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War Planets (includes images)
SPOILER ALERT !!
Glen here…
Okay, folks - I’m really breaking form here. I usually don’t cover that which has already happened, stuff that has already been aired…much less plug a show I have not actually *seen*.
But this case is unusual - a *lot* of people are writing me…full of praise and excitement…over the new CGI-based television series WAR PLANETS, which just hit the airwaves a few days back. Because of the number of messages about its debut, I thought I would run QUARRIOR’s extravagantly prepared message about the new show. By no means is this the only message I got referencing WAR PLANETS, but Quarrior really went the distance on this one. So here it is…
QUARRIOR says:
I recently stumbled on to this exciting show from the people that gave
us ReBoot, Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. They would be a cutting edge
effects house if they did film. Lucky for us they are a television
production company. The name of the show is WAR PLANETS. Break out
your VCR tapes kiddies, you just can’t miss this one if you are into 3D
Computer Graphics. This show is so beautiful it literally brought a
tear to my eye to see innovative new characters on my CRT. Here is a
plot synopsis from the Mainframe Web site for War Planets,
which is accessible through this link !
WAR PLANETS™ is the latest half-hour computer animated series from
Mainframe Entertainment, Inc.
War Planets tells of the epic conflict between good and evil on
both a planetary and personal
scale. It is the struggle of one man and his attempt to unite the
divergent tribes of nearby worlds
against the seemingly unstoppable foe that threatens all life.
For eons the four planets FIRE, BONE, ROCK and ICE have never known
peace. Their
inhabitants' ancient jealousies and petty prejudices leave no time
for the development of
cooperation or peace. Although they share a common ancestry, these
are a people divided, until
one man, Graveheart of the Rock, discovers the greatest menace of
all. The BEAST PLANET is
now emerging from the darkest region of space, and it is an evil
world whose sole purpose is the
absolute destruction of every lifeform it encounters. Graveheart
now realizes that only the
combined power of the four planets can stop the BEAST.
In a desperate race for survival, Graveheart must struggle to unite
the leaders and clans and
tribes of the four planets. It's an uneasy alliance at best,
because each planet may share the
same galaxy, but little else. Together they must learn to put aside
their age-old suspicions of
one another... because in unity is their strength... in separation
lies only destruction.
Airing September 1998 in Canada on YTV. For syndication in other
countries, check the local
listings.
QUARRIOR here, again:
This show holds great promise. The graphics make it worth the 30
minutes a week of your life as long as it’s on, but the story could be
in an arc format with interesting twists. This show has a well thought
out concept and direction, we will see where Mainframe takes it. Their
web site has a ton of stills from the show and write ups on characters,
military units, planetary info, and episode information. The only draw
back is that it is on Saturdays EARLY. This show is practically a VCR
must. Here in Atlanta is shows at 7:00 in the morning. Good viewing
and check this one out, you won't regret it. I’ve sent Glen some stills
so you can get a glimpse of the greatness that is WAR PLANETS.
Below: the pics, and a synopsis of the first episode - so you can get caught up
with the show so far…
In the background is the Beast planet eating
Planet Tek. On the middle left faetured prominently is Gravehaert (our
hero.) In the center is King Cryos. And smaller on the middle right is
Princess Tekla. At the bottom we see a spider tank (left) and a
Quarrior (right.) [image©Trendmasters & Mainframe]
This is our hero Graveheart with his usual gun. This
is *not* a sonic cannon. [image©Trendmasters & Mainframe]
QUARRIOR here again - the first episode , BEHOLD THE BEAST, aired last week.
In the opening scene, we see a large planet opening up to reveal a HUGE claw. Then
there is a cut to a smaller planet where a woman, Princess Tekla, who
looks like a mix of T1000 and a purple circuit board is walking to her
ship. She has an emotional goodbye with her father, who we assume is
the leader of planet Tek. Her ship launches with her squad and flees
the huge planet that is about to envelope her planet. Space combat
ensues. She escapes but her squadron is shot down. The Beast planet
consumes Planet Tek. The armada from the beast planet opens a worm
hole/ jump point/ whatever to the system that contains planets Fire,
Ice, Bone, and Rock. They go through the portal to establish a
beachhead in this new system so the beast planet can come in and conquer
these foolish mortals.
