"Transformers: Robots in Disguise" (2001) TV series 2001-2002

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Directors:

Osamu Sekita
Michael McConnohie (co-director)

Writers:

Richard Epcar (writer)
Marc Handler (writer)

Release Date:

8 September 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Animation | Family | Sci-Fi | Action

Plot:

Optimus Prime and the Autobots defend Earth against Megatron and combined forces of the evil Predacons and Decepticons.

Plot Keywords:

Transforming Robot | Android | Based On Toy

Cast

Steve Blum	...	Dark Scream, WARS (as Steven Blum)
Tifanie Christun	...	Dorie Dutton (voice)
Jerry DeCapua	...	Gas Skunk
Keith Diamond	...	Rapid Run
Doug Erholtz	...	Miscellaneous
Sandy Fox	...	T-ai (voice)
Bob Joles	...	X-Brawn
Neil Kaplan	...	Optimus Prime / Ro-Tor
David Lodge	...	Midnight Express, Railracer
Peter Lurie	...	Slapper
Michael McConnohie	...	Ironhide, Hotshot
Mike Reynolds	...	Railspike
Daniel Riordan	...	Megatron / Galvatron / Omega Prime
Philece Sampler	...	Kelly (voice)
Joshua Seth	...	Carl (Koji's friend)

Runtime:

USA:22 min | USA:30 min (39 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

English

Certification:

USA:TV-Y7

Company:

Dong Woo Animation Co.

Quotes:

Sky-Byte: What sort of nonsense is this? "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times?" Best or worst, make up your mind!
Slapper: Does Sky-Byte really think he's going to understand humans by reading that stuff?
Sky-Byte: "To be or not to be?" This guy can't make up his mind either!

Movie Connections:

Alternate language version of "Transformer: Car Robot" (2000)

At least it's better than beast machines

Old transformer fans like me have unfortunately fallen into a trap. We remember the original so fondly that anything else seems bad. In fact, it takes an excellent product like beast wars to even make us forgive a TF series for existing.

Sadly, RID isn't excellent like beast wars, so old fans will think they won't like it. Truth be told, the show isn't that bad. The writing is childish because it was meant for pokemon-buying kids, and the producers were at least kind enough to use some stuff from previous series, like the flying shark from the japanese Beast Wars, the combaticons and Ruination's ability to "scramble" from G1, and the stasis pods from Beast Wars.

Fortunately the show doesn't take itself seriously, something that already makes it better than Armada and Beast Machines. In fact, this show has enough personality that I may consider adding it to my collection if someone ever ports it to DVD, after I get the original and japanese episodes of course. Someone should seriously try to bring Beast Wars and Beast Wars II (not Beast Machines) on DVD!!

Bottom line is if you don't take it too seriously, you'll probably like it, and that's the truth.