Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)

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Rattrap and Airazor conspire to ruin school picture day.

Beast Wars: Transformers is a Daytime Emmy award-winning computer-animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment that premiered on April 22, 1996 in syndication in the United States.^[1]

Though reviled by many Transformers fans when it first hit the airwaves in 1996, Beast Wars is now considered by many to be among the finest examples of Transformers storytelling, striking a happy balance between character, humor, and story.

Overview

Beast Wars opens at an unspecified time and place, where two warring factions of robots have crashed on a strange planet populated by animals like those on Earth. The planet abounds in mystery, with vast deposits of raw energon and evidence of alien activity. The Energon forces the newly arrived Transformers to take on protective beast forms to shield themselves from the ambient Energon radiation. And so begin the Beast Wars...

Though at first the show seemed to be in an entirely separate continuity, by the end of the first season's 26 episodes, viewers had been treated to a number of classical Transformers references, such as Unicron and even the reappearance of Starscream, last seen as a ghost in the third season of the original cartoon. These ties to the original story increased as the second season progressed and the planet was revealed as prehistoric Earth, the characters having been thrown back in time. The third season was entirely structured around the Maximals defending their dormant Autobot ancestors aboard the ancient crashed Ark.

The show won over many viewers through fun, intriguing stories and generally high production values. Strong characterization, top-notch scripting and voice acting, and complex, overarching plot threads are among the reasons cited for the show's enduring popularity. Some of the show's mysteries and machinations still remain topics for fan debate decades after its conclusion.

The show's CGI, though somewhat primitive by today's standards, was revolutionary by television standards of the time (and puts some later shows to shame). Mainframe's animators took pains to ensure their characters gestured and emoted in great detail, and the "camera" work often took creative advantage of the format's flexibility.

Production

Early CGI model work for the initial Beast Wars cast.

Beast Wars was produced by Canadian animation company Mainframe Entertainment, and distributed for syndicated television by Claster Television and Alliance Atlantis. Prior to working on Beast Wars, Mainframe had pioneered in the use three-dimensional computer-generated imagery for television animation with their critically-acclaimed ReBoot series, which was itself the world's first fully 3D CG-animated television series with 22-minute episode lengths (and even predated such films as Pixar's Toy Story). Character modeling for the series was done using hardware developed by Silicon Graphics and software by Softimage, with toys from the Beast Wars toyline provided by Hasbro to use as a basis for each character model.

Character animation was all done in-house, with Mainframe creating a working environment that allowed as much work to be done within the same company as possible, creating smooth communication and work efficiency between each production department, in contrast to how competitor productions of the time would instead divide their animation labor between multiple companies for budgetary reasons. Lip-syncing and facial expressions for the characters were made using an advanced facial animation program called GRIN, which had been custom-made by Mainframe themselves.

Executive producer Christopher Brough recruited television writers Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio to serve as story editors for Beast Wars, which the two were initially disinterested in due to not being fans of giant robots. Nonetheless, Forward and DiTillio were willing to meet and talk with Brough, who wanted the two for their adept storytelling prowess and was willing to give them total creative control. Since neither Forward nor DiTillio had been familiar with the Transformers brand beforehand, the pair decided to create something completely new and different from the ground up. They found an appeal in the science fiction aspect of Transformers, with the characters themselves being technological lifeforms who were at war with each other. Thus, the duo sought to create a sci-fi show first and foremost, one that explored the nature of the robotic characters and the greater world they inhabited.

Limitations of the CG animation forced the cast to be kept relatively small in number, which led Forward and DiTillio to write more character-driven plots with enhanced interpersonal drama between the characters. As the series progressed, Forward and DiTillio soon became aware of the Transformers internet newsgroups like alt.toys.transformers, where they began to interact directly with the fandom and learn more about the existing Transformers mythos, which would greatly influence the later story arcs of the cartoon.

The first season of the show was created basically on the fly, with Forward and DiTillio juggling their own desire for serialized storytelling with Hasbro's desire for more standalone episodic stories. The total cost of those first twenty-six episodes was about $18 million USD, but Hasbro cut that budget in half for the second and third seasons, which cut the episode count for each down to thirteen. Initially, Hasbro had wanted to delay the release of the second season to 1998, in order to focus more on Kenner's Star Wars toyline in 1997, in anticipation of the then-upcoming release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Since this would have certainly been a death knell for Beast Wars, Hasbro was convinced to let production on the second season proceed sooner than later, with Season 2 premiering in late 1997. In spite of the reduced number of episodes (or, perhaps, in light of it), the second season had a much more tightly planned, overarching storyline, with seeds for the three-part finale planted as early as the second episode of the season. Conversely, the story arcs of the third season weren't quite as streamlined, due to that season having the most episodes designed to introduce new characters or new upgrades for existing characters, meant to advertise their new toys released that year.

When it came to each season's finale, there was an uncertainty about whether or not there would be another season to follow. A rule of thumb that Forward and DiTillio abided by when crafting each finale basically boiled down to "Kill 'em all, let Hasbro sort 'em out." This led to the first and second seasons each ending on dramatic cliffhangers with the fates of multiple characters left open ended. For the third season, once it was determined that its finale would be the series ender, the script went through several draft revisions to add in more scenes that would wrap up most of the series' major plot points, tying up as many loose ends as possible. Veteran Transformers comic writer Simon Furman had even been brought in to write the second part of this finale, which was his first-ever script job for televised animation.

Voice acting for Beast Wars was done in Vancouver, British Columbia, with several notable actors getting their start on Transformers with this series, and many that would become fan favorites, including Garry Chalk, David Kaye, Scott McNeil, Venus Terzo, Ian James Corlett, Richard Newman, David Sobolov and more. Many of them would even return to voice act in later Transformers cartoons to come, such as the Beast Wars sequel series Beast Machines and the three shows belonging to the Unicron Trilogy. Susan Blu (the original voice of Arcee from the Generation 1 cartoon) lent her talents to the series as voice director, and would go on to do the same for Beast Machines, Transformers Animated and briefly Transformers: Prime. Music for the series was composed by Robert Buckley, who has previously worked on ReBoot and would continue to work on later Mainframe series like Beast Machines, Shadow Raiders, Weird-Ohs, and more.

Characters

Time for Rattrap to lead.

Waspinator is loved by fans.

Because developing new CGI character models was, at the time, an expensive and time-consuming process, the number of on-screen characters in Beast Wars was relatively small compared to most other Transformers shows. They are listed in order of appearance. (The stasis locked Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark are not on this list.)

