Current Events > Early CGI shows are fucking crazy. Im watching Beast Wars Transformers

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/3/AAcZIZAADra7.jpg

In 1996, this was one of the most expensive TV show produced in history (i cant find a comparison right now but it was $18 million at the time). It's so ugly. Besides the difficult of 3D computer anikation at the time, so far it looks like they spent a lot of money on the transformations' facial animations. Optimus and Megatron in particular emote fairly well in their gorilla and T-Rex forms, respextively. It's really funny seeing Megatron flail his withered dino arms to exaggerate.

The fact Transformers turn into animals is super weird too.

Reboot

Yeah the graphics didn't age well obviously, but there's a certain charm to it. They put a lot of love into Beast Wars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N78ZX9NfKwo

WTF

Ratchetrockon posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N78ZX9NfKwo

WTF

just watched this episode. 2:47 made me lol

Dinobot is my favorite transformer of all time. I loved that show as a kid too bad the sequel series Beast Machines was pretty lame compared.

Youve gone too far now CE

The Beast Wars slander cant stand

https://youtu.be/27SS8Pnmrok

Sometimes I think this show is about white privilege but there's no way

I think the first CG cartoon I ever watched was Donkey Kong Country. It...actually aged relatively well. I guess because of the highly stylized designs.

https://youtu.be/Y_wt0Sa4tTc

https://youtu.be/DjVR5ff_Jrk

this episode freaked me out a bit I remember too ha

Patchwork posted...

Youve gone too far now CE

The Beast Wars slander cant stand

It didn't come through in my OP, but it's a very charming show.

beast wars and reboot were great and canadian made
we also called it beasties in canada and not beast wars so beasties is its proper name (its a terrible name)

but both shows got dark
beasties killed off major characters left and right because they were just robots so no one would complain when they melt one in a volcano

reboot got even darker than that

also fun fact, normally they dont really make toys for the female characters in these shows because they dont usually sell as well as the male character toys
but airazor had a toy made because she was intended to be a male character and it got changed so she became a female character after her toy had already been finished.

but the shows other female robot blackarachnia was so popular that they had to start making toys of her because of the large fan demand for them

The world was not ready for cgi cartoons in the 90s. But people made them anyway

Beast Wars is a great series (Transformers is my life, heh). The graphics do hold up a little, especially in comparison to other Transformers series that followed it. Great story and characters. Pity it's sequel pretty much fouled it all up.

All of the Season 1 characters were recently given a modern toy updates in the Kingdom line, and current Legacy line. Reissues of some original 90s toys are out in stores as well.

As for the idea of them transforming into animals, they did in the 80s series too, but more robotic. The idea here is that the natural energon on the planet shorts them out, so having a flesh like animal covering blocks this.

In Japan they created Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo while waiting on seasons 2 and 3 of this series. II and Neo use typical 2D animation, and follow different Maximal and Predacon crews on different planets in a different continuity happening alongside or after the events of Beast Wars. The Predacons in II for example turned into military vehicles, while the Maximals were animals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jx2Ufr6FmM

pokedude900 posted...

I think the first CG cartoon I ever watched was Donkey Kong Country. It...actually aged relatively well. I guess because of the highly stylized designs.

https://youtu.be/Y_wt0Sa4tTc

https://youtu.be/UtGL5yKdSCk

Donkey Kong Country is a bizarre show. The animation is okay, but all the characters look like they're made up of parts. They're usually always in motion. I recall Candy moving about often with lots of expressions. and for whatever reason many episodes had a musical scene.

Ratchetrockon posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N78ZX9NfKwo

WTF

Basically a better Kong vs Godzilla than the movie we got.

Anyway I agree, Beast Wars really is one of the greatest cartoons ever and the animation definitely holds up in terms of charm, there's just a quaintness to it that's great, but it was truly cutting edge at the time. It and Reboot were my childhood.

Hell I was never a fan of Transformers and only caught a couple of episodes here and there, but stayed put to watch Beast Wars from beginning to end. It goes without saying that animals > cars even disregarding the fact that Beast Wars was just more entertaining and better written with better developed characters. Dinobot, rattrap, black arachnia, silverbolt... I owned almost all those toys, even after the transformation in one of the seasons where something or other happened

I remember thinking that this CGI looked really good when it was new. At least for tv.

ForsakenHermit posted...

I remember thinking that this CGI looked really good when it was new. At least for tv.

It really did. It was mind blowing back then. In my mind this show looked almost photo realistic when I was a kid.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/9/AAW5a5AADrb9.jpg

Too much effort was put into that endeavour

ReBoot premiered in 1994. By the time Beast Wars premiered in '96 Mainframe was already developing ReBoot's 3rd season which had a massive boost in animation quality. (compare ReBoot's S2 finale to the first episode of S3 for example). It still wasn't perfect, but it looked great for it's time. Now compare Beast Wars' animation to the Energon (2004) and Cybertron (2005) series. BW was better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asMci7n88_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgzkKcWzAnw

Best Transformers series

the standouts of the animation are body language and impacts. When an animal form gets bashed into rock you FEEL it. Animal bodies also lead to cool fight choreography. In contrast the robot forms mostly just shoot missiles and lasers so far

The Depthcharge figure actually let you fire Styrofoam discs

Honestly I always thought it looked cheap and cheesy, even when new.

CGI never impressed me or seemed even a semi viable alternative to traditional animation until I saw toy story. That impressed me.

Its a shame if it actually had decent storylines.

both shows were really great with writing, and got pretty dark. helped a lot by their villains with amazing voices, megatron and megabyte. i think i read that their limited budget meant they couldn't just keep the cast down, so they had to focus more on the characters and stories

hell, in reboot season 3, they threw the main character into the web (lost), then had the secondary main character lose so he was sucked into the games. his sister didn't know what was going on, so thought he was nullified (killed). not a lot of shows would throw out the status quo for something so dramatic

KnightofShikari posted...

i think i read that their limited budget meant they couldn't just keep the cast down, so they had to focus more on the characters and stories

Yeah BW had tons of characters (through the toyline), but Mainframe's budget resulted in a reduced cast as they could only have so many main characters at one time. Many of the unused characters are portrayed in the Japanese spin-offs.

I guess this worked out differently in ReBoot as many of the characters were Binomes, and shared the same body model.

That first Beast Wars vid still looks fucking good now!

I like that the second episode did the whole King Kong vs T. rex battle with Optimus Primal and Megatron.

Reboot, in particular, has some downright impressive animation in the later episodes of the original run, and the additional last season. A lot of what they managed ended up being the bedrock of 3D animation to this day.

War Planets?

Doe posted...

It's really funny seeing Megatron flail his withered dino arms to exaggerate.

oh yesssssss

Beasties and Reboot were top-tier shows. Better than some anime at the time.

It was pretty damn awesome to see it premiered though. The Starship Troopers show was good too.

i vaguely remember seeing that on TV. shit looked like a fever dream with how ugly and scary the CGI looks!

since Hollywood is all about remakes and reboots and shit, why not give this one a go? im sure it could benefit from it. lol

Ratchetrockon posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N78ZX9NfKwo

WTF

Damn, what a great show. Their video game was great too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn5h5dDXIf4

Why would the put that much money into it? I never heard of it being in high demand, so why put so much money into it? Maybe it was just really popular and I don't know

Blackarachnia was modeled after an Asian stripper.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/2/1/AAdlC_AADrk5.jpg

Anyone else play the Reboot game? I remember it playing quite well tbh.

mouse never rebooted in the show reboot not even once
as a kid my favorite part of the show was the games and her never getting to be in one made her feel lesser than the other characters.

there was something wrong with her icon that wouldnt let her safely reboot in the games. the show never explained why properly but phong had to fix hers and andrAIas icons so they could go into the games and help enzo. it made sense for andrAIa because she was a game sprite so if she went into a game normally she would leave with the game.
but it never explained why mouse couldnt reboot.
and when mouse tried to go into the game with them andrAIa stole her zip board to stop her saying that its better to just risk 1 of them instead of both of them if the icon fix didnt work

and i guess this allowed everyone else to turn their icons into gamesprite mode so they could travel with the games which is something the show never explained very well

Doe posted...

The fact Transformers turn into animals is super weird too.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/6/AACSo3AADrlI.jpg

Crescente posted...

Beasties and Reboot were top-tier shows. Better than some anime at the time.

Youre Canadian arent you?

Bass2 posted...

Youre Canadian arent you?

hehehehe

Reminder that The Last Starfighter was cutting edge CG in 1984.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkDzkjQodzs

Bass2 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/6/AACSo3AADrlI.jpg

I had the blue version.

As a kid, it never bothered me that it wasn't accurate to the show. It was a robot tyrannosaurus and that was awesome.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/5/9/AAX3AbAADrlf.jpg

This image is completely safe for work.

Airhammy posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgzkKcWzAnw

I heard that the show was dropped in the UK because of this episode, parents complained about the violence and Dot's outfit.

I loved it