Shout Factory sent me a copy of the forthcoming DVD Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters Dawn of the Beast to watch and review. Opinions are 100% my own.

Transformers Prime is, hands down, the best Transformers series ever created. That is my complete and honest opinion. So much attention was paid to character design, character story arcs, character development and production of a visually stunning show. Pairing down the cast to a few Autobots and legions of Decepticons force the Autobots into the role of the underdog throughout the entire run of the series. This DVD takes the first 4 episodes of the third season and makes it more of a movie.

When I first watched the episodes I watched them one at a time and they weren’t so compelling watching them that way. However, when taken together in one shot it was so compelling. Here are the Autobots who were moments away from rebuilding their entire homeworld, something that has been the driving force behind the lore of the Transformers forever. So they are seconds from making this a reality at the end of Season 2 and Megatron and the Decepticons show up and ruin those plans plus they destroy the Autobots base on Earth and begin to Cyberform Earth. This group that has been outnumbered and outgunned for two seasons was about to triumph and then get completely and utterly defeated and scattered to the winds. Optimus himself is on death’s door after being caught in the explosion that destroys the base. This is where we begin season 3.

These four episodes take place months after the Decepticons have defeated the Autobots and have created their own base of operations called Darkmount. The Autobots are split up like this:

• Bumblebee and Raf
• Arcee and Jack
• Miko and Bulkhead
• Ratchet is on his own
• Jack’s mom June and Agent Fowler are in Hanger E
• Wheeljack was captured by the Decepticons
• Optimus is dying in the ruins of the Autobot’s base
• Smokescreen jumped back to the base in the explosion and is watching over Optimus

So, everyone is scattered and are getting sick of being apart but are in radio silence. That is until Jack sends a quick text to his Mom and then the Decepticons, who have been monitoring the human communications grid captures that message and sends out a force to attack Jack and Arcee. Bumblebee and Raf are keeping hidden and BumbleBee has even changed his look into his stealth mode. Apparently a paint job was enough to throw off the Decepticons. Bulkhead and Miko are heading for a rendezvous point where Wreckers could regroup. They stay there and await Wheeljack, who was captured. Smokescreen is sneaking all around the ruins of the Autobot base and even into Darkmount where he retrieves the Forge of Solus Prime.

The Decepticons are searching for the Autobots and also searching for the artifacts like the Apex Armor. They send Knockout to Cybertron to search and he comes back with Shockwave. Shockwave later introduces Megatron to his creation, Predacon. Predacon is the ultimate hunter and is sent out to capture or destroy the Autobots.

Will the Autobots regroup and triumph or will they be hunted to extinction. Pick up this movie on September 3, to find out. The DVD also comes with commentary from the Executive Producer Jeff Kline and 3/4 of the writing staff. I watched with the commentary and there was a lot of fun insight that I learned from the commentary including an Autobot Wrecker that should have been part of the show had it been given a longer season 3. I would have liked to have seen that character and the Transformers Prime take on him.