Watched the "Transformers" movie last night. It was... oh, OK I guess. Dragged a bit, but the big fight at the end was pretty grand.
The original cartoon really was more of an ensemble piece... the better to sell more toys with... and modern renditions tend to focus more on the human aspect, what it would be like to find these giant robots around, with fewer robot characters. At least in the movie, the "Robots in Disguise" aspect made some kind of sense, the cartoons "well the Ark thought cars were the dominant life form" shtick was kinda silly, and they hardly ever tried to fool anyone.
Interesting quote from Jonathan:
"I always thought Starscream was a girl."
and later, after I pointed out that Starscream had the voice of Cobra Commander...
"I really liked Starscream better a girl... she-- it-- he-- and megatron had that married couple aspect, the bitching and the fighting."
You know, it never occurred to me but but I can kind of see it: