21:45 The funny thing about this is WHY this happens. The writers HATED Waspinator at first, and tried to harm him at ANY opportunity to hopefully kill him off. But this ended up causing them to LOVE him in the same way one would like Kenny in South Park, so they started having fun putting him in as many near-death experiences as possible, and having him survive them.
"The future is not fixed. My choices are my own. And yet, how ironic, for I now find I have no choice at all." Goddamn this show had some great dialog!
Not only that. The very same episode has great visual moments. Book opens with prime-human getting killed by snake, which leads to DinoBot Sepukku scene with not words bringing heavy theme to the episode. Story ends with Dinobot crafting primitive stone hammer to fight Megatron and later protohuman kills probably the same snake from begining of the episode. Dinobot shaped the future not even knowing it.
Dinobot always had a bit of a Shakespearean streak to him, heck, he even paraphrases Hamlet a few times. But Code of Hero just turned it up to 11 with some of his lines. You know the writing in a show is phenomenal when you're so wrapped up in this tragic dark hero that you forget he has a really stupid name like "Dinobot."
Megatron: You wouldn't dare fire in here! It might upset history. Optimus: We'd have four million years to clean you off the walls, Megatron. I might risk it. Savage.~ 😆
I never even seen the original Transformers series(unless you count the reviews about it), but I truly loved Beast Wars when I was a little kid. Imagine my surprise when I found out that there was a plethora of series, toys, comics and what not related to that? Thank you so much for making this review, Phelous. You probably won't be able to see this comment, but I truly loved remembering all the nostalgic feelings I had for this series.
dammit, i just realized this is the same Scott McNeil that voiced Kouga in InuYasha and some stuff in Ranma 1/2.Which is somewhat unusual because dub voice actors from anime are rarely actors from western animation. well, there's a few but not many.
princesstamika Scott McNeil is one of those guys who's probably appeared in literally everything at this point. The Scott McNeil drinking game is one of the leading causes of death in the developed world.
That actually sounds amazing, not going to lie. Just Scott McNeil narrating his life. "Hey, Scott! Is the lawn getting a little overgrown?" "I believe so, Scott! We should totally mow it!" "Should we weed the yard while we're at it, Scott?" "Absolutely, Scott! As long as we yell at the weeds while we do it!"
The dinobots aren't intended to look like organic creatures. Wheeljack just makes them on a whim after they see dinosaurs on TV. They're way more like anime mechs or Power Rangers zords. The dinobots could never create that scene with Cheetor and the other cheetahs.
The future has changed, yeeesssss. The Autobots lose.... evil triumphs.... and you.... ...YOU.... ...are completely useless now! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
I will never understand the "trukk not munky" thing because, y'know..there were animal transformers in G1! (most notably, the Dinobots and Insecticons, and of course, the original Predacons!)
Considering when the show came out, I'm willing to bet half of the people complaining online weren't really fans, but just wanted to jump on a bashing bandwagon. Most people my age loved the show from the beginning.
Thomas Jenkins He only does that in the movies and comics, and Prime are you high, and that isn’t being suicidal, that’s called honor you stupid fuckstick
Here's the deal... I never cared for Transformers, but I loved Beast Wars. To me, Optimus Primal is my Optimus. The characters of Beast Wars are far more appealing and rounded from all the information I've learned about the G1 series. I was satisfied with the Beast Wars I got, and don't need to whine about the team-ups that could have been between the Autobots and the Maximals.
I honestly think Code Of Hero is one of the single best episodes of television ever produced. Every scene in that episode builds up perfectly, escalting in scope until we reach Dinobot's eventual sacrifice, concluding his character arc beautifully. That episode cemented Dinobot as one of the best characters in all of Transformers, and Beast Wars as the best Transformers show.
There is a reason Dinobot was voted into the inaugural class of the Transformers Hall of Fame in 2010. Alongside Optmus Prime, Megatron, Stracream, and Bumblebee, Dinobot was a non G1 character beating out favorites like Soundwave, Grimlock, Jazz, and Shockwave
No the 2010 inaugural class of the Transformers Hall of Fame was Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Bumblebee, and Dinobot as the fan vote in. Waspinator was the fan vote in the second class of 2011 with Soundwave, Ironhide, and Ratchet.
I am trying to remember who Bumblebee even was in Beast Wars... Hmmm. I'll just assume that it was for everyone and Bumblebee was part of the other series.
Bumblebee was not a part of the Beast Wars cartoon nor do I know of him being around during the time of Beast Wars. All the characters in the show sans Ravage and Starscream's ghost were new characters not part of the great war. IDW did a small Beast Wars mini series where Prowl, Ironhide, and the Aerielbot leader Silverbolt were the residing high council of the Maximals and Grimlock was still around this is either not canon anymore or an alternate universe from their comic universe since in their comic universe the Maximals and Predicons are a lost colony pf Cybertron that developed animal modes instead of vehicles. Tigatron and Airazor are the representatives on the council of worlds.
While I watched G1 as a kid in the 80s, I was never big into Transformers. It was Beast Wars that made me a fan of the franchise, where I eventually went back to rediscover G1. I would watch Beast Wars every Saturday morning with my dad. And while it seems a lot of people don't seem to like Beast Machines, I did. And while Phelous would probably tear it apart, I'd be interested to hear his thoughts on Beat Machines.
I don't think i liked Beast Machines fully when i first watched it through but in hindsight i think i appreciate it more. As for Beat Machines? Soundwave Superior, Blaster Inferior.
I loved Beast Wars. If anything, the cg helped keep the cast small, which prevented them from running into problems like "isn't that character supposed to be dead?" or other character confusions (like miscoloring).
The real benefit of having a smaller cast is having to rely more of developing the characters you have, rather than introducing a new toy... uh... character every episode, doing nothing with them except one or two fights that don't mean anything, then forgetting about them, or only having them in cameos for the rest of the series. There are a lot of other shows that did that precise thing, and it works better the way Beast Wars did it.
@@ailma0400 It was also due to episodes being shown in basically a random order. If it wasn't explicitely a 2-parter it would be shown whenever. And even then a 2-parter or multi part story wasn't a guarantee. That's why they rarely did a serialised story in the G1 days, the episodes would be shown as and when the network felt like it.
I loved watching Beast Wars. I wasn’t aware of any problems that other G1 fans had with show until I read about it on the internet forums in the early 2000s. Consequently, I liked Beast Wars so much that I hated what was done to the characters and world in Beast Machines cartoon.
I thought Beast Machine was pretty good. It was a different show from Beast Wars but it really wanted to do its own thing and it's a really unique show, especially for its time when continuity heavy cartoons weren't much of a thing. And I appreciate what it did and how it was so different from every other Saturday morning show on at the time with a deep story and dark themes. When I first watched it I was bracing myself for a disaster and when I actually saw it was like "So what's the problem here? Yeah the robot mode designs could use some work but its not bad."
What I have read about Inferno is that he was supposed to die in The Agenda, but his toy was one of the larger classes so the decision was made to keep him despite him barely being relevant or much of a threat anymore. Something else interesting to note is that if the series weren't canned in favor of Beast Machines, it's finale would have led to the Maximals using the Ark to chase Megatron into space, and he would be fighting his namesake for control of his body. That would have been the explanation for why he tried to blow up the Ark with the Nemesis, contrasting with before when he seemed horrified by the consequences of such an act. Also G1 Megatron in his cameo is voiced by Gary Chalk. The show tried to get Frank Welker for the cameo but was unsuccessful. This led to Gary Chalk sharing the distinction of voiced the leaders on both sides with David Kaye.
