Hasbro and Cartoon Network combine their pop culture might in the upcoming series, "Transformers Animated." Sam Register, executive producer for the series, offers some words of wisdom on the show that will debut in early 2008.

My history with the Transformers: I had started at an ad agency for Hasbro called Griffin Bacal back in the early 1990s. It was my first job out of college and I wrote and produced toy commercials based on the Transformers. It was my first creative job and I got to write and professionally play with toys.

Why does the world need another Transformers animated series? Because it's a perennial favorite and it's one of those properties you can do over and over again in different ways and it is always fun. For example, Batman has been done in 15 different ways and it is still Batman. Some characters really work that way and there is always a new generation of kids that can be reintroduced to the property.

What is your role as the show's executive producer? I helped develop the property from its inception with Hasbro. I brought in the creative team, writer, director and designers. I also worked closely with Hasbro's toy designers to make sure the characters and toys looked as similar as possible to each other, especially with the transformations. The toys, by the way, are mind-blowing. I basically keep the talent on track.

Why did you choose this animation style and how would you describe it? The creators I brought in were all fans of the 1980s animated version of Transformers and this is absolutely an homage to that version with similar character designs, and storylines — right down to the theme song, updated of course.

This animation style is also makes my team of creators come to work every day and enjoy themselves. Essentially, animators and designers are giant children who drive cars. To be able to allow them to work on a property that gave them such joy as children, well, it means they will sleep less and work harder to make a better show in the end.

What storyline will you follow? We went back and tell the origin from a different point of view. One of the main things we did is kept the character count low. If you looked at the old 1980s cartoon, that was not the case as one of the goals was to sell as many toys as possible, not sure ratings were high on the list. When you have hundreds and hundreds of characters, it's hard to commit to any of them. We kept it to five core characters [Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Prowl, Bulkhead and Ratchet] that you could get to learn more about in every episode and have some sort of relationship with rather than a cavalcade of transforming robots.

Sam Register

We wanted the villains to be in there, but you will not see the villains in every episode, another rule we decided to break from the 1980s show. We make the villains bigger and cooler, and they don't get their butt kicked in every episode. And, we had to convince Hasbro to use them sparingly, but when they show up, we make them really tough.

We also brought in a human female character, a softer human for the environment. Since Transformers are aliens, something you forget because they are robots, they have no idea what Earth is about and it makes for a great source for humor and a touchpoint for kids, who are getting to know the world for themselves.

Who is the core audience for this show? Seven-year-old boys are our laser target, but we know that skews lower and higher depending on the love of the Transformers. But we also want to appeal to the girl who happens to turn it on, which we do with a strong female character and setting up strong relationships with the characters.

Will this have the sort of wide-reaching appeal and humor of "Teen Titans" or the more serious fan-based "Star Wars: Clone Wars?" Way more "Teen Titans" than "Star Wars."

What will keep this from becoming just a giant merchandise advertisement for Hasbro? Everything that comes out now for kids, the largest consumer products property of all time I believe is "Lion King," has merchandise ties. It is just part of the business. If we can make really great characters and stories, the products become one of the successes of the property and not the only goal. There is not a big difference between Transformers and Batman. These are great characters that kids really love generation after generation. The only difference is Batman started off as a comic book character and Transformers started off as a toy.

- Joseph Szadkowski