The Immobilizer: Difference between revisions
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* No wonder the cops pull Bumblebee over. His entrance into traffic is ''terrible''; he swerves between lanes, and totally cuts off some poor driver. | * No wonder the cops pull Bumblebee over. His entrance into traffic is ''terrible''; he swerves between lanes, and totally cuts off some poor driver. | ||
*The Japanese dubbing of the episode had been edited to remove Skyfire (due to the fact that Takara were unsure about using Skyfire/Jetfire at the time because he was based off a Bandai toy), which is pretty obvious as there are jumps in the background music. Skyfire did eventually appear in the Japanese dub near the end of its run. | *The Japanese dubbing of the episode had been edited to remove Skyfire (due to the fact that Takara were unsure about using Skyfire/Jetfire at the time because he was based off a Bandai toy), which is pretty obvious as there are jumps in the background music. Skyfire did eventually appear in the Japanese dub near the end of its run. | ||
==Home video releases== | ==Home video releases== | ||
Revision as of 07:04, 21 June 2010
| This article is about the episode of The Transformers. For the titular invention, see Wheeljack Instant Immobilizer. |
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 "See? We can shoot him right in the nads!" "Television doesn't work that way, you doofus." | |||||||||
| "The Immobilizer" | |||||||||
| Production code | #700-21 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | September 24, 1985 | ||||||||
| Written by | Earl Kress | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
The Decepticons steal Wheeljack's latest invention, which immobilizes stuff, and Ironhide attempts to retrieve it.
- Japanese title: イモビライザー (Immobilizer)
- Brazilian title: O Imobilizador
Synopsis
At Autobot headquarters, Wheeljack gathers everyone around for a demonstration of his newest invention, the Wheeljack Instant Immobilizer. Walking in late, Ironhide sees Hound’s hologram of Laserbeak and, thinking it’s real, fires wildly at it, scattering the Autobots and nearly bringing down the roof. As Ironhide apologizes, Wheeljack reveals that the Immobilizer was damaged and needs a replacement polarizer. Bumblebee and Spike volunteer to go into town to retrieve it.
While on their mission, 'Bee and Spike stop for a few rounds of Robot Resource at the local arcade. A young woman named Carly introduces herself to the pair and admits her fondness for the "cute Autobot". A somewhat jealous and awkward Spike reminds Bumblebee that they need to leave, and the pair take off, only to be stopped a few moments later by a sarcastic policeman. As they are being busted for speeding, Ravage attacks Bumblebee and secretly plants a miniature video camera on the Autobot. Spike electrocutes Ravage with jumper cables, and the Decepticon retreats. The officer lets the pair go with a warning.
With the Immobilizer repaired, Wheeljack starts the demonstration again, unaware his every word is being caught by the microbug camera on Bumblebee and relayed to Starscream and Megatron. The Decepticons aren’t too keen on the idea of being permanently immobilized by the invention, and Megatron promises to steal it.
Optimus Prime decides to move the test outdoors for safety. As the Autobots approach the location, Prime directs Ironhide to guard the perimeter. The rest proceed toward a fast-moving river, which Wheeljack immobilizes with the device. In the commotion caused by the success of the test, Spike messes with the Immobilizer and is almost zapped, but Wheeljack throws him out of the way, takes the blast himself, and winds up stiff as a board.
Still patrolling the perimeter, Ironhide catches a glimpse of a shadowy figure and fires his weapon. He discovers that the figure was Carly, whom he scolds for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The distant sound of gunfire cuts their conversation short, and Ironhide rushes off. He reaches the clearing to find the Decepticons have the Autobots at gunpoint, and blames the ambush on himself.
Megatron demands that Prime hand over the Immobilizer, and a battle ensues. The device gets knocked about and winds up in Megatron's hands, but just as he starts issuing another threat, the river, on which he and the Decepticons are now standing, re-mobilizes and sweeps them downstream.
While undergoing repairs back at headquarters, Ironhide criticizes his performance in the field. Concluding that he’s too old to be of use, he resigns from active service, and nothing Ratchet or Prime says dissuades him. Carly blames herself for Ironhide's attitude and tries to convince him not to quit. Ironhide gives her a tour of the base, and she pockets a grenade when they visit the armory.
Some time later, Wheeljack unfreezes, and Spike notices that Carly is missing. Suspecting she’s emotional and going to do something rash ('cuz she is a girl), Spike and Bumblebee set out to look for her. Turns out he’s right. Carly has driven a boat out into the ocean and, using SCUBA gear, swims down to Decepticon headquarters to plant the stolen grenade on their outer wall. However, she’s detected by Soundwave, kidnapped by Laserbeak, and brought into the base to face Megatron’s judgment.
Luckily for Carly, her abduction was caught by the Sky Spy. Ironhide rushes off to find Spike and Bumblebee and start a rescue mission.
