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Max Steel (2013 TV series)

Max Steel
Genre
Based onMax Steel
by Mattel
Developed by
  • Lloyd Goldfine
  • Gabriel De La Torre
Written by
  • Matthew Drdek
  • Lloyd Goldfine
Voices of
Theme music composer
Composers
  • Michael Tavera (season 1)
  • Steven Argila (season 2)
Country of origin
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes52 (+ 7 movies) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
Producers
  • Tina Chow
  • Vincent Edwards (season 1)
  • Ira Singerman (season 1)
  • Margaret M. Dean (season 2)
Running time22 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network
ReleaseMarch 25, 2013 (2013-03-25)[1] –
December 6, 2014 (2014-12-06)
ReleaseJune 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) –
July 29, 2017 (2017-07-29)
Related
Max Steel (2000)
Max Steel (2016)

Max Steel is a CGIanimated science fiction action-adventure superhero television series co-produced by Mattel Playground Productions, Nerd Corps Entertainment and FremantleMedia Enterprises. It is a reimagining of its predecessor of the same name, as well as being based on the Mattel action-figure also of the same name. Max Steel premiered on March 25, 2013, on Disney XD.[1]

Plot

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Season 1

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A 16-year-old boy named "Maxwell McGrath" is thrown into a new life when he and his mom moved to a small town called Copper Canyon. There he meets new friends, bullies, enemies, and a lot more. But later he starts to generate a powerful blue energy called "T.U.R.B.O. Energy". Max must now join N-Tek, a top secret organization his father worked on and meets a friendly ultralink named N'Barro Aksteel X377/Steel. When sinister super villains attack Copper Canyon, Max and Steel must link together and transform into a powerful Superhero named "Max Steel!".[citation needed]

Season 2

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After Forge reveals that Jim was the former Max Steel, he is about to meet his greatest challenge yet! Max and Steel will face new and old enemies like Toxzon and Extroyer, get new turbo modes, and a bigger threat is coming to earth! Will Max and Steel stop the Makino Invasion?, will Sydney and Kirby find out that Max is Max Steel?, or will Max find out his dark secret about his past that Forge is trying to hide?

2015 Animated Films

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The Wrath Of Makino, Dawn Of Morphos, & Maximum Morphos

Makino has been defeated, but his core processing unit remains and is looking for a new host. Max Steel must destroy Makino once and for all. After Makino, Max Steel will have to face Morphos, a new villain who can replicate the abilities of his enemies and use their own powers against them. Max Steel must learn to combine two turbo modes to defeat Morphos. When Morphos returns stronger and more powerful than ever, he copies the powers of all of Max Steel's enemies, in order to prove he is the greatest villain of all. Max Steel will have to team up with his enemies (Miles Dredd, Toxzon, Extroyer, and the Elementors (Fire Elementor, Earth Elementor, Water Elementor, Air Elementor, and Metal Elementor)) and unlock his greatest power to defeat Morphos once and for all.

2016 Animated Films

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Team Turbo & Team Turbo Fusion Tek

Two years afterwards, a new villain named Mortum arises searching for the powerful Connect-Tek, a device who can create everything that someone thinks of. After successfully taking down N-Tek, the villain reunites Max's rogues (Toxzon, Extroyer and the five Elementors) to set out after the Connect-Tek. Realizing that they cannot save the day by their own, Max and Steel create Team Turbo - composed of Tempestra, C.Y.T.R.O. and La Fiera to fight back and rescue Max's loved ones. The Connect-Tek ends up on Mortum's hands, but it reveals to be damaged and causes a massive explosion that ends up turning him into a robot zombie. Possessing an endless hunger for brainwaves, he wants to take over the world and turn everyone into his puppets and now Max and his team must face their biggest threat yet.

2017 Animated Films

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Turbo Charged & Turbo Warriors

After Mortum is taken down and the world goes back to normal, a mysterious masked villain named Terrorax steals Max's energy and in the process makes him generate a much stronger, green variation that is so powerful to the point where Steel no longer is able to control it. After undergoing intense training and updating their tech, Max and his team are ready to go after Terrorax, who later on reveals to have synthesized his own version of Max's energy named Terror Energy - and he wants to take over by the name of the Nexus legion. However, after failing, his powers are greatly reduced and he needs the help from the Elementors, who join the legion. After getting his strength back, Terrorax invades Copper Canyon with Pantheon and wants to force people to join in the Nexus, and now Max and his team must stop him before it's too late, but things get fully compounded when La Fiera is turned into a bionic panther by Night Howl and Tempestra and C.Y.T.R.O. are captured by the legion. Now it's up to Max take down the Nexus before it's too late.

