do. There are other characters with similar problems, notably scorpinok, who's practically incomprehensible.
The next issue is the length. The writers clearly had a lot they wanted to do, and they did it. And it seems like a good amount for a regular season of TV. But instead it was all squashed into 6 episodes a piece. Every situation that seems like it could be an entire arc by itself ends up lasting 2 episodes maximum, or even 1. Its less notible in part 1, but in part 2, as they move between locations its easy to notice how quickly they move on, but also how long they linger in places.
There are many things I do like. The quintesson storyline, everything with the decepticons on their own, Jetfire's arc, even some of the stuff with prime. I'd just like it a lot better if the voices weren't off, and we had time dwell on things