Nature Calls

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"Nature Calls"
Season	1
No. in season	14
Production company	Cartoon Network Studios
Airdate	March 22, 2008
Written by	Todd Casey
Directed by	Heather Maxwell Bouakeo Thongkham Shunji Oga
Animation studio	The Answer Studio
Continuity	Animated cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

Prowl, Bumblebee, and Sari get more than they bargained for when they head out to the remote woods to investigate a mysterious energy signal.

Synopsis

The Constructicons have been smothered by lava before, but this is ridiculous.

Far outside of Detroit, a lone worker monitoring some oddly colored mining machines hears a strange noise. Alerted, he looks around, but returns to his drink... only to be attacked by something. The construction machines stop their work, and they too get attacked.

Outside Detroit, Prowl, in his alternate mode, looks on at the snow-covered city before a plow comes along and rather rudely covers him in snow. Transforming, he rises from the snow with a sad look on his face.

You'll be sorry when the wind changes.

When Prowl returns to the base, he goes on a rant about Nature's beauty and how humanity destroys it at every turn. Bumblebee and Sari are playing a video game, ignoring his vent. Prowl looks down on Bumblebee and asks if he was listening, where Bumblebee retorts by noting that Prowl is "electrical components" too, nudging his Autobot insignia to activate a hologram of Prowl. Optimus Prime interrupts the friendly banter by noting that there is a strange energy signature coming from the forest, and he sends Prowl and Bumblebee to investigate. Bumblebee is horrified at the idea at venturing into the tech-less wilderness, while Sari uses the opportunity to go camping with the two Autobots.

Nothin' says "unplug yourselves" like a little primitive camping.

The three of them head off into the woods, and Bumblebee laments unpaved roads, while Sari is excited, saying that they'll roast marshmallows, tell ghost stories and the like. When they prepare to proceed on foot, it's learned that Bumblebee brought a few entertainment devices... stored in a place that makes him a little ashamed. After finding a suitable camping site, Prowl sits quietly to commune with Nature while Bumblebee searches for an outlet to power his flatscreen TV. As campers, Sari and Bumblebee are miserable failures. They can't pitch a tent or get a fire going, and Sari is forced to admit that she's never been camping before, so Prowl does both within seconds. When Bumblebee commandeers Prowl's holographic imager to watch a movie, the ninja bot crushes Bumblebee's portable media player, much to the yellow bot's horror. Prowl 1, Bumblebee 0.

During the night, the trio is awoken by a crunching noise. Bumblebee cries monster. Prowl says it's a bear, which are hardly monsters. Lo and behold, a monstrous creature covered in purple tentacles and pink eyes does stomp out into the open and attack them. Bumblebee 1, Prowl 1. The creature absorbs Prowl's shurikens and holds its own against Bumblebee's stingers. What's more, Sari's AllSpark Key glows, indicating that the creature is Cybertronian in origin. Unable to fight it off, the trio retreat.

It just gets worse, Sari.

Losing the creature, Prowl tries to figure out what the creature was, despite Bumblebee's snide comments. They both determine the creature is made up of space barnacles, scourge of space-going vessels everywhere. Normally, barnacles drain power and act like computer viruses, but these barnacles appear to have been mutated by something and made more powerful. They decide to go back and destroy the barnacles, rather than risk the creature reaching Detroit and infecting other machines. Glowing in the direction of the Cybertronian energy, the AllSpark Key leads them to the mine shaft. When they're not looking, the creature drops a snowbank on them from above, sealing 'Bee and Sari inside.

Bumblebee's attempt to put his video game skills to use fails to extract himself and Sari from the cave, but Prowl uses a hologram to fool the creature into smashing the entrance open, allowing Bumblebee to use his stingers to fry the barnacles. However, Prowl's prolonged contact with the creature has infected him and taken over, turning him into a barnacle zombie. 'Bee and Sari make a run for it, but they know they can't go back to the city because the barnacles may spread. They backtrack, hoping to lure Prowl to the mine and seal him inside, but end up sealing themselves inside too.

