Alliance Atlantis

The name or term "Alliance" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Alliance (disambiguation).

Bum-bum-bum!!

Alliance Atlantis was a Canadian media production and distribution company based in Toronto. Alliance Atlantis was created by the 1998 merger of production companies Atlantis Communications and Alliance Communications. The pre-merger Alliance was credited as a producer of the first season of Beast Wars, which was inherited by the new company for the later seasons. In addition to handling the national television distribution (and international TV distribution rights) of the series, Alliance also released several VHS tapes and DVDs of the series.

The first three tapes were released in cardboard sleeves under the name Alliance Video, both individually, and later on in a three pack. After the Alliance Atlantis merger, their next release, "Optimus Lives!", came in a plastic clamshell case.

Alliance's VHS releases are unique in that each episode does not have its own intro and ending. Instead, a single intro is used in which the Beast Wars logo is overlaid by a shinier version of itself with the title of the video below it. The credits are all shifted to the end of the tape, along with a brief set for the VHS itself, where they are run consecutively with the theme music looping in the background. No footage is added or removed to create links between the beginning of one episode and the end of the next.

Alliance Atlantis also released the first season of Beast Wars on dual-audio DVD in 2005, both as a box set and across four individual discs. The company was divvied up by Canwest Global Communications (since absorbed into Corus Entertainment) and GS Capital Partners in 2007. The distribution business, which included Beast Wars' broadcast rights, was then sold to Echo Bridge Entertainment, who went on to sell the kidvid portfolio the Beast Wars rights were part of to DHX Media (who just happened to be animating Rescue Bots from season 3 onwards). In a strange coincidence, the film production and distribution arm, which simply became known as Alliance Films (continuing to use a modified form of the final Alliance Atlantis logo and fanfare), was bought by Canadian media holding company entertainmentOne in 2013 (with eOne beginning to use the Alliance fanfare for their own logo).... which was then bought by Hasbro itself in 2019.

Releases

VHS

All four VHS tapes and the three pack were available in French and English.

English language

• Beast Wars — A Feature Length Beasties Adventure (1996)

Contains the episodes "Beast Wars (Part 1)", "Beast Wars (Part 2)", "Chain of Command", "Fallen Comrades" and "The Probe".

• Beast Wars — Beasties Escape (1998)

Contains the episodes "Double Jeopardy", "Gorilla Warfare", "A Better Mousetrap", "Dark Designs" and "Victory".

• Beast Wars — Warning from Space (1998)

Contains the episodes "The Spark", "The Trigger, Part 1", "The Trigger, Part 2", "Spider's Game" and "Possession".

• Beast Wars Three pack (1998)

Contains the three previous VHS releases.

• Beast Wars — Optimus Lives! (1998)

Contains the episodes "Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)", "Tangled Web", "Maximal, No More", "Other Visits (Part 1)" and "Other Visits (Part 2)".

• 
  A Feature Length Beasties Adventure
• 
  Beasties Escape!
• 
  Warning from Space
• 
  Three pack
• 
  Optimus Lives!

French language

• Robots-Bêtes — Une Adventure Cybernetique (1996)

Contains the episodes "Pilote 1", "Pilote 2", "Disparition", "Ami Venu du Ciel" and "La Sonde".

• Robots-Bêtes — L'Évasion (1998)

Contains the episodes "Double Danger", "Méchant Optimus", "Attrape Souris", "Sombre Modèle" and "Victoire".

• Robots-Bêtes — Alert Dans L'Espace (1998)

Contains the episodes "L'Étincelle", "Île Volante 1", "Île Volante 2", "Inferno" and "Possession".

• Robots-Bêtes Three pack (1998)

Contains the three previous VHS releases.

• Robots-Bêtes — L'Empreinte D'Optimus (1998)

Contains the episodes "Fuzors 2", "Toile d'Araignée", "Maximal en Danger", "Les Visiteurs 1" and "Les Visiteurs 2".

• 
  Une Adventure Cybernétique
• 
  L'évasion
• 
  Alerte Dans L'Espace
• 
  Three pack
• 
  L'Empreinte D'Optimus

DVD

• Beast Wars — Classic Episodes — Where the Beasties Began! (November 5, 2002)

Contains episodes 1-7: "Beast Wars (Part 1)" through to "Fallen Comrades".

• Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 2 — The Saga Continues! (November 5, 2002)

Contains episodes 8-14: "Double Jeopardy" through to "Double Dinobot".

• Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 3 — The Battle Rages On! (June 10, 2003)

Contains episodes 15-21: "The Spark" through to "Possession".

• Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 4 — The Predacons Advance! (June 10, 2003)

Contains episodes 22-26: "The Low Road" through to "Other Voices, Part 2".

• Beast Wars — The Complete First Season (May 10, 2005)

• 
  Classic Episodes
• 
  Volume 2
• 
  Volume 3
• 
  Volume 4
• 
  Complete First Season

External links

• Alliance Atlantis article at Wikipedia