how Transformers CGI should have looked in the movie

If you’re a Transformers fan like me, you might’ve been disappointed by the redesign of the characters in the 2007 movie.  I very much was.  I was willing to accept some redesign, to be more modern, and in a few cases, to be more practical (like with Megatron and Soundwave).  But the movie took it way too far.

To give you a taste of how it could’ve looked, I present this video clip.  It’s the fight scene between Megatron and Optimus Prime, the one with the famous quote of “One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall”.  This starts as the original cartoon and switches into 3D CGI.

CGI rendering of G1 Transformers clip

[Update: 7/8/11]

Apparently Hasbro took the video down off their site, for whatever reasons.  But it’s still on YouTube:

A fan took this video and replace the audio with music from the original G1 cartoon series, which makes it even better:

It’s not the highest of CGI quality (due to budget and time, I’m sure), but it shows that the characters in the live-action movie could’ve been made closer to the originals and still looked good, especially with a high-dollar budget.  So why did Michael Bay and crew decide to totally change the design?  The new look for the Transformers in the movie didn’t have much personality, as they all looked too similar and generic.

Until someone does a live-action Transformers movie RIGHT, I’ll always wonder what might’ve been…

working less to help the economy

A guy on CNN, Jack Cafferty, has brought up the idea of changing to a four-day workweek here in the U.S., to help deal with rising gas prices.  It’s not an original idea, because the staff here at Buffet o’ Blog have discussed various plans to work less and/or to increase the length of the weekend.  So while it’s not a new idea, it is good to see it finally gaining some traction with the mainstream media.

I’ll volunteer for the four-day workweek, even if it’s just in an experimental stage.  And I volunteer to work from home, too, which would really save on gas prices.

I figure some companies would expect employees to start working 10-hour days to compensate for the extra off-day, but that’s not necessary.  It would be best to leave it like it is except for removing one whole day of work.  Not only would that help the economy and help prevent global warming, it would dramatically improve morale, which would be a huge thing in this time of major corporate layoffs and downsizing.  So companies ought to think about this new strategy.

Actually, I think the four-day workweek would be widely accepted idea among employees (which make up the majority).  So perhaps research is not needed on that.  But if they want to research taking it a step further, like a three-day workweek, I’ll sign up for that.  🙂

add your own captions, Barack Obama and John Kerry

Here’s our next caption contest.  (Yes, it’s a contest — while there are no official prizes, if you make people laugh, you “win”.)  All you have to do is write a caption for this picture.  This week we’re featuring a photo from the campaign trail, featuring presidential wanna-be John Kerry giving advice (or consolation) to presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Have fun with this one…  🙂

John Kerry and Barack Obama

(To see the other entries in our caption contest, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

a spamtastic secret to skinniness

I got a spam e-mail today with the subject line of:

RE: Clean Colon = Flat Tummy

First, that’s just an odd association.  But second, my research* has proven that’s not true at all.

* I know some people who “cleanse their colon” on a regular basis, and, well, that’s all I’ll say.  🙂