The Energon Pub

Just got back from Walmart. Picked up the bonus DVD "Beginnings". It is not animated. It is a glorified animatic of the prequel comics. The story in narrated by Bumblebee (who sounds like Roddy Mcdowell), not Cullen. Cullen does have a few lines as Prime, but that's it. As a little treat, Frank Welker does the voice of Megatron.

Other than that, it's nothing amazing. 19 minutes long. No new artwork. If you have the prequel comics, it's nothing new.

WTF. that kind of sucks! at least it narrows down my choices now

Just finished watching it as well. Buying the 2-disc set tomorrow at Target and giving the movie with this set as a Christmas gift. Anyway, I wish Cullen had gotten more time to speak since he was the only one billed for the prequel.

It was very nice to hear Frank Welker as Megatron though. Still not sure why they didn't use him over an unrecognizable Hugo Weaving.

Welker was very good as Megs. This set will do nicely for me until they come out with the inevitable "Extended Ultimate Edition" later on down the road.

does this come with a comic book?

Yeah...the Beginnings DVD is a bit of a let down, would have been cooler if everyone from the movie voiced their own part...no Shia Lebeouf, no John Tuturro. Had it actually been animated, that'd be sweet too. Nonetheless, it'll sit proudly in my collection

I kind of assumed thats all it was. I got off work early tonite and went to wal-mart to buy the movie since it was the only store open. Went there and was dissapointed to find they didn't have the special edition, just the 2 pack that included the bonus 19 minute prequel dvd, and the regular verison of the movie. I figured the Prequel DVD would be basically just be the comic book on disc with no real animation and a narrarator. I decided to pass. I want the special features, the behind the scenes, etc, I want all that.

Its absoloutly stupid that Wal-mart would not include the special edition DVD with the Disc. I'll be heading to target when I get up tommorrow to get the real DVD

I agree that Beginnings was a letdown. The voice actors could have used a bit more enthusiasm, especially at the end.

Welker, however, was perfect. All four lines or so. He really nailed the "Movie Megatron" role.

timshinn73 wrote:Just got back from Walmart. Picked up the bonus DVD "Beginnings". It is not animated. It is a glorified animatic of the prequel comics. The story in narrated by Bumblebee (who sounds like Roddy Mcdowell), not Cullen. Cullen does have a few lines as Prime, but that's it. As a little treat, Frank Welker does the voice of Megatron.

Other than that, it's nothing amazing. 19 minutes long. No new artwork. If you have the prequel comics, it's nothing new.

I knew it would probably be worthless. I remember when Revenge of the Sith was released two years ago. I was suckered into the Walmart exclusive with the Rise of Skywalker video (or something like that). It was worthless-I've never watched it all the way through. The quality was bad, I bought the widescreen movie and the extra video was full screen, and it was just crappy, rehash material. There's so much build up for these special video extras and they really seem to disappoint more often than not.

DevastaTTor wrote:I remember when Revenge of the Sith was released two years ago. I was suckered into the Walmart exclusive with the Rise of Skywalker video (or something like that). It was worthless-I've never watched it all the way through. The quality was bad, I bought the widescreen movie and the extra video was full screen, and it was just crappy, rehash material. There's so much build up for these special video extras and they really seem to disappoint more often than not.

When it came out my best friend raised a really good point about that Sith "extra" DVD: if they had wiped Threepio's memory, how come he was able to remember everything enough to repeat it as a narrative story?

So is the Cullen one as well. Cool that Frank is in it too. Im now getting it from a friend who used to post here.

No animation? That sucks.

If I can animate a comic book (*plug--War Within animated coming soon--plug*), I'm sure they could have hired a team to animate the comic book as well.

Bleh.

Oh well, someone will youtube it pretty soon, I'm sure.

Thanks for the info!

I thought this would be the case...

Is there gonna be a pretty good chance that the "Beginnings" "movie"(if you can even call it that)will be on Youtube or something? because if it's only 19 minutes long and not very good, I am not wasting any money on it....

HAHA I knew it!!!!!!!

timshinn73 wrote:Just got back from Walmart. Picked up the bonus DVD "Beginnings". It is not animated. It is a glorified animatic of the prequel comics. The story in narrated by Bumblebee (who sounds like Roddy Mcdowell), not Cullen. Cullen does have a few lines as Prime, but that's it. As a little treat, Frank Welker does the voice of Megatron.

Other than that, it's nothing amazing. 19 minutes long. No new artwork. If you have the prequel comics, it's nothing new.

So if I haven't read the prequel comic, will I enjoy it? To be honest, I didn't expect more than what you are describing. My biggest concern was about length. I did think it would be longer. If it's only 19 minutes, why isn't it just included as a special feature? Kind of a waste of a DVD to hold 19 minutes worth of content...

We ought to clarify: It's not "NO animation." There's plenty of animation. It's the panels from the prequel comic, animated to music and rather good voice acting. If you watch anime, there's plenty of animation of this style there. It's not just a Powerpoint of the comic pages, which is what some of these reviews have sounded like.

The voice cast does feature Mark Ryan, Frank Welker, and Peter Cullen all reprising their roles (Bumblebee, Megs, Prime). None of them phone it in, and the sound effects and acting are all at least to the movie's standard.

Another neat detail (I thought) was that they found musicians to record the songs Bumblebee uses to communicate in the prequel. If you've read the prequel, you know the songs are sort of a "We didn't use the real song, but you know the song we mean" kind of idea. Beginnings takes the idea one step further by using singers who actually sound a lot like Sheryl Crow ("Winding Road"-inspired song), Chumbawamba ("Tubthumper"-inspired song), and U2 ("I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"-inspired song).

It's not amazing, but the prequel DVD is a neat bonus, and worth a couple extra bucks, if only for the excellent production values.

if anyone really hates the walmart bonus disc and wants to sell it - I'll buy it. I'll even do a trade + cash deal for the Target Evol. of a Hero BB 2-pack if anyone is in dire need of it. (I have one.) Plmk.

How do they get away with calling this animated?!

Ugh... haven't watched it yet, but now wish I hadn't bought it.

TheKnightShift wrote:

DevastaTTor wrote:I remember when Revenge of the Sith was released two years ago. I was suckered into the Walmart exclusive with the Rise of Skywalker video (or something like that). It was worthless-I've never watched it all the way through. The quality was bad, I bought the widescreen movie and the extra video was full screen, and it was just crappy, rehash material. There's so much build up for these special video extras and they really seem to disappoint more often than not.

When it came out my best friend raised a really good point about that Sith "extra" DVD: if they had wiped Threepio's memory, how come he was able to remember everything enough to repeat it as a narrative story? :???:

Ding ding ding, you are correct my friend.

Versa wrote:How do they get away with calling this animated?!

Ugh... haven't watched it yet, but now wish I hadn't bought it.

I don't think anyone ever made any claims that this would be a fully animated prequel. I just bought and watched this last night, and I thought it was pretty fun. I haven't read the prequel comics so it was new to me. The way I see it I saved myself $13-16 by not having to buy the trade.

I recommend it as a fun bonus!