Ben 10: Alien Force

Ben 10: Alien Force
Genre	Fantasy Science fiction Action Adventure Drama Superhero
Created by	Man of Action
Based on	Ben 10 by Man of Action
Developed by	Dwayne McDuffie
Voices of	Yuri Lowenthal Ashley Johnson Greg Cipes Dee Bradley Baker Paul Eiding Vyvan Pham Jeff Bennett John DiMaggio Kevin Michael Richardson Richard McGonagle James Remar
Theme music composer	Andy Sturmer
Composer(s)	Kristopher Carter Michael McCuistion Lolita Ritmanis
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	46 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Sam Register
Producer(s)	Donna Smith Glen Murakami (supervising producer)
Running time	23 minutes
Production company(s)	Cartoon Network Studios
Release
Original network	Cartoon Network
Original release	April 18, 2008 (2008-04-18) – March 26, 2010 (2010-03-26)
Chronology
Preceded by	Ben 10
Followed by	Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
External links
Website

Ben 10: Alien Force is an American animated television series created by team Man of Action (a group consisting of Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, and Steven T. Seagle), and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. It takes place five years after Ben 10 and takes a darker turn than its predecessor.

The series premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on April 18, 2008 and on Teletoon in Canada on September 6, 2008, and ended on March 26, 2010. The series was originally produced under the working title of Ben 10: Hero Generation. The series ran for a total of three seasons and forty-six episodes with its final episode being aired on March 26, 2010.

It was nominated for four Emmy Awards, winning one for Outstanding Sound Mixing – Live Action and Animation.

Plot

Set five years after the end of the original series, Ben Tennyson, now a teenager, once again dons the Omnitrix to protect the earth and other parts of the universe from vilinous alien activity. The Omnitix itself, a wristwatch-shaped device, allows Ben to transform into numberous alien forms, thereby inheriting the unique abilities of that alien race.

Characters

Heroes

Main article: List of Ben 10 characters

• Benjamin Kirby Tennyson (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal)

At the age of fifteen, Ben fills the role of leader after Grandpa Max mysteriously disappears. The powerful Omnitrix has recalibrated, giving him access to a new set of alien heroes that are much stronger and more powerful than those in the original series. Over the past five years, Ben has matured dramatically and gained strength, leadership and wisdom.

• Gwendolyn Catherine Tennyson (voices by Ashley Johnson)

At the age of fifteen, Ben's cousin Gwen is much more skilled with her innate magical powers. She is able to create, control, and manipulate magical energies that she can mold into various shapes and forms such as ropes and bridges, solid projectiles and shields, and stepping stones for quick traversal of dangerous areas. She is not nearly as fiery or short-tempered as she was in the original series, and she shows a much more concerned and caring attitude toward her cousin.

• Kevin Ethan Levin (voices by Greg Cipes)

A former nemesis of Ben, Kevin now works 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. He has the ability to absorb the properties of any solid matter he touches--like rock or steel--providing him greater strength and protection in battle.

• Julie Yamamoto (voices by Vyvan Pham)

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

• Max Tennyson (voices by Paul Eiding)

Max is a semi-retired member of the Plumbers--an inter-planetary law enforcement group--and Ben and Gwen's paternal grandfather. 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 (transporting himself to the Null Void). 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 to aid Ben in his final assault against the Highbreed.

Villains

Main article: List of Ben 10 villains

• Highbreed

The Highbreed believe themselves to be the purest and most powerful 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 intended to destroy the rest of the universe.

• DNAliens

Human-Xenocyte hybrids are alien drones that serve the Highbreed. The DNAliens are able to disguise themselves as humans using special identity masks called ID Masks.

• The Forever Knights

A paramilitary organization that has worked in secret since their formation in the Middle Ages, Forever Knights steal and then trade alien technology with anyone who is willing to pay large amounts of money.

• Vilgax (voiced by James Remar)

One of Ben's most formitable foes from the original series, Vilgax is an alien warlord set on conquering the universe. His desire is to take Ben's Omnitrix and use it to further his goal. While not present in the first two seasons, he returns in season three with new powers and abilities. He loses to Ben in the episode "Vengeance of Vilgax" and was banished from Earth, though he swore vengeance. Keeping his promise, Vilgax returned in the episode "The Final Battle" to procure the Omnitrix and destroy Ben, but was unsuccessful.

