Surprise Attack!
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| "Surprise Attack!" (Brave Maximus no Kidō!) "Brave Maximus's Rise!" | ||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop | |||||
| Airdate | 13 December 2000 (Japanese) March 9, 2002 (English) | |||||
| Written by | Tadashi Hayakawa (Japanese) Tom Wyner (English) | |||||
| Director | Yoshiaki Tsutsui | |||||
| Animation studio | Studio Gallop | |||||
'Bot base found at last!
And who found the base? Sky-Byte?!
The plot change astounds!
Synopsis
After recalibrating his spark energy in the Decepticons to turn them into loyal servants, Galvatron puts Sky-Byte in command of the next mission—and in command of the now-loyal Decepticons.
So Sky-Byte goes out to find Koji, and first meets Koji's friend Jenny, who gives him instructions to Koji's house. Not long after, he spots Koji himself running along, and "hides" by the side of the path so that the boy runs past. Sky-Byte begins tailing Koji, in hopes that the boy will eventually lead him to the Autobot base. Of course, he does, and Sky-Byte tells Galvatron that the base is somewhere inside a parking structure.
Down in the Autobot base, Side Burn is giving Cerebros a speech, telling him that he's an Autobot and needs to help protect Earth. Suddenly, Cerebros activates and explains how he and Fortress Maximus function—while Cerebros is programmed to obey Autobots, Maximus will only obey humans. X-Brawn promptly points out the flaws in the system, right before the Decepticons attack the parking structure.
The Autobots have planned for this eventuality, and T-AI contacts all of the Autobots out in the field, sending them to a specific location. Optimus carries Cerebros as bait, leading the Decepticons and Predacons to that same location via a different route. Sky-Byte thinks he's cornered Optimus, but the Autobot leader suggests he look behind him—the Predacon does and realises that Optimus has led him into a trap and all of the Autobots have been waiting for him.
There's a lake nearby, where nobody seems to notice the huge alien watercraft that is Galvatron just floating there amidst the swan paddle boats. That's also where our dear friend Kelly is. She sees a couple of Autobots and tries to ignore them by paddling away.
After Sky-Byte figures out he's trapped, Galvatron pops out from hiding and announces his master plan to control Fortress Maximus. Then the Megastar appears out of the sky and fires a barrage of missiles onto the Autobots. The Predacon trio promptly hide behind some rocks, wondering aloud where Sky-Byte has disappeared to, and then notice him cowering in the same hiding spot they've chosen.
Ultra Magnus shows up, and he and Optimus form Omega Prime. Landfill forms and tries to make the first blow, but gets blown apart. Despite this, Omega Prime still calls Wedge "Landfill", but nobody seems to notice or care. Rail Racer tries to shoot the command center in the tailpipe, but gets blown back by more missiles. Then Wedge tries to attack the center all by himself, giving an impassioned speech about how he has the spark of an Autobot, but gets blown back by another barrage of rockets. But his courage is not wasted, as it activates Fortress Maximus.
Galvatron transforms into hand mode, and links up with the Megastar's right arm. The two titans exchange blows while the Autobots dispense with Scourge and Ruination. Finally Maximus unleashes a full barrage of firepower, and the Megastar crashes into the lake, breaking apart as it goes. Galvatron himself falls clear of the explosion and hits the ground. And there is much rejoicing. But not for long, because Galvatron begins to twitch...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Predacons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Sky-Byte, unlike those traitors, the Predacons have always been loyal. You're the only ones I can trust."
- —Mega—that is, Galvatron stating the obvious
"Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen."
- —Sky-Byte's reaction to the change of plot
"I think...I'm gonna cry!"
- —The Predacon beast trio, on their emotional status
"A trilateral program consisting of bio-signature identification, motivational recognition and harmonic resonance calibration. As a singular entity, I will respond to the bio-signature of any Autobot whose motivation is the protection of Earth. When fused with Fortress Maximus, I will respond only to the bio-signature of humans whose motivation is to aid and protect and in whom I detect no disharmonic resonance of self-interest or desire for personal gain."
- —Cerebros, in a tl;dr speech
Sky-Byte: Uh, sir, it's only free parking for the first twenty minutes. Could you send me some quarters?
Galvatron: What?!
Sky-Byte: N-nothing, sir!
Galvatron: Now gather the Decepticons and prepare to attack!
Sky-Byte: Right! Immediately, sir! I hope they validate...
- —Even inhuman intergalactic evildoers hate parking fines.
"What a lovely day for a ride on the lake. It's so calm and relaxing."
- —Kelly has to stop saying things like that.
"Your surprise attack was really no surprise at all."
- —Optimus on how the title of the episode was somewhat misleading.
Slapper: Where's Sky-Byte? He's our commander now! He's supposed to be protecting us.
Sky-Byte: I want my blanky!
- —As ever, Sky-Byte leads the Predacons by example.
Notes
- When Optimus orders T-AI to call all Autobots, the Spychangers, Team Bullet Train, and the Build Team are doing nothing. Everyone is just sitting around, board, doing nothing. This isn't a error, but still, it seems weird that all the members of all the teams would be in one place.
Differences with Car Robots
Animation and/or technical glitches
- After Galvatron recalibrates the Decepticons, the animation of Rollbar, Armorhide, Movor and Ro-Tor's transformation is clearly lifted wholesale from "The Decepticons", which means that the military base is still in the background.
- Similarly, the footage of the Spychangers avoiding the Megastar's lasers against an inaccurately darkened sky is lifted directly from "Volcano", right down to W.A.R.S. falling from the sky into shot; tossed through the air by a missile explosion in this episode, tossed by Scourge in the earlier one.
- On three occasions, Omega Prime calls Wedge "Landfill".
- The Megastar screams in Galvatron's voice as it sinks into the lake... AFTER Galvatron has been severed from it.
- Talking of the Megastar, there's a scale issue when Galvatron combines with it. In order to form a new hand for the base without looking silly, Galvatron is forced to appear incredibly huge; so huge that he wouldn't have a hope of fitting inside the Megastar itself.
Continuity errors
- It's somewhat unclear when exactly the Autobots acquired Cerebros, given that he was last seen flying into the air after detaching from Fortress Maximus at the end of "Mistaken Identity", but the first we see of him is stood inside the Autobot base, with the Predacons fully aware of his location.
- The Commandos are seen merging to form Ruination in order to attack Autobot headquarters, but are already back in their individual forms when Optimus Prime emerges from the base.
Real-world references
- When Sky-Byte and the Predacons are pursuing Optimus downtown, one of the buildings they pass by at blink-and-you'll-miss-it speed is that of Dongwoo Animation Co. Ltd, one of the production companies behind Car Robots/Robots in Disguise. In fact, they actually seem to pass the building three times in the same shot, due to the obviously looped scrolling background. That's right; the company made an animation error whilst trying to animate a tribute to themselves. "Ironic" barely seems to cover it...
Transformers references
- Galvatron states his original reason for coming to Earth was that the Predacon Council had ordered him to search for Fortress Maximus. This would mean that, despite announcing himself as "Megatron, the ruler of many worlds" in the first episode, he's a general working for other rulers instead of a Supreme Commander of Predacon forces. (The Council are a reference to the Tripredacus Council and were a dub creation.)
- Cerebros announces he must initiate "Headmaster protocol", before displaying what appears to be a Headmaster-style Tech spec bar graph.
Trivia
- Sky-Byte's reputation among humans has devolved to the point where small girls happily go up to "Mister Sky-Byte" and chat with him. This irks him.
- Skid-Z and Tow-Line, after lengthy absences from the series, are finally given a chance to return to the front line, where they do absolutely nothing; neither is mentioned at all during the fight, and they are only seen in group shots.
- Speaking of dead weight, Build Team take approximately 18 seconds to run through their stock combining animation to form Landfill, whereupon they are blasted apart after only 5 seconds. Good job, guys!
- Despite Cerebros outlining the boundaries of his programming, later in the episode both he and Fortress Maximus act of their own volition; perhaps this is not an error but simply Maximus transcending his programming.
Home video releases
- DVD
2001 — Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 10 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season Two (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)