Also Inferno was originally gonna turn transmetal along with Megatron and Tarantulas. But they decided to keep him in his original beast mode, and rename the transmetal ant toy that was released “Scavenger”
@@mitchfletcher2386 I'd say it's also likely that it was a Union concern. From what I'm aware, the Beast Wars actors were non-union at the time of production, but Welker and Cullen were both Union. Correct me if I'm wrong about that, though.
I love the fact that there is someone across the pond that is into transformers as much as I am. love your work brother keep it up and remember BAHHH WEEP GRA NAH WEEP MINI BARN
In a way Beast Wars reminds me of Star Trek's Deep Space Nine where instead of planet hopping and meeting one off characters, DS9 focused more on thier smallish cast with great character arcs and stories. It comes to show that you don't need to be big and grand to write great episodes. 😀
I didn't see this show until I was in my 20s, but it does have my all time favorite line in all fiction. "I can suffer your treachery, lieutenant, but not your incompetence! Treachery requires no mistakes."
I love the characters, the voices, the story, the humour, the fights, the dino forms, the intro music, the mature story arcs, EVERYTHING is AMAZING about Beast Wars! It's hands-down the best show about Transformers and is just as fun to watch as an adult as it was when I watched it as a kid. I honestly do find it way better in almost every aspect than G1.
My very first and favorite Transformers series. I remember watching this show after school when I was a little kid on the WB and after watching it on Netflix a few years back it still holds up really damn well. I especially remember the video tapes that came with some of the toys, specifically Transmutate, Bad Spark and Code of Hero. Now to wait and see how this got messy with Beast Machines.
I thought Beast Machine was pretty good. It was a different show from Beast Wars but it really wanted to do its own thing and it's a really unique show, especially for its time when continuity heavy cartoons weren't much of a thing. And I appreciate what it did and how it was so different from every other Saturday morning show on at the time with a deep story and dark themes. When I first watched it I was bracing myself for a disaster and when I actually saw it was like "So what's the problem here? Yeah the robot mode designs could use some work but its not bad." I feel pretty bad for the head writer Robert Skir, he got so much hate and some asshole wishing he and his whole family would die simply because they didn't like a different take on Transformers but I'm happy that the show is more highly regarded than it used to be and that's he's proud of it despite the hate it got.
Beast Wars was so good~ I did like Beast Machines as well, though it is an admittedly flawed series. Blackarachnia is both life goals and wife goals! And speaking as an autistic person, I really like the fact that Transmutate is an autistic Transformer in the comics and such. Kids need stuff like that.
Wait he was autistic?!?!.......not that it's a problem but I don't remember that........not saying you are wrong either but was that ever explicitly stated???......
This is one of 2 Transformers series I actually like. The restrictions of early 3D animation meant they were forced to get a smaller cast which led to a more focused and character driven story and the robots turning into animals instead of vehicles just appeals to me more personally.
I just got done with my Beast Wars marathon. Sure, nowadays, the CG animation is PS2 levels, but the story, subplots, and characters still hold up after 24 years.
either that or waspinator has a hereditary bit of immortality, and maybe that's why he was possessible at all. after all if Screamy had his choice, he'd have gone after Megatron, right?
Wassspinator wishes he had stayed on Earth instead of going back to Cybertron for Beast Machinesss. Wassspinator deseeeerves it for all the crap he went through in Beast Warsss!
Awesome job Phelous! Thanks so much for not only mentioning my favorite episode (CoH) but for those clips of Scott McNeil as well. He's one of my favorite VA's in the business. Great job!
Grew up with that show and loved it to death.Thought it wold forever remain as kickass obscure show only i remember so it's absolutely amazing that you gave it the spotlight like this and did it justice
I watched every single episode of Beast Wars religiously. I watched one episode of Beast Machines, and completely forgot about it for years. I eventually did watch all of Beast Machines, and while not anywhere near as good as Wars, it did have some great standout moments in it.
Funny Story the writers of Beast Machines were told not to watch any episodes of Beast Wars, and it was mandated by Hasbro and Dan Didio(who was head of Mainframe at the time)since they supposedly wanted the series to be accessible to new watchers even though the majority of the audience would be fans of Beast Wars....what an idiot.
+David Miller What the hell that's such a bad choice. Who could possibly make a good follow up to a series without watching the original? Love for what you're following up isn't a guarantee of quality, but it's certainly a good sign.
the makers of this show are the anti Teen Titans GO team, when they listen to the fans, they actually make good changes, unlike GO who actually listen and insult the fans
Re hilarious censoring: I grew up in the MIddle East, and I didn't even know Blackarachnia existed until the censors couldn't avoid cutting her out lol. Her introductory episode wasn't aired at all. Then in A Better Mousetrap they only showed her in beast mode and I thought, who the hell is that? Eventually they thought oh crap she's fairly important and reluctantly stopped censoring her out....it was the boobs. They cut her because of the boobs.
JenDq8 kind of hilarious considering that several years earlier whoever dubbed Mazinger Z in Arabic kept Aphrodite A's boob rockets then again I suppose it was back when Arabic censors weren't as strict as they are now, looking at you SpaceToon
Funnily enough, Bob Foward and Larry DiTillo said that their version of Season 4 is literally "Beast Wars IN SPACE!!" Still a better idea than what we got instead though
From what I heard some of the things in season 4 involved A) BW Megatron fighting for control of his body when G1 Megatron's spark awakens, and B )Some of the Maximals having trust issues with Tigerhawk due to him being a creation of the Vok.
Robots are usually an excuse for children's action shows to get away with dismemberment, oily bloodshed, and other violent stuff in fight scenes, isn't it? But they censored some of the violence in Beast Wars? A show where EVERYONE is a robot?
Great review, Phelous! I love Beast Wars and honestly consider them one of the best Transformers series. And that’s not nostalgia talking. If anything, I like it more now, than I did as a kid. By the way, funny story about Beast Wars and me. You see, while the series was brought over to Russia our dub was… not as bad as the english Headmasters, but still pretty terrible. In fact, it was so terrible, that it convinced me to actively seek out the english version, because I really liked the characters and story and wanted to see it through the end. And eventually I did, watched it, rewatched and at some point discovered that I really like looking for the differences in translation, adaptation and now I’m a translator myself. I won’t say, that it was Beast Wars that made into who I am, but the series did play it part, and I’m grateful to it. Let’s hope that maybe one day, Beast Machines (which I personally don’t hate, but definitively consider worse) won’t be the last Beast series.
That Russian dub though… Seriously, if you ever going to check different versions of movies or cartoons (not even for a review, though I would love to see that) this will a gold mine for justified ridicule and jokes. Miscast voices, terrible translation errors, and some of the worst actors I ever had the displeasure hearing (especially for poor Terrorsaur). And you can’t even say: “Well, that was just so long ago” or anything like that. The G1 Transformers was also given a russian dub and it was great. I understand, if it isn’t your thing, just suggesting. But seriously though, a gold mine, trust me 🙂
Problem is a lot of the audience of this english review show in english probably wouldn't appreciate how poor the english voice cast is through lack of familiarity with russian mannerisms even with subtitles.
This was my favorite Transformer series, partly because of the fact there were no human sidekicks. The closest we got were the protohumans that Cheetor had to watch. The thing that bugs me the most, was when they introduce/upgraded a character and show how strong they are, until the next episode where anyone can take them on.
