Beast Wars: Transformers | |
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Genre | |
Based on | Transformers by Hasbro |
Developed by | |
Voices of |
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Opening theme | "Beast Wars Theme Song" |
Composer | Robert Buckley |
Country of origin |
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Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 52 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Running time | 22–23 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | |
Release | September 16, 1996 – May 7, 1999 |
Related | |
Beast Wars: Transformers (titled Beasties: Transformers in Canada) [1] is an animated television series that debuted on September 16, 1996 and ended on May 7, 1999, serving as the flagship of the Transformers: Beast Wars franchise. It was one of the earliest fully CGI television shows. [2] The series is set in the future of the "original" Transformers franchise, 300 years after the events of The Transformers, and features the Maximals and Predacons, descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons respectively. [3] While engaged in battle, small teams from each faction crash land on an unknown planet, and must find a way to return home while continuing their war.
The Beast Wars TV series was the first Transformers series to feature computer-animated characters, and was produced by Mainframe Entertainment of Vancouver, British Columbia; its story editors were Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio. The production designer for the show, Clyde Klotz, won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on Beast Wars. [4]
A sequel television series, Beast Machines: Transformers , aired from 1999 to 2000. Additional Beast Wars limited comic book series have been released by Dreamwave Productions and IDW Publishing. [5]
The two main factions of "Transformers" in Beast Wars are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon: the Maximals are the descendants of the Autobots and the Predacons are the descendants of the Decepticons. (In the sequel series Beast Machines , the process during which Autobots and Decepticons became Maximals and Predacons is referred to as "The Great Upgrade".)
The leader of the Predacon team is Megatron, a namesake of the original Decepticon commander. He and his forces are a splinter group on the hunt for powerful crystals known as Energon. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the Golden Disk and Megatron's stolen ship, the Darksyde , which is equipped with a transwarp drive. A Maximal exploration ship, the Axalon , led by Optimus Primal, is sent to stop them. Together the ships plunge through a time/space phenomenon created by the transwarp device during their battle in space, and crash-land on a mysterious planet.
The planet is found to be rich in deposits of raw Energon, in such extreme amounts that it proves to be poisonous to both factions' robot forms, forcing them to take on alternate organic forms for protection until their robot forms are needed. Thus the robots take on the beast forms of recognizable animals including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, dinosaurs, and invertebrates.
Before crashing, the Axalon deploys its cargo of "stasis pods" containing Maximal protoforms — Transformer robots with vulnerable and undeveloped physical forms, which are left to orbit the planet as an alternative to possible destruction in the initial crash landing. This plays a larger part in the IDW series, The Gathering. Throughout the series, stasis pods lose altitude and crash-land on the planet, and the Maximals and Predacons race and fight to acquire them, as protoforms acquired by Megatron's forces can be reprogrammed to become Predacons. The stasis pods are used as a plot device to introduce new characters.
The teams are divided between the "good" Maximals and the "evil" Predacons, equivalent to the traditional Autobots and Decepticons. Most of the Maximals are based on mammals, birds or fish, while the Predacons are based on reptiles, amphibians or invertebrates. Dinobot changes sides, starting as a Predacon and becoming a Maximal, and was later recreated as an artificial Predacon clone by Megatron in season 3. Additionally certain "Predacons" like Inferno and Blackarachnia were created from Maximal protoforms, but were fitted with Predacon shell programs, fighting instead for the Predacons. For the Maximals, the emphasis is on team spirit and good-natured arguing, especially from Rattrap, but the Predacons argue and battle for leadership, which impairs their effectiveness against the Maximals.
There have been two Beast Wars video games. The first game, Beast Wars: Transformers , was released for the PlayStation and PC. It is a third-person shooter, based on the first season of the show, in which players control either the Maximals or the Predacons in a series of missions to undermine the other faction's attempts at gaining enough resources to win the war between them and escape the planet. The PC conversion added a multiplayer feature that allowed up to 8 players to play over LAN, with its own playrooms in the MS Gaming Zone. The playrooms were shut down in 2006.
The second game, Beast Wars Transmetals , is a fighting game based on the second season released for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 by BAM! Entertainment. Most of the cast-members from the show reprised their voice-roles.
A third game was in the works for the PlayStation 2, but was scrapped in pre-production, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled. [6]
The series was originally released on DVD in Region 1 by Kid Rhino Entertainment (under its Rhinomation classic animation entertainment brand) in 2003/2004. [7] [8] [9]
On February 8, 2011, Shout! Factory announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and planned to rerelease it. [10] They rereleased season 1 on DVD on June 7, 2011 [11] as well as a complete series set on the same day. [12] Both releases contain extensive bonus features including interviews, featurettes and special 24 page comic book, "Transformers Timelines: Dawn of Future's Past." Season 2 & 3 were rereleased on October 4, 2011. [13]
In Region 4, Madman Entertainment released all three seasons on DVD, in its original PAL format in Australia in 2006. [14] On June 24, 2009, they released Transformers: Beast Wars – Complete Collection. [15] The 10-disc box-set features all 52 episodes of the series as well as many bonus features.
