''Beast Wars: Transformers'' (titled ''Beasties: Transformers'' in Canada) is an animated television series that debuted on September 16, 1996 and ended on May 7, 1999, serving as the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

of the '' Transformers: Beast Wars'' franchise. It was one of the earliest fully CGI television shows. The series is set in the future of the "original" ''Transformers'' franchise, 300 years after the events of ''The Transformers'', and features the Maximals and Predacons, descendants of the

Autobot The Autobots are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. The Autobots are living robots from the planet Cybertron who, like most Transformers, are each imbued with a unique "life force" known as a " ...

s and

Decepticon The Decepticons are a fictional faction of sentient robots in the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. Serving as the main antagonists in the franchise, their goals include conquering their fictional homeworld planet Cybertron, defeating ...

s respectively. While engaged in battle, small teams from each faction crash land on an unknown planet, and must find a way to return home while continuing their war. The ''Beast Wars''

TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

was the first Transformers series to feature computer-animated characters, and was produced by Mainframe Entertainment of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

; its story editors were

Bob Forward Robert D. Forward (born 1958) is an American writer, producer, and director. He is the production director and president of his independent company, Detonation Films. Forward has been the writer of many animated television series, as well as a ...

and Larry DiTillio. The production designer for the show, Clyde Klotz, won a

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...

for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997 for his work on ''Beast Wars.'' A sequel television series, '' Beast Machines: Transformers'', aired from 1999 to 2000. Additional ''Beast Wars'' limited comic book series have been released by Dreamwave Productions and

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic ...

Premise

The two main factions of "Transformers" in Beast Wars are descendants of the two main factions in the original cartoon: the Maximals are the descendants of the

s and the

Predacon Predacon may refer to the following character factions in the Transformers franchise: * Predacons, a Decepticon faction in the ''Transformers'' TV series * Predacons, a faction in the ''Beast Wars'' franchise {{Disambiguation ...

s are the descendants of the

s. (In the sequel series ''

Beast Machines ''Beast Machines: Transformers'' is an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment as part of the Transformers franchise. Hasbro has full distribution rights to the show as of 2011. It was a direct sequel to '' Beast Wars'', ...

'', the process during which Autobots and Decepticons became Maximals and Predacons is referred to as "The Great Upgrade".) The leader of the Predacon team is

Megatron Megatron is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. He is the tyrannical leader of the Decepticons, a villaino ...

, a namesake of the original Decepticon commander. He and his forces are a splinter group on the hunt for powerful crystals known as energon. They do this with the aid of an artifact known as the Golden Disk and Megatron's stolen ship, the '' Darksyde'', which is equipped with a transwarp drive. A Maximal exploration ship, the '' Axalon'', led by Optimus Primal, is sent to stop them. Together the ships plunge through a

spacetime In physics, spacetime, also called the space-time continuum, is a mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Spacetime diagrams are useful in visualiz ...

phenomenon created by the transwarp device during their battle in space, and crash-land on a mysterious planet. The planet is found to be rich in deposits of raw energon, in such extreme amounts that it proves to be poisonous to both factions' robot forms, forcing them to take on alternate organic forms for protection until their robot forms are needed. Thus the robots take on the beast forms of recognizable animals including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, dinosaurs, and invertebrates. Before crashing, the ''Axalon'' deploys its cargo of "stasis pods" containing Maximal protoforms — Transformer robots with vulnerable and undeveloped physical forms, which are left to orbit the planet as an alternative to possible destruction in the initial crash landing. This plays a larger part in the IDW series, ''The Gathering''. Throughout the series, stasis pods lose altitude and crash-land on the planet, and the Maximals and Predacons race and fight to acquire them, as protoforms acquired by Megatron's forces can be reprogrammed to become Predacons. The stasis pods are used as a

plot device A plot device or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief ...

