I think back in the 80's, stuff like this didn't mean much. Also, as this show was geared to young kids I don't think kids back then would've gotten any of the "racist" remarks. Even today watching the DVD set, I still don't catch them all. Then I read these reviews and think about it.
Still, it is a cartoon for kids. I wouldn't get too serious about it.

 

I agree with you. Although I really don't think the racism was malicious, perhaps a bad attempt at social comentary? Don't get me wrong, it's still in poor taste to try to sneak that shit into a kids cartoon, but done right it could be clever and even funny.

Well, I cannot think of any examples right now because the real reason I wanted to post was to let you know that you've now made me a little sad remembering what happen to Apollo Creed. "sniff"

 

I can't wait until you review Webworld. That's my favorite Transformers episode ever!

 

Webworld

Plot Summary: We begin IN SPACE, where Galvatron and his posse are searching for a mineral called isodrite. They find a deposit on a nearby asteroid, only to discover that the Autobots are already mining it. Galvatron flies into a rage and engages the Autobots, only to end up spending more time bashing his own troops around than the Autobots. The Autobots manage to make a clean escape within the Stygian ribcage of the Abberation.

Back on Chaar a few of the other Decepticons talk to Chaar about Galvatron. Either Cyclonus figures out a way to cure his insanity, or the Decepticons rebel. Conveniently enough, a hologram of a Quintesson appears at that moment and tells Cyclonus about the world of Torkulon, essentially an entire planet converted into an insane asylum. Cyclonus agrees to take Galvatron there for treatment.

Cyclonus takes Galvatron to Torkulon, saying that he has found the Autobots there. Galvatron is less than pleased when he is unable to find them though, and begins interrogating several of the patients. The Torkuli arrive soon after and immediately recognize Galvatron as the insane one. They put him in retraints and carry him off while Cyclonus is asked to fill out a buttload of forms.

The Torkuli begin their treatment, only to find that he is pretty much untreatable. Ask him to talk about his problems? He shouts violent words and beats the everloving crap out of the therapist. Ask him to build something to work out his problems? He builds a gun and starts blowing stuff up. Make him act out his problems with other patients. He just starts screaming at everyone. The Torkuli conclude that he is just a complete whackjob and decide to resort to "The Alya Solution". The therapist explains to Cyclonus that Torkulon is in fact a living planet and that the spider like beings known as the Alya are extensions of it's will, weaving it's biomechanical circuitry into being. By connecting the planet's consciousness directly to Galvatron's, they can override the insane parts of his mind while destroying the rest, curing him, but leaving him as a mindless machine.

Cyclonus and Scourge attempt to free Galvatron and stop the procedure, but are also restrained, and can only watch as the Alya hook the planet's mind directly into Galvatron's. But then, something unexpected happens! The madness of Galvatron begins to imprint on Torkulon itself! DRIVING THE ENTIRE PLANET INSANE! Having been freed, Galvatron makes his way to the center of the planet, where he destroy's the planet's main memory core, essentially lobotomizing it. He looks over the devastation he has wrought with pride, as Cyclonus notes that it will take centuries for the Torkuli to rebuild. Galvatron is not happy with the notion of them rebuilding in "mere centuries" and vows to destroy the planet even further. Cyclonus though talks him out of it, reminding him that Ultra Magnus is still out there, waiting to be killed...

Comments:

-I love how the Torkulonians (Torkulites?) make Cyclonus fill out forms in sextuplicate.

-Couldn't they give him a jigsaw puzzle or something to reassemble? I think giving him a GUN is a bad idea.

-The Alya are the "Instrumentalities of Galvatron's treatment?" Oh god, don't tell me were going to spend the next two episodes psychoanalyzing Galvatron via stock footage.

-Driving an entire PLANET insane? Now that's just awesome.

Score: After a long string of having the Quintessons as main villains it was a breath of fresh air to see Galvatron make his return. And what a glorious return it is. I love insane characters. They are just so damn fun. And seeing Galvatron drive an entire PLANET insane was one of my favorite moments of the series thus far. Honestly, nothing quite wrong with it, so screw it. 10/10.

 

Amen, brotha'. Like I said (before you reviewed it), this is my favorite Transformers episode for a multitude of reasons. Not only was it an enjoyable episode, but it's actually a surprising bit of satire on mental institutions too (satire in Transformers?! WTF?!). Not to mention it's pretty much a Decepticon solo episode, seeing as the Autobots are barely even in it and it pretty much completely centers around Galvatron and Cyclonus. But best of all, it was freakin' hilariously engenius. I think Galvy making a gun in Arts and Crafts has to be my favorite.

PS. I had no idea this was going to be the next episode when I mentioned it previously. Amazing coincidence, eh?

PPS. Call of the Primatives (I think that's the title) is also an amazing episode. Not as much storywise, but by having some of the best animation seen in the series. Oh, and can't wait to see Carnage in C Minor.

