Beast Wars
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| Beast Wars: Transformers | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animated Science Fiction |
| Starring | Scott McNeil |
| Composer(s) | Robert Buckley |
| Country of origin | Canada United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Christopher J. Brough Stéphane Reichel Steven DeNure |
| Producer(s) | Jonathan Goodwill |
| Running time | 30 minutes (with commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Syndication (1996-1998) Cartoon Network (1998-1999) YTV |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original run | September 16, 1996 – March 7, 1999 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Beast Machines |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Beast Wars: Transformers (Beasties on YTV, due to YTV discomfort over the name[1]) is a Transformers toyline released by Hasbro between 1995 and 1999. The toys spawned an Emmy Award-winning, full-CG animated series set in the "original" Transformers universe, produced by Mainframe Entertainment of Canada. The series debuted in 1996, as a sequel to the original Transformers (which was later rebooted by various limited comic book stories from several companies including Dreamwave comics and IDW.)
The story editors for the Beast Wars TV series were Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio. All three seasons are currently available on DVD in the USA and other Region 1 territories. In Australia, to coincide with the show's tenth anniversary in 2006, Madman Entertainment released all three seasons in Region 4 format. These boxsets are loaded with 'world exclusive' special features, including commentaries and interviews with the voice talent.
The Production Designer for the show, Clyde Klotz, won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on Beast Wars.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Setting and plot
The two main factions of robot Transformers are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon series: the Maximals are the descendants of the Autobots and the Predacons are the descendants of the Decepticons. The names were intended to stem from the terms Mammal and Predator but were not necessarily consistent with the alternate forms of the Transformers. (In Beast Machines, the process during which Autobots and Decepticons became Maximals and Predacons is respectively referred to as the "The Great Upgrade".)
The leader of the Predacons team is Megatron. He and his forces are a splinter group on the hunt for powerful crystals known as Energon, to be used in a ploy for power and dominance. They do this with the aid of artifacts known as the Golden Disk and Megatron's stolen ship, the Darkside, 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 land on a mysterious planet.
The planet is soon found to be rich in deposits of raw Energon, to the point that it proves to be poisonous to both factions' robot forms, forcing the factions 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, dinosaurs, arachnids and insects.
Before crashing, the Axalon deployed 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. 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, as is the case with Blackarachnia and Inferno. The stasis pods were used as a plot device to introduce new characters.
Eventually it is discovered that the Transformers have in fact travelled back in time and landed on ancient Earth. Megatron decides to wipe out human civilization (currently a small group of proto-humans living in a single ravine), take control of the previously-crashed Autobot spaceship the Ark and kill the dormant, original Optimus Prime, Optimus Primal's ancestor. This would win the Beast Wars for the Predacons, alter the timeline, prevent the Autobots from being awakened by humanity in 1984 and ultimately defeating the Decepticons, and leave Megatron the ruler of the universe.
The later plot was developed following the discovery of a message made by the original Megatron for any Decepticons who would uncover it within the Golden Disks. The Predacon Megatron would successfully infiltrate the Ark and destroy the original Optimus, but Optimus Primal took the spark of Prime into his own body in order to protect it (which transformed his body into the Optimal Optimus form) while Rhinox and the other Maximals performed vital repairs on Optimus Prime's body. When the repairs were complete, the timeline was restored to its original state.
Many of the plots involved interaction with artifacts from an unknown alien source. These artifacts were related to a great source of power. Activating an alien beacon destroyed what was originally thought to be Earth's second moon but was revealed be a massive alien transmitter. This sent a signal to the aliens. The energy pulse was so strong that it affected the transformers on the surface of the planet, which lead to deaths of some characters and the re-configuration of others into Transmetals, while the rest were left unchanged.
Beast Wars was the first Transformers series to include deaths in the television episodes (the original 80s series continuity had several characters die in the theatrical movie, but no characters died in the series itself). In the end, of the ten characters that appear in episode one, only six survived the entire series, and out of these, only three survived to the end of Beast Machines. Notably among them is the character Waspinator, who was blown to pieces or otherwise dismantled in almost every episode of the series, but never officially "died". Even in the sequel series Beast Machines, Waspinator survived, albeit in a new body and identity, as Thrust.
