The Media Man Reviews: Transformers: Beast Wars

Now this review is going to be something special, especially if you're a Transformers fan.

During the 90's, the Transformers franchise went in a bold new direction since toy sales were down at the time and their attempt to reboot the franchise with Generation 2 backfired spectacularly. And that was how we ended up with what is known as "The Beast Era" of Transformers in where the characters would transform into beasts instead of vehicles. Derived at the time, the Beast Era has now become a staple of the franchise and is probably nearly as beloved as the G1 era nowadays. This is definitely the case with the cartoon series that began the Beast Era...Transformers: Beast Wars.

Released in 1996, Beast Wars is one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed entries in the entire franchise. Praised for its strong story, memorable cast of characters and not being afraid to push the envelope of what a kid's cartoon could do, Beast Wars is a huge fan favourite series for many and to this day is still hailed as one of the best Transformers cartoons of all time. One of its episodes, "Code of Hero" is even considered the best episode of ANY Transformers cartoon ever made. Very high praise if I say so myself, and also funny too since back when it came out, we had the infamous "Trukk, not munky!"complaint from fans. Shows what they know, because Optimus Primal turns into an APE, not a monkey! They do know gorillas aren't monkeys, right? =P

Anyhow, what's my experiences when it comes to Beast Wars? I actually didn't see it when it was on TV at the time due to being born too early to be watching it. I was born in 1994, the show came out in 1996, so I would've still been watching stuff like Pingu by then. But I did have some exposure to the toyline at least. I remember just getting a lot of the Transmetal figures, but I don't remember how I got them, except for Transmetal Terrorsaur. That was a Boxing Day present. The rest, I can only guess they were hand-me downs from family members. I remember owning Transmetal Optimus Primal, Airazor, Dinobot and Scavenger and I also remember owning Depth Charge and Stinkbomb. The show itself, I didn't watch until later in my teen years thanks to uploads on YouTube. The first time, I watched all of Season 1 and then stopped. The second time, I watched Seasons 1 and 2 and then stopped. This year marks the first time I've actually seen it all the way through! Yeah, took me long enough, I know.

And before you ask, NO. I am NOT checking out the sequel series Beast Machines. I ain't touching that crap! From what I've read, it's a sequel series that butchers the original and desecrates the beloved characters of Beast Wars, and I'm not down for that.

So, do I agree with fans that Beast Wars is awesome? Or should we throw this thing to the Predacons for destruction? Readers, maximize! We're going into this review...

Section 1: The Story

It's the story of the Maximal and Predacon factions who crash land on a mysterious planet and battle it out over Energon supplies and for control of the planet. With Optimus Primal leading the Maximals and Megatron leading the Predacons, the Beast Wars begin and only one side will walk away victorious...

This is one of those shows that has a VERY standard sounding plot for a Transformers show, and that's OK. Just having two factions of characters fighting each other is what we're here for with this franchise. Nothing more, nothing less. But of course, it's what you do with the concept that makes or breaks a series and Beast Wars is in the former category here.

I like how the writing of the show slowly escalates as the show goes on. Season 1 is very standard with a mostly "Mission of the Week" formula and a few standard episode plots like dealing with a clone, infiltrating the enemy base and such. But at the same time, Season 1 does sprinkle in a few plots that indicate that larger forces are at play with some cryptic foreshadowing about the alien plot that the Cybertronians have unwittingly stumbled in to and a few call-backs to the G1 era. Hell, one episode features Waspinator being possessed by the ghost of Starscream! No really! But then from Season 2 onwards, the show starts becoming more serialized and we lose the episodic nature of Season 1 for the most part. That to me is the perfect way any series of a show should be handled: start off small with hints of a bigger plot and then start going bigger in the next season onwards and Beast Wars did it so well.

It also helps that the plots of these episodes tend to be really solid or at the most logical ideas that you can tell with a show titled BEAST WARS. I mean an episode where the characters have to overcome their beast mode's wild instincts? That just makes perfect sense, as does an episode that features nature in some way like with the floating island. Hell, the story itself even justifies why the characters need beast modes with the planet they're on having too much Energon and so they need the beast modes to overcome that. Thus it makes clear the whole "Beast Wars" thing isn't just some fancy gimmick and is really a part of the story. For Season 1 at least. I feel the whole "beast" theme kinda becomes irrelevant as time goes on, but we'll get to that later.

