Ultra Magnus (episode)

« Transformers: Robots in Disguise ep 24 »
Quick, shoot at everything except him!
"Ultra Magnus" 登場! ゴッドマグナス () (Tōjō! God Magnus) "Enter! God Magnus"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS, Studio Gallop
Airdate	13 September 2000 (Japanese) October 6, 2001 (English)
Written by	Junki Takegami (Japanese) Tom Wyner (English)
Director	Akira Katō
Animation studio	Studio Gallop

A new Autobot
Is he friend or is he foe?
Sky-Byte digs up junk

Synopsis

The twenty-first century—that's when everything changes, and you gotta be ready.

In Metro City, a new Autobot stands atop a building and muses that he'll find Optimus Prime and take back what's rightfully his.

Meanwhile, Scourge and the Decepticons are raiding the city's oil stores, but are interrupted by the Autobot Brothers. The Autobots soon realise that they can't fire for fear of igniting the oil, so Side Burn tries to bluff the Decepticons into standing down—until a car-carrier bearing the Autobot insignia arrives, unleashing his firepower. The newcomer clashes with the Autobots, and the Decepticons escape in the resulting confusion. The new Autobot pours scorn on the three brothers.

I better get this back to Megatron.

Sky-Byte watches this unfold and mocks the Decepticons before being approached by Koji Onishi and his friends, all of whom appear to be his admirers. The shark flees in panic back to Predacon headquarters, where Megatron gives him a new mission: Find the remaining O-Parts.

The Decepticons make sure that Sky-Byte's orders to the other Predacons are relayed to Autobot headquarters, and Optimus dispatches the Autobot Brothers to his location. They're intercepted en-route by the mysterious car-carrier, who, after warning them of a Decepticon ambush, shocks them, incapacitates them, and deposits them in a junkyard.

My rigid grill structure is bearing down on your unprotected cargo door.

Mega-Octane and Scourge stand at the top of a canyon overlooking the road, musing on their plan to relay Sky-Byte's message to the Autobots in order to lead them to their prepared ambush. Suddenly, they find themselves facing the car-carrier instead of the intended Autobot Brothers. Upon being questioned, the vehicle transforms and introduces himself as Ultra Magnus.

Magnus is unimpressed by the Decepticons' attempts to attack him, even mocking their combination into Ruination. A blast to the combiner's back promptly separates him back into his component parts and signals Optimus' arrival. With his addition to the fight, the Decepticons are forced to retreat.

Red vs. Blue?

Optimus offers Magnus a place on his team, which Magnus rebukes. A startled Optimus asks why Magnus is acting so aggressively, to which Magnus recounts how it was Optimus, not Magnus, who was chosen to carry the Matrix. Bitter and vengeful, Magnus challenges Optimus to a duel over its keeping.

Meanwhile, the only things Sky-Byte has dug up are a rubber duck and an old bomb, the latter of which proves to be still explosive, much to his dismay.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"You let them escape. Are you cowards or traitors?"

—Ultra Magnus makes friends with the Autobot brothers.

"Optimus may put up with your whining, but I won't."

—Ultra Magnus would be a less sympathetic Autobot Commander.

Children: Give us your autograph, Sky-Byte!
Sky-Byte: This is embarrassing. I'd love to stay and chat, but we celebrities are very busy, you know! Beast mode!
[Sky-Byte takes flight]
Children: Bye! See ya, Sky-Byte!
Sky-Byte: This is amazing! I'm very popular. I should get an agent, or a manager. Maybe I could get my haikus published!

—Even Sky-Byte knows a good business opportunity when he sees one.

"I would've brought you more energy from the refinery, but I was ambushed by an army of rabid humans and barely managed to escape."

—Sky-Byte's ever-so-slightly slanted description of Koji's friends.

"Could it be? That finally after hours of unglorious and back breaking labour I've actually found a, uh... rubber duck. Oh well."

—Sky-Byte

"We've got company!"
"What do you mean? My sensors show this road's clear for the next ten miles!"
"There's this real high-tech gadget called a rear-view mirror. You might try using it sometime."

—Prowl demonstrates to Side Burn that the old methods are sometimes the best.

"This truck's carrying us around like we were toys!"

--Um, Side Burn, I think it's time we had a little talk...

"You may be lousy fighters, but at least you're good for a laugh. You ever thought about taking your act on the road?"

—Ultra Magnus has only been on Earth for a day, but already has the Decepticons pegged.

"That's gonna leave a mark."

—Sky-Byte has a Wile E. Coyote moment.

