Madman's Paradise
From Transformers Wiki
| |||||||||
 "A black, black castle on a black, black rock, in a black, black world…" | |||||||||
| "Madman's Paradise" | |||||||||
| Production code | 700-98 | ||||||||
| Season | 3 | ||||||||
| No. in season | 13 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | October 13, 1986 | ||||||||
| Written by | Craig Rand | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Toei, Nakamura Production | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
| |||||||||
A quick stroll through Cybertron leads Daniel Witwicky and Grimlock to someplace different.
Contents |
Synopsis
On Cybertron, the Autobots are hosting a diplomatic event for a number of species, with Rodimus Prime, Spike, and Carly introducing the guests. One ambassador compliments Spike and Carly's "post-embryonic form", but Daniel takes it the wrong way. Spike tells Daniel that he can go off and play, but to stay out of trouble (and keep the tuxedo clean and intact). Daniel thinks that there is nobody to play with and complains that there is nobody to get into trouble with anyway. Grimlock, hearing that, decides to give some help on that matter and follows Daniel. (It sure beats serving drinks.)
However, Grimlock does not like the place where they are walking around. Daniel idly kicks a stray gear on the ground, and it hits a panel in the wall, revealing a secret passage in the floor. Grimlock leans forward to get a better view, but falls in, knocking Daniel in as well. Sliding down, Grimlock and Daniel are barely able to grab the ledge of a rail on the other side of a crevice. Jumping into the room, they find it covered in ancient symbols. Daniel notices a neat-looking monster, but Grimlock thinks that it's handsome, like him. However, his wagging tail hits the symbol, causing a red circle in the floor to glow, and he and Daniel sink through it. They soon find themselves somewhere other than Cybertron, and someone wearing a red cloak is aware of their arrival.
Back at the party, Carly is having trouble finding Daniel. She asks Ultra Magnus or Blaster if they have seen him, at which point the alien ambassador tells them she saw Daniel walking away with a Dinobot. The prospect of Grimlock and Daniel together and unsupervised naturally causes everyone to freak out, but Rodimus calls for calm. (The planet is still intact, after all.) The Autobot leader sends Blaster and Ultra Magnus to search for them, with Carly tagging along.
Elsewhere, Grimlock and Daniel come across some strange tree-centaurs. They demand to know whom the two fight for, and Grimlock says nobody. The tree-centaurs decide to attack. Bad idea, as Grimlock proceeds to toss them around. However, one tree-centaur causes Grimlock's leg to freeze, making him fall down. The tree-centaurs then begin tying Grimlock to the ground. (Think Gulliver's Travels, but with robots.) The man in red is impressed with Grimlock's power and sends a bolt of energy to attack the tree-centaurs with a wave of his tentacle. He heads out, changing his tentacle into a hand, and welcomes Daniel and Grimlock to Menonia, the realm they have entered. He offers an invitation from the Red Wizard, who is clearly the old man himself. Taking them to the castle, the Red Wizard claims that the world was once ruled by the Golden One, a powerful sorcerer-king, but that the Golden One disappeared and the Red Wizard took his place. However, evil rebels fought against the Red Wizard. He asks for Grimlock's help, while Daniel, who is asleep, is taken to somewhere more comfortable—the dungeon.
On Cybertron, Steeljaw has tracked down Grimlock and Daniel's scent and discovered the room they were in. Rewind discovers that the writings on the wall are Quintesson inscriptions. The room was a banishment point for the Quintessons, where they would exile their own to various dimensions for various crimes. Rewind concludes that the wayward duo are in Menonia, where Mara-Al-Utha was banished for practicing sorcery. Perceptor activates the portal and stays behind to reopen it when they need help.
Meanwhile, Daniel wakes up and sees the old man chained to the dungeon wall. Using a handy-dandy lightsaber energy blade, Daniel frees the old man, who explains that the Red Wizard was the one who imprisoned the Golden One in a cave. The Golden One loyalists begin an attack on the castle, which frees the two. Grimlock, still duped, begins fighting off the invaders. Daniel and the old man head for the cave in which the Golden One was imprisoned, while the Autobots and Carly, having arrived in Menonia, head to assist Grimlock. However, a piece of Daniel's tuxedo gets cut off, which Carly finds, and Steeljaw sniffs him out. Reaching the young man, Daniel explains to Carly and the cassettes that the Red Wizard is evil, but the Golden One's loyalists are already in retreat. Since they cannot move the stone and free the Golden One, the old man despairs of all hope.
