Review by Jeffrey M. Jacobson. (October 30, 2003)
Transformers is ™ Hasbro and Takara. Transformers Program content: ©Sunbow Productions, Inc.
There were two versions of the episode "Dark Awakening" that aired on television. The version contained on this set is the second version. This second version aired the day before "The Return of Optimus Prime (Part 1)" aired. Narration was added over end of the episode asking, "But is this really the end of Optimus Prime?" and telling you to tune in tomorrow to "The Return of Optimus Prime" to find out. The original version of "Dark Awakening" did not contain this narration.
What Rhino should have done here was to have one audio track with the original version of the episode, and one audio track with the second version. (And with no Rhino-added sound effects in either audio track!) Or alternatively, have the original (no-narration) version on this set, and the added-narration version on the next set before "The Return of Optimus Prime". But they only included the second version, with narration telling you to tune in tomorrow for "The Return of Optimus Prime", an episode which is not even on this DVD set! (I checked all three audio tracks (5.1, 2.0, and original 2.0) on the set, and they all contain the "But is this really the end. . ." narration.)
The first five episodes in season 3 ("Five Faces of Darkness" parts 1-5) had a different opening credits sequence than the rest of the season 3 episodes. On this set, "Five Faces of Darkness" parts 1, 2, and 4 incorrectly have the regular season 3 opening, while parts 3 and 5 have the correct "Five Faces of Darkness" opening.
The video comes from (according to the box) a "new digital transfer from original 35mm film", which looks good. The only problem I noticed were some vertical dark red and light blue streaks on screen during certain scenes in "Thief in the Night". The blue streaks seem to occur during scenes with glowing effects. When there is a change to another scene, the streaks go away. I'm guessing that the streaks were present on the film source material. Having seen Rhino's attempts to fix errors in episodes on their Season 1 set, I'm glad they didn't attempt to fix this, though. Below are some screenshots of the streaks.
Good news! This time around Rhino has included an extra 2.0 audio track called "Original Broadcast Audio" for each episode. This is Rhino's first Transformers DVD season set to include the original unaltered audio track for every episode!
So to clarify, there are three audio tracks for each episode on this set: a 5.1 and 2.0 audio track that contain a bunch of extra sound effects that were added in by Rhino, and the 2.0 "Original Broadcast Audio" track.
Rhino's previous TF DVD sets only contained the first two audio tracks (the messed up 5.1 and 2.0 only). I believe their intent on these sets was for only the 5.1 track to have the extra sounds, and for the 2.0 to be the original version. I think the reason for the extra sounds on the 5.1 track was that they wanted to have directional sound effects, but didn't want to actually remix the original sound elements. So they just added a bunch of directional sounds over the top of the original sound track. Unfortunately, the 2.0 tracks on some episodes ended up with the extra sound effects, too. (The Season 2 part 2 set did not contain the original audio for any episodes.)
I'm not sure why anyone would want the messed up 2.0 track (or 5.1 track for that matter) when they could listen to the original. So be sure you select the "Original Broadcast Audio" track when you watch these DVDs (because it is not the default).
This is a lot of footage from a BotCon convention. What I saw of this really isn't worth watching at all. (As with the BotCon documentaries on Rhino's previous TF sets, I fast-forwarded through a lot of it.)
There are a few interviews contained in here, but none of the interviews are with anyone who worked on the TV series. Many of the people interviewed are just fans who talk about how or why they became Transformers fans. When these people started talking, I pushed the fast forward button until they weren't on the screen anymore. I may have missed a really interesting story by doing this, but I seriously doubt it.
There are also some interviews with dealers at the convention who give information about some of the toys they are selling. Some of their information is inaccurate, however. One guy holds up a Japanese Fortress Maximus toy in it's original box. He says that this toy is called "Grand Maximus" in Japan and Fortress Maximus in America. He's wrong, though. This toy is called Fortress Maximus in Japan, too. As they show a close-up of the box this guy is holding, you can see "Fortress Maximus" written in Katakana towards the bottom. (Grand Maximus is actually a recolor of the Fortress Maximus toy that was released in Japan.)
This is actually a good extra feature this time, the best extra feature on any of the TF sets so far. These are a series of public service announcements with safety tips and other lessons for children. They show kids about to do something stupid, then one of the Autobots shows up just in time to save the kids from their own stupidity. I don't remember seeing these ads on TV and didn't know they existed. But "now I know, and knowing is half the battle."
At the end of many episodes in the third season, there were some short segments describing the history of the Transformers. There is no reason to watch these "historical trailers", since they are already at the end of various episodes in the set. These seem to have come from a videotape source and not restored from 35mm film as the episodes were. (The "historical trailers" that are at the end of the episodes also seem to be from a videotape source.)
One of Kup holding a Death Crystal, one of Galvatron. Note that these are not original animation cels used in the production of the show.