From The Archives: The Transformers Are Back!

(originally published on July 27, 2010)

Last year Hasbro, the toy company who owns G.I. Joe, the Transformers, and My Little Pony among other franchises announced they would be partnering with Discovery Kids with the object of relaunching that channel as THE HUB!

That announcement was jointly unveiled with news that Hasbro would be creating it's own animation studio to produce a new series of cartoons based on their properties.

The big talk at first was that Lauren Faust who wrote and directed for both The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends (to say nothing as having served as an animator on Cat's Don't Dance and The Iron Giant) would be retooling My Little Pony in an effort to make a cartoon aimed at little girls that little girls might actually want to watch.

Now, I'm a huge fan of animation and Lauren Faust is one of the best talents working in that industry so whether or not you like the Ponies, it's nice to hear that they're at least in good hands, HOWEVER, this is Hasbro we're talking about! These guys own Optimus Prime, Cobra Commander, and Stretch Armstrong! It was inevitable we'd be hearing more about some of (and maybe still hopefully all) these other characters.

Well that day has dawned! At Comic Con, Hasbro has premiered test animation for a brand new Transformers cartoon called TRANSFORMERS PRIME! Below is a clip of said test animation.

Okay, a couple of quick comments. I'm not crazy that the characters are being rendered in CGI, and the designs, while not exactly unappealing are clearly based off the films by director Michael Bay. I can see where that makes sense, as that's what most new fans are going to know, but I can't help but feel myself pining for the original character layouts.

That being said, the idea of the inhabitants of Cybertron in CG isn't exactly new. I still prefer my Autobots hand drawn, but Beast Wars was CG and that show was the last truly great entry in the Transformers series so far as I'm concerned.

There was however, one more little tidbit of news that got me VERY excited.
Hasbro has announce that Mr. Peter Cullen will be reprising the role of Optimus Prime!!!

... and Mr. Frank Welker will be reprising the role of Megatron!!!

The most recent Transformer's cartoon, Transformers Animated was voice directed by Susan Blu who provided the voice of Arcee in the original cartoon. That series saw several of the voice actors from the 1980's animated series return to their previous roles, but for some odd reason neither Mr. Cullen nor Mr. Welker were among them.

The news of their return sparks hope (in this Transfan at least) that other familiar voices will be joining the ranks of Transformers: Prime as well. Unfortunately hoping seems to be all we can do until further announcements are made, but as far as kick offs for new shows go, it's not a bad start! Not bad at all.

Transform and Roll Out!

Much Ado About Derpy Hooves

Meet Derpy Hooves, a clumsy, cross eyed pony who was lost in the seemingly endless list of background characters in the break out series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic!  Derpy Hooves (or Ditzy Doo as she was originally listed by the production staff) had the sad fate of becoming a popular pony to look for before she was ever named.  As is often the case with such characters, fans began to speculate on what to call her and 'Derpy Hooves' is the moniker that eventually stuck.

The creators of the show have never been shy about playing to the fans (another reason I love them so very much) so when it was decided to use 'Derpy' in a small supporting role with a few lines in the recent episode The Last Roundup the show runners asked the writer to use the fan given name 'Derpy Hooves' as her official name.

(NOTE: Derpy has spoken once before, though it was in a crowd scene with several different characters shouting at once.  The name Ditzy Doo has also been used, but the reference was so vague, the creators didn't feel Derpy was necessarily married to it.)

So Derpy was given a voice and a role.  Here's a brief clip of her brief appearance courtesy of youtube:

That's not the end of our story, however; rather it's only the beginning.

Apparently while fans LOVED seeing Derpy in a bigger part and nearly had a heartache because the name they had chosen was now official, there were some parties that were upset.  While  the word Derpy can mean 'clumsy' it can also be used as slang for 'retarded'.  Thus the outcry began!

Look, I'm not going to deride anyone who was outraged.  I realize that there are lots of families who suffer from certain physical and mental conditions and they have a right to be upset if they feel they are being exploited, but I honestly don't feel that's the case here.

Amy Keating Rogers (the author of the episode) is a long time cartoon writer who has a son who suffers from similar conditions!  She is a sensitive and caring person and actually a friend of a very good friend on my end.  There is nothing in her record to indicate that anything malicious was intentional in her script.

But that doesn't change what's happened.  Hasbro and The Hub have been trying to clean this mess up ever since it started.  This had led to a re-edited version of the episode that has appeared on itunes, and rumors are still circulating that Derpy's name may be changed back to Ditzy Doo as a result (a fact that has some fans up in arms).

The goal of this story is to inform people on what's happened and to call attention to an e-mail response better explaining the situation by Amy Keating Rogers herself.  The e-mail has been posted with permission on Equestria Daily, just follow the link.

This whole thing is unfortunate for everyone: for Mrs. Rogers, for the hardworking staff at The Hub who make this cartoon, for fans of Derpy who have been wanting and asking for her character to get a bigger role since the first season, and also for those on the opposing side of the debate who feel exploited.

Who would have thought a show about cartoon ponies could stir so many varied reactions?  I guess that's art for you, you never know how people will interpret it.