Back under the ocean, the grenade Carly planted earlier goes off, and seawater starts rushing into Decepticon headquarters. They manage to fix the damage and contain the water, except in the cell where Carly is being held. With disturbing glee, Megatron and the others watch Carly struggle as water fills the cell to the ceiling. Assuming she’s dead, they leave the cell unguarded. This lets Ironhide swim through the hole in the wall, grab the girl and bring her back to the surface.
After thanking Ironhide for the rescue, Carly rides off with Spike and Bumblebee, but when Ironhide doesn’t follow, they realize that he’s been immobilized. The Decepticons and Autobots square off, with Rumble in control of the Immobilizer and freezing most of the Autobot forces. Following a plan of Carly’s design, Brawn tunnels under the ground with her and Spike so they come up near the Immobilizer's position. As Jazz distracts the Decepticons with a sound and light show, Carly crosses some wires in the device and the trio escapes. When Rumble tries to immobilize Optimus Prime, the device starts to re-mobilize the frozen Autobots instead. Ironhide grabs the Immobilizer from Laserbeak, and when all the Autobots are unfrozen, he smashes the device. With his toy in pieces, Megatron swears to return, and the Decepticons retreat.
Back at headquarters, Ironhide asks to return to active duty, and Optimus heartily welcomes him back. Carly explains how she switched around the wires in the Immobilizer, since she does have a science scholarship at MIT. Confronted by both brains and beauty, Spike has no choice but to ask Carly on a date. Sparkplug watches them drive off and smiles in approval, despite the fact that his son is going out with a college student while he's too young to have a driver’s license.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
"We should vaporize those Autobot fools and fuse their carcasses into slag!"
- —So, Starscream, you're planning to, uh, fuse their vaporized carcasses? It'd be worth paying to see you attempt it.
"Give me the device now, Optimus Prime."
"Try and take it, Mega-turkey!"
- —Megatron and the oh-so-witty Trailbreaker
Optimus Prime: "You’re losing your warriors, Megatron."
Megatron: "Warriors are expendable! The most important thing is I get what I deserve! And I always do."
[The river unfreezes; the Decepticons fall in and are swept away]
Trailbreaker: "You deserved that, all right, Mega-jerk. Rust in peace!"
- —Megatron makes the mistake of tempting fate.
"This is where we store our ammo. Course, uh, we'd rather not have any of this stuff around. But until the Decepticons change, or we pacify 'em once and for all..."
"Someone should pacify those Decepticons...and their underwater headquarters."
- —Ironhide finds that Carly is a girl after his own heart
"The show’s over. Back to work."
- —A leering Megatron takes glee in Carly’s apparent drowning.
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- Gears's shoulders/torso is all blue as the Autobots gather around Wheeljack. Only his truck roof should be blue; the rest should be red.
- Wheeljack is missing the lines on his "ears" when they stop flashing during "a clever little creation I call..."
- Cliffjumper has a completely wrong voice as he asks what the Immobilizer does. It sounds like a professorial type or something. Same thing happened to him in "Changing Gears", too.
- Brawn is suddenly with the gathered Autobots as they duck from Ironhide's random firing, despite not being in any of the establishing shots of the group.
- Ironhide's arm is layered in front of Spike as Spike dusts himself off, making them appear the same size.
- Ironhide's helmet rim is partly light gray instead of red as Wheeljack speaks to him. The same error will recur throughout the episode.
- Bumblebee's arm is layered behind one of the onlookers in the arcade as he bows. Said onlooker and his buddies continue their huge-mouthed gaping long after the cheering has stopped.
- The background behind Bumblebee changes between shots; when he bows, there's just the Robot Resource game, but in the next shot, two consoles have appeared, neither of them Robot Resource.
- Carly's car is just sitting there half on the sidewalk. It's next to a fire hydrant that's almost as big as the car. And Robots Video Arcade apparently has a huge front door.
- Bumblebee has two random black rectangles on the back of his VW Bug mode as he transforms outside the arcade.
- Ravage's eye is randomly glowing white before he attacks Bumblebee. It could be an intentional effect to show emotion or recognition or something, but it's an odd choice.
- Some have claimed that Trailbreaker and Jazz are off-model as they help clean up the mess in Autobot Headquarters (too thin and too fat, respectively). Others find this claim to be rather dubious.
- When Wheeljack screws the polarizer on his new doohickey, his hand and lower arm pass through the polarizer. He also has random orange on his shoulders where there should only be white.
- Megatron appears to have an extra right forearm segment as he speaks his first line.
- Ravage's rear paws are light grey instead of black as he leaps to transform.
- Bits of Brawn's helmet are yellow instead of gray during the bizarre sequence of partial transformations.
- Jazz is off-model during his sequence a second later, with no fenders, no stripes, and an extra window.
- As Prime orders Ironhide to take the first watch, his headlights aren't colored in. In the background, a whole line of misshapen Autobot cars is driving past, including what looks like an off-model Cliffjumper colored entirely blue.
- Prime has a huge crotch as the camera pans down to Bumblebee.
