Friday Night Premiere Laser Talkback: Storm Hawks [05/25/07]

[Master Moron]

For some reason this show reminds me of Chaotic. Something about the character designs or something.

 

[Xerroo]

Except this doesn't suck.

 

[Mad Mod 49]

Well, none of the heroes seem that interesting to me as of yet (though that blond guy is pretty funny) but the villains look cool, particulary Dark Ace and Cyclonis.

 

[Shift]

Well, this show is pretty good to very good on all counts; animation and expressions are especially good. The most entertaining hero so far seems to be that green guy (Crane?), but I really hope they're not gonna play the "traitor" card on him, temporarily or otherwise. Cyclonis (not the Decepticon) makes an interesting villainess, but why do I have the feeling there's a bigger head honcho in charge? Then there's that violin gag; what is up with that? Also, it seems Dinobot has been revived.

 

[Xerroo]

Again Mcneil has tons of voices.

 

[Kyuss]

What I found most entertaining is they are using Hakodoshi aka Chiara Zanni as the main villainess.

In fact, barring Moneca Stori, Kirby Morrow, Jillian Micheaels, and Kelly Sheridan, it appears a vast majority are indeed from the Ocean Group dub company.

I could be wrong...

 

[Kagetsu]

I never expect much from a "kids on machines" show, but this surprised me. the animation was reminded me of Dragon Booster but a little brighter. My only complaint is I had to very closely and wait for the voice to tell which were girls. At this point the story is a little weak but has time to improve. The character design is interesting and the facial expressions and movement especially the fights is very good. The humour and character voices and personalities are great. The villain being a girl and not some prissy idiot is a nice feature. She seems very sinister.

I think I'm going to like this alot.

 

[Kyuss]

Kag,

I think it helps to have Chiara voicing a character. Her Hakodoshi was right on the mark in my book.

 

[bigddan11]

Friday Night Premiere Laser Talkback: Storm Hawks [05/24/07]

Sneak peek premiere:
7:30 PM- The Age of Heroes (Part 1)
8 PM- The Age of Heroes (Part 2)

Encores tonight at 10:30 and 11 PM
Saturday at 11 and 11:30 AM
Sunday at 7:30 and 8 PM

Series Premiere June 4


The world of Atmos is under the attack of Cyclonia, and only the Sky Knights stand in the way of them being conquered. When Cyclonia claims Atmos' most powerful aurora stone, the newly formed Sky Knight team known as "The Storm Hawks" most do all they can to prove they're not kids and save the world.​

 

[macattack]

Surprisingly not bad. Much better than than the trailer. It has my interest, now it has to hold it.

Good job by Ocean with the VAing, too. I'm glad CN isn't abandoning them.

 

[FightingDreamer]

This wasn't half bad. It's not great, but for a show from the guys who made Dragon Booster (a show I despise because it squanders an awesome concept), this is pretty entertaining. I like the art style and designs, and the fight scenes are pretty cool, even if they rely on the old 'everyone-has-parachutes-so-no-one-visibly-dies' death dodger. I like the humor and voice acting as well, especially that weird violin gag.

Overall, I'd give the pilot of Storm Hawks 7/10.

 

[Kagetsu]

Kag,

I think it helps to have Chiara voicing a character. Her Hakodoshi was right on the mark in my book.

I've not heard of her, but was thinking I'd be looking up their names sooner or later.

 

[Mad Mod 49]

Upon rewatching I have to say, concerning the villains and heroes:

-While Dark Ace's two goons aren't all that impressive, Dark Ace himself is awesome. He seems to actually have some nobility to him as well, seeing how he shoved himself in front of the collapsing debris to protect Master Cyclonis. Cyclonis herself is badass too and that echo that ocassionally emits from her voice does make me think that, as Shift thinks, there's some darker force at work here.

-For the heroes, I really like the blond dude and the big guy, their interaction was hilarious. Geek girl, Green guy, and the blue-haird chick are okay by me. But the lead, Arrow...I must say, he's come across already as a Gary Stu. Out of his intial team, only he does anything in the big battle and even though he loses the fight to Cyclonis (with Dark Ace finishing the job), he just leaps up and saves the day anyway, then acts all cocky about it, even though he wouldn't have even succeed at that without the blue-haired chick. I'll give him time to improve, but I'm not liking what I see thus far....

 

[Hyper Shadow X]

The show looks pretty nice.

 

[bigddan11]

I'm one of those people who actually liked Dragon Booster, though I did fill the show didn't quite live up to it's expectations. One of the reasons I enjoyed it so much was because Nerds attempted to make real life movements throughout their computer animation. Now I can once again enjoy those animations through Sky Hawks, and if these two pilot episodes are anything like what the rest of the series will be, it will say this could be one of CN's best hits. I know I'll be tuning in for premieres four out of the five nights, with the only one I'm debating on tuning in being Camp Lazlo. Storm Hawks should be a great lead-in for Poke'Mon as well.

 

[Duke]

Eh, it was a decent premiere. Exposition went by way too fast, and the CG animation is decent, though it has the same problems that I have with pretty much every other CG work ever made, so I won't fault this series too badly for that. Aerrow's a pretty weak lead, though.

Probably the most annoying part was when the Dark Ace had about 3 chances to kill Aerrow, yet spared him for no real reason at all. Seemed like a lame plot device to me.

 

[RoseBusch]

You know what's even better? CN does not produce this! YES!

 

[bigddan11]

You know what's even better? CN does not produce this! YES!

They were in the closing credits though. It said something like "CN consultant."

I know zap2it and here list these episodes as Pilot, but TV Guide and Cn.com list these episodes as "The Age of Heroes."

 

[Jeff Harris]

It kind of baffles me that people were, to use the common colloquialism of urban areas, "hatin'" on Storm Hawks sight unseen when it was talked about on the Toonami forums. Then again, it's the Toonami forums, and they're accustomed to anime over there for some odd reason.

I'm an optimist by nature (I know, I'm shocked too), so I kind of had high hopes from this series ever since I first heard about it last year when Cartoon Network greenlit it.

But there was such negativity towards it for no particular reason. Still, it's good that the initial reaction from the first two episodes has been positive. Wish I could have seen it myself.

 

[Discloner]

Why this show is premiering on 'Fridays' (of all places), then is whisked off to a Mondays at 7 slot and doesn't have a nice cushy weekly Toonami spot is beyond me...

This is a series that screams Toonami. It oozes Toonami's demographic, but isn't dumbed down, badly dubbed or animated, and - here's the shocker - it's actually full of action and FUN. Its the series the block desperately needs to break up the monopolistic hold Anime has on it - and could add some much needed diversity to what (to me at least) seems like a rather stale and stagnate line-up of shows, barring a few examples.

Hell...Nerd Corps even FEELS like the Williams Street of yesteryear. A bunch of rebellious employees trying to make something different - immersive, and fun. Loving it all in the process.

I honestly don't have too many critiques with what was shown tonight. I was slightly annoyed by the occasional frame-rate drop (this is a domestic product...why are there frame-rate drops for timing?) but in the grand scheme of the episode it was nothing compared to the adventure and fun world we were introduced to.

I look forward to seeing more - though I will forever wonder why CN is keeping this away from the one place on their network where it truly feels like it belongs.

Edit: Did anyone else catch if Robert Buckley composed for this? Music reminded me of that from ReBoot and Beast Wars.