As stated in another thread, I decided since I have been a vocal opponent to the show, that I would watch it in it's entirety to get a better view of it, and give it the benefit of the doubt. What follows is my analysis of the first three episodes:

1:Animation. The crux of ANY animated series is the animation. After watching the choppy CGI of this series, I'd have to say this could have been done better with claymation. Watching the floating bodypart syndrome for an hour and a half straight has sent me to the TMC to scratch up some migraine medicine.

2:Storyline. Alright, this is where I compliment, but then question. The reasoning behind the beast modes (Energon overload, harkening a little back to Rebirth in a way) I thought was a cool idea. It explained it readily, and without any doubts or loopholes. Unless you count that plasma energy exists in crystal form on prehistoric earth. I found myself scratching my head over a few things, though. Somehow over the fullness of time, the Autobots decided to call themselves Maximals (BEFORE having beast modes, I might add) and the Decepticons had become the Predacons? I'm wondering if this is ever going to be explained. And the Auto... er, Maximals rename themselves because of their beast modes with the exception of Optimus. Do they ever go into what their names were before? Or what they looked like before? And if the Energon is wreaking havoc on electronic systems, why haven't the remnants of their ships exploded? Don't overthink, don't overthink.

3:Characterization. I understand it's a new series, but did they JUST hand OP the command before the flight left Cybertron? It seems like most of the characters just don't feel like following his orders. And what is up with everyone's voices taking on these random aspects of their beast modes? Waspinator is probably the worst in that respect. Oh, and three episodes into it, I'm already begging to see Rattrap fed to Sharkticons.

So there it is. Still giving it a shot, but it's now taking effort to sit and watch it. I'd have to say in my honest opinion that RID and Armada were alot easier to sit through and watch than this. Here's to hoping it gets a little better.

Oh, and where can I find a complete list of episodes in order? Because of where I'm stuck, I'm forced to youtube the entire thing

 

as for the animation, it's pretty decent for the time when it was developed for a tv show one has to admit, don't look at it through todays standards.

As for what they looked like before the beast modes, due to budget and time constraints they didn't make models for their pre-earth forms because they would only briefly be used and decided to just shadow them in the first few scenes.

Energon might affect different systems differently, so I can't explain about that one and frankly, I don't really care to go into it.

Kudos on giving it a chance though, but remember to not look at it through todays standards of animation and such, look at it through a childs eyes

 

you think to much lol its still my alltime fav TF
and i love the Animation for its time it was realy good

 

Nothing about thinking too much. Reboot was out at the same time and did it better. Just stating facts. And the fact that simply animating it with artwork would have improved the overall action. Oh well....

I'm starting to wonder if I should shout out all my actions before I do them, ala the Maximize and Terrorize thing. I can see it now...

"SPECIALIST LUCAS: BODY ARMOR UP!!!!" "SPECIALIST LUCAS: ARMY PHYSICAL FITNESS TEST!!!!!!!!" "SPECIALIST LUCAS: PAY FOR GREEN BEANS TRIPLE CAFE MOCHA!!!!!!!!!!!"

Unfortunately, I think I'm the only one here that would get it. And I think I just set myself up for failure, not to mention a lot of all caps posts with liberal uses of the words LOLZ and TEH, but I'll stay the course and post what I think/feel.

On a side note, I think what this series is missing is clonage. Repaint characters who are different people standing next to eachother, but with variant color schemes. Force effort into characterization. Mmmmmmm, that would be awesome...

 

To quote Martian Successor Nadesico: "Do they yell everything because they are using voice activated weapons?"

 

Congradulations on giving the series a chance. Granted the animation could have been more fluid, and the transform vocalisation takes some getting used to (a little too much like the japanise series). Where Beast wars shines is the story telling (especally tward the end of season one and further), and character personalities.


I hope you like it or if not come to an Appreciation of why so many others do. I wish you well on your journey.

 

Wow, now I'd like to apply that same critical thinking to the Geewun show and tell me it made ANY MORE sense than Beast Wars.

1. Its not a freaking Pixar movie, this is a 90's TV show, and at the time, this was as good as it got. Don't expect kickass graphics when they weren't feasible at the time.

2. The Great War ended a LOOOOOOONG time ago. Nobody knows exactly what went down (though some expanded universe stuff does go into it) for all those years left unaccounted for, but hey, shit happens. Look at how much the eastern europe/northern asia area has changed just in the last century. Its not too hard to say that there wouldn't be some faction creating/falling out, etc. Names were a marketing purpose, Dinobot just sells better to a kid than Dynamo, etc. The bots are "living beings" and they're susceptible to the radiation/energy output/whatever from the raw energon much like fleshbags like us can totally get screwed over by being exposed to toxic metals, etc. But your car wouldn't magically stop working in the presence of radiation now would it? The same holds true for the ship, if humans have the technology to build space shuttles that don't have their systems ass-raped by all the radiation in space, then some highly developed race of mechanical beings can probably do better.