At this point, Ramhorn charges the rock, causing it to shatter. The Golden One, exposed to sunlight, is free and reenergized. The old man explains the situation, and the Golden One attacks the Red Wizard's castle. The Golden One's arrival causes the Red Wizard to reveal his true form—as the Quintesson Mara-Al-Utha! The Red Wizard attacks, and the Golden One is too weak to defend. He knows of counter-spells that will stop Mara-Al-Utha, but he needs them to be heard. Blaster transforms into cassette player mode and gives the Golden One a microphone. The Golden One speaks his counter-spells, and Mara-Al-Utha is banished somewhere else.
When the battle is over, the Golden One sends the Autobots and the humans back to Cybertron. However, when they get back, Spike wants to have a talk with Daniel. The boy insists it was an accident, and Grimlock backs him up, saying that Daniel didn't mean to ruin his tux. Everyone but Grimlock begins laughing.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
"Ohhh, Grimlock ... what did you do now?"
"Uh ... make mistake?"
- —When Grimlock accidentally starts sending the two of them to another dimension, after tapping a picture in admiration.
"Where are we?"
"Not Cybertron. California maybe?"
- —Daniel and Grimlock trying to determine their whereabouts.
"Don't panic yet. Stay calm until we know what's going on. Then we'll panic."
- —Rodimus Prime on Daniel's and Grimlock's disappearance.
Red Wizard: "And who is your mighty friend?"
Grimlock: "Mighty friend is me, Grimlock!"
Daniel: "Don't overdo it, okay?"
"I dunno, my mom says never to go off with strangers."
"Everybody here stranger! Us not go with stranger, us not go!"
- —Daniel is hesitant but quickly swayed by Grimlock's advanced use of logic.
"Me Grimlock mixed up. If wizard so strong, why he need me, Grimlock?"
"Because!! His enemies are many! Like insects they swarm, and attack, and attack, and attack! With raw force -- primitive magic -- driven by hate, by envy! THEY WILL NOT STOP!!"
"Me Grimlock just wanted to know..."
- —Grimlock and the Red Wizard
"The attack will begin when the golden sun is --"
[bzzzzap!!]
"They starting early!"
- — the Red Wizard and Grimlock
Notes
Continuity notes
- The establishing shot of Cybertron is recycled from The Transformers: The Movie. In a season where Cybertron's appearance is different in almost every single episode, it's a rare note of consistency.
- Spike's last name gets mentioned, a relatively rarity for the cartoon.
- Spike is said to be Earth's ambassador to Cybertron.
- The dimensional teleportation chamber is located at "planetary corridor CB-311-B4".
- Daniel carries an energy blade around with him. Apparently, he had this on him for the whole episode, including the diplomatic meeting at the beginning! Spike really does need to have a talk with him.
- Gadgets and powers:
- Grimlock blows concentrated air from his dinosaur mouth like a leafblower.
- Grimlock actually uses a sword in this episode! It is ridiculously thin to the point of looking like a cocktail skewer, but he uses it to swat some of the boulders launched at him. Just as with Snarl's, the sword is silver like his package art.
- Like "Forever Is a Long Time Coming" and "Only Human", this is one of the few episodes to not feature Decepticons.
- Grimlock's tray-carrying moments were the inspiration for Masterpiece Grimlock's posture and accessories. Apparently a key moment for him!
- Al-badur, one of the Quintesson exiles mentioned, would be featured in 3H's Wreckers comics, where he was used to try to retcon the Quintesson creation story with the more popular Primus creation story — but then 3H lost the license before it was concluded. Bummer. Back to the fanwanking, people!
Real-world references
- Star Wars sound effects:
- Snowspeeder laser as a warrior fires a stray shot that hits the prison cell window.
- Sparking and clashing lightsabers as a warrior generates a shield to protect himself from Magnus's missile.
Animation and technical errors
- Similar to the later aired "Webworld", there is a distinct lack of two-tone shading in this episode outside of a few shots. There is also a distinct anime influence in several shots, most notably Daniel’s giant sparkly eyes as he says, “We gotta get outta here!”
- Coloring errors:
- After Daniel embarrasses the ambassador, the side of Rodimus' head is white, but two shots later, it's purple; his helmet is also two shades of red instead of one, an odd coloration he'll have for the rest of the episode.
