More than Meets the Eye, Part 2: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 16:13, 26 June 2010
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 Oil is a burnin' thing, and it makes a fiery ring. | |||||||||
| "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2" | |||||||||
| Production code | 4024 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | September 18, 1984 | ||||||||
| Written by | George Arthur Bloom | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Toei | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
| Packaged with | Optimus Prime | ||||||||
The Decepticons continue raiding Earth's energy sources, including Sherman Dam and the Ruby Crystal Mines of Burma.
- Japanese title: ルビークリスタルの秘密 (Ruby Crystal no Himitsu, "Secret of the Ruby Crystals")
- German Generation 2 title: "Die Rückkehr" ("The Return")
- Brasilian title: Mais do Que Os Olhos Veem Parte 2 ("More than Meets the Eye part 2")
Synopsis
"No."
"Oops, sorry, my bad." [Throws him back in the water]
The fire at the off-shore oil rig continues to grow. Poor Huffer is caught in some girders, but is freed by Brawn. Not so easy to extricate are the humans Spike and Sparkplug Witwicky. As Optimus Prime grapples with the debris trapping the workers, Trailbreaker and Wheeljack put out the fire. Rescued by Prime, Spike and Sparkplug introduce themselves to the Autobots, offering their terrestrial knowledge to help them.
Their newfound human friends return with the Autobots to their headquarters. As Spike explores the Ark, he finds a small cassette player and brings it in with him, setting it aside. Little does he realize he has brought Soundwave into Autobot Headquarters. Soundwave and his minion Ravage begin using Teletraan I to locate Earth's most plentiful energy resources. Meanwhile Spike enjoys a tour of the headquarters and some sunset joyriding with Hound. Returning to the base, Spike spots Soundwave's intrusion and sounds the alarm. Soundwave escapes, but the Autobots catch Ravage, thanks to Gears' infrared light.
Soundwave briefs Megatron on his findings. Megatron decides to attack Sherman Dam, causing a tidal wave to increase the dam's output. The next day, the Decepticons arrive at the dam. Rumble dives into the river and activates his piledrivers to whip the river into dangerous rapids. The energy output is detected by Teletraan I, and the Autobots rush there to stop the Decepticons.
With the river at its peak, the Decepticons begin producing energon cubes. The Autobots arrive, and a battle ensues. Hound dives into the river to stop Rumble's quaking, and the two scuffle in the depths, with the Autobot coming off worse. Ironhide and Bumblebee help divert the course of the river to save a nearby neighborhood from being flooded. Megatron and Optimus Prime duel with energy melee weapons atop Sherman Dam while exchanging insults. Megatron knocks Prime into the rapids (the latter was distracted by Spike's shouts for help) and he and his Decepticons escape with their spoils.
Jazz helps pull Prime from the river. The Autobots regroup and vow to stop the Decepticons as they continue their activities across the land... but apparently don't do a very good job of it at all. The space cruiser they are developing is almost complete, and they are one more energy raid away from having enough fuel to return to Cybertron. Unfortunately, the impudent Starscream feels the need to test some of the energon cubes. His wasteful experimenting forces the Decepticons to now make two trips. Their first destination, the Ruby Crystal Mines of Burma. These plans are overheard by Trailbreaker, Spike and Sparkplug, who are eavesdropping on the Decepticons.
As Trailbreaker returns to Autobot headquarters to relay the news, the trio are attacked by a pair of generic Seekers. Sparkplug radios for help, which comes in the form of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Sunstreaker uses a vehicle-mode cannon to give one of the Seekers a small scratch on its wing, prompting the two jets to retreat.
The Decepticons are soon in Burma, pulling energetic rubies from the Earth's crust. The Autobots wait for them outside the mine. Wheeljack has developed a powerful and compact explosive. Bumblebee and Sparkplug volunteer to plant the charge in the mine. They do so, but are caught by Thundercracker and Skywarp as they make their escape.
Concerned that Sparkplug and Bumblebee haven't returned, Optimus Prime drives up the mine's entrance and dispatches Roller into the mine. The explosive detonates, and the blast knocks Prime off his wheels, sending him tumbling down the mountainside.
Featured characters
{{featuredcharacters |c1=
- Huffer (1)
- Brawn (2)
- Optimus Prime (3)
- Trailbreaker (6)
- Wheeljack (7)
- Jazz (8)
- Ratchet (10)
- Sunstreaker (11)
- Cliffjumper (12)
- Mirage (13)
- Hound (14)
- Bumblebee (16)
- Sideswipe (17)
- Gears (18)
- Prowl (19)
- Windcharger (20)
- Ironhide (27)
- Bluestreak (28)
- Roller (29)
- [[Detritus(Generic desert hound) ( 1)
|c2=
- Soundwave (9)
- Ravage (15)
- Thundercracker (21)
- Megatron (22)
- Starscream (23)
- Skywarp (24)
- Reflector (25)
- Rumble (26)
|c3=
- Spike Witwicky (4)
- Sparkplug Witwicky (5)
}}
Quotes
"For someone who doesn't like to fight, heh, you're not bad, Mirage!"
- —Cliffjumper complimenting Mirage after he helped fight off Skywarp and Thundercracker
"You destroy everything you touch, Megatron!"
"Because everything I touch is food for my hunger, my hunger for power!"
- —Optimus Prime and Megatron banter while fighting on top of Sherman Dam
"You're old, Megatron. Yesterday's model—ready for the scrap heap!"
"We'll see who's ready for the scrap heap!"
"Junk! That's what you are, junk!"
"Silence!"
- —Optimus Prime insults Megatron during their battle
"Don't push me, Megatron, my desire for power is as great as yours!"
"Power flows to the one who knows how. Desire alone is not enough."
"Time makes all things possible. I can wait."
- —Starscream and Megatron, foreshadowing several repetitive scenes in the future
"Let's give Megatron a little present."
"Heh. Maybe we oughtta wrap him up and put a little bow on him."
- —Skywarp and Thundercracker on capturing Bumblebee. Not seen: Bumblebee's humiliated weeping.
Notes
Non-final premises
As part of the series pilot, this episode features some conventions and details which would be changed for the series proper:
- The Autobots can all fly in robot mode.
- Corey Burton employs a different voice for Brawn, one that is higher and more hoarse-sounding than the "correct" version that will appear in later episodes. The same voice pops up again in "A Plague of Insecticons" (after Skyfire catches a falling Brawn).
- Mirage gets a different sound effect for his disappearing abilities (which would actually be used again in "The Ultimate Doom, Part 3".
- Wheeljack acquires a bit of southern accent in the third act of this episode. Oddly, he already had his finalized voice in the previous episode, and indeed, shows no real signs of the accent in his sparing lines during this episode's first two acts. Consequently, fans have speculated that voice actor Chris Latta was trying to differentiate the voice from his Sparkplug voice, as they are pretty identical, and he only begins to affect the accent when Wheeljack and Sparkplug share a scene.
- The "next time" preview refers to the three episodes collectively as "The Transformers". They would later be rechristened "More Than Meets the Eye" (obviously!)
Animation or technical glitches
- In the recap of "Part 1" at the beginning of the episode, a scene is shown in which Optimus Prime is trying to lift a grate trapping Spike and Sparkplug. However, in "Part 1", the grate was orange, while in the recap that same grate is shown as gray.
- Huffer's trapped arm does not appear to actually connect to his torso.
- As Huffer and Brawn converse, Brawn's lips move for Huffer's line, "Let's take off."
- Prime's running lights are drawn as rectangular instead of round as he explains the Decepticons to Spike and Sparkplug.
- After picking up Soundwave, Spike runs into the Ark carrying his rucksack slung over his shoulder. In the next shot, the rucksack has vanished.
- Soundwave's eject button is one of the most common coloring errors of the whole series. Based on his toy, it's supposed to be white in the cartoon, but almost as often as not, the colorists simply colored it the same blue as the rest of him:
- Soundwave's eject button and cheek guards are both blue instead of white as he returns to robot mode.
