Transformers Animated is the new cartoon series on Cartoon Network. It is based on the old eighties series updated with a new animation style and more complex storytelling. Spoilers ahoy!

"Transform and Roll Out," the three part series premiere, starts off with footage from the old show followed by the new Ratchet saying to Optimus Prime, "What a load of scrap metal." That pretty much sums up my feeling for the show from the eighties. While I loved it as a kid, rewatching the show a few years back was pretty painful and appalling to my grown-up sensibilities. The old show basically boiled down to: if you were branded with an Autobot mark you were good, and if you had a Decepticon mark you were evil. It was basically like Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches sans the irony.

So imagine how pleasantly surprised I was watching the new version of the show that comes out on the heels of the successful live-action movie. It is a lot of fun. The characters are coloful and have distinct personalities and the tone of the show is much more light-hearted. It doesn't take itself as seriously as the eighties version. The stories are better and the dialogue is actually pretty good. I'm impressed.

The episode starts off with the Autobots working repairs on Cybertron for a "space bridge" when they learn Decepticons are in the area. No one has actually SEEN these robot warriors since the great war when they were defeated.

We briefly glimpse the cast of Decepticons before the second in command Starscream pulls a double-cross on the leader Megatron (which he was famous for on the old show). Meanwhile the bad guys are searching for the "All Spark" which is something that gives all Transformers life. Before long the action shifts to Earth, but not before the Autobots are put in suspended animation for fifty years. When they wake up they find an Earth that is filled with robots, invented by a guy named Sumdac and they humorously mistake the human population as the robots pets. After fighting a giant bug, the Autobot Bumblebee befriends Sumdac's daughter Sari, who is a VERY cute and excitable human companion. The episode climaxes in a slugfest between the Autobots and Starscream over the All Spark.

If all that sounds complicated, it kind of is but it was easy enough for a newbie to follow. I haven't seen the old show in years so I was relieved that Transformers Animated makes the complex story accessible to someone like me who isn't the most observant fan on the face of the Earth. I enjoyed it.

If I had any complaints it's that the animation takes some getting used to. American shows mimicking anime has been a trend in recent years but it's still a little bit jarring to see robots with big eyes and flapping mouths. I'm sure once I'm more used to it I'll be fine with it.

So in short, Transformers Animated is a pretty good cartoon that gets off on a pretty good start. I can't wait to see what happens next.