 

Storywise, Webworld is by far my favorite episode in S3 and one of my top episodes of all of G1.

As a note to your criticism, they didn't give Galvatron a gun, he made one from the parts he had to work with, amazingly enough.

You may also notice that Galvatron is less crazy for the remainder of the series, not sane, less crazy.

 

Awesome review of an awesome episode.

 

Reading your reviews are really helping to get through my work hours. These are great, please keep em coming!!!

 

Before I start, I just want to say that I am well aware that many fans consider this to be the worst episode to come out of the entire Transformers franchise ever. Let me just say up front that it will take a LOT to top B.O.T.

Carnage in C-Minor

Plot Summary: We begin IN SPACE (oddly enough in the Oort Cloud, an Asteroid belt WAY beyond the orbit of Pluto which is commonly accepted to be the outer limit of our solar system) where Galvatron and cronies are building a pair of massive engines upon an asteroid in a scheme to propel it into Earth and crash right into Metroplex. Just as they fire up the engines the Autobots arrive and attack. The Constructicons form into Devastator, only to be crushed by Broadside in carrier mode. A nasty and horribly animated battle ensues, in which the asteroid is knocked off course and towards a small inhabited planet.

The Autobots try to halt the comet but to no avail. The Decepticons eventually catch up and Galvatron and Ultra Magnus begin to fight. However, they are soon knocked to the planet's surface after a strange noise destroys the comet, and sends the Transformers plummeting towards the strange new world. On the planets surface we meet three aliens; Basso Profundo, Zebop, and Allegra who are having an argument. ENTIRELY IN SONG. In fact, EVERYTHING THEY SAY IS IN SONG. One of them, Allegra, storms out, saying she is heading to her retreat house.

The Transformers awake, and wonder what the hell hit them. Soundwave describes it as the most perfect harmony ever, but Galvatron just wants to use it to blow shit up. The Autobots meet them again, and the fight resumes, during which Devastator is blown apart in one shot by PERCEPTOR. Soundwave and Galvatron manage to sneak off in search of the source of the sound, but Ultra Magnus, Broadside, and Blaster follow them. Broadside takes them all to the city, which Blaster realizes is laid out in accordance with a musical harmony. They meet up with Basso Profundo, the ruler of Eurythma who somehow has TWO mustaches. They ask him for help but he blows them off, but mentions that Allegra might be able to help them. Too bad Galvatron and Soundwave were listening, and drop a bridge on the Autobots as the depart.

The Autobots are saved by Zebop, who reveals that he possesses one third of the sound that knocked them out of space. He offers to help them and they all set off in search of Allegra. Galvatron and Soundwave get to her first though, and offer to overthrow Basso Profundo in exchange for her third of the melody. She agrees and Soundwave records it, and says that Zebop and Basso Profundo have the other parts. The Autobots arrive soon afterwards and attack, but Soundwave uses the melody to knock them into a fissure. Zebop tries to counter with his part of the harmony, only for Soundwave to record it. Galvatron immediately stabs Allegra in the back, who tries to use her part of the melody to get them, only for Soundwave to blow the everloving crap out of her with his almost complete melody. The Autobots emerge from their hole and try to help, but The Decepticons manage to escape and wound Zebop in the ensuing chaos. Allegra uses a healing melody to revive him.

Meanwhile the other Autobots and Decepticons are still fighting it out. Basso Profundo tries to end the fight once and for all by using an amplifier to use his melody to blow all the Transformers away. It doesn't work though, and an aide points out that he needs the other two parts of the harmony. Soundwave arrives and uses his harmony to attack the city, and Basso Profundo counters with his part. Big mistake. Soundwave records it and uses the now complete melody to blow the city away. Galvatron is pleased and declares the next two targets are Metroplex and Cybertron, and the Decepticons depart the planet. The Autobots regroup, repair, and set off in pursuit.

Back on Earth Soundwave hits Metroplex with his melody, only for the Autobots to arrive with all three Eurythmian harmonists in tow, who counter Soundwave's harmony with...um...anti-sound...just don't ask. Blaster attacks Soundwave and smacks the big conspicuous "Erase" button on his chest, erasing the Melody. The Autobots return the Eurythmians to their home planet, and they wave goodbye to their new friends. Who thankfully, never appear in the series again.

Comments:

-Why are all the planets in this series so dang tiny? There's no way in hell they could have enough of a gravitational pull to enable anyone to stand on them, much less hold a spherical shape (which might explain why many of them are so weird looking).

-Oh god, is every single inhabitant of this planet going to sing all of their lines? They are aren't they. Damnit.

-I like how that instrument that Allegra is playing is operated by just wiggling your arms around.

-Since when is sound GREEN?

-Anti sound? ANTI SOUND? WHAT THE FUCK!?!? They say the opposite of sound is "white noise" but I hate to break it to you, the opposite of sound is SILENCE YOU DOOFUSES!