* Allied with the Maximals, nominally a Predacon.

† Became a Maximal towards the end of the series, though originally a Maximal protoform.

Episodes

Main article: List of Beast Wars episodes

Season 1: 1996–1997

Season 2: 1997–1998

Season 3: 1998–1999

Credits

For further information, see: Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)/credits (season 1)

For further information, see: Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)/credits (season 2)

For further information, see: Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)/credits (season 3)

Continuations and addenda

The lasting popularity of the Beast Wars cartoon went on to ensure its place as a poignant and memorable part of Transformers history, with multiple parties creating numerous continuations, spinoffs, and other addenda.

Sequel

Main article: Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)

In late 1999, Beast Wars received a direct sequel in the form of Beast Machines, a two-season animated series that continued the story back on Cybertron in the same future era the Maximals and Predacons had originally hailed before coming to prehistoric Earth in Beast Wars. While most of the original Beast Wars cast of Maximals returned, Beast Machines replaced the Predacons with the all new Vehicon faction, still led by the same Megatron. Beast Machines also distinguished itself from Beast Wars with a much darker and more cerebral story, which left the fandom far more divided in its reception of the series than it had ever felt about Beast Wars. In the years since, Beast Machines has been looked back on more favorably, but still nowhere near as fondly as its predecessor.

Expanded universes

Outside of the cartoons, several additional storylines that tied into Beast Wars and Beast Machines were produced both during and after the Beast Era had run its course. While these "expanded universes" all contained the same events as the two cartoons—which are understood to have occurred exactly as they were portrayed onscreen—the context of said events differed with the inclusion of "extra" stories taking place "just offscreen" of the cartoons' episodic events. While each of these expanded Beast Wars universes are contradictory to each other, they all coexist as separate realities within the greater Transformers multiverse. The most notable of these include:

• A series of comics, text stories, script readings, and toy bios/profiles created by 3H Productions from 1997 to 2004, which include such series as Reaching the Omega Point, The Wreckers, Primeval Dawn, and Universe. Throughout 2005 to 2016, Fun Publications published a number of Beast Wars-related comics and text stories also set in this 3H Beast Wars continuity, including "Dawn of Future's Past", "Theft of the Golden Disk", and "Collections" among others.
• The sprawling Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity that first began in 1985, which included the Japanese dubs of Beast Wars and Beast Machines, the two Japanese-original spinoff series Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, and a whole lot more.
• The Dreamwave Generation One continuity that launched in 2002, in the form of multiple comic series and profile books published by Dreamwave Productions. Several concepts first introduced in the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons were integrated into the Generation 1 setting of these comics, which also featured occasional references to the two cartoons meant to further reinforce their connection. 2004's Transformers: The Ultimate Guide further fleshed out this universe and treated it as the "one true" Transformers continuity^[2] that also included Beast Wars.^[3] A Beast Wars miniseries set immediately after the final episode was also planned, but only a prologue story was released before cancelation. A few related prose stories for both Beast Wars and Beast Machines (and for the Dreamwave comics) were also published in the Transformers Legends anthology book—most notably Furman's story "A Meeting of Minds", which tied directly into his writing for the show.
• In 2006–2008, IDW Publishing produced two Beast Wars comic miniseries titled The Gathering and The Ascending, and a set of profile books called Beast Wars Sourcebook. This continuity is notable for including characters and events from the two Japanese Beast Wars series (Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo), with said events used as backstory content set before the American cartoon (rather than during or after), while the two miniseries themselves occur during the cartoon's third season. In 2016, a one-shot prequel comic titled "Dawn of the Predacus" was published to (at least, in theory) help bridge the gap between Generation 1 and Beast Wars, while a script reading titled "The Hot Rod" was produced by Fun Publications as both a tie-in to "Dawn of the Predacus" and as a bridge between The Ascending and Beast Machines.
• From 2009 to 2014, Fun Publications also created Transformers: Wings Universe, a continuity featuring a version of the Generation 1 cartoon with a select few slightly altered character designs (most based on toys released contemporaneous to Wings Universe), and which also incorporated Beast Wars and Beast Machines into its universe, along with its own original stories set in and around the three animated series.

Additionally, Issue #1 of Devil's Due Press's G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers: The Art of War, featured a glimpse of Optimus Primal within the memory banks of the Decepticon Soundwave, suggesting that a version of Beast Wars may very well have also happened in the G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers continuity, but that notion has never been explored beyond that single cameo.

Continuity

Over the course of its roughly three-year run (and even long after), the continuity of the Beast Wars cartoon underwent a rather fluctuous evolution, with numerous changes and retcons made to it along the way by multiple disparate parties.

Shifting developments

Megatron and the Predacons

One of the biggest changes that occurred across the cartoon's three seasons was its depiction of the Predacons. In the first season, it was constantly stated that Megatron sought to acquire enough energon to fuel the Predacons' ultimate goal of conquering the galaxy, and occasional references were given to the notion of him being a "tyrant". In the series' production bible, the Predacons were described as "a race of feral conquerors who believe they alone have the right to rule Cybertron (and any other planet they can train their lasers on.)"^[4] Likewise, Megatron himself was described as "the most feared leader of the Predacons",^[4] suggesting he was originally meant to be the overall commander of the whole faction (like how his Generation 1 namesake was the leader of all Decepticons). This is further supported throughout the first season in instances where such treacherous Predacons as Terrorsaur and Blackarachnia would express a desire to overthrow Megatron and "rule the Predacons" as a whole.

By the second season, however, things changed dramatically for the Predacons. Megatron rarely, if ever, mentioned galactic conquest anymore, and his primary agenda switched from obtaining energon to altering history. This was played off as having been his true goal all along, retconning his depiction in the first season. Furthermore, his desire to change history was due to a complete overhaul of the Predacons' status back on Cybertron. Instead of the galactic conquerors they were billed as in the first season, the second and third season reimagined them as disgruntled second-class citizens subordinate to the authority of the Maximal government on Cybertron. The episode "Other Visits (Part 2)" first made mention of a coalition called the Predacon Alliance, while "The Agenda (Part 1)" introduced one of the alliance's ruling bodies, the Tripredacus Council. It was these episodes that fully reinterpreted Megatron as not the Predacon leader he was originally made out to be, but rather a rogue criminal.