- Missing Seeker insignias:
- In the first pan of the Decepticons surrounding the Autobots, Starscream's missing his wing insignia, and Soundwave's visor is white instead of red (and again when the shot is recycled after the first commercial break.)
- Starscream is missing his wing emblems as he falls over from Ironhide's goop.
- As he wanders into the trees, Starscream only has one of his wing insignia.
- Thundercracker only has one insignia as he climbs out of the river.
- Starscream has an all-yellow nosecone as he transforms to fly over the force field.
- As he dives at the Autobots, Starscream's air intakes are the same light gray as the rest of him, instead of red.
- Megatron has no transformation sound effect as he transforms to destroy the bouncer bomb.
- Prime's left exhaust stack disappears into thin air as he turns toward the falling tree. He also has a random white segment above his grille.
- Prime's thighs are red instead of silver as Trailbreaker makes his "rust in peace" gag.
- Trailbreaker's force field projector is missing as the Autobots prepare to return to base.
- Ironhide clips through the corner of the wall as he walks off to "retire".
- Bumblebee leaves base to look for Carly... then is shown in the very next shot with the Autobots gathered around Prime in the base.
- Prowl is shown rolling out, even though he hasn't been in a single shot so far.
- Improbable viewpoints:
- Sparkplug shows Ironhide a visual that's supposedly from the Sky Spy. Somehow, the orbital satellite shows a tracking pan view of Laserbeak that's right beside him -- below him, in fact. If the entire sequence is taken as Sky Spy's footage, Laserbeak flies within inches of Sky Spy's camera, as Carly's face fills the screen at one point.
- Ironhide's observation that Laserbeak has taken Carly is muffled as if it were coming over a radio transmission.
- Skywarp's arm laser, and Soundwave's head vents, are both white after Starscream gives the order to attack.
Continuity errors
- For his initial Immobilizer demonstration, Wheeljack asked Hound to project a hologram. Was he actually going to immobilize the hologram? How's that even possible?
- Spike suddenly has a wristwatch when he needs to check the time in the arcade. The watch is never seen before or after.
- Would Ironhide really have prevented the Decepticon sneak attack if he hadn't moved the hundred feet or so from his station? Couldn't the 'cons have just come from the other direction?
- Carly's another pressure-proof super human, just like Spike. She swims at least a few hundred feet underwater to Decepticon Headquarters with no pressurized diving equipment at all. At least the animators were kind enough to give her a wet suit!
- "It's a theory I've had ever since I accepted my science scholarship at MIT," says Carly about Wheeljack's immobilizer, which she just encountered for the first time like, earlier that same day. Did she accept the scholarship while imprisoned in Decepticon Headquarters?
Continuity notes
- This episode is Carly's introduction to the series.
- Gadgets and powers:
- Brawn uses the same tunneling drill he had in "The Ultimate Doom, Part 1".
- Ironhide has a jet pack that pretty much fills the back of his torso. That same space contained a missile launcher in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 3".
- Ironhide fires one of his liquids out of his totally-retracted wrist. It's a brownish-red stuff which appears to act like glue -- very different than the whitish glue stuff he fired from tri-barreled wrist weapons back in "Divide and Conquer".
- This episode marks the second time that Ratchet has threatened to shut Ironhide up by physically removing his ability to speak (the first was in More than Meets the Eye, Part 3). Yeesh, someone needs to work on their bedside manner.
- If this episode's dialogue is taken seriously, it would mean that Spike is at least 13-15 years old (depending on the particular state). This raises disturbing questions about why Sparkplug allows his son to date a woman who's old enough to at least be starting college. Then again, Sparkplug had Spike working on a remote oil platform in the middle of the ocean, so family dynamics within the Witwickys are certainly... unconventional, Carly also could be clever enough to have graduated high school early.
- < < What makes Starscream the leader? Megatron got shot and fell down! > >
Real-world references
- It was the 80s. Video arcades were the hot thing.
- Robot Resource uses sounds from Galaga.
- Carly is or will be a student at M.I.T.
- Spike describes a chocolate soda as "an emulsified CO2 with lactic acid".
Trivia
- Stores on the street: Vincenzo's Pizza, Rose Beauty Saloon, Meat, and Robots Video Arcade.
- Video games in the arcade: Pan!!, Oh!!, Chu, Ha Ha Ha, SFX, Hot, and Robot Resource.
- No wonder the cops pull Bumblebee over. His entrance into traffic is terrible; he swerves between lanes, and totally cuts off some poor driver.
- The Japanese dubbing of the episode had been edited to remove Skyfire (due to the fact that Takara were unsure about using Skyfire/Jetfire at the time because he was based off a Bandai toy), which is pretty obvious as there are jumps in the background music. Skyfire did eventually appear in the Japanese dub near the end of its run.
Home video releases
- Laserdisc
1994 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — The Transformers — Autobot Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Bumper Collection Special (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 03: Stagione Due Parte Prima (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
