Human Error, Part I

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"Human Error, Part I"
Season	3
No. in season	8
Airdate	April 18, 2009
Written by	Henry Gilroy
Directed by	Kalvin Lee Christopher Berkeley Naoto Hashimoto
Animation studio	Mook, Studio Wanpack
Continuity	Animated cartoon continuity

With the Christmas season upon them, the Autobots are not quite themselves following a run-in with Porter C. Powell's new mass-produced Soundwave action figures.

Synopsis

He's actually worse than Vince Offer.

It's Christmas in Detroit, but Optimus Prime is not in a festive mood. The hottest toy of the year is Sound Wave, being marketed by Porter C. Powell, who acquired the schematics and patent when he ran Sumdac Systems. Observing a commercial for the new toy, Optimus notices one of the small robots running across the plaza near the trains. Trying to follow it, he is nearly run over by a train and finally decides that he may be obsessing.

At the plant, Bulkhead and Bumblebee are interested in what they got for Christmas, but Sari tells them that Santa Claus will know if they try to peek. As the two help Sari decorate, a Sound Wave toy breaks out of the present and does something to the oilnog that Sari made for the Autobots. The toy is barely able to hide as Optimus, Ratchet, and Prowl weigh in on Santa's ability to deliver presents to all the children. Sari tells them to just accept the holiday magic and be thankful for what they have, like family, leading to a toast of the spiked oil. Soon, the Autobots all begin to feel tired and decide to call it a night, as Sari heads back to Sumdac Tower.

Who would want to be a human in Transformers? The fans all hate them.

The next morning, Optimus wakes up, still woozy, and discovers something frightening: his hands are made of flesh! Falling off his bed in shock, Prime's eyes fall upon a mirror, and he discovers the horrifying truth—He's become a human! Optimus hears Bumblebee and Bulkhead cry out, and discovers that all the other Autobots are human as well. Optimus is convinced that there must be a reason, but a few scans by Ratchet are unable to determine the cause of the change. Looking for Prowl, the Autobots head outside, where they find the ninja is mostly at home with the situation, except he feels that something is wrong. Since they're unable to contact Sari, the Autobots decide to roll ou—er, walk to Sumdac Tower.

Truly fun for all ages.

The Sumdacs, meanwhile, are exchanging Christmas presents, although Sari is less than impressed with the Soundwave toy she receives, having less-than-fond memories of her previous experience with the musical menace. The next present, a scooter, likewise fails to excite, until her father reveals that it also transforms into a jetpack! Thrilled at the gift, Sari takes off to show the Autobots, leaving her dad dancing and singing along with Sound Wave.

On their way to Sumdac Tower, the Autobots stop at Burger Bot when Bulkhead experiences the odd sensation of "hunger". Before long, he is also experiencing the thrills and spills of "the bathroom", while Prowl makes the most of his new human form, having a salad and playing peek-a-boo with a greatly amused baby. The light-heartedness is brought to an end by a sudden explosion outside, and the Autobots race onto the street to see an armada of airborne Decepticons, with Starscream in the lead, opening fire on the city! As chaos erupts around them, more Decepticons led by Shockwave come stomping up the street . A blast from Shockwave sets a nearby building on fire, and Prime orders the Autobots into action despite their frail new forms. While Bulkhead and Bumblebee fight the fire, Prime and Ratchet rescue a woman, and Prowl heads upstairs to save her son. At the last minute, Prowl dives out a window several stories up with the boy in his arms and lands with ease, prompting Bulkhead to wonder exactly how he accomplished such a seemingly impossible feat. Before any thought can go into the matter, Starscream transforms to robot mode and lands in front of them!

Carried by her new jetpack to the Autobot plant, Sari is surprised to discover it locked up tight, and even more surprised when the Autobots don't respond to her knocking. She flies into the plant through a skylight, but the whole building seems deserted, so she uses the computer to scan for the Autobots' energy signatures, which turn out to be coming from...inside the plant?

GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!

As Starscream tears up the street and sends humans scattering in fear, Bulkhead and Bumblebee rather foolishly attempt to attack him, and the results are rather predictable. When Optimus tries slashing the Decepticon with an axe, Starscream backhands him into a wall, breaking his leg. Hearing the Autobots refer to each other by name, Starscream realizes who his opponents are, but is so busy smirking over their predicament that he loses sight of them and finds that he can't tell one human from another! Dismissing them, he departs for more destruction elsewhere, leaving the Autobots to have their injuries tended to by paramedics. Requiring some of Professor Sumdac's technology to fight the Decepticons, the Autobots board a bus to get to the tower quickly.

Back at the Autobots' plant, Sari is still searching for her friends, when suddenly, a large, robotic bird flies out of a shaft in the floor, followed by a small army of Sound Wave action figures! Sari blasts the evil toys and heads down the shaft to investigate.