Ve vant to suck your energon.

Now trapped, 'Bee and Sari seal themselves in a furnace room, and Sari hatches a plan to heat up water from a fire hose to scorch the barnacles off Prowl. However, Prowl's touch has infected Bumblebee as well. Sari tries to use the AllSpark Key on the furnace machinery, but it doesn't work (for once). She manages to light the furnace by scratching a spark (not that kind of spark) from the Key instead. The furnace heats the water, and Sari sprays her two friends, boiling off the barnacles. The two Autobots are restored, and the three return to the plant to recount their harrowing tale to Prime.

FINALLY! I can resurrect the most ruthless warlord in the galaxy and damn my planet to untold suffering and horror! GO ME!!

Back in the woods, Professor Sumdac arrives in a truck and finds the Cybertronian machinery that was formerly coated by the barnacles, machinery that bears the Decepticon insignia. Sumdac comments that he's finally found what he's been looking for several years, and that Megatron will be pleased with his discovery. What, oh what, could it be?

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Prowl (2) Bumblebee (4) Optimus Prime (5)	Megatron's body (6)	Sparkplug (1) Sari Sumdac (3) Isaac Sumdac (7)

Quotes

"Please show where you hid the equipment on this action figure."

Bumblebee: At least I can get this junk out of me. I was feeling kinda bloated.
[Electronic devices suddenly fall out of him, Prowl gives him a look]
Bumblebee: What? You said to pack the bare essentials!
Prowl: Since when are surround-sound speakers, a strobe light, and a hand-held media player "bare essentials?"
Bumblebee: You should've seen what I left back at the plant.
Prowl: Where did you even find room for all of this junk?
[Bumblebee taps his fingers uncomfortably]
Bumblebee: I'd... rather not say.

—Bumblebee and Prowl's conversation takes a decidedly uncomfortable turn.

"First we must determine this creature's intentions."
[Creature knocks Prowl aside without provocation]
"I'm gonna go with 'hostile'."

—Prowl and Bumblebee meet the monster.

Bumblebee: Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!
[Creature swipes at Bumblebee and Sari]
Bumblebee: Okay. Maybe we're a little unclear on the concept of "your own size".
Sari: Maybe you should stop talking logic to a creature that has no head!

—Bumblebee and Sari debate whether or not to open negotiations with the monster.

"What did I tell you about camping? Monsters. TV is always right."
"So, wait. Monsters are real? Tutor Bot is such a liar!"

—Bumblebee's faith in television is reinforced, while Sari Sumdac's faith in Tutor Bot is shattered.

"Attention, barnacle monster! Come out with your hands over your...well, you don't have a head. But you get the idea."

—Bumblebee instructs the creature to surrender.

"Look where nature got you: Barnacles! Luckily we can depend on good old Mother Technology. Right, Prowl?"

—Bumblebee may have spoken too soon.

"Your tire tracks!"
"So I messed up the pretty white woods! You sound just like Prowl!"
"No! We can follow them back to the mine and lure Prowl into it then seal him inside!"

—Sari and Bumblebee discuss the finer points of screwing with the scenery.

Sari: And then, they were back to normal, like nothing ever happened. Meanwhile, I'm stuck riding home with no dry clothes and an Autobot whose car mode doesn't have a heater!
[Sari sneezes]
Optimus: You showed a lot of courage and ingenuity, Sari. And hopefully, you'll stop...backfiring soon.
Sari: Hel-lo, it's called "sneezing".
[Sari sneezes, then blows her nose]
Bumblebee: I don't even wanna know what that's called.

—The Autobots discover the concept of the common cold.

Prowl: Surely you don't blame all of nature for a few space barnacles?
Bumblebee: You don't see my game player turning everyone into zombies, do you?!
Prowl: Actually...

— Prowl and Bumblebee have different points of view on nature and video games.

"Megatron will be so surprised!"

—Isaac Sumdac, cheerfully dooming us all.

Notes

Transformers references

They're so neon.