[edit] History and development
Early Beast Wars toy tech spec cards painted a picture of the Transformers taking on giant-sized forms in the present era (similar to the '80s series it was based upon). However, when Forward and DiTillio began writing the show, they instead chose a considerably earlier setting; this would later be revealed to be Earth’s prehistoric past, long after the original Transformers ship The Ark crash-landed inside a volcano. Larry DiTillio revealed that the decision to make Earth the planet was not made until the end of the first season. They gave the planet two satellites and decided that they would destroy one moon if the planet was indeed to be Earth.
Originally, the series was going to be set in the present, with certain characters from the original cartoon series reborn in new bodies. This was very much evident in the Tech Specs of the first line of toys. The writers of the series, however, knew next to nothing about the original series at first, and since they were given free rein to do what they wanted with a series whose purpose was to promote what was, at the time, a dying franchise, they rewrote the premise so that it had apparently no connection to the original series outside of a few recycled names. When Bob Forward and Larry Ditillio discovered an online Transformers chat forum and learned more about the original series however, they began to work in elements from it, placing the series in the same universe.
Early concepts for the series show that the original faction leaders (Primal and Megatron) were in fact going to be re-imaginations of the original 'series faction leaders, Optimus Prime and Megatron (later Galvatron), but the series itself shows that they are indeed separate characters. (Both Primal and Megatron come face-to-face with the currently-deactivated forms of their ancestors inside the Ark at different points.) The idea of both faction leaders being the original characters was probably abandoned when the idea of the series taking place in modern times was dropped.
The show was originally going to feature a much larger cast of characters, but limitations on CGI at the time meant that the animators had to shorten the cast to five members on both sides, adding new characters sparingly. Bob Forward has credited this as being part of the reason why the show was so successful, because a smaller cast meant he could focus on character development and personality for every character, as opposed to the ungainly task of writing for an entire army's worth of characters.
Also, instead of Tigatron, the toy-only character Wolfang was supposed to be in the show, but was replaced at the last moment to conserve money, as Tigatron was a repaint of Cheetor in the toy line, and thus would be easy to tweak the existing Cheetor CGI figure to look like the white tiger Maximal. This reuse of character CGI figures to introduce new characters is a fairly common money-saving tactic for most CGI-based television shows, and was used in Beast Wars to make Blackarachnia (a slight remodel and remap of Tarantulas) and Ravage whose head was a repainted version of Tigatron's beast mode head, mounted on a robot body which was a remodel of Transmetal Cheetor's robot mode body.
Susan Blu, who provided the voice of Arcee in the original Transformers series, was the voice director for the Beast Wars series, as well as the voice of Transmutate in the episode of the same name.
Initially, Waspinator, not Terrorsaur, was to die at the beginning of Season Two. Because people enjoyed Waspinator as comic relief for the series, the creators decided to kill off Terrorsaur instead. Waspinator went on to be the only Predacon to survive both Beast Wars and Beast Machines (not counting Blackarachnia, who defected in season three of Beast Wars).
The third season of the TV show was originally supposed to include an episode called "Dark Glass", written by Christy Marx. The script of the episode depicted an encounter between Rattrap and the Dinobot Clone, where Rattrap finds that the datatracks of the original Dinobot in the ship's computer, and goes on a suicide mission to install it into the transmetal II clone in a desperate bid to bring his old friend/foe back. However, the script was seen as "too dark" for little children to watch, and so the episode was never produced. A considerably lighter and more jocular episode called "Go with the Flow" was created in its place. Transcripts of the episode survived, however, and it is now considered part of the Beast Wars continuity, mainly for its explanation on how the Dinobot Clone regained the original's personality after Rampage was destroyed at the end of Season Three. This was also made in a fancomic.[3]
[edit] Characters
[edit] Episodes and media releases
[edit] DVD Releases
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 1
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 4
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: August 12, 2003
- Run Time: 620 minutes
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 2
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: March 23, 2004
- Run Time: 330 minutes
Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 3
- Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Audio: 5.1 Dolby Surround & 2.0 Stereo
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: Not Rated
- Studio: Rhino Theatrical
- DVD Release Date: September 7, 2004
- Run Time: 350 minutes
''Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 1''
- DVD Release Date: 17 March 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 4
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
''Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 2''
- DVD Release Date: 25 July 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 3
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
''Beast Wars - Transformers: Season 3''
- DVD Release Date: 10 November 2006
- Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 3
- Region: Region 4
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance)
- World Exclusive Special Features
[edit] Reception
While the toy line was lauded for its innovative joint construction and the show mostly liked by fans, some more extreme Transformers purists decried the entire series as a mistake, having gone as far as to angrily post slogans like "TRUKK NOT MUNKY" (intentionally misspelled) on the internet to show their resentment over the use of animals instead of vehicles for the line's alternate forms. This quickly died out, especially in light of the fact that some Transformers from the original series (such as the Dinobots and Insecticons) had beast-like modes. Overall, Beast Wars was well-received and is often praised for its mature tone and darker storylines, in addition to its character development.
