Beast Wars Explained: The Weirdest Story of Transformers Craziest Story

With a new trailer on the way (in the wake of Optimus Prime’s surprise appearance at Coachella: not exactly) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts he’s about to leave. After the acclaimed small-scale adventures of BumblebeeIn many ways, the new film feels like it’s going back to basics: armies of large robots pitting seven shades of premium unleaded gasoline on each other in a high-stakes adventure across the globe. There is a new twist though, and it’s right there in the name. rise of the beasts highlights a new faction of “old men” who transform into wild animals instead of planes and cars. This is a premise taken from beast warsContinuation from the 90s to the 80s transformers Toy line and TV show.

For a thoughtful show, like everything transformers fiction, to advertise Hasbro’s lucrative toy line, in 1996 beast wars the animated series is deliriously strange and complex. Under mid-90s CGI is a heady combination of the Terminator, Planet of the Apes AND 2001: A Space Odyssey waiting to be brought to the big screen by anyone brave enough to try (in this case, I believe II director Steven Caple Jr.). Let this article be your (Optimus) primer on everything you rise of the beasts maybe it definitely won’t and probably should be taken from the original cartoon.

What is Beast Wars and what does it mean for Rise Of The Beasts?

Released in 1996 as a computer-animated television series and high-tech toy set (for its time), beast wars it was the first major reboot of the original transformers franchise. Instead of Autobots and Decepticons, armies of warring alien robots disguised as human vehicles, beast wars brought us the Maximals and the Predacons, armies of alien robot warriors disguised as beasts. Tarantulas become a tarantula, Rattrap becomes a mouse, Waspinator becomes… well, you get the idea. The anime series took this idea and followed with it; tasked with selling the facility to a new generation of children AND old school transformers fans, the writers concocted a twisted sci-fi mythos that linked the new set of beasts to the world of the original Autobots.

It remains to be seen how many beast wars he will in the new film; Michael Bay’s films were notorious for acting extremely loosely transformers continuity, so we are under no illusions about a faithful fit. All we know for sure is this Livestock will involve the Maximals, the fuzzy four-legged counterparts of the heroic Autobots. The trailers showcased four Maximals, all of the lead actors from beast wars cannon: Airazor (Michelle Yeoh), Rhinox (David Sobolov), Cheetor (Tongayi Chirisa) and their leader, the gorilla Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman). It may be that the similarities end there, with the Maximals simply being abandoned as backups for the Autobots, but there is much more to this than I could be adapted. More than meets the eye, in fact.

Why do Maximals turn into animals?

From transformers The premise was always related to “robots in suits,” you’d be forgiven for asking, “What kind of suit is a mechanical monkey honking its horn?” Of course, the real reason Maximals enter beast mode is that in 1996 Hasbro wanted to revamp a transformers row of toys, and someone decided the trucks were out and the monkeys in. However, those responsible for explaining these things to Saturday morning cartoon-watching kids have offered a different explanation: The Maximals landed on a primordial planet brimming with raw energy, the stuff used to power transformers. If they don’t want their circuits overloaded with exposure, they should take on organic forms based on local wildlife. Sound complicated? We have just started.

It seems that rise of the beasts I might miss that explanation, judging by the images of giant metallic rhinos and cheetahs banging Porsches and trucks. This is a film set on ancient Earth, which had normal, healthy energy levels when last we checked, and the organic designs of the original creatures have been replaced with a much more robotic one. But if this crucial aspect of the classic beast wars tradition has been neglected, there is another element that seems to still be on the table.

What role does time travel play in the Beast Wars story?

At one point in the film’s first trailer, Optimus Primal warns the Autobots that “of all threats, past and future, they have never faced anything like this.” How did I know about threats from the future? Maybe that’s because, in the original series, that’s exactly where it comes from. The Maximals are actually descendants of the Autobots, from a timeline where they won the war against the evil Decepticons, conquered their homeworld of Cybertron, and transitioned to smaller, more energy-efficient (and, conveniently , more than half) .size of a beast). Optimus Primal is a distant descendant of Optimus Prime, a plot point it seems rise of the beasts it would have held if the Maximal leader really had returned in time to warn his ancestor of a dangerous new threat.