- Blue button as he swipes at Spike.
- And after he plays back the Sherman Dam info.
- And as Megatron pontificates about the ruby crystals. (Cheek guards too.)
- Brawn's helmet is a bit too light as he watches Soundwave retreat.
- As the Autobots try to capture Ravage, several voices don't correspond to any actual Autobots.
- When Gears transforms, his blue parts change to red, leaving him as an all-red truck.
- Gears and Hound are also extremely tiny in their vehicle modes in the next shot, as a titanic Optimus Prime walks up behind them.
- Soundwave is missing all his yellow stripes as he plays back Teletraan I's info on Sherman Dam.
- When arriving at the dam, Optimus Prime speaks the line "We've got to work fast", but Prowl is shown talking.
- One of the neighbors that Ironhide and Bumblebee rescue appears to be a woman in a pink dress...who is waving and moving as a man's voice says, "Thanks, neighbor!"
- When Optimus orders his troops to head to the power plant, he has a gray eyeband instead of two blue optics.
- As the Autobots blast into the power plant, they shoot down both Starscream and a Reflector colored like Starscream.
- As Starscream prepares his strange slingshot thing, one of his wing stripes becomes transparent. His wings are also mounted much higher on his back than normal.
- As Soundwave and the Reflectors fill energon cubes in a grassy meadow, there is a registration error that causes Soundwave's lower half to vanish several frames before the foreground content is meant to block it.
- The second purple jet to leave the Black Diamond mine does so alone, but when he drifts back into the shot, he's got a Rumble and a Reflector with him.
- Soundwave's visor switches from white to red and back as he and Megatron ride the elevator.
- Both he and Megatron are missing their insignia as they elevator reaches the bottom.
- While the Reflectors are stacking energon cubes, the energon cubes are translucent enough to see the background (and to see that the Reflectors' legs weren't animated).
- Starscream's leg is disconnected from his body as he fires his cannon.
- Starscream's collar is yellow as he asks "What's the difference?"
- Half of Starscream's collar is yellow again during "I can wait".
- The microphone that Sparkplug uses to radio the Autobots changes appearance between shots; it looks like a microphone in closeup, but more like a Simon toy when Sparkplug is holding it.
- One gun, many lasers:
- The two generics who attack Trailbreaker shower him with a dozen or more lasers, despite having only two guns apiece.
- After Sunstreaker shoots one of the generics and Spike's comment, Sideswipe's shown to have a weapon in the same place as Sunstreaker's, with smoke pouring from the end.
- The ends of the ruby collection tubes are closed like test tubes, leaving the falling crystals nowhere to go.
- Prime's right antenna disappears as he points at the mine entrance.
- In the establishing shot of the Autobots outside the Burma ruby mines, Ratchet's head is black and gray. When the shot is repeated, Bluestreak's head is yellow, making his head resemble Bumblebee's.
- Only the front of Wheeljack's "ears" flash as he shows off his new explosive.
- Sideswipe's helmet is red instead of black as Bumblebee transforms in front of him.
- Starscream's face is white instead of gray as Bumblebee and Spike spy on the 'cons.
- As Thundercracker faces Sparkplug, his wing insignia are rendered as purple rectangles. As he joins Skywarp to double-team Bumblebee, they're missing completely.
- Jazz's helmet and hand are mostly white instead of black as he worries about Bumblebee.
Continuity errors
"Uh...for a...good...time...call..."
"Whoops! Wrong screen!"
- Brawn uses a blow torch to free Huffer's oil-soaked arm, and somehow, it doesn't catch fire.
- For some reason, Sunstreaker and Cliffjumper are just sitting around in the repair bay in automotive form.
- This episode totally shatters the previous episode's consistent cast of Decepticons, which was clearly shown to be Megs, Soundwave, 3 jets, 3 Reflectors, and 3 tapes. To pad out the Decepticon ranks, a horde of generic Decepticons just starts appearing out of nowhere:
- A light purple-gray jet is standing behind Thundercracker after the Decepticons land at the dam.