[edit] Beast Machines
Beast Wars was followed up by Beast Machines, a new series with a new creative team in charge of the cartoon. As a sequel, it was not initially well received among some fans mostly due to the surviving Maximals and Predacons being out-of-character to a variable, and others to a considerable, degree. Others did not find its techno-organic Cybertron concept to be agreeable, as the planet was always referred to previously as never having organic life. However, in more recent years, it has been held in slightly higher regard by some fans, especially compared to the perceived poor quality of the newer and Japanese produced series that are unconnected to the original core universe.
[edit] Japanese treatment
The 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). The characters originate from the future that the Beast Wars teams left, but the events of the series take place in the far future. The series are noted primarily for the return of Unicron, but more negatively, for their childish, comedic nature, as the Transformers franchise is aimed at a very young age group in Japan in comparison to the United States. Beast Wars II spawned a theatrical movie. The Beast Wars Neo toyline was created to cater to the Japanese market. Whereas the cybernetic transmetal Beast Wars Transformers sold well in Western markets, Japanese fans preferred more realistic looking beast modes, thus Beast Wars Metals was not as successful with Japanese fans. The second and third season of Beast Wars and its toy line only lasted a few months before being quickly replaced by Transformers: Car Robots in the following new year, in which several unused Transmetal 2 molds were used as Destrongers (Predacons).
[edit] Comic books
While the Beast Wars and Beast Machines series officially exist as the future of the original cartoon series, it also incorporated bits and pieces of the Marvel comics as well, while introducing new elements into the Transformer mythos, such as sparks and protoforms (however, it should be noted that beyond use of the comic-only term, "The Ark", and the comic book entity, Primus, all of the show's references are based on the original cartoon). This would be carried on into the Dreamwave comics, which seemed to integrate elements from both lines while working towards maintaining continuity with Beast Wars.
[edit] BotCon comics
In the BotCon comics, two particular Beast Wars storylines are tapped.
In the Point Omega storyline, several events lead up to a tremendous battle against Shokaract, a Predacon fueled by the Dark Essence of Unicron himself. This also serves as an introduction for Apelinq, and the only appearances of Windrazor, Sandstorm, Antagony, and Cataclysm.
In the Primeval Dawn story, Tarantulas comes back from the dead alongside Ravage, Spittor, Iguanus and Razorclaw to complete the mission he set out to do, while the Vok create Primal Prime to stand in his way; Primal Prime teams up with Airazor, Tigatron and Ramulus, who have come back from the dead as well.
[edit] Dreamwave Productions
Dreamwave Productions released a Summer Special which contained a Beast Wars story. It introduced three new characters, Optimus Minor, Bonecrusher and Wolfang. The comic had a survey as to whether Dreamwave's new comic would be Robots In Disguise or Beast Wars. Beast Wars won.
Dreamwave Productions had plans to release a Beast Wars comic in early 2005, which would have been done by the War Within creative team of Simon Furman and Don Figueroa. Brad Mick and Adam Patyk were originally planned to write the series until they left Dreamwave after not being paid for several projects. However, although some cover art did appear on the internet, Dreamwave entered bankruptcy before one issue could be published.
[edit] IDW Publishing
After Dreamwave filed for bankruptcy in January 2005, the license for all Transformers comics, including Beast Wars were picked up by IDW Publishing, and was released in early 2006 as a four-issue miniseries. The series was written by Simon Furman and drawn by Don Figueroa. The Beast Wars comic takes place parallel to the third season of Beast Wars and introduced characters who were not shown in the original series such as Magmatron, Razorbeast and Injector. Other characters who made an appearance are Grimlock in his Beast Wars body (a recolored Dinobot toy) and Ravage in his Transmetal II "Tripredacus Agent" incarnation.
