TRANSFORMERS - RESCUE BOTS: ENERGIZE (DVD)
Shout! Factory / 2012 / 110 mins / NR
THE FILM:
Hasbro already has a firm grip on their transforming robot franchise with the fantastically epic TRANSFORMERS: PRIME cartoon series and the blockbuster Michael Bay movie series. But TRANSFORMERS: RESCUE BOTS is a much different incarnation in that it focuses more on the Autobots saving humans from disasters than locking metal horns with their enemies, the Decepticons. So it's essentially a family friendly version of Transformers, but it still manages to be entertaining for what it sets out to accomplish.
Four Autobots are assigned by their leader, Optimus Prime, to study and help the humans in the town of Griffin Rock. They team up with the Burns family and the local Rescue Team department, responding to everything from weather emergencies to cats stuck in trees. They're perfectly suited for the job as their vehicle forms include a police cruiser (Chase), fire truck (Heatwave), bulldozer (Boulder) and helicopter (Blades). This also happens to coincide nicely as the Burns family is composed of a police chief (Charlie Burns), firefighter (Kade Burns), helicopter pilot (Dani Burns) and construction engineer (Graham Burns), as well a junior communications officer (Cody Burns).
This second volume features episodes 6-10 of the first season. Most of the episodes on this disc revolve around sci-fi elements. "Cody on Patrol" involves nanomachines that are attracted to vehicles capable of destruction, "Deep Trouble" involves a dangerous robot shark and "Return Of The Dinobot" centers around hacking all the town's machines. Some of the disasters seem to be the cause of a secret organization that leaves their insignia at the scene of a few incidents. This gives the series a mystery element and continuity rather than just being a string of random rescue missions. Not to mention the ending of "Return Of The Dinobot" has a unique twist that really shakes up the status quo.
The animation is nothing too detailed, featuring characters that are mostly simple shapes with dots for eyes, but it works for the tone of the series. The voice work is top-notch with such veterans as Maurice LaMarche (FUTURAMA), Jason Marsden (SPIRITED AWAY) and Steve Blum (WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN) doing a spectacular job. The music by Jeff Fair and Starr Parodi (G.I. JOE: RENEGADE) is thrilling and well-composed for a cartoon of this caliber.
Upon first glance, TRANSFORMERS: RESCUE BOTS has the appearance of a scaled down Transformers series. However, it manages to be surprisingly entertaining. It has a few corny jokes here and there, but for the most part the plot plays out straight. That may be partially due to executive producer Jeff Kline, who also produces TRANSFORMERS: PRIME. The result is a Transformers cartoon that doesn't have the same amount of action, but an identical sense of excitement with a hair more character development.
THE DISC:
The widescreen transfer by Shout! Factory looks fantastic, accenting the bright and vibrant colors. For such simple animation, it looks mighty spiffy for DVD video quality.
The audio is crisp and clean, boding well for the great musical score.
THE EXTRAS:
It's rare to see a DVD-Rom extra in this day and age, but it's the only one on this disc in the form of printable coloring sheets. However, there are only two of them and they don't make for the best coloring book pages considering the characters look more gray-scaled than outlined.
OUR SAY:
TRANSFORMERS: RESCUE BOTS has a playful spirit that will appeal to younger kids, but won't talk down to them either. The characters are likable, the story is engaging and the action scenes have a real sense of danger. It also manages to have a real sense of morality and problem solving in tough situations. In other words, this is a nice cartoon for the young ones that won't entirely rot their brain, but won't bore them either.