One other thing I want to give the writers credit for is how despite being a kid's show in the 90s, Beast Wars does not dumb itself down for the younger audience (much) and is surprisingly dark and mature at times. While I'd say Transformers: Prime took more risks, Beast Wars was still pretty ballsy at the time with intense situations the characters end up in, threat of apocalypse, actual character deaths that stick and some pretty frightening moments that are still effective now. I especially wonder how many kids were scared of Tarantulas, or were frightened by the two-parter that introduced Transmetal 2 Cheetor. The fact the stakes escalate over time also helps too with each season feeling like it's bigger than the last and that the Beast Wars are beginning to get more intense as more characters are introduced, some are disposed of and we go from needing to save the world to saving time itself. And then there's the fact the show doesn't shove a moral in the kid's faces and if they did have a moral, they were usually subtle or done in a way that doesn't sound patronizing or like they were talking down to the viewer. Then there's the fact the show has some dark and heavy themes in it like Tarantulas' entitlement to Blackarachnia feeling eerily reminiscent of abusive relationships in real life, or Dinobot's existential crisis that has him questioning his place in the universe, or how war has consequences and will change a person over time and much more. It's really mature stuff and I like it.

And yet despite Beast Wars being pretty dark at times, the show can also be very, VERY funny. I kid you not when I say the show can proper make you laugh at times, especially with some of the cartoony animation, the personalities of the characters and in the cases of Waspinator and Inferno, some of their comical misfortunes. The former especially became a fan favourite because of how hilarious HIS misfortunes could be. To give you an idea on how good the comedy in this show is, they somehow managed to make a fart joke of all things the most hilarious moment of the entire series. No exaggeration! You'll understand when when you see it. And yet the comedy never feels out of place or that it's trying too hard to cater to kids. It feels like they use it sparingly so that the show can bring some levity but they never use the comedy during the darker moments of the show so they can be played more seriously, and as the tone got darker, the comedy was used a lot less. I wish media nowadays could get that balance right because it really feels like they have no idea how to do it anymore.

Being a Transformers show, of course there's plenty of action to be had and the show delivers quite a lot. While not as strong as the action you might get in cartoons nowadays, it's still pretty good for the most part and what they pull off in spite of the show's...dated visuals which we'll cover later. Most of the fighting at first is characters shooting at each other, but as the show progresses, we do get more physical fighting between the characters and the battles can get pretty intense with some characters getting hurt pretty badly to show how serious things are. As I said, this is a show that wasn't afraid to take risks and I admire it for that.

But the biggest thing to note about the writing is how it gets deeper than you may think. This show IS a good jumping on point to get into the franchise, but at the same time it's also full of fan-service-y call-backs to the G1 era for the die-hard fans. Hell, the Season 2 finale LITERALLY involves Megatron trying to change history by killing Optimus Prime while they're in the past and both Primal and Megatron get a power-up via their G1 selves' sparks! You can't get bigger fan-service than that! And yet it doesn't feel cheap or a lazy way to pander to the fans. If anything, it helps sell the fact that this is a sequel series to G1 and that the Beast era is in the same continuity as G1, which no doubt helped the fans back then transition better from one to the other. They could've easily just started all over, but it is cool how they managed to tie this show in to the G1 era but did it in a way where newcomers won't feel lost or alienated. Russell T. Davies could learn something from this show. =P

So yeah, it's easy to see why Beast Wars has such a high reputation. The writing is strong and willing to take risks and the escalating stakes make for an exciting watch...yet at the same time I can't help but feel the show's been a little overhyped.

OBLITERATE HIM!