You spin me right 'round, baby right 'round.

At the foot of Sumdac Tower, the Autobots have just stepped off the bus when suddenly, a huge shadow falls over Detroit. Looking up, the stunned Autobots see the entire planet of Cybertron itself hanging in the sky. Sumdac tower is obliterated by a huge planetary laser weapon, and a full-scale Decepticon invasion force swarms the sky, led by Megatron himself! The Decepticons are just as surprised by the Automens' appearance as they are, but Megatron decides to take advantage by destroying them last, so that they may watch their adopted home be destroyed. The sheer impossibility of everything that is happening finally hits Optimus Prime and Prowl, who realize that whatever may be happening to them, none of it is real. Megatron seizes Prowl, but amazingly, the Autobot breaks free of his grip, and with a single swipe of his hand, severs Megatron's arm. Blitzwing attempts to crush Prowl beneath his foot, but Bulkhead runs forward and smashes straight through the Triple Changer's leg. As Bumblebee pummels Blitzwing's faces and Prowl knocks out Starscream by phasing into his head, Optimus Prime beats Megatron with his own arm, then hurls his axe into the barrel of the Decepticon leader's cannon, causing it to explode. As the dust cloud fades, Cybertron and all of the Decepticons have vanished, and the Autobots come to the realization that they are trapped in some kind of virtual reality.

Giant virtual "Shattered Glass" Animated Soundwave?

Sari makes the same discovery as the Autobots when she reaches the bottom of the secret shaft and discovers their bodies, plugged into machinery being operated by the full-size Soundwave, who is planning to use the illusion to reprogram the Autobots into Decepticons. Within the virtual world, the Autobots are able to will themselves back into robotic form (although Bulkhead has a little trouble), but before they can take any further actions, a gigantic arm bursts out of the ground beneath them, scooping them up in its hand. Soundwave's giant face looks down upon the Autobots, declaring escape impossible and shocking them all with blasts of purple energy. Soundwave also has his hands full in the real world, as Sari blasts a chunk out of his shoulder with one of her energy-balls,. Soundwave summons Laserbeak, the robotic bird Sari saw earlier, into his arms, where it transforms into a guitar and hits Sari with a powerful sonic shock wave. The wounded Sari retreats, promising to come back for her friends and leaving Soundwave to resume the final phase of his Autobot reprogramming with another musical instrument that bathes the heroic robots in waves of sonic energy. As Soundwave gloats, Optimus Prime's optics activate and begin glowing Decepticon-red...

To be continued...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"That toy rightfully belongs to me, Powell! You are a thieving crook!"
"And a Merry Christmas to you too, Professor Sumdac, but I acquired your toy's patents fair and square when I owned your company. Now I'm sharing Sound Wave with the entire world, for only $19.99 each."
"$19.99? How does he do it?!"

—Professor Sumdac unwittingly provides PR for Porter C. Powell's products. Say that three times fast.

Ratchet: And I'm telling you, there is no way that this "Santa Claus" could deliver billions of presents in one night.
Prowl: I can think of at least one way. Ho. Ho. Ho.
[Prowl projects holograms of himself]
Optimus: A sound theory, Prowl. I did see multiple Santas in the shopping district tonight.

—The Autobots weigh in on the debate of how Santa does his job.

"In these human bodies, what chance do we have?"

— Don't act like you don't know where Ratchet is going with this.

"PRIME!? Look at you! You're hideous!"
"We're all hideous! We're...people!"
"And you're so small!"
"Knock it off! I'm bigger than you!"

— Bumblebee and Bulkhead assessing their human forms.

Prowl: "Here I am. Hahaha. Peekaboo! I'm over here! Hehaha."
*baby laughs*
Ratchet: "You think she'd be laughing if you were a giant robot?"
Prowl: "That's the point. Being human gives me a better sense of what this holiday season means. I'm…thankful, for just being alive in any form."

— Prowl, who apparently is the only one who isn't completely pessimistic about becoming human, reminding the team to have some Christmas spirit.

"Hey! There's no antilock breaks on these servos!"
"I think the humans call them…legs."

— Bulkhead and Bumblebee discover one of many unfortunate human limitations.

"We need to get to Sumdac Tower. Auto—uh, men. Transfo—er, uh, roll—er, uh, oh, let's...let's just go."

—Optimus Prime has a few slips on his "roll out" command.

"Why would ze Autobots choose to be human?"
"Not for the fashion sense, I can tell you that. A-ha-ha-ha!"

—Icy Blitzwing and Random Blitzwing, the next Tim Gunn.

"A-who cares? I will crush zem into human meat pies!"

-Hothead Blitzwing, the next Valeriano Weyler.

"Not a creature was stirring, not even a—[Laserbeak flies out of the Autobrand on the floor] creepy robot bird?"