Princess Tekla makes it through the wormhole.
This scene is the most fantastic editing in the entire episode in my
opinion as the wormhole closes to a sheet of white where a planet Rock
Vessel lands on the surface of Planet Ice. The ship opens up and Rock
forces quickly launch perimeter vessels and troops disembark. After the
troops secure the area the miners come into play. We meet our main
character in this scene. His name is GraveHeart.
All of the rock personnel are in powered armor (This is what Starship Ttroopers should
have been.) All of the miners defer to Graveheart. Then they get
mining. They have large vehicles that cut the ice with lasers and then
they break it up with Sonic Cannons. Really cool scene. The Sonic
Cannon is the best weapon effect I’ve seen in a long time.
Then there
is a report from the perimeter. Cut to the perimeter, they are all
frozen in blocks of ice. Then the nananite (their word not mine) fog
sets in. Ice troops coalesce from the fog and surround the Rock troops.
The Rock transport ship is completely covered in ice. A heated
discussion ensues with Graveheart talking to the leader of the Ice
troops, who happens to be King Cryos. Gravehearts only goal is to get
everyone off of the planet alive, when the military officer steps in and
declares they are not leaving without the ice. This causes some
problems and the Ice troops get ready to fight, when a ship crash lands
in the ice near this conflict.
Graveheart runs over and rescues the
occupant, leaving the military leader to talk to King Cryos. A stunned
Tekla tells Graveheart to "RUN" as Beast drones shoot at her downed
ship. The beast drones level all of the Rock troops and the Ice troops.
King Cryos falls out of his spider tank as the one next to his explodes.
Graveheart, King Cryos and Tekla run for a trench that has been rent
into the ground by the rock mining operation.
The Beast drones drop a
whole bunch of little shields from the sky. Then they begin to grow
into full fledged beast drone ground troops. There are about 100 or so
of them. Introductions go around and basically everyone determines they
are in a bad situation. Graveheart tries to kill the beast drones but as
much as he fires he cannot destroy even one. Tekla mentions that you
have to hit the containment unit to destroy a Beast drone. All three
try to destroy the beast drones to no avail. They kill a couple, but
it’s not enough. The position where they are is being overrun.
Graveheart runs off saying, "I’ve had enough of this." Tekla and Cryos
think he is just running away. A few seconds later Graveheart returns
with two hand held Sonic Cannons and a Vehicle mounted Sonic Cannon
(which he uses) The sonic cannon RIPS through the Beast drones. (This
was a REALLY neat scene.) The flying drones take off to take out this
new threat. Graveheart summarily shoots down the flying drones at the
last second.
They get to talking about what is going on when a Beast
drone that was missed shoots at Graveheart. Tekla manages to push
Graveheart away and cancel the Beast drone fire with her own. Tekla and
Graveheart are damaged in the process. King Cryos gets his Freon gun
out and shoots the Beast drone. Graveheart talks to Tekla and she
passes the warning on to him and get him to swear to uphold her mission.
Then Graveheart falls over.
Cut to a sheet of ice with an Ice person
behind it. The nananites are repairing the damage done to Graveheart.
Graveheart thinks he is a prisoner when he ragains consciousness. But,
this is not so, King Cryos releases him from the healing chamber. Tekla
is in stasis, as the king’s daughter quickly points out. King Cryos
pledges the Ice forces to Graveheart in his new alliance. They plan to
go to Planet Rock and then the episode ends. Really quite spectacular.
-Quarrior, Leutenant Grade, Igneous
Glen here once more.
