''Beast Wars: Transformers'' (titled ''Beasties: Transformers'' in Canada) is a

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...

animated television series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have eith ...

that debuted in 1996 and ended on March 7, 1999, serving as the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...

of the ''

Transformers: Beast Wars ''Transformers: Beast Wars'' is an entertainment franchise from Hasbro, and is part of the larger '' Transformers'' franchise. The franchise directly follows the '' Transformers: Generation 1'' continuity established by the 1984 series and an ...

'' franchise. It was one of the earliest CGI television shows. The series is set in the future of the "original" ''Transformers'' franchise, 300 years after the events of ''The Transformers'', and features the Maximals and Predacons, descendants of the

Autobot The Autobots are the main protagonists in the fictional continuities of the Transformers multimedia franchise, and are depicted in a collection of various toys, cartoons, films, graphic novels, and paperback books first introduced in 1984. The ...

s and Decepticons respectively. While engaged in battle, small teams from each faction crash land on an unknown planet, and must find a way to return home while continuing their war. The ''Beast Wars''

TV series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed b ...

was the first Transformers series to feature computer-animated characters, and was produced by Mainframe Entertainment of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

; its story editors were

Bob Forward Bob Forward (born 1958) is an American writer, producer, and director. Forward is the production director and president of his independent company, Detonation Films. Forward has been the writer of many animated television series, as well as a f ...

and

Larry DiTillio Lawrence G. DiTillio (February 15, 1948 – March 16, 2019) was an American film, TV series, and tabletop role-playing game writer. His creations include ''He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword'' and the award-winning ''Masks of Nyarlathote ...

. The production designer for the show, Clyde Klotz, won a

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...

for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on ''Beast Wars.'' A sequel television series, '' Beast Machines: Transformers'', aired from 1999 to 2000. Additional ''Beast Wars'' limited comic book series have been released by

Dreamwave Productions Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher founded in 1996. Best known for its comic book adaptations of Transformers, the company shut down on January 4, 2005. History Brothers Pat Lee and Roger Lee founde ...

and

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), itself formed in 1999, and is regularly re ...

Setting and plot summary

The two main factions of "Transformers" in Beast Wars are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon: the

Maximals This is a help:sorting, sortable list of characters and toys in the Transformers: Beast Wars, ''Beast Wars'' franchise, part of the larger Transformers franchise, from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or ...

are the descendants of the

s and the

Predacon This is a sortable list of characters and toys in the ''Beast Wars'' franchise, part of the larger Transformers franchise, from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or video games. This does not include ch ...

s are the descendants of the Decepticons. (In the sequel series ''

Beast Machines ''Beast Machines: Transformers'' is an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment as part of the Transformers franchise. Hasbro has the full distribution rights to the show as of 2011. It was a direct sequel to '' Beast Wars' ...

'', the process during which Autobots and Decepticons became Maximals and Predacons is referred to as "The Great Upgrade.") The leader of the Predacon team is

Megatron Megatron is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. Megatron is the cruel and tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, a ...

, a namesake of the original Decepticon commander. He and his forces are a splinter group on the hunt for powerful crystals known as Energon. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the

Golden Disk The Voyager Golden Records are two phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for ...

and Megatron's stolen ship, the ''

Darksyde This is a list of fictional spacecraft, starships and exo-atmospheric vessels that have been identified by name in notable published works of fiction. The term " spacecraft" is mainly used to refer to spacecraft that are real or conceived using pre ...

'', which is equipped with a transwarp drive. A Maximal exploration ship, the '' Axalon'', led by

Optimus Primal Optimus Prime, , is a fictional character in the ''Transformers'' franchise. The Transformers characters were developed for an American market after Hasbro representatives visited the 1983 Tokyo Toy Show. The characters were modified and the ...

, is sent to stop them. Together the ships plunge through a time/space phenomenon created by the transwarp device during their battle in space, and crash-land on a mysterious planet. The planet is found to be rich in deposits of raw Energon, in such extreme amounts that it proves to be poisonous to both factions' robot forms, forcing them to take on alternate organic forms for protection until their robot forms are needed. Thus the robots take on the beast forms of recognizable animals including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, dinosaurs, and invertebrates. Before crashing, the ''Axalon'' deploys its cargo of "stasis pods" containing Maximal protoforms — Transformer robots with vulnerable and undeveloped physical forms, which are left to orbit the planet as an alternative to possible destruction in the initial crash landing. This plays a larger part in the IDW series, ''The Gathering''. Throughout the series, stasis pods lose altitude and crash-land on the planet, and the Maximals and Predacons race and fight to acquire them, as protoforms acquired by Megatron's forces can be reprogrammed to become Predacons. The stasis pods are used as a

plot device A plot device or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelie ...

to introduce new characters. The teams are divided between the "good" Maximals and the "evil" Predacons, equivalent to the traditional Autobots and Decepticons. Most of the Maximals are based on mammals, birds or fish, while the Predacons are based on reptiles, amphibians or invertebrates. Dinobot changes sides, starting as a Predacon and becoming a Maximal, and was later created as an artificial Predacon clone by Megatron in season 3. This made Dinobot the only reptile-based Maximal, as he is based on a

Utahraptor ''Utahraptor'' (meaning "Utah's thief") is a genus of large dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived in North America during the Early Cretaceous period. It was a heavy-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore. It contains a single species, ''Utahrap ...