3. Yes, Primal was the Captain of that exploratory vehicle. Why don't they want to follow his orders? Because they're not a military unit! You don't see science teams getting all organized for war and shit. Each guy/gal does their specialty to help out with the project and really doesn't have to listen to what anybody else tells 'em to do unless if its out of respect. They're explorers, just like the Animated Autobots are miners. There's no real chain of command.

DN

 

From what I was understanding, the factions are more of a political/ethnic group. And it's been HOW long since the 100 year war? The French still call themselves the French, and the English still call themselves the English.

It's a re envisioning, I understand that. It would have been better if they would have rebooted from the get go, like every other series that's come out since. But what do I know?

 

Eastern Europe dawg, people who were once Russian were then Polish, then Soviet, then Polish again. We're not talking about the 100 year war, we're talking Post World War 1 to Cold War. The Predacons are really just the dirge of society on Cybertron, well most of them anyway. None of them have overly obvious Decepticon ties. The only one that's ever touched upon is Ravage in the cartoon, and to an extent Tarantulas (though his origins can be argued about over the true intentions of the writers...).
DN

 

A couple additional comments about the animation thing - firstly, the complications of having two models for each character and having them able to transform, even if it's fudged, means it's harder to do something like Beast Wars as compared to reboot. Second and more importantly, the animation quality noticeably improves over time. It sounds like you're just trudging through Season 1, which means that you'll be in for a treat by the time you get to the end. A lot of changes were made with the show specifically because they couldn't animate certain features well, such as water, even impacting whether certain characters could be incorporated later on and forcing Megatron to use the T. rex mold instead of the croc mode. Depth Charge and Rampage wouldn't have existed if those improvements didn't happen.

I find it funny that a person who found RID and Armada more palatable complains about the transformation commands.   It's another feature toned down in later episodes.

As with all things, the TF Wiki has what ails you.
http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Beast_Wars_episodes

 

Congrats for keeping with it. Judging the entire Beast Wars series based on the first three episodes is kinda like judging most movies by the first five to ten minutes. It gets better as the writers, directors, and animators grow in their craft.

 

the water effects improve a lot just in season 1. the water in Dark Voyage looks stunning considering the time the episode was made.

 

Regarding the faction name change, here's my opinion on this. You have to remember that Cybertron has been at war for millenia under the Autobot and Decepticon split, and when peace rolls around, I don't think the survivors wouldn't want to be reminded too much about that long dark age of Cybertron less it stirs up more trouble, hence the need for change of faction name from Autobot to Maximal, (and probably forcing the remaining Decepticons to change as well) to not only show that they're willing to leave the past behind, but embracing change as well. It is also hinted in later seasons of Beast Wars that the Maximal/ Predacon split goes beyond just ideological differences. There's also a bit of class discrimination involved as well, with the Predacons, being descended from the losing Decepticon side, being treated as lower class citizens and the Maximals being the ruling class of Cybertron.

 

But the French and the English haven't changed into different forms since that war either. There are obvious physical evolutions that have gone on between Autobots and Decepticons and their Maximal and Predacon counterparts.

 

Kudos for giving it a chance. The first season is VERY weak, but once you get into the latter episodes it picks up. Season 2 and 3 are much better, so keep on working through Season 1!

 

Yeah, overthinking is definitely, definitely bad for you when it comes to Transformers. Like, why do Cybertronians all speak English? How in the hell did Bumblebee get his namesake if there are no species of earth insects on Cybertron? If Astrotrain can mass-shift into a space shuttle big enough to haul all the Decepticons around, why can't he stay the same damn size when he's in robot mode?

I tell ya, trying to find the logic in stuff like that will give you headaches and diarrhea.

 

You know, that point you made about Bumblebee has puzzled me for so long with Beast Wars. So amny of their names have to do with specific animals that they end up taking an alt mode with, but did any of them exist on Cybertron? It bugs me with a lot of them, but Waspinator has always been the worst.

The OP did mention something about them picking new names when they got there, I think. Is there any clarification on that?

 

That's something I really miss about B1 and BW's acting. Remember Seaspray's "gurgling" voice, Astrotrain's "radio static" voice, Waspinator's "buzzing" voice, etc? For a series that has characters transforming into alternate modes, I think it's a great addition to their character for a voice to take on some kind of characteristic of the alternate mode.

 

Yeah, we never know the Axalon crew's original names. When they come out of their reformatting, Optimus Primal asks each of them what they call themselves now. I distinctly remember Cheetor really liking his new name. I can only imagine the Predacons all changed their names too; eg, Waspinator probably didn't call himself that on Cybertron.

 

You know, that is a little bit ridiculous considering all the Autobots and Decepticons used the same names on Cybertron before coming to Earth. And didn't the short cartoon "Theft of the Golden Disk" and the pre-Earth Beast Mode comics use their Earth names too?