Notes

Differences with Car Robots

• We wouldn't normally point out the English version's fondness for adding dialogue where there wasn't any in the original Japanese, but it's pronounced enough to warrant a mention in this episode. In Car Robots, the Decepticons do nearly everything in near-total silence: stealing the energy, escaping, and delivering it to Megatron. Lots of dialogue is added over the top of these scenes in Robots in Disguise.
• As Prowl moves to stop Magnus, Robots in Disguise extends the scene by re-using the footage of Magnus opening fire and some tanks exploding, but mirrored.
• When the Autobot Brothers introduce themselves to Magnus, Robots in Disguise switches the order of the speakers, letting Prowl go first, and X-Brawn last (easy to do when they don't have moving mouths). While Robots in Disguise has X-Brawn tell Magnus they're trying to apprehend the Decepticons, in Car Robots, Prowl is threatening to arrest Magnus for shooting at him. Prowl carries a grudge about this for the rest of the episode.
• When robot-mode Magnus shoots at the brothers, the animation of his gun firing is looped to extend the scene slightly.
• When the brothers report to Optimus, Car Robots has X-Brawn play devil's advocate and point out that Magnus's intervention did stop the Decepticons' energy theft. In Robots in Disguise, he talks about Magnus's dangerous weapons.
• Watching the smoke plume from a far, Sky-Byte mutters about Scourge and the Decepticons "showing off" in Car Robots, and about how he'll need to steal energy to keep up with them, while in Robots in Disguise, he is mocking their failure, and claims he should have been sent on the mission.
• Robots in Disguise deletes a short flashback to the events of "Sky-Byte Saves the Day", because of the issues surrounding that episode. The footage is replaced with reused shots of the kids and Sky-Byte, and the dialogue refers only to "that that [he] stood up to the Decepticons". A reference the Autobot Brothers later make to the incident is also removed.
• In Car Robots, Sky-Byte runs from the kids because he's horrified that they think of him as heroic, and he implies this is just the latest in a string of similar incidents. In Robots in Disguise, it's played as nervousness brought on by discovering his newfound celebrity status, but he's not averse to the idea.
• Similarly, when apologizing for his absence to Megatron, Sky-Byte keeps it a secret in Car Robots, claiming he was "off hunting", while in Robots in Disguise, he spins it as being "ambushed by an army of rabid humans". Afterward, when Megatron gives him his mission, he vows not to fail Megatron in Robots in Disguise, while in Car Robots, he has to check to make sure Megatron is even talking to him!
• Car Robots gives Sky-Byte an extra line of dialogue wondering why nobody is answering his communication, and remarking to himself that it doesn't matter anyway as it means he'll be the only one to be rewarded.
• Rather that digitally edit the member select screen as normal, this episode just replaces it with a different, pre-edited shot of the screen from "Battle Protocol!".
• Mega-Octane actually appears to feel a little guilty about tricking Sky-Byte in Car Robots, as he asks Scourge if using him for bait is really okay, then deciding it's all right if they think of it as a chance to take a break from collecting energy. In Robots in Disguise, this is changed to him asking about, and spelling out for the audience, the particulars of the plan.
• In Car Robots, Scourge is hungry for revenge against Ultra Magnus; Robots in Disguise changes this to him being eager to take down Optimus Prime.
• Robots in Disguise goes to commercial after Magnus hits the brothers with his stun lasers, cutting out the Car Robots scene transition that follows.
• When the brothers recover in the junkyard, both Prowl and X-Brawn yell at Side Burn in Car Robots, but only Prowl does it in Robots in Disguise. The animation still shows the little while "stress" dots around them both, though.
• Robots in Disguise extends the scene of Magnus shooting at Scourge and Mega-Octane by repeating the close-up shot of his weapons firing.
• There are a few exchanges between Magnus and Scourge that seem like the translation got a little wobbly and forgot that "Cybertron" is the Japanese name for the Autobots, and wound up changing the dialogue so that it refers to the planet instead of the faction. Where Car Robots has Magnus respond to Scourge's inquiry as to his identity with "I'm just a bit more clever than the other stupid Cybertrons", in Robots in Disguise, he replies "Not that it's any of your business, but I'm from Cybertron." Then later, Car Robots has Scourge say that Magnus is "just another foolish Cybertron", while in Robots in Disguise, he tells him he "should have stayed on Cybertron".
• Prime's whole conversation with the Autobot Brothers as they report back in is extended for Robots in Disguise, with repeated bits of footage of Prime and the screen added in, and shots held on for longer. The added dialogue talks about Magnus's familiarity with Prime, which leads Prime to realize his identity sooner in Robots in Disguise; something he doesn't realize in Car Robots until he's in the space bridge. In Robots in Disguise, his speech while in the bridge is changed to explain for the audience how Prime was chosen as leader over Magnus and given the Matrix. This dialogue, and that shared by Prime and Magnus when they meet at the episode's end, makes it clear that the issues between them are pre-existing ones, whereas in Car Robots, Prime doesn't seem to suspect anything.
• When Scourge spots Movor and Ro-Tor approaching from behind Magnus, an extra shot of Scourge's head is added into the middle of the scene to extend it a little; In Car Robots, the two fliers' approach is one continuous shot. Immediately after, the footage of Movor opening fire is reused twice to extend the attack scene, then, when the Commandos gang up on Magnus, the shot of Armorhide and Rollbar blasting is also re-used. This is tiresome, but it beats the show's usual runtime-extension method of lingering on a dozen different shots for a second longer than the Japanese version did!
• Speaking of that tactic, though, Robots in Disguise creates a little tension by holding on the shot of Optimus's outstretched hand for a second longer than Car Robots, before Magnus slaps it away.
• In Car Robots, Optimus Prime has an Energon Matrix, granted to him by Vector Sigma, "god" of Cybertron — a portrayal of the mega-computer consistent with the previous Japanese series, Beast Wars Neo. In Robots in Disguise, the Energon Matrix is reimagined as a version of the more familiar Matrix of Leadership (called just "the Matrix" here), and Vector Sigma is not mentioned.
• In Car Robots, Sky-Byte digs up what is identified in Robots in Disguise as a giant rubber ducky while digging for O-Parts, but if you look closely, you can see that the body of the "duck" is hollow and shaped like a large oval bowl. The item is actually a (more size-appropriate) bedpan! This is a play on words in the Japanese version: Sky-Byte keeps excitedly yelling "O-Parts! O-Parts!" when he first hits something metallic (his shovel makes a "clang" sound in Car Robots) but when he pulls out the item and stares at it, he deflatedly amends his commentary with "...or maybe O-maru", which literally means "baby toilet", i.e. a bedpan or chamber pot. Because this word play doesn't easily translate to English, the script was changed to identify the thing as a (gigantically huge) rubber ducky, complete with added squeaky sound effect. Either way, poor shark just can't catch a break!

