New to these characters. I thought the whole point of Transformers is so they could turn into every-day machines and hide in plain sight.
Can someone explain the logic of turning into a machine/animal since it is neither an effective disguise nor particularly useful.
Transformers are aliens, they did not know human existed.
They transform into earth machines to disguise only when they came to earth, but that does not mean everyone of them has to, or wants to, or is even capable of.
Transformers are BULLSHIT, they were only ever made to sell toys. I'm glad no-one attempted to make kids' toys out of these CGI ABOMINATIONS!
In the original series, the Maximals and Predacons arrived to Ancient Earth. The Energon was active and thus they needed to copy the indigenous lifeforms for shielding and for transportation.
For the movie, there were no human machines to copy when they arrived in Antiquity. They had been on earth hiding for thousands of years.
I think their animal forms are "close enough" to provide a disguise in order to blend into their environment and not alert humans in general to their existence or to disturb real wildlife. However, I'm not sure how helpful the animal bots were in a South American jungle scenario - there are no gorillas, cheetahs or rhinoceroses in the wild there.
As to usefulness - a giant falcon can fly rapidly over long distances and lift some objects; a giant gorilla has immense strength and defensive ability; a rhinoceros high speed charging and defensive ability, and a cheetah is capable of high-speed travel on the ground.
In the original Beast Wars show, the Maximals and Predicons are nowhere as huge as they were in the movie. Cheetor in the show is the size of a cheetah and looks exactly like one, while is this crap ass movie, he's the size of a bus and is clearly a robot!
Also the Beast forms were mainly to protect their robot modes and traverse the environment easier.