Ben 10
10-year-old Benjamin Tennyson finds an alien device out in the woods, the Omnimatrix (Omnitrix for short), which allows him to turn into ten different
alien species: Wildmutt, Four Arms, Grey Matter, XLR8, Upgrade, Diamondhead, Ripjaw, Stinkfly, Ghostfreak, and Heatblast. Throughout his summer vacation, traveling the world in the "Rust Bucket" with his Grandpa Max and his cousin Gwen Tennyson, Ben fights crime and evil aliens with his new powers, gaining the ability to turn into ten more aliens:Cannonbolt, Wildvine, Benwolf, Benmummy, Benvicktor, Ditto, Upchuck, Eye Guy, Way Big, and Eon.
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 reboots it and gives Ben a new set of ten aliens (Swampfire, Echo Echo, Humungasaur, Jetray, Big Chill, Spidermonkey, Goop, Brainstorm, Chromastone, and Alien X). Ben's old enemy, Kevin Eleven, had somehow escaped the Null Void, but has now become (mostly) reformed and joins Ben's team.
Several weeks after the end of Alien Force, Ben now has the Ultimate Omnimatrix/Ultimate Omnitrix/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. After Ben gets home to his family, he also has many new "aliens" that he has to try and fight evil with.
After Ultimate Alien, Ben gets a new Omnitrix along with a new set of aliens. While Gwen and Kevin go off to college, Ben is ready to become a solo superhero. But Max pairs him up with Rook, a by-the-book rookie plumber. Max sends Ben and Rook to investigate a hidden alien city. Meanwhile, Ben is targeted by an intergalactic bounty hunter named Khyber. Ben later meets new villains and has a secret about his alien Feedback.
Elements of the franchise[edit source]
Omnitrix/Ultimatrix/Nemetrix[edit source]
Falling accidentally into the hands of Ben Tennyson, the
Omnitrix and its later upgrade the
Ultimatrix are the central elements of the Ben 10 story. They are alien devices of level 20 technology developed by Azmuth that transform the user into any one of a number of alien beings. Despite many seeing it as a weapon, the true purpose of the Omnitrix was to allow the diverse beings of the universe to understand each other by walking in each other's shoes, and to resurrect intelligent species that may go extinct.
The Omnitrix appears in the first two incarnations of the franchise (
Ben 10 and
Ben 10: Alien Force) and the Ultimatrix in the third incarnation
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. And in the final episode of Ultimate Alien, Azmuth takes the Ultimatrix from Ben and replaces it with a new Omnitrix - the original and Ultimate version have been only prototypes.
In
Ben 10: Omniverse, a knock off of the original Omnitrix, the Nemetrix is introduced. Unlike the Omnitrix and its succeeding models, the Nemetrix uses the DNA of the natural predators of sentient alien races. Thus, only an animal can utilize the Nemetrix as users of higher intelligence are unable to use it themselves.
The franchise has a variety of characters: humans,
aliens, and magical characters mixed with the alien subject.
The Plumbers are an intergalactic policing/
counter-terrorist/
black-ops organization, which deals with extraterrestrial, paranormal, and other situations by using many high-tech alien gadgets and weapons.
The organization is composed of both human and alien members, each of whom possesses a special badge, and all badges bear the intergalactic peace symbol, a green
hourglass shape. Later in Omniverse, the plumber's symbol becomes a red dot. The badge has many features:
- Is a communication device.
- Creates a holographic map that can pin-point the location of another Plumber's badge.
- Is a universal translator.
- Enables access to "Extranet", which is an intergalactic version of the Internet.
In the original series the Earth's Plumbers were a secret government organization that protected the general public from any alien threat. Their main base was located inside
Mt. Rushmore, where the Null Void projector and Sub-Energy were stored. Their main adversary was Vilgax. Max was a Plumbers member in his youth. Most of the Plumbers have disbanded; however, a few members (like Max and his relatives) remain in a semi-active capacity.
The
Forever Knights are a secret British society/
paramilitary group first formed during the
Middle Ages that are dedicated to collect and study alien technology, usually by illegal means. Any aliens they capture along the way are dissected and studied, and any humans caught with them are immediately deemed worthless and disposed off. It is revealed in "Ben 10: Ultimate Alien" that the reason for their actions is to combat Diagon, an entity from another dimension that nearly conquered the Earth in the Middle Ages were it not for the Forever Knights' immortal Founder George; when George left them, the Forever Knights began to splinter under various self-titled Forever Kings who transformed their knights' duty into a
genocidal policy toward anything alien. The Forever Knights also arm themselves with a large variety of medieval weapons enhanced by alien technology, with Lightsaber-like swords, lances, "laser lances", laser guns and electro shock rods being their most common ones.
