From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ben 10: Alien Force
Ben 10: Alien Force logo
Format	Animated series, Science fiction, Action, Adventure
Created by	Duncan Rouleau Joe Casey Joe Kelly Steven T. Seagle
Voices of	Yuri Lowenthal Ashley Johnson Dee Bradley Baker Greg Cipes Paul Eiding
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	46 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes approx.
Broadcast
Original channel	Cartoon Network
Original airing	April 18, 2008 - present
Chronology
Preceded by	Ben 10
Followed by	Ben 10: Evolution
External links
Official website

Ben 10: Alien Force is an American animated television series created by Dwayne McDuffie and Glen Murakami and the studio "Man of Action" (a group consisting of Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, and Steven T. Seagle), and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. It is a sequel to Ben 10. Set five years after the original series, the storyline is notable for having matured the character and taking a darker tone, with more complex plots, and sometimes more characters dying.

The series premiered on Cartoon Network on April 18, 2008 in the United States, with its Canadian premiere on Teletoon on September 6, 2008. The series was originally produced under the working title of Ben 10: Hero Generation. It will be followed by Ben 10: Evolution.

Plot

Five years after the events of the original series, 15-year old Ben Tennyson has returned to a normal, everyday life. His adventures done, Ben has taken off the Omnitrix and has grown from a young boy into a confident teenager. But the mysterious disappearance of Grandpa Max prompts him to wear the Omnitrix, as well as forcing Ben, Gwen, and a newly reformed Kevin Levin to search and locate him. While at the same time, enlisting the help of child Plumbers (an inter-planetary peace-keeping force, with both human & alien members) and repelling attacks from a new foe, the Highbreed.

Some time after the Highbreed are defeated, Ben, Gwen, and Kevin continue their adventures dealing with various alien threats. These include facing off with some villains from Ben's past such as Vilgax, Dr. Animo, Ghostfreak, Vulkanus, Charmcaster, and Hex.

Episodes

Characters

Heroes

Benjamin Tennyson

Ben fills the role of leader after Max disappears. The Omnitrix has been recalibrated, giving him access to a new set of alien heroes. Over the past few years, Ben has matured dramatically.

Gwendolyn Tennyson

Gwen is much more proficient with her powers, able to manipulate energy directly as opposed to using spells (this is revealed to be due to Gwen having an alien heritage), where she can manipulate energy to create blasts, shields, and energy like grapple holds. Although she's not nearly as fiery or short-tempered as before, Gwen is still always looking out for her cousin. She also is presumed to have feelings for Kevin Levin. She also shows that she cares for him in many ways.

Kevin Ethan Levin

A former nemesis of Ben, Kevin is now getting by as an alien tech dealer. He unintentionally gets involved in the Highbreed plot, and joins Ben out of a desire to make up for his actions. His abilities now allow him to absorb the properties of any solid matter he touches. But in the third season premiere, Kevin is mutated into a being with a segmented body composed of several different solid substances, and as a result, he now has the power to shape-shift his limbs into any solid substance he can think of. He has feelings for Gwen but he won't say it.

Maxwell Tennyson

Max is a semi-retired member of the Plumbers. He disappears while investigating the Highbreed plot, leaving only a few cryptic messages for Ben to find. He is briefly reunited with his grandchildren in "Max Out", but sacrifices himself to destroy a Highbreed factory at the end of the episode. In the episode "Voided", Ben and Max reunite in the Null Void, and he promises Ben that he'll come back soon. He eventually returns in the second season finale of the show, "War of the Worlds" to aid Ben in his final assault against the Highbreed.

Julie Yamamoto

Julie is Ben's love interest. She enjoys tennis, eating chili fries, and caring for her pet, Ship (an alien Mechomorph found by her and Ben).

Villains

Highbreed

The Highbreed believe themselves to be the purest of all species, and intend to cleanse the galaxy of impure lower life forms. It was later revealed that they were dying out, having become sterile and vulnerable to disease due to heavy inbreeding, and that they intend to destroy the rest of the universe with them.

DNAliens

Hybrids of humans and alien drones that serve the Highbreed, the DNAliens are able to disguise themselves as humans using special identity masks.^[1]

The Forever Knights 

An organization that has worked in secret ever since their formation in the Middle Ages. The Forever Knights will trade alien technology with anyone who's willing, even the Highbreed.^[1]

Vilgax

Vilgax returns in Season 3 with a new look (he had new armors, weapons and abilities). He loses to Ben in the episode "Vengeance of Vilgax" and was banished from Earth, though he swore vengeance. Vilgax returns in "Ghost Town" in need of Ben's assistance when a deal with Ghostfreak became a double-cross on Ghostfreak's part and Ghostfreak takes over Vilgaxia, Vilgax's home planet. Though Vilgax appears to be a cruel villain throughout the original series, in "Ghost Town" he seems to care about his people on his planet.