No doubt, the first-season depiction is what inspired the portrayal of the Predacons seen in the two Japanese-original spinoff series Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, wherein the Predacon leaders Galvatron and Magmatron were each known by all Predacons (and Maximals) as a respected Emperor of Destruction (the same title Megatron had in the Japanese version) with their own vast resources spread across the universe, and who answered to no higher Predacon authorities. This was due to the second and third seasons of the American Beast Wars cartoon having not yet reached Japan at the time when Beast Wars II and Neo were in production (see below for more). The Japanese simply weren't aware of the changes the second season would make to both Megatron's leadership status and the political structure of the Predacons as a whole, and thus didn't know about the Predacon Alliance, the Tripredacus Council, or Megatron really being just a lowly crook with delusions of grandeur.

Relationship with Generation 1

The surprise reappearance of the Autobots and Decepticons was the final key that firmly connected the Beast Wars cartoon to Generation 1.

When the two-part pilot episodes premiered in April 1996 (five months ahead of the rest of the season as a preview airing), the two episodes bore only the vaguest resemblance, continuity-wise, to what veteran Transformers fans had been familiar with at the time. Story editors Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio were new to Transformers at the time and had basically created their own completely new universe from the ground up. At first, very little heed had been paid to what all had come before, fiction-wise, which gave the cartoon pilot the initial impression of seeming like a new continuity unconnected to Generation 1. The only direct references to past Transformers lore in the pilot were a mention of Cybertron as the Maximals' and Predacons' home planet, and the onscreen presence of energon (reimagined as naturally-occurring crystals instead of the artificially-created liquid fuel substance that it had been in prior appearances).

One particular nugget of lore from the first episode that caught fans' attention was a mention by Optimus of a past event known as the "Great War". Originally, Bob Forward had thrown this in as a nebulous bit of history to vaguely explain why the Maximals and Predacons were presently in conflict with each other.^[5] But as the passionate fanbase was wont to do at the time, that little tidbit was read into more deeply and taken by fans as a more specific reference to the civil wars that had been fought between the Autobots and Decepticons in previous Transformers fiction.^[5] Forward and DiTillio got wind of this fan-initiated idea and decided to run with it, as every later mention of the "Great War" in the show would unquestionably refer to the Autobot-Decepticon conflict of Generation 1. And even as early as the third episode, an Easter egg cameo appearance of the Decepticon Starscream was inserted into a dream sequence.

As the first season continued, more references to Generation 1 were added in, such as a mention of the Decepticon Shrapnel in "Dark Designs", or imagery of Unicron in both "Possession" and "Other Voices, Part 1". But arguably the biggest example came in the aforementioned "Possession", wherein the ghost of Starscream actually guest-starred in person, directly calling back to events from the Generation 1 cartoon's third season and movie. Said episode even confirmed that the Autobots and Decepticons of Generation 1 were the ancestors of the Maximals and Predacons. And by the end of the second season, those ancestors were finally seen alongside their descendants aboard the crashed Autobot vessel, the Ark, solidifying the fact that the Beast Wars cast had indeed traveled back in time from the future to ancient Earth, long before the 1980s setting of Generation 1 fiction.

The "cartoon vs. comics" debate

Starscream's ghost from the Sunbow cartoon, but with a Marvel comics-colored blue face.

As Beast Wars continued its original broadcast, a question often debated by the fandom was which version exactly of Generation 1 was Beast Wars meant to be in-continuity with. At the time, the two major continuities of Generation 1 were the Sunbow cartoon and the Marvel comics, both of which were strongly defended by their respective fanbases as the "true" version of Generation 1. Across its three seasons, Beast Wars made references to both the Sunbow cartoon and the Marvel comics (though, admittedly, more the former than the latter), resulting in a unique continuity that was a mixture of the two. But, those references had mainly been gleaned by Forward and DiTillio from online interaction with the fandom rather than direct exposure to the source material. The two were actually more interested in creating their own brand new canon for Beast Wars;^[6] the references were merely sprinkled in to add flavor.^[5] In a 1997 interview, DiTillio even stated, "In a sense I treat Transformers like the King Arthur tales. It's one vast canon, with a lot of variations..."^[7] This abstention from picking one continuity over the other was likely to give the Beast Wars writers more creative freedom, unrestricted to either version of Generation 1 (and likely to avoid upsetting any fans who favored one over the other).

That said, additional media written to tie into the cartoon would attempt to make their own decisions about which G1 continuity the show was a part of. Marvel Comics writer Simon Furman (who ultimately wrote the final episode of Beast Wars) naturally aimed to tie the cartoon into his prior writings for Marvel. In 1999–2000, 3H Productions published a multi-part story by Furman for the official Transformers convention, BotCon, titled Reaching the Omega Point—which made blatant use of the Marvel Comics continuity for its Generation 1 backstory, together with elements from The Transformers: The Movie, which Furman had previously incorporated into some of his Marvel work. A year later, a comic story written by Bob Forward, Primeval Dawn, used the Marvel Generation 2 comics' depiction of the Swarm as the backstory of the Beast Wars Vok aliens—an idea that DiTillio had come up with while working on the show, and which Furman continued to utilize in subsequent Primeval Dawn chapters. As part of this effort to fully and strictly connect Beast Wars to the Marvel stories, Furman would also write "The Last Days of Optimus Prime" and "Alignment", two unofficial stories for the UK convention Transforce in 2000–2002, which directly bridged the gap between Marvel's Generation 2 series and Beast Wars. Furman even once declared Beast Wars and Omega Point (but not Beast Machines) to be fully part of the comics universe (in his mind, at least).^[8]

However, aside from Furman, most writers instead took inspiration from the more-widely-known Sunbow cartoon. When the Beast Machines cartoon started up in 1999, as a sequel to Beast Wars, it occasionally made reference to the Sunbow cartoon, but not the Marvel comics. 3H's 2001–2004 BotCon storyline, The Wreckers, was written by the convention organizers as both a direct tie-in to Beast Machines and a direct follow-up to Omega Point—but despite following on from the largely Marvel-influenced Omega Point, the new writers switched to a backstory based more on the Sunbow cartoon, more in line with the approach of Beast Machines, albeit while also making reference to Marvel's Primus/Unicron myth. When Furman took back over for the next series, Universe, he made prominent use of the Marvel character Primus and the Sunbow character Alpha Trion together as close associates. All told, the combined continuity of Beast Wars, Omega Point, Beast Machines, The Wreckers, Primeval Dawn, and Universe ended up as thoroughly a hodgepodge of Sunbow and Marvel lore as the Beast Wars cartoon on its own had originally been. And when the Dreamwave Generation One continuity, the 2006 IDW Beast Wars comics, and the Wings Universe all established their own Generation 1 backstories for Beast Wars, they likewise drew varying influence from both Marvel and Sunbow.

