Ironically, this episode has nothing to do with Galvatron.
A quick stroll through Cybertron leads Daniel Witwicky and Grimlock to someplace different.
Madman's Paradise (Japanese title: "Daniel in Wonderland") is the fourteenth episode of the third season of The Transformers and is the seventy-ninth episode of The Transformer series overall. It is overall the seventy-ninth episode of the G1 Era of Transformers.
Detailed synopsis[]
If guest not give good tip, Me Grimlock eat them.
On Cybertron, the Autobots are hosting a diplomatic event for a number of species, with Rodimus Prime, Spike, and Carly Witwicky introducing the guests. One ambassador compliments Spike and Carly's "post-embryonic spawn", 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 that they are walking around in. Daniel kicks a gear that is lying around, but 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 a room 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, through which Daniel and Grimlock sink. Grimlock and Daniel 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 who 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 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 them to Menonia, the realm they have entered. He offers an invitation from the Red Wizard, which is clearly the old man. 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. 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. He 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.
Stats[]
Original airdate: ???
Written by: Craig Rand
Featured Characters[]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Regulars
|
|
Notable quotes[]
"Where are we?"
"Not Cybertron. California, maybe?"
- —Daniel and Grimlock trying to determine their whereabouts.
"Hey, how about me? (laughs) Don't I get a hug!?"
- —Carly, right after she and Steeljaw have located Daniel...who warmly greets the latter
"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
"I dunno; my mom says never to go off with strangers."
"Everybody here stranger. Us not go with stranger, us not go."
- —Daniel tries to school Grimlock on inter-dimensional stranger-danger and fails miserably (candy wasn't even a factor in this case)
"Me Grimlock mixed up. If wizard so strong, why he need me Grimlock?"
"Because his enemies are many! Like insects, they swarm and ATTACK with raw force!!! With primitive magic, driven by hate and envy! THEY WILL NOT STOP!!!"
"Uhh, me Grimlock just wanted to know."
- —The Red Wizard trips out on Grimlock, Old dude sure does know how to have a good spazz-out huh?
Notes[]
Animation and/or technical glitches[]
- 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.
- Early on in the episode, Daniel states that "there is nobody to play with", despite showing to have befriended Wheelie in the previous episode "Surprise Party", said episode might have chronologically been after Madman's Paradise.
Transformers references[]
- Al-Badur, one of the Quintesson exiles mentioned, would be featured in 3H's Universe comic, 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!
- Like "Forever Is a Long Time Coming" and "Only Human", this is one of the few episodes to not feature Decepticons.
Real-world references[]
- Grimlock shouts, "Me Grimlock mad!" which is a reference to Hulk from the Marvel series.
- The Japanese title for this episode "Daniel in Wonderland", is a play on "Alice in Wonderland".
- 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.
Notes[]
- This is the second episode (in a row mind you) that Daniel has gotten into life-threatening danger.
- This episode is the first to have Grimlock as a solo Dinobot major role.
Keywords[]
(separate by commas and link each one so a page can be created for it if it does not already exist)
External links[]
 This cartoon episode article is a stub and is missing information. You can help Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki by expanding it. |