Beast Wars was a show I grew up with when I was a kid. I remember when it aired that it was part of a 2-hour block on syndication called the Power Block. Power Block contained 4 different shows: Beast Wars, Vortexx, Reboot and G.I Joe Extreme. Beast Wars was one that stuck out as a show that I enjoyed a lot. So much so that Beast Wars would end up having it's own separate show with a complete intro. The first season didn't have a full intro. It was shortened. It wasn't until Season 2 that the full intro kicked in. Same for Season 3 but Season 3 actually had multiple variations to the intro. I still remember the original intro: ua-cam.com/video/_UmCEsbUe6E/v-deo.html but yet we got one that was spliced with Season 2. That I don't get.
I loved this series. And this was the series that got me fully hooked on Transformers. And yes it helped that I had the Promo Comic that Hasbro had released towards the end of Gen 2 cause it made me more hyped for Beast Wars.
I'm actually surprised at Phelous' knack for impressions. Given his voice, I wouldn't have thought he'd be that versatile. Good review of a great show, though. I like seeing Beast Wars get its due, seeing as how there would likely not be enough public awareness of Transformers in 2007 to warrant a movie without it.
adrienfourniercom nope Beast Wars and the War Plants tv show(which according to Wikipedia was made in Canada) are the only things I’m aware where war was removed from the title, I don’t know maybe it was a daytime tv thing as that would explain how I’ve never seen Star Wars play once on a Canadian tv station in my life(maybe someone else as but I’ve never have) Oh wait never mind I just remember both versions of Clone Wars aired on tv here and I think Space(our SyFy) aired Star Wars marathons more than once,so yeah the whole Beasties thing makes even less sense
@Andre I'd take the silly title *or* the reduced violence over the way they would preempt BW for sports off and on, without fixing the episode order in the TV schedule, so they'd be skipping an episode, and you'd have to wait for the whole series to finish and start over before they played it again, if you were lucky. Thank God for DVD. Now, I'm going to go read "Ies of the worlds." See ya.
Aw snap, *Beast Wars* was my jam as a kid. It was *my first soap opera / drama,* before I encountered Dragonball Z, Digimon, & Yu-Gi-Oh. I remember running late to school because I just had to see the entire episode! 😆✨
I make parodies out of holiday songs with Garry Chalk (Optimus Primal) every year. We started it back in 2017. David Kaye had already been doing it for like six years as Megatron, so I asked Garry to join, who, by the way, is a singer and musician, so it has worked out perfectly. What other fandom receives fun videos from two main characters’ voice actors on a yearly basis? None that I’m aware of. It’s great to be a Beast Wars fan! I’ve loved the show since it first aired in 1996. It’s the only reason I’m still drawing.
Well I for one am glad I was protected as a child from such words as 'slag' and 'ninja' and heaven knows how I would have turned out if I had been exposed to nunchucks. It doesn't bare thinking about.
Being born in 82 I grew up with Transformers but I was too young to really follow the series consistantly or really understood what was going on, but I did really love the toys. In 1995 however, now 13 years of age, Beast Wars rapidly became one of my favorite show. I really loved the CGI style, having watched Reboot previously also, and the storytelling was, as you pointed out, top-notched. So while I have fond memories of G1, I have far more nostalgia for Beast Wars.
I did when they played reruns of it transfomers cybertron was the current show on at the time on cartoon network and I loved it was the end of the unicorn triolgy and my personal favorite of the three.
Reboot and Beast Wars are also some of the best cartoons from the 90s, with exceptional storytelling and lovable characters - heroes who you want to succeed, and villains who are so charismatic that you can't help but root for them a little too. Now I want to see if I can get Beast Wars on DVD!
I just always love to see a talented voice actor getting a chance to voice both an iconic pop culture hero and his equally iconic arch-nemesis, like how Troy Baker has recently started fluctuating between voicing Batman or the Joker in various video games.
David Kaye is also the longest running voice actor for the TRansformers franchise, essential having a voice in every main series, he was Hard Shell in Prime, and since he was using a more gruff version of his Megatron voice, we basically had the OG megatron talk to the Beast Megatron
I remember discovering this cartoon at like 8 in the morning and couldn't take my eyes off the animation. The stories sucked me in and then Uncle Phil I think was the voice of the gorilla, so that was awesome
I thought that too when I first heard the voice. Then when I got older and had access tot he internet I found out it wasn't him and was a little disappointed.
It was a unexpected surprise. A great review from one of my favorite tv series when I was a kid. I didn't knew nothing about Transformers until Beast Wars comes. And it was an awesome series, I couldn't seen it on order, but the writers, editors and production crew put a ton of attention to the detail for a kids show made for selling toys. And yes, has some of the best episodes of kids shows and tragic deaths/clifhangers, as Optimus on first season, Dinobot or eagle and tigertron. Thanks for the review Phelous! It was a great travel to nostalgia. ^_^
It's a real shame the budget didn't' allow them to use all the characters from Beast Wars's toy-line, since G1 Grimlock was one of the Maximals. Would of been interesting to see how he could of interacted with the "new generation" considering how old he'd be by this point in the timeline.
No it’s a good thing because you have all the characters from toyline they won’t develop like in g1 there’s no character development because there is so many of characters so it’s a good thing they had little budget so that way they could develop.
33:00 When did the Decpticons make their base in the Nemesis? They made another ship, when they were leaving in More Than Meets The Eye. They find Nemesis in Microbots.
For What it was worth I do like this show a lot of kids back in the 90's weren't used to this type of CGI but I watch reboot in 1994 so I was used to it a lot of people hate this show but eventually the franchise would continue with others such as Energon and the Minicon series
Glad Phelous reviewed this great underrated show also that Scott McNeil fellow is very impressive. I would watch him in the booth doing the entire show.
Bullshit dude. Only Gary Chalk and Scott McNeil spoke poorly about it. David Kaye loved it and even prefered it to Beast Wars and Ian James Corlett also thought it was a good series and liked the 'comic book-esque story telling' if offered. Garry Chalk was the only one who openly said he didn't like it as he wasn't happy with how his character was portrayed. Everyone else either enjoyed it or hasn't said anything openly negative about it.
I remember watching a recording of BotCon 2004 and a panel with the Beast Wars voice actors and I recall Richard Newman saying he liked it, and enjoyed having a kind character like Rhinox going through such trauma to turn out to be a villain like Tankor (I think Newman just likes playing villains, since he is M. 'Yes! Yes!' Bison and Captain Ginyu).
One good thing; Cheetor became much less of a kid in the team. Outside of that; character designs are hideous, concepts at best underwhelming at worst did horrible things to characters who started to act on sitcom logic which ended up with horrible enviormental message... on Cybertron. I'm not G1 fan ('92 here) and I see completly why people hate it.
Franciszek Rychlewicz Well to be fair a G1 episode called The Dweller in the Depths somewhat established that Cybertron used to be an organic planet before the G1 Quintessons turned it mechanical for their own purposes (whatever they were) and the Beast Machines writers were just expanding on that. Plus I did enjoy the 'balance between nature and technology' theme and one extreme is no different from the other.
On the one hand, I actually wouldn't mind seeing the animation from ReBoot and Beast Wars remastered, even though I grew up with both shows, I can understand why younger viewers might be a bit put off by the animation, especially after Transformers Prime. But at the same time, I know that everything else would end up overhauled especially the voice acting. And yes I do know about ReBoot: The Guardian Code, I want to forget it.
The animation in Prime is great, if you like matte paintings and hundreds of Vehicons/Zombies/Insecticons/Whatever with exactly the same model in the same shot. At least colour them different shade of purple so you can still see they're supposed to be decepticons but they don't look like exactly the same dude.
I watched beast wars reruns all the time growing up they were still selling a lot of the toys at the time i remember getting cheator and loving him around the same time I was watching transformers cybertron and buying all the toys I got my hands on I also watched some of G1 but not a Lot so it's the series im not as informed on. I remember it being a huge deal that primus a major plot twist in cybertron being the toy i most wanted that Christmas.
Oh geez. So many memories of this show. I fell off during the later seasons because they started airing the show on Saturday morning during another show I liked, rather than on weekdays mornings before I had school. Good stuff.
regarding starscream possessing his own body, mentioned around 27:00, the most probable reason why this wasnt an option is because... well, all the bodies in the ark where disabled, stasis locked to keep their sparks alive untill repairs could be made, those repairs only happening millions of years later when the volcano erupts and triggers the ark repair systems. In other words, starscream Could have jumped into his old body... but then would have no means of doing anything as the body itself is effectively non-functional at the time. The same goes for all the other G1s
Thank you for reviewing this show. Beast Wars was Very important to me during my pre-teen and early teen years. Watching this video reminded me of why it had such an impact on the kind of person I am today. Dinobot, Inferno, and Tarantulas are my favorite characters from the show. Great video, Phelous. I may one day subscribe to you yet.
Beast Wars - Where technology limiting you to a small cast actually meant you had to develop the cast. I say it worked out pretty well.
Dynaman21 Yep, the very definition of how limitations could facilitate well crafted and inventive storytelling
Nessecity is the mother of invention.
They say the best shows work with their weaknesses
MunchJrGames I meant to type weaknesses
@@RAFMnBgaming then what's the father?
21:45 The funny thing about this is WHY this happens. The writers HATED Waspinator at first, and tried to harm him at ANY opportunity to hopefully kill him off. But this ended up causing them to LOVE him in the same way one would like Kenny in South Park, so they started having fun putting him in as many near-death experiences as possible, and having him survive them.
There a even a theory that he was the starscream of the group because he can’t die.
"The future is not fixed. My choices are my own. And yet, how ironic, for I now find I have no choice at all." Goddamn this show had some great dialog!
Not only that. The very same episode has great visual moments. Book opens with prime-human getting killed by snake, which leads to DinoBot Sepukku scene with not words bringing heavy theme to the episode. Story ends with Dinobot crafting primitive stone hammer to fight Megatron and later protohuman kills probably the same snake from begining of the episode. Dinobot shaped the future not even knowing it.
"Face it, Dinobot! You're old technology, obsolete. What could you possibly do?"
"Improvise!"
A lot of the dialoge in Beast Wars, and espeically Code of Hero was very Shakespearian.
Dinobot always had a bit of a Shakespearean streak to him, heck, he even paraphrases Hamlet a few times. But Code of Hero just turned it up to 11 with some of his lines. You know the writing in a show is phenomenal when you're so wrapped up in this tragic dark hero that you forget he has a really stupid name like "Dinobot."
"Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest... is silence."
Megatron: You wouldn't dare fire in here! It might upset history.
Optimus: We'd have four million years to clean you off the walls, Megatron. I might risk it.
Savage.~ 😆
Bye Bye Butterfree: Where children cried
Code of Hero: Where men cried.
And then the death of Arthur Morgan where Titans cried.
Transformers The Movie: Where Legends cried.
Oh look, beast wars, that means I get to make a megatron joke
YEEEEEESSSSSS
Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war
YEEEEEEEEEEEES
Hello, my brother
I never even seen the original Transformers series(unless you count the reviews about it), but I truly loved Beast Wars when I was a little kid. Imagine my surprise when I found out that there was a plethora of series, toys, comics and what not related to that?
Thank you so much for making this review, Phelous. You probably won't be able to see this comment, but I truly loved remembering all the nostalgic feelings I had for this series.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Beast Wars, or "Scott McNeil Talks to Himself"
Dunes8 For most of the cast.
And argues with himself.
And i'm sure he would have ended up flirting with himself at some point if the show had went on for another season.
dammit, i just realized this is the same Scott McNeil that voiced Kouga in InuYasha and some stuff in Ranma 1/2.Which is somewhat unusual because dub voice actors from anime are rarely actors from western animation. well, there's a few but not many.
princesstamika Scott McNeil is one of those guys who's probably appeared in literally everything at this point. The Scott McNeil drinking game is one of the leading causes of death in the developed world.
That actually sounds amazing, not going to lie. Just Scott McNeil narrating his life.
"Hey, Scott! Is the lawn getting a little overgrown?"
"I believe so, Scott! We should totally mow it!"
"Should we weed the yard while we're at it, Scott?"
"Absolutely, Scott! As long as we yell at the weeds while we do it!"
Scott McNiel must have a penchant for intelligent conversation.
*slow claps* I don't like comments often but this one deserves it.
FaeQueenCory he's the king of talking to himself.
This was majesty, mate! Pure majesty!!
And the amount of times I have quoted this Megatron quote would be sickening!!
"Dye cast construction, it's a lost art." That line's forever in my head. Good show, I still love that art style even if technology is better today.
"We don't like transforming animals."
Then what the hell are the Dinobots for?!
And the Insecticons! And the Headmasters!
Mitch Fletcher does anyone actually like the headmasters though?
And the G1 predacons too
The dinobots aren't intended to look like organic creatures. Wheeljack just makes them on a whim after they see dinosaurs on TV. They're way more like anime mechs or Power Rangers zords. The dinobots could never create that scene with Cheetor and the other cheetahs.
almightycinder plus the dinobots were cool because they were UNIQUE
The future has changed, yeeesssss. The Autobots lose.... evil triumphs.... and you....
...YOU....
...are completely useless now!
HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
"The future is not fixed. My choices are my own. And yet, how ironic, for most of my choices are *SOOO STUPID."*
Goddangit lol
...okay, you got me with that one. XD
MAHGOD!!!!
I will never understand the "trukk not munky" thing because, y'know..there were animal transformers in G1! (most notably, the Dinobots and Insecticons, and of course, the original Predacons!)
I think it was mostly about Optimus being not vehicle. Plus G1 animals were robotic in both forms.
Selectiveness. Well that and what Boltscrap said.
Considering when the show came out, I'm willing to bet half of the people complaining online weren't really fans, but just wanted to jump on a bashing bandwagon. Most people my age loved the show from the beginning.
Well , that's just Prime 😁👌
Nathaniel Foga Is this the best transformers series? Mmm Yesss.
JD Clair Optimus Prime was only in like 3 episodes of Beast Wars
optimus prime sucks. it's noble that he continually sacrifices himself to help the autobots, but after awhile it's showing how suicidal he is.
Thomas Jenkins He only does that in the movies and comics, and Prime are you high, and that isn’t being suicidal, that’s called honor you stupid fuckstick
Here's the deal... I never cared for Transformers, but I loved Beast Wars. To me, Optimus Primal is my Optimus. The characters of Beast Wars are far more appealing and rounded from all the information I've learned about the G1 series. I was satisfied with the Beast Wars I got, and don't need to whine about the team-ups that could have been between the Autobots and the Maximals.
I love how Scott does bits of dialogue for Dinobot, Rattrap, and Waspinator, but does a quick little description of Silverbolt
I honestly think Code Of Hero is one of the single best episodes of television ever produced. Every scene in that episode builds up perfectly, escalting in scope until we reach Dinobot's eventual sacrifice, concluding his character arc beautifully. That episode cemented Dinobot as one of the best characters in all of Transformers, and Beast Wars as the best Transformers show.
There is a reason Dinobot was voted into the inaugural class of the Transformers Hall of Fame in 2010. Alongside Optmus Prime, Megatron, Stracream, and Bumblebee, Dinobot was a non G1 character beating out favorites like Soundwave, Grimlock, Jazz, and Shockwave
By Bumblebee do you mean Waspinator?
No the 2010 inaugural class of the Transformers Hall of Fame was Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Bumblebee, and Dinobot as the fan vote in. Waspinator was the fan vote in the second class of 2011 with Soundwave, Ironhide, and Ratchet.
I am trying to remember who Bumblebee even was in Beast Wars... Hmmm. I'll just assume that it was for everyone and Bumblebee was part of the other series.
Bumblebee was not a part of the Beast Wars cartoon nor do I know of him being around during the time of Beast Wars. All the characters in the show sans Ravage and Starscream's ghost were new characters not part of the great war. IDW did a small Beast Wars mini series where Prowl, Ironhide, and the Aerielbot leader Silverbolt were the residing high council of the Maximals and Grimlock was still around this is either not canon anymore or an alternate universe from their comic universe since in their comic universe the Maximals and Predicons are a lost colony pf Cybertron that developed animal modes instead of vehicles. Tigatron and Airazor are the representatives on the council of worlds.
In italy the weren't even transformers, they were renamed "Biocombat" XD
Still a pretty cool name.
Sounds like a Bionicle rip off.
@@MarvelandDC379 keep in mind Bionicles were a long time coming.
wait so the guy voicing dinobot and rat trap was basically talking to himself alot lol
Yeeeeessssss
Scott McNeil. He also voiced Waspinator and Silverbolt.
And wolverine in X-men Evolution
I do love seeing a voice actor quickly switching between voices without any takes. It is always impressive.
Black Arachnia: You are going to regret this.
Rampage: I regret everything!
While I watched G1 as a kid in the 80s, I was never big into Transformers. It was Beast Wars that made me a fan of the franchise, where I eventually went back to rediscover G1.
I would watch Beast Wars every Saturday morning with my dad. And while it seems a lot of people don't seem to like Beast Machines, I did. And while Phelous would probably tear it apart, I'd be interested to hear his thoughts on Beat Machines.
ToonamiT0M would love too see his thoughts more fleshed out, too
I don't think i liked Beast Machines fully when i first watched it through but in hindsight i think i appreciate it more.
As for Beat Machines? Soundwave Superior, Blaster Inferior.
Oh man, Beast Wars was my jam when I was a little kid!
beast wars is still my jam
@@literallyglados HELL yeah!😀👍
I loved Beast Wars. If anything, the cg helped keep the cast small, which prevented them from running into problems like "isn't that character supposed to be dead?" or other character confusions (like miscoloring).
Dunes8 Weeeelllllll that was more of a problem with just cel fuck ups. I doubt anyone would mistakenly put in a model of a dead character.
The real benefit of having a smaller cast is having to rely more of developing the characters you have, rather than introducing a new toy... uh... character every episode, doing nothing with them except one or two fights that don't mean anything, then forgetting about them, or only having them in cameos for the rest of the series. There are a lot of other shows that did that precise thing, and it works better the way Beast Wars did it.
@@ailma0400 It was also due to episodes being shown in basically a random order. If it wasn't explicitely a 2-parter it would be shown whenever. And even then a 2-parter or multi part story wasn't a guarantee.
That's why they rarely did a serialised story in the G1 days, the episodes would be shown as and when the network felt like it.
I loved watching Beast Wars. I wasn’t aware of any problems that other G1 fans had with show until I read about it on the internet forums in the early 2000s. Consequently, I liked Beast Wars so much that I hated what was done to the characters and world in Beast Machines cartoon.
Michael Kuzmanovski I didn’t like it cause they didn’t have my hero Optimus Prime,But other than that it was pretty good
I wouldn't be able to tell myself because I got bored with Machines after a few episodes.
I remember being psyched for Beast Machines.
Then I watched it.
I thought Beast Machine was pretty good. It was a different show from Beast Wars but it really wanted to do its own thing and it's a really unique show, especially for its time when continuity heavy cartoons weren't much of a thing. And I appreciate what it did and how it was so different from every other Saturday morning show on at the time with a deep story and dark themes. When I first watched it I was bracing myself for a disaster and when I actually saw it was like "So what's the problem here? Yeah the robot mode designs could use some work but its not bad."
What is Beast machines?
Can you imagine? Moving the franchise forward..taking risks...not regurgitating "things you know" what a wonderful time it was
What I have read about Inferno is that he was supposed to die in The Agenda, but his toy was one of the larger classes so the decision was made to keep him despite him barely being relevant or much of a threat anymore.
Something else interesting to note is that if the series weren't canned in favor of Beast Machines, it's finale would have led to the Maximals using the Ark to chase Megatron into space, and he would be fighting his namesake for control of his body. That would have been the explanation for why he tried to blow up the Ark with the Nemesis, contrasting with before when he seemed horrified by the consequences of such an act.
Also G1 Megatron in his cameo is voiced by Gary Chalk. The show tried to get Frank Welker for the cameo but was unsuccessful. This led to Gary Chalk sharing the distinction of voiced the leaders on both sides with David Kaye.
They couldn't get Frank because he wanted more money to voice Megatron in that scene.
Also Inferno was originally gonna turn transmetal along with Megatron and Tarantulas.
But they decided to keep him in his original beast mode, and rename the transmetal ant toy that was released “Scavenger”
@@mitchfletcher2386 I'd say it's also likely that it was a Union concern. From what I'm aware, the Beast Wars actors were non-union at the time of production, but Welker and Cullen were both Union. Correct me if I'm wrong about that, though.
Man, listening to Scott McNeil in this show after seeing him in TMNT Next Mutation is just... surreal... to say the least
Yeah. With that, I want to see Dinobot with Bonesteel's lines.
@@dnmstarsi I'm not sure what eould be more surreal:
Dinobot with Bonesteel's lines.
Or Bonesteel with Dinobot's lines.
I love the fact that there is someone across the pond that is into transformers as much as I am. love your work brother keep it up and remember
BAHHH WEEP GRA NAH WEEP MINI BARN
it's Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong
It cracks me up that Megatron yyyeeeeesss is the same voice as Clank. It’s like the most diametrically opposed roles.
I've always wondered if Megatron would still have become a dragon if Quickstrike hadn't dropped him into the lava.
In a way Beast Wars reminds me of Star Trek's Deep Space Nine where instead of planet hopping and meeting one off characters, DS9 focused more on thier smallish cast with great character arcs and stories. It comes to show that you don't need to be big and grand to write great episodes. 😀
Also like DS9, Beast Wars' Season 1 was the weakest writing wise, but still had some great episodes
A beast wars review , YESSSSSS !!!😁
Nathaniel Foga I loved this show
Oh, yes, INDEED!
I love the irony that Megatron's last words were simply "No..."
I didn't see this show until I was in my 20s, but it does have my all time favorite line in all fiction. "I can suffer your treachery, lieutenant, but not your incompetence! Treachery requires no mistakes."
Megatron had great lines. I learned words I had never heard through some of his dialog.
I love the characters, the voices, the story, the humour, the fights, the dino forms, the intro music, the mature story arcs, EVERYTHING is AMAZING about Beast Wars! It's hands-down the best show about Transformers and is just as fun to watch as an adult as it was when I watched it as a kid. I honestly do find it way better in almost every aspect than G1.
"Beasties" sounds like a nature documentary about wild animals in Britain.
🤣
My very first and favorite Transformers series. I remember watching this show after school when I was a little kid on the WB and after watching it on Netflix a few years back it still holds up really damn well. I especially remember the video tapes that came with some of the toys, specifically Transmutate, Bad Spark and Code of Hero. Now to wait and see how this got messy with Beast Machines.
Prepare for boredom and very questionable ideals (in regards to Beast Machines).
I thought Beast Machine was pretty good. It was a different show from Beast Wars but it really wanted to do its own thing and it's a really unique show, especially for its time when continuity heavy cartoons weren't much of a thing. And I appreciate what it did and how it was so different from every other Saturday morning show on at the time with a deep story and dark themes. When I first watched it I was bracing myself for a disaster and when I actually saw it was like "So what's the problem here? Yeah the robot mode designs could use some work but its not bad."
I feel pretty bad for the head writer Robert Skir, he got so much hate and some asshole wishing he and his whole family would die simply because they didn't like a different take on Transformers but I'm happy that the show is more highly regarded than it used to be and that's he's proud of it despite the hate it got.
ChrisTheLovableJerk no its all bad
My main problem was that I liked none of the characters, so I wasn't invested in what happenend to them. Watching all 26 episodes was a chore for me.
1TrulyMad
my thoughts exactly
Beast Wars was so good~ I did like Beast Machines as well, though it is an admittedly flawed series. Blackarachnia is both life goals and wife goals! And speaking as an autistic person, I really like the fact that Transmutate is an autistic Transformer in the comics and such. Kids need stuff like that.
Wait he was autistic?!?!.......not that it's a problem but I don't remember that........not saying you are wrong either but was that ever explicitly stated???......
@@megatron6713 In the comics, like I said in that comment
@@TheSeptet that's a genuinely interesting direction to take the character.........never read the comics but it sounds like i should
Transmutate is a she.
@@dippy_1999 in the comics at least. Beast Wars' Transmutate isn't refered to as a he, she or even they
This is one of 2 Transformers series I actually like. The restrictions of early 3D animation meant they were forced to get a smaller cast which led to a more focused and character driven story and the robots turning into animals instead of vehicles just appeals to me more personally.
What’s the other series?
@@autobotproductions1244 Prime, probably
I just got done with my Beast Wars marathon. Sure, nowadays, the CG animation is PS2 levels, but the story, subplots, and characters still hold up after 24 years.
More like N64 levels... Too bad as the story, voice acting, and dialogue are far superior that what meets the eyes at first.
I always figured that Waspinator basically was "tainted" by Starscream's spark and gained, in part, his immortality.
either that or waspinator has a hereditary bit of immortality, and maybe that's why he was possessible at all. after all if Screamy had his choice, he'd have gone after Megatron, right?
That was always my assumption.
Waspinator is god.
Actually literally.
My favorite twist of the series.
Wassspinator wishes he had stayed on Earth instead of going back to Cybertron for Beast Machinesss. Wassspinator deseeeerves it for all the crap he went through in Beast Warsss!
I think in one of the video games Waspinators ending is that he stays on Earth and gets treated as a God by proto humans.
DUN DUN DUN!
YEEEEESSS
Awesome job Phelous! Thanks so much for not only mentioning my favorite episode (CoH) but for those clips of Scott McNeil as well. He's one of my favorite VA's in the business. Great job!
Grew up with that show and loved it to death.Thought it wold forever remain as kickass obscure show only i remember so it's absolutely amazing that you gave it the spotlight like this and did it justice
Necroing this to ask for sauce
I watched every single episode of Beast Wars religiously. I watched one episode of Beast Machines, and completely forgot about it for years. I eventually did watch all of Beast Machines, and while not anywhere near as good as Wars, it did have some great standout moments in it.
I could only finish... like, 1 season of beast machines, i think.
I stopped when megatron turned into a giant head
Funny Story the writers of Beast Machines were told not to watch any episodes of Beast Wars, and it was mandated by
Hasbro and Dan Didio(who was head of Mainframe at the time)since they supposedly wanted the series to be accessible to new watchers even though the majority of the audience would be fans of Beast Wars....what an idiot.
Machines is one of those series that i'd love to have my own shot at rewriting from a standpoint of someone who actually watched beast wars.
+David Miller What the hell that's such a bad choice. Who could possibly make a good follow up to a series without watching the original? Love for what you're following up isn't a guarantee of quality, but it's certainly a good sign.
HASEnoncorperated: I want to do the same for Transformers ROTH, AOE, And TLK.
the makers of this show are the anti Teen Titans GO team, when they listen to the fans, they actually make good changes, unlike GO who actually listen and insult the fans
Andrew Viewtieful Tachibana I don't know man anyone who likes that show kind of deserves the insults
Considering those fans are grown adults bitching about a childrens TV show, they really shouldn't listen to anything they say.
@@whyequalswhat and we totally dont have that in transformers
nope
Good ol Beasties, that and ReBoot were some of my favs.
Re hilarious censoring: I grew up in the MIddle East, and I didn't even know Blackarachnia existed until the censors couldn't avoid cutting her out lol. Her introductory episode wasn't aired at all. Then in A Better Mousetrap they only showed her in beast mode and I thought, who the hell is that? Eventually they thought oh crap she's fairly important and reluctantly stopped censoring her out....it was the boobs. They cut her because of the boobs.
JenDq8 kind of hilarious considering that several years earlier whoever dubbed Mazinger Z in Arabic kept Aphrodite A's boob rockets then again I suppose it was back when Arabic censors weren't as strict as they are now, looking at you SpaceToon
Wow… just,… wow
Jeez, if the Middle East had such a visceral reaction to Blackarachnia, I wonder what the reaction to Arcee was?
@@TheDigitalApple Lol, it was less about the fact she was female and more about her, um... assets XD
@@JenDq8
Dem spider tiddies xD
I came to this review at least twice a year . Thanks dude
Funnily enough, Bob Foward and Larry DiTillo said that their version of Season 4 is literally "Beast Wars IN SPACE!!"
Still a better idea than what we got instead though
So like Rattrap rescans as a Tribble?
HASEnoncorperated who knows. They'd probably look the same as before but maybe more characters get Transmetal forms or something had it happened
From what I heard some of the things in season 4 involved A) BW Megatron fighting for control of his body when G1 Megatron's spark awakens, and B )Some of the Maximals having trust issues with Tigerhawk due to him being a creation of the Vok.
Kansei Yamazaru OMG Hasblow WHY DID YOU GIVE US BEAST MACHINE THIS SOUNDED SO MUCH BETTER
The Dragon Legault it's ok if you seperate it from Beast Wars
This show is criminally underrated...
I remember watching Beast Wars when I was 10 in 1999. I can't wait for Phelous' review on Thumbelina by Golden Films. The diamond, MY GOD!
