posted
This thread was inspired by Dev's Five Years Later thread, which helped me to realize that Season 3 of Transformers is truly the FYL of 80s kiddie action cartoons, intensely hated by many, passionately loved by a few, a futuristic darkening of the original concept that's not without its flaws, but not without its rewards, either.
I won't be reviewing the movie in detail, even though it sets up the events of Season 3, because I'm far more ambivalent about the movie than I am about Season 3. The reasons for this will gradually come to light in the reviews.
Note: I will be reviewing the episodes in the order of chronological content, as there is some continuity to the season which was wrecked by the original airdates.
EPISODE 3.1, "FIVE FACES OF DARKNESS PART 1"
Written by: Flint Dille
Plot: The Autobot/Decepticon wars are over, with the Autobots triumphant and the Decepticons exiled to the barren planetoid Charr. When mysterious forces sabotage the interplanetary Olympics and kidnap Ultra Magnus, Kup, and Spike, the Decepticons are at the top of the Autobots' suspect list. But when Rodimus Prime and Grimlock sneak onto Charr, they find the Decepticons in a sad state. So if it wasn't the Decepticons, then who was it? Just as Rodimus and Grimlock are asking themselves that, the Decepticons discover their presence and attack them. TO BE CONTINUED
Review: The five-part season opener is IMO one of the best-written episodes of the series entire run. Unfortunately, it's also one of the worst-animated, as many Season 3 episodes were farmed out to the Korean Akom studios instead of the usual Japanese Toei studios. That said, I believe that Seasons 1 and 2 also had a lot of episodes that were well-written but badly animated (I love "War Dawn" as much as anybody else, but nobody's going to convince me the animation isn't as bad as the worst of Season 3.)
Five Faces of Darkness, which I'll refer to as 5FOD from here on, has often been criticized for getting off to a slow start, but I think the measured pace enriches it, giving it all of the characterization, humor, and solid story structure that was missing from the movie.
And then there are the uniformly superb voice performances, substituting Richard Gautier (Hymie the robot from "Get Smart!"), John Stephenson (Mr. Slate from "The Flintstones") and Jack Angel for the roles of Rodimus Prime, Kup, and Ultra Magnus, played in the movie by Judd Nelson, Lionel Stander, and Robert Stack, respectively. The performances of the seasoned voice actors are SO much better than the performances in the movie. Neil Ross and Susan Blu reprise their movie roles as Springer and Arcee, while Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd from "Star Trek") and Stan Jones (Lex Luthor from "Super Friends") finally get a chance to shine as villains Cyclonus and Scourge, after being total non-entities in the movie (a digression: I firmly believe that Cyclonus is a reformatted Thundercracker and Scourge is a reformatted Skywarp; Cyclonus, for all his evilness, at least had loyalty and gravitas, while Scourge ultimately proved to be a cowardly and self-serving thug.)
Next: The kidnappers revealed, and Frank Welker takes over the role of Galvatron.
posted
I remember I liked the idea of this season but not the execution (but I was young and may have missed things). My favourite parts were always Ultra-Magnus and Cyclonus. The episode where they are forced to work together was excellent.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Cyclonus was awesome, in no small part thanks to Roger C. Carmel's vocal performances. It's a shame that Carmel died before the end of the season, because as talented as Jack Angel was, he couldn't quite equal Carmel.
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I loved the development of the Quintessons into a key part of Transformers history during this five-parter. In fact one of the things that's irritated me about subsequent versions of the Transformers is the lack of the Quintessons in this key role.
Oh, and agreed regarding Skywarp = Cyclonus and Thundercracker = Scourge.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Fanfic Lady: I won't be reviewing the movie in detail, even though it sets up the events of Season 3, because I'm far more ambivalent about the movie than I am about Season 3. The reasons for this will gradually come to light in the reviews.
quote:Originally posted by Fanfic Lady: I firmly believe that Cyclonus is a reformatted Thundercracker and Scourge is a reformatted Skywarp; Cyclonus, for all his evilness, at least had loyalty and gravitas, while Scourge ultimately proved to be a cowardly and self-serving thug.
