Live Blogs MUNKY NOT TRUKK!! Let's Watch Beast Wars!

Ghilz2012-02-02 03:53:36

With the second season of the supremely well written Transformers Prime nearing, I felt like revisiting one of the shows who, during the 90's, set a benchmark for me in animated TV show quality along such giants as Batman The Animated Series. This show is Beast Wars, a revival of the Transformers Franchise which at the time proved rather controversial, but eventually proved very successful.

First some background. Past the mid point of the 90s, the Transformers franchise was but a shadow of its former self. The re-packaging of the original The Transformers cartoons and toys into Generation 2 had pretty much ended. Hasbro came up with the bright idea to re-launch the franchise, with a focus on "realistic" animal alt-modes rather than the robotic ones featured in the original toys (like the famous Dinobots). The line featured also new factions. The original toys were packaged with a comic that has absolutely nothing to do with the show we are covering (Optimus was a Bat, Megatron an alligator).

Remembering what cultural financial impact the original show had on their sales, Hasbro decided that this line should also feature half an hour long toy commercials, and decided to contact the fine folks in the Canadian Studio of Mainframe Entertainment, responsible for a show called ReBoot (which is also awesome. Go watch it if you haven't. I'll wait.) Mainframe and their flagship show had made a name for themselves by having the show made entirely out of CGI. Which, for a product aimed entirely at television, with television budgets, was unheard of. This no doubt made Hasbro interested since having their half hour toy commercial featuring this new technology would give them all the more visibility. Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio would be the writers (both of them have impressive resumes. Check them out online).

The initial reaction to the show was divided. Transformers Fandom is one permanent case of Broken Base (There's a reason they've coined the term Ruined FOREVER after all), but the show's great writing, great voice acting, and high production values won fans over. So step with me as we look over the show's 52 episodes and see how it holds up, and perhaps let us see how Transformers Prime measures up.

• I don't intend to cover Beast Machines, though I DO intend to make one (or 2) updates giving a short look over the series once I am done with Beast Wars
• I live in Canada. Which lead to two things: I got to watch Beast Wars episodes early (As YTV, a Canadian channel, was a partner in producing the show, and got first dibs.) On a sad note, the show was called Beasties here, because YTV didn't like shows with "War" in the title. Mainframe's War Planets was called Shadow Raiders here. It's odd because YTV was not otherwise known for their censorship, in fact, they were quite lax and welcoming of shows with darker complex themes. Except if the darkness was in the titles... Odd. YTV remained a partner with Mainframe on many of their shows, starting with ReBoot all the way to Beast Machines (Which we also got to see earlier than Americans. It made discussing episodes online... akward. Pre-Youtube era, remember).
• I'll probably make a reference to the Transformer Toys. Beast Wars got me into collecting them. Today I own about 400 (An estimate. I last stopped counting at 300).
• Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio were very involved in the Fandom, answering questions, participating in online discussions, etc... I don't remember everything they've ever written, but will try to dig it out when I can!
• Beast Wars was the first TV series I ever owned on DVD.
• According to The Other Wiki, the Production Designer for the show, Clyde Klotz, won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on Beast Wars. So that's awesome.

Comments

Korval Since: Dec, 1969

Jan 31st 2012 at 8:22:18 PM

Megatron has taken the form of a purple T-Rex, and I gotta say... I am not a fan. I mean, the T-Rex looks positively fierce... But one has to wonder who picked that color scheme. I mean, yes, Hasbro did, but why oh why would anyone go for that?

That's easy: because Purple in G1 meant "Decepticon". Especially during post-movie G1 continuity.

Ghilz Since: Dec, 1969

Feb 1st 2012 at 3:14:59 AM

Well, I know that. But there's been lots of non-purple Megatrons. Before and since. Furthermore, the Decepticon purple tends to be a darker, more vibrant one generally. So there was nothing binding them to make Megatron with the most effeminate shade of purple (dare I say violet?) they could come up with. Case and point: His transmetal form was a darker shade of purple.

C0mraid Since: Dec, 1969

Feb 20th 2012 at 3:06:31 PM

Purple was a common colour for Dinosaur toys in the 90's, of which there were lots because of Jurassic Park. The show followed suit, I think colour scheme wise almost everyone was toy accurate on the show.

Ghilz Since: Dec, 1969

Feb 20th 2012 at 5:33:46 PM

Except Scorponok. His toy is black with blue claws. Rhinox is darker than his toy, and there's some slight differences in patterns and colors and shades (Dinobot is almost pink), but the Beast Wars show were very Show Accurate overall.

Oh, and Airazor is also very different, her toy is brown and yellow, as a robot she's mostly gold, silver and black.

maxwellelvis Since: Dec, 1969

Nov 27th 2012 at 6:39:58 PM

Actually, Ghilz, a lot of the early Beast Wars toys were not very close to the show, outside of the names. Either minor things like color or major differences like which head characters representing Deluxe figures had on the show, or even alt mode species; the Optimus and Megatron toys were actually a bat and a crocodile at the time this episode aired.