Characters

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Main

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Allies

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Villains

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  • Jason Naught (voiced by Brian Dobson) is Dredd's assistant, and was also former CEO of Trans Human Industries. Dredd equipped him with an ability to transform into a giant robot to defeat his enemies like Max Steel. He has been shown to have his own ambitions other than Dredd's, and is often abused because of it. In X Marks the Spot, he was almost killed by Dredd for betraying him a second time. He later sides with Makino alongside Dredd, but quickly turned against him when Makino deemed him and Dredd unworthy.[8]
  • Dreddnaughts are an army of robots that work for Miles Dredd. They don't talk, but they are very dangerous and they have a gun as a hand. In Dredd Ascendant, when Naught showed Dredd their new underwater base it is revealed that they have upgraded Dreddnaughts.
  • Axel (voiced by Michael Daingerfield) is a thug hired by Jason Naught as his henchman to do his dirty work.
  • Evil Ultralinks are a special forces unit Makino has place under the command of Miles Dredd.
  • Blast Link (voiced by Brian Drummond) is the sniper of the unit, ultra-linked with a THI plasma cannon giving him powerful distance weapons.
  • Prism Link (voiced by Lee Tockar) is the close quarters combatant of the unit, ultra-linked to a series of crystals he is a durable, agile and razor-sharp fighter.
  • Chomp Link (voiced by Samuel Vincent) is the brawn of the unit, ultra-linked with a venus flytrap he is equipped with long vines and crushing jaws. It is unknown what happened to Chomp after Mega Metal Elementor launched him off a Makino Destroyer and into space in My Best Friend is an Ultralink after he, Blast, and Prism failed him.
  • Reaper Links are a pair of Ultra-linked reaper hologram Halloween decorations armed with Scythe's and equipped with the ability to switch between solid and intangible at will, resulting in a pair of ghost like stealth operatives.
  • Plaztek (voiced by Andrew Francis) is an Ultralink that bonded with Fishy and some of Toxzon's orange waste to become a large fish-like creature composed of super dense and strong plastic. Able to fire plastic fish with large teeth for trapping opponents, toxic goo, plastic explosives, and is a versatile shape-shiftier. As a result of the glitchy connection between Fishy and the Ultralink Plaztek has a highly unstable personality and speech pattern that sounds like a corrupted sound-file. Appears to be destroyed at the end of Toxic Relationship.
  • Avatak (voiced by Richard Ian Cox) is an Ultralink that bonded with a video game console because of Toxzon in the episode Digital Meltdown. He has the ability to shoot fireballs, he can also shoot a powerful laser from his chest, he can also hack into games on the type of video game console he bonded with. Avatak was destroyed by the end of the episode because of the glitch in the Max Steel TURBO Warrior video game, which overloaded his systems.
  • Fire Elementor (voiced by Andrew Francis) is an Ultralink bonded with the element of fire.
  • Earth Elementor (voiced by Brian Drummond) is an Ultralink bonded with the element of earth.
  • Water Elementor (voiced by Brian Drummond) is an Ultralink bonded with the element of water.
  • Air Elementor (voiced by Andrew Francis) is an Ultralink bonded with the element of air.
  • Ultimate Elementor (Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Air, voiced by Andrew Francis; Ultimate Earth and Ultimate Water, voiced by Brian Drummond):
  • Metal Elementor (voiced by Trevor Devall) is a Megalink named Metallak bonded with a metal pyramid.
  • Mega Elementor (Mega Fire and Mega Air, voiced by Andrew Francis; Mega Earth and Mega Water, voiced by Brian Drummond; Mega Metal voiced by Trevor Devall):
  • Fishy (voiced by Andrew Francis) is Toxzon's beloved pet plastic goldfish. Xander hallucinates that Fishy talks to him, apparently He's a source of his sanity giving him advice and suggestions. In Season 2 Toxic Relationship, he was bonded with an Ultralink and turned into Plaztek, but subsequently meets his end in the hands of Max Steel thanks to his TURBO Drills, which resulted in making Toxzon a more dangerous threat.
  • Goopanoids are toxic monstrous mutant creatures generated by Toxzon and used as his henchmen. Toxzon can generate different versions in different colors of his goopanoids whenever he absorbs a new toxin: his green toxin (green), acid (orange), toxic bacteria (purple), and radiation (yellow).
  • Dwayne (voiced by Brian Dobson) is one of Extroyer's henchmen. Dwayne is smarter and acts like a boss for Vin. He hated Winter a lot since in Thrill of the Hunt, he tried to feed them to his pet black tiger. In Makino Strikes: Part 1, it's revealed that Dwayne has kids that don't know he's a thief.
  • Vin (voiced by Michael Dobson) is another of Extroyer's henchmen who is thin, and sometimes clumsy and dumb. He hates anchovies, as mentioned in Driven. He is a little bit scared at times and he would sometimes be brave.