DVD Name | Episodes | Release dates | |
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Region 1 | Region 4 | ||
Season 1 | 26 | August 12, 2003 June 7, 2011 (Rerelease) | March 17, 2006 |
Season 2 | 13 | March 23, 2004 | July 25, 2006 |
Season 3 | 13 | March 23, 2004 | November 10, 2006 |
Seasons 2 & 3 | 26 | October 4, 2011 (Rerelease) | N/A |
Complete Series | 52 | June 7, 2011 | June 24, 2009 |
Beast Wars won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997. [16]
In a 2011 retrospective of the Transformers franchise, IGN commented that while Beast Wars used the same basic story template as previous series in the franchise, it "featured some of the best writing and story development in a Transformers series". [16] Reviewing the season 2 DVD release, DVD Talk similarly remarked that Beast Wars used the same basic story as the 1984 Transformers series, but stood out from other series of its time by delivering messages to children without becoming preachy and utilizing considerable continuity, both from episode-to-episode and eventually with the 1984 Transformers series. The reviewer said the animation was dated by modern standards but the interesting and fun story content outweighed it. [17] In a review of the season 3 DVD, the same critic praised the season's more rapid pace and darker tone, and said it was arguably the best season of the series. He concluded, "Beast Wars may have been a marketing tool for Hasbro, but it also told some good stories without pandering to the lowest common denominator." [18]
The show was succeeded by Beast Machines: Transformers , with a new creative team in charge of production. The traditionally animated Japanese series Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo were created to fill the gap while the second and third seasons of Beast Wars were being translated into Japanese (called Beast Wars: Metals). [16] Several comic books and video games were also produced. The show's production companies, Mainframe Entertainment and Alliance Atlantis, are also the same creators of the world's first ever computer-animated TV series, ReBoot , which ran from 1994 to 2001.
In June 2017, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura stated that a film adaptation of Beast Wars was not in plans, as he explained: "I'm probably not the one to be asking that question to because I don't get Beast Wars, but you know, thankfully I'm not the only vote on it. I've never quite understood, they kind of feel like incompatible to me, you have animals, robots, we're used to cars." [19] Both a follow-up to Bumblebee , and an adaptation of Beast Wars were reported to be in development, written separately by Joby Harold and James Vanderbilt, respectively. [20] [21] It was later reworked as a hybrid adaptation named Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which is a sequel to Bumblebee and featured the Maximals, the Predacons, and the Terrorcons. [22] The film was released on June 9, 2023.
The third and final chapter of Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy titled "Kingdom" features the Autobots and the Maximals teaming up against the Decepticons and the Predacons. [23]
Megatron is the main antagonist of the Transformers media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. He is the tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, a villainous faction of alien robots that seeks to conquer their home planet of Cybertron and the rest of the known universe, and serves as the archenemy of Optimus Prime, the leader of the rival Autobot faction. As with all Cybertronians, Megatron can disguise himself by transforming into vehicles or weapons. His alternate modes have included a Walther P38 handgun, a particle-beam weapon, a telescopic laser cannon, a Cybertronian jet, and various tanks, depending on which continuity he is depicted in.
The Decepticons are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the Transformers multimedia franchise.
Unicron is a fictional villain from the Transformers media franchise. Designed by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film The Transformers: The Movie and has since reappeared in Transformers: Armada, Transformers: Energon, Transformers: Cybertron, Transformers: Prime, Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising, Transformers: The Last Knight, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Atari's 2004 Transformers video game. Unicron is a prodigiously large robot whose scale reaches planetary proportions, and he is also able to transform into a giant planet. Unicron's origin has expanded over the years from simply being a large robot to being a god of chaos who devours realities. He often employs the help of Decepticons in his work, and in some stories is considered part of the origin of the Decepticon forces.
Grimlock is the name of several fictional robot characters in the Transformers robot franchise. He is usually portrayed as the leader of the Dinobots, which are a subfaction of Autobots who can transform into metal dinosaurs. Grimlock is known for his dialogue being spoken in the third person. He appeared on screen along with other Dinobots in the fourth installment of the Transformers film series.
Starscream is a character in the Transformers media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. He is the second-in-command of the Decepticons, a villainous faction of alien robots that seeks to conquer their home planet of Cybertron and the rest of the known universe. As with all Cybertronians, Starscream can disguise himself by transforming into vehicles, in his case a fighter jet, and he is usually portrayed as a treacherous but cowardly air commander who seeks to overthrow his leader Megatron and assume control of the Decepticons.