Over in Japan, meanwhile, there was no such contention over which G1 continuity Beast Wars (specifically, the Japanese-dubbed version) was a part of: Since the Marvel Transformers comics had not been formally released in Japan during their original run in the West, the Sunbow cartoon's Japanese dub had long since established itself as the primary Transformers continuity in Japan, with nearly all Japanese Transformers material released up to that point having had some relation to that cartoon. When the Beast Wars cartoon was brought to Japan, it too was considered a part of the sprawling Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity, since there was no other major Transformers continuity in Japan at that point. This perception even extended to the Japanese guidebook Beast Wars Universe, which covered the original English version rather than the Japanese version, and was thus written from the perspective that Beast Wars took place solely and specifically in the Generation 1 cartoon continuity instead of the unique Sunbow/Marvel mixture universe that it actually was.

Prehistoric setting

To be Earth, or not to be Earth. That was the question.

The planet's identity

Initially, the cartoon's setting for the Beast Wars was an uncertain one. The first episode noted that Megatron's crew of Predacons had intended to travel from Cybertron to Earth, but also included a line from Dinobot stating, "It's all wrong. This cannot be Earth." While the planet certainly resembled a primitive version of Earth, it had two moons. This initial ambiguity largely stemmed from what went on behind-the-scenes of the show. At the time, Forward and DiTillio were originally unsure if the series was going to be set on Earth in the past or on just a similar but still completely different planet.^[5] They assumed it was going to be Earth,^[9] but added the second moon to make it less obvious.^[5]

Since Hasbro's marketing department was equally unsure of just what to do with the show,^[5][9] Forward and DiTillio were given mostly free reign to do whatever they wished with it.^[6] Ultimately, they decided to reveal the planet as Earth after all, with the second moon blown up in the first season's finale, and the planet's identity confirmed in-show just two episodes later. With this revelation also came further developments to help flesh out the prehistoric setting of the series, such the introduction of humanity's unevolved ancestors in "Code of Hero", and the second season finale uncovering the ancient Autobot starship, the Ark, which had crash-landed on Earth four million years ago in the Transformers fiction of the 1980s.

Dating the Beast Wars

Once the planet was established as prehistoric Earth, there still remained the question of just how long ago in the past the events of the cartoon were set. When, exactly, did the Beast Wars happen in the history of this fictional universe? The discovery of the Ark in "The Agenda (Part III)" led several characters to make casual comments about there being "four million years",^[10][11] "the next couple million years",^[12] and "a few million stellar cycles"^[13] until the awakening of the Autobots and Decepticon aboard the Ark in 1984, which suggested the Beast Wars happened not too long after the Ark had first crash-landed on the planet.

Outside the cartoon, the various Beast Wars tie-in media attempted to provide more precise dates for when the show's events were set:

• The first was given in 2003, in the fifth chapter of the Japanese Micromaster prose series. In this story, artifacts of the Beast Wars found by Autobot Micromasters in the early 1980s were dated to have first arrived on Earth "three million years ago."
• In 2004, the second and third chapters (both written by Simon Furman) of Primeval Dawn (which was set not long after the final episode of Beast Wars) provided a most specific date for the time period of the Beast Wars, that being "180,000 Years BC".
• While Dreamwave's plans for a Beast Wars comic series were canceled, the script for the unpublished first issue (also written by Simon Furman) was to be set immediately after the cartoon's final episode and used the same date for the Beast Wars as Primeval Dawn, "180,000 Years BC".
• From 2006 to 2008, IDW Publishing's two Beast Wars comic miniseries, The Gathering and The Ascending (both written once again by Simon Furman) each took place during the third season of the cartoon, and dated the Beast Wars to "70,000 Years BC". However, the glossary entry for the Nemesis found in the back of the collected edition of the Beast Wars Sourcebook claimed the Great War took place "millions of years later" from the Beast Wars,^[14] leaning more towards the cartoon's original statements. But the glossary's entries for Optimus Prime (G1) and Megatron (G1) both reflected the comics' timeframe by stating they awoke on 1980s Earth "thousands of years later" from the Beast Wars.^[15][16]

While these different dates all remain contradictory to each other, they each belong to a different expanded-media continuity for the Beast Wars cartoon (see "Expanded universes" above); respectively, the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity, the 3H Beast Wars continuity, the Dreamwave Generation One continuity, and the IDW Beast Wars continuity (the Wings Universe gave no timeframe for its version of the Beast Wars, but made references to the works by 3H Productions, suggesting it also used the Primeval Dawn timeframe).

Future setting

Distance from the Great War

Apparently, the future is neon-lit.

As the cartoon continued its worldbuilding, it soon became clear that the Maximals and Predacons were not only the distant descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons, but had also originally come from a future time set long after the age of said ancestors. This then led to questions about just how far into the future they originally hailed. While the show never actually addressed when the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons ended, it did provide some hints about how long after the war the future era of Beast Wars was set. In the first season, the first episode stated that the Maximals and Predacons were currently at peace, and had been "for centuries."^[17] In the episode "Dark Designs", Blackarachnia offhandedly stated that the "Great Wars" had occurred "three centuries ago."^[18][19] And in "Law of the Jungle", it was said that only "hundreds of stellar cycles" had passed since the Autobots and Decepticons first began the Great War.^[20] Collectively, this presented a relatively short time span (for a race with lifespans of up to millions of years) between the age of the Autobots and Decepticons and that of the Maximals and Predacons.