Thing is though, all the 'Cons except Megatron were dead when they were reformatted, ja? Ergo, it doesn't matter who their bodies once were, because Unicron made up their personalities from whole cloth.
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
i liked the Episode where Rodimus Prime and Springer's essence where put into Human bodies, and Cobra Commander had a cameo in that episode also. the one thing i didn't like about the post animated movie episodes was that Galvatron wasn't as menacing and evil as he was in the movie, maybe it was the VO actor that played him. and there was some plot where there was a quest for the Decpeticon Matrix of Leadership to supposedly restore the Decepticons back to greatness, it just didn't gel for me.
-------------------- Judging yourself right is a destination, i'm just on a journey
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: I loved the development of the Quintessons into a key part of Transformers history during this five-parter. In fact one of the things that's irritated me about subsequent versions of the Transformers is the lack of the Quintessons in this key role.
Agreed 100%. It was a nice touch to give the Bots and Cons a common enemy so that it wasn't just an endless squabble between the two robot camps.
quote:Originally posted by l.e.g.i.o.n.JOHN: i liked the Episode where Rodimus Prime and Springer's essence where put into Human bodies, and Cobra Commander had a cameo in that episode also.
LOVE that episode, "Only Human", and it's one of the ones I most look forward to reviewing.
quote:Originally posted by l.e.g.i.o.n.JOHN: the one thing i didn't like about the post animated movie episodes was that Galvatron wasn't as menacing and evil as he was in the movie, maybe it was the VO actor that played him
I respect your opinion, but I disagree 100%. I'll elaborate in the review below.
EPISODE 3.2, "FIVE FACES OF DARKNESS PART 2"
Written by: Flint Dille
Plot: Springer and Arcee rescue Rodimus Prime and Grimlock from being beaten to death by the Decepticons, for although Rodimus appears at first to succumb to his injuries, in reality he retreats into the Autobot Matrix and finds out who the kidnappers are: the Quintessons, monstrous five-faced creatures from the planet Quintessa.
Meanwhile, the elite Decepticons led by Cyclonus use their team's meager reserves of energy to revive Galvatron, who had landed on a far away planetoid after free-falling through space at the end of the movie.
The Autobots' rescue of Ultra Magnus, Kup, and Spike from the Quintessons appears to go smoothly, but the Quintessons escape and use a self-destruct mechanism to blow up Quintessa with the Autobots in range of the explosion. TO BE CONTINUED
Review: This episode was pretty mind-blowing for a tween Fanfic Lady who hadn't yet seen the movie (I didn't see the movie until 1990.) In addition to the brilliantly weird and creepy design of the Quintessons, there's also the trippy sequence where we see the visions provided by the Autobot Matrix (here, the rough-edged animation actually works to the advantage of this particular sequence IMO.)
And, ah, the post-movie Galvatron, crazier of personality and higher-pitched of voice, with Leonard Nimoy's wooden baritone replaced by Frank Welker's elastic range.
To this day, I puzzle over why many people consider the Nimoy Galvatron to be such a badass and the Welker Galvatron such a bitch. IMO, if either one was a bitch, it was the Nimoy Galvatron, who spends the entire movie under Unicron's thumb and is defeated by Rodimus Prime with ridiculous ease.
Quite simply, I love the wild/psycho/crazy/unstable Welker Galvatron, and I love Season 3's Galvatron/Cyclonus/Scourge dynamic, similar to that of G.I. Joe Season 1's Cobra Commander/Destro/Major Bludd dynamic.
Next: We find out just how psycho the new Galvatron really is!
