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Beast Wars: Transformers (franchise)
| This article is about the real-world franchise. For the historical event within the fiction, see Beast Wars (event). For a list of other meanings, see Beast Wars (disambiguation). |
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Beast Wars is a Transformers franchise that began in 1996, following the end of Generation 2. It was a massive reinvention of the brand, featuring robots that changed into realistic, organically styled animals instead of the traditional vehicles or and mechanical beasts. The accompanying cartoon was another visual break, being the first fully-CGI Transformers series. It also did the seemingly unthinkable and replaced the original two factions, the Autobots and Decepticons, with the Maximals and the Predacons. Though originally decried by fans, Beast Wars dramatically reinvigorated the brand, the sales of which had been flagging under the Generation 2 franchise.
"Beast Wars" is also frequently used as a catchall term for the Beast Era in which Beast Wars and other series occur.
The Beast Wars franchise features the following primary components:
- A toyline — (1996–2001)
- A cartoon series — (1996–1999) called Beasties in many Canadian markets to appear less violent (Ha!).
- A video game for PC and PlayStation based on the first season of the cartoon.
- A video game for the Nintendo 64 based on the Transmetal and Fuzor versions of the characters from the cartoon's second season (and some from the toyline).
- A video game for the PlayStation, with the same name and general concept as the N64 game, but significant differences.
- Several comic series that were produced both during and after the franchise's original run.
A dramatic change
Talk more about the changes and decisions made from the end of G2 to BW
The major change in direction for Transformers followed organizational changes within Hasbro. Hasbro had acquired rival toy manufacturer Kenner as part of their 1991 Tonka acquisition,[1] and in 1995 they transferred their boys' toy lines from the Hasbro headquarters in Rhode Island to Kenner's offices in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kenner was asked to revitalize the brand with new ideas, and that is exactly what they did.
Lead designer Chris Gross inadvertently kicked off the Beast Wars concept when he proposed a stylistic change from hard-edged, blocky robots to Guyver-inspired "organic" machines.[2] The "Beast Masks" on the first few Beast Wars toy designs were conceived of as a way of easing the transition from traditional Transformers into Beast Wars by showing that there was a robot within the beast, not just an animal that transforms into some kind of monster.[2] The Beast Wars line title was inspired by a past toyline of Kenner's, namely the Future War line of Terminator toys. It was chosen based on the idea that it portrayed a "visceral conflict".[2] The show would not have been made unless a drastically new concept from the original Transformers was created, as G1 was considered a stale property at the time.[2]
Talk a little bit about the cartoon and its production by the Canadian-based Mainframe Entertainment.
Japanese release
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In Japan, the first season of the North American cartoon was aired with a markedly silly dub, full of adlibs and pop culture references meant to up the humor and appeal to a much younger audience than the English version. This dub was accompanied by releases of the concurrent toys, but only about half of the ones released in the West; mostly just those of the in-show characters. Because the second and third seasons of the show were each too short to span a year's worth of Japanese television, the Japanese release of both was held off until production of the third season was completed. In the meantime, two cel-animated series unique to Japan were created to fill in the void, with each receiving their own accompanying toys and manga series. These were Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, respectively. Once those finished, the remaining two CG-animated seasons of the North American series, along with their accompanying toys, were released under the name Beast Wars Metals. Like the first season, the Metals dub was just as silly and littered with adlibs.
While the two Japanese-produced Beast Wars animated productions used cel animation, the toys' box art was rendered in a CG style similar to the original Mainframe cartoon, whereas the Western releases of the toys were the opposite, featuring hand drawn box art.
Reception
Beast Wars was the first complete reinvention of the Transformers brand, discarding the previous setting, characters, and factions to create a brand new story. Transformers in the Beast Wars cartoon are much smaller (often human-sized) and initially transform into "fleshy" or "scaly" non-robotic animals, before introducing new concepts like Transmetals. Initially met with outrage by many fans (for a variety of reasons) Beast Wars would eventually win over most of its decriers and become highly regarded, largely due to the exceptional quality of the cartoon series. It is now not unusual for even longtime fans of the 1980s Transformers to consider Beast Wars to be their favorite of all Transformers franchises. This is perhaps best shown by the fact that, about fifteen years later, the first two fan-chosen characters to enter the Transformers Hall of Fame were Beast Wars fan-favorites Dinobot and Waspinator.
