The animation in the first season has gotten a little dated, though I feel in the 2nd and 3rd season it's still pretty good by today's standards. The plots, especially in the beginning, were a little hit and miss, but the writing by and large was absolutely stellar for a cartoon (and for a Transformers series). One of the things I also liked was that the series wasn't afraid to inject comedy and to have fun with itself, resulting in a mood I don't think we've really seen before or since, but one that may be an issue of personal taste.

So give it a shot. I don't know if it's under or over-rated, but it's something that's well worth seeing through to the end. It deserves the love it gets and the special place it has in the hearts of many fans.

 

I believe it is underrated because it still doesn't get as much attention as it should. The whole Beast Era gets underrated and gets pushed out by other shows.

If you count all the comics, Beast Era has very little than G1 and other Eras.

 

The show only gets better over time, so if you're enjoying it on the 3rd episode, you definitely won't think it's overrated by the time you finish.

I would agree with Chris on the "well, it could be considered overrated, but frankly it isn't" thing. It -could- be considered overrated in the sense that Beast Wars fans talk about the show as if it's perfection, as if every clever thing that happens in the show was planned from the start, when that clearly isn't true. But it isn't overrated because Beast Wars fans and homages are still in the minority right now. It's still overshadowed by the bloated G1, which is surely the definition of overrated. In my opinion, Transformers is a media that works better as a comic than a cartoon; the standard set by most Transformers shows (especially the Japanese ones) is really freakin low. The fact that Beast Wars exceeds that standard is what causes most of its fans to become diehards, but in the grand scheme of things it isn't -that- good. Still, it is better than everything but Animated as far as storytelling goes.

 

Overrated. It's less overrated now, since the fandom has changed, and there's more to compare it to. Overall, it's not talked about as much, but it has certainly enjoyed a lot of hype.

From the start, Beast Wars was a pretty screwy idea, and Mainframe deserves credit for doing as much as they did with the crap they were handed. BW gets most of its love simply from being the first TF show to have writing that occasionally lifted itself above the requirements of Saturday morning toy commercials. On that count, I have to hand it to BW. There are some genuinely great episodes, with some smart, funny dialog. Occasionally they make sly film homages, or fan-oriented references to Transformers history. These are the bright spots.

HOWEVER... it also fails on a number of levels:
- the comic relief is inconsistent and cringe-inducing
- f***ing irritating voices
- clinically ******ed villains
- awful, awful music
- CGI animation that has NOT aged well at all

For it's time, BW was a breath of fresh air... no question. However, after shows like Animated and Prime, that also had decent and occasionally smart writing... it doesn't really merit a privileged spot in Transformers TV history anymore.

However, for diehard fans of the series, I can understand not feeling catered to. Beast Wars hasn't gotten a lot of official Hasbro love (not compared to G1 at least). Still, BW-style toys and character homages have still be turning up pretty consistently in almost every toy line since the 90's, so the influence BW has left on the franchise is still felt.

Of course, to put this all in perspective, being "overrated" is relative. Among those who have watched (and enjoyed) Beast Wars, I think it is certainly overrated, because I think that it is given too much praise. On the other hand, I don't think we've EVER gotten a "great" Transformers series on TV. There has never been a TF series that, outside of my fan curiosity, that I would have watched solely for its own merits. To be fair, these are cartoons for kids... but I don't think any TF series has ever truly transcended that genre/definition as some other cartoons have. I would love to be the type of adult who says he enjoys watching kids cartoons, but the truth of the matter is that very few kids cartoons hold my attention. Being honest, I guess a lot of grown-up TV fails this measure too though... so maybe I'm being too harsh.  

zmog

 

There needs to be an option that says "it is now".

If you came into the franchise late, say circa 2007 for the Bay movies, and heard all the praise, saw two Hall of Fame fan vote characters go in, read all the praise on the board and then you watch it and go "shit, this...isn't great". Then yes, it is over-rated, because you've heard so much good stuff it can't possibly live up to those expectations.

The majority of people who love Beast Wars cstumbled across it at a time when they're had been no new Transformers animation in the West for ten years, the property had felt dead for three years (especially in the US where they had no new toys, and the franchise was on life support in the UK), and then from out of no-where (internet wasn't as prevalent,no convention in the UK, Botcon small affair in the US) this TV show turns up. Beast Wars - "what the hell is that?" Then you stumble across toys and see the "Transformers" brand. "These aren't Transformers!??" Then you hear them use the name Optimus Primal, "Primal, yuck, why's he a monkey?" etc...

Then you actually sit down and watch it, and it's really good. References to the Matrix, Starscream shows up, we see a seeker on Cybertron, RAVAGE!!!, The Ark with Optimus and Megatron!

HOLY SHIT!!!

But the thing that sticks isn't the fan-wank nods to the original franchise, it's the characters and the growth they go through, it's the strength of the writing, it's the fact that it's a CGI cartoon on the TV.

To watch it back then,as it was, then yeah, it really wasn't over-rated.