[ December 26, 2010, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: Fanfic Lady ]
posted
ok you kinda hit it on the head, i understand why you like the wild/psycho/crazy/unstable Welker Galvatron version but it never meshed with me i love Nimoy's calm cool but totally evil Galvatron. it reminded me how different Serpentor acted post G.I. Joe: the Movie, he too was psycho/crazy/unstable/wild, always screaming "THIS I COMMAND!!" i was always kinda hoping that Cobra Commander and Destro would've staged a coup and take back control of Corbra. but i'm rambling on it was a change that i wasn't ready for after being Wowed by the previous seasons.
-------------------- Judging yourself right is a destination, i'm just on a journey
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I don't really have much of an opinion on movie Galvatron versus series Galvatron, but I thought they were both pretty much second rate compared to old school Megatron.
I also really missed Starscream in the Decepticon ranks post-movie.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I missed Starscream, too. Killing him off in the movie was a bad idea, and bringing him back as a ghost in Season 3 couldn't fully compensate.
The Starscream toy WAS still being produced during the entire time the movie was released and Season 3 aired, a testament to the character's enduring popularity.
posted
EPISODE 3.3, "FIVE FACES OF DARKNESS PART 3"
Written by: Flint Dille
Plot: The Autobots' escape ship is destroyed by flying debris, but they survive and they land on a very sticky planet appropriately named Goo.
Meanwhile, Galvatron and his elite guard make a detour on their way to Charr, and they destroy an Earth Defense Command space platform. Blurr and Wheelie, who were trying to deliver Metroplex's new transformation cog to Earth, are nearly killed by Galvatron and end up stranded on Jupiter's moon Io.
When Galvatron and his elite guard arrive on Charr, they find only Blitzwing, the only Decepticon soldier who wasn't manipulated by the Quintessons into serving them. On Goo, the Quintessons command the Decepticon soldiers to attack the Autobots. TO BE CONTINUED
Review: This is, in my opinion, the most satisfying segment of 5FOD, and one of the highlights of Season 3. It is also one of the most brutally violent episodes of Transformers -- Galvatron takes no prisoners, Wheelie shoots a Sweep in the face, and Springer is dismembered. Incidentally, I wonder how many of us secretly wanted Galvatron to actually succeed in destroying the annoying duo of Blurr and Wheelie?
posted
EPISODE 3.4, "FIVE FACES OF DARKNESS PART 4"
Written by: Flint Dille
Plot: The Junkions save the Autobots on Goo from being annihilated by the Decepticons, and Springer is restored. Galvatron makes the Decepticon/Quintesson alliance official. EDC Captain Marissa Faireborne's attempted rescue of Blurr and Wheelie ends up with her becoming stranded on Io as well. Rodimus retreats once more into the matrix to learn the full story about the Quintessons, and it isn't pretty. The Decepticons unleash Trypticon on Earth while simultaneously launching an assault of Cybertron. TO BE CONTINUED
Review: Mostly setup for the spectacular final episode, the highlight is the origin sequence where the Quintessons are revealed as the Transformers' creators. There's a nice mix of grandeur and irony to this origin story, very much a piece with the other work of the late, great Steve Gerber, who story-edited Flint Dille's 5FOD scripts.
EPISODE 3.5, "FIVE FACES OF DARKNESS PART 5"
Written by: Flint Dille
Plot: While Sky Lynx rescues Blurr, Wheelie, and Capt. Faireborne on Io and Metroplex's transformation cog is succesfully installed, enabling Metroplex to defeat Trypticon, the battle on Cybertron is brutal, and to make things worse, Blitzwing discovers the Quintessons plan to neutralize all the Transformers.
Review: I really like the way the conflicts escalate over the course of 5FOD, climaxing with Cybertron under full-scale Decepticon attack, Sky Lynx versus Predaking, and Metroplex versus Trypticon. I also like how Blitzwing gets nice shades-of-grey character moments here which he never got in his earlier appearances. Less satisfying is the resolution, which is a bit of a dud and almost makes me wish that this had been a theatrical sequel to the movie instead of the beginning of a new season, so that the implications of the Quintessons' intentions could have been carried to their logical conclusion. But, on the other hand, if that had been the case, we wouldn't have gotten the many superb stand-alone episodes that would follow the flawed but still exhilirating 5FOD.
