Transformers: Prime-Season 1 (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-15 episodes Gallery-Pre-visualisation drawings Featurette-Making Of-2 Teaser Trailer-Season 2
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Hartman Todd Waterman Shaunt Nigoghossian Vinton Heuck
Studio Distributor	Hasbro Studios Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Brian Tyler Matthew Margeson Michael William Miles

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Transformers brand has been phenomenally successful over the last 25 or so years, starting as an animated TV series and a set of toys, developed by Tomy in Japan and Hasbro in the US. Over the years there have been many animated television shows and recently extremely successful live action movies, which have created a whole new generation of Transformers fans. To capitalise on this success Hasbro decided to develop a new animated series, with a bigger budget and higher quality animation than the most recent previous series, Transformers Animated. This new show is a big step up from there with higher quality animation than many animated features, exciting storylines and some great sound design (which is really shown off on this Blu-ray set).

    The concept of this series is that a small group of Autobots are on Earth protecting it from the Decepticons whilst also trying to avoid being noticed by humans. In the first episode we are introduced to the main set of Autobots, Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Arcee, Bulkhead & Bumblebee who form the nucleus of the team here. The Decepticons have a revolving cast of players but Megatron & Starscream are as usual front and centre. One thing which makes this series a little different is that the Autobots are discovered by and subsequently team up with three teenagers, Jack, an older boy, Miko, a Japanese exchange student and Raf, a younger, geeky boy. The opening multi-episode story follows the discovery of Dark Energon by the Decepticons which allows them to bring dead Decepticons back to life. This sets up the action for most of the 26 episodes of this opening season. Each episode is approximately 22 minutes and are spread over 4 Blu-ray discs.

    This is a really high quality animated children's series, with interesting stories, great voice acting (Dwayne Johnson even makes a guest appearance), humour and all the kids favourite characters. The animation is a cut above most television animation with surprising detail and clarity which really helps to indicate the obvious quality on display.

    Transformers fans will love this new entry into the canon.

Video

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio.It is 1080p HD encoded using the AVC codec.

    The picture was nicely clear and sharp throughout, without quite being as good as the best modern feature animation transfers. Shadow detail was excellent throughout.

    The colour is excellent with no issues to report.

    There was a little motion blur at times.

    There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is excellent for a TV show.

    This disc contains an English soundtrack in DTS HD-MA 5.1 and an alternate LPCM 2.0 track.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout.

    The score by Brian Tyler & Matthew Margeson is exciting and memorable, really driving the series.

    The surround speakers were very well used with good surround effects and lots of atmosphere especially in action sequences.

    The subwoofer was also used noticeably supporting the music and action sequences.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu featured music and allowed for episode selection. Extras can be accessed through the episode menu plus the special features menu on Disc 4.

Audio Commentaries

    Audio Commentaries are included for episodes 1-7, 9, 12, 15 & 22-26. They are various combinations of voice cast and crew discussing the development of the show, stories, characters and the animation.

Animatic for Episode 1 (22:08)

    Rough drawn version of the first episode.

A Look at Character Design (5:00)

A Look at Set Design (4:29)

    Pre-visualisation drawings set to music.

Making Of (11:00)

    Promo style preview making of featurette. Includes cast & crew talking about the history of Transformers, development of this show, approach and the characters. Ok.

Toy Featurette (16:30)

Series 2 Teaser (0:18)

Trailers

    The US Region A release seems to be exactly the same as ours.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall