Publisher: Hasbro
Transformers Prime Orion Pax Season 2 Vol 1 (DVD) – Series Review
Robots in disguise, certainly a short but familiar catchphrase for most of the Transformers lovers among us. Transformers Prime happens to be one of the newer Transformer series that tends to mix older elements with elements that are now known to us from the Michael Bay movies. The first part of season two has just been released on DVD and perhaps those who used to love series such as Beast Wars or Beast Machines have a new fun but casual Transformers series to look out for.
The beginning of season two starts off with Optimus Prime suffering a bad case of amnesia. This heavy case of memory loss was due to the battle at the end of season one, where the Autobots bundled their forces with the Decepticons to defeat a mutual foe, namely Unicron. This ancient foe was not to be underestimated and thus this unlikely alliance was formed. Optimus suffered a great loss by defending this strange world he has come to love. Megatron of course seized the chance to mess with Optimus’ mind and told him that the Autobots were their foe and the Optimus was one of them. Optimus also did not realize he was now a prime but he is under the impression he is still Orion Pax, a humble archivist.
With this storyline season two starts to build up. Megatron is desperate to use Orion’s knowledge in order for him to gain more control over the Autobots, whilst the Autobots fight for their dear lives to get Orion to turn back in to the Prime they respect and desperately need to gain their edge over the Decepticons. Of course, Orion feels that Megatron might not be too trustworthy and soon the ball starts rolling.
Overall volume one of the second season follows this storyline, be it not by the letter. You’ll encounter new characters on the way, but the main story will revolve around Optimus, his memory loss and the actions he performed whilst under the command of Megatron. This creates a lot more story value compared to simple loose episodes that have no deeper storyline.
During some of the episodes you’ll get to know a few extra characters which create a fun touch of diversity. This adds up to the overall likeability this somewhat darker series is aiming for. The term ‘dark’ is used because of the fact that the series might look as an animation series for the younger ones among us (teens) but it seems death and destruction are often only a few inches away.
The series keeps the tagline ‘robots in disguise’ intact by secluding the Autobots to a rather remote base, in which they operate in the shadows. Together with a few teens and the help of the government they do their best to protect the Earth from the Decepticon’s evil plans, which is a hard task seeing the Autobots are heavily outnumbered. Megatron forces also have a decent amount of grunts in its ranks, which seem to be very expandable. No robot seems to weep when a lot of these mindless grunts fall on the battlefield.
It’s clear this series is trying to be appealing for fans of the older series as well as the new movies. You’ll see certain characters that seem to have their old original looks intact but also those who have undergone the ‘movie-makeover’. Bumblebee is also missing his voice box and seems to be up to date with the movie. That being said, the series does a great job in combining old and new in to an original series.
Sound wise, the series does not implement that many memorable tunes, except for the intro. You’ll have the right tunes to support the entire frame but there’s not that much more than that.
Acting performances are quite superb, for this still quite ‘unknown’ Transformers series. Voices are convincing, authentic and simply add up to an already fun formula.
The DVD edition comes in four languages but sadly with no subtitles. Whilst this will not prove such a problem for most among us, it might be annoying when you’re doing a late-night-binge-watch-session and you don’t want to wake anyone up. Also some TV sets often play the background music and sounds too loud, in order to hear everything that is being said. (Even when the settings have been adjusted.) Overall this proves to be a small annoyance in this otherwise quite successful concept.
Conclusion
Transformers Prime second season starts off with a bang that could attract a lot of older fans as well as those who are new to the world of these robots in disguise. These acting performances, the storyline and the appearance of so many familiar robots prove to be a juicy cocktail. Stating the obvious, who does not want a great cocktail now and then?
Transformers Prime Orion Pax Season 2 Vol 1 (DVD) - Series Review,
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