Transformers - Season 3 & 4 [DVD]

Each of the different seasons of the cartoon show looked into many things. Season 1 looked into how and why the Transformers left Cybertron and came to Earth as well as the Autobots' desire to save their adopted homeworld from the Decepticons' desire to conquer and their attempts to get back to their original homeworld. Season 2 looked into more of the same but also took a dive into how the Transformers received life, the details of how the war started on Cybertron, and the creation of the Special Teams as well as that of Optimus Prime.

So what do the final two seasons take a look at? Well, Season 3 follows on after the events of the movie. A lot is explained in the opening five part episode, Five Faces of Darkness, which is definitely one of the great highlights of the boxset. Here, we take a look at how Cybertron came to be along with the Transformers race and divulge into much greater details as to how the war started, how the distinction between Autobot and Deception was made and who the Quintessons were.

As well as learning about the fate of both the Autobots and the Decepticons in the aftermath of the movie, we also learn more about the Autobots who chose to flee from Cybertron (as mentioned in Season 2) and the creation of Unicron and some of the animal-based Transformers. We're also treated to guest reappearances from some of the core cast from the original seasons, as well as the appearances of new characters, such as Metroplex, Trypticon, Sky Lynx and the Predacons.

Story wise, Season 3 (and 4, for that matter) is definitely superior to the other seasons, in general. The overall quality of the animation for these seasons, however, definitely takes several steps back when compared to Season 2, or even Season 1 for that matter. Not all the episodes are great. Terrible animation combined with some terrible plots means that there are some really bad episodes on this box set. Coupled with the fact that some of the much beloved core characters from the previous seasons have to take backseats to the new cast of main characters (some popular, some not) means that there are times when you're going to be disappointed.

However, that's not saying you should stay away from this, far from it. There are some really first class, stand-out episodes that rank among the best in Transformers history. As mentioned before, Five Faces of Darkness is a superb opener to Season 3 in terms of plot and okay animation. Fight or Flee, Dark Awakening, Starscream's Ghost and Ghost in the Machine are true classics that represented how well the show was doing even when it was dying.

The episodes that MUST be watched more than any other on the box set are Call of the Primitives and the two part finale to Season 3, The Return of Optimus Prime. Both are THE episodes to watch as they consist of the best plots and animation that the TV show had to offer, especially Call of the Primitives with its anime-style animation, making it second only to the movie.

As far as Season 4 goes, there's not really a lot to say about as it only consisted of the three part episode, The Rebirth. However, it sported the best opening credits that the show had to offer, and the plot that introduced the Headmasters and Targetmasters, as well as introducing Sixshot, Punch/Counterpunch and the Autobot and Decepticon clones (if only for about five seconds) is greatly pulled off. In general, Season 4 just expanded the Transformers' origin and their universe and again suffered from mediocre animation but the plot gives the chance to say one last goodbye to the Transformers as it perfectly ends the show and make sure it goes out with a bang.

The extras on the box set are definitely the best in any Transformers collection. The quiz is a lot more challenging than previous quizzes as it goes beyond questions regarding just the show and focuses on the comics, cast of the movie, toys etc and it doesn't deliver "Wrong answer, try again" whenever you get a question wrong, allowing you to progress more smoothly and allowing you to partake in a more enjoyable and challenging quiz.

The other extras include interviews with the legendary Transformers writer, Simon Furman and fellow artist, Andrew Wildman, footage from the Auto Assembly convention, fan art and DVD-ROM scripts and cut-out masks.

The best 'extra' is the free "Consequences" mini-comic that comes with the box set, concluding the brilliant "The Beast Within" saga that continues to answer the question fans have asked for years. What would happen if the Dinobots combined into a giant robot?

All in all, Seasons 3 and 4 of the G1 Transformers show is not perfect. You could tell that by comparing the 30 episode Season 3 to the 49 episode Season 2. However, there are some real gems, and with over 12 hours of Transformers action for £25, you can't go wrong at all. Overall, it's worth every penny

So, here we have the entireity of the cartoon series' post-movie run. First things first, this presents a vastly different origin for the robots than the comic strip and for a Furman fan such as myself, that presented here just doesn't work. However, if it's accepted that the cartoon continuity is as different from the comic continuity as Generation 1 is from the subsequest generations (in addition, the origins of the Headmasters and Targetmasters, which formed the entireity of the three part fourth season shown here, differs greatly from Marvel's take) this doesn't really matter and the viewer soon becomes swept up into the events.

As a cartoon, Transformers was excellent in differing ways to the comic. Bringing the robots to life on screen allows for some tales to work in ways they wouldn't in comics (a key example being 'The Big Broadcast of 2006' - absolutely atrocious in comic form, but it works just fine here) and, while the cartoons are undoubtedly less mature, less 'real' than the comic stories, taken on its own terms, these are great.

Following on from the excellent movie, however, things suffer a little. The animation is undoubtedly not as good, and the star voice cast of the film (ORSON WELLES!!!) is missed, no more so than with Galvatron. Leonard Nimoy's take was so perfect - maniacal evil personified - that any successor would find it impossible to match.