Surprise Party
From Transformers Wiki
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 Zelda II: The Adventure of Daniel | |||||||||
| "Surprise Party" | |||||||||
| Production code | 700-97 | ||||||||
| Season | 3 | ||||||||
| No. in season | 12 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | October 9, 1986 | ||||||||
| Written by | Steve Mitchell Barbara Petty | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Sei Young Animation Co. Ltd.[1] | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Daniel and Wheelie's first team-up! Oh noes!
Contents |
Synopsis
Spike and the Autobots throw a surprise party for Daniel, but it is interrupted by an attack from the Combaticons. Wheelie gets caught in the crossfire and Ultra Magnus throws himself over the boy Autobot to save him from being shot. After hitting the shuttle bay and destroying several ships, the Combaticons retreat. The attack was a coordinated effort by Galvatron to disrupt a peace conference to be hosted on Cybertron the next day.
Daniel and Wheelie want to throw Ultra Magnus a surprise party, but no one knows the date of his creation and it isn’t on file in the Hall of Records. An annoying and clumsy Custodiobot tells them that the information must be stored on the lost Autobot storage asteroid. Daniel and Wheelie steal a garbage ship and head out to find the asteroid and the info. Unbeknownst to them, their movements are being watched by Cyclonus, who evidently doesn’t have anything better to do than spy on garbage ships. Galvatron orders his troops to follow it.
Stuck in a meteor shower, Daniel and Wheelie crash on an asteroid that—surprise!—happens to be the asteroid they were looking for. While they are exploring they are attacked by scaly flying eels and take refuge in a cave, which turns out to be the opening to the records. Inside, sentry robots attack them for asking for the wrong file name. To make matters worse, the eels have found their way inside and attach themselves to Wheelie. Just as they are about to be shot by the drones and eaten by the eels, both menaces are destroyed by Cyclonus and the Sweeps, who take the pair hostage and interrogate them.
Cyclonus reprograms the asteroid into a collision course for Cybertron and then sends Spike a message that he’s holding Daniel hostage. The Autobots have two choices: destroy the asteroid and kill Daniel, or let the asteroid hit the planet and kill all the peace delegates.
Ultra Magnus takes Sky Lynx to the asteroid. The Sweeps attack, but Magnus makes short work of them, then heads after Cyclonus. They pound on each other as Wheelie sneaks by and presses the convenient self-destruct button. Cyclonus runs off and the Autobots and Daniel escape in Sky Lynx as the asteroid blows up.
Safe on Cybertron, Daniel explains how they got into this mess, looking for Ultra Magnus' birthday. Spike declares today as Ultra Magnus' birthday and everyone cheers.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"I don't know, Wheelie. This seems an awful lot like stealing to me."
"A ship we'll only borrow! We'll have it back tomorrow."
- —Daniel is led into a life of crime by Wheelie.
"Invalid file name! Invalid file name! Invalid file name!"
- —The asteroid security drones are pissed over Daniel's use of incorrect syntax.
"You are insolent, Earth boy."
"Heh, thanks."
- —Cyclonus vs. Daniel Witwicky
"If my superb physique would pass through the tunnels I would join you."
"Forget it."
- —Sky Lynx and Ultra Magnus
"Happy birthday, Ultra Magnus! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
- —The Autobots and humans make merry.
Season 5
Tommy and Powermaster Optimus Prime meet in the barren wasteland and Optimus offers to tell Tommy any kind of story he wants. Tommy asks if he knows any birthday stories... specifically, stories about forgetting somebody's birthday. Hmm? HMMM? Seemingly not getting the hint, Optimus says he has just such a story...
After concluding the story, Prime notices that Tommy looks sullen and asks him what's wrong. Tommy asks Prime how he could forget his birthday. Prime then surprises him with a birthday cake, saying that it's from all the Autobots. As Tommy blows out the candles (15 of them, for the record), several other Autobots cheer him on.
Notes
Continuity notes
- So Blast Off can apparently become a huge troop-carrying shuttle, Astrotrain-style. Animation error, bad scripting, or little-used ability? You alone can choose!
- This isn't the first time that Wheelie has almost been done in by a swarm of little flying brown alien creatures on some desolate rock.
Animation and technical errors
- Wheelie's transformations are very inconsistent across the episode, and his driving stunts don't seem to be anywhere close to what the script presumably called for. When trying to shake loose the eel creatures, for example, he just drives along with hardly any swerving, breaking, etc. Magnus's proportions, eye shape, and face details are likewise inconsistent.
- Daniel consistently pronounces Wheelie's name as "WHEE-LEE", rather than "WHEEL-ee" like all the other characters.
- The "CONTROL ROOM" that Daniel enters is labeled with jumbled hand-written letters when we first see it, but squared computer-font letters as Daniel approaches it. Its control panel has circular yellow buttons beside it (in the long shot) that change to square red buttons (when he presses them).
- When Daniel opens the door, space is seen behind him - twice - even though he was just in an enclosed hallway.
- Daniel then starts feeling around on a totally blank wall for a on/off switch that only appears in a closeup shot of his hand.
- The lights make a bizarrely loud noise when they turn on.
- Coloring errors:
- Groove's helmet is white instead of black during the "SURPRISE!" pan; it's black in the next shot as Spike steps forward.
- Cyclonus's cockpit windows are lavender instead of orange as he watches Galvatron declare that "there shall be no peace".
- In the first shot of the Combaticons firing on the shuttle bay, Swindle is colored green. Since he's in jeep mode, it makes him look just like Hound! He's also missing his right rear wheel. Behind him, Brawl's rear tank mode section is colored like Onslaught.
- Green Swindle reappears in a closeup shot a moment later.
- As the Autobots fire on the attacking Combaticons, First Aid's chest is colored mostly white instead of red.
- After the Combaticons retreat, in the foreground, one of the wrecked shuttles is colored like Blast Off!
- As Daniel talks to Wheelie about setting up the party for Magnus, the white circles on Magnus' waist are red.
- As Daniel and Wheelie ask him about Magnus' birthday, Perceptor's chin is white.
- "Do you think he's lost?" - Ultra Magnus's chin guards are white instead of blue.
- In a wide shot of Blaster and Spike at the monitor, Blaster's helmet is almost completely white.
- As Spike reacts to Cyclonus's appearance, Blaster's arm and shoulder are in Cyclonus's colors.
- Magnus's eyes are too small as he launches a missile at the Sweeps; his launcher is also mis-drawn, and colored blue instead of white. He's also missing the launcher on his other shoulder.
- Ultra Magnus is missing the white circles on his waist as he stands behind Wheelie during the surprise party.
- Vortex fires on Wheelie with a non-standard laser sound effect.
- When the Combaticons retreat, Bruticus is seen running with them instead of Onslaught. See Continuity Errors as well, below.
- Onslaught's voice is missing its electronic processing.
- In the pan across the damaged shuttle bay, Hot Rod is drawn and colored instead of Rodimus Prime. Nearby, another robot's waist and legs are colored like Rodimus.
- As Daniel asks if the shuttle can still fly, Wheelie is missing his Autobot symbol.
- Magnus is missing his missile launchers as First Aid repairs him.
- Spelling errors:
- Over the entrance to the peace conference, the word "welcome" is spelt "wellcome".
- Wheelie activates the asteroid's "auto destrut sequences".
- During Daniel and Wheelie's conversation with the librarian bot, Wheelie makes their request but it's Daniel's mouth and hands that are moving.
- Near as anybody can tell, Cyclonus' face, neck and eyebrows are all supposed to be a light gray. In this episode, like many others, they are light lavender instead. He's also got a purple "goatee"/chin.
- As Cyclonus pounds a control panel, his chin is the same color as his face.
- The garbage scow jumps from empty space to inside the meteor shower between shots, with no transition.
- Then after the ship is damaged, it's suddenly back in empty space again.
- Then all of a sudden it's crash-landing on the storage asteroid.
- Then after the ship is damaged, it's suddenly back in empty space again.
- The head delegate's fist clips through the matte painted table as he bangs his gavel.
- Wheelie's canopy usually slides into place from the back of his cabin, but as Daniel jumps out on the asteroid it hinges up to the side (and again as they flee from the crazed librarian robots.)
- As Daniel and Wheelie enter the cave, a scene transition runs, but the background music and sound effects play over it instead of the usual flip-change music.
- In two closeups of Daniel inside Wheelie's cabin, he's drawn with the wall of a full-sized room behind him.
- As he shoots the sentry-bots, Scourge's gun uses the sound effect from Megatron's cannon.
- Daniel's reaction dialog is oddly patched together: "Cyclonus! ...huh? Come on, Wheelie! ...Wheelie, I think we'd better get out of here."
