Ben 10 is a cartoon TV series acclaimed American media franchise
created by "Man of Action" (a group consisting of Duncan Rouleau, Joe
Casey, Joe Kelly, and Steven T. Seagle), and produced by Cartoon Network
Studios.
The franchise is about a boy who acquires a watch like alien device
called the Omnitrix (later the Ultimatrix) attached to his wrist that allows
him to turn into alien creatures.
The Ben 10 franchise has grossed over $2 billion in retail sales in
Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and has sold 100 million toys
worldwide.
Ben 10
Main
article: Ben 10 (TV series)
Ten year old Ben Tennyson finds a device out in the woods called the
Omnitrix, which allows him to turn into ten different aliens species.
Throughout his summer vacation, travelling the entire country in the "Rust
Bucket" with his Grandpa Max and his cousin Gwen, Ben fights crime and
evil aliens with his new powers, gaining the ability to turn into 5 more aliens
along the way.
Alien
Force
Main
article: Ben 10: Alien Force
Five years after the original series, Ben has apparently taken off the
Omnitrix, but when his Grandpa Max goes missing, he puts it back on, which ends
up rebooting it, giving him a new set of ten aliens. Also, Ben's old enemy,
Kevin Levin, somehow escaped the Null Void, but has become reformed (mostly)
and joins Ben's team.
Ultimate
Alien
Main
article: Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
Several weeks after the end of Alien Force, Ben now has the new watch
named Ultimatrix, which allows him to 'evolve' his aliens into more powerful
forms. Even though it was advertised that Ben now has all of his old forms,
this doesn't really happen until Ben 10,000 Returns.
Omniverse
Main
article: Ben 10: Omniverse
A fourth series of the Ben 10 franchise was first announced at Cartoon
Network Upfront 2011.The title of the series, Ben 10: Omniverse was later
confirmed at the UK Toy Fair 2012. The series is set to premiere around
September 2012.Yuri Lowenthal, Greg Cipes and Ashley Johnson will reprise their
roles as Ben, Kevin and Gwen from Alien Force and Ultimate Alien.
Others
Ben 10:
Ultimate Challenge
A game show titled Ben 10: Ultimate Challenge, developed for television
by United Kingdom-based produced company Twenty Twenty, airs on Cartoon Network
in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Bulgaria and the
Nordic region, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Chile and the Middle
East. Ultimate Challenge is a trivia show tasking children with answering
questions about all three series. Ultimate Challenge is executive produced by
Daniel Marlowe and produced by Mandy Morris.
Elements
of the franchise
Themes
Characters
Main
article: List of Ben 10 characters
The franchise has a variety of kinds of characters: humans, aliens, and
also there are magical characters mixed with the alien subject.
The
Plumbers
The Plumbers are an intergalactic policing counter-terrorist/black-ops
organization, which dealt with extraterrestrial, paranormal, and other
situations that many others could not handle by using many high tech alien
gadgets and weapons.
The organization is composed with both human and alien members; each
one possesses special badges, all badges bear the intergalactic peace symbol, a
green hourglass shape. The badges has many features:
• Are ommunicator
devices
• Creates a holographic
map that can pin-point the location of another Plumber's Badge.
• Is an universal
translator.
• Access to "Extranet",
which is an intergalactic version of the Internet.
In the original series, the Earth's Plumbers are thr secret government
organization that protects the general public from any alien threat. Their main
base is located inside of Mt. Rushmore, where the Null Void projector and the
Sub-Energy are stored. Their main adversary was Vilgax. Max was a member in his
youth and was ultimately the one who defeated him. Most of the Plumbers had
disbanded; however, a few of its members (like Max and his relatives) remain in
a semi-active capacity.
Forever
Knights
The Forever Knights are a secret British society-paramilitary first
formed during the Middle Ages that are dedicating to collect and study alien
technology, usually in illegal ways. Any aliens they capture along the way are
dissected and studied, and any humans caught with them are immediately deemed
worthless and disposed of, their entire organization dresses as if they were
knights or mutants. They use a coat of arms over a pair of crossbones as their symbols,
the infinity symbol, for the reference to "Forever". Their leader is
called the Forever King, though Alien Force reveal there are several pretending
to the throne, causing the organization to be divided in splintered groups. At
one point in history they called themselves the CIA and were made of royal
bloodlines. The Forever Knights are similar to the Nazi Party, a certain
notorious political party and paramilitary group (specifically the SS) during
the 1930s and '40s and the Ahnenerbe, a rogue think tank group dedicated to
collect mystical artifacts to study during the 1930s and hoping to use them for
their government's international domination.