—Sari Sumdac adds a new twist to a classic Christmas tale.

"Oh, look! I have a hole in my rocket!"

—Even horrible injury cannot faze Random Blitzwing.

"Hey, we're baaaaack!"
"Not all of us!"
"It might help you if you make the noise with your mouth like this: Choo-chuh-chah-chik!"
"Sounds silly... But, okay. Choo-chuh-chah-chah-chik! Choo-chuh-chah-chah-chik!"

—Bumblebee and Bulkhead, making the transformation noise like so many of us do—DID. As children. Yeah.

"Escape is impossible. Autobots inferior, Soundwave superior."

—Soundwave makes sure that line is never forgotten.

Notes

Transformers references

• Derrick Wyatt stated this episode was a partial homage to a "classic" Generation 1 episode.
• Sari's transforming scooter-jetpack was an early idea that didn't make it into the series, but which was featured in a promotional reel for the Animated series (seen on the convention circuit in mid-2007 and featured on the DVD included with the "Optimus Prime and Megatron: The Battle Begins" action figure set). The version introduced with this episode is somewhat different from the original concept, which was a pedal-powered tricycle that transformed using the power of the AllSpark Key.
• The scooter's jetpack form is, in turn, based on the backpacks worn by the Acroyear/Acroyer, the villains from Takara's Microman toyline.

This is a winning sitcom concept right here.

• The Burger Bot patrons include series head writer Marty Isenberg, Carly Witwicky, her baby daughter Nancy (who was close to being born during the Season 2 episode "Garbage In, Garbage Out"), and Animated homages to the Super-God Masterforce characters Cancer and Hydra. Hydra, Marty, and Cancer are sitting together at one table, indicating a very interesting family.
• Speaking of Masterforce, this episode also features Transformers turning into people and back, though in this case, it actually makes some kinda sense.
• Starscream's missiles feature the shark-toothed smiley faces sculpted into his Voyager-class toy's missile accessories.
• Cybertron was brought into Earth orbit twice in the Generation 1 series: first in the multipart episode "The Ultimate Doom", and then in the series finale, "The Rebirth, Part 3". It would later happen again in the Movieverse.
• Soundwave's declaration of "Autobots inferior; Soundwave superior" is a paraphrase of his Generation 1 namesake's famous line of dialogue from The Transformers: The Movie: "Soundwave superior; Constructicons inferior."
• The colors on the giant Soundwave in the virtual world come from Takara's "Sonic White" Soundwave MP3 player.
• This isn't the first time Prowl slices off Megatron's arm.

Real-world references

• Appropriately enough, the first act of this episode incorporates traditional Christmas songs "Carol of the Bells", "Jingle Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" into the background music.
• When Sari's searching the Autobot base for her friends, at one point, her jetpack sounds like a podracer from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
• Sari quotes from the Christmas poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (more commonly known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"), replacing the word "mouse" with "creepy robot bird".
• When Laserbeak chases Sari into the elevator, he makes sounds like a seagull.
• Bumblebee says "We're not in Detroit anymore," which is another twist on an oft-paraphrased line from The Wizard of Oz.
• The scene of Cybertron blowing up Sumdac Tower is straight out of the mid-'90s summer blockbuster Independence Day, in which an alien mothership blows up the White House in a similar manner while using the Death Star sound effect from Star Wars.
• The whole idea of the heroes acting in a virtual world where only those aware of its true nature can break the laws of physics is similar to the Matrix series.
• Prowl going into the burning building to save the child, despite being in human form, is highly reminiscent of a scene in Spider-Man 2 in which Peter Parker does the same thing, despite having temporarily lost his powers and not wearing his hero outfit.
• The number on Bulkhead's football jersey is 72. This is appropriate, as that number is assigned to the positions "offensive lineman" and "defensive lineman" in the NFL, positions which are occupied by the largest and heaviest players on the team.

Animation or technical errors

• When Bulkhead sets down his Christmas present, the box is missing the horizontal ribbon it has in the preceding and following shots.
• When Ratchet scans Optimus, all the equipment is human-sized, instead of the much larger, Transformer-scaled size. Of course, it's not actually real, but still.

The popular "Invisible Booster Seat" image from Lolbots.com.

