You can tell that the writers put effort into this show, but you also can tell that the focus was put in places you normally wouldn't think of as a Transformers series.
To this day Beastmachines is still a very divisive show in the Transformers univers, but to its defence that's the only thing that drags it down for me, because as a direct sequel series to the highly beloved Beast Wars the vastly different tone and subject matter cover the entire series' run.
It's much darker and more serious than its predecessor with very little humour which makes it rather tough to get through, but the central themes of the show like technology vs nature do take a more nuanced look at it instead of being so black/white like other movies/TV-shows like Ferngully: The Last Rainforest or Captain Planet And The Planeteers, but it's presented like this religious conquest by the now Guru of the Maximals Optimus Primal, which makes his ultimate goal not as likable as it should have been.
The animation is another commendable thing about Beastmachines. It has aged much more gracefully than earlier Mainframe Entertainment shows like Beast Wars and ReBoot, and the highly expressive faces of the Maximals can hit the uncanny valley at times. But the character designs are otherwise a mixed bag with Cheetor and Megatron being awesome while Silverbolt is garbage.
I see the problems with Beastmachines, but I can't deny that if I didn't think of it as a Transformers show, then I'd say it's a really good show if not a little dark.
To this day Beastmachines is still a very divisive show in the Transformers univers, but to its defence that's the only thing that drags it down for me, because as a direct sequel series to the highly beloved Beast Wars the vastly different tone and subject matter cover the entire series' run.
It's much darker and more serious than its predecessor with very little humour which makes it rather tough to get through, but the central themes of the show like technology vs nature do take a more nuanced look at it instead of being so black/white like other movies/TV-shows like Ferngully: The Last Rainforest or Captain Planet And The Planeteers, but it's presented like this religious conquest by the now Guru of the Maximals Optimus Primal, which makes his ultimate goal not as likable as it should have been.
The animation is another commendable thing about Beastmachines. It has aged much more gracefully than earlier Mainframe Entertainment shows like Beast Wars and ReBoot, and the highly expressive faces of the Maximals can hit the uncanny valley at times. But the character designs are otherwise a mixed bag with Cheetor and Megatron being awesome while Silverbolt is garbage.
I see the problems with Beastmachines, but I can't deny that if I didn't think of it as a Transformers show, then I'd say it's a really good show if not a little dark.