Beast Wars

Beast Wars updated the classic 80s cartoon series and made it CGI. Beast Wars was filled with great stories, an interesting plot that connected it to the 80s cartoon, superb characters and so much more. Also the voices were very good and the characters were so diverse, that contributed to it's greatness.

If you were a child of the 90's,chances are you knew of the show,and if you a fan today,it is very easy to see why.

Beast Wars:Transformers is the sequel series to the original cartoon.It takes place 500 years after the events of Generation 1(the original series),but takes place on prehistoric Earth.How is this possible?Well,let me explain.

In season 1,the Maximals(the good guys who have descended from the Autobots,the good guys of the original series)and the Predacons(the villains,who have descended from the original series' villains,the Decepticons)fly through a transwarp in space while their ships are battling and end up shooting each other down,crashing to Earth below. The Maximals and Predacons must now take on new disguises so their systems won't shut down from Energon(their energy source overload,due to the fact the planet is rich in it.The Maximals are lead by the heroic Optimus Primal,whose beast mode is that of a gorilla.His team is made of Cheetor(a cheetah,male),Rattrap(a rat,male),Rhinox(a rhino,male),Dinobot(a velociraptor,male),Tigatron(a white tiger,male),and Airrazor(a falcon,female).The Predacons are lead by the evil Megatron(a t-rex);his team is made up of Waspinator(a wasp,male),Terrorsaur(a pterodactyl,male),Scorpnox(a scorpion,male),Tarantulus(a tarantula,male),Inferno(a fire ant,male),and Blackarachnia(a black widow,female)The Maximals are in a battle for their survival for most of the season not only against the Predacons,but against some strange aliens as well.

Season 2 is a time of change.The season begins with the death of Optimus Primal.Then,something incredible happens.Cheetor and Rattrap are given new bodies that don't suffer from Energon overload and have their own transportation modes.Sadly,Megatron and Tarantulus also have new features of their own as well.New transfomers also join:Ouickstrike,(scorpion/cobra,male)joins the Predacons,along with Rampage(crab,male),while the noble Silverbolt(eagle/wolf/male)joins the Maximals.Optimus Primal returns later in the season,now given a new body of his own.The focus of this season is on Megatron and why he flew to Earth in the first place.Characters die in this season:Predaons Terrosaur and Scorpnox die as early in the first episode of the season,and the honorable Dinobot gives his life to save the human race from a grim fate by Megatron.

Season 3,the final season,begins with a bang. And what a bang it is! The Maximals are being erased from existence by Megatron attempting to destroy Optimus Prime before the events of the original series began!.Although the attempt is a failure,Optimus Prime is badly damaged and in order to save him,Optimus Primal stores his Spark(pretty much the soul and spirit of the transformers)inside himself.Due to this,Primal evolves into Optimal Optimus,stronger,bigger,and capable of so much more than his previous self.Optimus Prime is soon restored,and the Spark returned,but Primal retains his new body.The rest of the season lies with the Maximals and their attempts to protect their ancestors and the timeline from Megatron and his evil plans.New members join both teams:the Maximals find assistance in Depth Charge(manta ray,male),a enforcer sent to bring Rampage in for different crimes.The Predacons clone Dinobot,who shares a Spark with Rampage.Blackarachnia leaves the Predacons and joins the Maximals,due to her shared feelings for Silverbolt.Cheetor and Megatron get new bodies and the aliens,whose experiments have been found and explored by both sides for years decide to intervene in an attempt to fix the timeline by sending Tigerhawk(tiger/hawk,male),a combination of the Sparks of Tigatron and Airrazor(they were abducted by the aliens in Season 2).It all leads to an exciting series finale in which Megatron attempts to fly back to Cybertron(their home planet)in an attempt to rule it once and for all.

I hope I didn't wear you out with that,but this is a very complex series,filled with great story lines,awesome characters,and exciting action.If you have never seen it,I think you should try it out.All three seasons are available on DVD. I hope you enjoy.

The original 1984 show is still the jewel of the Transformers franchise, but of the shows that followed it the best was Beast Wars. This show is wonderfully done in most respects, it took a few episodes for the show to find its feet which is perfectly normal actually for any show and some of the animation towards the start was a little on the iffy side. But when Beast Wars did find its feet, it was exciting and emotionally impactful, and ranking it along with the others Transformers shows it was definitely one of the best written too. The animation, done with computer animation in its early days, mostly is fine with the fluidity and detail getting stronger all the time and the characters are well-modelled. The music is dynamic and beautifully scored, complete with a very memorable theme tune. The writing is some of the absolute best of the franchise, it's very thought-provoking and sophisticated and never falls into cheesiness, and the stories are really well thought out and compelling, complete with very exciting action sequences. A good thing too because Beast Wars has a lot of them, though neither fall into the trap of overshadowing the story lines so the substance is not lost. Part of the show's appeal is that it's not just enjoyable for children and adults but also you can re-visit it some time later and it has every bit the magic and more. Some may not find that the case, but it was with me personally and with a lot of friends who grew up with it as one of their favourite shows. The characters are great, Optimus Primal and Megatron hardly disappoint, though the standout characters in this show were Cheetor, Rattrap and especially Dinobot. The voice acting is equally great, Dinobot is some of the best voice acting Scott Macneil has ever done and Ian James Corlett, Garry Chalk and David Kaye to name a few are similarly expressive. All in all, wonderful and the best since the original 1984 show. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I absolutely love this show! It has everything going for it: top-quality animation from Mainframe, an excellent voice cast, great music, and the most intricate story lines I've seen in a while. This should be a reference guide as to how a quality TV series should be done. I must state that my favorite character by a longshot is Dinobot. The animators did a wonderful job on him. His facial expressions combined with Scott McNeil's incredible performance drive home the point that he is a complex character. He is cunning, yet noble and in deep thought. Even thought he leaves the Predacons for the Maximals, you are never quite sure what he is going to do next. In a sense, he is neither Maximal nor Predacon; he fights on his own side. I thought the "Code of Hero" episode was sad, yet fitting for him.

Peace has returned to Cybertron after millennia of fighting, the Great Cybertronian Wars were over. Three hundred years later, a new Megatron emerges to command new troops, the Predacons, to conquest. Using transwarp technology, Megatron and his soldiers travel through time to a familiar blue green planet with Optimus Primal and his Maximals in pursuit.

This well written series paid homage to the Generation One series, both the comic and the cartoon, and still managed to stand on its own. The characters grow and mature, cowards become heroes, villains prove their honor, and heroes die protecting the innocent.

I grew up with Generation One, I love those characters, but Beast Wars was unquestionably the best written series that ever existed in the Transformers series.