Transformers Animated: Season Three (DVD), Shout Factory, Animation

After waiting years between season 2's release and this one we get the last season of Transformers Animated on DVD. Transformers Animated was the cartoon that showed up around the same time as the Movies started. Shying away for the first time in 6 or so years from the Anime dubs, Transformers Animated was made by Hasbro and Cartoon Network for a true kids cartoon. As such this is where some Transformers fans may be divided. While Animated is a fanboys loveletter to all of Transformers history to that point, the animations style is not to everyone's liking. Nor is the lighthearted tone of the series That said this series is the best kid's cartoon we've gotten from Transformers since Generation One in the 80's. Season three however is where things shifted a bit more to the serious side. Following plot threads set up in the season 2 finale we have Optimus Prime and his earthbound crew desperately trying to warn Cybertron of a Decepticon spy in the midst of the Autobot command structure. Meanwhile our "human" kid character, Sari, finds out that there is a bit more to her than meets the eye herself. And Megatron commandeers the Autobots biggest weapon to use against them to overthrow Autobot rule. And that is just the first three episodes. There are so many nods to every transformer series before it it's fun to just look at the background characters to try and figure out who is who. The cast has quite a few notable voice actors working for it, including a few of the original G1 cast in returning roles. David Kaye who most notably worked as Megatron for nearly a decade plays Optimus and Grimlock. Bumbper Robinson is our wisecracking fast bot Bumblebee. Sue Blu returns to voice Arcee. And we get a great few guest roles from Lance Henrikson, George Takei, and even Weird Al Yankovic. As far as the DVD set goes, it's pretty barebones. There is a commentary track for the first three episodes on disc one and from there on it's just the episodes. But compared to seasons one and two from the previous Paramount Home Video releases, Shout Factory has the full widescreen format for season 3 instead of the cropped form it had originally showed on Cartoon Network for the first two season sets. For the fans looking to complete the series after grabbing the previous Paramount DVDs I can't recommend this enough. But there is a full series set also released by Shout Factory that has the entire series in the new Widescreen format as well. If your new to the series I'd recommend you start from the beginning. But even if your willing to skip two seasons of fun Energony Goodness your still in for an awesome treat with the conclusion to one of the best Transformer series around