David Wise's second season Transformers episode, "War Dawn", is famous for the origin stories of Optimus Prime and Elita One, as well as the mysterious fate of Dion and giving the Aerialbots (particularly the brash Slingshot) a reason to dislike the Decepticons. However, the episode also features a slowed-down second act, which was done to pad the episode's length when Sunbow balked at the original conclusion to Act 2 (which featured Megaton ripping off Orion Pax's arm and using the limb to decapitate the unwitting Autobot) and having no other option when Wise refused to re-write the scene.
Further complicating matters have been the various DVD releases. While all episodes of The Transformers clock in at about 22:45 with the opening, end credits, and commercial bumpers (and the historical trailers for Season 3 episodes), Rhino's Season 2, Part 2 release featured a running time of 22:29 as the second act was played as filmed, and without the slowdown. Shout! Factory's recent release, however, corrects only the pitch of the audio (as well as removing the awful added sound effects Rhino plastered over their Sunbow DVDs), as the episode still runs at 22:29.
For further information on this and other alterations made to The Transformers (and G.I. Joe, too!) on the current DVD releases, please visit http://www.cartoonreviewsite.com/changes