. Additionally certain "Predacons" like Inferno and Blackarachnia were created from Maximal protoforms, but were fitted with Predacon shell programs, fighting instead for the Predacons. For the Maximals, the emphasis is on team spirit and good-natured arguing, especially from Rattrap, but the Predacons argue and battle for leadership, which impairs their effectiveness against the Maximals.

Characters

Cast

Garry Chalk Garry Chalk is a British-born Canadian actor. He has provided the voices for Optimus Primal of '' Beast Wars: Transformers'' and ''Beast Machines'', as well as Optimus Prime in the anime English dubs of '' Transformers: Armada'', ''Transformer ...

and G1

* David Kaye as

Scott McNeil Scott McNeil is an Australian-born Canadian actor. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the best-known Canadian voice actors of all time, McNeil has provided voices to many characters in animated shows, most nota ...

as Rattrap, Dinobot, Waspinator, Silverbolt and Dinobot II *

Ian James Corlett Ian James Corlett (born August 29, 1962) is a Canadian voice actor, animator, and author. He is the creator of Studio B Productions' animated series ''Being Ian'' and ''Yvon of the Yukon''. One of his best-known animation roles was the first En ...

Cheetor This is a help:sorting, sortable list of characters and toys in the Transformers: Beast Wars, ''Beast Wars'' franchise, part of the larger Transformers franchise, from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or ...

and

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring gran ...

* Richard Newman as

Rhinox This is a sortable list of characters and toys in the ''Beast Wars'' franchise, part of the larger Transformers franchise, from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or video games. This does not include cha ...

and the Vok *Alec Willows as

Tarantulas Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

* Doug Parker as Terrorsaur and Starscream * Don Brown as

Scorponok Scorponok is a major antagonist whose name is shared by several fictional characters throughout the various Transformers, Transformers universes. Characters with this name are usually Decepticons or Predacons that turn into robotic scorpions or h ...

Venus Terzo Venus Terzo is a Canadian actress who played Detective Angela Kosmo in ''Da Vinci's Inquest'' and its spinoff, '' Da Vinci's City Hall''. She was nominated in 2002 for the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dr ...

as Blackarachnia *Blu Mankuma as

Tigatron This is a sortable list of characters and toys in the ''Beast Wars'' franchise, part of the larger Transformers franchise, from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or video games. This does not include cha ...

, Tigerhawk, the Vok and

Unicron Unicron is a fictional villain from the ''Transformers'' media franchise. Designed by Floro Dery, he was introduced in the 1986 animated film '' The Transformers: The Movie'' and has since reappeared in '' Transformers: Armada'', '' Transformer ...

Pauline Newstone Pauline Newstone is a Canadian voice actress best known as the voice of Airazor in the computer animated series '' Beast Wars'' and as Frieza in the English Ocean and Westwood dubs of ''Dragon Ball Z''. Voice credits *'' A Kind of Magic'' – Fer ...

Airazor This is a sortable list of characters and toys in the ''Beast Wars'' franchise, part of the larger Transformers franchise, from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or video games. This does not include ch ...

* Jim Byrnes as Inferno *Colin Murdock as Quickstrike * David Sobolov as

Depth Charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use h ...

* Campbell Lane as Rampage *Elizabeth Carol Savenkoff as the Predacon computer * Lee Tockar as Ravage

Episodes

Video games

There have been two ''Beast Wars'' video games. The first game, '' Beast Wars: Transformers'', was released for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

and PC. It is a

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'e ...

, based on the first season of the show, in which players control either the Maximals or the Predacons in a series of missions to undermine the other faction's attempts at gaining enough resources to win the war between them and escape the planet. The PC conversion added a multiplayer feature that allowed up to 8 players to play over

LAN Lan or LAN may also refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in spa ...

, with its own playrooms in the MS Gaming Zone. The playrooms have since been removed. The second game, '' Beast Wars Transmetals'', is a '' Fighting-Vipers''-style fighting-game based on the second season released by Bay-Area-Multimedia. Most of the cast-members from the show reprised their voice-roles. A third game was in the works for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on ...

, but was scrapped in

pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content start ...

, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled.

Home media

The series was originally released on DVD in Region 1 by Kid Rhino Entertainment (a division part of and distributed by

WBFE WBFE (99.1 FM) is an American radio station broadcasting a country music format simulcasting WBFB. Licensed to Bar Harbor, Maine, United States, the station serves the Down East Maine area. The station is owned by Blueberry Broadcasting. His ...

and part of WEA/Warner Music Group) (under its ''Rhinomation'' classic animation entertainment brand) in 2003/2004. On February 8, 2011,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and planned to rerelease it. They subsequently rereleased season 1 on DVD on June 7, 2011 as well as a complete series set on the same day. Both releases contain extensive bonus features including interviews, featurettes and special 24 page comic book, "Transformers Timelines: Dawn of Future's Past." Season 2 & 3 were rereleased on October 4, 2011. In Region 4,

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatr ...

released all three seasons on DVD in Australia in 2006. On June 24, 2009, they released ''Transformers: Beast Wars – Complete Collection''. The 10-disc box-set features all 52 episodes of the series as well as many bonus features.

Reception

''Beast Wars'' won a

for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997. In a 2011 retrospective of the ''Transformers'' franchise, '' IGN'' commented that while ''Beast Wars'' used the same basic story template as previous series in the franchise, it "featured some of the best writing and story development in a ''Transformers'' series". Reviewing the season 2 DVD release, ''

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

'' similarly remarked that ''Beast Wars'' used the same basic story as the 1984 ''Transformers'' series, but stood out from other series of its time by delivering messages to children without becoming preachy and utilizing considerable continuity, both from episode-to-episode and eventually with the 1984 ''Transformers'' series. The reviewer said the animation was dated by modern standards but the interesting and fun story content outweighed it. In a review of the season 3 DVD, the same critic praised the season's more rapid pace and darker tone, and said it was arguably the best season of the series. He concluded, "''Beast Wars'' may have been a marketing tool for Hasbro, but it also told some good stories without pandering to the lowest common denominator."

Legacy

The show was succeeded by '' Beast Machines: Transformers'', with a new creative team in charge of production. The traditionally animated Japanese series ''

Beast Wars II is a 1998 Japanese ''Transformers'' anime series, spawning a movie and a toyline. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 1998 to January 1999, and was the first ''Transformers'' anime to be produced by Nihon Ad Systems and animated by the st ...

'' and ''

Beast Wars Neo is a 1999 Japanese language, Japanese Transformers television animated series, a toy line, and a sequel to ''Beast Wars II''. It was produced by Nihon Ad Systems, NAS, TV Tokyo, and Ashi Productions. Hozumi Gōda reprised his role as Lio Con ...

'' were created to fill the gap while the second and third seasons of ''Beast Wars'' were being translated into Japanese (called ''Beast Wars: Metals''). Several

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...

and

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

were also produced. The show's production companies, Mainframe Entertainment and

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis and commonly shortened to simply Alliance or Atlantis and formerly traded as TSX:AAC) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operato ...

, are also the same creators of the world's first ever computer animated TV series, ''

ReBoot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

'', which ran from 1994–2001. In June 2017, producer

Lorenzo di Bonaventura Lorenzo di Bonaventura (; born January 13, 1957) is an American film producer and founder and owner of Di Bonaventura Pictures. He is best known for producing the G.I. Joe and ''Transformers'' film series. The films he produced have earned ove ...

stated that a film adaptation of ''Beast Wars'' was not in plans, as he explained: "I'm probably not the one to be asking that question to because I don't get ''Beast Wars'', but you know, thankfully I'm not the only vote on it. I've never quite understood, they kind of feel like incompatible to me, you have animals, robots, we're used to cars." Both a follow-up to ''

Bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

'', and an adaptation of ''Beast Wars'' were reported to be in development, written separately by

Joby Harold Joby Harold is an English screenwriter, producer and director who runs Safehouse Pictures with his producing partner, Tory Tunnell. The company was co-founded in 2005. Career Harold's latest projects are the upcoming films ''Space Mountain' ...

and James Vanderbilt, respectively. It was later reworked as a hybrid adaptation named '' Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'' that will feature the Maximals, the Predacons, and the Terrorcons. The third and final chapter of '' Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy'' titled "Kingdom" features the Autobots and the Maximals teaming up against the Decepticons and the Predacons.

References

External links

* *
Transformers Beast Wars: Complete Series
' at

* *
''Beast Wars: Transformers''
at the

Big Cartoon DataBase The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) is an online database of information about animated cartoons, Feature film, animated feature films, Animated television series, animated television shows, and cartoon Short film, shorts. The BCDB proj ...

Beast Wars Beast most often refers to: * Non-human animal * Monster Beast or Beasts may also refer to: Bible * Beast (Revelation), two beasts described in the Book of Revelation Computing and gaming * Beast (card game), English name of historical Fren ...

Works by Len Wein Television shows set in the United States Animated television series about animals Animated television series about robots Television series by Rainmaker Studios Transformers: Generation 1 Television series by Hasbro Studios Television series by Alliance Atlantis Toonami Television shows adapted into comics Television shows adapted into video games Television series by Claster Television 1990s American time travel television series 1990s Canadian time travel television series