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

(+) Yeah! (+)

I watched ReBoot and Donkey Kong Country, but I remember seeing the others on TV. I enjoyed Donkey Kong Country, but I absolutely adored ReBoot and it was my favorite show at the time. I was always fascinated with computers, so it taking place in one made it an instant hit with me. It was also a smart move since the visuals and animation can be excused for being inside of a computer rather than any real life setting.

I watched the video posted of Beast Wars and I know it's by the same studio, but I didn't realize how similar even the music sounds to ReBoot.

MedeaLysistrata posted...

https://youtu.be/27SS8Pnmrok

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

Ah, one of Thanos' early roles.

Gobstoppers12 posted...

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

I wonder how it'd look if you were to compare this, to a live-action program from the same era, on a TV of that era? Keep in mind that CRTs were fuzzier and lower-resolution (at least in typical TV usage) than what we have nowdays; the gap was likely far less noticable.

Funny thing is there are worse looking CGI shows that came out in the following 15 years.

That's just prime

MICHALECOLE posted...

Reboot

^^^This^^^

Questionmarktarius posted...

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

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

Don't forget the original Tron.

Go watch og Toy Story. Shit's a trip.

12amMadman posted...

That's just prime

10/10

Beast Wars might have animation issues, but so does the original Transformers. Both are classic

What sucks in Beast Wars is the environments, but they made it interesting with the Energon deposits

I also thought this show would have humans.

Is there a Transformers where they just turn into humans and live double lives lol

Doe posted...

I also thought this show would have humans.

Is there a Transformers where they just turn into humans and live double lives lol

Does any of this have a b plot?

Gobstoppers12 posted...

https://youtu.be/UtGL5yKdSCk

Pretty sure Donkey Kong is standing on top of a giant boob!

Doe posted...

humans

Iirc there are a few primitive humans

Neanderthals

Questionmarktarius posted...

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

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

Oh right, I forgot ReBoot referenced it (death blossom):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PSEJTtWADM

Tron (1982)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr9N2LzI-K4

1337toothbrush posted...

Oh right, I forgot ReBoot referenced it (death blossom):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PSEJTtWADM

I only saw a small handful of episodes of Reboot, but at some point I tuned back in and saw this episode and...god dang, to my young mind it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

Xethuminra posted...

Iirc there are a few primitive humans

Neanderthals

Dinobot teaches them how to kill in the best episode of the entire goddamn series.

Doe posted...

I also thought this show would have humans.

Is there a Transformers where they just turn into humans and live double lives lol

Oh BW has some proto-humans later on.

but yes there is such a series. Going back to the original from the 80s, it's split into various continuities (in animation and comic form). You're likely familiar with what aired in the west.

S1 (16 episodes)
S2 (49 episodes)
Transformers: The Movie
S3 (30 episodes)
S4 (3 episode finale)

While the cartoon was canceled after the 4th season ratings were still up in Japan. Rather than continue where our Season 4 left off Takara scrapped it and made a new 4th season of their own called Headmasters which continues following The Return of Optimus Prime. The new Headmaster characters from The Rebirth still appear, but have different origins and slightly different looks. The Nebulan characters were never used in Japan. Anyway without going into details The Headmasters concludes with the various Autobots and Decepticons we'd grown up with up to the point (and the new ones) leaving Earth and traveling into deep space to continue their war.

Takara went on to create another five further seasons after that.

S5 - Super God Masterforce
S6 - Victory
S7 - Zone (which had a single OVA episode, the rest was told through TV Magazine)
S8 - Battlestars (TV Magazine)
S9 - Operation Combination (TV Magazine)

The focus here based on your inquiry is Masterforce. This series picks up a few years after Headmasters and shows a new group of Transformers called Pretenders who are capable of covering themselves in an alternate disguise over their robot forms. They can alter their size as well to compensate. The Autobots here take the form of humans while the Decepticons are demons. The Decepticon Pretenders were sealed away for thousands of years until they were awakened by a force named Devil Z. Meanwhile the Autobots disguised themselves as humans and lived among them. Waiting for the day the Cons may be released.

The show has a number of continuity errors as we never hear anything about the prior battles of the Transformers. We never learn the fate of, or see Autobot City ever again. Nor do we see Spike and his family. The leader of this group of Autobots, Metalhawk, does get in contact with the other Autobots at one point, but that's about it. Why didn't he and the other Pretenders ever help Optimus or Rodimus? The show also features various Transformer bodies known as Transtectors which bond with humans who wear suits and transform into the heads and power modules. (Headmasters, Powermasters)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRD1RQtGjHE

EDIT: In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Alice is the closest live-action equivalent to the Pretenders. A Decepticon with a human form.

Here's my playlist of all the televised intros https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk26ZPqtBoujNMQewk8-a9Jei1gZ1VTN-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughnecks:_Starship_Troopers_Chronicles#

There was a cgi starship troopers show I loved when I was a kid. It was only 1 season but its definitely better than the movies

The sprite you knew was gone I had become a grim aggressor man

I knew right then and there that I was truly Bob's successor man

Doe posted...

I also thought this show would have humans.

Is there a Transformers where they just turn into humans and live double lives lol

Actually yes.

In one episode, Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Arcee and Springer had their minds transferred to synthetic humanoids.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/5/AACSo3AADrrh.jpg

And in the Japanese series Masterforce, four Autobots are Pretenders and live as humans including having human jobs and I think one went out on a date.

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

That show was incredible. 10/10.