Wikipedia Article of the Day: Beast Wars
In order to upgrade on my geek knowledge, rekindle some past personal favorites and just learn new stuff, I decided to venture onto Wikipedia once in a while.
Beast Wars was a Transformers Cartoon created by Mainframe entertainment and was basically one of the best shows I've seen when I was growing up. Most of you Canadians might have remembered it to be under Beasties because this was during a time when Canadian censorship was in a upheaval about violence in youth targetted TV, with Power Rangers being struck from the proverbial landscape. We can't have people ever think that there were actual Beast Wars happening in our world.
It does however bring up a moment of reflection of what the voice actor for the opening sequence was thinking at the time that instead of just roaring out "Beast Wars!" for the title sequence...he also had to yell out "Beasties!" for an alternate cut. Perhaps he was thinking what a fucking stupid idiot he already sounds like for wanting to growl Beast Wars! only to be asked to gather that very same motivation and growl with a straight face Beasties! Then again they are the professionals and not me. He was probably most concerned about his paycheque for doing such embarassing and deamning work.
Opening title sequence voice acting embarassment aside it was a fairly good series with great characters that rival the G1 Transformers we've come to all know and love. What appealed to me most was that it was very much crafted like Disney's Gargoyles in which even though there were adventures that happen each episode, there is a sub-plot that strings them all together very tightly. This isn't to say that it's just like Gargoyles, I do consider Garygoles to have a bit more cohesiveness to everything discussed in previous episodes. Beast Wars just didn't seem as meticulously planned that's all. But it did have a great story with actual depth that goes beyond your simple saturday cartoon story with a message.
It was peculiar as to how I came to first see this series. The thing is, the first two episodes did not originally air back in September 1996 as many people would remember it, but the spring of 1996. I forget how I came about it, but it was during a very late morning, WPIX 11 (then channel 25 or 26 I think) was in the wee hours in the morning. Suddenly this 3D animated title sequence blasted onto the screen. I was basically stuck there for 1 hour as I saw the first two episodes of Beast Wars being broadcasted....right in the middle of the fucking night with hardly anyone to see it. I even doubt that New York kids were watching what I was watching. After the second episode finished, it had a little promo clip saying to stay tuned this fall for more Beast Wars. Stupidly enough I waited next week thinking that it might show up again, but to no avail.
It wasn't until later in the summer during a swim meet of all fucking places that I heard about Beast Wars again. Apparently two of my teammates (who were in seperate motel rooms at the time) saw it with one bringing up dicussion of it. He said "Hey I was watching this awesome cartoon about something...(inaudible)...Transformers" I instantly knew what it was, although I quite forget if I had watched it earlier the night before as well in another motel room.
Regardless it was a well crafted well produce show. I did however lose track of the actual episodes when WPIX and YTV would have different airing times for all new episodes. Eventually around late Season 2 and most of Season 3, I hardly knew what was occuring let alone how many of the characters suddenly got mutated into new forms and such. And like Gargoyles, it had a unbearable end to the series with Beast Machines...which was even worst and yet I still don't know how I managed to sit through that fucking drivel to the bitter end. Sadly even Beast Machines was still infinitely better than the Takara produced Transformers anime that followed it...which thankfully has absolutely no reference to the Beast Era of Transfomers.
Beast Wars was a Transformers Cartoon created by Mainframe entertainment and was basically one of the best shows I've seen when I was growing up. Most of you Canadians might have remembered it to be under Beasties because this was during a time when Canadian censorship was in a upheaval about violence in youth targetted TV, with Power Rangers being struck from the proverbial landscape. We can't have people ever think that there were actual Beast Wars happening in our world.
It does however bring up a moment of reflection of what the voice actor for the opening sequence was thinking at the time that instead of just roaring out "Beast Wars!" for the title sequence...he also had to yell out "Beasties!" for an alternate cut. Perhaps he was thinking what a fucking stupid idiot he already sounds like for wanting to growl Beast Wars! only to be asked to gather that very same motivation and growl with a straight face Beasties! Then again they are the professionals and not me. He was probably most concerned about his paycheque for doing such embarassing and deamning work.
Opening title sequence voice acting embarassment aside it was a fairly good series with great characters that rival the G1 Transformers we've come to all know and love. What appealed to me most was that it was very much crafted like Disney's Gargoyles in which even though there were adventures that happen each episode, there is a sub-plot that strings them all together very tightly. This isn't to say that it's just like Gargoyles, I do consider Garygoles to have a bit more cohesiveness to everything discussed in previous episodes. Beast Wars just didn't seem as meticulously planned that's all. But it did have a great story with actual depth that goes beyond your simple saturday cartoon story with a message.
It was peculiar as to how I came to first see this series. The thing is, the first two episodes did not originally air back in September 1996 as many people would remember it, but the spring of 1996. I forget how I came about it, but it was during a very late morning, WPIX 11 (then channel 25 or 26 I think) was in the wee hours in the morning. Suddenly this 3D animated title sequence blasted onto the screen. I was basically stuck there for 1 hour as I saw the first two episodes of Beast Wars being broadcasted....right in the middle of the fucking night with hardly anyone to see it. I even doubt that New York kids were watching what I was watching. After the second episode finished, it had a little promo clip saying to stay tuned this fall for more Beast Wars. Stupidly enough I waited next week thinking that it might show up again, but to no avail.
It wasn't until later in the summer during a swim meet of all fucking places that I heard about Beast Wars again. Apparently two of my teammates (who were in seperate motel rooms at the time) saw it with one bringing up dicussion of it. He said "Hey I was watching this awesome cartoon about something...(inaudible)...Transformers" I instantly knew what it was, although I quite forget if I had watched it earlier the night before as well in another motel room.
Regardless it was a well crafted well produce show. I did however lose track of the actual episodes when WPIX and YTV would have different airing times for all new episodes. Eventually around late Season 2 and most of Season 3, I hardly knew what was occuring let alone how many of the characters suddenly got mutated into new forms and such. And like Gargoyles, it had a unbearable end to the series with Beast Machines...which was even worst and yet I still don't know how I managed to sit through that fucking drivel to the bitter end. Sadly even Beast Machines was still infinitely better than the Takara produced Transformers anime that followed it...which thankfully has absolutely no reference to the Beast Era of Transfomers.
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