IFDB Review: Carly's Story:

[MCP]

I have wanted to view this one for a long time. I like the older G1 animated Transformers cartoon. Editor Mark Moore gives us a sort of mini movie revolving around episodes based on the Character of Carly. Overall my problem with this is that too much is then removed from most of the episodes used to make it have any sort of flow, but I will get into that a bit more with details below: For roughly the first half this sort of went together ok with what the editor had to work with. I personally would have preferred this edit opening using the actual Transformers credits and then a created and super imposed “Carly’s Story” title screen. I also would have used on screen title cards to bridge some of the scenes in terms of time (ex like a card saying “two weeks later”). I also believe adding in more back story from the episodes used would have helped flesh it out a bit more, (for example in one spot all of the Autobots and Decepticons appear to be suffering from some sort of energy crisis and they are slowly “dying”. Yet we are given no reason why this all of a sudden is occurring). It is spots like this where it would have been necessary to add more from the episode it came from, however with that said this first half worked well enough that most would have no problems with it and find it pretty enjoyable (like I did). But After roughly 46.00 mins it gets bad in terms of really making any sense. The next episode is Blaster Blues and this is so all over the place that it technically makes no sense at all. Overall you get the idea of what is going on (Megatron takes over the airwaves) but in one shot Blaster is with Spike and Carly at a rock concert. The Autobots get an alert through Blaster and roll out. The next time we see Blaster he somehow was kidnapped by the Decepticons and is being held on a base constructed on the moon (what and when did that happen??). If anything this episode should have been removed as part of the main feature and just kept as excerpts in the extras section (disc two of this set). Up next we use the episode Hoist goes Hollywood and this is the saving grace for the second half of this edit. It worked well. However right after this episode ends we see one scene of Perceptor giving a special award and that is it, makes no sense and then goes into the next episode which worked even less. The last episode opens after Transformers the movie and we now see that Spike is a full adult, married to Carly and with their son Daniel. This takes place at some sort of Space Olympics event when a situation occurs and Spike with several of the Autobots are kidnapped. Problem is it ends with this and goes nowhere. Next thing you know the edit brings us to another planet and everyone is back again I do understand working with what little materials you have on hand and I can really be very forgiving but when it gets to a point of mainly just showing clips without any sort of true flow (even if it is a very thin one) then it just does not work for me. In summing it up, the first half of this is quite alright and it almost does seem like a super extended mini episode; the second half of this is not so good but has its moments yet really feels like just shorter edits of the shows episodes with no real concern for trying to connect any of them (more so like a Carly clip show) I think if Mark just kept this edit using the episodes of The Immobilizer; Desertion of the Dinobots, Parts 1 and 2 and Hoist Goes Hollywood, then this would have worked and it would feel more like the intended movie it was supposed to be. He then could have used the rest of the episodes as just clips and put them on the extras disc Worth a look, but you need to know what you are getting into. If you are expecting a true flowing mini movie then do not watch this. This edit has a 2nd disc full of nice extras and more info about the Carly character. It also features a full commentary track by the editor and I really need to watch that.

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