• The construction drones are green and purple. Foreshadowing much?
• Megatron's body ends up in the deep freeze.

This kind of stuff never happened in Burma...

• The construction worker looks very familiar. (He's only credited as "Worker" and is voiced by Jeff Glen Bennett.)

Real-world references

• Bumblebee and Sari play their racing game on a console shaped very much like an Xbox with a purple and gray palette swap.
• There are actually barnacles not from space. Neat, huh?

Continuity errors

• When Bumblebee and Sari are playing a video game, Sari says "jump! jump!", and when Prowl shuts the game off, Bumblebee notes that he was on level 230... how this is possible when they play a racing game, nobody knows...
• If space barnacles are killed by heat, how did any survive atmospheric entry?
• Megatron's body clearly has the Decepticon emblem on it, and Isaac Sumdac... doesn't appear to notice, even though he should have noticed the differences between Autobot and Decepticons. Then again, he never noticed Megatron's eyes being red while all the Autobots have blue ones.
• The woods look nothing like what exists just outside of Detroit. Detroit is mostly surrounded by developed suburbs for miles in all directions and, even if we accept the idea that Detroit has since absorbed all of those suburbs, most of the Lower Peninsula has long since been developed into farmland, with only the northern tip. Also, the Lower Peninsula of Michigan (and the Upper Peninsula, too) is mostly flat, with no mountains or cliffs of the towering height seen in the background of this episode.

Trivia

• If those space barnacles came from the Autobots ship and latched onto Megatron's body before it hit reentry, what were they doing for the past fifty years?
• The construction worker somehow survived being attacked by the space barnacle.
• What use could Bumblebee (and possibly Sari) have for a strobe light?
• Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Megatron ('s head), while mentioned, make no appearances in this episode.
• Tutor Bot is mentioned, and is in the voice credits for the episode, but does not actually appear.
• ...space barnacles?
• Why didn't Sari get scalded by hot water when she soaked Prowl and 'Bee? Maybe it's because she's part robot?
• This episode was adapted in comic book format using screen captures as half of "Transformers Animated Volume 6", with "Headmaster" making up the other half.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Dans les bois" ("In the Woods")
• Original airdate: 20 September 2008

• Space barnacles are called "Space cleats". Consequently, Sari's phrase "Barnacles? You mean those gross things that attach to boats?" is dubbed by "Cleats? You mean those iron things you put under soccer shoes?".
• Instead of Medieval Maze Monsters, Bumblebee says that he spent hours playing Dédales & Dragons ("Mazes & Dragons"), an obvious reference to Dungeons & Dragons.

German

• Title: "Der Ruf der Natur" ("The Call of Nature")
• Original airdate: 10 July 2008

Italian

• Title: "Il Richiamo della Natura" ("The Call of Nature")
• Original airdate: 27 December 2008

Polish

• Title: "Zew natury" ("The Call of Nature")
• Original airdate:

Spanish (Latin America)

• Title: "El llamado de la naturaleza" ("The Call of Nature")
• Original airdate: 23 August 2008

Japanese

• Title: "Shi o Yobu Uchū Kaibutsu!" (死を呼ぶ宇宙怪物!, "The Space Monster That Invokes Death!")
• Release date: 5 November 2010 (home video)

• For whatever reasons, this episode never aired in Japan, but is included in the Transformers Animated Vol. 4 DVD as episode 14.

Portuguese

• Title: "Chamado da Natureza" ("Call of Nature")
• Original airdate: ???

Home video releases

DVD

2008 — Transformers Animated — Season One (Paramount) — English and Spanish audio.
2009 — Transformers Animated — Volume Three: Megatron Rising (Paramount) — English and German audio.
2009 — Transformers Animated — Volume Three: Megatron Rising (Paramount) — English and German audio.
2009 — Transformers Animated — Volume Drei: Megatrons Auferstehung (Paramount) — English and German audio.
2010 — Transformers Animated — Vol. 4 (Paramount) — Japanese audio only.
2013 — Transformers Animated — Season One (Madman Entertainment)
2014 — Transformers Animated — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)