Rescue
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| "Rescue" (Kaihou) "Rescue: Liberation" | ||||||
| Production code | TF: A-35 | |||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS | |||||
| Airdate | April 26, 2003 (English) 5 September 2003 (Japanese) | |||||
| Writer | Ryō Motohira | |||||
| Director | Ken'ichi Ishikura | |||||
| Animation studio | Actas Inc. | |||||
| Continuity | Unicron Trilogy | |||||
Autobots attack the Decepticon base on the Moon and make a discovery.
Synopsis
By himself, Demolishor grumpily cleans up the Decepticons' base after Starscream's rampage. Turning around, he is surprised to see Starscream standing right behind him, and he drops some of the items he was carrying on his own foot. He is then introduced to Starscream's new running crew: the Autobots. Naturally, Demolishor activates the alarm.
The Autobots and Decepticons meet in Megatron's throne room. Megatron fires the Requiem Blaster at Starscream, but Smokescreen blocks the shot with the Skyboom Shield. A bright light from the impact fills the room, blinding the Autobots long enough for Megatron to retreat, leaving his troops behind to finish the battle. The Autobots and Decepticons engage in battle with each other, with Side Swipe attempting to take on Tidal Wave on his own. While Starscream is blinded by his vengeance, Laserbeak and Hot Shot are assigned to locate Perceptor.
Perceptor plays Jerry, running away from Demolishor's Tom. When Demolishor backs Perceptor into a corner, Laserbeak flies into Demolishor's face just long enough to ruin the Decepticon's aim. While Demolishor stumbles about, Hot Shot arrives to punch him down. Perceptor runs ahead and finds himself in an encounter with Tidal Wave, and again Hot Shot comes to the Mini-Con's rescue. But because of Tidal Wave's power and size, Hot Shot has more difficulty taking the Decepticon down. Perceptor then leaves.
Perceptor finds all his captured Mini-Con brothers in a hidden underground facility, where they're being put to work to assemble a gigantic spaceship. Perceptor has some blippy dialogue with the other Mini-Cons, during which Megatron attacks. When Perceptor is grasped by the neck, the Mini-Cons begin one of their irregular chants, like the one played when the Requiem Blaster was first formed. The Mini-Cons all stop working on the space ship and surround an annoyed Megatron. When Megatron attempts to punish the insolent machines, Hot Shot attacks, covering the Mini-Cons' escape. Tidal Wave arrives just in time to watch Megatron and Hot Shot race out, but Smokescreen shows up to keep Tidal Wave company.
Side Swipe and Perceptor guide all the emancipated Mini-Cons through the Decepticons' warp gate to the Autobot base.
Megatron and Hot Shot continue to battle. Megatron is finally about to deactivate the Autobot, but Starscream slices Megatron's cannon off. Against both Hot Shot and Starscream, Megatron falls. With the Mini-Cons safe, Optimus Prime calls his forces to return to the Autobot base, but Starscream would rather stay to finish off Megatron. Starscream agrees to return with the Autobots, but is left feeling upset about it.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Mini-Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Boy, what a showoff! So who died and put Mr. Conehead in charge?"
"Stop your whining, Cyclonus."
- —Cyclonus and Tidal Wave
"This is the most beautiful sound I've ever heard in my life."
- —Alexis on hearing the Mini-Cons sing
"Thank you, Tidal Wave appreciates."
- —Tidal Wave after being helped out of a hole by Smokescreen.
Notes
Differences with Legends of the Microns
- After the Autobots enter the Decepticon base, Starscream reveals to Demolisher that he led them through the warp point, and Demolisher asks Starscream how he could betray the Decepticons. Armada has Demolisher stating the obvious about them coming through the warp gate.
- In Armada, Starscream makes the outlandish claim that Demolisher is the reason he changed sides; in Legends of the Microns, Starscream tells Demolisher they aren't comrades anymore so why wouldn't he join their enemies? After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
- Armada has Thrust suggesting that Megatron fall back with his men but Legends of the Microns has him telling only Megatron to escape.
- Armada gives Starscream an extra line before calling Megatron a coward, asking what kind of leader runs and leaves his soldiers to fight on their own.
- In Legends of the Microns, Carlos says that he didn't think the Decepticons would use the Requiem Blaster.
- As he leaps at Tidal Wave, Side Swipe says it's a move Hot Shot taught him. Then Scavenger calls him an idiot for getting carried away and tells him to take cover.
- Armada has Demolisher's line to Laserbeak said sooner.
- Alexis asks Perceptor if he's detected the Mini-Cons' signal but in Armada she tells Hot Shot that Perceptor will lead him to the captive Mini-Cons.
- Instead of Rad being frustrated about not being able to be of much help, he wonders where the Mini-Cons could be.
