Human Error, Part I
| ||||||
 "Humans Animated" is a very popular show, on Cybertron... | ||||||
| "Human Error, Part 1" | ||||||
| Airdate | April 18, 2009 | |||||
| Written by | Henry Gilroy | |||||
| Directed by | Kalvin Lee Christopher Berkeley Naoto Hashimoto | |||||
| Animation studio | Mook | |||||
On Christmas Morning, the Autobots wake up to an unpleasant surprise...
Synopsis
It's Christmas in Detroit, but Optimus Prime is not in a festive mood. The hottest toy of the year is Soundwave, being marketed by Porter C. Powell, who acquired the schematics and patent when he ran Sumdac Systems. Observing a commercial for the new toy, Optimus notices a Soundwave running across the plaza near the trains. Trying to follow it, Optimus is nearly run over by a train, and finally decides that he may be obsessing.
At the plant, Bulkhead and Bumblebee are interested in what they got for Christmas, but Sari tells them that Santa will know if they try to peek. As the two help Sari decorate, a Soundwave toy breaks out of the present, and does something to the oilnog that Sari made for the Autobots. The toy is barely able to hide as Optimus, Ratchet, and Prowl weigh in on Santa's ability to deliver presents to all the children. Sari tells them to just accept the holiday magic and be thankful for what they have, like family, leading to a toast of the spiked oil. Soon, the Autobots all begin to feel tired, and decide to call it a night, as Sari heads back to Sumdac Tower.
The next morning, Optimus wakes up, still woozy, when he discovers something frightening—his hands are made of flesh! Fall off his bed in shock, Optimus looks into a mirror, and discovers the horrifying truth—he's become a human! Optimus hears Bumblebee and Bulkhead cry out, and discovers that all the Autobots are human as well. A few scans by Ratchet are unable to determine the cause of the change. Looking for Prowl, the Autobots head outside, where they find the ninja is quite all right with it, except he feels that something is wrong. Since they're unable to contact Sari, the Autobots decide to roll ou-- er, walk to Sumdac Tower.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
Ratchet: And I'm telling you, there is no way that this "Santa Claus" could deliver billions of presents in one night.
Prowl: I can think of at least one. Ho. Ho. Ho.
[Prowl projects holograms of himself]
Optimus: A sound theory, Prowl. I did see multiple Santas in the shopping district tonight.
- —The Autobots weigh in on the debate of how Santa does his job.
"We need to get to Sumdac Tower. Auto—er, men. Transfo—er, uh, roll—er, uh, oh, let's just go."
- —Optimus Prime has a few slips on his "roll out" command.
"Why would ze Autobots choose to be human?"
"Not for the fashion sense, I can tell you that. A-ha-ha-ha!"
- —Icy Blitzwing and Random Blitzwing, the next Tim Gunn.
"Oh look! I have a hole in my rocket!"
- —Even horrible injury cannot faze Random Blitzwing.
"Hey, we're baaaaack!"
"Not all of us!"
"It might help you if you make the noise with your mouth like this: Choo-chuh-chah-chik!"
"Sounds silly... But, okay. Choo-chuh-chah-chah-chik! Choo-chuh-chah-chah-chik!"
- — Bumblebee and Bulkhead
"Escape is impossible. Autobots inferior; Soundwave superior."
- —Soundwave, homaging like it's 1986.
Notes
Animation or technical errors
- When Bulkhead sets down his Christmas present, the box is missing the horizontal ribbon it has in the preceding and following shots.
- When Ratchet scans Optimus, all the equipment is human-sized, instead of the much-larger Transformer-scaled size. Of course, it's not actually real, but still.
- We first see Jennifer Witwicky for a few frames in the background next to a mom who isn't Carly. She's Carly later, though.
- In the bus tram scene, Daniel is shown levitating over his seat. Of course, he's not actually real, but still.
- Bulkhead punches Starscream with his right hand... then screams and clutches his left hand... then after a scene cut he is shown clutching his right hand... and later he gets a bandage put on his left hand. Of course, it's... oh you get the idea.
- Of course, if this was real, we'd point out that the force with which Starscream smashed Optimus into the wall should probably have killed him, or at least caused a lot more damage than a broken leg. Good thing it's not, then.