Taking place around the events of the season three episode Deep Metal (the Predacons are just installing Sentinel), the comic focused on Magmatron, sent by the Tripredacus Council to capture Megatron after Ravage's failure. However, Magmatron had his own agenda - to create his own army from the stasis pods the Axalon had ejected in the pilot episode. His scheme was partially thwarted by the Maximal double-agent Razorbeast, who ensured the shell program used reconfigured many of the protoforms as Maximals rather than Predacons. The two sides would clash in an attempt to stop Magmatron from returning to Cybertron with a captured Megatron, with some unexpected aid from Grimlock ensuring Magmatron was sent back to Cybertron empty handed. However, Razorbeast's Maximals and many Predacons (led by Ravage, resurrected in a transmetal II body) were left on Earth, opening the way for future series.
The series is important in that it wraps up many of the loose ends that the show did not address – most importantly, what happened to the various protoforms that the Maximals jettisoned. Also the presence of both Lio Convoy and Big Convoy in flashback sequences implies that the Japanese Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo take place in the same continuity.
IDW editor-in-chief Chris Ryall recently confirmed the second Beast Wars series, titled The Ascending, as well as a series of character profile books, will be due in August.[4][5]
[edit] Video games
There have been two Beast Wars video games, both for the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 home systems, though one (the first one (not the second one)) was released for the PC, as well. The first, based on the first season of the show, is a third person shooter in which you can 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. This one was released in 1998 by Hasbro Interactive. The other, Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals, is a Fighting Vipers-style fighting game based on the second season and was also released by Hasbro Interactive, though only the PlayStation version; the Nintendo 64 version was released by bam! Entertainment. Neither of these games did well, commercially, and were overall panned by critics and fans alike, although the second game was memorable for having most of the voice actors from the show itself reprise their roles as the characters. The PC version of the first game also has a multiplayer feature (removed from the console releases) that allowed up to 8 players to play over LAN, and had its own play rooms in the MSN Gaming Zone, though it's been subsequently removed. 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]
[edit] References to Transformers and other media
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
Beast Wars is known for its frequent fan references. Transformers fan and proprietor of www.bwtf.com Ben Yee had been called on many times to provide insight into the Transformers mythos to Mainframe so they could properly incorporate content from the original series into the show. As thanks for his help, Ben Yee is given a commendation within an episode of the show as an in-joke. When Rhinox was reprogrammed as a Predacon, he sabotaged various aspects of the base, and even Waspinator's personality. When Blackarachnia referred to him as "wacko", Waspinator replied "Wacko? No, Wonko! Wonko the Sane!" before saluting the screen. This is a reference to a character from Douglas Adams' So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, and was the screen name of Ben Yee at the time. In addition to Ben Yee, other fan references were spread throughout the series. Notable fan references include:
- Episode 1 Beast Wars part 1- When Cheetor goes out running to try out his new beast form, he spies Waspinator in beast form as an abnormally large wasp. Cheetor then concludes that the wasp is a "Robot in Disguise!" That quote is part of the Transformers slogan.
- Episode 13 Dark Design - After Cheetor shoots him, Waspinator does a nose-dive into a platform. While shutting down he says "More than meets the eye." which is part of the Transformers slogan. Before, Rhinox had damaged Waspinator, who then flew around, referring to himself as Shrapnel, even speaking with the Insecticon's speech impediment.
- Episode 24 Before The Storm - "Code A.T.T.", spoken by Megatron, in reference to fan forum alt.toys.transformers, and "...it is beyond imagination!", again spoken by Megatron, in reference to James Hooks' website "Beyond Imagination", which at the time included interviews with the writers and spoilers for upcoming episodes, and was itself a reference to the tagline of The Transformers: The Movie - "Beyond Good, Beyond Evil, Beyond Your Wildest Imagination."
- Episode 35 Code of Hero - "Got a blue plate sighting in Tengu Sector", spoken by Cheetor, in reference to fan Tengu.
- Episode 37 The Agenda Part One - "Rampage, position yourself in Subsector Hooks", spoken by Megatron, another reference to Hooks.
- Episode 39 The Agenda Part Three - At the beginning of the episode, Rattrap rides a large missile down to ground rodeo-style, with a yell of "yee-haw!". This is a reference to the ending of Dr. Strangelove. In the same episode, Rattrap tries to jump onto Ravage's ship, and before going to vehicle mode, Rattrap calls his vehicle mode, "Knievel mode," in reference to Evel Knievel.
