Spychangers to the Rescue
From Transformers Wiki
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 OK, who had the chili? | ||||||
| "Spychangers to the Rescue" (Ninja Robo! Spychanger Sanjō) "Ninja Robo! Enter the Spychangers" | ||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo,NAS, Studio Gallop | |||||
| Airdate | April 26,2000(Japanese) September 13,2001(English) | |||||
| Writer | Kazuhiko Gōdo(Japanese) Richard Epcar(English) | |||||
| Director | Yoshiaki Tsutsui | |||||
| Animation studio | Studio Gallop | |||||
Hot Shot, Crosswise, W.A.R.S.,
Race Exertion Vehicle,
Ironhide, Mirage
Contents |
Synopsis
Under the cover of darkness, thePredacontrio try to steal thePlutonium Energy Generator,butOptimus Primeand theAutobot brothersare there to stop them. During the battle, Optimus admonishesSide Burnfor his reckless behaviour—if the generator is damaged, it may leak deadlyzirconium gas.Fortunately at this point the Predacons retreat. (Don't worry, there's more to the episode than just that.)
Kojiwakes up to the sound of a honking horn. He rushes outside and greets his friendCarland his father. The three leave for a biking trip.
The plutonium energy generator is loaded onto a truck and transported across the city. The Autobot brothers follow closely behind the generator. Side Burn develops a mild fear of the elements inside the generator that would be harmful to Transformers, butProwlkeeps his brother in line. Traffic slows down due toSlapper's hacking the systems used to control the highways. TheAutobotssuspect something is afoot, but stay in position.
Koji and company are also stuck in traffic, as isKelly.
The Predacons leap through traffic, approaching the truck carrying the precious generator and chasing off the driver. The Predacons steal the energy generator off of the truck while the present Autobots are busy transforming. Because the traffic prevents the Autobots from firing,T-AIdeploys three of theSpychangers.Hot Shot,R.E.V.andCrosswisereveal themselves to the Predacons, who decide to retreat with the generator rather than to stay and fight. Naturally, the Spychangers give chase.
The Predacons leap off the highway and into the water, and the three Spychangers follow and transform on the beach. The Predacons knock the three down using their lasers, but help comes to the three Autobots in the form ofW.A.R.S.,Ironhide,andMirage.The six soldiers dizzy the Predacons by literally running circles around them. But in the fight, the generator is dropped and rolls out of the sea into the grasp ofSky-Byte.Slapper andGas Skunkretreat with the generator, but the battle escalates further with the arrival of Prime and the Autobot brothers. However, Prime decides to let the Spychangers handle the Predacons on their own.
On the verge of being beaten, Sky-Byte decides that he can at least prevent the Autobots from getting the generator—by destroying it. The Spychangers leap to block hisTsunami Blaster.With all six Spychangers harmed by the blast, the Predacons grab the generator and get away. As the four regular Autobots regret the loss, the Spychangers laugh and reveal that in the confusion, they replaced the generator with a decoy, disguising the real one as a rock by draping a cloth over it.
In the Predacon base,Megatronis pleased. But his pleasure turns sour when he tries to activate the decoy generator and it bursts open to reveal a mocking statue.
Koji and Carl, having finally gotten out of traffic, enjoy a bike race together. Optimus watches, glad that Koji is still able to enjoy himself despite the fact that the Predacons still hold his father, and promises again that they'll getDr. Onishiback.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Predacons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"You know, sometimes that Autobot worries me."
- —Optimus Primeregarding Side Burn.
Side Burn:Listen, bro, I'm not feeling very well. I have to go see my mechanic.
(Prowl rear-ends Side Burn)
Prowl:You'll feel a lot worse if you don't get back in line!
Side Burn:Hey, cut it out! Can I go return a video now? Otherwise they'll charge me a late fee.
ProwlandX-Brawn:The answer is no!!
- —Side Burn fails miserably at getting out of his assignment.
"They don't pay us enough for this!"
- —Atruck driverreacts to his truck being attacked by giant robotic animals.
"You Autobots oughta be more careful. You just might hurt some innocent bystanders if you keep that up."
- —Slapper
Notes
Differences withCar Robots
- InRobots in Disguise,the factory that the Predacons target is constructing a plutonium energy generator. InCar Robots,it is just a vaguely-defined "powerful energy".Car Robotsmentions several times that the Predacons want it to power their base;Robots in Disguisedoesn't say why they want it.
- When Side Burn nearly shoots the factory by accident and Optimus deflects his shot with a Blaze Blaster,Robots in Disguiseadds a shot of Prime actually firing the attack, which inCar Robotscame from off-screen. The shot is created by taking the piece of footage that follows this scene, Primecompletingthe attack and standing back upright, and playing it backwards.
- After Side Burn leaves to pursue a red sports car,Robots in Disguisehas Prime and X-Brawn worry about him, while inCar Robots,they are just thinking about assigning escorts for the transport of the generator.
- Robots in Disguiseslightly shortens the scene of Koji being woken by Carl and his dad; inCar Robots,the first honk of the horn doesn't wake him, and they have to honk again.
- Car Robotshas Carl simply comment on the traffic, whereRobots in Disguisehas him request that his dad take them to a construction site to cycle.
- InRobots in Disguise,Koji's flashback to his father's abduction is prompted by Carl's dad specifically inquiring after Doctor Onishi, but inCar Robots,it's merely the kindly actions of Carl's father that cause Koji to remember his own parent.Robots in Disguisealso adds some ripple effects to the beginning and end of the flashback.
