Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)
 |
| |||||||||||||||
Beast Wars: Transformers is a Daytime Emmy award-winning computer-animated television series that premiered on April 22, 1996 in syndication.[1]
Though reviled by many Transformers fans when it first hit the airwaves in 1996, Beast Wars is now considered by many to be among the finest examples of Transformers storytelling.
Overview
Beast Wars opens at an unspecified time and place, where two warring factions of robots have crashed on a strange planet populated by animals like those on Earth. The planet abounds in mystery, with vast deposits of raw energon and evidence of alien activity. The Energon forces the newly arrived Transformers to take on protective beast forms to shield themselves from the ambient Energon radiation. And so begin the Beast Wars...
Though at first the show seemed to be in an entirely separate continuity, by the end of the first season's 26 episodes, viewers had been treated to a number of classical Transformers references, such as Unicron and even the reappearance of Starscream, last seen as a ghost in the third season of the original cartoon. These ties to the original story increased as the second season progressed and the planet was revealed as prehistoric Earth, the characters having been thrown back in time. The third season was entirely structured around the Maximals defending their dormant Autobot ancestors aboard the ancient crashed Ark.
The show won over many viewers through fun, intriguing stories and generally high production values. Strong characterization, top-notch scripting and voice acting, and complex, overarching plot threads are among the reasons cited for the show's enduring popularity. Some of the show's mysteries and machinations remain topics for fan debate over a decade after it aired.
The show's CGI, though somewhat primitive by today's standards, was revolutionary by television standards of the time (and puts some later shows to shame). Mainframe's animators took pains to ensure their characters gestured and emoted in great detail, and the "camera" work often took creative advantage of the format's flexibility.
The show was immediately followed by a sequel series, Beast Machines.
Episodes
Beast Wars has had 52 episodes over 3 seasons.
Season 1: 1996–1997
- Beast Wars (Part 1)
- Beast Wars (Part 2)
- The Web
- Equal Measures
- Chain of Command
- Power Surge
- Fallen Comrades
- Double Jeopardy
- A Better Mousetrap
- Gorilla Warfare
- The Probe
- Victory
- Dark Designs
- Double Dinobot
- The Spark
- The Trigger, Part 1
- The Trigger, Part 2
- Spider's Game
- Call of the Wild
- Dark Voyage
- Possession
- The Low Road
- Law of the Jungle
- Before the Storm
- Other Voices, Part 1
- Other Voices, Part 2
Season 2: 1997–1998
Season 3: 1998–1999
Characters
Because developing new CGI character models was, at the time, an expensive and time-consuming process, the number of on-screen characters in Beast Wars was relatively small compared to most other Transformers shows. It is thus practical to list all the Transformers who appeared in the cartoon. They are listed in order of appearance. (The stasis locked Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark are not on this list.) Note that many characters besides these are also full-fledged Beast Wars characters, having appeared in other media.
* Allied with the Maximals, nominally a Predacon.
† Became a Maximal towards the end of the series, though originally a Maximal protoform.
International releases
Japan
In Japan, the Beast Wars: Transformers cartoon was split into 2 separate 26 episode series.
Beast Wars: Super Robot Lifeform Transformers
Beast Wars: Super Robot Lifeform Transformers ( ビーストウォーズ超生命体トランスフォーマー, Beast Wars Chō Seimeitai Transformers) aired in 1997, consisting of the North American season 1 episodes. In charge of localization was Yoshikazu Iwanami, an audiography director whose resume included shows such as the TV Tokyo dubs of Saban's X-Men and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Iwanami's signature style of localization and dubbing relies heavily on satirical comedy and adlibbing, most commonly turning the programs into self-referential parodies of themselves (appropriate in the case of Ninja Turtles, an awkward fit for X-Men). While the early episodes of Beast Wars were fairly innocuous in their adlibs, as time went on their inclusion became progressively more intrusive and by the last third of the series there was a severe tonal shift.
The adlibbing in Beast Wars primarily consisted of "noise"; talking for the sake of talking and reducing atmospheric silence or visual subtlety to a minimum. One particular trait of the dub was that each character had their own unique vocal tic with which they would punctuate their sentences or, more commonly, chant incessantly for no apparent reason. For instance, Waspinator would chant "bun", Scorponok would chant "orya", Blackarachnia would hiss "tshaa", Rhinox would ramble "dana" and so on. This gimmick was especially pronounced during fight scenes, when characters would repeatedly and comically shout their vocal tics every time they pulled the trigger of their weapons, reducing firefights to a cacophony of unending gibberish.
Many characters underwent considerable changes in personality and characterization, often for no other reason than to add levity. Some of these changes were gradual. Megatron began the series as a gravelly voiced and uncharismatic slob who would loudly hock loogies after fits of maniacal laughter. Gradually, that trait was phased out in exchange for him becoming an effeminate, mood-swinging goofball; his tone of voice transitioning from a ferocious baritone to a silly high pitch at the drop of a hat. He was also made humorously cowardly, shouting out wimpy excuses while retreating (including the claim that he was late for piano practice).
Other characters were fundamentally altered right from the getgo. Naviko, the Predacon computer, gained a girly and fitful personality and characters would talk with her rather than at her. Tigatron was made into a humorous samurai ronin parody. Airazor, perhaps most infamously, had her entire gender changed, becoming a young male and Tigatron's trusty ward (and later, his lover).
All 26 episodes were aired without any edits for time or content (unlike the Japanese broadcasts of The Transformers and all future imported Western Transformers shows). However, the episodes were aired out of the original sequence. The new order was mostly harmless save for one exception: "The Spark" was aired before "Victory". As a result, that made it seem like the Maximals were abandoning Airazor in their attempt to leave Earth.
Beast Wars aired on TV Tokyo in the Wednesday, 6:30pm timeslot. As the second season of the North American Beast Wars: Transformers was not ready for localization by the time Beast Wars ended in Japan, a pair of domestically produced cartoon series, Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, were commissioned to fill the gap. The opening theme for Beast Wars was "War War! Stop It" by Banana Ice while the ending theme was "FOR THE DREAM" by Mickey.
Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals
Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals (超生命体トランスフォーマー ビーストウォーズメタルス, Chō Seimeitai Transformers Beast Wars Metals) aired in 1999, consisting of the North American season 2 and 3 episodes. While Beast Wars had been fairly judicious in its self-referential humor, even in its last stretch of episodes, Beast Wars Metals was an unrestrained self-parody, constantly breaking the 4th Wall and demonstrating awareness of its own status as a TV series.
Adlibbing was done to the extreme and characters all received major personality adjustments to reflect the aggressively comedic nature of the series. For example, Depth Charge was turned into a goofy old man who enjoyed singing fishing songs while transforming, Silverbolt was now psychotically polite with an obnoxious happy-go-lucky attitude and Rampage now talked in the rough-and-tumble dialect of a cartoon street punk. The show was incessantly self-aware, regularly acknowledging the camera, the TV channel and, in one of the more oppressive gags, Rattrap would constantly smell what the audience was eating (making remarks to the effect of, "Oh, that's Sato-san's curry" as he sniffed). Yoshikazu's dubbing style would become synonymous with all imported Western Transformers cartoons in Japan, as he would be placed in charge of localizing every series through Prime, all with the same overbearingly satirical attitude.
The distribution of episodes for Beast Wars Metals was complicated. Japan included selected episodes in two separate theatrical releases:
- Beast Wars Special Super Lifeform Transformers (premiering the episode "Bad Spark")
- 1999 Summer Toei Anime Fair (premiering the episode "Cutting Edge").
Since the above episodes were released theatrically, they are not included in the show's proper 26 episode list, with their places being taken by two original clip shows:
- Episode 14: "Where Is the Banana?"
- Episode 26: "Remix: I Lost the Banana!"
As with the other installments in the Beast Wars franchise, Beast Wars Metals aired on TV Tokyo in the Wednesday, 6:30pm timeslot. The series had two opening themes, "Tamashī no Evolution" and "Sen'nen no Soldier" by Hironobu Kageyama, and two ending themes, "BA-BI-BU-BE Beast Wars" and "HALLELUYAH" also by Kageyama.
United Kingdom
When originally aired on GMTV in the United Kingdom, Beast Wars was only screened on school holidays, usually in double bills on Bank Holidays, and one episode per morning on half-term weeks, meaning that only a few episodes were shown a year, with wide gulfs in between (most prominently, three months passed between the airings of "Other Visits" parts 1 and 2). In a sign of things to come, "Beast Wars (Part 1)" was shown some 25 minutes earlier than billed due to re-scheduled news reports, meaning many fans missed the entire opening episode. Things went from bad to worse when "Equal Measures" was skipped, and only continued when, after "Victory", the series skipped directly to "Other Voices, Part 1". The entirety of the second season followed the conclusion of the first, but the channel never aired the third season; although it was subsequently released on VHS, the cliffhanger-resolving "Optimal Situation" was only available as a free gift with purchase at Toys"R"Us.
