Beast Machines

[Alak]

Just wanted to know what your thoughts on this show are. When it first came out, I thought it was awesome due to the graphics. Then, I quickly got bored of it and never even finished watching both seasons until this past summer via Youtube. I honestly don't think it would've been a bad show as a stand alone series. The fans dislike it because we just got off Beast Wars and the personality changes killed it. However, taking hindsight out of the equation, Beast Machines is actually decent. The character development is great for the most part (Cheetor developing in to a leader, Silverbolt reclaiming his honor, etc.). I still don't like Nightscream and I still find him to be a liability, a jerk, and essentially noncontributing to the storyline (other than filling in the kid role). Voice acting was good, graphics were good, and the action choreography was good.

Unfortunately, Megatron lost his "yesss" quirk.

[una]

I think the biggest gripe was that Beast Machines established that Cybertron had an organic core. How can Cybertron have an organic core when Primus is Cybertron (though this is established in some continuties, I don't know the rest)

Also, some personality gripes; Primal became fanactical in the first season, Rattrap for one episode sold his friends for weapons, Rhinox turning evil.

Cheetor's development was all right.

Another gripe; the different looks: Cheetor was all right and Megatron were okay but the others were just not right

[NaitoKage]

Well, the organic core is assumed to be from the fact Cybertron is made from an asteroid, either by quintessons (G1 cartoon) or Primus (Comics). Primus himself didn't exactly show up until the beast wars cartoons started to mention him in the last season, trying to tie the G1 cartoon and G1/G2 comic series (like the Vok being an evolved form of the swarm which they mentioned after the series finished.)8

Even though most fans don't like it.. like..all of them, it's accepted canon.. On it's own it's a okay story, but it just doesn't make sense when thrown in with transformers..

[Dreamscreamer]

Well, like I've mentioned elsewhere, I only just got into Beast Wars last year. I watched every single episode on Youtube, and then... since I was bored one week and didn't have much else to do, I decided to watch all of the Beast Machines episodes.

I remember I was a little bit disappointed with it, because it seemed like the animation wasn't quite as good--or at least not the same--as it had been in Beast Wars. I mean, the movements of the characters just seemed somewhat rushed or something, compared to the quality of Beast Wars. But, maybe that's just me.

Plus... I thought the characters were ugly. When the Oracle reformatted them, I thought they were quite ugly, especially Optimus and Rattrap. But eventually I got used to the new look, so I stopped caring about that factor.

I thought the music in the series was good in some ways. It sounded nice and mechanical, which suited the whole theme of the series on Cybertron, no matter how bizarre it was. But I'll get to my thoughts on the story's plot in a moment.

The characterizations... eh it could have worked better if maybe they had used them with new characters, instead of just warping the old ones around. Rattrap's whinyness and feeling useless, along with Silverbolt's emoness and the fact that Optimus had turned hippy, (not to mention that Cheetor became so bossy and argumentative) well... I bet their Beast Wars counterparts, so to speak, would be shaking their heads and wanting to slap them.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the general storyline. I think that the whole thing with the Oracle was kind of interesting, although I don't really get why it wanted to turn Cybertron into a techno-organic planet. Maybe that sort of makes sense, if the planet had truly supported organic life at one time. But since everybody on the planet is a machine now, well... how does that make sense? Unless there is just some sort of... spiritual significance in this or something? Eh I'm not sure what I mean by that either. >.>

Megatron acting like the Borg Queen of Cybertron was an interesting touch, controlling all of the mindless--er, I mean, sparkless machines. But... as other people have pointed out in various places, the fact that Megatron could escape and then infect all of Cybertron with a virus and take over so easily seems somewhat far-fetched. If he had that kind of genius and power, why didn't he just do that in the first place, instead of going through the trouble of going back in time and trying to change the past?

Obviously, this storyline is quite serious in some ways, but it's also quite bizarre. I didn't really like the way everyone spent so much time arguing with each other, although maybe it's possible that the characters could be a whole lot grimmer since these circumstances were a lot more serious. They weren't just fighting a small band of Predacons on Earth anymore, their home as they knew it was gone, in a manner of speaking.

I actually liked the series in some ways. It was an entertaining diversion, at least. I found the entire plotline somewhat captivating, in that I did wonder what would happen next, although some of the episodes were dull, perhaps somewhat repetitive from time to time.

If I had to pick an episode I really liked the best... hmmm I think I would have to say that I actually enjoyed the one where Rattrap felt useless. I can't remember the details too well, but I think it was because when he was finally able to transform, his robot mode didn't even have any weapons, so he went to strike a deal with Megatron. He then acted as Megatron's bodyguard for a day, then went back to the Maximals. And... I thought it was a nice touch how Megatron actually let them go, deciding to honor the deal. I'm not really sure what his motives were, I'll admit--if he was just being honorable or had some sort of ulterior motive, but still... it was a nice touch in the story.

