Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 cartoon)

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Robots in Disguise (2001) Toyline Cartoon Comic Commercials

The George Lazenby of major Transformers iterations.

Transformers: Robots in Disguise, known as Transformers: Car Robots (トランスフォーマー カーロボット) in Japan, is the first Japanese-original Transformers cartoon ever officially dubbed and broadcast for a US audience. Debuting about eighteen months after its Japanese incarnation, it aired—not without problems—from September 8, 2001 to March 30, 2002, in support of the toyline of the same name.

Story

There's the signpost up ahead... your next stop: The T-AI-Light Zone.

When Earth is targeted by Megatron and his Predacons, Optimus Prime and his Autobots prepare for their coming by installing themselves in secret among human society, masquerading as everyday vehicles used by humankind with no knowledge of their true nature. When Megatron strikes and kidnaps famous scientist Dr. Kenneth Onishi, the Autobots ally with his son Koji to rescue him before Megatron can pry from his mind the truth about an ancient secret hidden somewhere on Earth.

After successfully re-energizing his ailing craft, the Megastar, Megatron rips the first clue from Doctor Onishi's mind, and tracks the location of an ancient Cybertronian O-Part, only to lose it to the Autobots. Incensed by failure, Megatron recovers six Autobot protoforms from a crashed spaceship and brainwashes them into the Decepticons, led by the dark clone of Optimus Prime, Scourge. These new warriors prove much tougher opponents for the Autobots, who then have to deal with attacks from their own side when Optimus Prime's embittered brother, Ultra Magnus, arrives on Earth to steal the Matrix from Prime. Realizing the Matrix can be shared between them, the brothers put aside their differences and gain the power to combine into Omega Prime, as well as using the Matrix's power to give the Autobot Brothers new super-charged bodies.

Fearful of losing his position to Scourge, the bumbling Sky-Byte accidentally frees Doctor Onishi when he attempts to use the scientist to locate all the remaining missing O-Parts. Onishi is then able to help the Autobots gather all the O-Parts, which together form a map that points the way to Fortress Maximus, an ancient Cybertronian battle station hidden on Earth for untold ages and controlled by the will of human children. The awakening of Maximus in turn awakens Scourge's ambition, and he leaves Megatron to perish in a collapsing temple so that he can take command for himself. Megatron, however, is transformed into the more-powerful Galvatron and puts down Scourge's rebellion before confronting Omega Prime in a final battle at the Earth's core, where he is defeated by the Matrix Blade created by a fusion of Maximus's energy with Magnus and Prime's Matrix.

Cast

Episodes

Main article: List of Robots in Disguise (2001) episodes

The three clip shows of Robots in Disguise differ between the English and Japanese versions. Both are listed at the appropriate numbers.

† Clip show

Original Japanese release

Japanese G1 continuity « Car Robots » Toyline Cartoon

Running from April 5 to December 17, 2000 immediately following the conclusion of Beast Wars Metals, Transformers: Car Robots inherited the by-then-traditional Transformers slot at TV Tokyo from Japan's Beast Wars franchise, airing at 6:30 PM on Wednesdays. Car Robots utilized the same traditional cel-based 2D animation as prior Japanese-only productions Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, and featured a healthy contingent of returning cast and crew. In a major change from prior productions, principal animation duties were handled by Studio Gallop and Dong Woo Animation rather than long-time Transformers veterans Ashi Productions. The cartoon was produced by We've, Nihon Ad Systems, and (unsurprisingly) TV Tokyo, all also returning from the Japanese Beast Wars seasons and all of whom would return for the Armada cartoon in 2002.

Still set on Earth at the turn of the century, the story of original Car Robots cartoon features a subtly distinct framing from Robots in Disguise as it follows a "Dimensional Patrol" led by "Fire Convoy" protecting the planet and its long-lost Cybertronian artifacts from the ambitions of the evil "Gigatron" and his new "Destronger" faction.

What exactly that *means* was the subject of no small amount of confusion, but to skip to the end, Car Robots is the final Japan-exclusive season of the behemoth Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity, with a cast composed of all new characters, having time-traveled from the distant future some time after the events of Neo.

Car Robots' opening song is "Honō no Overdrive ~Car Robot Cybertron~" and its ending theme is "Marionette".

Continuity

In Japan, these two are completely separate characters in the same universe. In the West, they are instead alternate-universe versions of the same character.