to introduce new characters. The teams are divided between the "good" Maximals and the "evil" Predacons, equivalent to the traditional Autobots and Decepticons. Most of the Maximals are based on mammals, birds or fish, while the Predacons are based on arthropods and dinosaurs. Dinobot changes sides, starting as a Predacon and becoming a Maximal, and was later recreated as an artificial Predacon clone by Megatron in season 3. Additionally certain "Predacons" like Inferno and Blackarachnia were created from Maximal protoforms, but were fitted with Predacon shell programs, fighting instead for the Predacons. For the Maximals, the emphasis is on team spirit and good-natured arguing, especially from

Rattrap This is a list of characters in the ''Beast Wars'' franchise, which is part of the larger ''Transformers'' franchise from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or video games. This does not include characters ...

, but the Predacons argue and battle for leadership, which impairs their effectiveness against the Maximals.

Characters

Voice cast

* Garry Chalk as Optimus Primal and G1

* David Kaye as

Scott McNeil Scott McNeil is an Australian actor based in Canada, known for his live-action work as well as his roles in animation. His voice roles include Ace the Bat-Hound in '' Krypto the Superdog'', Voltar in '' League of Super Evil'', Jetfire, Backstop ...

, Dinobot, Waspinator, Silverbolt and Dinobot II * Ian James Corlett as Cheetor and

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring granit ...

* Richard Newman as

Rhinox This is a list of characters in the Transformers: Beast Wars, ''Beast Wars'' franchise, which is part of the larger ''Transformers'' franchise from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or video games. This doe ...

and the Vok *Alec Willows as

Tarantulas Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the Family (biology), family Theraphosidae. , 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Therap ...

* Doug Parker as Terrorsaur and

Starscream Starscream is a character in the ''Transformers'' media franchise produced by the American toy company Hasbro and the Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. He is the second-in-command of the Decepticons, a villainous faction of alien robots that s ...

* Don Brown as Scorponok * Venus Terzo as Blackarachnia *Blu Mankuma as

Tigatron This is a list of characters in the ''Beast Wars'' franchise, which is part of the larger ''Transformers'' franchise from Hasbro. This includes characters appearing in an animated series, comics or video games. This does not include characters ...

, Tigerhawk, the Vok and Unicron *

Pauline Newstone Pauline Newstone (August 13, 1943 – May 5, 2023) was a Canadian voice actress best known as the voice of Airazor in the animated series '' Beast Wars'' and as Frieza in the English Ocean Productions and Westwood dubs of ''Dragon Ball Z''. S ...

as Airazor * Jim Byrnes as Inferno *Colin Murdock as Quickstrike *

David Sobolov David Sobolov (born October 23, 1964) is a Canadian voice actor and director, best known for his roles as Gorilla Grodd in various DC media, Drax the Destroyer in various Marvel media, Kaido in ''One Piece'', and various characters in the ''Tran ...

Depth Charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

* Campbell Lane as Rampage *Elizabeth Carol Savenkoff as the Darksyde (Predacon) computer system *

Lee Tockar Lee William Tockar (born February 11, 1969) is a Canadian voice actor and visual artist who works for several studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is also a writer of children's literature, a musician, sculptor, illustrator and col ...

as Ravage * Susan Blu as Transmutate

Episodes

Video games

There have been two ''Beast Wars'' video games. The first game, '' Beast Wars: Transformers'', was released for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

and PC. It is a

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

, based on the first season of the show, in which players control either the Maximals or the Predacons in a series of missions to undermine the other faction's attempts at gaining enough resources to win the war between them and escape the planet. The PC conversion added a multiplayer feature that allowed up to 8 players to play over LAN, with its own playrooms in the MS Gaming Zone. The playrooms were shut down in 2006. The second game, '' Beast Wars Transmetals'', is a

fighting game The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...

based on the second season released for the PlayStation and

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

by BAM! Entertainment. Most of the cast-members from the show reprised their voice-roles. A third game was in the works for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

, but was scrapped in

pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, video game, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the co ...

, without any official word as to why, or how far the project was before the plug was pulled.