(gets blasted by the Predacons)

...should've seen that coming! *cough cough*

I'm aware I'm treading on sacred territory here, but I'm not going to apologize for saying Beast Wars has flaws with its writing. Even good shows have flaws, you know. =P

For starters, the entire overarching plot with the Vok? Completely wasted. They were given a very mysterious and menacing presence in Season 1, but from Season 2 onwards they kinda start feeling irrelevant and in Season 3, they along with Tarantulas are unceremoniously killed off. However, I am aware that wasn't the writing team's fault. They DID have more plans for the show and were forced to cut it short because Hasbro wanted to focus on Beast Machines, so the Vok's storyline got chopped down a fair bit.

This in turn also affects the pacing of the show after Season 1. Seasons 2 and 3 just feel rushed by comparison with not enough downtime for the cast in-between big storylines and some of the new characters aren't given enough time to develop with Depth Charge being the biggest example of that, or how some of the power-ups feel they've come too late as we're nearing the end of the show and we needed more episodes to build up to that.

And on that note, why the hell did the show try to make it a twist that they'd landed on Earth? Even the kids watching this show at the time would've called it from Episode 1 that was why they landed. It was so dumb that the show tried to make it seem surprising they'd landed on Earth.

Also due to the nature of the show, not every character is done justice unfortunately and we have some who are heavily shafted in favour of others. Waspinator and Inferno just become jokes as time goes on despite them being pretty capable at first, Scorponok and Terrorsaur are abruptly killed off in an extremely rushed manner, Rampage has a menacing first impression but then is never shown to be that powerful ever again, Tigatron and Airazor are abruptly written out of the show early in Season 2 and are forgotten about until just before the Season 3 finale and are unceremoniously killed as Tigerhawk, Quickstrike barely even qualifies as a character and feels like just a generic mook they needed to fill in the fight scenes, Depth Charge is introduced way too late in the series and Dinobot II's heel turn just felt like an ass pull. Needless to say, someone somewhere will be disappointed about how at least one of these characters was done dirty.

But my biggest issue with the show is the introduction of the Transmetals. Once they're brought in, the whole beast mode thing just feels irrelevant and there's no real reason for these characters to turn into beasts anymore, especially when the Transmetal forms have pseudo-vehicle modes too. And once again, it feels like character bias because only a handful of characters even get these Transmetal power-ups while some like Rhinox, Waspinator and Inferno don't get anything despite the toyline having Transmetal upgrades for them! If they were introducing this concept, then all the characters should've gotten it, not just certain ones that the writers clearly favoured or Hasbro wanted to promote the most. This is why I prefer Season 1 of the show the most, because that felt like it justified the beast mode gimmick the most and felt like it truly stuck to its concept, whereas the introduction of Transmetals from Season 2 onwards feels like a dumb attempt to please the naysayers who probably hated the beast-formers idea and find some middle ground that didn't work in the end. If there's any concept that I would've liked to see more of instead of these stupid Transmetals, it would've been the Fuzors. We only got Silverbolt and Quickstrike in that regard, thus that concept felt wasted and I would've been more interested in seeing more Fuzors and what wacky beast hybrids we could've gotten. At least the toyline made up for that...

Those aside, I still think the show is very strong and has earned its reputation. It's just the flaws it has prevents me from thinking it's as good as fans say it is and why I think they've overhyped it. But that still doesn't stop me from thinking it's good regardless...

Section 2: The Characters

I don't think any TF show has a cast of characters that's been as iconic, beloved or memorable as this one. Almost every character in this show is well-remembered or extremely popular in one way or another.

I'll start off with the main Maximal crew which consists of Optimus Primal (voiced by Gary Chalk), Cheetor (voiced by Ian James Corlett), Rattrap (voiced by Scott McNeil) and Rhinox (voiced by Richard Newman). These four are the only Maximals who are there from the first episode and make it to the end, and they're quite a crew with their own memorable quirks and personalities. Optimus is the wise, compassionate leader who also has a firm side to him, Cheetor is the young rookie who's loyal and wants to prove himself, Rattrap is the snarky spy who fights dirty and Rhinox is the medic who is both brains and brawn and also has a peaceful side to him. While these characters don't really develop much over the course of the series, they are still a likable team of heroes we can root for and they all have something to bring to the table. Of the main five, Rattrap is easily my favourite for what a snarky little s**t he is. He also cracks me up and also shows he's not just there to be funny as he's also one of the most competent Maximals on the team. Seriously, just watch him in action, he's really pragmatic with how he battles a lot of the time and how he gets the drop on his enemies. Cheetor I'd say is my least favourite of the five, mainly because he hasn't got much to his character aside from "young rookie who wants to prove himself" and as time goes on, he starts to feel irrelevant. But that's not to say I hate him or anything, just he was always the least interesting of the team to me.