Additionally, these GMTV airings were modified in various ways. The first and most foremost alteration was the removal of the word "Transformers" from the series' title, which was only reinstated with "Other Voices, Part 1". With regard to the actual content, the earliest episodes generally had nothing more extreme than the removal of uses of the word "slag" (as it is effectively a synonym for "slut" in English slang), but with the beginning of the second season, edits were steadily made to episodes for no readily apparent reasons. Additionally, any scenes featuring flashing images were routinely put through a filter that slowed such scenes down to comical levels. This culminated in a butchered version of "The Agenda", which snipped out many short scenes throughout all three episodes for no reason, from inconsequential moments like Tarantulas cackling and driving out of his lab in Part 1, to key scenes such as Silverbolt and Optimus Primal's "office talk" in Part 2, and in what was the last straw for many fans, the complete second half of Megatron's speech (the part explaining Megatron's entire motivation), also from Part 2.
During the time they had the rights to the series, GMTV also showed the entirety of seasons one and two on the then-obscure digital-only channel ITV2.
Channel 5, a terrestrial channel, showed the entire series in its complete form in 2003. Thankfully. This got rerun too, leading to the Beast Wars comics getting used as reprints in Titan's Movie-based comic.
France
In France and (French) Belgium, the show was called "Animutants" and had a good-quality dubbing, rather close to the original voices. But while the first two seasons of the show were aired, the third one never was; the show always ended with "The Agenda (Part III)", leaving the viewers in the area with the worst case of cliffhanger ever.
Belgium
Beast Wars aired under its original name with Dutch subtitles, but like the French broadcast, it stopped abruptly after The Agenda (Part III).
Vietnam
In Vietnam, the show was called "Chiến tranh quái vật vũ trụ" (Galaxy Monster Wars). The show was released on VHS tapes with a very good Vietnamese dub, then it was copied to VCD. Unfortunately, as happened in France, only the first two seasons were aired. It ended with "The Agenda (Part III)", and left the fans with a cliffhanger.
Germany
The German dub used the original title, Beast Wars. The show was initially very successful on the TV Station RTL2 and was released on VHS. However, only the first season was shown and dubbed. Furthermore, the TV broadcast had many fight scenes censored to comply with Germany's strict laws against TV violence; however, the VHS Release was uncut. After many reruns the show was cancelled and the second and third Season were never shown in Germany.
Home video releases
Canada
- VHS
- Beast Wars — A Feature Length Beasties Adventure (1996)
- Robots-Bêtes — Une Adventure Cybernetique (1996)
- Beast Wars — Beasties Escape (1998)
- Robots-Bêtes — L'Évasion (1998)
- Beast Wars — Warning from Space (1998)
- Robots-Bêtes — Alert Dans L'Espace (1998)
- Beast Wars / Robots-Bêtes Three pack (1998)
- Beast Wars — Optimus Lives! (1998)
- Robots-Bêtes — L'Empreinte D'Optimus (1998)
- DVD
- Beast Wars — Classic Episodes — Where the Beasties Began! (2005)
- Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 2 — The Saga Continues! (2005)
- Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 3 — The Battle Rages On! (2005)
- Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 4 — The Predacons Advance! (2005)
- Beast Wars — The Complete First Season (2005)
Japan
Pioneer's Japanese DVD sets of the series come with optional English language dialogue with Japanese subtitles, allowing fans in Japan to view the more serious version of the show if desired.
- VHS
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Enter the Super Lifeform Transformers (1997)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Cheetus' Crisis (1997)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Disappeared (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Lonely Warrior Tigatron (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — New Weapon of Terror (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Goodbye Rattle!? (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Floating Island Deathmatch (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — The Destrons Make Drama (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — There are 2 Dinobots? (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Resurrected Beast Power (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Starscream's Invulnerability (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Farewell Tigatron (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — To Protect the Peace... (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers Special — Great Cybertron Army Collection (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers Special — Great Destron Army Collection (1998)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Great Quiz Collection (1999)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — We're Back! (1999)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Convoy Reborn (1999)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — I Quit! (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Huh? The Face? (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — I'm a Crab! (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — I Do Love You! (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Groooww Bigger (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Rrray! (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — The Movie (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Yeah, I'm Back! (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Love Typhoon (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Sssshiny! (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — We Have Returned (2000)
- Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Happy? This Should Do It (2000)
- Laserdisc
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Maximal Edition (1998)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Predacon Edition (1998)
- DVD
- Beast Wars: Transformers — DVD BOX (2000)
- Beast Wars: Transformers: Metals — DVD BOX 1 (2000)
- Beast Wars: Transformers: Metals — DVD BOX 2 (2000)
United Kingdom
The entire run of the show ended up on VHS from 2000 to 2001, though "Aftermath" was only available as a pack-in with Claw Jaw, and "Optimal Situation" could only be obtained as a free gift with purchase at Toys"R"Us. DVD releases were considerably more spotting, starting from "The Agenda" and releasing only ten episodes across two volumes. In both cases, however, cuts were gone! Characters could rightfully swear!