I think part of me was a little sad when Jetfire "died", so to speak, (if I can phrase it like that) when Silverbolt got brought back. In some ways, you can definitely say that Jetfire's jovial personality (if that's the right word I want) was a big contrast to Silverbolt's emo attitude. Jetfire was energetic, and sometimes kind of funny. XD

I also really liked the episode where BlackArachnia used some of that organic goo on Thrust, just to find out that it was Waspinator. The whole part where she went "EWWWWWW!!!" cracked me up XD Especially when Waspinator and Silverbolt started fighting over her XD

Eh I guess that's enough of a ramble for now XD

[Night-Hunter]

I never watched Beast Machines but i watched a few clips of it and it was alright.

[transformersvoice]

I agree with what Alak said, if Beast Machines was a stand alone show, I would have liked it more. I think the program is alright, but I am not interested in it.

[Darkshadow14]

Beast machines... Oh, boy. I was somewhat confused on the story line, how was it that Optimus, BA, Cheetor and Rattrap still had their beast modes, but "Silverbolt and Rhinox" were machines. Last time I saw it was, yeeeeaaaars ago.

But I liked Cheetor's beast mode and somewhat Rattraps. The designs looked a little more bad a$$. I didn't hate it, I just got really confused by it. though I hardly remember it, of course it's no Beast Wars.

[Nurann]

*pops in* Oooh, that's one of my favorite research subjects, actually

I think that the whole thing with the Oracle was kind of interesting, although I don't really get why it wanted to turn Cybertron into a techno-organic planet. Maybe that sort of makes sense, if the planet had truly supported organic life at one time. But since everybody on the planet is a machine now, well... how does that make sense? Unless there is just some sort of... spiritual significance in this or something? Eh I'm not sure what I mean by that either. >.>

Actually, if you look into the Universe comic storyline that comes after, it was all a Quint plot to throw everybody off balance while they tried to take over again. Although Primus did a brilliant job of turning it around to his own plans… heheheh…

"Goodbye, Heirodyus. I will call your people to meet me again the next time I have need of an evolutionary crisis."

~Primus, The Wreckers finale part 2 (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Wreckers:_Finale_Part_II, re. the techno-organic reformatting of Cybertron)

*pops back out again*

[Dreamscreamer]

Actually, if you look into the Universe comic storyline that comes after, it was all a Quint plot to throw everybody off balance while they tried to take over again. Although Primus did a brilliant job of turning it around to his own plans… heheheh…

Ohhh I never knew that! Then again I have read almost no comics in the Transformers franchise at all, so there are probably a lot of things I am in the dark on.

The Quint never give up, do they? >.>

[Wonko The Sane]

As a kid,I never enjoyed Beast Machines mainly because I didn't get it.A kid who was 9 at the time would not get into philosophy in religion till she was 13,and the Series of course grew on me in 2004.

I agree with some of what Dreamscreamer said,but I did get used to it.Skir and Isenburg were in fact taking a whole new approach to the Transformers Series,very much with what DiTillo and Foward did when Beast Wars came to us,and seeing how revolutionary Beast Machines was to its predecessor,I didn't mind that.

However,I do wish that the characters had some of their original personalities during the Beast Wars,especially in the case of Silverbolt and Rattrap.However,most of the others are explained via Season III of Beast Wars,particularly Megatron.The new characters were also good,and,although I was one of the people who gave up the show when Rhinox became evil,I accepted that,because I actually forgot that he still was under Megatron's Shell Program.

Either way,I did like Beast Machines for many things,and I really wished that Series open more doors to various ideas,or even continue the storyline to the next generation...sadly,that never came to pass.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

There were only a few things I enjoyed about Beast Machines. I liked the animation because it was a different style from Beast Wars. I liked how they kept all the same voice actors for the characters from Beast Wars. And I liked how the show was darker than most cartoons.

Now, what I didn't care for... I haven't watched it lately to remember specific things in episodes, but they all kind of seem to bleed together in my mind. There wasn't much diversity between them; it was always the same kind of thing over and over. I didn't like that there were too many abrupt and significant personality changes in the characters from Beast Wars. Actually, the first episode wasn't that bad because they all still seemed the same (before they were reformatted), but after that it went down hill. Some of their new looks were pretty terrifying. I didn't mind Rattrap's beast mode, but his robot mode was horrible. I didn't like Optimus's beast mode but his robot mode was okay. Cheetor's beast mode was neat but I didn't care for his robot mode. And there wasn't much of anything that I liked about Blackarachnia anymore. The only character that I liked a lot was Jetstorm, who then turned out to be Silverbolt, so after that I was left empty-handed with no favorite characters, but I watched it all the way through to the last episode. As for the whole techno-organic thing about Cybertron, well, I honestly don't know that much about TransFormers' history or Cybertron's, so that part didn't bother me as much. In fact, the idea of someone's alternate mode being a plant was rather interesting. We've been through vehicles, electronics, cities, and animals; why not plants? Oh, and I didn't like the whole thing with Waspinator. I just couldn't bring myself to believe that part. It just didn't make sense to me. So I guess that's pretty much my take on the show.