- Cyclonus' eyebrows are missing as repeats the name of the Storage Asteroid, and again as he comments on Wheelie activating the auto destruct.
- As Spike runs up, Blaster's mouth moves, but there's no dialogue, and Blaster's helmet rims are white instead of red.
- When Ultra Magnus points at Cyclonus through the monitor he has six fingers.
- Just before Ultra Magnus enlists Sky Lynx's help in finding Daniel, two Rodimus Primes can be seen guarding the entrance to the Peace Conference.
- Sky Lynx's cockpit appears tiny - just big enough for Magnus to ride in, like a fighter jet. Though it's much more scale appropriate, in nearly every other episode (see the earlier episode "Chaos", for example) he has a much roomier interior.
- Sky Lynx's lynx mode seems to have developed a rash! He's got a bunch of black dots on his face as he points at the remains of the garbage scow, and again as he fires at the Sweeps, and yet again as he waits for Magnus to return.
- While Ultra Magnus and Sky Lynx are fighting the eels, Sky Lynx has a red Decepticon logo in two shots.
- Ultra Magnus is drawn mouthing Sky Lynx's "disgusting creatures" line.
- Cyclonus orders the Sweeps to attack with deep space sky behind him in two successive shots... and then the Sweeps are shown charging out of a cave.
- The first shot fired by Ultra Magnus at the Sweeps uses the sound effect from Optimus/Rodimus Prime's rifle. The subsequent shots have the usual Autobot laser sound. Then Magnus fires his shoulder rockets, and they too use Prime's rifle sound (they had their own distinct "fwoosh" earlier in the show).
- When Wheelie drives through the cell door, it's missing the line down its the middle.
- Sky Lynx's mouth doesn't move during his "superb physique" line.
- When Cyclonus runs up to Magnus (who is embedded in a wall), he's a bit taller and more massive than Magnus, when he should be at least a head shorter.
- As Wheelie, Daniel, and Sky Lynx wait for Ultra Magnus, Sky Lynx speaks but it's Wheelie whose mouth is moving.
- As Daniel and Wheelie worry about Magnus, Sky Lynx (filling the background behind them) is colored entirely white in one shot, then orange in the next.
- As Ultra Magnus fights Cyclonus, his shoulder missiles appear and disappear between shots. As he looks after the retreating Cyclonus, he's got only one of his launchers.
- Right after Wheelie presses the button, Ultra Magnus' head is all-white. As he stoops over, his face morphs into an indistinct shape (Cyclonus is missing his Decepticon symbol during this shot).
- Cyclonus's wing clips through the door as he transforms and flees.
- Since Ultra Magnus's mouth is moving at the end of the episode, it looks like he's wishing himself a happy birthday!
Continuity errors
- Nice of Warpath to have a conveniently loud squeak in his joints just as the plot needs something to draw Daniel's attention.
- Just how is Daniel unable to recognize the highly distinctive profiles of Warpath, Rodimus, Magnus, etc?
- The Combaticons fire at the Autobots from some kind of rocky outcropping next to the shuttle hangar. A rocky outcropping on a machine planet.
- First Aid, the pacifist, sure loves shooting guns!
- Blast Off's shuttle mode is huge as the Combaticons retreat - they run inside him with plenty of room to spare. He's usually shown to have little or no size-changing when he transforms - as in "Chaos", when Runamuck rode astride him.
- The super-advanced space robots' record keeping systems are a little dodgy:
- Central Records doesn't have any access to the electronic data in the Hall of Records.
- The Hall of Records has stacks of printed-on-paper books inside.
- Nobody seems to have kept a copy of the storage asteroid's contents on Cybertron.
- The automated, unmanned Cybertronian garbage ship has a cabin suitable for humans (and a human-ish sized Minibot.)
- So Cyclonus just stands around watching Garbage Scow TV all day, waiting for something to happen? Not only does he spend his time watching garbage ships, but the fact that one of them is off course is apparently reason to alert Galvatron. Okay...
- Wheelie just flies the shuttle right into a meteor shower. Was he not paying attention at the controls?
- Does the asteroid have an oxygen-rich atmosphere? Because Daniel doesn't have a space suit...and neither the vacuum of space, nor a lack of oxygen if there is air, seem to have an effect. Maybe it's part of those superhuman abilities those Witwickys have...