Others

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N-Tek/Turbo arsenal

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N-Tek carries a vast amount of weaponry and vehicles that runs on TURBO Energy, being at the disposal of the N-Tek agents and Max Steel.

Episodes

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Season Episodes Originally aired Network
First aired Last aired
1 26[14] March 25, 2013 (2013-03-25) December 7, 2013 (2013-12-07) Disney XD
2 26[15] August 15, 2014 (2014-08-15) December 6, 2014 (2014-12-06) Netflix
2015 Animated Films 3[16] June 27, 2015 (2015-06-27) August 2, 2015 (2015-08-02) TBA
2016 Animated Films 2[17] March 18, 2016 (2016-03-18) August 31, 2016 (2016-08-31) Citv
2017 Animated Films 2 March 18, 2017 (2017-03-18) July 29, 2017 (2017-07-29) TBA

Broadcast

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Max Steel first broadcast on March 1, 2013, on Cartoon Network (Latin America) and on March 2, 2013, on Disney XD (Poland).[18] It aired on Teletoon in Canada on March 24, 2013, and on Disney XD in the United States on March 25, 2013.[14] It later premiered on Nicktoons (UK & Ireland), CITV, Canal J, Cartoon Network (Italy) and Boing, Cartoon Network (Spain), Boing, Panda Biggs, and 2BE. In Hungary, the series premiered on April 17, 2013, on Megamax and on September 9, 2013, on RTL Klub. It premiered on Cartoon Network (India) on July 20, 2013.[1] In Greece, Max Steel was broadcast firstly from Disney XD Greece and it also started airing on July 7, 2013, from Star Channel. The second season premiered on August 12, 2013, on Teletoon and on April 12, 2014, in Latin America. Season 2 never aired on Disney XD in the United States due to low ratings of the first season. All of the episodes of seasons 1 and 2 are available on Netflix Streaming[19] Reruns of the second season began airing on KidsClick in the United States on July 3, 2017, until June 15, 2018.[20]

Reception

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The series received generally mixed reviews from critics with praise given for Andrew Francis' voice performance of Max McGrath though aspects of the animation were critiqued. In her review for Common Sense Media, Emily Ashby praised Max Steel, giving it a 4/5. She called the use of bullies and struggles in school "relatable," and said that "Max Steel's likable attitude, sense of humor, and clear vision of right and wrong make him a viable modern superhero for teens."[21] In his review for Media Life Magazine, Tom Conroy said Max Steel was "Cobbled together from ready-made sources with no apparent interest in coming up with a fresh twist or a new slant, it fails to make much of an impression, either positive or negative." He criticized the use of bullies, new school, dead father, and shadowy mentor, saying they "are so overused that the writers of this series might have assumed they were obligatory and thus didn’t feel they were being lazy." He also criticized the graphics, citing them as "creaky" and "bizarrely artificial."[22]

The show was also nominated for the BAFTA 2014 Kids' Vote television category.[23]