- VHS
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Free Video (2000)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 1 (2000)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 2 (2000)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 3 (2000)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 4 (2000)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 5 (2001)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 6 (2001)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 7 (March 5 2001)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 8 (March 5, 2001)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 1 (2001)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 2 (2001)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 3 (2001)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 4 (2001)
- DVD
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 1 (2004)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 2 (2005)
United States
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 1 (2002)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 2 (2002)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete First Season (2003)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Second Season (2004)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Third Season (2004)
- Transformers - Beast Wars: Season One (2011)
- Transformers - Beast Wars: The Complete Series (2011)
- Transformers - Beast Wars: Seasons 2 & 3 (2011)
Australia and New Zealand
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (2006)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 2 (2006)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 3 (2006)
- The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (2009)
Russia
Russian DVD sets come only with Russian language dialogues and no subtitles.
- DVD
- Transformery: Bitvy Zverey — Season 1 Vol. 1 (first 13 episodes of the first season) (2011)
Germany
- DVD
- Pandavision (2012)
- Transformers: Beast Wars - Staffel 1 (complete first Season) (April 24, 2012)
Pack-ins and Giveaways
- VHS
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Aftermath & Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1) (1998)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Aftermath (1998)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1) (1998)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Bad Spark & Code of Hero (1999)
- DVD
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Equal Measures (2006)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — A Better Mousetrap (2006)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — The Spark (2006)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Spider's Game (2006)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Possession (2006)
- Beast Wars: Transformers — Code of Hero (2006)
- "Super Lifeform Transformers Appear" and "Make a Dramatic Comeback, Destrons" (2006)
- "Destroy the Destrons" (2006)
- "Cheetus's Crisis" (2006)
- "Operation: Time Bomb Transfer" (2006)
- "Convoy Disappeared" (2006)
- "The Sky-Mountains Explode" (2006)
- "Solitary Warrior, Tigatron" (2006)
- "Kick of the Spider Woman" (2006)
- "New Weapons of Terror!" (2006)
- "The Assassin Virus" (2006)
- "Goodbye, Rattle!?" (2006)
- "Falcon Warrior, Airazor" (2006)
- "Floating Island Death Match, Part 1" and "Floating Island Death Match, Part 2" (2006)
- "Around and Around the Jungle" (2006)
- "The Immortal Starscream" (2006)
Notes
- The first season of Beast Wars cost $18 million, according to a 1997 interview with Bob Forward.
- There are three known unproduced Beast Wars episodes: "A Greater Ape", "Bitch Wars" and "Dark Glass".
- B-Club magazine erroneously claims that Beast Wars is the first fully CGI television show in the world, a title actually held by Insektors. Mainframe's own CGI show ReBoot also predates Beast Wars.
- The Production Designer for the show, Clyde Klotz, won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997. How cool is that?
- For reasons unknown, the US Rhino release of Beast Wars season three did not include the opening that was televised, which included an original shot of the Axalon and Darksyde spaceships crashing down to prehistoric Earth. Instead, all season three episodes began with the season two opening for the first part of the beginning credits.
- Also, the Beast Wars season one release from Rhino used a totally different and shorter opening sequence and a shortened version of the theme.
Foreign names
- English: Beasties (Canada)
- Japanese: Beast Wars Chō Seimeitai Transformers (ビーストウォーズ 超生命体トランスフォーマー, "Beast Wars Super Lifeform Transformers"), Chō Seimeitai Transformers Beast Wars Metals (second and third seasons, 超生命体トランスフォーマー ビーストウォーズ メタルス, "Super Lifeform Transformers Beast Wars Metals")
- French: Animutants (France), Robots-Bêtes (Canada)
- Italian: Biocombat
- Latvian: Briesmoņu kari ("Monster Wars")
- Polish: Kosmiczne Wojny ("Cosmic Wars")
- Russian: Bitvi Zverey (Битвы зверей, "Battles of the Beasts"), Zhestokye voini (Жестокие войны, "Cruel wars")
- Spanish: Guerra de Bestias (America)
- Vietnamese: Chiến tranh quái vật vũ trụ ("Galaxy Monster Wars")
- Chinese: Super-Ultra Warriors (超能勇士)
References
- ↑ Though this episode played several days earlier in several US markets, its most widespread screening was on the 22nd.