Diamondbolt?
Surprisingly enough, Beast Wars was the show that introduced me to the Transformers, Good job bringing this piece of Nostalgia back to me.
Robots are usually an excuse for children's action shows to get away with dismemberment, oily bloodshed, and other violent stuff in fight scenes, isn't it? But they censored some of the violence in Beast Wars? A show where EVERYONE is a robot?
True.
Great review, Phelous!
I love Beast Wars and honestly consider them one of the best Transformers series. And that’s not nostalgia talking. If anything, I like it more now, than I did as a kid.
By the way, funny story about Beast Wars and me. You see, while the series was brought over to Russia our dub was… not as bad as the english Headmasters, but still pretty terrible. In fact, it was so terrible, that it convinced me to actively seek out the english version, because I really liked the characters and story and wanted to see it through the end. And eventually I did, watched it, rewatched and at some point discovered that I really like looking for the differences in translation, adaptation and now I’m a translator myself.
I won’t say, that it was Beast Wars that made into who I am, but the series did play it part, and I’m grateful to it. Let’s hope that maybe one day, Beast Machines (which I personally don’t hate, but definitively consider worse) won’t be the last Beast series.
That Russian dub though…
Seriously, if you ever going to check different versions of movies or cartoons (not even for a review, though I would love to see that) this will a gold mine for justified ridicule and jokes. Miscast voices, terrible translation errors, and some of the worst actors I ever had the displeasure hearing (especially for poor Terrorsaur). And you can’t even say: “Well, that was just so long ago” or anything like that. The G1 Transformers was also given a russian dub and it was great.
I understand, if it isn’t your thing, just suggesting. But seriously though, a gold mine, trust me 🙂
Problem is a lot of the audience of this english review show in english probably wouldn't appreciate how poor the english voice cast is through lack of familiarity with russian mannerisms even with subtitles.
U wot m8, the original ORT dub was fucking incredible. Shame we only got one season of it.
This was my favorite Transformer series, partly because of the fact there were no human sidekicks.
The closest we got were the protohumans that Cheetor had to watch.
The thing that bugs me the most, was when they introduce/upgraded a character and show how strong they are, until the next episode where anyone can take them on.
Beast Wars was a show I grew up with when I was a kid. I remember when it aired that it was part of a 2-hour block on syndication called the Power Block. Power Block contained 4 different shows: Beast Wars, Vortexx, Reboot and G.I Joe Extreme. Beast Wars was one that stuck out as a show that I enjoyed a lot. So much so that Beast Wars would end up having it's own separate show with a complete intro. The first season didn't have a full intro. It was shortened. It wasn't until Season 2 that the full intro kicked in. Same for Season 3 but Season 3 actually had multiple variations to the intro. I still remember the original intro: ua-cam.com/video/_UmCEsbUe6E/v-deo.html but yet we got one that was spliced with Season 2. That I don't get.
I loved this series. And this was the series that got me fully hooked on Transformers. And yes it helped that I had the Promo Comic that Hasbro had released towards the end of Gen 2 cause it made me more hyped for Beast Wars.
Say it with me now, Beast fans...
" *BEAST WARS!!!* "
*_BEAST WARS!!_*
Otto von Doom *BEASTIES!!!*
Beasties! ...oh, wait
We’re back!
*roar*
BEAST WARS!
I'm actually surprised at Phelous' knack for impressions. Given his voice, I wouldn't have thought he'd be that versatile.
Good review of a great show, though. I like seeing Beast Wars get its due, seeing as how there would likely not be enough public awareness of Transformers in 2007 to warrant a movie without it.
Seriously, whether by chance or by design, the fact that they eventually wind up in the Ark was, at the time, frickin' genius.
did Canadians know the "Staries" movies? or "ies and peace"?
or "World of crafties"?
I hope they love "Call of Duty: Infinite faries"
adrienfourniercom nope Beast Wars and the War Plants tv show(which according to Wikipedia was made in Canada) are the only things I’m aware where war was removed from the title, I don’t know maybe it was a daytime tv thing as that would explain how I’ve never seen Star Wars play once on a Canadian tv station in my life(maybe someone else as but I’ve never have)
Oh wait never mind I just remember both versions of Clone Wars aired on tv here and I think Space(our SyFy) aired Star Wars marathons more than once,so yeah the whole Beasties thing makes even less sense
+JRizzle8921 Clonies!
I'd rather take the silly title over the reduced violence on Fox.
... A channel that has only gotten dumber.
@Andre
I'd take the silly title *or* the reduced violence over the way they would preempt BW for sports off and on, without fixing the episode order in the TV schedule, so they'd be skipping an episode, and you'd have to wait for the whole series to finish and start over before they played it again, if you were lucky.
Thank God for DVD.
Now, I'm going to go read "Ies of the worlds." See ya.
I wish it was longer! I love hearing you break down some of my old favorite shows, Phelous! Please, go into more!
Inferno: "My Queen... i don't feel so good..."
Aw snap, *Beast Wars* was my jam as a kid. It was *my first soap opera / drama,* before I encountered Dragonball Z, Digimon, & Yu-Gi-Oh. I remember running late to school because I just had to see the entire episode! 😆✨
I find it hilarious the fact alot of the Voices on the show also did voices in Ocean's Dub of Dragon Ball Z. Goku is a Cheetah and Piccolo is a Rat.
In my country, Optimus Primal is Mr. Satan and Cheetor is Kaioshin and Dinobot is Dabura
I guess Scot and Ian are a package deal.
Recoome is Megatron!
I think Dino bot fits Piccolo more.
FullmetalNinja25 Jumping Gyros! That's Mondo Cool!
I make parodies out of holiday songs with Garry Chalk (Optimus Primal) every year. We started it back in 2017. David Kaye had already been doing it for like six years as Megatron, so I asked Garry to join, who, by the way, is a singer and musician, so it has worked out perfectly. What other fandom receives fun videos from two main characters’ voice actors on a yearly basis? None that I’m aware of. It’s great to be a Beast Wars fan! I’ve loved the show since it first aired in 1996. It’s the only reason I’m still drawing.
So Blackarachnia's design... Yeah, her design was based off of an exotic dancer one of the people involved in the making of the show knew.
THIS is the Transformers series I grew up with. I also remember having the monkey and jaguar toys when I was a kid.
Excellent job, as always, Phelous!
When the show was first aired in the UK, any scene where a character says slag was cut out.
Censoring pseudo swearing is super important.
rodster6 wow😨
Phelan Porteous *Sarcasm detected.*
Well I for one am glad I was protected as a child from such words as 'slag' and 'ninja' and heaven knows how I would have turned out if I had been exposed to nunchucks. It doesn't bare thinking about.
Mainly becasue Slag is british slang for slut, so that kinda makes Slag's name somewhat awkward to the point where they changed it to slug.
It makes me incredibly happy to know that you like this series. I loved watching it when I was a kid.
I love beast wars it’s such a amazing show that still holds up till this day
Inferno: I WAS DISINTEGRATED FOR THE ROYALTY!
Christopher Lloyd: WELL I WAS FROZEN TODAY!
Being born in 82 I grew up with Transformers but I was too young to really follow the series consistantly or really understood what was going on, but I did really love the toys. In 1995 however, now 13 years of age, Beast Wars rapidly became one of my favorite show. I really loved the CGI style, having watched Reboot previously also, and the storytelling was, as you pointed out, top-notched. So while I have fond memories of G1, I have far more nostalgia for Beast Wars.