• In the bus tram scene, Daniel is shown levitating over his seat.
• Marty Isenberg is drawn with only one leg.
• In the scene showing Isenberg, Hydra and Cancer facing forward, Isenberg's, uh, buttocks is overlapping Cancer's thigh.
• We first see Jennifer Nancy Witwicky for a few frames in the background next to a mom who isn't Carly. She's Carly later, though.
• After the explosion is heard outside the Burger Bot, Bulkhead's previously half-eaten burger is now whole.
• Bulkhead punches Starscream with his right hand...then screams and clutches his left hand...then after a scene cut, he is shown clutching his right hand...and later he gets a bandage put on his left hand. Of course, it's...oh, you get the idea.
• Of course, if this was real, we'd point out that the force with which Starscream smashed Optimus into the wall should probably have killed him, or at least caused a lot more damage than a broken leg. Good thing it's not, then.
• When Cybertron approaches Earth, it's entirely in front of the clouds, which is absurd for anything planet-sized. (Still not real, though.)
• The elevator platform in the Autobots' base shrinks from Autobot-sized at the top (such that Sari is shown to be tiny in comparison to it) to human-sized at the bottom (such that Laserbeak couldn't fit through the door even if it had been open).
• Blitzwing's face changes from Icy to Random when he lifts up his leg, only to be Icy again when he's looking through the hole after the shot changes.
• When Optimus beats Megatron with his own severed arm, the arm is freaking colossal, nearly as big as the rest of Megatron's body. (Megatron's face also goes significantly off-model in the same scene.) It's also hollow, but that's what virtual things look like on the inside.
• When Optimus commands the "Automen" to transform, one of his irises is bigger than the other.
• When being held by the giant Soundwave, Prowl is briefly missing his armor.
• The hole Sari blows in Soundwave's backpack comes and goes. Hey, this bit is real!

Continuity errors

• When Optimus is out patrolling, he has his trailer. It disappears when he transforms—in fact, it appears to start transforming along with him just before the shot switches to him in robot mode—and is absent when he returns to vehicle mode a few minutes later.
• Where did Soundwave get images of the Decepticons? In particular, since there are several conceivable ways to get the Earth Decepts' images, what are Team Chaar and Shockwave doing there, as none of them have been to Earth? Even if you somehow presume the Autobots themselves generated the images, only Oil Slick—per The Arrival comic—and Shockwave's head have been seen by any of Optimus's team.
• Where did Sari's jetpack go while she was on the lift? (For that matter, why did she transform out of her robot mode at all?)
• Lugnut disappears with the other Decepticons, despite the fact none of the Autobots fought him.
• Considering the noise that the Sound Wave toy made when he ran across the room to spike the nog, wouldn't someone hear it?

Trivia

So that's where it goes!

• Sari returns after being out of action from the events of "TransWarped Part III".
• When Optimus goes to bed, one can just barely make out his trailer in the corner of his room.
• This episode features an unusually high amount of stock footage by Animated standards. Starscream's sequence is a few seconds longer than when it was last seen in "Megatron Rising - Part 1". Of course, all the sequences of the "human" Autobots transforming have been re-edited.
• Apparently, in future Detroit, you are allowed to use public transportation while bearing a giant axe. Well, it is Detroit...
• Back in "Sound and Fury", Soundwave's voice was modulated using only one tone, meaning it never rose or fell. With this episode, more tones are introduced into his voice, allowing it to rise and fall in the same manner as his counterpart from the original cartoon.
• Sari's abilities include being capable of holding a full barrel of oil on each hand and surviving getting slammed into a wall by Laserbeak and Soundwave. Plus, she makes a mean oilnog.
• Man, Professor Sumdac sure can dance.
• Now in his samurai armor, Prowl can make two or more holographic projections of himself, whereas he could only make one at a time before getting the armor. It's just that awesome!
• Technically, since most of this episode wasn't real, most of the errors above can be dismissed. So nyah!
• This isn't the first time Bumblebee has a taste of human food.
• Considering the presence of snow at the end of the first season, and now again here, it seems fairly obvious that it's been well over a year since the Autobots awoke from their stasis under Lake Erie. Additionally, while "Along Came a Spider" explicitly showed the Autobots' first Halloween, this is never said to be their first Christmas.
• Just when you thought he couldn't get any more awesome, Prowl becomes a Ghost/Cop/Ninja.
• As the Decepticon Jets attack Detroit, two Lugnuts are attacking: Lugnut in his regular color scheme, and behind him, the Atomic Lugnut redeco.
• A Christmas special in April? That's unusual.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Erreur humaine, partie 1" ("Human Error, part 1")
• Original airdate: ???

Spanish (Latin America)

• Title: "Error humano, primera parte" ("Human Error, part 1")
• Original airdate: 24 November 2009

Japanese

• Title: "Ningen ni Natta Autobot" (人間になったオートボット, "The Autobots Became Humans")
• Original airdate: 20 November 2010

• New transforming stock footage for Soundwave as he delivers the usual TV-viewing warning, starting with his more "innocent" voice before changing to his menacing voice.

Home video releases

DVD

2011 — Transformers Animated — Vol. 9 (Paramount) — Japanese audio only.
2014 — Transformers Animated — Season Three (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers Animated — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers Animated — Season Three (Madman Entertainment)