So there you have it! Check local listings to catch WAR PLANETS in your area. And thanks Quarrior…you put a lot of work into this. Discussion on WAR PLANETS is invited in the "talkback" section below. You guys had plenty to say about this show when you were e-mailing me, don’t get shy now.
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+ Expand All
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Oh ! S#@T ! not TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE AGAIN
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I recorded the premier on a lark- I saw a promo and it caught enough of my fancy to set the Vcr. It was surprizingly good. I don't know where the concept is from- I've been seeing ads for "Beast Planet" toys for a year or two, they always seemed really stupid looking, but the show.. well the only thing that "transforms" is the beast planet itself -and actually all it does is open.
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Well I've watched 2 shows so far, and i'm already mesmerized!!
The animation is top notch, the story is excellent, it's well worth the 30 mins you spend watching it...
it's well worth watching, i Hope this show doesn't suffer the same fate as Reboot, the first show that mainframe produced, for some reason, it never caught on in the U.S -
Mainframe also makes Beast Wars, which is starting its 3rd season in November. It is based on the new Transformer line of the same name. All the stories are much better than the old Transformers. They recently won an emmy for being the highest rated syndicated kids television show. War Planets is also based on a toy line of the same name. The toys are pretty shoddy, but the show looks good.
Here's a link to where you can find reviews of both lines of toys, as well as the history and news about them.
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/reviews.html -
Superior animation, graphics, and storytelling. What could be better? This show is better than Beast Wars, the other Mainframe Entertainment program currently on air (which is quite good in its own right). I can't compare it to Reboot yet (the show that set the standard), but get back to me in Feb., after I have seen the all 3 seasons on Cartoon Network.
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I'm wish CN would pick up some out of house original animation and run it prime time. This would be a crowning show to run at 8 or 9 o'clock on CN. CN is my favorite network, but some really advanced shows like WAR PLANETS (or even the new CGI voltron) would make a good primetime lineup for CN. Oh, Well. We can at least look forward to seeing this on CN once the first run is over. :) You may want to set your VCR's a half hour earlier 'cause a new CGI Voltron plays right before WAR PLANETS in my area.
-Ral
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Is that it aired so far behind here in the States, we were at least a season behind Canada in the episodes. I really never got to watch much of it unfortunately, but it's on the Cartoon Network now? I need to start watching those. I missed the first episode of War Planets, but I'll be taping that and Voltron this Sunday for sure...
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It truely is. I haven't watched Saturday morning cartoons in years (Not counting anime on SFC) and when I hear about two that I'd like to watch they end up on at the same time on opposing channels.
Others beware!!
(thank GOD I've got lots of VCRs) -
I just watched what looks like the 2nd episode to War Planets, in Canada, though the show is called Shadow Warriors. It was late when I was watching but I am pretty sure it was called that title.
Clubber -
I've just found this great site called Archive.jpg. This guy rips tons of screen shots and puts them up on his page. One of the shows he does is WAR PLANETS/SHADOW RAIDERS. There must be about 70-100 shots of Last weeks ep. Here is the URL.
http://www.cyberus.ca/~clearsky/sr/ -
When is war planets on Beast wars in on at 7 AM here and i looked for War planets and wan to see it
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Well it's not as entertaining as Beast Wars or Reboot, but it's still better than almost any other sci-fi show (animated or otherwise) on TV these days.
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After watching the first two episodes of Shadow Raiders (aka WAR PLANETS), I have to keep reminding myself that this is a *kids* program, and not an adult program. Even though the animation is fantastic, the writing is riddled with clich
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Time of writing: just finished watching the fifth episode.
The writing on this show has been sliding all over the place. The fourth ep, especially, had me cringing. Still, things seem to be lookin up. Ep five, "Wolf in the Fold," had nothing I could complain about (though I'm sure an ardent nitpicker will soon prove me wrong), and the quality of the visuals has been extremely consistent.
I can't say much in comparison to Reboot, since I haven't seen the fabled third season yet, but this series beats Beast Wars hands down. Watch and get hooked.
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