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, this is a source of power, and they also have the ability to control it like "magic" (which is confirmed to be 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 magical and mystical effects the caster desires. Anodites manipulate this, and are 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 does not stop them from helping others.
Osmosians (a play on
osmosis) are human-like aliens from the planet "Osmos V".
They have 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 sharing these properties. 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, becoming an addiction like a drug. Storing energy for long periods of time will worsen their instability. This addiction, can be also caused when they feed with life force from other living beings, causing the Osmosian to become insatiable and instinctively seek out any possible source of energy to feed off of.
As they can absorb energy life force, they can also absorb the
DNA, receiving 10% of their abilities and powers, and making the Osmosians having sometimes, physical mutations.
Galvans (a play on
galvanization) are small
bipedal frog-like beings, originally from Galvan Prime; currently they live in Galvan Mark II.
The Galvan race is best known for being a highly intelligent race whose great amount of calculative and technical intellect allowed them to create almost anything from spare parts and deduce the function of any device at a glance. The Galvans originally had no empire to speak of, were recognized from their skills and were employed by other species as industrial technicians, spies and saboteurs. But in time, keeping their projects top secret, they amassed their acquired knowledge to build a powerful empire of their own based on the technology they had kept from the rest of the universe. Among the notable Galvans in the series, is Azmuth, who created the Omnitrix among many other technologies; and also Azmuth is considered the most intelligent being in the Universe.
In "Destroy All Aliens," Azmuth's father says that the Galvans created Stonehenge, as a practical joke.
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 are often destroyed during the series.
The
Rust Bucket, is an old
RV resembling a
GMC motorhome owned by Max Tennyson. And despite being old, and even have been destroyed a few times, Max has a great affection for it.
Ship is a Galvanic Mechamorph (Upgrade's species) alien that has the ability to transform himself into fully operational technology he's once touched. 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. The
Rust Bucket III, a Plumbers'
jet that Kevin has upgraded with alien tech, replaced him.
Kevin's car is a
Muscle car resembling a
Dodge Challenger armed with Plumber technology as well as other various alien tech, including guns and offroad capabilities. It is the team's main transport in
Ben 10: Alien Force &
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. It is damaged and/or destroyed a lot, mainly during fights or chase scenes, and Kevin is constantly busy repairing it.
- Many characters prefer violent solutions rather than verbal ones, especially Kevin, who prefers to hit people before talking, but is stopped by Gwen, who is much more sensitive than him. Also, Ben prefers using a big, powerful alien in many situations, but ends up turning into another alien, especially Grey Matter, a small and less powerful genetic Galvan, and Nanomech, a humanoid insect.
- During the original series, Ben has a lack of hygiene, and this is briefly seen in the other series. It is sometimes mentioned that he rarely washes himself or never changes clothes, claiming the shirt that is commonly worn throughout the first series is the only shirt he used during the entire summer.
- Mr. Smoothy is a restaurant that serves mostly smoothies at which Ben and his friends are regular customers. The titular mascot is a cup with face and legs that holds a smaller cup. It serves the strangest assortment of flavors in its smoothies, made to order. Among the strange flavors which Ben drinks are: "chocolate and carrot", "nectarine", "mango and blueberry with extra echinacea" and "all-meat flavored smoothies such as lamb and sardine". In Bellwood there are 23 Mr. Smoothy restaurants, and in some episodes some of them are destroyed because of Ben.
- Sumo Slammers is a large franchise spawning up to video games, trading card games, TV shows, movies, mp3 players, etc., which appears often in the Ben 10 series. The storyline of the franchise is similar to anime stories, although the details were not shown, but it tells about a warrior called Ishiyama and his archenemy called Kenko with the ability to shapeshift. Kenko has somehow joined to Ishiyama. Ben has been a huge fan since he was young, and is always trying to do something linked with it, such as knowing the news about them and pretending that he is fighting like them.
- Kevin's car is a muscle car armed with Plumber technology as well as other various alien tech, including guns and off-road capabilities. As it is often damaged and/or destroyed (such as during fights or chase scenes), Kevin is constantly repairing it. TheRust Bucket III has also become a part of this running gag. In the episode "Video Game" Kevin seems to think Ben's destruction of Will's car is not a good way of getting back at Harangue for his rage focused at Ben. Due to Kevin's obsession with own his car, it is likely a joke referencing that.
- Since "War of the Worlds", due to Ben's worldwide fame, he shows some typical celebrity behavior, where he is chased by fans and shows off, hoping that someone will notice and adore him. He constantly claims to have "saved the whole entire universe!".
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 by other aliens, as it was 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.
