Beast Machines: Transformers 

The Maximals awaken on their home planet of Cybertron and are chased by mindless Vehicons created by Megatron. The Maximals must free the planet from Megatron and restore it to its real way of living.

Stars:

Garry Chalk, Ian James Corlett, Scott McNeil

Cast

Series cast summary:
Garry Chalk	...	Optimus Primal / ... 26 episodes, 1999-2000
Ian James Corlett	...	Cheetor 26 episodes, 1999-2000
Scott McNeil	...	Rattrap / ... 26 episodes, 1999-2000
Venus Terzo	...	Blackarachnia 26 episodes, 1999-2000
Alessandro Juliani	...	Nightscream 22 episodes, 1999-2000
David Kaye	...	Megatron / ... 22 episodes, 1999-2000
Jim Byrnes	...	Thrust 20 episodes, 1999-2000
Paul Dobson	...	Tankor / ... 13 episodes, 1999-2000
Brian Drummond	...	Jetstorm 12 episodes, 1999-2000

Storyline

The Maximals awaken on their home planet of Cybertron with no memory of how they got there and instead of being greeted by there own kind they are chased by mindless Veicons created by Megatron(II). The Maximals must free Cybertron from Megatron and restore it back to its organic life.

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Plot Keywords:

organic | sequel | megatron character | 24th century | good versus evil | 

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Genres:

Action | Animation | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-Y7

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 September 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Beast Machines: Battle for the Sparks

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hasbro, YTV, Mainframe Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (26 episodes)

Did You Know?

Trivia

None of the villain characters in the show walk normally. Jetstorm and Obsidian lack legs entirely and always hover, Thrust balances on one wheel, Tankor rolls on caterpillar tracks built into his feet, Strika hover-skates, the diagnostic drone likewise lacks legs and instead flies, and Megatron is supported by cables within his citadel and only rarely reaches down to the floor. However, Megatron does walk with normal feet in some of the other bodies he temporarily uses.

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Goofs

Optimus' assertion that the Beast Wars were actually an initiative by the Oracle to bring organic life back to Cybertron makes little sense, considering that the war only started because Megatron stole an ancient artifact from Cybertron to fulfill the orders of the original Megatron. The Oracle had nothing to do with it.

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Quotes

Silverbolt: How can you stand the sight of me? Look at what I've become.
Black Arachnia: Your spark is strong. Megatron could never crush your spirit.
Silverbolt: What do you know about my spirit?
Black Arachnia: Where do you think you're going? Do you have any idea what I went through to get you back again?
Silverbolt: After what YOU went through?

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Alternate Versions

Much like in the case of its predecessor, Beast Wars: Transformers, the Japanese version of this show is a comically over-the-top parody, the exact opposite of the serious and somber tone of the original. The recurring characters retained their individual quirks, including the Vehicon Generals, whose identity was kept a mystery in the original version. These comical traits were driven to the point of insanity, with many characters constantly yelling their trademark catchphrases to break up the silence. The new characters also received their own unique personality changes -- most notably, Nightscream was turned into a flaming gay stereotype as an homage to a Japanese comedian who was popular at the time.

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Connections

Featured in Atop the Fourth Wall: Transformers #4-5 (2010)

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Soundtracks

Phat Planet
Written by Barnes and Daley
Performed by Leftfield
Courtesy of Chrysalis Music/Hard (UK) Hands Publishing

User Reviews

It's NOT the Beast Wars, but has merit of its own

Having seen probably every episode of the original Transformers, Beast Wars, and now Beast Machines, I feel I can comment on this series with some authority. I loved the Beast Wars even though it was a very different show from the Transformers. They took liberties and played with elements from the original Transformers, starting with the guest appearance from original Transformer Starscream, and culminating with the discovery of the Ark and the "guest appearances" of Optimus Prime and Megatron. The Beast Wars combined old and new, wonderful CGI with great voice talent and fun scripts. I was sad to see it end.

So then came the previews for Beast Machines. Sure, it was still animated by Mainframe, who did Beast Wars, so we knew it would look good. But what about the story? From the beginning there were questions. They were taking the surviving characters from Beast Wars and putting them in a new environment. This would be our first in-depth CGI look at Cybertron. I had no problem with this. We had done the "Beast Planet" thing, so a new setting was promising. Next was the idea of the mindless transformer drones, to provide "cannon fodder" as we hadn't seen before in the Transformers. No problem. New characters, new bodies for our survivors, this was all okay. We had grown accustomed to that in the Beast Wars. Most characters had changed appearance two or three times by the end of that series.

The problems I had were with the changes they made in the fundamentals of the mythos, and the characters. I don't remember much from previous series about the organic beginnings of Cybertron. Personally, I don't really see the point in them pushing it as the main element in this Beast Machines story arc. I would think they would have enough to do with a return to Cybertron, a new fight, new characters and such. Second, the characters change for the worse in my opinion. As established in Beast Wars, Optimus was rational, kind and a strong leader. Here he becomes angry, argumentative, and indecisive. Rattrap was a complainer in Beast Wars but not a coward or an idiot as he was in Beast Machines. It's only halfway through the series that he even figures out how to transform, something the others accomplish by episode 1 or 2! Cheetor becomes bull-headed and arrogant, a trait he was often scolded for in Beast Wars, but here he is rewarded and promoted for it. I understand that they probably wanted to show his progress to leadership, and bring in Nightscream as the new 'kid' of the team, but it still seems out of place. I guess what I'm saying is, the characters have all become kind of unpleasant and I don't really care about seeing any them succeed anymore. About the only one who is still 'in character' is Blackarachnia, who wisely spends much of the Beast Machines series following her own agenda away from the other Maximals. Megatron's obsession with eliminating the 'organic element' seemed odd to me since he was the one so obsessed with experimenting on organics in the Beast Wars. He cloned, he tampered, and he was awfully proud of the power of his newly acquired body each time he got one, half-organic or no. I don't understand the point of using established characters if you plan to change all of their personalities. Just create some new ones, at least the Beast Wars team had the respect to do that.

Having said my piece about the treatment of the surviving Beast Wars characters, let me say that I enjoyed the 3 Vehicons. This makes me think that the writers know how to write, they just don't know how to write the specific characters that carried over from before. The use of the Maximal personalities within the Vehicons lead to interesting speculation about who was who and what this would mean; but in the end, I hope we don't see that as an excuse to bury the characters of the Vehicons in favor of our "returning favorites." I would favor a story that finds a way to segregate the two sets of characters so they can live on their own.

All in all, although my review is very critical, I think there's a lot of potential here. The CGI is great. The voice actors are too and I'm glad that they didn't make any replacements, that they got the Beast Wars actors back to resume their roles. A lot of the visions of Cybertron are very chilling ... like somewhere between Blade Runner and Tron. Although there are characters I despise, I think they still have strong voices in Blackarachnia, Megatron, Rhinox-Tankorr, and I think Jetstorm is a hoot! I just hope they find a way to write their own ideas without just swiping a lot of stuff from the past and then bending the stories to fit their revisionist history. If season 2 is as good as the first I'll keep watching... but I think they can do better.