- When Ynara blushes, her clothes, jewelery, hair and headpiece blush with her!
- Also, in the opening shots Rodimus' spoiler is all-yellow, but when we switch to the opposite angle, it's orange in the middle.
- When the tree-centaurs first question Grimlock, the back of his neck is grey instead of gold.
- The Red Wizard first comes up to Grimlock and Daniel as a brown-skinned guy, but when he removes his hood, he's in the guise of the Golden One's pupil and has a much lighter shade of skin.
- As Rewind gives details of the corridor, Blaster's forearms are white instead of black.
- As he listens to Magnus's orders, Perceptor's face is the same dark grey as his helmet instead of light grey (and his Autobot logo is framed in black instead of white).
- When Magnus' team enters the portal, Blaster's head is all-white.
- Daniel's energy blade changes colour from blue to red between shots.
- As the Autobots rush to check on the fallen Golden One, Blaster's chest is yellow with no details (or Autobot logo) on it.
- In the last shot of the episode, the back of Grimlock's neck is grey instead of gold.
- Daniel is supposed to be grabbing the edge of a ledge after he plummets into the secret tunnel, but he actually grabs several inches below the lip.
- Ventriloquist Dinobot:
- Grimlock's mouth isn't moving as he and Daniel fall into the portal and he asks, "Make Mistake?".
- And again as he comments on the "ugly bird".
- And again when the tree-centaurs ask who he and Daniel fight for and he asks "Who you?" It moves again during his next line.
- And again as he calls out for the Red Wizard during the attack.
- His faceplate doesn't move after he transforms and starts shooting during the battle
- Mara-Al-Utha's mouth doesn't move as he yells at the Golden One.
- "Help us to free you!" - the Pupil's mouth does not move.
- As Grimlock and Daniel watch the "ugly bird" fly off, Grimlock's back is missing all its colorful details. And again, his mouth doesn't move as he speaks.
- When Mara-Al-Utha uses a magic mirror to see Grimlock and Daniel have arrived, the mirror's frame disappears.
- As Daniel and Grimlock are walking before getting attacked by the tree-centaurs, Grimlock's walk cycle unnaturally jumps back to its first animation frame after each loop.
- When Ynara walks up to Carly and Magnus, she's only half Rodimus's height; previously they were the same height.
- One of the tree-centaurs disappears for a couple of frames during the fight with Grimlock.
- As Mara-Al-Utha (in his disguise as the Red Wizard's assistant) greets Daniel and Grimlock to Menonia, Grimlock's left leg is drawn too thick and his right leg vanishes completely. The error pops up again when the shot gets reused for Daniel's "Don't overdo it" line.
- When Grimlock offers up his services to aid in defending the castle, his logo lacks outlines.
- When Blaster ejects Rewind, there's no cavity behind his tape drawer.
- When the Red Wizard yells at Grimlock about the Golden One's armies and their ruthlessness, his neck disappears for a few seconds, exposing the background behind him.
- After the Red Wizard attacks the rebels, Grimlock transforms, but there are frames missing during the transition, so he sort of "pops" into robot mode. He also gets the wrong transformation sound; going beast-to-robot, he should get the ascending pitch version.
- As Grimlock swings his sword around, his chest is missing most of its detailing (and its Autobot logo, which reappears later when he notices the other Autobots).
- The Golden One is freed and stands in front of the cave opening, but when he flies up there are only trees behind him.
- The Golden One flies towards a perfectly still castle, but the next shot shows plumes of smoke rising up from it.
- Ultra Magnus' gun sounds like Prime's rifle.
- The plot calls for Mara-Al-Utha to surround the Golden One with smoke, cutting him off from the light, but the smoke as animated is almost completely transparent.
- When Magnus grabs the microphone from Blaster, Blaster has one long switch (instead of three smaller ones) on his front.
- Some clever sound effects guy inserted a comical little POP! sound as Blaster's head and hands emerge at the end of his transformation back to robot mode.
Continuity errors
- In "Forever Is a Long Time Coming", Ramhorn spoke normally (aside from a bit of a stutter.) Here he just growls and roars. He won't speak in any of his future appearances, either.
Trivia
- According to the dialogue script of the episode, the Red Wizard's magic incantations are spelled "Albidion... mexilarum... strombi.. BAST!" and "Thromilius".
