My Review of Transformers: Animated season 1 episode 10–Sound and Fury · 1:41am Mar 15th, 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! I am back with another Transformers: Animated episode review! Tonight, I will be talking about one of my absolute favorite episodes of the season—Sound and Fury. This is the very episode where my favorite Decepticon of all time makes his first appearance in the series although with an altogether different origin story. For those of you who read my Soundwave blog months ago, this was the series that introduced Soundwave to me since I’ve never heard of him until I watched this episode at the time of release (2008).
Ever since I first watched it, I was blown away by the sheer awesomeness of how unique they made Soundwave in this episode. He starts off by being created by Megatron himself as a means to gain his new body while depending on Sari’s use of the Key that contained the Allspark’s energy. So Megatron is Soundwave’s father while the Allspark is his mother... I have no idea why I just said that. Let’s just leave it at that.
Anyway, I love what they did with Soundwave. Although it would have been great to have him as a primary member of Megatron’s original team, it was still amazing that they made him almost independent and strong on his own. Yes, Megatron introduced him to the Decepticon cause and their agenda, but Soundwave became his own boss afterwards. Because after he received doses of Allspark energy, he became more self-aware and sentient. He saw for himself the treatment of the machines and automatons at the hands of the humans and chose to rebel against their so-called oppression. So, he is a revolutionary and freedom fighter in his own twisted, patronizing way.
Jeff Bennett did a great job voicing him, who was also the voice of Prowl, Angry Archer, and a few other characters.
Soundwave’s design looks very impressive and G1-ish. The fact that the last piece of his body at the end being a cassette player is a classic reference to his original alternate mode in G1.
The interactions and chemistry between Bulkhead and Sari were really sweet and enjoyable. It goes to show that older siblings, friends, or loved ones are to always protect and look after those they care about. It doesn’t matter if a certain person or thing appears friendly or innocent, if they are toxic or harmful in any way, shape, or form, they are a bad influence to said loved one or friend. They may think of us as jealous or dishonest, but they will soon realize we are simply just looking after them. That’s what I got from this episode. It’s an important lesson for all families and friends to always keep in mind.
This episode gets a straight A! I will never get tired of this masterpiece!
See ya!
I liked Soundwave's music. Sounded pretty good.
Time to turn it up to eleven with some trivia, and I've got a lot to unpack.
1. Soundwave's eyes are a reference to 2000 AD's ABC Warriors.
2. In the original bible, he's a passionate, eloquent rabble-rouser. "No synthesized monotone for THIS Soundwave, thank you very much." Ha.
3. According to his Electrostatic Soundwave toy bio, Soundwave has taken a shine to old Earth westerns. The same bio also states that he has discovered a note that can ROCK A ROBOT'S FACE OFF. Awesome.
4. In the Japanese dub of Animated, Soundwave's vocal gimmick, in addition to the vocoder effect, is that he screams like a rock star trying to get an audience pumped. More often than not, he shouts English phrases like, "Let's go!", "C'mon baby!" and "Superstar!"
5. The production staff of the Transformers Animated cartoon were completely unaware of the Soundwave toy's Laserbeak-guitar, hence why it was not included in his debut episode.
Finally, while not specifically trivia, I still thought it was interesting enough to include. According to the Tfwiki, Soundwave transforms into a pseudo-Scion xB that got a "Pimp My Ride" music style treatment.