Goktimus' thoughts on Beast Wars vs Animated
From here.
May I ask why?Originally Posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
I can see why you'd feel that way, but I prefer Animated.
I'm not saying that you're not entitled to prefer Animated over Beast Wars, of course you are - but I'd like to know why you feel that way.
My reasons for preferring Beast Wars over Animated include:
1.Not Just For Kids
One of the reasons why I consider Beast Wars to be the best Transformers TV series is because it's written to appeal to both children and adults at the same time. I remember reading an interview with the show's producer published around 1996/7 and he said that Mainframe had realised that by the mid-1990s a lot of kids who grew up with Transformers during the 1980s would be in their late teens and 20s, meaning that they had a core fandom of young adults that they wanted to appeal to. And in 1997 we adult fans were a much smaller community compared to today - we probably constituted less than 5-10% of people who bought Transformer toys with the rest of them being for children of course. But in spite of this Mainframe still made the conscious decision to give the show dual appeal to both kids and adults. They actively sought out Transformer fans on the internet, primarily on the ATT newsgroup and forged connections with fans -- the show itself is littered with Transfan references as a tribute.
Beast Wars was the first time that we saw Transformer characters in a TV series which had depth. G1 cartoon Transformers were essentially shallow one-dimensional archetypes. Beast Wars consciously worked on creating character development. Let's compare Cheetor and Bumblebee as they're similar characters: throughout the Beast Wars and Beast Machines we actually get to see him mature from a boy into a man. I'm not seeing this in Animated Bumblebee. At the beginning of Season 1 I found Bumblebee to be egocentric and conceited - a selfish brat really. By the end of Season 2, what's changed? Not much really... he's still desperately seeking to prove himself. (-_-) Now sure, Cheetor also started off being impulsive and rash and throughout the Beast Wars he really wanted to prove himself to the other Maximals... but we saw an evolution in his character... as the series progressed we see Cheetor change in his outlook and approach. The desperation and impulsiveness was still there, but it changed. It matured. And by time he returned to Cybertron, he had outgrown it. I'm just not seeing this progression in Bumblebee's character.
2. A Whole New World
Beast Wars gave us a whole fresh new twist on Transformers and as discussed here it's the closest thing that's ever come to "dethroning" G1. Animated on the other hand is essentially a new take on G1 - and while it is a good upgrade in several places, it's not quite as audacious as Beast Wars. Animated is fundamentally still sticking with the "tried and true" formula of cars and planes, Autobots and Decepticons, whereas Beast Wars took a bold leap in taking Transformers into 'undiscovered country.' As discussed in the "G1 dethroning" thread, although G1 did have animal modes none of them were true realistic organic beast modes. The Pretender Beasts' shells came close, but those aren't alt modes.
I find the animation and visual effects in Animated to be fairly standard by 2008 standards. Technically it's not bad, although there were some stylistic choices I didn't like, such as the "Tazzie Devil whirlwind transformation," but to Animated's credit they did get rid of that in later episodes and went back to properly animating transformations. Beast Wars' CGI animation was excellent by 1997 standards, with Season 2 winning an Emmy Award for best visual effects in an animated television series in 1998. Much like the toyline, the animation was pushing boundaries. The animation and visual effects in Beast Machines was just spectacular... I don't like the story as much as Beast Wars, but in terms of animation and effects I prefer Beast Machines.
3. Toys
Animated is notorious riddled with QC problems and design flaws. By 2008 standards I find the overall design and quality of Animated toys to be fairly ordinary. There's no need for Bumblebee to have two entirely different shades of yellow or for Voyager Starscream to have those useless back panels - and you all know the bane of my existence that is Blitzwing. (-_-) Compared to recent TF lines like Cybertron, the movie line and Classics/Universe/Henkei, Animated just seems... okay. Not bad but not fantastic by comparison either. By mid-1990s standards Beast Wars was awesome and showed a distinct progression from improvements made during late G2. By the end of Generation 2 we saw HasTak introducing articulated robot modes including the use of ball-and-socket joints to provide natural movement. Beast Wars then gave us improved durability, highly detailed sculpting and paint apps (making stickers a laughable joke of the past) and self-contained accessories (a concept originally conceived for G2 but abandoned and later revived for Beast Wars/Machine Wars). Gestalts had self-contained gestalt parts.
Electronic gimmicks were a rarity with boxed toys, and even then, it didn't dominate those figures. The majority of boxed toys didn't have electronic bells and whistles and rather focused on just being good Transformer action figures (and cheaper too). Having said that, this isn't purely an issue with Animated - it's something that Hasbro has developed since Armada - that somehow every boxed toy needs to have electronics. (-_-)
Speaking of money, Beast Wars was also cheaper to collect as an entire line. The majority of figures were carded Basics and Deluxes. Boxed figures (Megas, Ultras and Optimal Optimus (Super)) were a minority. And boxed figures that appeared in the show would be awesomely cool - e.g.: Rampage, Protoform X soul-less hard-bottom villain, compared to say Bulkhead, who's a Leader Class clown (I'm so glad I got him during a sale). (-_-) Also, the fact that they didn't have so many different versions of the same character meant that their boxed characters didn't shelf-warm as long. It seems that boxed Animated figures are shelf-warming much more than carded ones. I'm hearing reports about Activators flying off shelves while Leaders are just gathering dust. There's like a truck load of Ultra Magnuses/Magni at my local TRU. I think the majority of parents would rather buy their child a cheaper carded version of the same character instead of a more expensive boxed one. Now to be fair, this isn't a problem that is exclusive to Animated - I think it's something that started from Armada, but Animated is effected as a result.
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Now none of this is to say that I necessarily dislike Animated or think that it's terrible - I actually do like the show and toyline. But I prefer Beast Wars in comparison.
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