Transformers: Armada Complete Series Review: All Over the Minis

“Transformers” have been a part of a lot of kid’s childhoods since the 1980s. Over the years it has seen many incarnations from the original to “Beast Wars.” One of the more recent incarnations is “Armada.” Shout Factory’s released of the complete series on DVD is pretty underwhelming.

“Armada” takes place in a different world than the original “Transformers.” Here, the Autobots and the Decepticons are fighting over who would own the mini Transformers called Minicons. The Autobots help the Minicons escape Cybertron, but their ship gets destroyed on the way. Half of it crashes on Earth while the other crashes on its moon. The minicons are found by two human teenagers which alerts the Decepticons. Now both factions are out to find all the minicons before the other.

The story sounds interesting, but the execution isn’t all that phenomenal. If you’ve seen any other “Transformers” cartoon you’d know what to expect. Autobots and Decepticons fight each other, lots of action and throw in some drama and you’ve got “Transformers.” The series does improve a little as the second season rolls along and gets exciting in the final season. It’s mindless fun, basically.

The biggest negative with this series is the humans. If you’re familiar with the Michael Bay “Transformers” movies, you’re familiar with the humans. They serve little to no purpose to the plot, they get in the way of the Transformers and are super annoying. You’ll learn to either ignore them when they’re on the screen or skip their scenes altogether.

What makes the humans even more annoying is their voice acting. While the Transformers’ voices are good enough to decent, the humans are more “oh god, please shut the hell up!” Every time they open their mouths they say some of the most annoying lines you can find in a corny modern day cartoon. On top of that, the sounds of the voices will make you want to strangle them.

The anime style art is also a mixed bag. When we see the Transformers they look pretty impressive and their movements are smooth. The humans on the other hand look terrible. Their look and movements look like generic low budget anime that will only please young kids. The less you look at them the better.

The biggest smack in the face to the fans is the DVD collection itself. There are no extra features. That’s right, no trailers for other Shout Factory products, no Japanese audio track and no behind the scenes anything. Shout Factory is normally awesome when it comes to DVD collections. Here they didn’t give you anything.

“Transformers: Armada” is a decent series that gets a little better as the series goes on. If you can ignore the humans this series may be enjoyable if you give it a chance. This is a perfect example of “fans only” in that many people will only see the first few episodes and then move on.