Beast Wars: Transformers
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 "Well That's Just Prime."
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Beast Wars: Transformers (Also known as Beasties: Transformers in Canada) is a American and Canadian CGI animated animated science fiction drama series that aired during September 16, 1996 - March 7, 1999 on Fox Kids and Toonami in the U.S and YTV IN Canada, it serves as the fallow-up/sequel to 1984 animated show, The Transformers, is the second/penultimate installment of the G1-Era of the Transformers series and is the first/penultimate installment of the "Beast Era" of the "Generation 1 continuity" of the Transformers franchise.
Synopsis
Beast Wars opens at an unspecified time and place, where two warring factions of robots have crashed on a strange planet populated by animals like those on Earth. The planet abounds in mystery, with vast deposits of raw energon and evidence of alien activity. The Energon forces the newly arrived Transformers to take on protective beast forms to shield themselves from the ambient Energon radiation. And so begin the Beast Wars...
Though at first the show seemed to be in an entirely separate continuity, by the end of the first season's 26 episodes, viewers had been treated to a number of classical Transformers references, such as Unicron and even the reappearance of Starscream, last seen as a ghost in the third season of the original cartoon. These ties to the original story increased as the second season progressed and the planet was revealed as prehistoric Earth, the characters having been thrown back in time. The third season was entirely structured around the Maximals defending their dormant Autobot ancestors aboard the ancient crashed Ark.
Why It's Just Prime
- Even though it looks outdated, the CGI is fantastic and it's animated by Mainframe Entertainment the same company who also made ReBoot.
- The CGI also improved as the series carries on.
- After the disastrous failure of Generation 2, this show basically saved the franchise from dying.
- Great voice acting done by the Ocean Group, courtesy of Garry Chalk, Ian James Cortlett, Scott McNeil, And David Kaye.
- The tone of Beast Wars: Transformers is more light-hearted in tone, but unlike some other shows, it's done really well and despite that, still has it's far-share of dark moments that are really intense.
- Well though-out and memorable characters:
- Megatron is a very intimidating villain as unlike his G1 character of the same name his plans were to destroy the Autobots so the Maximals would never exist and Decepticon and Predacon's would rule the galaxy.
- Waspinator is a comic relief character done right. Everything about him is hilarious, down to him leaving the Predacons because of the misfortune he suffered.
- Optimus Primal is an interesting "leader" character because he tries to live up to the legacy of his ancestor: Optimus Prime.
- Rattrap, much like Waspinator, is also amother comic relive character done right.
- Dinobot's character arc is considered to be among the best in western animation, in no small part thanks to "Code of Hero", an episode to this day considered unmatched in Transformers history.
- Fast pace action scenes.
- Tones of call backs to the original G1 cartoon, such as the Season 1 episode "Possession" were Starscream as a ghost makes an appearance after his long absents since the G1 Season 3 episode "Ghost in the Machine" and in the three-part Season 2 finale "The Agenda" were all of the Autobots and their Ark make an appearance.
- Great soundtrack.
- The two-part series finale of Beast Wars: Transformers, Nemesis Part 1 and 2 was a good ending to the show.
Bad Qualities
- The CGI looks dated nowadays and really was flawed (More prominently during the first season).
- The show does have some toilet humor and inappropriate innuendos, and some of the comedy in seasons 2 and 3, while great, also felt out-of-place.
- The Japanese dub had a Kid Appeal comedic tone to it which didn't work well that much.
Reception and Legacy
When Beast Wars: Transformers was first announce, reception was at first, very polarizing and mixed, given the fact that the characters of Beast Wars: Transformers transform into animals and the overall light-hearted tone. But after the show first aired on September 16, 1996, Beast Wars: Transformers was a humongous successes, with fans phrasing the show for its animation, characters, soundtrack and the well-ballance tone, to this day, Beast Wars: Transformers is widely considered as one of the best Transformers shows of all time.
Trivia
- The reason why it is called Beasties in Canada is because the Canadian broadcaster YTV considered the original title to be too violent.
- This show spawn a very popular "Trukk not munky" meme.