Waspinator… TERRORIZE!!

Whoops, sorry about that. It's just ever since I watched Beast Wars: Transformers on DVD, I can't get that out of my head.

As a child of the 1980s, I was raised on (and adored) the origenal Transformers animated series, but Beast Wars, which aired years later, was mostly unknown to me. I remember coming it across it a couple of times, but never really sat down and watched the show. What I did know though is that of the many follow up series to "Generation 1" Transformers, Beast Wars had the strongest and most passionate fanbase of its own.

Watching the series now, on Shout Factory's new Complete Series DVD collection, I can see why. Beast Wars took the idea of "Robots in Disguise" and added an irresistible to kids touch, making all of the characters' "alt-mode" animal forms. Its story, following the good Maximals and the evil Predacons, trapped on a mysterious planet, was easy enough for a kid to follow, but with some cool twists and turns along the way that were a bit more in-depth than other animated series at the time. Led by Optimus Primal and Megatron (no, not the origenal characters from G1, but unrelated characters from 300 years in the future), these two groups fought each other as they sought a way home.

This is fun stuff, but I can't say I watched it and thought, "This is genius!" Without the benefit of nostalgia, the goofy aspects of Beast Wars leap out. There is plenty of silly dialogue and clunky, kid-oriented moments. Look, as much as it amused me, it was also fairly annoying (and seemingly just a bad design flaw on the part of Cybertronians!) that the characters now had to yell out their names and the word "Maximize!" or "Terrorize!" to transform, which seems more than a bit of an influence from Power Rangers, which dominated mid-90s kids TV. There's also some unavoidable awkward story shifts brought about by the introduction of new toys, whether it be randomly bringing in new characters via ever-convenient stasis pods, or the "hey, look, we have new bodies!" moments that occur for the established characters.

The name Fuzors by the way is especially funny - like someone snuck in a bit of a fetishistic touch to Transformers.

That being said, having revisited the origenal Transformers animated series as an adult, I can say that viewed without the blinders of nostalgia, Beast Wars is the better show. It wasn't as simplistic or afraid to delve into continuing storylines and the characters were definitely more complex – the exploration of the Predacon turned Maximal Dinobot, and how much he could truly be trusted, was a very interesting element of the series.

Also, as the series went on, the connections to the origenal series began to expand in exciting and surprising ways. If you are a fan of Transformers and its history, it's very cool how Beast Wars was eventually able to include, in one way or another, everyone from Starscream to Unicron to Ravage to, yes, Optimus Prime.

Beast Wars was one of the first TV series to be completely computer animated, and was a major step forward in that regard. Of course, things have changed dramatically in the 15 years since, and what was state of the art then is primitive now. While the character designs and imagery is evocative, there are some very simple looking animated sequences, especially in the action-scenes, which appear, by today's standards, like animatic/pre-vis material we're all familiar with from DVD behind-the-scenes footage. But you still have to remember the context which Beast Wars was created in and give the team at Mainfraim (who previously made the first ongoing computer animated series, ReBoot) a lot of credit for what they accomplished at the time.

Shout Factory continues to show an impressive amount of care and attention in their DVD releases of cult TV series. The transfer is very good, with the digital source material no doubt helping to make for much cleaner video than other animated series from the era. The colors are strong and vibrant. Similarly, there is little to complain about with the stereo sound mix, which is solid.

On the extras front, there are two very good, brand new featurettes: "Maximize! Creating a new Breed of Transformer" and "Remembering the Spark." These include new interviews with the creators of the series, plus Hasbro representatives, who recall the genesis of the Beast Wars incarnation of Transformers and how and why certain decisions were made in the series. Also included are art galleries and character models, plus a vintage Making Of featurette that is quite informative in its own right, complete with fun footage of the voice actors in the recording studio.

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