Omnitrix

At some point in the years between the original series and Ben 10: Alien Force, Ben managed to remove the Omnitrix by an unknown but difficult process. When Ben puts it back on, the Omnitrix reconfigures into a more watch-like shape with a greener theme, and recalibrates itself along with its selection of aliens, giving Ben access to a new set of more powerful alien forms and a holographic alien display, rather than merely presenting the silhouettes of the aliens. Also, Ben has lost his previous alien transformations, although it keeps the powers and adds new ones.^[2].

Ben himself also retains any injuries suffered by his alien forms, although this has not been shown to be any significant problem as of yet. After the recalibration, the Omnitrix seems to grant Ben more stable control over its powers as he is successfully able to transform to a desired alien, although after Ben and Kevin tampered with the Omnitrix, it has started to malfunction from time to time like in the previous series^[3]. Ben is also now able to switch between alien forms, and revert to his human form by will without the intervention of the ten minute auto time-out; though eventually its power will deplete and Ben will revert to his original state and cannot transform until the watch has fully recharged. In addition to the new functions that have been said, the new Omnitrix has the ability to repair genetic damage, such as that caused by DNAlien mutation. It uses a previously unseen speech function to inform Ben of this feature with a synthesized voice matching that of Ben's. Also, it appears that the new Omnitrix deactivated the pulse that is sent off whenever someone tries to remove the Omnitrix from the host. It is also equipped with a translation program, which explains why Ben was able to communicate and converse with the different alien species he has encountered so far. The Omnitrix also acts as a Plumbers badge with built-in communications for other badges and a map showing other Plumbers. For all aliens, whether new or old, the Omnitrix symbol has been moved to the center of the body. Apparently, the newly recalibrated Omnitrix can access new transformations, due to the interference produced by other aliens, as seen in "The Con of Rath."

Azmuth revealed that the Omnitrix contains the DNA of every sentient species in the galaxy, totaling 1,000,903. He likens it to Noah's Ark, in that it could restore any of those 1,000,903 species, should they ever become extinct^[4]. If a second Omnitrix is created, and if it comes into close proximity with the other one, it will result in a cataclysmic explosion that would destroy the entire universe.^[5] Also, if the Omnitrix is hacked, it may result in some of the species within it escaping,^{[6 ]}, though unlike Ghostfreak, who managed to retain intellect and motive, the escaped aliens are practically mindless and seemingly limited to functioning on pure animal instinct.

It is revealed in the episode "primus" that the omnitrix is not the one contains the DNA of the aliens but a wireless network that connects to the planet primus' river where all of the DNA of all sentient species of the galaxy.

Ben 10: Alien Swarm

Ben 10: Alien Swarm is a live-action film based on the series was announced by Cartoon Network at their 2008 upfront. It is a sequel to Ben 10: Race Against Time. A teaser trailer was shown on October 3, 2008 during the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and a full trailer was shown after the season 2 finale on March 27, 2009, and another full trailer, this time showing a preview of Humongousaur, was shown during the season 3 premiere on September 11, 2009. The film aired on November 25, 2009. According to the sweepstakes site, it was rated TV-PG. Again directed by Alex Winter, the film's cast included Ryan Kelley as Ben, Nathan Keyes as Kevin, and Galadriel Stineman as Gwen. Lee Majors was offered to reprise his role as Grandpa Max, but he turned it down; the role has since been recast with Barry Corbin. The film also featured Alyssa Diaz as a new character named Elena, a childhood friend of Ben.^[7] The aliens seen were Big Chill, Humongousaur, and a new alien named Nanomech.

Ben 10: Evolution

At Cartoon Network Upfront 2009, it was announced that another series called Ben 10: Evolution will premiere right after the end of Alien Force in 2010.

Video games

Monkey Bar Games and D3 Publisher made a game of the show. It is for PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, Wii and PSP. Playable characters in the game include Ben, Gwen, and Kevin. All versions of the game allow Ben to become Swampfire, and Humongousaur; the DS version includes Chromastone, Echo Echo, and Goop, while the console versions include Big Chill, Spidermonkey,and Jetray.

A second game entitled Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks released in October 27, 2009.^[8]

Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall currently features this series' Ben, Gwen, Max, Kevin, and Vilgax, along with Hex and Tetrax from the original Ben 10 series.

Comics

Ben 10: Alien Force has been featured in Cartoon Network Action Pack!, an anthology comic book series published by DC Comics, since issue #27 (September 2008 cover date). It normally alternates bi-monthly with The Secret Saturdays as the lead story.

Ben 10: Alien Force stories have been published in Cartoon Network Action Pack! #27, 28, 31, 33, 35, 37, 38, 41, 42, and 43.^[9]

References

External links

• Official UK website
• Ben 10: Alien Force at the Internet Movie Database
• Ben 10: Alien Force at TV.com
• [1]