Legacy
The lasting popularity of Beast Wars went on to ensure its place as a poignant and memorable part of Transformers history. The popularity of the cartoon alone resulted in numerous continuations, spinoffs, and other addenda. Most notably, a direct sequel series followed Beast Wars in the form of Beast Machines: Transformers. In contrast to Beast Wars, Beast Machines brought back vehicular altmodes for the enemy faction, replacing the Predacons with the new Vehicon faction. It also utilized a more "alien" aesthetic, with the Maximals turning into "technorganic" beasts (a molecular fusion of the organic and the technological), while the Vehicons turned into "living" vehicles with robotic heads in place of driver's seats/cockpits. Beast Machines also received a cartoon series that continued the lives of the Beast Wars cast on their home planet of Cybertron, but took a much more cerebral approach to its story that was met with a far more polarizing reception from the fandom.
Outside of cartoons, several additional Beast Wars storylines, featuring events taking place "just offscreen" of the cartoon series, were produced both during and after the franchise ran its course. These "expanded universes" all contain the same events of cartoon series, which are understood to occur exactly as had been portrayed, but with the context differing per universe. These separate expanded universes all coexist within the vast Transformers Multiverse. Most of these exist mainly in the form of comics. Highlights include:
- From 1997 to 2004, 3H Productions featured a series of comics, text stories, and script readings set in the world of the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons, continuing into the Transformers: Universe series. Throughout 2005 to 2016, Fun Publications published a number of Beast Wars-related comics and text stories also set in this 3H Beast Wars continuity.
- In 2002, Dreamwave Productions launched several new series of Generation 1 comics that incorporated the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons into its continuity, integrating several concepts first introduced in both series into the comics' Generation 1 setting, and featuring the occasional reference to the two meant to further reinforce their connection. 2004's Transformers: The Ultimate Guide further fleshed out this world and treated it as the "definitive" Transformers continuity occupied by the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons. A few short stories for both cartoons were also published in the Transformers Legends anthology book.
- In 2006–2008, IDW Publishing produced two comic mini-series and a set of profile books. This continuity is notable for including toys and events from several Japanese Beast Wars series. In 2016, one more comic story was published to (at least, in theory) help bridge the gap between Generation 1 and Beast Wars, while 2021 saw the release of a brand new comic series set in its own continuity completely separate from the cartoon altogether.
- Fun Publications also created Transformers: Wings Universe from 2009 to 2014, a nearly unaltered version of the North American Generation 1 cartoon that also features the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons as part of its continuity. And, one of the last creations of Fun Publications was also Beast Wars: Uprising, a completely new version of Beast Wars set in an alternate dystopian reality told mostly through prose stories and a few comics.
Continuity
Relationship with Generation 1
Prehistoric setting
Future setting
Anniversaries
10th Anniversary
Fill in with info about Transformers: Beast Wars 10th Anniversary, Beast Wars Reborn, Transformers: Beast Wars Telemocha Series.
20th Anniversary
After the Transformers: Beast Wars 10th Anniversary toyline and the bombastic celebration Hasbro threw for the Transformers brand in 2014 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the franchise, the Thrilling 30, the fandom waited with bated breath to see how Hasbro would handle 2016, the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars.
Alas, there was little fanfare from Hasbro proper. The one nod to the anniversary was the last-2015 release of the Year of the Monkey Optimus Primal, which did sport a celebratory logo.
Hasbro licensee Fun Publications paid more heed. They themed BotCon 2016 around Beast Wars and released several Beast Wars: Uprising prose stories, one of which included its own Chilling 20 logo as a joke.
TakaraTomy also released a bit of Beast Wars themed product in 2016. Exclusive versions of Rattle, Rhinox, and Waspeeter were available at Transformers Fes2016. They released a Masterpiece Optimus Primal for October 2016. E-HOBBY also released a new Convobat in December 2016. All in all, it was a rather lackluster showing for the sub-line which reinvigorated the brand.
25th Anniversary
The twenty-fifth anniversary in 2021 was met with significantly more fanfare, which featured the debut of the Beast Wars-themed third chapter of the War for Cybertron Trilogy toyline and cartoon, a new ongoing Beast Wars comic from IDW Publishing, and the announcement of the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts film, featuring Beast Wars characters.
Notes
- On April 4, 2019, Lorenzo di Bonaventura listed a live-action adaptation to Beast Wars as a potential future entry to the live-action film series.[3] This would eventually manifest as Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
References
[[Category:Beast Era]] [[Category:Beast Wars| ]] [[Category:Franchises]]