- InCar Robots,the Autobot Brothers are unable to pursue the Predacons because the streets are clogged by Slapper's traffic jam. InRobots in Disguise,this specious reason is changed to their being unable to shoot because of the preponderance of innocent bystanders.
- T-AI's computer readouts on the Spychangers are digitally altered inRobots in Disguiseto replace the characters' Japanese toy ID numbers with their names (pictured). The entire sequence is further altered and reordered to add shots of the characters flashing on T-AI's screens before the scenes showing them rolling into action. InCar Robots,the characters roll out in the order: Hot Shot, Crosswise, R.E.V.; butRobots in Disguisechanges it to: Hot Shot, R.E.V, Crosswise, in accordance with the order they appear on T-AI's screen.
- DespiteRobots in Disguisechanging the series' primary location from Tokyo to Metro City, the dub makes up street names with very Japanese-sounding names like "Osaka Boulevard" and "Yutaka Freeway", the latter being the freeway on which most of the episode takes place. InCar Robots,this freeway is the real world Tokyo Gaikan Expressway.
- InCar Robots,the Predacons want to get away from the Spychangers to keep from leading the Spychangers back to the Predacons base. InRobots in Disguise,they just want to get away from the Spychangers in general.
- Robots in Disguisewildly reorders the frenetic scene of all the Spychangers shooting at the three Predacons. It also adds two CGI POV overlay to shots of Slapper and Darkscream as the Autobots target them (pictured).
- When Sky-Byte finds he can't transform with the generator in his mouth,Robots in Disguisecuts out a shot of three cartoonish question marks appearing above his head (pictured).
- InCar Robots,Prime refers to the Spychangers' crafty sleight of hand with the generator as the "Art of Replacement", as they're portrayed as ninjas in Japan.
- After the Spychangers deception is revealed,Car Robotshas Sky-Byte quietly respect the ninjas' skills, whileRobots in Disguisehas him blame Slapper and company for the goof.
- Scenes thatRobots in Disguiseextends with looped and repeated footage include:
- Optimus telling Side Burn not to pursue the fleeing Predacons
- Prime and the Autobot Brothers' conversation about the danger of the energy generator as they escort it
- X-Brawn warning his brothers to stay alert just before the Predacons attack the truck
- X-Brawn alerting Optimus Prime to the Predacons' theft of the generator
- R.E.V. going into stealth mode
- The Spychangers getting back up after the Predacons blast them
- Prime telling the Autobot Brothers to leave the battle to the Spychangers
- Sky-Byte reacting to the generator still being intact
- Prowl lamenting the Predacons' apparent theft of the generator
Second English dub
Following the9/11 terrorist attacks,this was one of severalRobots in Disguiseepisodes that were pulled from rotation in order to be redubbed to remove content that was deemed unsuitable at the time. In the case of this episode, all references to the plutonium energy generator exploding if hit were removed, and replaced instead with the generator threatening to crack open, releasing zirconium gas that will corrode the Autobots' circuitry. The redubbed version is the only one included onMaximum Entertainment's R2 DVD release of the series, and the original version was lost until it wasuploaded to YouTube on November 15, 2013.A transcript of the original broadcast version of the episode is available atRID Forever.Additional changes include:
- When Slapper transforms upon attacking the truck, the original broadcast version featured him uttering "Take off!" to the drivers of the truck, and then an incorrect transformation code phrase, "Robot Mode!" The redub erases the "Take off!" line and replaces the incorrect "Robot Mode!" with the correct "Slapper, Terrorize!" and furthermore, splices in his transformation stock footage sequence.
- Two shots of panicked commuters fleeing as the Predacons attack the truck (pictured) are removed, replaced with a close-up of Slapper delivering some new dialogue about Megatron being pleased with them.
- A scene in which Prowl launches one of his flamethrowers (here called a "Jet Claw" ) after the Predacons, only to have it blasted by Slapper, causing it to crash into a truck and explode, is deleted outright. Slapper's dialogue immediately following this is also changed to reflect the scene's removal.
Animation or technical errors
- When Carl's dad's car pulls up, it has a green bicycle on the roof. When Koji emerges from his house, he's pushing a green bicycle, and the bike on the car is now yellow (and they swap colours again for the next shot too).
- The member select for Crosswise erroneously reads "CROSSWIRE", and Hot Shot's name is displayed as one word.
- A shot at the beach has Sky-Byte being drawn with a different mouthagain.
Trivia
- TheSpychangers,unlike the other Autobots, don't recognizeSky-Byte.
- Before the member select for Hot Shot, R.E.V. and Crosswise comes up, a bunch of strangely irrelevant English text about design management scrolls past. It seems to mention Ikea a lot.
- Among the abilities displayed by the Spychangers are: camouflage (referred to by the dub as "Stealth Mode" ); driving on any flat surface, no matter the angle; driving on water; and somehow producing a statue disguised as a plutonium energy generator out of nowhere.
Foreign localization
Italian
- Title:"Arrivano gli Spychangers"(" Here come the Spychangers ")
- R.E.V.'s line: "Let's get 'em!" is not dubbed, so he's seen moving his mouth without saying anything.
- Once, near the end of the episode, Optimus says "Spychanger" without a final S despite talking about all of them.
Portuguese
- Title:"Ao Resgate"(" To the Rescue ")
Home video releases
- DVD
2000 —Transformers: Car Robots— Vol. 1 (Pony Canyon) — Japanese audio only.
2004 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Volume One (Maximum Entertainment)
2004 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Three-Disc Box Set: Part 1 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Evil Intent (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Special Edition 2-Disc Set (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise / Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation / Action Man(Maximum Entertainment)
2007 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Season One (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)