EPISODE 3.6, "THE KILLING JAR"
Written by: Michael Charles Hill & Joey Kurihara Piedra
Plot: Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, Captain Faireborne, and Wreck-Gar are all captured and imprisoned by a Quintesson scientist.
Review: A simple but solid episode with plenty of great characterization. I find Faireborne especially pleasureable. She is a very underrated character, although Susan Blu did give her a rather grating voice. And anyone who likes both Transformers and G.I. Joe has to smile at the cameo by Fairborne's father, Flint, even if he is actually a Quintesson illusion. Michael Charles Hill, who had previously written Season 2 highlights "Starscream's Brigade" and "The Gambler", is, in my opinion, the one Transformers writer who never wrote or co-wrote a bad episode.
EPISODE 3.7, "CHAOS"
Written by: Paul Davids
Plot: Can Kup bring closure to a tragic event from his past when the Decepticons begin hoarding a new deadly source of energy?
Review: I've probably watched this episode more times than any other Transformers Season 3 stand-alone. I just find it to be all-around perfection, from characterization to action to pacing to quality of animation and of voice acting. This episode helped me to accept the grizzled old warhorse Kup as the replacement for the pre-movie grizzled old warhorse Ironhide. There's real depth and substance to Kup's character arc within this episode, and John Stephenson's nuanced voice acting in the role of Kup makes it all the more pleasurable.
Next: Possibly the best Transformers episode ever, and definitely the most powerful. I'm talking, of course, about "DARK AWAKENING."
Plot: Pursued by Galvatron and his elite guard, Rodimus, Magnus, Kup, Arcee, Spike and Daniel end up at a gigantic Autobot tomb where the bodies of all the fallen Autobots are kept. And Optimus Prime's tomb is empty...which can only mean trouble, and trouble is spelled Q-U-I-N-T-E-S-S-O-N-S...
Review: This remarkable episode is the one I'd most likely point a Transformers skeptic toward. It is, in my opinion, the most adult, intelligent, and thematically rich Transformers episode ever made. And for a tween, the theme of never being able to turn back the clock to the way things were...that was heavy stuff! But Optimus is no mere puppet of the Quintessons -- he rediscovers his nobility, overrides their re-programming and makes the ultimate sacrifice to redeem himself and save his fellow Autobots. Come to think of it, that's pretty heavy for a tween, too.
Even though I never completely warmed up to Rodimus, this was as classy a farewell as his predecessor could have possibly gotten, and it's a shame that the impact of this episode was spoiled when the decision was made to bring Optimus back to life at the end of the season.
EPISODE 3.9, "SURPRISE PARTY"
Written by: Steve Mitchell & Barbara Petty
Plot: Daniel and Wheelie get into deep trouble when they go searching for the file containing Ultra Magnus' birthdate.
Review: Any episode would have been in an unfortunate position if it had to follow "Dark Awakening", but even factoring that in, this is still pretty bad. The story is as juvenile as the worst of the pre-movie episodes, and Daniel and Wheelie are both more annoying than ever.
EPISODE 3.10, "MADMAN'S PARADISE"
Written by: Craig Rand
Plot: Daniel and Grimlock stumble into a sword-and-sorcery-type realm.
Review: More of that brat Daniel, but I have a soft spot for this episode, maybe because I like sword-and-sorcery-type stuff in animation. Imagine a mezzo-quality episode of "Dungeons & Dragons" with Transformers instead of the kids, and you'll get the idea whether you'll like it or not. That, and whether or not you hate Grimlock's personality change from the hard-hitter of the pre-movie episodes to the childlike simpleton of the movie and the post-movie episodes. Personally, I don't hate it.