But when it comes to the MOST interesting Maximal, that honour goes to the fifth member of the team and unquestionably the best character in the entire damn show: Dinobot (also voiced by Scott McNeil). Dinobot is everybody's favourite character, mine included, and it's so easy to see why. Unlike the other Maximals, Dinobot actually has layers to his character and undergoes development that changes him over time. Originally a Predacon, he defects to the Maximals after Megatron denies him a challenge for leadership and despite being a Maximal, Dinobot's Predacon tendencies do make him unpleasant and untrustworthy a lot of the time. The rivalry he has with Rattrap is hilarious and gives us some great comedy whenever the two start bickering. Season 2 was when Dinobot's story really took an interesting turn as he studied the Golden Disk and learned how they're on Earth in the past, which gives him an existential crisis. This ultimately leads to him making the ultimate sacrifice as he stops Megatron from altering history by trying to destroy humanity before it can develop. He unfortunately dies after that, but the way it was handled made it feel like the most epic send-off a character could ask for. Seriously, I'm a man in my 30's and even I feel like I get hit by a sledgehammer when I see Dinobot's death. It's no wonder this character is the most beloved in all of Beast Wars. Dinobot was awesome.

As for other Maximals, we get additional members such as Tigatron (voiced by Blu Mankuma) and Airazor (voiced by the late Pauline Newstone) in Season 1 while Season 2 introduces Silverbolt (also voiced by Scott McNeil) and Season 3 introduces Depth Charge (voiced by David Sobolov). I HATE how dirty Tigatron and Airazor were done in this show. Tigatron was such a fascinating member of the team with his lone ranger and peace-loving nature and how he helped the team control their bestial sides and Airazor was sorely lacking in development. She needed a focus episode of her own to flesh her out some more. She and Tigatron even had a cute romance blossoming between them. And what happens to them? They get kidnapped by the Vok early on in Season 2, disappear from the plot for several episodes, don't come back until before the two-part finale in Season 3 in where they're fused together into a new being named "Tigerhawk", get captured by Tarantulas so that the Vok's storyline can be hastily rushed to a finish and then Tigerhawk gets killed off during the series finale. It's just sad how two wonderful characters with so much potential were so callously wasted. I don't care if Hasbro told the writers to get rid of characters and promote new toys, you can do that without being so wasteful with the cast! Dinobot got a grand final stand, so why couldn't Tigatron and Airazor get the same thing?

Silverbolt is a fun new addition to the team with his chivalrous knight personality and how he's not the smartest guy in the room, but he does mean well. He's instrumental in Blackarachnia's turn to the Maximals and the two develop a somewhat toxic, but sort of cute romance between each other that feels very BatmanXCatwoman in a way. While Silverbolt can be annoying with some of the dumb decisions he makes, it's hard to hate the guy because he's just so well-meaning.

Depth Charge, they honestly shouldn't have bothered bringing him into the show. He was introduced way too late and he appeared very sporadically so his inclusion especially felt like an afterthought. It feels like he only exists just to give Rampage someone to fight. He did look cool whenever he was onscreen at least.

And now let's cover the Predacons with the most notable ones to talk about being Megatron (voiced by David Kaye), Tarantulas (voiced by Alec Willows), Blackarachnia (voiced by Venus Terzo), Inferno (voiced by Jim Byrnes) and Waspinator (also voiced by Scott McNeil). Megatron is worthy of carrying the name of the Decepticon leader. This incarnation of the character is a sheer delight whenever he's onscreen thanks to his deliciously evil personality, his effortless charisma at the hands of David Kaye and how cunning he can be. This Megatron is the kind of schemer who's so good at scheming that he can even make plans that hinge on him KNOWING his teammates will betray him. To give you an idea how intelligent this guy is, his scheme at the end of Season 1 ended up with an outcome that would either see Tarantulas or Blackarachnia die, or Optimus Primal takes their place and he dies instead. AND IT WORKS! Obviously, Primal does come back alive later, but the fact this Megatron did successfully kill his nemesis for a couple of episodes is still commendable. Definitely one of the best Megatrons in the franchise. Yeeeeees...

