Transformers: Returning to a Childhood Love

We all have those fond childhood memories – trick or treating at Halloween, first kisses, getting that really cool toy. I think I speak for just about everyone when I say the one thing we all remember the most are our childhood cartoons. I grew up in the 80’s with shows like SilverHawks and He-Man. I was always, always a He-Man fan. Never missed it. Now though when you look back you see these shows for what they really were, and usually they were not as good as you remember them.

Or at least I used to think.

I recently got Transformers Season One. G1, or Generation One (classic), Transformers. Not any of the following incarnations. None of those have even been really worth while. I say that cause I grew up with Transformers and, yeah maybe I am not really giving the new series a chance, but for me there was something missing. I didn’t really know what that something was until I sat down to watch G1 again.

Now, know this – I was dreading watching it. I don’t even really know why I got it. Call it a nostalgic thing I guess. Yet when I started watching it I was taken back to a time when things were fun and cartoons were made to be the best they could be. I remember the toys, the mass hysteria of the fad of Transformers. Even today I can say it was worth it.

Yeah, G1 is full of loop holes. For one if all the Robots can fly, how are they are constantly holding onto cliffs in peril or need of Rocket Packs to get to something in the sky? And don’t even get me started on the “How do Megatron and Soundwave transform into object 1/100th their size?” But you know, despite all of that, this is still an awesome cartoon. I had forgotten how all the jets were Decepticons. I had forgotten how cool Jazz was. I had forgotten a lot of the things that made G1 Transformers what it is. I guess as I grew up I stopped looking at it the same way.

The 25th Anniversary Season 1 set has gone back in and added all the missing scenes of animation and remastered the soundtrack. It also does something I wish more DVD’s did – link together multi-part episodes into one flowing movie. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when you get to watch the first mini-series on disc one, it just seems like the very first Transformers movie. There is not a lot of extras on in the set, but I bought it for the show not the extras. My only complaint is that I could have sworn previous Season 1 sets were more than 13 episodes. The new GI Joe Season 1 set is the first half of it at 22 episodes.

They just don’t make cartoons like this anymore. Today the airwaves are full of cartoons that just talk down to kids. They don’t stand the test of time. They come and they go, and with a few exceptions like Invader Zim or Avatar The Last Air Bender they are forgotten. You don’t hear that from the cartoons from the 80’s. People who never grew up with He-man still know what it is. I loved the remade He-Man cartoon in the 2000’s. It is the only remade old school series that I found to be a success. Yet I still love the original and all of its goofiness like many others out there.

I know I was too hard on the old cartoons. I always looked back on them and just scoffed, which for the animator inside of me is just a bad idea. It was those cartoons that made me want to be an animator. My son is three and he is really digging the G1 Transformers. So now I have gotten GI Joe season one to keep going with. I am sure not all of the cartoons from the 80’s are holding up the same test of time as the big ones, but I really do need to re-evaluate my stance on some of these. Instead of looking at them through today’s eyes, I need to just look at them.

And I am still a Bumblebee fan.