Land Before Prime (episode)
From Transformers Wiki
| This article is about the Rescue Bots episode. For the Rescue Bots book, see Land Before Prime (book). |
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| "I suppose you're wondering why I've gathered you all here today." | ||||||
| "Land Before Prime" | ||||||
| Season | 3 | |||||
| No. in season | 1 | |||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | November 1, 2014 | |||||
| Writer | Nicole Dubuc | |||||
| Director | Nathan Chew | |||||
| Animation studio | DHX Media Top Draw Animation | |||||
After discovering an island of dinosaurs, Optimus must embrace his primal side.
Contents |
Synopsis
Outside the Griffin Rock firehouse, Optimus Prime gives a brief speech as a prelude to a routine inspection of how well the Rescue Bots are acclimatizing. As Optimus observes with Cody, Boulder and Graham move rocks into the shape of a Rescue Bot insignia. Chase and Chief Burns engage in a race with Heatwave and Kade, though Heatwave "cheats" by using his boat form to take a short cut through a river. Dani and Blades attempt a loop of the stone griffin atop Mount Griffin, only to encounter a pterodactyl sitting atop the peak. Once the roads to the mountain are closed off, the team contacts Doc Greene to take a look at the creature. They speculate that it came up through one of the sinkholes that opened up recently. In the meantime, Cody is hunting for an idea for his Lad Pioneer merit project. Unfortunately his attempt at playing the bugle is a bust, so Heatwave suggests he teach Cody self-defense. Cody's attempt at pushing over barrels is even less successful than his bugling. In the control center, Chief Burns and Optimus take an emergency call from Doc Greene, whose hang glider is being pursued by the pterodactyl. Dani and Blades soon catch the creature in a huge cage and deposit it on the fire station roof, where Doc Greene attaches a tracking device to its leg, and they release it. The pterodactyl heads off over the sea, leading to the team concluding that it originated from Wayward Island.
Kade and Doc Greene head out to Wayward Island in Heatwave, taking Trex along (towed behind in a rubber raft) as a bodyguard. Leaving Heatwave and Kade at the shore, Doc Greene heads inland riding on Trex. He soon stumbles on a clearing containing a handful of real live dinosaurs, and spots a rock-filled sinkhole. As he moves the rocks aside, he accidentally triggers a rockfall, and though Trex manages to nudge him out of the way, the robot dino himself becomes buried. At the mercy of the dinosaurs, Doc Greene calls for help, and Heatwave quickly arrives to lend a hand. Unfortunately the dinosaurs turn out to be too much even for Heatwave, who has to follow Doc Greene back to the beach, leaving Trex trapped. Back at base, Graham and Boulder try to interest Cody in some unsolvable equations courtesy of Gremsky Tech. but he declines and heads down to the bunker. There, Chase attempts to get Cody involved in a game show he's created called "Police Challenge". When Cody's not enthusiastic about that either, Optimus observes that no one's asked what he wants to do.
Heatwave returns with Kade and Doc Greene. As the Mayor is making public noises about turning the pterodactyl into a tourist attraction, Chief Burns realizes they have to protect the dinosaurs by returning them underground. While Cody and Optimus observe from base, the team heads out to Wayward Island on the Darby Ava. They locate Trex, but are immediately set on by the unhappy dinosaurs. Blades is damaged when one of them bites his tail rotor, resulting in Heatwave calling a retreat. Unfortunately the four Bots run straight into a tar pit and start sinking. Back at base, Optimus decides it's time for him to lend a hand, and takes Cody along. Driving along the ocean floor, they quickly reach Wayward Island and find the clearing full of dinosaurs. As the dinosaurs seem to object to anything which is not a dinosaur, Optimus scans Trex, taking on a new Tyrannosaurus alternate mode. Cody deems this "cool".
What a beautiful feeling
We finally found our peaceful valley
And everybody's having a good time now!
The rest of the team is startled when dino Optimus arrives at the tar pit, but with his help, the Rescue Bots are extracted from their sticky predicament. Though Heatwave apologizes for failing the mission, Optimus asserts the mission isn't over yet, and they head back to the sinkhole. The dinosaurs are still hostile, but Cody suggests asking them what's bugging them. Optimus gets them to back off long enough for Cody to peer inside the sinkhole, and he spots baby dinosaurs, separated from their parents by the rockfall. Optimus unleashes a sonic blast that clears the rocks, reuniting the dinosaurs with their young. As the happy dinosaurs head back underground, the team starts sealing up the hole. Heatwave takes a moment to offer words of thanks to Optimus, only for the Autobot leader to briefly lose his composure and roar at Heatwave.
Back at base, Cody announces he's decided on a Lad Pioneer project: building a life-size dinosaur model, the head of which an indignant Blades discovers lying on his launch pad.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"You say potato, I say solanum tuberosum."
- —Doc Greene
"Time for the lightning round! Blades, is the lightning ready?
- —Chase reaching Japanese levels of game show danger.
"What's our rule about television?"
"Even if it's a documentary, it's not always real!"
- —Dani and Blades
"Where we're going we won't need boats."
- —Optimus channeling another Doc he knows.
Notes
Continuity notes
- Blades identifies the pterodactyl as the same one that attacked him back in "What Rises Above".
- The sinkholes in Griffin Rock were caused during "Rise of the Heroes".
- Optimus briefly exhibits primal behaviour foreshadowing the organic-scanning complications that will be explored further in "Big Game" and, to a lesser extent, "Quarry's Quarry".
- The dinosaur that each Rescue Bot is attacked by first on their mission corresponds to the primal mode they will scan in the future: a Brachiosaurus for Heatwave, a Triceratops for Boulder, and a Stegosaurus for Chase. The only exception is Blades, however he was attacked by a pterodactyl twice before, once in "What Rises Above" and once in the beginning of the episode.
Transformers references
- Optimus Prime obliquely refers to Unicron when he tells Kade that "There are more things under this Earth than most humans know."
Real-world references
- The episode's title references the 1988 animated film The Land Before Time.
- Doc Greene says he's wanted to see a pterodactyl since he was the size of a Compsognathus.
- Chase refers to Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
- Blades makes several references to Jurassic Park, including having seen a movie about an island of dinosaurs, and the idea that a Tyrannosaurus can't see you if you're standing still.
- Optimus paraphrases Back to the Future.
- Blades refers to Optimus as a "dinosaur whisperer", a reference to National Geographic series Dog Whisperer, and ultimately to the book and film The Horse Whisperer.
- In a deviation from the standard Jurassic Park references, Optimus' line "Cover your ears, Cody Burns" is likely a reference to a similar line given by Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Animation and technical errors
- The Settlers' Bell is missing from the lighthouse in the picture Graham shows off of the docks.
Trivia
- Cody rides inside Optimus while the latter is in robot mode, something common in Rescue Bots, but not so much in Transformers: Prime, where Optimus spends most of his time.
- This episode was later adapted into storybook form as Land Before Prime.
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Dinos en cavale" ("Dinos on the loose")
- Original airdate: ?
- The episode was aired after Odd Bot Out. Along with the following season 3 episode, Big Game, it was likely placed into season 2 to fill the episode slots left by The Riders of Midwinter and Chief Woodrow, two episodes that hadn't been released anywhere at the time.
Hungarian
- Title: "Dinókaland" ("Dino Adventure")
- Original airdate: 1 December 2014
- The episode was aired after The Griffin Rock Express. Along with the following season 3 episode, Big Game, it was likely placed into season 2 to fill the episode slots left by The Riders of Midwinter and Chief Woodrow, two episodes that hadn't been released anywhere at the time.
Italian
Portuguese
Home video releases
2015 — Rescue Bots — "Dinobots!" (Shout! Factory)