Tarantulas is more-or-less the Starscream of the Predacons, but with a more interesting twist since he's not even a Predacon in the first place. He's a mole planted by the Tripredacus Council and it's implied he's something else entirely. It's just too bad Tarantulas doesn't really achieve much as the backstabber. Anytime he tries to get one over Megatron, Megatron out-schemes him and his tendency to suffer comedic misfortunes doesn't exactly make him seem very threatening. I do love Alec Willows' performance as him at least, he sounded like he had a lot of fun with his character.

Blackarachnia's character arc was...confusingly handled in my opinion. She's yet another backstabbing schemer, albeit slightly more successful than Tarantulas, and she has this thing about forging her own identity regardless of what people want from her or what they believe her to be. She's strong in her convictions and is determined to prove she is who she is...and then she ends up badly damaged, is given a Transmetal upgrade and is made into a Maximal and that's just who she is now. She didn't make the decision herself, circumstances beyond her control forced her into it. That's just a terrible way to execute her story. The fact her personality barely changes after becoming a Maximal also doesn't really make it feel like she ever "redeemed" herself, it's more that she just swapped sides and doesn't serve Megatron anymore. Such sloppy writing in what is otherwise a mostly well-written show. How Blackarachnia got handled so poorly, I'll never understand...

She's not the only poorly handled Predacon too. Waspinator and Inferno both suffer the same problem in that they're pretty menacing looking and were competent fighters at the start of the show, but over time their threat levels diminish and they become nothing more than jokes. Waspinator at least became a fan favourite because of how he's the universe's punching bag and he's a more comical character, so he fits as the show's Butt Monkey. But Inferno? He's a bit comical as well, yes, but he was genuinely threatening with his fire powers and how near unstoppable he was, so why he became more of a joke is beyond me.

The additional Predacons aren't much better sadly. In Season 1, we had Terrorsaur (voiced by Doug Parker) and Scorponok (voiced by Don Brown). Terrorsaur is a Starscream wannabe and Scorponok is Megatron's personal butt-kisser. That is literally the beginning and end of their characters. It's no wonder they were killed off so abruptly in Season 2.

Speaking of Season 2, we get Quickstrike (voiced by Colin Murdoch) and Rampage (voiced by the late Campbell Lane). Quickstrike...barely even qualifies as a character. He's just an extra mook for the Maximals to fight. His cowboy personality is pretty fun though, as is his design and it was kinda amusing seeing him hit on Blackarachnia. Rampage on the other hand was infinitely more interesting. Originally dubbed "Protoform X", he's the result of experiments that left him unstable and violent, so he had to be locked away. This makes him a rather tragic figure as he didn't ask to become who he is and instead of helping him, those who experimented on him just locked him away. Despite his sadistic nature and violent personality, Rampage does show a more human side to him when he tries befriending Transmutate and was genuinely saddened when she died. Sadly, that side of him never comes up again, but it was still interesting to see Rampage had more to him than that. Just a pity he set up a strong first impression, only to become less effective as the show went on.

Season 3 gave us Dinobot II (also voiced by Scott McNeil), a Transmetal clone of the original Dinobot. He's pretty menacing, especially in the episode "Proving Grounds" when he relentlessly pursues Blackarachnia throughout the episode and is a great example on what a Dinobot loyal to Megatron would've been like. It's just unfortunate he too is introduced way too late in the show and his redemption was really rushed, and also felt like it came from nowhere. It isn't helped by the fact one episode that never got made, Dark Glass, could've at least explained or set it up so it would've felt less out-of-nowhere.