- Episode 39 The Agenda Part Three - Referring to the Ark, Optimus Primal remarks on its design by saying: "Die-cast construction - it's a lost art." This is a reference to how the original Transformers toys used die-cast metal in their construction, but this practice had ceased by Beast Wars, hence it being a "lost art."
- Episode 44 Feral Scream Part One - "Sector Tallories", spoken by Optimus Primal, in reference to fan Tallories.
- Episode 47 Go with the Flow - "Quarry detected - Grid Joona", in reference to a Finnish Transformers fan. However, the name is mispronounced as "jeu-nah", while the original Finnish pronunciation is "yaw-nah".
- Episode 51 Nemesis Part One - "This is Optimus, encoding transmission M Sipher" in reference to the screen name of fan Greg Spelak.
- Episode 51 Nemesis Part One - "Like you had no time for Starbase Rugby? You had friends there, as I recall... Tasty ones too!" Rampage mentions Starbase Rugby; the name reversed is Rugby's Starbase, a small internet store that had taken many TF toys and created a somewhat official TF continuity. This is also where the name Omicron comes from.
- Episode 52 Nemesis Part Two - "Targeting grid 3H, full power to weapons, Fire!" Megatron mentions 3H which was the name of the group who was in control of the BotCon convention at the time: Jon and Carl Hartman, and Glen Hallit.
While not as common, Beast Wars also makes a few entertaining pop culture references. One of them appeared in the episode "Victory" when the Axalon's engines were failing. The crash was avoided thanks to Optimus, who guided the ship to a landing position using his Prime Jets and incredible strength. To add further comic relief, the Maximals suggest that it could be "a bird" or "a plane" until they realize that it is Optimus flying to their rescue. This is a clear reference to the DC Comics hero, Superman. In the episode "Gorilla Warfare", Waspinator stands with his back against a wall, when Optimus Primal suddenly punches through the wall behind Waspinator from the other side, and pulls Waspinator through the hole to be finished off. Batman used a very similar tactic in The Dark Knight Returns.
At another point, Silverbolt points out Venus to Blackarachnia, saying it reminds him of her; this is a subtle reference to Venus Terzo, who provides the voice of Blackarachnia. In the show, Rattrap once referred to his vehicle form as "Knievel mode" which likens his driving form (and possibly driving skills) to the daredevil Evel Knievel. After Rattrap complains about Silverbolt's attitude, Cheetor tells him to forget it, and says: "You and I can go to the Six Lasers Over Cybertron amusement park." The name is a nod to the Six Flags amusement park chain.
Cheetor also makes a reference to American football in the episode Dark Designs. When the Maximals storm the Predacon base, Cheetor says 'how about we punt your butt a hundred yards down the field?' An American football field is 100 yards long, and since the show was made in North America, it is safe to assume that 'punting' is a reference to American football (as opposed to other kinds of football).
In the episode Victory, when the Maximals are inspecting the deserted Darkside, Cheetor waves some of Tarantulas' legs at Dinobot. Dinobot takes them and says "Alas, poor Tarantulas. I knew him, Cheetor." This is a direct reference to the play Hamlet when Hamlet holds a skull and says "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio." Dinobot also quoted Hamlet in Coming of the Fuzors pt. 1 when he said "to be, or not to be, that is the question" (this quote was the start of a speech referring to the Golden Disks). He goes on to reference the play again as he dies in Code of Hero, uttering Hamlet's final words, "the rest is silence."
In the episode "Proving Grounds" Rattrap is seen playing video games on the Maximal computer. The games are similar to Street Fighter, with Megatron and Optimus Prime fighting (It even took the announcer's voice from Street Fighter II), and a second that is similar to Doom, with Rattrap's gun and enemies that look like Waspinator. In the episode "Power Surge", Rattrap is seen playing a game of cards against a pair of holographic hands. The cards themselves are holographic and have the Maximal logo on the back.
One of the most comical references appeared in "Possession", when Optimus defeated Starscream, saying "hasta la vista Starscream" referring to a similar quote from the movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Sunglasses also appeared over his eyes briefly, another reference to the Terminator movies.