Animation and/or technical glitches

• The lines on Magnus's Autobot symbol are backwards in a couple of shots.
• When talking with Mega-Octane about what to do following Optimus' arrival on the battlefield, Scourge says that the Decepticons will just take them both out. Mega-Octane responds with "You saw what Magnus did when we combined," despite the fact that it was Optimus who shot them in the back.

Continuity notes

• Optimus was previously established to possess something called his "Cyber Matrix" back in "The Test". This episode begins to explore that concept even more, but in a manner that ignores the previous "Cyber Matrix" designation as this and all subsequent episodes will only refer to it as just "the Matrix" (see Transformers references below).
• After a series of complications in the episode order of this show's original televised run in the U.S., it is in this episode that the O-Parts are referred to by name for the first time. The first O-Part that appeared in "The Ultimate Robot Warrior" went unnamed in that episode, while "Sky-Byte Saves the Day" (another episode relevant to the O-Parts story arc) never aired on TV in the United States. Since no explanation about what the O-Parts are is given in this episode (beyond a generic notion of their being something important), and since no connection is made in this episode between the O-Parts and the unnamed artifact found in "The Ultimate Robot Warrior", and since no actual O-Parts even appear in this episode, their "introduction" given here to English-speaking audiences is anything but ceremonious. U.S. viewers would eventually get a more proper introduction to the O-Parts when "Hope for the Future" was created and later aired almost three weeks after this episode (see that episode's article for more).

Transformers references

Ah, the sickly green glow of home

• This episode gives us our first glimpse of the Robots in Disguise incarnation of Cybertron, as well as the series's first allusion to the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, here simply called "the Matrix".

Real-world references

• After Megatron hears Sky-Byte's report, the reflecting glare of Megatron's eyes is accompanied by a Star Wars lightsaber ignition sound effect.
• Likewise, after Scourge and Mega-Octane discuss their plan to use Sky-Byte to trap the Autobots, the twinkle in Scourge's eye is accompanied by the same lightaber ignition sound effect.
• While driving along, the Autobot Brothers pass "Dongwoo Animation Co. Ltd.", a Korean animation studio to which Studio Gallop outsourced work.

Trivia

• Even though Ultra Magnus is made out to be a bit of a bad guy in this episode, he still obeys Earth's traffic and safety laws by signalling his right turn as he's pulling away from the junkyard (after also showing he's not all bad by carefully depositing the Autobot brothers, unharmed, wheels down, inside.)

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "Ultra Magnus"

Portuguese

• Title: "Ultra Magnus"

Spanish

• Title: "Ultra Magnus"

• When Sky-Byte finds a rubber duck, he states that he already has one.

Home video releases

DVD

2000 — Transformers: Car Robots — Vol. 6 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
2005 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Season Two (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers: Robots in Disguise — Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)

External links

• "Ultra Magnus" transcript on RiDForever.info