When it comes to the Predacons, I hate how they all have the same issue of either suffering Badass Decay or nearly all of them being treacherous and disloyal to Megatron. Seriously, it got real old real fast when just about every Predacon kept trying to backstab him. It's pretty sad when only TWO Predacons in the entire series are genuinely loyal to him, those being Scorponok and Inferno. Waspinator I guess counts too, but it feels like he's only loyal to Megatron because he hasn't got the brains to backstab him.

While not a perfectly handled cast unfortunately, the characters of Beast Wars still have a lot of memorable charm to them and the ones who are handled great are handled REALLY great, especially Dinobot. I guarantee you'll walk out of this show with at least one favourite character, and a desire to get their toys too...

Section 3: The Animation

The animation is outdated. What more do you want me to say? =P

Jokes aside, while it's easy enough to just say "the animation is outdated" and call it a day, I'm not going to do that. As is, I cannot ignore the elephant-in-the-room, so let's just get the obvious out the way and then talk about the good stuff.

Yes, this show looks extremely primitive, even by 90's standards. Sorry if I sound harsh, but I'm only calling a spade a spade here. The entire show looks like a retro video-game with its visuals, which is funny because this show DID have video-game spin-offs made. But yeah, every episode of this show feels like watching a cutscene from an old PlayStation or old SEGA game because of how it looks. Nothing looks well rendered or well made here from the textures all being blurry and practically non-existent, the lighting looking unnatural and the effects looking very unconvincing. Even the way they have things break and blow to pieces in this show looks laughable with everything more or less looking like bits of crackers when they break apart. And then there's the fact any organic creature in the show looks a bit uncanny, be it the animals, the character's beast forms or the early humans. BUT, and this is a very big but, I am NOT using this as a means to criticize the show. I am thoroughly aware that this show came out in 1996 and CGI was still in its infancy at the time, so obviously the show won't look that great by today's standards. I am merely calling the animation for what it is, I'm not trying to be mean or put down the animators at all. In fact, I actually want to applaud them for doing the best they could with the technology they had.

Now we get to the good parts of the animation. Yes, even a show as outdated looking as this has good things about the animation. First of all, the character designs. There is a reason the cast of Beast Wars are as iconic and memorable as they are. Every character has a distinctive design that makes them all stand out from one another and their own unique design traits from Optimus Primal's gorilla hands to Megatron's T-Rex head arm and purple colours to Waspinator's green and yellow body to Tarantulas and Blackarachnia's pincer hands and spider legs on the arms to Dinobot's blue face and orange helmet and much, much more. I love how the characters look distinctly robotic but also have a slight organic touch to them, which further sells how these are Transformers that turn into animals. The techno-organic approach is perfect for these designs. While I dislike the Transmetal designs, I do give them credit for keeping up the techno-organic design in how they may look more robotic, especially in beast mode, but still have an organic edge to them. I also give them credit for still making the animals look like animals despite the hi-tech redesign they got. It's just the pseudo-vehicle modes that I think make the Transmetals look a little silly. I mean when you have Rattrap turning into a rat that's also a car, you know you've completely lost the plot at this point. XD If there are any character designs I wish we got more of in this show, it's easily the Fuzors. We only got Silverbolt and Quickstrike and they were fascinating to look at because of their hybrid beast modes that somehow manage to look believable as living things. Quickstrike especially was ingeniously designed as this huge scorpion that has a cobra in place of a scorpion tail. That's so cool. Seeing more of these instead of those stupid Transmetal designs would've been awesome in my opinion.

As for the character animation, yeah that too looks a little primitive with how the characters will often have jerky movements, janky walk or run cycles and how their body parts will clip through one another. But even then, it's not all bad. Despite the limited animation at the time, the animators manage to give these characters so much personality with just their facial expressions and body language. This too explains why these characters were so memorable to Transformers fans, because the animators gave them as much personality as the writers did. There's a lot of noticeable quirks in the cast from Dinobot's Shakespearean gestures and little growls he does to Megatron's hammy nature to Rattrap's mischievous smirks and several others. There are some characters who either have a mouth plate or a visor in place of eyes and still manage to be really expressive, namely Tarantulas. His face is merely a visor and some mandible like jaws and yet you can read his expressions as easily as anybody else. The beast forms are equally as expressive, even if the faces look uncanny compared to the robot faces. It also helps when it comes to the show's comedy too as you get some funny expressions or body language that help make the jokes land even harder. One such example is when Rhinox unleashes his explosive fart (long story). As he turns around to aim his butt at Megatron, you can see the other Predacons slowly and quietly slinking off to the side as if trying to avoid what's coming. XD

