My Review of Transformers: Animated season 1 episode 6–Blast from the Past · 2:49am Feb 8th, 2021
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
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Hey, guys. Here is my review of episode 6 Blast from the Past. Of course, this episode was most definitely a blast since it introduces or, I would say, brings to us the show’s version of... THE DINOBOTS! Yeah, this show did a fantastic job portraying my most favorite Dinobot and one of my favorite Autobots of all time—Grimlock—as aggressive, powerful, and yet even more stubborn than his G1 counterpart. This show actually introduced me to Grimlock and the other Dinobots as well since I never heard of them until I watched this episode in 2008. I had no idea that other Dinobots existed within the Transformers universe until I watched the G1 episodes a couple years ago.
This is my favorite version of Grimlock ever because he is very much a leader on his own, very independent, and very... hilarious in his own brutish way. David Kaye did a legendary job giving his own take on the fan-favorite character. Plus, he is a faithful homage to the original G1 version but is ten times better than him in my humble opinion. The original one was a little more goofy and was slightly more cooperative with Optimus after they settled their differences. Here, Grimlock is even more firm than before... until he teamed up with Prime later on in the show albeit temporarily. But that’s for another time.
Anyway, I really wished that Snarl and Swoop would actually talk in the show. I don’t know why they had to be silent characters. Welp, I guess I might take advantage of that in my upcoming third story of my MLP/TFA Crossover series.
As for the main characters—Bulkhead and Prowl—I really liked how the latter tried to teach the former about being gentle with his movements and concentrating in battle with elaborate techniques. Then it showed Bulkhead revealing his own way of being... y’know... being himself. That’s the important lesson here. It’s so crucial to remember to always be yourself and never let anyone tell you otherwise or try to change who you really are and what you were meant to be.
And boy, it was nice seeing Megatron again. Additionally, we see him manipulate Isaac Sumdac by making himself as someone in need of help and being friends with the Autobots in high hopes of gaining a new body soon. Hmm, surprisingly, Sumdac doesn’t take into account his red optics as opposed to the blue optics the Autobots ALWAYS have and somehow had a fear of being discovered by Team Prime. I get that Megatron was being smart about it considering that Optimus would either attack him if he were discovered and would tell the full truth about him to Sumdac, but if he was so easily duped by Megatron, that would imply that Optimus and the Autobots never even mentioned him prior to this episode or Isaac never even heard Starscream’s public confession of killing Megatron right AFTER he taunted the Autobots for thinking they defeated the tyrant.
Those are just things you gotta wonder and think about. If they never talked about him as a mere mention in front of Sumdac or he never bothered watching that clip that revealed Starscream’s confession, then... wow. That just made way for him to be so easily tricked by Megatron like that. Nonetheless, this episode was great! I give it an A-!
Peace!
Here something funny about Swoop and Snarl not having voice actors. They do in Japan, I think. Swoop is portrayed by Nobuo Tobita, (The same guy who plays Hoity Toity in the Japanese dub of MLP:FIM), and Snarl is portrayed by Takashi Nagasako, the same guy who voices Ganondorf in Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. As for Grimlock, he was voiced by Keiji Fujiwara,(Died from cancer at age 55, Rest in Peace), the same guy who performed the Joker in the Japanese dubs of The Dark Knight ,Batman: the Brave and the Bold, as well as Lord Shen in Kung Fu Panda 2.
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Interesting. Thanks for the info!
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That and there's this. Derrick J Wyatt said in a Q&A session that his ideal voice for Swoop and Snarl would be the comedians Gilbert Gottfried and Louie Anderson, respectively. That and they made a joke from Snarl not speaking in the Divebomb comic.
Grimlock to Snarl:
"So you right about quiz show, Swoop, you still not right about many other things. Fly away then! Fah. Good riddance. Looong list of applicants for Dinobots position. *turns to completely-silent Snarl* Shut up, Snarl. When Grimlock want your opinion, he ask for it."
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The only things funnier than that are the two mental images I got rattling around in my head. The first one, picture if you will. Grimlock laughing like the Joker half way through a sentence. "Grimlock hate trucks and cars, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
The second: Swoop diving from sky, screaming like Iago.
Edit: Just found out that Animated Grimlock's Italian voice actor, Mario Zucca, is the same guy who plays Dinobot in the Italian dub of Beast Wars(In case your curious, Keiji Fujiwara portrayed Dinobot aswell). That casting has to be deliberate.