However, outside of these first-season references, the rest of the show would instead suggest a much greater span of time since the end of the Great War. In the series' production bible, the backstory written for the show noted that knowledge of the Maximals and Predacons having descended from the Autobots and Decepticons came from "Cybertron Mythology"^[4] In "Possession", the Autobots and Decepticons were described as not just the Maximals' and Predacons' "ancestors", but specifically their "ancient ancestors", and in the same episode, despite the guest-starring Decepticon Starscream having garnered quite the infamous reputation in the original Transformers fiction, Optimus Primal, Blackarachnia, and Dinobot were the only ones among the main cast who had ever heard of him. And much later, in "The Agenda (Part III)", upon first laying eyes on the Ark, the Maximal Silverbolt said that he originally thought the Ark was only a legend.^[21]

In the sequel series Beast Machines (which was set in the same future setting of Beast Wars), other Generation 1 elements (namely Vector Sigma, its Key, and the Plasma Energy Chamber) were all likewise regarded by the characters as mere legends before their existences were fully realized. And in "A Wolf in the Fold", the Maximal Nightscream called the Hate Plague an "ancient" virus. The original story treatment for the series even claimed "what little is known" about the Autobots and Decepticons is known mostly from legend, and that the era of the Maximals and Predacons was set a whopping "millions of years later".^[22] And when both Optimus and Nightscream stumbled upon the ruins of the Autobot city of Iacon, in "Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search", it was stated that the Great War had occurred not "three centuries ago" (as originally given in "Dark Designs"), but rather "eons ago",^[23] which fits much better with the amount of time needed for the vast Autobot/Decepticon history to have all faded into myth and legend by the time of the Maximals' and Predacons' future setting.

And yet, despite all of that, the more miniscule time gap of "three centuries" is the one that more people have taken to heart and propagated in the years since, making its way into other licensed works and even creator commentary. 3H Productions' Apelinq's War Journals (which was set both right before and during Beast Machines) specified the future date as "316 AU", as in "316 stellar cycles" into the future. Issues #1 and #2 of The Wreckers (which was also set both during and right after Beast Machines) clarified that this was about "three hundred years" after the destruction of Unicron in 2005,^[24][25] in reference to the events of The Transformers: The Movie. The previous Reaching the Omega Point story "Covenant" had also referred to Unicron's defeat in 2005,^[26] so it matched up. Additionally, Beast Wars Universe,^[27] a 1997 interview with Bob Forward,^[28] an interview with Larry DiTillio on the Rhino Entertainment DVD set of the cartoon's first season,^[6] and Transformers: The Ultimate Guide^[29] all likewise mentioned the interim of "300 years", while IDW's The Gathering, The Ascending, and Beast Wars Sourcebook gave no timeframe for how long after the Great War the future era of Beast Wars was set. But in promotion of the one-shot prequel story "Dawn of the Predacus", IDW author John-Paul Bove had tweeted that the story was set "30 years after The Battle for Autobot City, 300 years before The Beast Wars".^[30]

Distance from the present day

With most Beast Wars media accepting the "three centuries" claim, there still remained the question when in the future these three centuries were set. As stated before, the cartoon never said when the Great War ended, so the tie-in media opted to provide their own different answers. Reaching the Omega Point introduced a dark alternate future ruled by a tyrant named Shokaract, which "Terminus" stated was set in the 32nd Century. A preceding story, "Schism", stated that this dark future was set "two hundred years" after the first chapter of Omega Point, "Covenant", which itself was set during the normal future setting of Beast Wars and Beast Machines. Logically, 200 years before the 32nd Century would place said normal future setting in the 30th Century, which would then place the Great War three centuries earlier in the 27th Century. The related apocryphal story "Alignment" even seemed to support this notion with its own events set both right before the 300-year time gap and "several hundred years" after the destruction of Unicron.^[31]

However, as noted above, the Omega Point sequel series, The Wreckers, explicitly (and repeatedly) placed the future setting of Beast Wars and Beast Machines about "three hundred years" after Unicron's demise in 2005, which would place the Beast Wars future in the 24th Century, essentially retconning away the 30th Century implication. Although, in the second issue of the next series, Universe, the inside-cover recap of the first issue's events instead claimed this future setting was in the 23rd Century, but this was likely an error. The Wing Universe story "A Common Foe" saw the civil wars between the Autobots, Decepticons, and all other related parties finally brought to their formal conclusion in the year 2013, so three centuries later from then would again be the 24th Century. Likewise, IDW Publishing's "Dawn of the Predacus" featured its own take on the end of the Great War, which the aforementioned tweet by John-Paul Bove dated to thirty years after 2005 and three hundred years before the future setting of Beast Wars, placing that story in 2035 and the future once again in the 24th Century.

Aside from these, there was one thing that initially did not adhere to the "three centuries" notion. In the Japanese dub of "Dark Designs", Blackarachnia's "three centuries ago" line from the English version was not retained, instead changed to a pop culture reference joke. And when the first Japanese-original spinoff series Beast Wars II started up, it was originally billed as taking place during the same future setting of the American Beast Wars cartoon. The main setting of Beast Wars II was the planet Gaia, which was all but stated outright to be a post-apocalyptic version of Earth. In its thirty-sixth episode, it was revealed that Gaia's ancient inhabitants (in other words, humanity) had abandoned the planet "several tens of thousands of years ago", a significantly greater time gap than just "three centuries ago". At first, there was no contradiction, since, as mentioned, the "three centuries" line was left out of the Japanese dub. But when the theatrical feature "Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger!" and the sequel series Beast Wars Neo both came along, a number of new contradictions soon arose between them and the American Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons.

To rectify this, when TakaraTomy began to formally assemble the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon timeline in the mid-2000s, they opted to give acknowledgement of the "three centuries ago" line from the English version and use both it and the "tens of thousands of years ago" statement from Beast Wars II to relocate both it and Beast Wars Neo to take place many millennia after the Japanese dub of Beast Machines. Plus, vintage Generation 1 and Generation 2 media released in Japan had also placed the end of the Autobot/Decepticon wars in the 21st Century, so once again, the future setting of Beast Wars was placed in the 24th Century. And meanwhile, another particular exception was given in Beast Wars Universe, which treated the end of the American Generation 1 cartoon, "The Rebirth", as the last known event of the Great War in the book's chronology for Beast Wars, titled "Chronicles of Cybertron". It also claimed that the full amount of time between "The Rebirth" and the future setting of Beast Wars was estimated (by the Beast Wars series' staff) to be "about 300–500 years", with the Great War having apparently gone on for another two centuries after "The Rebirth",^[27][32] before reaching its end in the 23rd Century, which would place the future of Beast Wars in the 26th Century. But, none of these statements have ever been put into practice in any canonical fiction, so they remain only pseudocanon at best.

Awards and nominations

1998 Daytime Emmy Awards

• Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Clyde Klotz (WINNER)

International releases

Japan

In Japan, the Beast Wars: Transformers cartoon was split into 2 separate 26 episode series.

Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers

Japanese Generation 1 continuity « Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers » Toyline Cartoons Comics Video games Commercials

Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers ( ビーストウォーズ超生命体トランスフォーマー Beast Wars Chō Seimeitai Transformers) aired in 1997, consisting of the North American season 1 episodes. In charge of localization was Yoshikazu Iwanami, an audiography director whose resume included shows such as the TV Tokyo dubs of Saban Entertainment's X-Men and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Iwanami's signature style of localization and dubbing relies heavily on satirical comedy and ad libbing, most commonly turning the programs into self-referential parodies of themselves. While the early episodes of Beast Wars were fairly innocuous in their ad libs, as time went on their inclusion became progressively more intrusive and by the last third of the series there was a severe tonal shift.

The ad libbing in Beast Wars primarily consisted of "noise"; talking for the sake of talking and reducing atmospheric silence or visual subtlety to a minimum. One particular trait of the dub was that each character had their own unique vocal tic with which they would punctuate their sentences or, more commonly, chant incessantly for no apparent reason. For instance, Waspinator would chant "bun", Scorponok would chant "orya", Blackarachnia would hiss "chā", Rhinox would ramble "dana" and so on. This gimmick was especially pronounced during fight scenes, when characters would repeatedly and comically shout their vocal tics every time they pulled the trigger of their weapons, reducing firefights to a cacophony of unending gibberish.

Many characters underwent considerable changes in personality and characterization. Some of these changes were gradual; Megatron began the series as a gravelly voiced and uncharismatic slob who would loudly hock loogies after fits of maniacal laughter. That trait was phased out in exchange for him becoming an effeminate, mood-swinging goofball; his tone of voice transitioning from a ferocious baritone to a silly high pitch at the drop of a hat. He was also made humorously cowardly, shouting out wimpy excuses while retreating (including the claim that he was late for piano practice).

Other characters were fundamentally altered right from the get go. NAVI-ko, the Predacon computer, gained a girly and fitful personality and characters would talk with her rather than at her. Tigatron was made into a humorous samurai ronin parody. Airazor had her gender changed, becoming a young male and Tigatron's trusty ward (and later, his lover).

All 26 episodes were aired without any edits for time or content (unlike the Japanese broadcasts of The Transformers and many future imported Western Transformers shows). However, the episodes were aired out of their original sequence: "A Better Mousetrap" and "The Probe" were switched around in accordance to their production order, while "The Spark" and both parts of "The Trigger" were all moved up earlier to come before "Victory". As a result, Sentinel appeared in "The Probe" before its proper debut in "A Better Mousetrap", while "The Spark" comes before "Victory", making it seem like the Maximals were abandoning Airazor in their attempt to leave Earth.

Beast Wars aired on TV Tokyo in the Wednesday 6:30 PM timeslot. As the second season of the North American Beast Wars: Transformers was not ready for localization by the time Beast Wars ended in Japan, a pair of domestically produced cartoon series, Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, were commissioned to fill the gap. The opening theme for Beast Wars was "War War! Stop It" by Banana Ice while the ending theme was "FOR THE DREAM" by Mickey.

Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals

Japanese Generation 1 continuity « Beast Wars Metals » Toyline Cartoon Comic Commercials Transmetals Video Game (N64) Transmetals Video Game (PS)

Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals (超生命体トランスフォーマー ビーストウォーズメタルス, Chō Seimeitai Transformers Beast Wars Metals) aired in 1999, consisting of the North American season 2 and 3 episodes. While Beast Wars had been fairly judicious in its self-referential humor, even in its last stretch of episodes, Beast Wars Metals was an unrestrained self-parody, constantly breaking the fourth wall and demonstrating awareness of its own status as a TV series.

Ad libbing was cranked to the max and many characters received major personality adjustments to reflect the aggressively comedic nature of the series. Depth Charge became a goofy old man who enjoyed singing fishing songs while transforming, for example, and Rampage spoke with the rough-and-tumble dialect of a Japanese street punk. The show was unrelentingly self-aware, regularly acknowledging the camera, the TV channel and, in one of the more obnoxious gags, Rattrap would constantly smell what the audience was eating (making remarks to the effect of, "Oh, that's Sato-san's curry" as he sniffed). For good or ill the show proved a shot in the arm for the franchise, and this success catapulted Iwanami into a brand mainstay. Iwanami's dubbing style has become synonymous with imported Transformers cartoons in Japan, and he continues to voice direct most series to this day, all with the same heavily "punched up" direction.

The distribution of episodes for Beast Wars Metals was complicated. Japan included selected episodes in two separate theatrical releases:

• Beast Wars Special Super Lifeform Transformers (premiering the episode "Bad Spark")
• 1999 Summer Toei Anime Fair (premiering the episode "Cutting Edge").

Since the above episodes were released theatrically, they are not included in the show's proper 26 episode list, with their places being taken by two original clip shows:

• Episode 14: "Where Is the Banana?"
• Episode 26: "Remix: I Forgot the Banana!"

As with the other installments in the Beast Wars franchise, Beast Wars Metals aired on TV Tokyo in the Wednesday 6:30 PM timeslot. The series had two opening themes, "Tamashii no Evolution" and "Sennen no Soldier" by Hironobu Kageyama, and two ending themes, "BA-BI-BU-BE Beast Wars" and "HALLELUYAH" also by Kageyama.

United Kingdom

When originally aired on GMTV in the United Kingdom, Beast Wars was only screened on school holidays, usually in double bills on Bank Holidays, and one episode per morning on half-term weeks, meaning that only a few episodes were shown a year, with wide gulfs in between (most prominently, three months passed between the airings of "Other Visits" parts 1 and 2). In a sign of things to come, "Beast Wars (Part 1)" was shown some 25 minutes earlier than billed due to rescheduled news reports, meaning many fans missed the entire opening episode. Things went from bad to worse when "Equal Measures" was skipped, and only continued when, after "Victory", the series skipped directly to "Other Voices, Part 1". The entirety of the second season followed the conclusion of the first, but the channel never aired the third season; although it was subsequently released on VHS, the cliffhanger-resolving "Optimal Situation" was only available as a free gift with purchase at Toys"R"Us.

Additionally, these GMTV airings were modified in various ways. The first and most foremost alteration was the removal of the word "Transformers" from the series' title, which was only reinstated with "Other Voices, Part 1". With regard to the actual content, the earliest episodes generally had nothing more extreme than the removal of uses of the word "slag" (as it is effectively a synonym for "slut" in English slang), but with the beginning of the second season, edits were steadily made to episodes for no readily apparent reasons. Additionally, any scenes featuring flashing images were routinely put through a filter that slowed such scenes down to comical levels. This culminated in a butchered version of "The Agenda", which snipped out many short scenes throughout all three episodes for no reason, from inconsequential moments like Tarantulas cackling and driving out of his lab in Part 1, to key scenes such as Silverbolt and Optimus Primal's "office talk" in Part 2, and in what was the last straw for many fans, the complete second half of Megatron's speech (the part explaining Megatron's entire motivation), also from Part 2.

