Marius Oberholster

Wow wow wow!! I absolutely loved it!!! I can wholeheartedly recommend this, even for just a relaxing evening watch. The animation was beautiful, the speakers were great and filmed fantastically. It gets 5 stars from me, no problem!!! My only crit will be that the water simulations had some lower res than I expected on splashes (to be expected for the hardware limitations) and some of the animals felt a bit plastic, but evenso, it was so beautifully done, the issues pale in comparison. Check it out!!!! And yes, I am biased, but as an animator, I can comment on the CG side of things. (^^,)

While I think it is a good modern adaptation of the series, I had a major problem with the girl-boss nonsense and the non-binary ideology. I found the latter particularly disturbing for 2 reasons: 1) None of those drugs or surgeries are reversible - in fact, they have life-long complications and costs and they don't relieve the symptoms of gender dysphoria. Kids need adults to teach them and protect them. If they want to transition as adults, they are free to do so, but kids don't even know what the long term effects of alcohol use/abuse will be - let alone a permanent life-long medical commitment with very far reaching consequences. 2) They lull you into thinking your kids can watch the show while you work or cook and then introduce them to propaganda in the last episode of the season. Don't tell me it was a mistake - they did that on purpose. I know how their minds work, because I was like that too. You can believe what you want and do what you want, but when you try to slither in your ideology under the nose of unsuspecting parents who thought they could trust you for 99% of the season - I cry foul. The girl-boss nonsense in the first two episodes were the red flag for sure... I love strong female characters, but they have to be believable and relatable. Some random grunt telling Optimus Prime what he will and won't do = instasplat. It demonstrates a gross disrespect of and for any authority structure - something you really want to teach children. #sarcasm As if society doesn't have enough contempt for proper authority - even in the workplace... On top of that, minors do not need to be lectured on your ideas of sexual preference - that's called grooming. Kids are not equipped to talk about sexual matters because they are kids - they don't know how the world works and they need parents to guide them and teach them - not your place to push a sexual innuendo on them. There's a big difference teaching them right from wrong - like not littering, respecting authority figures, taking responsibility for yourself and others, etc. - and grooming. I hate what this show turned into, because I LOVED the 2D animation assets mixed with the 3D. I loved how the kids were connected to the smaller bots and I love the fact that Megatron wanted to do right by Cybertronians, demonstrating that anyone can change/put their differences aside - even if only for a time - you can see his internal conflict will bring him to an impasse with ghost and Prime at some point in the future. For the underhanded tactics and girl boss nonsense, all it's good aspects fall completely flat, 0/10... I hope the show tanks badly so studios will finally get the message, after so many failed projects, that people don't want propaganda - they want good entertainment with universal life-lessons.