Live Action

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Paramount Pictures planned to remake Max Steel as a motion picture. Originally, Taylor Lautner had been confirmed to star in the lead role as Josh McGrath.[24][25] As of March 2010, Lautner had dropped out of the film in favor of Hasbro and Universal's Stretch Armstrong.[26] Due to the relaunch of Max Steel in 2013, all plans for a live action movie were suspended. On August 2, 2013, it was revealed that Dolphin Entertainment are working on a Max Steel film. Christopher Yost will be writing while Stewart Hendler has been attached to direct. The film will follow along the plotline of the reboot and not the original series. The film will be distribute by Open Road Films originally with a 2014 release but has since been pushed to October 14, 2016.[27][28][29] On February 6, 2014, the studio has cast Ben Winchell as Max Steel and Ana Villafane as his love interest Sydney Gardner. But the use the character of Sofia Martinez instead of Sydney Garner in the movie.[30] On April 29, 2014, actor Andy Garcia is cast in the role of Dr. Miles Edwards, a brilliant and mysterious scientist.[31] On May 20, 2014, actor Mike Doyle is cast in a role.[32]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Rusak, Gary (October 5, 2012). "Mattel and FremantleMedia score Disney XD deal for Max Steel". Kidscreen. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  2. ^ "MOLLY MCGRATH Character Bios". Mattel. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c "Characters". Disney XD. Archived from the original on March 3, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  4. ^ "BERTO Character Bios". Mattel. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  5. ^ "CYTRO Character Bios". Mattel. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  6. ^ "JEFFERSON SMITH Character Bios". Mattel. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  7. ^ "KAT RYAN Character Bios". Mattel. Archived from the original on March 28, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  8. ^ "JASON NAUGHT Character Bios". Mattel. Archived from the original on March 27, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
  9. ^ "Maxsteel : Max Steel Home".
  10. ^ "Maxsteel : Max Steel Home".
  11. ^ "Maxsteel : Max Steel Home".
  12. ^ "Maxsteel : Max Steel Home".
  13. ^ "Maxsteel : Max Steel Home".
  14. ^ a b "ACTION-PACKED ANIMATED SERIES MAX STEEL™ PREMIERES MONDAY, MARCH 25, AT 4PM (ET/PT)". Mattel. March 21, 2013. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2013.
  15. ^ FME and Mattel Launch Series Two of Action/Comedy Max Steel to Global Buyers Archived 2013-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Cartoon Network and Boomerang bring Mattel Lineup to Latin America
  17. ^ Mattel reveals their content for 2016
  18. ^ Por Luis Beltran Romero. "Max Steel: Cartoon Network estrena el reboot en Marzo - Anime, Manga y TV". Anmtvla.com. Retrieved 2013-09-05.
  19. ^ "Max Steel | Netflix". Netflix. 2017-06-29. Archived from the original on 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  20. ^ "KidsClick Lineup Revealed". ToonBarn. June 19, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
  21. ^ "Max Steel - TV Review". 15 March 2013.
  22. ^ "'Max Steel,' stolen for the most part | Media Life Magazine". 2013-03-24. Archived from the original on 2013-03-24. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  23. ^ "Children's in 2014 | BAFTA Awards".
  24. ^ "Paramount To Make Max Steel Movie | /Film". Slashfilm.com. 2009-07-12. Archived from the original on 2010-04-29. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
  25. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (December 4, 2009). "Taylor Lautner to star in 'Max Steel'". Retrieved 2013-09-05.[permanent dead link]
  26. ^ Brodesser, Claude (26 February 2010). "Vulture Exclusive: Taylor Lautner Drops Mattel's Max Steel to Make Hasbro's Stretch Armstrong - Vulture". Nymag.com. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
  27. ^ "Max Steel Movie Moves Forward". Movieweb.com. 2 August 2013. Archived from the original on 4 August 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  28. ^ "Max Steel Movie Moving Forward". Comingsoon.net. 2 August 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  29. ^ "MAX STEEL Movie to Be Developed by Mattel and Dolphin Entertainment". Collider. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-05.
  30. ^ "Berlin: Ben Winchell, Ana Villafane Join 'Max Steel'". The Hollywood Reporter. 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  31. ^ "Andy Garcia Joins 'Max Steel'; Dejon LaQuake Cast In 'Max'". Deadline. April 29, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  32. ^ Kroll, Justin (May 20, 2014). "'Jersey Boys' Actor Joins Open Road's 'Max Steel'". Variety. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
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