The
Null Void is a
pocket dimension created by the Galvan as a
penal colony. It is filled with floating rocks, with flying creatures as guards. It is shown to be worse than a normal prison, often scarring many people that went there, including Kevin, which can be argued to be the cause for his transition to a protagonist. It's also a place for people to start over in life. They are protected by the guardians - creatures that protect powerless people in the Null Void from the more violent inmates. They first appeared in "Back With A Vengeance " on Ben 10. But then not revealed as Null Guardians. In the later Episodes they were revealed.
ID Masks are masks that can change someone's appearance
holographically. They were often used by DNAliens to take forms of human beings, and are also used by Plumbers' Kids who are obviously part alien to hide their appearance and be able to roam freely on Earth. Even Kevin Uses one after he turns into which he calls Monster.
Techadons are powerful war machines that were mass-produced by a Weapons Technology group known as the "Weapon masters of Techadon". They are armed with powerful lasers and nanite based regenerative technologies, able to recreate itself in entirety from a single hand. The custom made ones that are commissioned for a hit are stronger and when one is destroyed, the other ones adapt from the defeated ones.
The
Entropy Pump is a machine made of
quartz crystals developed by Professor Paradox during the 1950s, as a
time-travelingexperiment. It was experimented in a lab when an assistant Hugo drew back and hit the controls, causing the machine to become a vacuum, pulling Paradox inside of it and hurling him into the event horizon of a virtual wormhole. The result powers Paradox's time traveling project by generating enough energy to weaken the time-space continuum.
Paradox, now with knowledge of the time line, later explains to Ben the concept of
Cross Time. Cross Time is a reference to
alternate future timelines, such as the timeline depicted in "Ben 10,000" and "Ken 10" where Kevin was still evil. Another Cross Time future, depicted in "Ben 10,000 Returns", presents Ben still with the Ultimatrix and using it to become an Ultimate human.
Ascalon is a sword-like weapon also created by Azmuth, with the power to tap into the forces of the universe itself. The sword is so powerful that it can destroy an entire planet, and can also cause madness to anyone who possesses it. Only the one who is dignified can have such power, that's why Azmuth gave Ascalon to an
immortal human who is battling an extra-dimensional creature, knowing that only "he" needs such power to fight.
Secret of the Omnitrix[edit source]
The first is a regular animated feature called
Secret of the Omnitrix. A trailer of the film was released with the film
Billy & Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen, and it aired August 10, 2007. The main plot was about during a fight with Dr Animo, Ben's Omnitrix accidentally sets off its self-destruct mode and Ben has to find the Omnitrix's creator to shut it down and stop the evil Vilgax.
The second is a live-action film titled
Ben 10: Race Against Time[2] which aired November 21, 2007. It revolves around Ben, Gwen and Grandpa Max returning to their hometown of Bellwood and attempting to adjust to being 'normal' again. Unfortunately, their lives are once again disrupted by a mysterious alien known as Eon, who has an unexpected connection to the Omnitrix. It premiered on
Cartoon Network on November 21, 2007. The film was directed by
Alex Winter.
[3] The film was nominated for two Visual Effects Society Awards: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries, Movie or Special - Dina Benadon,
Evan Jacobs, Brent Young, Chris Christman; and Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program or Commercial - Brent Young, Michael Smith.
[4]
The third is a live-action film titled Ben 10: Alien Swarm which aired November 25, 2009. It is about Ben, Gwen, Kevin and Grandpa Max. In the movie the group stumbles upon a hive of alien nanobots using humans as host bodies in order to take over the world. The Nanochips, or "alien swarm", are controlled by a single consciousness and Ben and his friends must work together to stop them.
A CGI animated movie was announced in mid-2011,
[5] titled
Ben 10: Destroy all Aliens and was released on March 11, 2012 (Asia / Philippines)
[6] and on March 23, 2012 (US).
[7] This film had previously been under the working title
Ben 10: Alien Dimensions.
[8] The film was based on the original series, and featured the original voice cast. The CGI was animated by Tiny Island Productions, in Singapore.
Feature film adaptation[edit source]
On June 14, 2011, Producer
Joel Silver announced that he along with
Warner Bros. and
Dark Castle Entertainment would bring
Ben 10to the big screen.
[9] Albert Torres is attached to the project as screenwriter.
[10] Ryan Engle will work on Torres' script of the film. Additionally, Andrew Rona and Steve Richards are producing alongside Joel Silver, with Silver Pictures' own Alex Heineman and Sarah Meyer executive producing.
[11]
Ben 10 / Generator Rex crossover[edit source]
During
Cartoon Network's panel at 2011's
San Diego Comic-Con, Ben 10 and Generator Rex creators "Man of Action" announced a crossover special between the
Ben 10 and
Generator Rex series titled
Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United. The forty-minute special aired on November 25, 2011 as a
Generator Rex episode.
[12][13]
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