- Legends of the Microns has Hot Shot asking the kids if the data provided by Starscream could be useful, leading into Alexis explaining the base's unmatching blueprints better than how Armada handles it with Hot Shot instead asking how Starscream is doing.
- Tidal Wave praises the Street Action Mini-Con Team's speed when they split apart. Then Hot Shot calls Tidal Wave a slowpoke, and Tidal Wave shouts back that he's not.
- After Perceptor goes ahead, Armada makes Hot Shot's next line an internal monologue.
- Armada adds Alexis calling the boys over to look at the monitor.
- Before Perceptor calls to the Mini-Cons, the scene is silent in Legends of the Microns and Armada adds the kids saying they should inform Optimus.
- In Legends of the Microns, Megatron tells Perceptor the Mini-Cons are following his orders and claims to be impressed with Perceptor managing to make it this far. Armada has Megatron tell his Mini-Con slaves to keep up the good work and coldly welcoming Perceptor to his "hive of workers."
- When Perceptor loses his balance and falls, Armada adds Megatron's line saying he will pay for this.
- In Armada, Megatron telling Perceptor to scream is changed to telling him it's pointless for him to struggle.
- While the Mini-Cons sing, Megatron wonders why in Armada, though in Legends of the Microns he remembers the last time it happened in "Desperate," perfectly lining up with the flashback to Sky Blast.
- Optimus doesn't ask where the Mini-Con's chanting is coming from in Legends of the Microns.
- Instead of calling the Mini-Cons' song "the most beautiful thing she's ever heard," Alexis says it's like she is listening to their souls' voice.
- After using Leader-1 to give the Mini-Cons warning shots, Armada adds Megatron's line of him threatening to dispose of any Mini-Con that chooses to disobey him. Instead of challenging Megatron, Hot Shot expresses his outrage for Megatron firing at the Mini-Cons.
- Armada omits Thrust's line about needing to stop the Autobots.
- As he and Megatron fight outside, the shots from Hot Shot's gun are yellow in Armada but red in Legends of the Microns.
- Legends of the Microns extends the scene of Hot Shot at gunpoint by panning to the left to show Megatron. In its place, Armada cuts to the first-person shot of Megatron looking at Hot Shot before the pan-up shot of Megatron and repeating the previous POV shot.
- Instead of saying Megatron doesn't scare him anymore, Starscream announces himself to Megatron after saving Hot Shot. In Armada, Starscream declares to Megatron that he is now fighting evil, and Megatron says Starscream doesn't know what evil is. In Legends of the Microns, Starscream says he's waited a long time for this, and Megatron says he doesn't know what Starscream wants.
- Instead of a close-up of Hot Shot smiling, Legends of the Microns shows him and Starscream descending upon Megatron as he shoots at them. Then after they kick Megatron in the face, there's an added shot of Hot Shot, Starscream, and a falling Megatron, all in mid-air.
- While Megatron falls, he has Tidal Wave's Dark Fleet Armor components on his arms, and a slow-motion effect is added to the scene to extend it in Armada. These are corrected and removed in Legends of the Microns. Megatron is also silent as he falls in the Japanese dub.
- As Megatron gets up in Armada, Hot Shot asks Starscream if he heard something, and Starscream says it was probably the wind and tells Hot Shot to get going. Wind in outer space? In Legends of the Microns, Hot Shot addresses Starscream before the latter tells Hot Shot to go and says that he's staying behind.
- After Starscream initially refuses Optimus's command to retreat, Armada has Optimus giving Starscream an ultimatum: Show he's now an Autobot by retreating with the others or show his true colors by staying behind. Then Optimus gives Starscream a long lecture insisting him to choose between fighting with either the Autobots or Decepticons, which plays over the last couple minutes of the episode while showing the rescued Mini-Cons teleporting into the Autobot base. After that, Starscream yells that there isn't a right decision before walking out, with Optimus calmly telling him to take his time. Optimus doesn't say any of this in Legends of the Microns. Instead, he tells Starscream he's now an Autobot, and they should pull back now that they've saved the Mini-Cons. Legends of the Microns also stops Optimus' speech as soon as Starscream lowers the Star Saber, with the rest of the episode being silent, outside of Starscream declaring there was no victory in this mission.
Animation and technical errors
- After Demolishor pushes the alarm button, for a shot, the Star Saber is drawn in the distinct shape of Starscream's regular wing-blade. Corrected in Legends of the Microns.
- When Demolisher's lasers fire after Laserbeak attacks him, they suddenly turn yellow in Armada.
- As Megatrons grabs Perceptor, his hand is miscolored dark purple.
- Tidal Wave's size in robot mode is incredibly inconsistent from shot to shot, ranging from huge to only just larger than the other Decepticons (to fit indoors).