- Cyclonus's hostage-taking plan isn't executed very well:
- He plans to crash the asteroid into Cybertron, betting the Autobots won't stop it for fear of endangering Wheelie and Daniel. Wouldn't they be more at risk by being left on the crashing asteroid?
- He puts Wheelie and Daniel in a cell that Wheelie can escape from by just driving through the door. Cyclonus is totally unaware of their escape, not having assigned a guard or anything to watch them.
- After landing at the asteroid, Sky Lynx's combined shuttle/lander form transforms into just the lander's lynx mode. His shuttle portion doesn't reappear until the Autobots are flying away from the exploding asteroid. He was portrayed this way in the Marvel comics - akin to a Triple Changer - but the cartoon is generally consistent in showing him with two components that split and combine (yet again, refer to "Chaos" to see it done correctly. Heck, even "Five Faces of Darkness" got this one right!)
Trivia
- This was one of twelve episodes of the original cartoon released as audio adventures by the German company Karussell Musik und Video.
- Apparently no one is sad that the storage asteroid has been destroyed. How many priceless pieces of information have been lost?
- Fly off into space with no plan. Fly right into an asteroid cluster. Run right into a meteor. Crash land at random. Still find your objective. Daniel and Wheelie are the worst - and luckiest - searchers in the entire universe.
Foreign localization
French
- Title (European French broadcast): ?
- Title (Canadian French broadcast and European French DVD release): "La fête" ("The Party")
- Original airdate: ?
- Concerning the European French dub:
- Onslaught's line "Aim your salvos at the shuttle bay!" is missing.
- Wheelie's line "Trying to fight, but they hold tight!" is missing.
- In English, Daniel tells Cyclonus that the place is an ice cream factory, in the dub he says it's a chocolate factory.
- Ultra Magnus' line "Cyclonus, if you harm that boy..." is dubbed by "Release this buffoon and don't hurt him, do you hear me?". What??
- For the first time, the grunts from the original version are recovered several times, notably when the eels attack Ultra Magnus and when he confronts Cyclonus.
- Name-dodging:
- Instead of starting his phrase with "First Aid", Spike says "Say, I would like you to repair this device, it's very urgent".
- Daniel's line "Ultra Magnus always thinks of others before he thinks of himself, doesn't he?" is dubbed by "It's amazing to see that, he always thinks of others before thinking of himself". That is strange since usually, Ultra Magnus is one of the rare robots to have his name regularly pronounced in the dub.
- Daniel's line "Perceptor, are you sure you can't tell us when Ultra Magnus was created?" is dubbed by "So you can't tell us when it was built either?".
- Wheelie's phrase "Daniel my friend, our journey is at an end!" is replaced by "What are we going to do? I don't want to stay here", which kinda goes against the original version.
- Ultra Magnus does not name Sky Lynx when telling him to fuel up, he just says "Get ready, the future of Cybertron is up to us!".
- Daniel's "Wheelie, no!" is dubbed by "No, wait for me!".
German
- Title: "Die Geburtstagsparty"" ("The Birthday Party")
- Original airdate: ?
Italian
- Title (first dub): "Il compleanno di Convoy" ("Ultra Magnus's Birthday")
- Original airdate: ?
- Title (second dub): "Festa a sorpresa" ("Surprise Party")
- Original airdate: ?
Japanese
- Title: ビックリパーティー (Bikkuri Party, "Surprise Party")
- Original airdate: February 13, 1987
Mandarin
- Title: "Shēngrì Kuàilè " (生日快乐, "Happy Birthday")
- Original airdate: ?
Brazilian Portuguese
- Title: "Festa Surpresa" ("Surprise Party")
- Original airdate: ?
Latin Spanish
- Title: "La fiesta de cumpleaños" ("The Birthday Party")
- Original airdate: ?
Russian
- Title: "Prazdnik s sjoorpreezom" (Праздник с сюрпризом, "A Celebration with a Surprise")
- Original airdate: ?
Home video releases
- VHS
1991 — Transformers — Thief in the Night / Surprise Party (Tempo Video)
1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1: Vol. 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 4: Series 3.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 18 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers — Le Fantôme dans la Machine (UFG Junior) — European French audio only.
2009 — Transformers — Season's Three & Four [sic] (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2010 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)
References
- ↑ "The Transformers" status update document identifying "Surprise Party" as a Sei Young episode, photograph by the Roboplastic Apocalypse on Facebook