It is revealed in Ben 10: Alien Force that the reason for their actions
is to destroy an "Immortal Dragon" that been captured a thousand
years ago, that is a threat to all mankind it is later revealed that the dragon
is actually an Alien Stellar Cartographer whose translator was destroyed when
he was attacked by the first forever knights. This led to the acquisition of
both human and alien technology in hopes of finding a weapon with which to kill
it, meaning everything they did in the original series was for the sole purpose
of acquiring weapons they could use to slay the dragon, like the "Sword of
Ekchuah", the Omnitrix, the sub-energy, and anything else alien. This
dedication is shown to have evolved into an obsession such that they are
willing to exterminate an entire planet of dragon-like aliens, transforming it
into a genocidal policy toward anything alien. The Forever Knights also arm
themselves with a large variety of medieval weapons and alien technology, with
swords, lances, "laser lances", laser guns and electro shock rods
being their most common ones.
In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, the Forever Knights became more paramilitary
as their arsenal now ranges to tanks.
Anodites
Anodites
are a humanoid race of energy beings from the planet "Anodyne".
They are based on a vital energy called "Mana", that is
present in all living things and beings throughout the entire universe, known
as the life source energy. For Anodites, is a source of power, they have the
ability to control it as well like "magic" (which is confirmed to
derived from Mana), a key difference is that this form of magic (or at least magical
rituals) relies much more on the use of spoken incantations, spell books,
charms and talismans, and even celestial events, to achieve the desired magical
and mystical effects the caster desires. Anodites manipulate this, able to
create pink-and-magenta-colored shields and force fields of varying shapes and
sizes for protection and circular magenta shapes or globes that can be thrown
to disable enemies.
Anodites are quite free-spirited and most don't take life as seriously
as most humans to the point that some Anodites disregard the morality of their
actions and would rather satisfy their own personal pleasures, but that doesn't
stop them from helping others.
Osmosians
Osmosians (a play on osmosis) are human-like aliens from the planet
"Osmos V".
They has a unique ability to absorb matter and energy from nearly
anything and use it in various ways. Osmosians can channel energy through their
hands to manipulate technology, discharge it as an energy blast or use it to
speed up cellular regeneration to increase their strength or recover from
injuries at an accelerated rate. Osmosians are able to absorb and synthesize
the mass, properties, and chemical makeup of matter to change their body into a
living matter in the shape as the Osmosian, the absorbed matter is as durable
as the matter used to make it and can enhance their strength and durability.
Osmosians can also extend their matter to anything they are touching.
Osmosians can become mentally unstable if they absorb energy and cannot
control it. Storing energy for long periods of time will worsen their
instability.
Galvans
Galvans (a play on galvanization) are a small bipedal frog-like beings,
originally from Galvan Prime; currently they live in Galvan Mark II.
They are naturally extremely intelligent, and can enter complex
machines and operate them from the inside. This allows them to understand and
operate virtually any machine, even if they've never seen it before.
The Galvan originally had no empire to speak of, instead they were
being first kept as pets and then employed by other species as industrial
technicians, spies and saboteurs once their intelligence became known. They
were smart enough to keep the best secrets for themselves, eventually amassing
enough knowledge to build a powerful empire of their own based on the
technology they had kept from the rest of the universe, Galvans are very loyal
to keeping their research and technology top secret.
Transports
Each series has featured with some kind of main transportation. The
wheeled motor vehicles, even appearing like normal cars, they are equipped with
several Plumbers' technology, like a turbo engine, laser guns and also an
autopilot. And they often are destroyed during the series.
The Rust Bucket, is an old RV owned by Max Tennyson. And despise being
old, and even have been destroyed a few times, Max has a great affection for
it.
Kevin's car is a Muscle car also armed with Plumber technology as well
as other various alien tech, including guns and offroad capabilities. As it is
damaged and/or destroyed a lot, mainly during fights or chase scenes, and Kevin
constantly repairs it, has become a running gag in the series.
Ship is a Galvanic Mechamorph (Upgrade's species) alien that has the
ability to transform himself into fully operational technology he's once
touched. And he merged with the Forever Knights spaceship, from this event, he
became the space transportation for Ben's team during the season 3 of Ben 10:
Alien Force. He was replaced by the Rust Bucket III, a Plumbers' jet that Kevin
has upgraded with alien tech.
Allusions
The series often makes references and parodies to the popular culture,
by the episode titles, lines, characters, events, and other ways:
• Ben 10
• Ben 10: Alien Force
• Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
Technologies
The advanced technologies shown are both alien and from earth. In the
series, they are divided in levels of complication, danger or sophistication.
The levels known thus far are 1-20, although some technology is confirmed to be
higher than Level 20. Any tech above the allowed level, used on this planet, is
considered illegal.
Earth is a level 2 planet, something that is considered very inferior
for other aliens, as stated once that Earth is at least 500 years away from
being level 3.
Dwayne McDuffie describes some levels:
• Level 1 includes use
and construction of simple tools.
• Level 2 includes
remedial energy Manipulation, the use of Fire and/or the use of simple
machines.
• Level 3 includes
intermediate tool use and industrial organization combined with intermediate
energy manipulation. Often information management technologies develop at Level
3. This is also the level at which many species accidentally kill themselves.
• Level 5 includes
remedial manipulation of the fundamental force.
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