• Albedo (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal)

Albedo is a young and arrogant Galvan. A former assistant to Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitix, Albedo asked for an Omnitrix of his own. When Azmuth refused, Albedo built one himself of inferior quality and synchronized it to work exactly like Ben's. Instead of being able to control the transformations himself, however, because Ben's device was the default, Albedo was transformed into a clone of Ben, even developing many of Ben's habits, which he considers utterly repulsive. Albedo's goal is to steal Ben's Omnitix so that he can undo the cloning transformation and return to his original form.

Themes

Ben 10: Alien Force is set five years after the original series. The second series is quite different from the first one: the story-line is notable for having matured the characters and taken a darker tone with more complex plots, more characters dying, and much less humor. The original logo has changed from the original series. This change received mixed reactions from the fans, and caused a division among them. Despite this, Ben 10: Alien Force's ratings were successful, allowing the production of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, taking place one year later.

The evolved Omnitrix

Main article: List of Ben 10 aliens

When the Omnitrix was recalibrated it gained a more watch-like shape, a green wristband, and became smaller and sleeker with the face plate becoming black and green. The inside of the hourglass shape on the face now glows in different colors at special moments; these colors signify the state that the Omnitrix is in. The display mode of alien-shaped black silhouettes printed on the face has been replaced by a dark green 3D hologram hovering above the watch, giving a more detailed look of the selected alien.

The new Omnitrix also funtions as a Plumber's badge which is used in the series as a communicator, a detector of other Plumber's badges, an alien-language translator, and as a key for accessing the Extranet, an intergalactic Internet.

In Ben 10, the reason Azmuth invented the Omnitrix was for all the beings of the universe to better understand each other. It was revealed in Ben 10: Alien Force that there was another reason for the creation of the Omnitrix. Azmuth tells Ben that the Omnitrix was invented to preserve the DNA of all living beings in the Milky Way Galaxy and restore them if they should ever become extinct.

Media

DVD releases

Region 1 releases

DVD title	Season	Aspect ratio	Release date
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 1	Season One	4:3	October 21, 2008
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 2			January 13, 2009
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 3			April 7, 2009
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 4	Season Two	16:9	September 1, 2009
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 5			November 17, 2009
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 6			March 30, 2010
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 7	Season Three		June 29, 2010
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 8			August 24, 2010
Ben 10: Alien Force Volume 9			October 5, 2010

Region 4 releases

DVD title	Aspect ratio	Release date
Ben 10: Alien Force – Season 1	4:3	June 1, 2011
Ben 10: Alien Force – Season 2
Ben 10: Alien Force – Season 3

Ben 10: Alien Swarm

Main article: Ben 10: Alien Swarm

Ben 10: Alien Swarm is a live-action film based on the series, announced by Cartoon Network at their 2008 upfront. It is a sequel to Ben 10: Race Against Time. The first teaser trailer was shown on October 3, 2008 during the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, 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 was recast with Barry Corbin. The film also featured Alyssa Diaz as a new character named Elena, who was a childhood friend of Ben. The aliens seen were Big Chill, Humongousaur, and a new alien named Nanomech. In the movie, Kevin's car was a green Dodge Challenger.

Video games

A total of three games based on Ben 10: Alien Force were produced: Ben 10 Alien Force: The Game, Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks, and Ben 10 Alien Force: The Rise of Hex. Characters from the Ben 10 series also made appearances in Cartoon Network's MMO, Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall.

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.

Ben 10: Alien Force: Doom Dimension is a two-part graphic novel series published by Del Rey Books, written by Peter David, and illustrated by Dan Hipp.

Books

Scholastic Books has published a number of books based on the series, including a collection of chapter books written by Charlotte Fullerton, who has written several episodes for the show.

External links

• Ben 10: Alien Force official US site
• Ben 10: Alien Force official UK site
• Ben 10: Alien Force at IMDb