Better or Worse?

Beast Wars is probably known for being the most well written Transformers' spin-offs and is the second CGI animated cartoon produced by Mainframe. The series ran for about 52 episodes and became very successful during the 90’s; so successful that Hasbro wanted to continue the idea when the series ended in 1999.

In the fall of 1999, a new team of writers was hired to direct a sequel to Beast Wars called Beast Machines. Unlike Beast Wars, the plot in Beast Machines is much darker and more serious. It only ran for 26 episodes.

The story focuses on the Maximals regaining their freedom from Megatron’s tyranny over Cybertron.

The background music and the design setting are more advanced compared to those in Beast Wars. There are only two small flaws.

A lot of the returning characters were given new designs, giving them a more “technorganic” look. In other words… fruity.

Cheetor's upper body is bigger than his head and his legs are too bug-like, making his walk seem unrealistic.

Silverbolt went from bird-dog to ugly condor. His robot mode makes him look more like an old, emo samurai which doesn’t fit his character; plus, he can't fly in that form.

Rattrap’s robot design has wheels instead of legs and his beast mode looks more opossum-like.

Blackarachnia’s color scheme is too girlish and she looks more like a daddy long leg than a black widow in beast mode.

Not only that, but whenever the Maximals change from beast to robot, they appear as if they are morphing rather than transforming.

The other issue is mainly the portrayal of the characters’ personalities and behavior.

Optimus’ role became more like Yoda. He is way too obsessed with his new philosophy that Cybertron is meant to be in balance, with both machine and organic life. He goes from leader to hippie.

Megatron’s grand scheme doesn't follow his original agenda from Beast Wars. He has the desire to wipe out all organic elements and to make matters worse, his beast mode is eliminated (something he enjoyed during Beast Wars).

The source of these problems could be the new writing staff. Another reason could be Fox Kids, toning down the action and fighting by replacing all weapons with lasers and kung fu.

Because of all of this, Beast Machines lost many of the fans that had followed Beast Wars. However, if you compare the series to the recent Transformers' spin-offs it actually isn't all bad.

Source of all images are from: Transformers Wiki

Beast Wars and Beast Machines both belong to Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment.