| I
would first like to say a friendly hello to all of you that
have flown in to view the miracle that is "Don't
Copy that Floppy". Your mission was to use up all
our bandwidth and you came through for us. I would give you
a gold star but I gave my last one to Smokey
in the forums.
Also, I hope that some of you will stick around and read some
of our older stuff.
Now
that I've gotten that bit of nasty business out of the way,
we can continue on to A PLAGUE OF INSECTICONS!
DUN-DUN-DUUUNNNNN!!
There's
only one reason for the gazillion different Transformers that
were (and are) being made. Profit. Squandering little kids
out of their parents money is something that Hasbro is a little
too good at. And they've had practice. But you can only sell
different variations of Bumblebee to the same kid so many
times before they start to figure out that they're just getting
the same toy over and over again. So, the Insecticons and
hordes of other Transformers, some that never made it into
the show, were made to delight and please the youngens. Isn't
this a good thing? More Transformers equals good Transformers,
right? Let's hope so, onto the episode.
The
beginning of this episode starts off with these three dudes
in the ass end of the tropical island of Bali. Bali is an
island now? .. .. huh, look at that, it is. Now, the narrator
calls this marshy looking place "Demon Swamp". So
why on Earth would these guys be paddling through DEMON
SWAMP, BALI!? That's gotta be one of the ten, maybe seven
worst things to do, ever. And it doesn't end there; the narrator
then mentions that this information is "widely known".
It's widely known as Demon Swamp? These guys must be can't
be too bright at all. Although, I have trouble believing that
this Demon Swamp in Bali actually exists. So perhaps they
didn't believe it either and wandered right into dangers path.
I would also like to point out that their "paddles"
are seriously lacking in the "paddle" area since
they are nothing more than just sticks.
I
think you can all guess what happens next. Yep, the three
Insecticons, Shrapnel, Kickback and Bombshell attack. Not
only do they attack, they attack hard. Well, kinda. I mean,
they flip over the guys' boats and stuff. Probably took their
lunch money too. Hmm, speaking of lunch... The dimwitted,
oh lets call him Bob, Bob mentions that they should get back
to the farm. The Insecticons follow them, hungry as they are,
only to bring more wrath and destruction upon combines and
umm, wheat apparently.
Hola
crapa! That was a combine TWO SECONDS AGO!
Now,
presumably Spike is a shortwave radio geek because he picks
up a distress call that Bob or one of his friends sent all
the way from Bali. However, Optimus and about half of
the Autobots are off doing god only knows what when Spike
recieves the SOS. Pff, half of the Autobots should be enough
to ward off three measly Insecticons, right? Well not when
Megatron and the rest of the Decepticons show up somehow.
Megatron's bit of expository dialogue states that the Insecticons
came to Earth in their own escape pod millions of years ago.
So, while the Decepticons go do the old "meet and greet"
with the Insecticons in the field, the Autobots present half-assedly
hide in the other part of said field.
Then
all hell breaks loose. I mean, the Autobots weren't hiding
very well. A few corn
stalks DO NOT hide a forty-foot tall robot, no matter
what anyone tells you.
Meanwhile
the rest of the Autobots a rushing towards the scene, only
to be stopped by some sort of, I dunno, party the people of
Bali are throwing in the middle of a canyon. Those crazy Balians,
if that's what they're called, will they never learn? Instead
of politely asking the party goers to move slightly to the
side to let them pass, the Autobots decide to dig their way
around. Whilst digging I have no idea how they know they're
going in the right direction. It's gotta be magic, Transformer
magic. Meanwhile: The other Autobots are getting their
asses handed back to them.
GET-OUT-THA-WAY!
IT'S PRIME TIME! (I'm glad I've never heard him say that)
Frick
yeah! Optimus comes bustin' through a canyon wall
just in the nick of time. Some might call it "being fashionably"
late, the other Autobots might call it "about fucking
time", I call it class. Prime's got style, and if you
didn't know it, you do now. Just as soon as the Autobots attack
the Decepticons, the Decepticons are off on a new adventure
that involves an oil refinerey. What? Why did the episode
suddenly take that left turn to the right? Well to put it
simply, Soundwave, the loveable huggable Decepticon that can
talk in three intonations, has a clause in his contract which
states that he gets to use his energon cube making abilities
in each and every episode, and twice on holidays. But really,
I think that the writers couldn't get passed the "Decepticons
are energy hungry" plot line. "An episode where
the Decepticons don't want energy? Perposturous!
Completely out of the question! What what!", is what
I assume they'd say in their hilarious yet unexplained olde-timey
british accents.
So,
they're off to the oil refinery. I still don't see why they
couldn't just set up some solar panels, roll out the barbeque,
with Starscream doin' the burgers and Megatron lounging in
the hammock. I mean, the sun is the most abundant power source
of them all, but maybe they hadn't learned that yet in 1984,
when man was trying to destroy it.
The
Autobots imediately take chase after the Decepticons to the
oil refinery, only to find the Insecticons chasing after them!
Oh what a cruel cricle! Shrapnel thinks it a good idea to
use his "Special override waves" to take control
of of a couple of the Autobots and try to ram them into Prime
and the others. I think this plan would have worked if the
only the animators would have remembered to ANIMATE THE
INSECTICONS! Take a closer look.
Alright,
total Autobot count: 3. Override Wave count: 2. Insecticon
count: 0. Something's amiss. Really, when you're planning
to kick ass, make sure you have the animators animate you,
otherwise you're just not gonna get anywhere.
After
this sad excuse for an attack, Brawn asks Prime to throw him
up to the Insecticons to do some damage. Unfortunately, this
is another sad excuse for an attack and Brawn, nearly immediately,
gets the crap kicked out of him at 2000 ft. The Insecticons
seem to think this is a good time to leave and rejoin the
Decepticons at the oil refinery, so, they take off, I guess.
No time to brag for these three, no sir, they're all business
all the time.
The
last segment of the episode is action packed with exploding
shit everywhere. Everyone now at the refinery, Shrapnel, it
seems, has control over lightning and starts literally throwing
the stuff at the Autobots. When asked, Wheeljack says the
lightning "tastes terrible". I always thought it
would taste rather minty. Maybe he doesn't like mint, we may
never know. The Autobots are taking a pounding and Spike is
only one that can figure out that they all should just transform
back into vehicle mode so that their tires would insulate
them from the lightning.
This
rules.
Since
somebody has to stay in robot mode to kickass, Optimus and
Wheeljack stand atop their comrades and start with
the afore mentioned "ass-kicking". Megatron thinks
poorly of this and shoots at a big oil tanker and tries to
throw it at the oil refinery. Prime comes in and, of course,
stops him just in time.
The
Insecticons, watching the Decepticons sucking hard, start
to wonder if they picked the right ally. So they decide to
turn on the Decepticons by using the energon that Thundercracker
and Soundwave toiled for many, many minutes to get. Megatron
is not pleased and orders their destruction. Now, that's where
Megatron rules. I wish I could order destruction and have
it carried out for me. Although, I guess Megatron wishes that
as well since his orders rarely come to fruition. Failure
seems to be standard fair for the Decepticons and the evil
ilk. Anyways, the Insecticons take off and with the Decepticons
in hot pursuit leave the Autobots the winners pretty much
by default.
Overall
I'd say that this episode was pretty good. You had the introduction
of new characters with good character designs and a sweet
battle at the end. The animation glitches, as always, add
to the episode in so many ways that don't seem possible. I'd
give it..
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