- As Reflector compresses the energon cubes, there are four Reflector robots, as well as three Rumbles. The real Rumble is, at this point, still underwater, fighting with Hound. Rumble shows up in two more subsequent shots as well, including one where he's the only guy in the shot!
- And then it all goes to hell after the Sherman Dam sequence. Two purplish jets are with Thundercracker in the snow. Then a subsequent pan shot shows four light blue jets, three light purple jets, and two Thundercrackers.
- At the Black Diamond mine: three purple jets, and a slate blue Rumble.
- The assembled strike force: two Skywarps, two Thundercrackers, four Rumbles in yellow, orange, bright blue and slate blue, and seven Reflectors.
- Two lavender and one slate blue jet answer Megatron's order to "Scramble!"
- A shot of the Decepticons in flight shows a total of twenty-seven robots.
- Two generics even get their own scripted appearance, attacking Trailbreaker, complete with speaking parts!
- After all that, there's not much point in noting 2 blues and 2 lavenders loading ruby crystals, is there?
- 6 generic jets plus Starscream as Bumblebee and Spike observe the 'cons mining the crystals.
- Megatron's definition of "tidal wave" is a bit wonky, considering that Rumble doesn't really make one huge wave. Of course, we wouldn't expect aliens to have a perfect grasp of the English language.
- When Spike tells Jazz that there's trouble at Sherman Dam, the screen shows what is presumably Cybertronian text. Spike shouldn't be able to read this.
- Likewise, the dam worker says "she's gonna blow" (twice!) in reference to the crumbling dam. The dam might crack, fail, or give way, but neither the dam nor the generators are likely to explode.
- Superhuman Spike:
- A shot of Sherman Dam shows us that the water behind it (where Rumble is making his earthquake) is clearly hundreds of feet deep. Somehow, Spike just leaps right into it to rescue Hound. The water is also ragingly turbulent in the previous shot, yet perfectly still once Spike is actually in it.
- He then has no trouble at all moving a big boulder that's pinning Hound in place.
- It must be hereditary. Sparkplug survives being punched directly in the ribcage and into a stone wall by Thundercracker. He should be wall-pizza after that.
- Why does Megatron yell to his troops to "Follow me!" when he's getting bashed around by Prime?
- One of the shots of filling energon cubes appears to take place in a forest, with no machinery of any type in sight. Are they stealing energy from trees?
- A few shots from Starscream's little cannon drain a whole gigantic stack of energon cubes. Are the cubes really that paltry?
- The likelihood of rubies being a viable power source, let alone "the richest source of energy on the face of the Earth", is questionable. Apparently Megatron is not yet familiar with the bizarre physics of cartoon Earth, where all kinds of super-powered crystals are just sitting around waiting for someone to sap energy out of them.
- Sparkplug claims to have previously worked in the ruby mine, which, while not thoroughly implausible, seems unlikely for an American oil rig worker/mechanic.
- Wheeljack tells Sparkplug that the bomb timer is 60 seconds. All the views of the countdown timer show it decreasing at approximately two units per second, meaning that the bomb would go off in about 30 seconds.
Rhino DVD release
- Hound is part of the group that leaps into the air. However, in the next shot, Hound is on the ground by the river with Spike.
Continuity notes
- Gadgets and powers:
- Brawn uses a retractable welding tip to cut Huffer free. This same hooked welding tip seems to be fairly standard Autobot equipment, showing up in many future episodes, attached to many different 'bots.
- Trailbreaker's "force shield" is fired from a three-pronged wrist-gun.
- Wheeljack can shoot a fire extinguishing chemical of some sort from his retracted wrist.
- Jazz uses a retractable grappling hook that slides out of his wrist (with a little pulse-glow of energy, no less.) This gadget will show up a couple more times in this and the next episode.
- Soundwave gives us the most overt instance of size-changing we've yet seen.
- A couple of stock powers make their debut, as Hound demonstrates his holograms and Mirage turns invisible.