While we're on that subject, this show is surprisingly good at animating slapstick comedy, even if the animation is on par with an early video-game. Seriously, I was proper laughing out loud at a lot of moments in this show because of how effective the slapstick was. One such example is when Rhinox, Cheetor, Rattrap and Dinobot are blinded and have to find their way home despite being unable to see. At one point, Cheetor's attacked by a giant snake, Dinobot panics and...runs straight into a tree and is completely flat as if this was a Looney Tunes cartoon. Hilarious! In fact, a lot of the gags in this remind me of Looney Tunes. We even get a scene of Inferno plummeting from the sky and landing with a cloud of dust ala Wile E. Coyote! Maybe the writers and animators were Looney Tunes fans?

The animators also must've been having a lot of fun with their jobs on this show, because we not only get a lot of funny character animations, but a lot of funny sight-gags and little in-jokes too. Need I bring up Megatron's famous rubber ducky? No I'm serious, look it up! XD. One of my personal favourites was in "Feral Scream" Part 2 where Dinobot II slices Waspinator to ribbons (literally) and then when we see Waspinator again, he's covered in plasters and has one of his insect legs in a sling. I dunno why, that just really amused me. And then there's Terrorsaur literally turning white with fear at the end of Episode 6 when he sees Megatron is alive. Just priceless. XD

But the show isn't just good at animating comedy. It's good at being creepy as well. The best examples include Rampage's debut episode and the "Fearl Scream" two parter. The storyboarding, dark colours and intense atmosphere in those episodes make the show feel like a horror movie at times, and it's surprisingly effective too. I don't scare that easily, but even I could feel the tension at times in those episodes.

And then there are the action scenes, which I feel is where some of the show's best animation comes in. The action scenes are varied in how sometimes it's just characters shooting at each other and sometimes they will engage in hand-to-hand combat or get more up close and physical. The animators really worked hard to make them the highlight of the episode and as the show's tone got darker, the action scenes became more intense and brutal to accommodate. Seriously, there are a lot of times you'll see characters get damaged or beaten up a bit with the famous "Code of Hero" being the best example. Dinobot was a wreck after everything that went down! Now I wonder how awesome this show would've looked with action scenes like what you'd see in an episode of Transformers: Prime...

So yeah, as easy as it is to laugh at this animation and call it outdated, this animation also deserves to be commended for being surprisingly good for its time and still making the most out of the resources they had. This is why I urge anyone checking this show out for the first time to NOT judge the show by its outdated visuals. Trust me, you do get used to them after a while and you may still be impressed by what you see...

Overall

Transformers: Beast Wars is may be a liiiiiiitle overrated, but I do agree it's one of the best cartoons the franchise has ever spawned. The story is engaging and introduces a lot of cool concepts and ideas, the beast gimmick gives the show its own identity, the characters leave a big impact, the writing isn't afraid to get dark at times, the comedy is hilarious and the action gets more intense as time goes on. The only thing holding it back for me are a few writing decisions that hurt the story and cast and the laughably outdated animation, but I can overlook most of those problems because Beast Wars is just such a good time regardless of its faults. This is a show you HAVE to watch if you're a Transformers fan or are at least intending to get into the franchise. Beast Wars is a beloved show, and it's easy to see why. It's up there with Transformers: Prime as among the greatest TF shows ever made...

And that's it for this review. I hope you enjoyed it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Do you like Beast Wars? What childhood memories do you have of the show? Or are you a newcomer wanting to check it out? Do tell me.

Join me next week for yet another Transformers review as I review THE cartoon that started the franchise for me, the 2001 Transformers: Robots in Disguise anime. See you then media fans!

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