-And in other annoying musical news, my roomate WILL NOT STOP FUCKING SINGING OPERA AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS!

-Hey guess what time it is? OVERANALYTICAL SCIENCE TIME! YAAAAAAY! Okay, this came up when I heard the asteroid in the beginning of the episode was located in the Oort cloud, which while still being part of our solar system is WAY too far from the sun to support any kind of life. What this means is that Eurythma cannot be within our solar system. (Well it COULD but given how much space exploration they are doing in this show means they probably would have noticed it by now) So where is it? Well let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's orbiting Alpha Centauri, the closest star to our solar system. Let's also assume that Eurythma is orbiting Alpha Centauri at the same distance from the sun as Earth is, seeing as both planets support highly advanced ecosystems and civilizations.

So how far away is it, and how fast would the asteroid need to be going for them to arrive there?

Well Earth is 94.5 million miles from the sun, so let's say Eurythma is that far from Alpha Centauri as well. Now the Oort cloud is about 6 trillion miles away from the sun, and Alpha Centauri is around 26 trillion miles from the sun. So by doing the math, we can figure out that Eurythma is about 19,999,055,000,000 miles from where Galvatron's asteroid is, or just under 20 trillion miles. So how fast would they need to be going to get to Eurythma in the same time as seen as the episode?

Well Galvatron fires up the engines at 1:02 in the episode. Let's assume that the asteroid is already heading in the general direction of Eurythma. Now we first hear the Eurythman harmony at 2:47, which means the comet must have already been in Eurythma's atmosphere, otherwise they wouldn't be able to hear it. That means it gets there in just one minute and 45 seconds. That works out to around one FIFTIETH of an hour. So that means they were moving at around...

1,000,000,000,000,000 Miles per hour. OR ONE QUADRILLION MILES PER HOUR.

THAT IS 1.49 MILLION TIMES FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT.

Score: So, was this episode the worst episode ever? No. B.O.T. still holds that position. It was however, incredibly annoying, horribly animated, and glacially paced. To me the ultimate measure of how much I enjoy any given piece of entertainment is how much I want to keep going with it, and I just wanted to turn this piece of crap off. 1/10.

 

yep, this was seriously a stupid episode.

 

I honestly didn't hate it as much as everyone else. Was it a great episode? No. Was it that bad? No. Aside from the singing talking, it wasn't annoying at all. In fact, I was entertained by it.

 

My main problem with this episode isn't as much the plot as much as just how horribly animated and error filled it is. I could swear this one episode has more errors than the rest of the series combined.

My favorite error is when Ultra Magnus smashes two of the Constructicons together. For some reason the animators misunderstood the idea od Magnus pushing the two bots into each other, and instead drew Magnus as a giant and picked up the two bots and slammed together like they were mere toys.

Oh, and Broadside landing of Devastator was pretty hilariously bad, too.

 

God I love it when you speak science.

 

where's that pic of galvatron and soundwave flying while holding hands?

 

At least it didn't have any racism in it, right?

 

Ask and ye shall receive:

 

Is he holding his hand... or is Soundwave breaking his wrist...

 

- They didn't give Galvatron a gun to put together, Galvatron MADE A GUN OUT OF WHATEVER IT WAS THEY GAVE HIM. Which is even more stupid. Or awesome.

- "STRATEGY IS FOR COWARDS!" is one of my favorite lines in the history of ever.

- This episode is the only episode of any Transformers episode ever to have Laserbeak walking. Yes, WALKING. On the ground. Like, he forgot how to fly or something.

- In the fight scene at the beginning, apparently the artists and animators can't decide who is what size. Either Sludge is huge or a Sweep is small enough to get kicked by Sludge and then grabbed by Sky-Lynx's magnificent talons of steel which shall surely be the end of any Decepticon foe (Get away from the keyboard, Sky-Lynx!)

- Also notice that Galvatron speaks of Ultra Magnus as his arch nemesis. Not Rodimus Prime (Who might not even show up in this ep...) Couple this with the fact that Magnus got a Secret File, but Rodimus didn't and that leads me to believe that the writers just decided that Magnus made a better leader and left Rodimus to be a whiny wuss. "Why was I the chosen one?"

 

For someone who likes to note physics and biology errors and other extranii, I find your lack of knowledge about reciprical noise and you thinking it's a "What the fuck" problem surprises me.

In a nutshell,

So bad you, failing at science!   Heck, there's a whole market about noise cancellation devices and programs, even a basic google search on "Cancelling sound waves" could've given you several good explainations on how it's done and the mechanics therein.

As an aside, this episode (and a few others) bemuses me at Galvatrons near obsession with Metroplex. He has a weapon that he has zero doubt will allow him to conquer all of Cybertron, yet he bypasses it entirely to attack Metroplex, a single Autobot on another planet. Sure there's "To Sell Toys" and all that, but still, Galvy can be really singularly fixated on him.

 

got me to buy one... or something did.