[Ash from Carolina]

In Transformers Prime Starscream, Soundwave, Ratchet and Arcee don't look anything like their movie counterparts so I don't think it's an arrangement for it being a movie series just because Prime and Bumblebee share some design elements with the movie counterparts.

Plus I think there was some interview with the writers or producers somewhere that they said they wanted the writing to be something like Beast Wars.

So it's a show that is mix of all sorts of things thrown together into one series. I mean heck Bulkhead is from Animated so you can't say the show is only influenced from one source.