- Blitzwing's face changes from Cold to Random when he lifts up his leg, only to be Cold again when he's looking through the hole in the next scene.
- When Optimus beats Megatron with his own severed arm, the arm is freaking colossal, nearly as big as the rest of Megatron's body.
- When being held by the giant Soundwave, Prowl is briefly missing his armor.
- The hole Sari blows in Soundwave's backpack comes and goes. Hey, this bit is real!
- After the explosion is heard outside the Burger Bot, Bulkhead's previously half-eaten burger is now whole.
Continuity errors
- Presumably Soundwave tapped into the Autobots' memories in order to create images of the Decepticons. But if that's the case, what's Team Chaar doing there, as well as a full-body view of Shockwave (who they only saw in facial close-up in "A Bridge Too Close, Part II)? Another possibility would be that Soundwave was previously contacted by other Decepticons, but the only one ever shown to have been aware of his existence is Megatron. He could still have filled him with the needed datas at that moment, tough. So many possibilities...
- Where did Sari's jetpack go while she was on the lift? [For that matter, why did she transform out of her robot mode at all?]
Transformers references
- Derrick Wyatt stated this episode was a partial homage to a "classic" Generation 1 episode.
- Sari's transforming scooter-jetpack was an early idea that didn't make it into the series, but which was featured promotional reel for the Animated series (seen on the convention circuit in mid-2007, and featured on the DVD included with the "Optimus Prime and Megatron: The Battle Begins" action figure set). The version introduced with this episode is somewhat different from the original concept, which was a pedal-powered tricycle that transformed using the power of the Key.
- The scooter's jetpack form is, in turn, based on the backpacks worn by the Acroyear/Acroyer, the villains from Takara's Microman toyline.
- The Burger Bot patrons include series head writer Marty Isenberg, Carly Witwicky, her baby daughter Jennifer (who was being born during the Season 2 episode "Garbage In, Garbage Out") and Animated homages to the Super-God Masterforce characters Cancer and Hydra. Hydra, Marty, and Cancer are sitting together at one table, indicating a very interesting family.
- Starscream's missiles feature the shark-toothed smiley faces sculpted into the missile accessories that come with his toy.
- Cybertron was brought into Earth orbit twice in the Generation 1 series: first in the multipart episode "The Ultimate Doom", and then in the series finale "The Rebirth, Part 3".
- The sound Bulkhead makes with his mouth to help him Transform is the original Transforming sound from Generation 1, just erm .... spoken.
- Soundwave's declaration that the Autobots are "inferior," while he is "superior," is a paraphrasing of Generation 1 Soundwave's famous line of dialogue from The Transformers: The Movie, "Soundwave superior, Constructicons inferior."
- The colors on the giant Soundwave in the virtual world come from Takara's "Sonic White" Soundwave MP3 player.
Real-world references
- Appropriately enough, the first act of this episode incorporates traditional Christmas songs "Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" into the background music.
- Sari quotes from the Christmas poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (more commonly known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"), replacing the word "mouse" with "Creepy Robot Bird".
- When Laserbeak chases Sari into the elevator, he makes sounds like a seagull.
- Bumblebee says "We're not in Detroit anymore," which is an oft-paraphrased line from The Wizard of Oz.
- The scene of Cybertron blowing up Sumdac Tower is straight out of mid-90s summer blockbuster Independence Day, where an alien mothership blows up the White House in a similar manner.
Trivia
- This episode features an unusually high amount of stock footage by Animated standards. Starscream's sequence is a few seconds longer than when it was last seen in "Megatron Rising - Part 1". Of course, all the sequences of the "human" Autobots transforming have been re-edited.
- Apparently, in future Detroit, you are allowed to use Public Transportation while bearing a giant axe. Well, it is Detroit...
- Back in "Sound and Fury", Soundwave's voice was modulated using only one tone, meaning it never rose or fell. With this episode, more tones are introduced into his voice, allowing it to rise and fall in the same manner as his Generation 1 counterpart.
- Sari's abilities include being capable of holding a full barrel of oil on each hand and surviving getting slammed into a wall by Laserbeak and Soundwave. Plus she makes a mean oilnog.
- Man, Professor Sumdac sure can dance.
- Technically, since most of this episode wasn't real, most of the errors above can be dismissed. So nyah!