The Autobots are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the Transformers multimedia franchise. The Autobots are living robots from the planet Cybertron who, like most Transformers, are each imbued with a unique "life force" known as a "spark." Led by Optimus Prime in most stories, the Autobots believe "freedom is the right of all sentient life" and are often engaged in a civil war with the Decepticons, a faction of transformers dedicated to military conquest and usually headed by Megatron. In a mirror universe portrayed in Transformers: Shattered Glass, the Autobots are villains opposed by the heroic Decepticons.
Transformers is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, such as vehicles and animals. The franchise encompasses toys, animation, comic books, video games and films. As of 2011, it generated more than ¥2 trillion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
Ultra Magnus is a character from the Transformers franchise.
Soundwave is a fictional robot character appearing in various Transformers continuity lines within the Transformers franchise. His most well-known disguise is that of a micro cassette recorder. Throughout most of his incarnations, he is an underlying loyal lieutenant of the Decepticon leader Megatron. He is commonly depicted as Megatron's communications officer and in some interpretations, only speaks when mocking the Autobots.
Transformers: Armada, known in Japan as Super Robot Life-Form Transformers: Legends of the Microns, is a Japanese anime series which debuted on August 23, 2002. As the first series co-produced between the American toy company Hasbro and their Japanese partner Takara, Armada begins a new continuity/universe for Transformers, with no ties to any of the previous series, including its direct predecessor Transformers: Robots in Disguise in 2001. It inspired two sequels, Transformers: Energon and Transformers: Cybertron.
There have been four main publishers of the comic book series bearing the name Transformers based on the toy lines of the same name. The first series was produced by Marvel Comics from 1984 to 1991, which ran for 80 issues and produced four spin-off miniseries. This was followed by a second volume titled Transformers: Generation 2, which ran for 12 issues starting in 1993. The second major series was produced by Dreamwave Productions from 2002 to 2004 with multiple limited series as well, and within multiple story continuities, until the company became bankrupt in 2005. The third and fourth series have been published by IDW Publishing with the third series starting with an issue #0 in October 2005 and a regular series starting in January 2006 to November 2018. The fourth series started in March 2019 with issue #1 and concluded in June 2022. There are also several limited series being produced by IDW as well. Skybound Entertainment began publishing Transformers comics starting in June 2023, kicking off the Energon Universe. In addition to these four main publishers, there have also been several other smaller publishers with varying degrees of success.
The Transformers is an American-Japanese animated television series that originally aired from September 17, 1984, to November 11, 1987, in syndication based upon Hasbro and Takara Tomy's Transformers toy line. The first television series in the Transformers franchise, it depicts a war among giant robots that can transform into vehicles and other objects.
Transformers Animated is a superhero animated television series based on the Transformers toy line. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios and Hasbro Entertainment and animated by The Answer Studio, Mook Animation, and Studio 4°C (shorts). The series debuted on Cartoon Network on December 26, 2007, and ended on May 23, 2009; running for 42 episodes across three seasons. In Japan, the show debuted on April 3, 2010, on both TV Aichi and TV Tokyo.
Transformers: Beast Wars is the name of several comic book series by IDW Publishing, based upon Hasbro's toy line and the original television series.
Transformers: Prime is an American animated television series based on the Transformers toy franchise by Hasbro that aired on the Hub Network from November 29, 2010, to July 26, 2013. The series focuses on the Autobots of "Team Prime", consisting of Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead, and their human allies as they attempt to protect the Earth from the villainous Decepticons and their leader Megatron.
Transformers: Beast Wars is an entertainment franchise from Hasbro and is part of the larger Transformers franchise. The franchise directly follows the Transformers: Generation 1 continuity established by the 1984 series and animated film. It ignores the continuity established by the Japanese Transformers series, though this franchise would have two exclusive Japanese series of its own. Before Beast Wars, Hasbro had attempted to relaunch the original toys and animation as Transformers: Generation 2. Hasbro intended another franchise titled Transtech to follow which would've combined Beast Wars and Generation 1 characters and aesthetics, but this was canceled. Instead, the franchise began a series of reboots, beginning with the Japanese-produced Transformers: Car Robot series, internationally known as Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
Dinobot is a fictional character from Beast Wars in the Transformers universe. He is driven by a code of honor somewhat modeled on samurai bushido. He first debuted in the series premiere as a subordinate of Megatron, leader of the villainous Predacons. While he initially joins Megatron, Dinobot eventually challenges Megatron's leadership and is shortly expelled from his crew. He then joins the ranks of Optimus Primal and the Maximals. He fights alongside the Maximals as part of their crew before ultimately sacrificing himself to save a group of primates that eventually become the human race from a Predacon onslaught.
Beast Wars has always been a bit of an odd outlier for the Transformers franchise, being both the first CGI series and focused on animals, not vehicles