During the time they had the rights to the series, GMTV also showed the entirety of seasons one and two on the then-obscure digital-only channel ITV2.

Channel 5, a terrestrial channel, showed the entire series in its complete form in 2003. Thankfully. This got rerun too, leading to the Beast Wars comics getting used as reprints in Titan's Movie-based comic.

France

In France and (French) Belgium, the show was called "Animutants" and had a good-quality dubbing, rather close to the original voices. But while the first two seasons of the show were aired, the third one never was; the show always ended with "The Agenda (Part III)", leaving the viewers in the area with the worst case of cliffhanger ever.

However, the French dubbed episodes that can nowadays be found on DVD and VHS stop at "Other Visits (Part 2)", but we can assume that the TV broadcast reached the end of the season.

Belgium

Beast Wars aired under its original name with Dutch subtitles, but like the French broadcast, it stopped abruptly after "The Agenda (Part III)".

China

In China, the show was localized as Chāonéng Yǒngshì (超能勇士, "Super-Powerful Warriors") and released in a good-quality dubbing by the People's Art Theatre of Liaoning. It was very successful on the TV station and once won a very high audience rating. Like the Japanese dub, Season 2 and Season 3 episodes were also merged into one season called Chāonéng Yǒngshì: Jīnshǔ Biàntǐ (超能勇士：金属变体, "Super-Powerful Warriors: Transmetals"). Neither title included "Transformers", leaving some of the audience unaware that this was a sequel to their childhood. Following the Chinese release of Beast Machines, the People's Art Theatre of Liaoning re-dubbed the show with character names changed into the Chinese translation of Beast Machines, I.E. changing the name of Optimus Primal from Hēixīngxīng Duìzhǎng (黑猩猩队长, "Captain Chimpanzee") to Xīngxīng Jiāngjūn (猩猩将军, "General Gorilla").

Vietnam

In Vietnam, the show was called Chiến tranh quái vật vũ trụ ("Galaxy Monster Wars"). The show was released on VHS tapes with a very good Vietnamese dub, then it was copied to VCD. Unfortunately, as happened in France, only the first two seasons were aired. It ended with "The Agenda (Part III)", and left the fans with a cliffhanger.

Germany

The German dub used the original title, Beast Wars. The show was initially very successful on the TV Station RTL2 and was released on VHS. However, only the first season was shown and dubbed. Furthermore, the TV broadcast had many fight scenes censored to comply with Germany's strict laws against TV violence; however, the VHS Release was uncut. After many reruns the show was cancelled and the second and third Season were never shown in Germany.

Italy

The toyline was already renamed Biocombat, but the cartoon got the long and unusual title of Rombi di tuono e cieli di fuoco per i Biocombat ("Thunderbolts and Flaming Skies for the Biocombat"). Such long titles were indeed a tradition for cartoons dubbed in Italian in the '90s. The theme song was replaced with the homonymous Rombi di Tuono e Cieli di Fuoco per i Biocombat.

The dub made many changes—much dialogue was simplified, and in season one silence was filled with either a narrator describing aloud what just happened or characters having inner monologues.

For some reason, Gorilla Warfare and The Probe were switched around in the airing order. Because of this, the former begins with the narrator making a quick reference to the Maximals' failure in the latter.

The Beast Wars dub is the first time the terms "Autobot" and "Decepticon" were kept as such in an Italian dub. While "Decepticon" was kept in subsequent series, to hear "Autobot" again, Italians had to wait until 2007 when the first live action movie was released, since Robots in Disguise and the Unicron Trilogy went back using "Autorobot".

Spanish America

The show aired in many Latin American countries, mainly through Cartoon Network's South American feeds, as well various local TV stations. The dub was recorded at Audiomaster 3000 in Mexico. Apart from some name changes (Optimus Primal became Optimus Primitivo, to name an example) the dub was completely uncut.

Home video releases

Canada

Main article: Alliance Atlantis

VHS

• Beast Wars — A Feature Length Beasties Adventure (1996)
• Robots-Bêtes — Une Adventure Cybernetique (1996)
• Beast Wars — Beasties Escape (1998)
• Robots-Bêtes — L'Évasion (1998)
• Beast Wars — Warning from Space (1998)
• Robots-Bêtes — Alert Dans L'Espace (1998)
• Beast Wars / Robots-Bêtes Three pack (1998)
• Beast Wars — Optimus Lives! (1998)
• Robots-Bêtes — L'Empreinte D'Optimus (1998)

DVD

• Beast Wars — Classic Episodes — Where the Beasties Began! (2005)
• Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 2 — The Saga Continues! (2005)
• Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 3 — The Battle Rages On! (2005)
• Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 4 — The Predacons Advance! (2005)
• Beast Wars — The Complete First Season (2005)

Japan

Main article: Geneon Universal Entertainment

Pioneer's Japanese DVD sets of the series come with optional English language dialogue with Japanese subtitles, allowing fans in Japan to view the more serious version of the show if desired.

VHS

• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Enter the Super Lifeform Transformers (1997)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Cheetus's Crisis (1997)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Disappeared (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — The Solitary Warrior Tigatron (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — A Terrifying New Weapon! (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Goodbye, Rattle!? (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Floating Island Death Match (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — The Destrons' Dramatic Finish (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Two Dinobots? (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Revive, Beast Power! (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — The Immortal Starscream (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Fare Thee Well, Tigatron (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — To Protect the Peace... (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers Special — Great Cybertron Army Collection (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers Special — Great Destron Army Collection (1998)
• Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Great Quiz Collection (1999)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — We're Back! (1999)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — Convoy Reborn (1999)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — I Quit! (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — Huh? The Face? (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — I'm a Crab! (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — I Do Love You! (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — Gro~w Bigger (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — Rrray! (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — The Movie (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — I Am Resurrected (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — Love Typhoon (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — Sssshiny! (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — I Hath Returned (2000)
• Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals — Happy? This Should Do It (2000)

LaserDisc

• Beast Wars: Transformers — Maximal Edition (1998)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Predacon Edition (1998)

DVD

• Beast Wars: Transformers — DVD BOX (2000)
• Beast Wars: Transformers: Metals — DVD BOX 1 (2000)
• Beast Wars: Transformers: Metals — DVD BOX 2 (2000)

United Kingdom

Main article: Universal

The entire run of the show ended up on VHS from 2000 to 2001, though "Aftermath" was only available as a pack-in with Claw Jaw, and "Optimal Situation" could only be obtained as a free gift with purchase at Toys"R"Us. Perhaps unintuitively in retrospect, the VHS releases began with the show's third season—picking up from the end of the show's original UK broadcast on GMTV, which stopped after the second season's cliffhanger ending! DVD releases were considerably more spotty, starting from "The Agenda" and releasing only ten episodes across two volumes. In both cases, however, cuts were gone! Characters could rightfully swear!

