Nostalgia with A Twist: Beast Wars: Transformers

Welcome one and all to the second edition of Nostalgia with a Twist. And no the twist won’t have you regretting it in the morning, or it could, I’m not making promises either way.

In this edition, we once again look at a cartoon series I have very little connection with, but was recommended by @EvilPilgrim on Twitter (so blame him if this goes south).

This week’s special is Beast Wars: Transformers (that’s what the intro shows the name to be, but you would think Transformers: Beast Wars would make more sense since the brand is Transformers, but whatever!)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds7NBsHxBZE&feature=related[/youtube]

Unlike our last show, this intro really doesn’t tell you anything through the lyrics. As a matter of fact, the only lyrics in the entire intro are “Beast Wars” which based on the huge logo display one would take to be the name of the show. It is heard twice during the intro to really drive home the point I guess.

While the intro is light on lyrics, the melody is used to create a rather intense environment. You can feel a presence of danger in the heavy beats, and combined with the title Beast Wars, lets you know this won’t be a show to be taken lightly.

The intro starts off with two ships escaping a portal/teleporter/warp drive (you’ve seen enough nerd television to know that its something that doesn’t really exist yet). You don’t really get a feel for if the ships are together or one is chasing the other, but they are in close proximity so it can go either way.

Next, we see the ships crashing into Earth (?) and we can assume these are two enemy ships now because they just so happen to fall pretty far apart even though were close until the crash.

Then we see what I could best describe as a holographic PokeBall with what looks like a humanoid dressed up in too much fur? We then see a rhino and gorilla get scanned by some golden line? At this point, I have no idea what is going on, but only 1/3 through.

The gorilla then gets a huge grin on his face, and we are greeted by the logo and the music really kicks into gear! I would also like to point out that even though Beast Wars is used twice during the song, oddly neither time is during the period when the logo is on screen.

Now we are treated to some pretty poor CG, I’ll cut the show some slack seeing how it is almost 15 years old at this point, but god is it ugly. Its a bunch of animals or I guess beasts in this case getting ready for battle. I’m not really positive which side I should be cheering for, but if the dinosaur and the gorilla are on the same team I’m going with them!

Then we see a cheetah running down a corridor from fire before transforming into more human-esque form (not really sure what you call em?) but you would think that the cheetah form would run faster.

The intro then pretty much becomes a bunch of glamor shots as the beasts get to shot and jump around. Sadly, I find out that the dinosaur and the gorilla are on opposite teams as we get to see them “Transform” at each other. And I’m still not sure which side is good and which side is evil?

I guess the intro works if it leaves you wanting to watch an episode just to see how the teams break down, but I think this show could have dealt with a theme song that explains what the hell is going on, as it is I’m a tend confused.

Why did they crash land on the planet? Were they fighting each other? What’s with the golden line and the holographic Pokeballs? Who’s the good guys? Who’s the bad guys? Are their sides?

Recommendation: What Happened to Me?