Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising

As a diehard G.I. Joe fan, I'm genetically programmed to have some sort of love/hate relationships with those now famous transforming robots that live alongside my toyline at daddy Hasbro's house.

Like most G.I. Joe fans of the old days, I had a modest Transformers collection, but I grew out of it as G.I. Joe took over my life and ended up selling all of my Generation 1 stuff. To me, the G.I. Joe toyline was just a lot more vibrant and fun than Transformers...but from an animated perspective it is totally the opposite.

While G.I. Joe has had some trouble latching on to a viable formula for animated series, Transformers has not been the same. They've managed an impressive level of success throughout different universes and different medium. In the 90's it was Beast Wars, which pretty much ruled my life for the 3-4 year span that it aired. I will admit I skipped over the whole Armada trilogy, but Transformers: Animated captured my attention thoroughly again a few years ago.

Then we get to Transformers: Prime. The first time Transformers: Prime really hit my radar was the announcement that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would provide Cliffjumper's voice, and I'll admit, my first reaction was just a hint of jealousy. At the time, I'd been feeding for some good G.I. Joe: Renegades news, but all of the publicity and all of the attention was firmly on Transformers: Prime, a dichotomy I had grown accostamed to since the first Transformers film aired in 2007. Even though I was a bit grumbly about the whole Transformers: Prime phenomenon and wasn't really happy with the way G.I. Joe: Renegades seemed to be forever in its shadow, I eagerly watched the opening mini-series... and I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy the hell out of it.

With such a high profile actor like Dwayne Johnson playing the part of a pretty cool and interesting character, the events that unfolded in those first few episodes really threw me for a loop, and I quickly began enjoying this new take on the Transformers universe. The computer generated graphics were worlds better than even the stuff we got with Beast Wars, and I absolutely loved the character designs we got here. Michael Bay should take some notes. The whole zombified robots thing was a pretty inspired twist to the Transformers story, and it allowed the writers to take things to a pretty edgy place, especially for a kid's cartoon.

We see this new Transformers universe as a mixture of the cast members of some previous adventures. Optimus Prime leads the cast, of course, with Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Bulkhead carrying over from the Transformers: Animated series (although this takes place in a totally separate universe). Arcee takes over from Prowl as the resident motorcycle speed demon and martial artist, with Cliffjumper rounding off this initial first wave of Autobots. The Decepticons bring us Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, a sampling of some other characters, and a seemingly endless army of Drones for the Autobots to dispatch of with harsh effectiveness.

The great thing about this DVD release is that it takes all five parts of that initial mini-series and compresses it very effectively into as single motion-picture length animated feature, and it watches very nicely. I didn't get the impression that these were five separate episodes edited together, but that it was produced as one seamless story that was effectively broken up into five separate pieces for the mini-series.

With a writing staff and creative staff made up of the same guys behind the film franchise, but presented in a much more kid-friendly and Generation 1 tone, Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising is a fantastic DVD release from Shout! Factory that captures the great essence of this series. It has a very clear beginning, climax, and end to the story that is a great jumping on point for new watchers and a really nice, approachable bite-sized look into the Prime universe. They really did a great job with it. Heck, us long time fans even get treated to return appearances by Peter Cullen and Frank Welker voicing Prime and Megatron as they should be.

Along with the standard movie-length release of Darkness Rising, this $14.97 DVD also comes with some nice bonus content including animatrics and concept art for some of the characters. A sneak peek of that can be seen below:

If you love Transformers Prime on TV, or if you've never seen an episode and would like to (for you folks without The Hub) I really recommend investing in Transformers Prime: Darkness Rising. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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