- The Golden One's spell, meanwhile, is transcribed as "Repidot. Respondot. Rezendot. Zanitar! Zanarre! Zavasar! ALLAK...ARRAK... ARRAM!"
- Although nothing is said or implied of this in the episode, one could infer that the Red Wizard's wooden robots are in fact, wooden counterparts of the early Transformers as built by the Quintessons, created by the red wizard to serve him much like the rest of the Quintessons.
Foreign localization
French
- Title (European French broadcast): "Le paradis des déments" ("Mad People's Paradise")
- Title (Canadian French broadcast and European French DVD release): "Le paradis des fous" ("Mad People's Paradise")
- Original airdate: ?
- Concerning the European French dub:
- Rodimus Prime introduces "Ynara, who comes straight from the planet Ynara".
- Despite disguising his voice as a man to talk to Daniel, Mara-Al-Utha is dubbed by a woman.
- When Grimlock says "Me Grimlock feel surrounded!", the team took advantage of Daniel moving his mouth to add dialogue, so they both speak at the same time, Daniel saying "Do you have any idea who it could be?".
- Ynara says "Dinorobot", despite the dub of the series using "Dinobot". However, "Dinorobot" was used in The Movie.
- When Carly and Ultra Magnus both say "Daniel?", only Francis Lax says it, despite not voicing either character.
- Name-dodging (and there's a lot in this one):
- Rodimus Prime's line "Ultra Magnus, take Blaster and the cassettes and find them!" is dubbed by "Ultra Magnus, take someone with you and find them!".
- Blaster's phrase "My man Steeljaw can sniff out any trail, if it's hot or if it's not!" is dubbed by "With my fine sleuths, no clue can escape us for long!".
- Blaster's line "Rewind, tell me what you got!" is dubbed by "What do we know about this passage?".
- Ultra Magnus' line "Call Perceptor, have him meet us below" is dubbed by "Tell the others that we're going to see what's going on down there".
- Ultra Magnus' line "Blaster, could Rewind decipher any of this ancient script?" and Blaster answer "He's on the case in his database!" are dubbed by "Is anyone able to understand this writing?" and Blaster answering "We need to call the specialist!".
- Ultra Magnus' line "Stay here, Perceptor" is dubbed by "You, stay here".
- Daniel's line "Steeljaw! Boy am I glad to see you!" is dubbed by "Oh gosh I can't believe it, oh I'm so glad to see you!".
- Ultra Magnus' line "It's the Quintesson! The exile!" is dubbed by "It's one of the criminals sentenced to exile!".
- Ultra Magnus' line "Blaster, amplification!" is dubbed by "Quick! You will amplify what he will say!".
German
- Title: "Der rote Zauberer" ("The Red Magician")
- Original airdate: ?
- This was one of twelve episodes of the original cartoon released as audio adventures by the German company Karussell Musik und Video.
Italian
- Title: "Il mago rosso" ("The Red Wizard")
- Original airdate: ?
- When Grimlock says "mighty friend", "friend" is really oddly translated as "friend-amico" (with the English word "friend" followed by the Italian translation "amico").
- Daniel's line: «Don't overdo it, okay?» is changed to: «Don't be offended, okay?» and so Grimlock's: «Me Grimlock not overdo» becomes: «Me Grimlock not offended, no, no». Still, Daniel's line makes no sense in the scene.
- Title: "Il paradiso del folle" ("The Madman's Paradise")
- Original airdate: ?
Japanese
- Title: 不思議の国のダニエル (Fushigi no Kuni no Daniel, "Daniel of Wonderland")
- Original airdate: February 6, 1987
- The title references Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, known in Japan as Fushigi no Kuni no Alice.
Mandarin
- Title: "Jīn Dàwáng yǔ Hóngyī Fǎshī" (金大王与红衣法师, "The Golden King and The Red-Coat Magi")
- Original airdate: ?
Brazilian Portuguese
- Title: "Paraíso do Louco" ("Madman's Paradise")
- Original airdate: ?
- Due to a glitch in the only known surviving audio track of this dub, the only part of the title that is actually audible is "Louco", but it's a safe bet that the full title is a direct translation from the original English.
Home video releases
- VHS
1992 — Transformers — Super Video (Tempo Video)
2000 — The Original Transformers — Volume 9: Grimlock the Hero (Rhino Entertainment)
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. 3 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 4: Series 3.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2005 — Transformers — Volume 20 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
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)