- When Smokescreen hits the stuck Tidal Wave, the latter is briefly miscolored.
- Lots of animation short-cuts are used to depict the Mini-Con hordes, including:
- Looped sequences, making it appear as though the same Mini-Cons are running past repeatedly.
- In one shot as Perceptor guides the Mini-Cons out of the construction facility, they're all depicted as horribly miscolored models of High Wire, Grindor, and Sureshock.
- In one shot of Mini-Cons teleporting into the Autobot base, most of them have the same upper body.
- In the shot following, Carlos and four Spirals are on-screen simultaneously.
- The scene of the three Mini-Cons arriving at the Autobot base recycles the background for the Decepticons' warp gate in Armada. This error is corrected in Legends of the Microns as the background of the Autobot's launch gate is used instead.
- When the Mini-Cons start to freak out, as Megatron and Hot Shot begin fighting each other, a black generic Mini-Con using Oval's model is missing his head.
- After Hot Shot sends Jolt after Megatron, he suddenly gets a gun that comes flying out of nowhere in the next scene. It appears again when he and Megatron continue their brawl outside but disappears in the following scene when Hot Shot is under fire from Megatron.
- In one scene, Starscream has purple miscolored spots on his arms.
- In the shot of Optimus, Starscream, and Hot Shot, Starscream's wings are miscolored.
Continuity notes
- The Skyboom Shield reappears for the first time since being knocked out of Optimus's hands in "Desperate".
- Scavenger, Blurr and Side Swipe are barely seen during the battle. Blurr, in particular, is only shown in a few panning shots of the Autobots firing.
- This episode shows more Mini-Cons than any other, which begs the question: where did the Decepticons gain all these Mini-Cons? The only logical reason is either off-screen collecting (which isn't uncommon) or they happen to be Mini-Cons that remained in the half of the Exodus that the Decepticons are currently using as a base.
- In the final clip in the Autobot base, an entirely original generic Mini-Con is shown (see left).
- Gadgets and weapons:
- Tidal wave fires lasers from his fist.
- The Mini-Con port in Smokescreen's hand is capable of firing lasers.
- Smokescreen also appears to Powerlinx with the Skyboom Shield using the port in his hand; something that can be replicated using the Mini-Con port on the back of Dirt Boss.
- Thrust uses Inferno's back cannon, something that the toy is capable of doing.
- Wheeljack dual wields his guns.
- Leader-1 is Powerlinxed on Megatron's left forearm.
- Jolt hands Hot Shot the double barreled blaster, something that hasn't been shown on-screen before. Usually the blaster is attached to Jolt's vehicle mode or it's in Hot Shot's hand, it's never been shown given to him before.
- Megatron uses his Full Blast Mode without Powerlinxing with Leader-1. Simultaneously, Megatron uses Leader-1 as a pistol.
Continuity errors
- Due to the recycling of animation models, some Autobot-aligned Mini-Cons are seen in Megatron's construction facility, most glaring examples being Mirage and Dirt Boss, two components of the Skyboom Shield. At one point, even Sonar can be seen in the crowd of Mini-Cons standing up to Megatron.
Transformers references
- Thrust is called a "conehead", a term occasionally used for group of Generation 1 Seekers his namesake was part of. Though in Legends of the Microns, his nickname is "Squidhead".
- Side Swipe is nicknamed "Swiper," a possible reference to Andrew Frankel.
Real-world references
- As he attacks Tidal Wave, Side Swipe says, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."
- Smokescreen says with his new armor that he keeps going and going, just like a certain pink, sandal-wearing, drumming bunny.
Trivia
- The kanji 救出 would be as "kyuushutsu," while "kaihou" would be used for 解放 in this context.
- The Cybertron colored generic of Oval is briefly seen again several times this episode.
- A Cybertron colored Spiral generic can also be seen briefly.
Foreign localization
German
- Title: "Die Befreiung der Mini-Cons" ("The Liberation of the Mini-Cons")
- Original airdate: This episode was never shown on TV, but was dubbed in 2003. The dub premiered in 2009 with the German DVD release of the show.
Hungarian
- Title: "Mentőakció, 1. rész" ("Rescue Mission, Part 1")
Korean
- Title: "마이크론 구출작전" ("Micron Rescue Operation")
Portuguese
- Title: "Salvamento" ("Salvage")
Home video releases
- DVD
2003 — Transformers: Legends of the Microns — Volume 9 (Columbia Music Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — Transformers: Armada — Battle for the Mini-Cons (Rhino Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers: Armada — Season One: Part Two (Rhino Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers: Armada — Volume Two (New KSM) — English and German audio.
2014 — Transformers: Armada — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