Aww I think that the G1 autobots would think their decendents were adorable because they are so tiny.
Beast Wars Yeeeeeeeeees!
Beast Machines Nooooooo!
My thoughts exactly. The new animation doesn’t make up for an overridden happy ending.
Beast Wars is proof that relying on good character driven writing is what makes a series lovable and enduring.
This was the shit back in the day. I was too late for OG Transformers, but this is what I got into.
I did when they played reruns of it transfomers cybertron was the current show on at the time on cartoon network and I loved it was the end of the unicorn triolgy and my personal favorite of the three.
Reboot and Beast Wars are also some of the best cartoons from the 90s, with exceptional storytelling and lovable characters - heroes who you want to succeed, and villains who are so charismatic that you can't help but root for them a little too. Now I want to see if I can get Beast Wars on DVD!
I just always love to see a talented voice actor getting a chance to voice both an iconic pop culture hero and his equally iconic arch-nemesis, like how Troy Baker has recently started fluctuating between voicing Batman or the Joker in various video games.
David Kaye is also the longest running voice actor for the TRansformers franchise, essential having a voice in every main series, he was Hard Shell in Prime, and since he was using a more gruff version of his Megatron voice, we basically had the OG megatron talk to the Beast Megatron
I remember discovering this cartoon at like 8 in the morning and couldn't take my eyes off the animation. The stories sucked me in and then Uncle Phil I think was the voice of the gorilla, so that was awesome
I thought that too when I first heard the voice. Then when I got older and had access tot he internet I found out it wasn't him and was a little disappointed.
It was a unexpected surprise. A great review from one of my favorite tv series when I was a kid. I didn't knew nothing about Transformers until Beast Wars comes. And it was an awesome series, I couldn't seen it on order, but the writers, editors and production crew put a ton of attention to the detail for a kids show made for selling toys.
And yes, has some of the best episodes of kids shows and tragic deaths/clifhangers, as Optimus on first season, Dinobot or eagle and tigertron. Thanks for the review Phelous! It was a great travel to nostalgia. ^_^
It's a real shame the budget didn't' allow them to use all the characters from Beast Wars's toy-line, since G1 Grimlock was one of the Maximals. Would of been interesting to see how he could of interacted with the "new generation" considering how old he'd be by this point in the timeline.
You can see that in the BW: Ascending comic.
No it’s a good thing because you have all the characters from toyline they won’t develop like in g1 there’s no character development because there is so many of characters so it’s a good thing they had little budget so that way they could develop.
33:00 When did the Decpticons make their base in the Nemesis? They made another ship, when they were leaving in More Than Meets The Eye. They find Nemesis in Microbots.
Before Game of Thrones there was... Beast Wars.
Thanks! Yeah I wasn’t a big fan of YTV changing it from Beast Wars to Beasties. Its a good thing it had good stories to tell. 🙂👍🏻🎂
Thank you, yeah that was a really weird thing, especially when the toyline was still Beast Wars.
I remember watching this show when it was on Netflix's early streaming service. Those were good times
Phelous, you are a hero. I have been looking forward to this review since you did that Top 20 for Transformers. Thank you so much.
For What it was worth I do like this show a lot of kids back in the 90's weren't used to this type of CGI but I watch reboot in 1994 so I was used to it a lot of people hate this show but eventually the franchise would continue with others such as Energon and the Minicon series
Glad Phelous reviewed this great underrated show also that Scott McNeil fellow is very impressive. I would watch him in the booth doing the entire show.
This Megatron seemed really ambitious, well flushed out character, he didn't even seemed evil
Oh man...even a slight view into Code of Hero still makes me tear up. Perhaps the best episode of anything...ever.
I'll tell you what Beast Machines was, crap that even most of the voice actors hated. Anyway great review of my favorite Transformers series.
Bullshit dude. Only Gary Chalk and Scott McNeil spoke poorly about it. David Kaye loved it and even prefered it to Beast Wars and Ian James Corlett also thought it was a good series and liked the 'comic book-esque story telling' if offered. Garry Chalk was the only one who openly said he didn't like it as he wasn't happy with how his character was portrayed. Everyone else either enjoyed it or hasn't said anything openly negative about it.
ChrisTheLovableJerk Actually, Scott McNeill liked the series from what I've heard. I don't know about the others though.
I remember watching a recording of BotCon 2004 and a panel with the Beast Wars voice actors and I recall Richard Newman saying he liked it, and enjoyed having a kind character like Rhinox going through such trauma to turn out to be a villain like Tankor (I think Newman just likes playing villains, since he is M. 'Yes! Yes!' Bison and Captain Ginyu).
One good thing; Cheetor became much less of a kid in the team. Outside of that; character designs are hideous, concepts at best underwhelming at worst did horrible things to characters who started to act on sitcom logic which ended up with horrible enviormental message... on Cybertron. I'm not G1 fan ('92 here) and I see completly why people hate it.
Franciszek Rychlewicz Well to be fair a G1 episode called The Dweller in the Depths somewhat established that Cybertron used to be an organic planet before the G1 Quintessons turned it mechanical for their own purposes (whatever they were) and the Beast Machines writers were just expanding on that. Plus I did enjoy the 'balance between nature and technology' theme and one extreme is no different from the other.
Inferno was my favourite character, as he was just so over the top. He just took himself so seriously, which made him and his actions hilarious.
Inferno was awesome!!! ....yes....
On the one hand, I actually wouldn't mind seeing the animation from ReBoot and Beast Wars remastered, even though I grew up with both shows, I can understand why younger viewers might be a bit put off by the animation, especially after Transformers Prime. But at the same time, I know that everything else would end up overhauled especially the voice acting.
And yes I do know about ReBoot: The Guardian Code, I want to forget it.
Never forget the Guardian Code. It helps to prevent history repeating too often.
The animation in Prime is great, if you like matte paintings and hundreds of Vehicons/Zombies/Insecticons/Whatever with exactly the same model in the same shot. At least colour them different shade of purple so you can still see they're supposed to be decepticons but they don't look like exactly the same dude.
I watched beast wars reruns all the time growing up they were still selling a lot of the toys at the time i remember getting cheator and loving him around the same time I was watching transformers cybertron and buying all the toys I got my hands on I also watched some of G1 but not a Lot so it's the series im not as informed on. I remember it being a huge deal that primus a major plot twist in cybertron being the toy i most wanted that Christmas.
Oh geez. So many memories of this show. I fell off during the later seasons because they started airing the show on Saturday morning during another show I liked, rather than on weekdays mornings before I had school. Good stuff.
regarding starscream possessing his own body, mentioned around 27:00, the most probable reason why this wasnt an option is because... well, all the bodies in the ark where disabled, stasis locked to keep their sparks alive untill repairs could be made, those repairs only happening millions of years later when the volcano erupts and triggers the ark repair systems. In other words, starscream Could have jumped into his old body... but then would have no means of doing anything as the body itself is effectively non-functional at the time. The same goes for all the other G1s
Thank you for reviewing this show. Beast Wars was Very important to me during my pre-teen and early teen years. Watching this video reminded me of why it had such an impact on the kind of person I am today. Dinobot, Inferno, and Tarantulas are my favorite characters from the show. Great video, Phelous. I may one day subscribe to you yet.
Beast Wars was an awesome cartoon.
Excited for your eventual review of Beast Machines