Not featuring Razorclaw.

VHS

• Beast Wars: Transformers — Free Video (2000)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 1 (2000)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 2 (2000)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 3 (2000)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 4 (2000)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 5 (2001)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 6 (2001)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 7 (March 5 2001)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 8 (March 5, 2001)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 1 (2001)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 2 (2001)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 3 (2001)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 4 (2001)

DVD

• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 1 (2004)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 2 (2005)

United States

Main article: Rhino Entertainment

• Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 1 (2002)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 2 (2002)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete First Season (2003)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Second Season (2004)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Third Season (2004)

Main article: Shout! Studios

• Transformers - Beast Wars: Season One (2011)
• Transformers - Beast Wars: The Complete Series (2011)
• Transformers - Beast Wars: Seasons 2 & 3 (2011)
• Transformers - Beast Wars: Chain of Command (2014)
• Transformers - Beast Machines: The Complete Series (2014)

Australia and New Zealand

Main article: Madman Entertainment

• Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (2006)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 2 (2006)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 3 (2006)
• The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (2009)

Russia

Russian DVD sets come with only Russian dialogue and no subtitles.

DVD

• Transformery: Beast Wars — Season 1 Vol. 1 (first 13 episodes of the first season) (2011)

Germany

DVD

Pandavision (2012)

• Transformers: Beast Wars - Season 1 (April 24, 2012)

Pack-ins and Giveaways

Main articles: Hasbro and Pack-in material

VHS

• Beast Wars: Transformers — Aftermath & Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1) (1998)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Aftermath (1998)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1) (1998)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Bad Spark & Code of Hero (1999)

DVD

• Beast Wars: Transformers — Equal Measures (2006)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — A Better Mousetrap (2006)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — The Spark (2006)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Spider's Game (2006)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Possession (2006)
• Beast Wars: Transformers — Code of Hero (2006)
• "Enter the Super Lifeform Transformers" and "The Destrons' Dramatic Finish" (2006)
• "Destroy the Destrons" (2006)
• "Cheetus's Crisis" (2006)
• "Operation: Time Bomb Transfer!" (2006)
• "Convoy Disappeared" (2006)
• "The Aerial Mountain Explodes" (2006)
• "The Solitary Warrior, Tigatron" (2006)
• "Kick of the Spider Woman" (2006)
• "A Terrifying New Weapon!" (2006)
• "The Deadly Virus" (2006)
• "Goodbye, Rattle!?" (2006)
• "The Falcon Warrior, Airazor" (2006)
• "Floating Island Death Match, Part 1" and "Floating Island Death Match, Part 2" (2006)
• "Around and Around the Jungle" (2006)
• "The Immortal Starscream" (2006)

Notes

• The first season of Beast Wars cost $18 million, according to a 1997 interview with Bob Forward.
• The decision to go forward with a second season came in late November of 1996.^[33]
• There are three known unproduced Beast Wars episodes: "A Greater Ape", "Bitch Wars", and "Dark Glass".
• B-Club magazine erroneously claims that Beast Wars is the first fully CGI television show in the world, a title actually held by Insektors. Mainframe's own CGI show ReBoot also predates Beast Wars.
• The Production Designer for the show, Clyde Klotz, won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997. How cool is that?
• For reasons unknown, neither the Kid Rhino nor the Shout! Factory U.S. DVD releases of Beast Wars season three included the opening that was televised, which included an original shot of the Axalon and Darksyde spaceships crashing down to prehistoric Earth. Instead, all season three episodes began with the season two opening for the first part of the beginning credits. Likewise, the Beast Wars season one releases from both Rhino and Shout! Factory used the shorter version of the title sequence and theme song that originated from when Beast Wars was shown as part of the syndicated Power Block, instead of the full version that was used for screenings outside of the Power Block. When released on DVD in Canada, however, Alliance Atlantis did use the correct openings for both seasons.

Foreign names

• English: Beasties (Canada; broadcast only^[34])
• Japanese: Beast Wars Chō Seimeitai Transformers (ビーストウォーズ 超生命体トランスフォーマー, "Beast Wars Super Lifeform Transformers"), Chō Seimeitai Transformers Beast Wars Metals (second and third seasons, 超生命体トランスフォーマー ビーストウォーズ メタルス, "Super Lifeform Transformers Beast Wars Metals")
• Bulgarian: Voinata na zverovete (Войната на зверовете "War of the Beasts")
• Cantonese: Ciunang Jungsi (Hong Kong, 超能勇士, "Super-Ultra Warriors")
• French: Animutants (France), Robots-Bêtes ("Beast-Robots", Canada)
• Italian: Rombi di tuono e cieli di fuoco per i Biocombat ("Thunderbolts and Flaming Skies for the Biocombat")
• Latvian: Briesmoņu kari ("Monster Wars")
• Mandarin: Bǎibiàn Jīngāng (Taiwan, 百變金剛, "Morph Vajra"), Biànxíng Jīngāng: Yěshòu Zhànzhēng (China, 变形金刚：野兽战争, "Transformers: Beast Wars")
• Polish: Kosmiczne Wojny (Lector "Cosmic Wars"), Wojny Potworów (Canal + Dubbing "Monster Wars")
• Russian: Bitvi Zverey (Битвы зверей, "Battles of the Beasts"), Zhestokye voini (Жестокие войны, "Cruel wars")
• Spanish: Guerra de Bestias (America, "War of Beasts")
• Vietnamese: Chiến tranh quái vật vũ trụ ("Galaxy Monster Wars")

References

External Links

• Complete Beast Wars: Transformers playlist on YouTube
• "Beast Wars Super Lifeform Transformers" playlist on TakaraTomy's YouTube channel (JP only)