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You ever watch a TV show and think, my god that had no right to be even remotely that good? That’s how I felt while watching Beast Wars: Transformers. Of course, I had watched it as a child, but the only thing I really remembered was a few character names and it was robotic dinosaurs and insects versus robotic mammals. While no one can really pronounce this as the greatest show of all time, for being a show based on a line of action figures, it brings a surprising amount of depth to its characters and storytelling and connects itself back to the original Transformers series in a reverent and unique way.
That isn’t to say the series is flawless and doesn’t occasionally dip too far into the “extended toy commercial” zone, because a good chunk of the third season is hampered by that kind of shoddy storytelling. But Beast Wars does seem to go out of its way to actually bother with crafting individualized personalities and bringing some level of complexity to the material. Granted, the major appeal is essentially a T-Rex that can turn into a giant robot and fire lasers fighting with a silverback gorilla that can do the same but with rockets.
The general story arc is pretty basic to anyone even vaguely familiar with some facet of the franchise, Maximals (Autobots) and Predacons (Decepticons) have crash landed on ancient Earth after traveling through a wormhole in space. The three seasons progress in a fairly naturalistic way, expanding from just defeat of the enemies into stumbling upon the dormant Autobots and primitive mankind while fighting for control of history. The stakes increase with each season, but plenty of time is found to develop characters and make us care about the vast majority of them.
What’s also fairly refreshing about Beast Wars is the fact that it so ruthlessly killed off characters, the off-handed deaths of Terrorsaur and Scorponok at the start of season two clues us into the fact that any of these characters are fair game. Season one spent a great deal of time introducing Airazor and Tigatron only to remove them from the series before eventually explaining their disappearance. Although the removal of Airazor is problematic since the show is left with only one female character. And Dinobot’s last episode is probably the high point of the series, the logical culmination of events in which he switched sides numerous times, searched within himself and found that there was goodness and a respectable code of ethics located deep within himself.
It must be said that for a CGI cartoon from the mid-to-late 90s, Beast Wars still looks fairly impressive. Granted, there is crudeness to the animation of their beast modes, namely the musculature doesn’t look quite right or move as smoothly as it should. And characters tend to not interact with their environments as seamlessly as possible. Explosions in the first season seem to hit the ground and not cause any noticeable damage. Same thing happens with aquatic interactions and anything with flame is a consistent problem throughout the series. By the end of the series this problem isn’t fixed, but it has vastly improved. A crashing ship actually seems to be causing some kind of effect on the water and ground beneath it.
Sometimes a little bit of fun is in order, and this show accomplishes that kind of goal with aplomb. And Beast Wars: Transformers actually bothers to give us characters with distinct and defined personalities, clear motivations and actions, surprising amounts of depth and complexity. Granted, the show at times feels like writers struggling to create something with one hand tied behind their back, but, by and large, they manage to make something that is surprisingly sturdy and managed to hold up over time.
