Transformers Armada - Metamorphosis [DVD] [2003]

This DVD (which is not titled "Metamorphosis" anywhere on the packaging, by the way) contains the first three episodes of the Armada series, “First Encounter,” “Metamorphosis” and “Base,” which first aired together as a movie on Cartoon Network’s “Toonami” block. The response from Transformers fans to this movie was brutal – Armada was *not* a hit. After the first dozen or so episodes, however, the show took a strong upswing, improving with each episode and introducing a continuous, developing plotline – and while the first three episodes were not very popular, the show got worse before it got better, so one can look back on these three episodes and know comfortably that there’s worse out there than these.

The thing is, these episodes aren’t really that bad – “First Encounter” received a fairly warm reception when it was premiered at the Transformers convention, BotCon. The biggest sticking point for many fans is the fact that the three children, Rad, Carlos and Alexis get so much focus – in fact, for the first dozen episodes, they are effectively the stars of the show, getting more screen and story time than the Transformers themselves. And while that was perhaps not the best move to take - people watch Transformers to see *Transformers,* not a bunch of punk kids - it’s just something you have to accept and move beyond, even though many fans refuse to do that, and are consequently blinded to the more enjoyable aspects of the series. It IS ironic, however, that episodes that feature substantially less of the kids ARE generally superior to episodes where they are the main players.

What may surprise you – I know it surprised me – is visibly how much Armada *looks* like the original G1 Transformers cartoon. The well-animated episodes are crisper and nicer-looking than G1, but the resemblance really is shocking (we’ll come to the badly animated episodes in a minute). That can be taken as a good or bad thing – while it’s a nice nostalgic feel, cartoons have come a long way since the 80’s, and a higher level of quality control is expect that is present in Armada. I haven’t seen as many G1-like animation flubs in a cartoon as I have in Armada in a very long time. And it’s evident that the English dub team couldn’t care less, as many later episodes will showcase frequent mistakes with character names, and many script flubs where the Japanese has been translated poorly and doesn’t make sense. The voice acting is a bit lifeless in places, but fan favourites Garry Chalk and David Kaye give good performances as Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Anyway - “First Encounter” and “Metamorphosis” are enjoyable episodes if you’re a person who can get beyond issues with the kids, but “Base” is the dud of the trio, suffering from one of Armada’s major demons – poor animation. A good number of episodes in the series are spoiled by utterly atrocious animation, which even the worst of G1 is superior to. In addition to just being poorly drawn, these episodes implement the anime convention of dragging animation cells across the screen rather than animate their motion to grotesque, repetitive effect. “Base” is not the worst example of this, but it’s certainly not up to scratch with the other two episodes on the disc. Aside from animation, it’s also weak on the basis that it’s almost entirely just an overlong epilogue for the other two episodes, and drags the trio down.

On the technical side of things, the picture quality is sharp and the audio is clear. The animated main menu is nicely done, and this is the first Transformers DVD to have scene selection within the episodes (although there is no separate menu for this). Oddly, there is no straight “play” or “launch” option to let you play all three episodes in one go – you must select them individually.

And now, on to the extras. Yes! Woo-hoo! There are extras on a Transformers DVD for once! On offer is a video gallery of clips of transformations and battles – not exactly awe-inspiring, as you can see all of them just by watching the episodes, but at least it shows a desire to do *something.* But this gallery is easily bettered by the disc’s other feature – a trivia quiz, featuring fifteen multiple choice questions, nicely bolstered with video clips and sound files to let you know how you’re doing, which, when all answered correctly, will give you a password that will allow you to unlock a DVD-ROM section of the disc, with some goodies for your computer (not telling you what, find our for yourself!). The quiz, though, calls Hot Shot, “Hot Rod” – one of the aforementioned name mistakes that will appear in later episodes.

In conclusion, as with everything, there is no better place to start watching Armada than the beginning – even though these episodes are not the best that the series has to offer, they’re still better than some of what is to come. The episode count on the disc is a bit low, in my opinion, though, and I would hope later volumes will include another episode or two – with over fifty episodes in the series, I think the buyers would appreciate it.