NEXT: The most twisted and subversive Transformers episode ever -- "WEBWORLD!!"
Plot: With Galvatron becoming an increasing danger to the other Decepticons, a desperate Cyclonus follows a Quintesson's advice and takes Galvatron to the psychotherapists' planet Torqulon. After several disastrous attempts at therapy, the doctors try their most drastic measure: having the planet's core computer absorb Galvatron's consciousness. But before the process can be completed, the computer is infected with Galvatron's madness and the planet begins to self-destruct. Galvatron destroys the computer, and then finishes off the process of destroying the planet.
Review: Depending on one's sense of humor, this episode could either be seen as tasteless and offensive, or clever and hilarious. I favor the latter view. This episode, with its overtones of satire, has Steve Gerber's sensibility all over it. Every time I watch it, I end up rooting for Galvatron despite myself. There's no way they could get away with an episode like this in a modern-day cartoon, and I think that's a shame.
EPISODE 3.12, "CARNAGE IN C-MINOR"
Written by: Buzz Dixon
Plot: The Decepticons scheme to use an alien race's powerful three-part harmony as a weapon.
Review: Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before -- the infamous "Carnage in C-Minor", worst animation ever, worst episode ever, blah blah blah.
I don't think it's that bad.
I don't think it's good, but it's not the worst episode ever (that would have to be Season 2's "Child's Play"), or even the worst Season 3 episode (that would have to be either "Surprise Party" or "Thief in the Night.")
But, yes, the animation is terrible and Buzz Dixon is capable of much better than this (I chalk it up to him being so busy story-editing all 30 episodes of G.I. Joe Season 2.)
EPISODE 3.13, "FOREVER IS A LONG TIME COMING"
Written by: Gerry Conway & Carla Conway
Plot: A team of Autobots accidentally switches places with A-3 -- a young Alpha Trion from Cybertron's distant past -- and the time-space continuum unravels.
Review: Re-visiting the same basic time-travel plot of one of the best Season 2 episodes, "War Dawn", this is, in my opinion, one of the strongest Season 3 scripts. Unfortunately, like "War Dawn", the animation is not up to the quality it should be, but I still enjoy it.
EPISODE 3.14, "FIGHT OR FLEE"
Written by: Tony Cinciripini & Larry Leahy
Plot: The Decepticons easily conquer Paradron, a distant energy-rich planet colonized millions of years ago by exiled Autobots. The Cybertronian Autobots are unaware of this until one Paradronian Autobot, Sandstorm, escapes.
Review: A very good episode that could have been great if it had been a two-parter. There's just too much potential here to fully explore within the half-hour format. Sandstorm (voiced by Jerry Houser) is quite likeable and the animation is mostly above-average. But, yes, this is the episode with the infamous line delivered by Jack Angel as Ultra Magnus, "I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life...okay, gimme the bomb." Why the notoriously perfectionist voice director Wally Burr decided to go with such a comically awkward take is a great mystery.
EPISODE 3.15, "THIEF IN THE NIGHT"
Written by: Paul Davids
Plot: The Decepticons ally themselves with a North African dictator whose country's oil produces a particularly rich Energon.
Review: A horrible, racist episode that inexplicably revolves around an offensive throwaway character seen briefly in "Five Faces of Darkness." Worse yet, it's the only episode where Six-Gun, one of the coolest Transformers toys appears, and then only for one scene where he doesn't get to use his weapons. A couple things worth noting: Trypticon is voiced by a then-unknown Brad Garrett, who would later betray himself as a racist, and the dictator character is one of the reasons why we didn't see Cliffjumper in Season 3 even though he survived the movie -- Cliffjumper's voice actor, Lebanese-American Casey Kasem, was so outraged by the character that he quit the show.
posted
Kinda throwin this in here...cause I don't know where else to put it. Gonna get the kids at least the first (maybe second too) season of the cartoon when we get taxes back.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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