Main article: Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 franchise)#The continuity kerfuffle

When the series first aired in Japan as Car Robots, and then later in the West as Robots in Disguise, it was initially the subject of great debate and confusion, continuity-wise, within the Transformers fandom.

While not initially clear at the time, evidence from both pre-series production materials and post-series additions made by Takara indicate that Car Robots was always supposed to have been part of the larger Japanese continuity of series that had come before it. However, this was simply not made clear in the cartoon itself, which instead presented itself as a mostly standalone series. While such series as the Super-God Masterforce and Beast Wars II cartoons were similarly standalone, both of them had a brief guest appearance by a familiar face (Chromedome and Optimus Primal, respectively) to help connect them to their immediate predecessors (The Headmasters and Beast Wars). By contrast, Car Robots received no such treatment; there were no guest appearances from any previous series' characters, nor any other obvious indications that the series actually took place in the same world as the shows that came before it.

There were hints, though. Small references to things originally from Beast Wars II, Beast Wars Neo, The Headmasters, and even the American Beast Wars series. In hindsight, it has become apparent that these little nods were meant to help tie Car Robots back into the preceding Japanese continuity, but most of them came during the series' latter half. By that point, the majority of fans had largely given up on thinking of Car Robots as part of the existing continuity, and had instead grown to perceive it as the first brand new continuity. Anyone who did catch these references (which, admittedly, were also presented rather subtly) simply wrote them off as fan service-y aspects of the series' rebooted continuity, rather than their intended means of directly tying Car Robots back in with its predecessors.

When the show was brought over to the West as Robots in Disguise, it was unquestionably treated as a new continuity separate from everything that had come before it. The English dub's scripts were written to indicate that this was a unique world of "Autobots vs. Predacons", as opposed to the traditional setup of "Autobots vs. Decepticons" or even the Beast Era's "Maximals vs. Predacons/Vehicons" cases. Though the series would later introduce a group of Decepticons into the mix, they were explicitly depicted as an offshoot of the Predacons, a reverse of the normal relationship between the two. While the dub scripts also added even more overt references to past series, they were done in such a way that made the series even less compatible with either the Generation 1 cartoon or the Marvel Comics continuity.

Since the concept of continuity reboots was still very new to Transformers at the time, some fans in the West initially didn't know what to make of Robots in Disguise, confused over how it could possibly fit with any of the three English-language cartoons that had come before it. The aforementioned added references in the English dub certainly sparked numerous debates in the western fandom over how the series could possibly fit with any of the three preceding Transformers cartoons. But as the fandom grew to better understand the nature of reboots, Robots in Disguise became better accepted as such, helped along by the next series, Transformers: Armada, being the first unambiguous continuity-reboot on both sides of the Pacific, and but one of many more major reboots yet to come.

All seemed to make sense until the mid-2000s, when Takara began to make more additions to their original Transformers continuity and even started to really organize everything together. Such additions as The Battle of the Star Gate, Robotmasters, Binaltech Asterisk, and Kiss Players made multiple efforts to illustrate the fact that Car Robots really had been part of the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity all along. This was initially met with much shock and confusion by the fans, who had long since accepted Car Robots to be just as much of a reboot as its Robots in Disguise counterpart. Evidently, Takara never felt this way and always viewed Car Robots as merely the final televised installment of the original Japanese G1 continuity,^[1] regardless of how much the fandom had felt otherwise thanks to Car Robots itself having been so halfhearted on the matter.

And with the English Robots in Disguise version remaining a distinctly non-G1 entity unrelated to any other series, what is left is the unique situation of one show that is simultaneously both a part and not a part of the Generation 1 continuity family, depending on which language version of the show one watches. When viewed in Japanese, Car Robots is set in the same universe as the Japanese versions of all of the Generation 1 and Beast Wars cartoons from 1985–2000. While, when viewed in English, Robots in Disguise takes place in its own separate continuity family, in a brand new reality where the dominant factions on Planet Cybertron are Autobots and Predacons, while the Decepticons are a new subfaction of the Predacons.

Production

When Hasbro scrapped their plans for the Transtech series that was initially intended to follow Beast Machines, material was suddenly needed to fill the void until a new series could be developed. At the eleventh hour, the Japanese series Car Robots, which had screened in Japan the previous year, was selected for this task, and in the process, it became the first Transformers anime to make the leap across the Pacific in an official capacity. Although "only" filler, the series marked a partial return to the roots of Transformers fiction, reintroducing the Autobot and Decepticon factions and insignias and realistic modern Earth vehicles to the brand, after the Beast Era's five years of Maximals, Predacons and alternate modes based on animals or abstract/futuristic vehicles.

Given Takara's method of operation at the time, Car Robots was aimed at a younger audience than that targeted by Hasbro, meaning that it featured a more light-hearted, comedic tone overall, with storylines that were typically light or goofy and sometimes relied on bad jokes, absurd imagery and slapstick. This approach divided fans, but regardless, comic foil Sky-Byte became the real breakout character of the series and a fan-favourite whose enduring popularity saw him break into the top five nominations for the 2012 Transformers Hall of Fame's fan vote.

The animation of the series, meanwhile, was cel-based, a significant change from the CGI that had been a hallmark of Transformers television series in the US since 1996. In-keeping with the show's general tone, the cartoon features many standard anime light-comedy stylings, and is replete with overdone facial expressions, comic effects like sweat drops surrounding a character's head to signify confusion or consternation, and the traditional streaked background behind the character for high-action shots or stock footage transformation/attack sequences.

The Robots in Disguise English dub was produced by Saban Entertainment, who were riding high at the time with the early 21st Century anime boom in full force, and broadcast on the Fox Kids programming block, which was at the peak of its popularity. The series was subject to some notable editing and re-writing in the traditional Saban style (see below). As a dubbed product, most of the voice actors involved in the series, though veterans of other Saban properties, had never worked on a Transformers series before, save for actor/director Michael McConnohie.

Perhaps the best-remembered element of Robots in Disguise's legacy, however, was the fate that befell it following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which occurred after only two episodes of the series had been broadcast. A scramble resulted to re-edit multiple episodes of the series before they reached air to remove scenes that were considered distasteful after these events, but as the first two-thirds of the series was airing six days a week, this quickly left the series airing in a somewhat disjointed, slightly out-of-order fashion, with sheer misfortune causing the majority of episodes effected to be ones that dealt with the show's already sporadically-referenced ongoing O-Parts plot. The first victim was "The Secret of the Ruins", production on which had already been finished, and had to be pulled from broadcast to be re-written. A trio of episodes—"Attack from Outer Space", "Landfill" and "Sky-Byte Saves the Day"—could not be salvaged and were simply not aired in the US at all; it seems that at least two of the English dub's three clip shows (see "Prominent adaptational changes", below) were specifically created to patch over the holes in the plot that resulted from the removal of these "banned" episodes (though these three did later air in the United Kingdom and Canada with their questionable plot elements intact).

The Walt Disney Company acquired ownership of Robots in Disguise when it purchased Saban's assets in late 2001. Disney's ownership and apparent lack of desire to do anything with the show has resulted in it being the only American-broadcast Transformers cartoon to not be even partially released on DVD in the United States (though the complete series was released in the UK). Although Saban did reacquire several of their programmes in 2010, there is presently no evidence that Robots in Disguise was among them. Due to these factors, as of this writing, it remains the sole cartoon released in English-language markets that Hasbro does not retain full ownership of.

Prominent adaptational changes

As tended to be the wont of Saban productions, Robots in Disguise was altered from the original Japanese Car Robots in multiple ways—some subtle, others less so. Dialogue would, for the most part, stick to the intent of the original, but at times certain conversations could be about entirely different things in English versus Japanese; as a lighthearted show, Car Robots is particularly fond of Japanese cultural humor and wordplay, and Robots in Disguise often had to work around such exchanges, replacing them with English-language jokes that could either be comparable or entirely different. Several characters' personalities were entirely reworked for the English dub; Dark Scream, for instance, lost the samurai overtones of his Japanese counterpart and became more thuggish in character, Megatron became incredibly theatrical and prone to explosive tantrums, Rapid Run went from being a gruff, older warrior into a young, cool dude, and Midnight Express was changed from the timid, junior member of Team Bullet Train into a British fusspot, to name a few.

The total episode count was originally slated to be 36, reduced from the Japanese version's 39 by removing the three clip shows that were originally part of Car Robots.^[2] Serving mostly as digressions from the series' storytelling, these clip shows were presented in a format where the characters' disembodied voices simply talked over various recycled clips like a radio production—a practise not uncommon for Japanese anime clip shows but very uncommon for children's television in the West. As such, these three episodes added very little to the plot, making them easily skippable by the English dub.