- Gears displays his infrared. Well, actually, it's just a red light. Don't tell anyone.
- Jazz and Prowl can both fire energy-net things out of their wrists. Prowl will repeat this ability in "Attack of the Autobots".
- "The
noalnull ray" actually does what it's supposed to this time, shutting down some generators when Starscream shoots them with it. - When Hound submerges to pursue Rumble, he drops a face shield into place, implying he may be susceptible to water.
- Ironhide has a mounted cannon in the back of his van. It's heavily based on the similar cannon that his toy's repair bay has.
- In one of the series' most inexplicably well-remembered scenes, Megatron and Optimus both deploy glowing, semi-solid energy weapons from their wrists: a morning star and an axe, respectively.
- Trailbreaker can deploy a roof-mounted radar dish to listen in remotely on the 'cons.
- Early in the episode, the scene is shown changing from the Ark to a similar-looking shack nearby. This shack appears to have the same construction as the Ark itself, but is not a part of the ship. It is almost never seen again, except in the episodes "The Ultimate Doom, Part 2" and "The Autobot Run".
- As he returns to tape mode to enter Teletraan I, Ravage's missiles disappear in a glowing flash.
- According to Starscream, 1,750,000 KiloWatts is not enough electrical power to make energon cubes!
- The script that Teletraan I displays differs significantly from the Ancient Autobot language the Decepticons find in "Cosmic Rust". It's also rather different from the Ancient Cybertronian that Cerebros finds on the control panel of the Plasma Energy Chamber in "The Rebirth, Part 1". One might reasonably fanwank it by saying that Jazz is reading the modern version of these languages.
- Optimus deploys Roller for the first time. He's gray, based on an earlier iteration of the toy, rather than the blue of the US release.
Real-world references
- Burma is a country in southeast Asia, currently known to the United Nations as Myanmar. It is, indeed, particularly rich in rubies, and is the source of 90% of the world's supply of the gems.
Japanese version
- Cut: After Spike picks up Soundwave outside and runs off, a few seconds are shaved off of him disappearing off screen. The long shot of him running through the entrace of the Ark is cut, as are the first few seconds of him running down the hall of the Ark with Soundwave clutched in his right hand.
Trivia
- The dam sequence was adapted for the UK comic story "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" in issues #29-30, and also released as a set of View-Master reels. The weapons used by Prime and Megatron would be immortalized in toy form several times, and even get a bit of an homage in the live-action movies, where Prime twice wields orange-glowing bladed energy weapons.
- Much of the character animation in this episode is pleasingly fluid, with some rather dynamic transformations. Decepticons in particular do lots of flips as they transform.
- Bumblebee's mission is hilarious. He transforms to car mode, drives about twenty feet, returns to robot mode, stands outside the mine and says "Come on, let's go inside." Well, what else where you planning there, 'Bee?
Home video releases
- VHS
1985 — The Transformers — Volume 1: "More than Meets the Eye" (Family Home Entertainment)
1986 — The Transformers — Arrival from Cybertron (A.M.T. Video Gems)
1988 — The Transformers — Arrival from Cybertron (V.I.P. Video Gems)
1991 — The Transformers — Arrival from Cybertron (Little Gems Junior Video Club)
1999 — The Transformers: Generation 2 — More than Meets the Eye (Seville Entertainment)
2001 — The Original Transformers — Exclusively from Blockbuster (Rhino Entertainment)
- 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 — Transformers: Generation 2 (Sony Wonder)
2002 — Transformers — Original Series: Volume Two (Sony Wonder)
2002 — Transformers — Complete Original Series: Deluxe Edition (Sony Wonder)
2002 — The Original Transformers — First Season Collector's Edition (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Volume One (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Collection 1: Series 1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 1 (Metrodome)
2006 — The Best of The Transformers (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — Transformers — The Classic Episodes (Metrodome)
2007 — Classic Transformers — Series One: Part One (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 01: Stagione Uno Parte Prima (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete First Season: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — More than Meets the Eye (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