Even the original animated Maximals traveled back in time, even if they went a little further. After spending many episodes dealing with the Predacons, descendants of the Decepticons, on what they believe to be a desolate alien planet, our heroes make a shocking discovery. To paraphrase Troy McClure: My God, they were wrong! It was Earth from the beginning! As wide-eyed viewers might have realized (with all the gorillas and cheetahs running around), the planet they crash-landed on is actually a prehistoric version of our own. It’s all part of the Predacons’ plans: having somehow gotten their hands on the gold disk sent into space by NASA aboard the 1977 Voyager space probe (yes, really), they plan to use its information on the evolution of the humanity to finish us before we even begin. No humans means no one to help the Autobots defeat the Decepticons on Earth, leading to a future where the Predacons rule. (We told you it was complicated!)

What is the film unlikely to do?

Again it seems rise of the beasts I could ditch this particular narrative in time for something a little simpler, and maybe that’s for the best. But that would mean we’re missing out on the big screen versions of some of the wildest and craziest. transformers stories there. beast warsThe writers made extremely significant changes. Some are sublime, like the stoic warrior Dinobot who sacrifices himself in a solitary battle to save humanity’s ancestors from the Predacons, inadvertently teaching them how to use tools in a Kubrickian flourish. Others are laughable, like the moment Rhinox wipes out the entire Predacon team with an “energy fart” so destructive it’s visible from space. And some are just plain weird, like Airazor being abducted by aliens and fused with his lover Tigatron to form a giant super-transformer called Tigerhawk (honestly, how did they come up with those names?).

However, while we’re not betting any money on Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh having to perform This short-term sequence, there are elements of beast wars‘basic setup as shepherds on the big screen transformers The franchise could really learn from her.

Why Beast Wars might be the best Transformers movie ever

First, the main cast of the series have a very different dynamic than the typical Autobots and Decepticons. The heroes and villains of beast wars they are not the leaders of their respective factions. This is a far more rudimentary group: these Maximals are the crew of a research vessel unwittingly recruited to fight evil, and the Predacons they fight are a rogue terrorist cell rebelling against the new Maximum Lords of Cybertron. Optimus Primal isn’t the fearless and revered military commander that Prime is; He’s smart, but he’s in over his head and must quickly become the leader in the face of constant insubordination. He feels like we’re witnessing a small but crucial battle in a much larger war, with a new cast of characters who feel more human and less mythical than the franchise’s iconic heroes and villains from the first generation.

Generally, beast wars it’s a show more about the dynamics and character development of just about everyone transformers average before or after. Much of that is its small distribution. While 1980s cartoons were about jamming as many “bots” onto the screen as possible to get kids to buy new toys, Michael Bay’s movies were often a blur of clanging metal and indistinguishable machinery. . beast wars he held his two teams to roughly five. This is largely due to technological constraints: working on one of the first all-CGI television programs, the animators had to save time and money by creating fewer character models and limiting the number of characters on screen at any one time. This meant spending more time with each individual Transformer, developing their motivations and personalities. Also, when new characters are introduced, others have to leave: deaths and departures are frequent, and when they arrive they feel that mattered.

It was rare in children’s cartoons in general in the ’90s, and it’s something Bay’s films never tried to master. With the exception of Optimus and Bumblebee, none of the live-action Autobots or Decepticons felt any different, which is one of the reasons why the endless battles that fill the runtime of these movies feel so boring and dull without consequence. Regardless of that rise of the beasts stay true to beast wars‘ with mind-blowing storylines and twisted lore, it should aim to take some of the character-driven approach that made it a cult classic worth adapting in the first place.

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts hits UK cinemas from 9 June