In one episode, Rhinox and Inferno fight each other in the style of 'Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots'. Rhinox wins causing Inferno's head to come up; Megatron shoots Rhinox and shoves Inferno's head back down.
After the Quantum Surge, Blackarachnia exits the Axalon and views the newly altered Earth and claims how things have changed. Then Airazor states "The more things change, the more they stay the same," a famous American proverb.
In the episode Feral Scream pt 1, when Megatron and Waspinator are creating a Transmetal II clone of Dinobot, the twisted experiment is a parody of Frankenstein, with Waspinator rubbing his hands together anxiously, with the posture of Igor as he says "Yes, Master". Also, when the Predacons hold Depth Charge captive there is a dual reference to Warner Brothers Cartoons. When Megatron is hit by a direct charge from Transmetal II Cheetor, he is spun away in a manner reminiscent of Taz the Tasmanian Devil. He then falls off a cliff, looking up for a few seconds then falling like Wile E Coyote.
In 'Coming of the Fuzors pt. 1', Inferno is attacking Silverbolt and Quickstrike. When Megatron saves them by knocking Inferno out, he says 'goodbye bad cop, hello good cop'. The good cop/bad cop interrogation technique has become well-known throughout pop-culture (thanks to movies and TV shows) and the phrase 'good cop, bad cop' is a pop-culture reference in itself (and is sometimes used in reference to other situations besides interrogations).
Optimus Primal's Gorilla form and Megatron's T. Rex forms are also an homage to King Kong where the gorilla, Kong, fights a Tyrannosaurus rex. In the episode 'Beast Wars Part 2', Optimus and Megatron do fight in their beast modes. It also likely a reference to Godzilla's and King Kong's relationships in the film franchise. It has also been believed that the Predacons are based on monsters that were featured in the series.
In the first two episodes, Optimus frequently rode on Rhinox's back when both were in beast mode. This may have been an obscure reference to the videogame Donkey Kong Country, where Donkey Kong is able to ride a rhino called Rambi.
In the episode Equal Measures Terrasoaur refers to Cheetor as Kit Kat.
Time is constantly referred to in terms of 'cycles' with prefixes attached to delineate units of tens or more. Megacycles are referred to in some episodes supposedly referring to one million cycles. The term "stellar cycle" is also used to refer to some number of cycles, not made known to the viewers. In 'Code of Hero', Rhinox mentions that the temporal wavefront of the transwarp explosion will reach cybertronian space in 'approximately 2.218 decacycles.' which suggests that they might use a few other metric prefixes for time that are never mentioned explicitly in the episodes. Of note, most half-hour TV shows are about 22.18 minutes long to allow time for commercials, but since there is a second episode between 'Code of Hero' and 'The Agenda (Part 1)' where the wave actually enters cybertron's space, this may be simple coincidence, or it could mean that a single decacycle is about a day long. This may be considered contradicting, because in 'Equal Measures' Optimus freely said, "That storm will hit us within the hour!" when replying to Cheetor, who offered to fix the bomb. The Transformers used "minute" and "second" quite frequently in the first half of the series. It was only until towards the end of season one that they began to use "cycle" more regularly, although they did still occasionally slip up and use human time.
Beast Wars even made references to itself in certain episodes. When Rhinox was reprogrammed, Optimus said 'yesss', which was Megatron's catchphrase (this may have been a subtle play on the fact that Garry Chalk, who voiced Optimus, originally auditioned for Megatron). When Optimus wanted to fly at maximum speed, he said "maximum burn" but in 'Coming of the Fuzors Part 1', Rattrap (in vehicle mode) said "maximum rubber burn!" This also works as a pop-culture reference: burning rubber is a slang term for driving really fast, since tires are made of rubber and will melt if spun too fast (due to the friction against the road). The show was also very self-aware and referred to everyday things in more 'robotic' terms (such as 'metal violin' and 'cyber puberty' and calling male Transformers “bots” and females ones “fem-bots”).
The episode 'Master Blaster' was named after the movie 'Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome' in which there was a character named Master Blaster. He was made up of two characters: a stupid giant named 'Blaster' and intelligent dwarf who rode on his shoulders named 'Master'. Together they were called Master Blaster, and apparently the name was chosen because of Quickstrike in his giant metal control suit bearing some resemblance to Master Blaster.
