Transformers Beast Wars: Season 1 [Import]

Put away the 80's synthesizer and pull out the 90's generic rock guitar! Created by the same company that created Reboot, this classic Computer Generated series is the follow up to the original Generation One Transformers. Beast Wars in America, Beasties in Canada (Canada has a rule that no show aimed at children can have war in the title). An enjoyable series that had previously been released in bare bones sets by Rhino (which I own and are now discontinued), it will now be rereleased by Shout! and they are currently working on creating some extras. While I will update this post when I know more I just wanted to express my excitement that Beast Wars will finally be getting the release it deserves!

First Season Episodes:

Beast Wars (1)
Beast Wars (2)
The Web
Equal Measures
Chain of Command
Power Surge
Fallen Comrades
Double Jeopardy
A Better Mousetrap
Gorilla Warfare
The Probe
Victory
Dark Designs
Double Dinobot
The Spark
The Trigger (1)
The Trigger (2)
Spider's Game
Call of the Wild
Dark Voyage
Possession
The Low Road
Law of the Jungle
Before the Storm
Other Voices (1)
Other Voices (2)

And that's all 26 episodes, the storytelling may start out slow but improves greatly as the season moves along and there are plenty of later references to the original G1 series (perhaps most noteworthy is an episode where Starscream returns and possesses the body of Waspinator). The Characters are for the most part great with a wide array of personalities and just as many interesting bots on the heroes side as on the villains. Megatron is a wonderfully twisted villain, Optimus Primal is the quintessential boyscout (other than a few key moments) and a nice element of constant tension is added by having Dinobot defect from the Predacons early and joining the Maximals. The marketing device of having status pods crash every few episodes to introduce new marketable characters is actually fairly clever and makes for many fun episodes where the teams race to collect a new member for their side. It all culminates in a season finale cliffhanger that I couldn't believe as a kid and that leads to the excellent second season where the G1 series is really revealed as relevant to the series in a much deeper and more immediate way. Hopefully Shout! will make this a release that will Maximize our viewing pleasure. Beast Wars!

Note*: A Beast Wars Complete Series Set has been announced by Shout! It will be similar to the recent Reboot set - Reboot-Definitive Mainframe Edition. Announced special features for the Beast Wars complete set will reportedly be a 24 page book - Dawn of Futures Past (a comic that serves as a prequel for the series), another 12 page booklet, retrospective featurettes, interviews and art galleries. So some fans may want to wait for that.

Beast wars seasons 1-3 have been released before from Rhino and Madman. Both of those sets are great, but the Madman release has a better picture quality and loads of extras. It will be great to see how the transfer is on this set and if there are any extras. Well anyway, Beast Wars is the greatest cartoon show to ever come out. It has great writing and animation that a child can enjoy as well as an adult. I grew up with this series and even now, when I'm 24 years old, I still watch it and love it. The plot in season one is very episodic, so each episode is self contained, seasons two and three broaden the scope and interweave many different plots together over many episodes. I'm not saying I like one form of writing over the other though, as the writers are great and it doesn't really matter how they present their material. I don't know what else to say about this series, it's just amazingly well produced, written and voice acted. The amount of love I have for this series is enormous. :) Get the dvd set, you will not regret it.

I don't rightly recall this series, to be honest. Course, after watching it- I'm sure I would've remember something such as this. My main reason for purchasing it is the fact that I'd heard alot of favorable things about this series from diehard Transformers fans. I mean, if they liked it, it has to be good, right?

I won't lie, it took a few viewings before I come around to liking the show. What put me off, at first, was the fact that it seemed aimed more towards kids..moreso than the Generation 1 Transformers cartoons. It was somewhat campy to me. Yet- after repeated viewings, I came around to liking this as much as everyone else does. I ended up getting the second and third seasons as well to complete my collection(look for my review on those seasons) and I'm glad I did.

Season 1 begins with the descendants of the Decepticons(now known as Predacons) landing on a planet in search of Energon. With Megatron coming up with dastardly plans to rule the universe, Optimus Primal and the Maximals must do everything they can to stop them beforehand.

There's 26 episodes, all in all, introducing you to a whole slew of new Tranformers and Decepticons. Be warned, though, Season 1 does have it's moments when it doesn't live up to its' greatness. If you can get past that, it's awesome. It's brought to you by the people that did the series Reboot(which I love and highly recommend).