action figure related cartoon review

Well,I had a chance to watch the Black Friday premieres of Transformers Prime,G.I. Joe Renegades,and Young Justice.

Transformers:
This was pretty lackluster. Beast wars was like 15 years ago,and the CG in this doesn't look any better. I wasn't expecting Pixar-level animation,but this looks like a budget title for Playstation One. I really don't understand why they didn't just make it regular 2D animation if this is the best they could do CG-wise. It ends up failing in it's main purpose (a toy commercial) because kids will just want the more detailed and cooler (to kids at least) movie styled toys,and adult collectors will still prefer Classics and WFC figures. Of course,It's a moot point since the toys for this aren't even coming out for like a year.

All the character's voices are horrible impersinations of the G1 voices,except Optimus,who I think is the real Peter Cullen,and Cliffjumper,who's the Rock (former WWE wrestler).

Storywise,it's not much better. Everyone acts kind of like they're the characters from G1,but Bumblebee is obviously the movie character. Arcee is a bike like in AEC and the movie sequel. The plot is barebones TF: Megatron is back-from where? it's nebulous,again it doesn't really fit any canon,yet keeps acting like a sequel,and the commercials promote it as a sequel. Well anyway,he's got some DUN DUN DUN )))DARK ENERGON(((!!!
that brings dead TFs back as zombies,since every movie,show or comic (or Jane Austin novel) MUST by law contain zombies. Starscream is afraid of the dark energon,but Megatron drinks it and is now super mean double evil. Megatron ,Starscream,Soundwave,Shockwave,and a zombie former Autobot ( I won't spoil it) are the only "name" Decepticons,but there are tons of Deceps that all look the same and the autobots can beat down even when it's 10 on one,like Final Fight. Oh also the Transformers befriend some annoying kids. One nerdy little kid,one mechanicly-inclined teen,and a Japanese exchange student who's borderline offensive stereotype. She's like a parody of kawaii culture,I guess as a reference to the fact that Diaclone figures were originally from Japan.
To be continued........

The final verdict:
If you're enough of a robot nerd to read CDX,you may as well watch this,allthough It's only good quality is the fact that it reminds you of another show you liked. If you have kids who are allready big TF fans,they'll sit through this,but newcomers probably won't be sold. On the plus side for parents,the show is free of the offcolor humor that runs throughout the Transformer movies.

G.I. Joe Renegades:
Now THIS I really enjoyed. Cobra is,to the world at large,a pharmacutical,technology,and defense megacorp. Of course they're secretly trying to overthrow the world's governments. Scarlett,Ripcord,Duke,Roadblock,Snake Eyes and Tunnel Rat stumble across the truth,get in a firefight at the main Cobra plant in Springfield (nod to the fans-they say it about 8 times in the pilot),lose their proof,and are now fugitives from the law. Hawk has Flint and Lady Jaye tracking them down,but Jaye is secretly on their side. A cool concept.

I know a lot of people are knocking the animation on this,and truthfully the framerate does dip from time to time,but the character designs are really fresh and modern. the characters are nostly updated versions of the Sunbow characters,but Ripcord is the Ripcord from the recent movie and Dr. Mindbender is a cocky young bioengineer.

There's rumors on the internet that we'll be getting stylized figures on the pegs in support of this (like Clone Wars or Batman Brave and the Bold),but I doubt it. the character designs aren't THAT stylized.

Verdict:
Worth watching if you aren't "that guy" who can't handle deviation from the original.

Young Justice:
This is a new series based on a now-defunct DC comic. Robin,Aqualad,Speedy,and Kid Flash all team up to investigate Cadmus labs in the pilot,where they discover and free Superman's clone,Superboy. Superboy then joins the team,as does Miss Martian,and they start a sort of 'black ops" division of the Justice League. The commercials and press releases show a girl called "Artemis" who as far as I can tell is not the alternate wonder woman from the comics but rather Arrowette. She isn't in the pilot at all.

Verdict:much watch for kids and adult DC fans (they show the Hall of Justice!) alike. This is the same quality level as the DC direct to DVD stuff.