Some other references made were the following: "Nobody calls me chicken!" by Rattrap, referring to Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy, "Persistence is futile" in Season 2 "Bad Spark" by Rampage when he first assumes his tank-like form, referring to the "Resistance is futile" catchphrase used by Star Trek's Borg, and finally the often used "What's new pussycat?" regularly heard in Season 1, used at least once by Rattrap to Cheetor, is the name of a song made famous by Tom Jones.
In one episode, Airazor makes the comment (while in falcon form) "She stoops to conquer". This is a multi-faceted pun referring to the play of that name by Oliver Goldsmith and the falconry term "stoop" which means dive.
[edit] Cast
[edit] English-language cast
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Gary Chalk | Optimus Primal |
| Richard Newman | Rhinox, Vok |
| Ian James Corlett | Cheetor, Sentinel, Maximal Computer |
| Scott McNeil | Rattrap, Dinobot, Dinobot II, Silverbolt, Waspinator |
| Blu Mankuma | Tigatron, Tigerhawk, Vok |
| Pauline Newstone | Airazor |
| David Sobolov | Depth Charge |
| David Kaye | Megatron |
| Don Brown | Scorponok |
| Alec Willows | Tarantulas |
| Doug Parker | Terrorsaur, Starscream |
| Venus Terzo | Blackarachnia |
| Jim Byrnes | Inferno |
| Colin Murdock | Quickstrike |
| Campbell Lane | Rampage |
| Elizabeth Carol Savenkoff | Predacon Ship Computer |
| Lee Tockar | Ravage |
| Susan Blu | Transmutate, Una |
Leslie West and Joe Lynn Turner provided the voices that said Beast Wars during episodes of the show. Perhaps by coincidence, a majority of the voice cast, including Cortlett, McNeil, Murdock, Chalk and Terzo, also voiced characters in the 1997 film Warriors of Virtue.
[edit] Japanese cast
- Takehito Koyasu – Optimus Primal (Beast Convoy)
- Daiki Nakamura – Rhinox
- Wataru Takagi – Cheetor (Cheetas)
- Kappei Yamaguchi – Rattrap (Rattle)
- Keiji Fujiwara – Dinobot
- Koichi Tochika – Tigatron / Tigerhawk (TigerFalcon)
- Tetsuya Iwanaga – Airazor
- Mitsuo Iwata – Silverbolt
- Kiyoyuki Yanada – Depth Charge
- Shigeru Chiba – Megatron
- Masashi Endo – Scorponok (Scorpos)
- Nobuo Tobita – Terrorsaur / Quickstrike / Sentinel
- Yūichi Nagashima – Tarantulas (Tarans)
- Kenso Kato – Waspinator (Waspittor)
- Ryoka Yuzuki – Blackarachnia (Black Widow) / Predacon Computer (Naviko)
- Shinichiro Miki – Inferno
- Nobuyuki Hiyama – Rampage
- Kazuki Yao – Starscream
- Hidetoshi Nakamura – Vok / Unicron
- Haruna Ikezawa – Transmutate
- Chafurin – Cicadacon
- Yukimasa Kishino – Ramhorn
- Joji Yanami – Seaclamp
- Toshiyuki Morikawa – Ravage (Jaguar)
[edit] References
- ^ Church, Matthew (1996). Real Life Toy Story. The Financial Post Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
- ^ PBS early Daytime Emmy leader - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety. Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
- ^ 1. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
- ^ forums.idwpublishing.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=87e9e0df7b91b33235216dfacd50d587;act=ST;f=21;t=3636;st=20. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
- ^ forums.idwpublishing.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=87e9e0df7b91b33235216dfacd50d587;act=ST;f=21;t=3636;st=80. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
- ^ www.tv.com/aftermath/episode/45417/trivia.html. Retrieved on 2007-07-14.
[edit] External links
- Official site for American Beast Wars DVDs
- Official site for Australian Beast Wars DVDs
- Official Beast Wars UK site
- Beast Wars at the Internet Movie Database
- Beast Wars at TV.com
- Beast Wars: Transformers at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Beast Wars toys checklist
- TFU.info - online archive of nearly every Beast Wars and Transformers toy.
- Ben's World of Transformers
- A3U Podcast Audio Interview With Voice Actor Scott McNeil
- A3U Podcast Audio Interview With Voice Actor Gary Chalk
- Transformers At The Moon - See all the Beast Wars Transformers toys