Home media

The series was originally released on DVD in Region 1 by Kid Rhino Entertainment (under its ''Rhinomation'' classic animation entertainment brand) in 2003/2004. On February 8, 2011,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and planned to rerelease it. They rereleased season 1 on DVD on June 7, 2011 as well as a complete series set on the same day. Both releases contain extensive bonus features including interviews, featurettes and special 24 page comic book, "Transformers Timelines: Dawn of Future's Past." Season 2 & 3 were rereleased on October 4, 2011. In Region 4,

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, stylized as MADMAN, is an Australian film and television production, distribution, entertainment, and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising ...

released all three seasons on DVD, in its original PAL format in Australia in 2006. On June 24, 2009, they released ''Transformers: Beast Wars – Complete Collection''. The 10-disc box-set features all 52 episodes of the series as well as many bonus features.

Reception

''Beast Wars'' won a

for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 1997. In a 2011 retrospective of the ''Transformers'' franchise, ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' commented that while ''Beast Wars'' used the same basic story template as previous series in the franchise, it "featured some of the best writing and story development in a ''Transformers'' series". Reviewing the season 2 DVD release, ''

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

'' similarly remarked that ''Beast Wars'' used the same basic story as the 1984 ''Transformers'' series, but stood out from other series of its time by delivering messages to children without becoming preachy and utilizing considerable continuity, both from episode-to-episode and eventually with the 1984 ''Transformers'' series. The reviewer said the animation was dated by modern standards but the interesting and fun story content outweighed it. In a review of the season 3 DVD, the same critic praised the season's more rapid pace and darker tone, and said it was arguably the best season of the series. He concluded, "''Beast Wars'' may have been a marketing tool for Hasbro, but it also told some good stories without pandering to the lowest common denominator."

Legacy

The show was succeeded by '' Beast Machines: Transformers'', with a new creative team in charge of production. The traditionally animated Japanese series ''

Beast Wars II is a 1998 Japanese ''Transformers'' anime series, spawning a movie and a toyline. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 1998 to January 1999, and was the first ''Transformers'' anime to be produced by Nihon Ad Systems and animated by the s ...

'' and ''

Beast Wars Neo is a 1999 Japanese animated television series Transformers franchise. It serves as a sequel to the preceding series '' Beast Wars II''. The production of the series involved NAS, TV Tokyo, and Ashi Productions. Hozumi Gōda reprised his ...

'' were created to fill the gap while the second and third seasons of ''Beast Wars'' were being translated into Japanese (called ''Beast Wars: Metals''). Several

comic books A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

and

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

were also produced. The show's production companies, Mainframe Entertainment and

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Los ...

, are also the same creators of the world's first ever computer-animated TV series, ''

ReBoot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

'', which ran from 1994 to 2001. In June 2017, producer

Lorenzo di Bonaventura Lorenzo di Bonaventura (; born January 13, 1957) is an American film producer and the founder and owner of Di Bonaventura Pictures. He is best known for producing the ''G.I. Joe (film series), G.I. Joe'' and Transformers (film series), ''Transfo ...

stated that a film adaptation of ''Beast Wars'' was not in plans, as he explained: "I'm probably not the one to be asking that question to because I don't get ''Beast Wars'', but you know, thankfully I'm not the only vote on it. I've never quite understood, they kind of feel like incompatible to me, you have animals, robots, we're used to cars." Both a follow-up to ''

Bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

'', and an adaptation of ''Beast Wars'' were reported to be in development, written separately by Joby Harold and James Vanderbilt, respectively. It was later reworked as a hybrid adaptation named '' Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,'' which is a sequel to ''Bumblebee'' and featured the Maximals and a new incarnation of the Terrorcons. The film was released on June 9, 2023. The third and final chapter of '' Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy'' titled "Kingdom" features the Autobots and the Maximals teaming up against the Decepticons and the Predacons.

References

External links

* *
Transformers Beast Wars: Complete Series
' at

* *
''Beast Wars: Transformers''
at the

Big Cartoon DataBase The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) was an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts. The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated f ...