The Return of Optimus Prime
I remember watching these two episodes at the conclusion of Season 3 of the TF show. I remember being very happy with notion of them returning one of my favorite characters. They promoted the heck out of his return to the show.
While this two-part episode picks up directly where Dark Awakening left off, there are some problems with the timeline and the fact in that episode we saw Prime die again. Half his face was blown off.
The reason they brought Optimus back is because the outcry from kids everywhere. Plus, Rodimus/Hot Rod was such an emo robot after he got the matrix. The entire season he wines about not being as good as Optimus Prime. I’m glad he became Hot Rod again.
It seems the creators of the show wanted to take the show in a different direction after the end of season and into season 4 with Optimus Prime as the new/old leader.
The animation for this episode is much better than most of the cheap stuff we saw in most of the third season. It certainly reminds me of the first two seasons of show. However, there are still numerous mistakes in the animation that plagued the entire third season.
I think it was interesting that they repaired the injured Jessica Morgan using cybernetic attachments. I think Jessica is a well-rounded character in a 80s cartoon. I also like the focus on the human characters.
Yes, Stan Bush’s song “The Touch” is reprised in the episode.
~Bumble Bee changes into Goldbug after this episode: I think I owned the Goldbug toy too.
~The Hate Plague seems to act differently on different people and robots. Some robots seem to work together while others merely are mad.
~ Optimus Prime and Galvatron: I love the fact these two enemies have to work together.
~Galvatron shakes Prime’s hand at the end. He shows that he respects Prime for saving the entire galaxy. I wish the show had ended on this scene and with Prime rolling out with the Autobots. But we get a very short 4th season.
~Vince DeCola’s score from the movie seems to make some appearances in this episode too.
~It is the year 2007: I believe this is set during 2007. The movie is 2005 and the third season being 2006. I don’t remember humans having large space ships and exploring the galaxy back in 2007. Actually, the writers for the show threw the movie and third season ahead 20 years because they thought it would be enough time to distance it from the first two seasons, which were set during the 80s.
While I loved the changes the third season took with its darker tone and over-arcing storylines, but some of the charm from the first season characters was lacking in the season. This is because most of them were killed off during the movie. However, bringing Prime back at the end of the season was pretty neat at the time. And, it still holds up. I also like the corny massage about hate and teaming up with your enemies to fight a bigger enemy.
I can’t recommend this episode enough.
Grade: B+
Look at the animation. Reminds me of first two seasons.
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