However, when the aforementioned September 11, 2001 attacks called for the removal of three other episodes, the American production team created three brand new clip shows whole cloth from reused footage, in order to fill in some of the story gaps left by the three "banned" episodes. Although, the banned episodes did eventually air in both Canada and the United Kingdom, which ended up restoring the series' total episode count back to 39, matching the same original number of Car Robots episodes. And when the series was released on DVD in the UK, the three dub-original clip shows were placed in the same spots as the original Japanese clip shows (to varying results, continuity-wise).

The visuals of the show were also edited, with new CGI scene transitions based on the classic original The Transformers cartoon transitions inserted into the proceedings, sometimes in place of the simple wipes used in Car Robots. In the early portion of the series, CGI "POV" overlays were occasionally added as characters targeted their opponents for attack, though this particular practise was not employed much as the series went on. The entire soundtrack of the show was also changed, with new tunes for Robots in Disguise being provided by Saban mainstays Shuki Levy and Paul Gordon as well as Glenn Scott Lacey.

Perhaps one of the most notable traits of the Robots in Disguise dub was the insertion of numerous references to other Transformers series, typically added to scripts by Hasbro employee Andrew Frankel after they were submitted for approval—though this did create some debate in the fandom (as noted above in "Continuity").

Outside of these major overarching examples, there are sometimes other changes both major and minor made to the content of individual episodes for numerous reasons. TFWiki.net notes such changes on the individual episode articles.

Credits

For further information, see: Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 cartoon)/credits

Home video releases

Car Robots

Main article: Pony Canyon

The Car Robots version of Robots in Disguise was released on VHS and DVD by Pony Canyon in Japan while the series was still on air.

• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 1 (2000)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 2 (2000)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 3 (2000)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 4 (2000)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 5 (2000)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 6 (2001)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 7 (2001)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 8 (2001)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 9 (2001)
• Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 10 (2001)

2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon

Main article: Maximum Entertainment

Maximum Entertainment, in association with Jetix, released the entire RiD series in the UK... several times.

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Volume One (2004)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 1 of 2 (2004)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (April 15 2005)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Battle Protocol (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Evil Intent (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Battling the Predacons (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — 3 DVD Mega Pack (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise / RoboCop: The Animated Series / M.A.S.K. (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise / Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation / Action Man (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Special Edition 2-Disc Set (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season One (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season Two (2007)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (2008)

Italy

Main article: Stormovie

Stormovie released RiD in Italy, but... not entirely. At first the first 16 episodes were released in 4 DVDs, then the series was interrupted and later they released two "movies" made of various episodes. While the first one is just five episodes back to back, the second one is slightly messier, being made of five episodes back to back with two 1-minute clips from other episodes to stitch them (the scene in "Koji Gets His Wish" where Scourge lets Sky-Byte go to search for Cerebros and the part of "Maximus Emerges" when the Autobots find Cerebros), but still kinda confusing since the beginning part of "Surprise Attack!" has the characters talking about things that were left out from the "movie".

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (2005)

Contains episodes 1-4.

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 2 (2005)

Contains episodes 5-8.

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 3 (2005)

Contains episodes 9-12.

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 4 (2005)

Contains episodes 13-16.

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise Il Film (2007)

Collage movie made from episodes 1, 2, 14, 16 and 19.

• Transformers: Robots in Disguise Il Film: Battaglia Finale (2007)

Collage movie made from episodes 29, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38 and 39.

Notes

• Robots in Disguise is the lone Transformers show that aired between 1996 and 2006 that does not feature a Canadian voice cast for its English language release, being recorded in Los Angeles, California; all others, including its Beast Era predecessors and its Unicron Trilogy successors, were recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Transformers: Car Robots (トランスフォーマー カーロボット Toransufōmā Kā Robotto)
• Korean: Jeonguiui Yongsa: Car Bot (정의의 용사 카봇, "Brave Heroes of Justice: Car-Bots")
• Portuguese: Transformers: A Nova Geração (Brazil, "Transformers: The New Generation")
• Spanish: Transformers: Nueva Generación (Latin America, "Transformers: New Generation")

References

External links

• RiD Forever
• Transformers Car Robots on Japanese Wikipedia
• Transformers: Car Robots on TVTokyo