[Xzuk]

I really did love the storyline for this, it was a great idea to make the most technological planet into a living life force by giving it a organic property, and yes, the graphics were beautiful. (Even for today, they still look decent)

One thing I loved: Waspy was 'Cool Biker Bot' ^_^

The two things I really didn't like: One: Nightscream (I agree, he was pretty pointless. Minus the fact that he befriended the one and only fully organic transformer, Noble)

Two: The way they made Optomis into a monk lol.... he reminded me of Buddha when he transformed.

[SkyxDB]

Well, for some reaosn I did kind of like Beast Machines as a tween, and a part of me still kind of likes it. But I mostly see it as interesting concept, bad execution. My main problem with it, was what they did to the characterization of the surviving Beast Wars characters. But other than that, I found the story kind of interesting and I like some of newer characters they introduced like Botanica. But personally I think the series would have been better if they haven't warped the BW charatcers or if it was a stand alone show instead of a sequel to BW.

But I'll admit that since I saw BW and BM way before I even saw G1, I didn't really question the organic core thing when it came up. But then some years later when I found out that Cybertron is suppose to be Primus, I found myself thinking, "Hey a mintue!" Sometimes I do wonder if the writers try to pull one over us or something.

[Alak]

Here's a more elaborate review of my take on Beast Machines, which is probably close to what everyone else said lol. This is a less objective post, with my Beast Wars fanboyism kicking in.

- I am one of the few you likes Optimus Primal's beast mode, but I really don't like his robot mode. His personality made him ages older than he really was, and at times I felt he lost his ability to lead efficiently. It's like sending a monk (courtesy of Xzuk for using the term) to fulfill a commander's role.

- After rewatching it this summer, I really liked Cheetor's portrayal. He still had a youthful spirit, but his maturation far surpassed his growth in Beast Wars. His ability to lead without indecision makes him a legitimate threat to Megatron, but he still isn't afraid to go for crazy plans (sounds a bit inspired from his mentor's old personality, huh?). I am now a fan of both his beast and robot forms. I like the swords, but Cheetor without a gun just feels a bit...limited.

- Rattrap got the short end of the stick in this series. He degraded from demolitions master, marksman expert, etc. to essentially the Maximal tech support. I was sad when he went to Megatron for "noise-makers" since that definitely something out of character. I liked his beast mode, but his robot mode was a bit out there. I liked his visor, but that's about it. He should've remained as Optimus' front line guy.

- Blackarachnia lost her "bad girl" persona real quick. Her design was pretty average compared to her extravagant Transmetal 2 armor, but it wasn't bad by any means. She just seemed to lose her independent behavior and transformed into the lovesick robot that Silverbolt was before.

- Nightscream was useless, had no development, was detrimental to the team, had a bad personality, and his robot form was uglier than Transmutate.

- Silverbolt became Cybertron's deadliest peacock. His whole emo attitude pretty much destroyed whatever Beast Wars had going for him. That's like corrupting the incorruptible hero...it's a mess you can't go back and fix. Plus, purple definitely wasn't his color.

- I hated Rhinox's new personality. I liked Thrust, but I didn't like how it was Waspinator's spark in his body. That was just a fan-service move since Waspy was supposed to live happily ever after on Earth.

- I miss the quirks. Megatron's "yesss", Optimus' "Well that's just prime", and Rattrap's "we're all gonna die" will be forever remembered.

- I didn't like the fluid transformations or how they had to relearn the process via inner zen. If anything, they would have to learn to adapt to their new abilities. Cheetor always used firearms and all of a sudden he's a Maximal sword master? Blackarachnia managed her new electrical blasts with ease, and she has never possessed such an ability before.

[Featherwing]

it is a very strange feeling because of the many changes.
I liked that the quality was better, the design and effects seemed more realistic. And Iliked how Optimus was in contact with the Oracle.

I also liked the new beast-mode of Cheetor and the robot-mode of Rattrap. He has such a sweet face there, I wish I could kiss him, only once
he has such innocent eyes. It was a long way until they all found their destinies. I also loved that Cybertron was green again in the end.

But still, Beast wars is still the best series. I was surprised when Rhinox turned evil and when Silverbolt changed his fuzor body.
There were many changes and some were more comfortable and some were not.

I missed Dinobot very much.