 

Beast Wars= Greatest Transformer cartoon ever 


yyyyyeeessssss

 

I liked Beast Wars and LOVED LOVED LOVED Beast Machines.

Which I know is not the norm around here.

But I'm *A* Norm, if not *the* norm.

 

If you think Beast Wars is overrated (when measured against other TF fiction), you have literally no understanding of characterization, character arc, dialogue quality, plotting, etc.

Also, it's "overrated" in the same way Shakespeare can appear "overrated". It brought a lot of things to TF shows that people now take for granted-- three-dimensional characters, adult humor snuck in, transformers actually dying (yes, the movie did this, but Beast Wars made it work in a serial TV format), a romantic plot that made sense, and most importantly: season(s)-long plot arcs.

If you've seen it and hate it, that's super. But refusing to respect what it's done for TF fiction is just silly.

 

Its definitely a good (arguably even great) series but I feel like it gets overrated when Beast Wars fans treat it like the end-all, ultimate of all TV shows. Other guys have already covered that here so I'm not going to elaborate. I do think Beast Wars die-hard fans wear nostalgia glasses, though they aren't as rose-tinted as G1 diehard fan glasses since at least BW fans of a show that can arguably back-up the hype to an extent.

Ultimately though, "overrated" and "underrated" are highly subjective terms, with people having different opinions. You're ultimately going to have to watch it yourself and decide for yourself.

 

I've been a die-hard Beast Wars fan since it began airing in 1996, and personally, I DON'T MIND that Hasbro tends to ignore it. I'm glad that names like Tigatron, Cheetor, Dinobot (as a person's name), Rhinox, etc. haven't been used since.
I'm glad that every new version of Megatron we get is yet another homage to G1 Megatron. No purple Tyranosaurs to be seen anywhere! I'm glad that Optimus Primal has been left in the past in favor of Optimus Prime. And I'm glad that whenever Inferno shows up, he's an Autobot firetruck and not a crazed Predacon fire ant.
I'm glad for all this, because I've seen how watered-down and diluted the G1 names have become due to oversaturation. And I'm not talking about just new versions of the characters like G1 Prime, Armada Prime, RiD Prime, TFA Prime, TFP Prime, etc. etc. I'm talking about even new versions of the SAME character. G1 Megatron is nothing like Marvel G1 Megatron and neither of them are anything like Dreamwave G1 Megatron or IDW G1 Megatron.
Meanwhile, when I talk about Rhinox, everyone knows who I'm talking about and they know what he sounds like, what he looks like, how he behaves, and all that. Even in Beast Machines when he went through the wringer, his true personality showed through at the end and everyone could look at that and say, "Now *that's* the Rhinox I know!"
I hope that Hasbro continues to push forward with the G1 homages and any new ideas they come up with, and leave Beast Wars alone. I was honestly a little worried when they brought Blackarachnia and Waspinator back for TFA, though they were handled okay. Still, I don't want to see the same dilution of the BW cast that befell the G1 cast.

 

Completely overrated imo. Easily my most loathed series in TF fiction.

 

Not overrated. It's as good as people claim. Much better than I was expecting it to be.

 

To the OP...

Watch it for yourself and be the judge, but I do not believe it is overrated one bit. By far my favorite TF TV series. Waiting to see if TF: Prime can beat it out when the series is all said and done.

 

My say would have to be no due to the increasing number of those saying it is overrated

 

It's not over rated. It is the best series TFs has seen if only for how many over-arching but cohesive plot threads there are, and how many times they overlap in convincing ways. (Like Blackarachnia's goals melding with Megatron's goals, for example) However add to that almost every character in it is universally liked and the plot is one of the best "tied to the old series but still entirely new" plots there is, it's no surprise it's so well-regarded. It also standardised a lot of TF fiction, like establishing the difference between the Matrix as an afterlife and the Matrix as a physical object, protoforms, Sparks, all that good stuff.

 

I'm huge g1 fan, but story wise, character development, it blows every other tf series out of the water. Well I take that back, I never saw animated,so I can't judge that one.

 

This, easily. The amount of story telling, chemistry, psychology that goes into the characters and the shows, in general, is ridiculously high-quality. Beast Machines gets insanely complex with certain themes, but manage to tackle them in a tasteful way.

Until I see more of TFP, the Beast Era remains my top of all Transformers shows.

 

While it's not the greatest cartoon ever made by Transformers standards it seems to stand above the quality of other Transformers shows except it's just not visually up to modern standards.

Although I guess it's sort of low bar to overcome other Transformers cartoons since so few of them were focused on telling a great story with good characters or taking many chances.

Perhaps Transformers Prime will be the cartoon to give Beast Wars a run for the money on best story or best character.

 

Overrated? Nope

Beast Wars was the light in Transformers darkest hour. The line in North America was all but in the grave until Beast Wars gave new life to the line. Many elements from the show, strong and complex characters, rich story arcs, fan nods, and grown up humor have ended up in newer series.

Until Transformers Animated and Prime, nothing else has even matched its level. Even the computer animation of the time makes the style from TF: Cybertron look like a high school project.

 

This especially the bolded part