Max Steel: Dawn of Morphos (alternatively titled as Duo Strike: Dawn of Morphos or Dawn of Morphos Part One and Dawn of Morphos Part Two) is the second film of the 2015 trilogy and the second film overall of the second iteration of the Max Steel franchise. It aired on April 1 on the Latin American Cartoon Network. It was directed by Andrew Doucette and Ben Anderson.
In the first half of 2016, the official Max Steel YouTube channel and the official website released the film in segmented parts, with each having two to three minutes. The uploads were available for a limited time and were released exclusively in Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish, and Spanish.
Synopsis[]
After Makino's defeat, Miles Dread returns with a dangerous creature named Morphos, whose main power consists in copying the powers of the enemy that he is fighting with. Now, Max and Steel must unlock a hidden ability to face this monster.
Plot[]
At Dread's abandoned mansion, he, along with Jason Naught and other scientists and engineers are working in a project. While talking with Naught, Miles states that they were generating victory and vengeance. After one of the scientists tell him that everything was set and ready, Dread commands them to commence the test. As the creature is injected with liquid T.U.R.B.O. Energy, a device captures electricity and brings the monster to life. Seeing that the experiment was successful, Dread laughs mainacally and shouts that the creature was alive while Naught looks at him in fear.
Meanwhile, Sydney Gardner is traveling by train when it suddenly gets out of control after exceeding its safe speed. Luckily, Max and Steel find about it and attempt to stop it with Turbo Strength Mode, although they only manage to separate one wagon of the vehicle. They quickly take action and activate Turbo Rocket Mode and successfully manage to stop the train. After doing so, the citizens cheer Max Steel and Sydney decides to thank him personally. Max accidentally refers to her as her real name and attempts to correct it by reffering to her as "citizen", which surprises her. He activates Turbo Flight Mode and leaves the place while Sydney is left doubtful. They unlink later on and Steel sees a poster of them and comments how he was good-looking and asks who Max Steel truly are, while Max says that asked himself the same thing.
Meanwhile at Dread's mansion, Miles announces that the "Project Morphos" wasn't successful like he thought. The creature mumbles his name, which surprises Naught who asks if he was able to speak. Morphos asks what he was and Dread reveals that he was a multitude of stitches made for one purpose, of which the creature is curious about. He refers to Dread as his father and Naught mocks him, angering Miles. He shows an hologram of Max Steel and Morphos is revealed to already know him, which surprises Naught. He proceeds to show an hologram of a device that would complete him which he would obtain after destroying Max Steel.
In the meantime, Max is not eating his breakfast and Molly notices, asking him what happened. He tells her that he let it slip to Sydney that he was Max Steel and that he wasn't sure if he wanted to keep it a secret anymore. Molly attempts to comfort him, though he is afraid that she might already know and that he was lying to her. She tells him that whatever he chose to do would be the right thing and that she would support him. Later on, Max and Steel are discussing at school as the former is bent on telling Sydney the truth. After seeing her, Max hides himself and they both start to discuss whatever they should tell her or not. He ultimately decides to tell her, but he is interupted by Dread, who contacts him via Steel's communication frequency. He makes up an excuse and leaves school while Steel attempts to turn off Miles' call, with the latter saying that he had left a "partying gift" at downtown and claims that everything that he held dear was about to come to an end. A ship drops a container at the streets and Morphos is revealed to be inside of it and starts to wreak havoc. Max and Steel head to downton and find the creature, who claims that his father wanted him gone.
Cast[]
- Andrew Francis as Max/Scientist 1
- Sam Vincent as Steel/Berto
- Nicole Oliver as Molly McGrath
- Sarah Edmondson as Sydney Gardner
- Richard Ian Cox as Kirby Kowalski
- Michael Dobson as Forge Ferrus/Engineer 2
- Kathleen Barr as Kat Ryan
- Omari Newton as Jefferson Smith
- Trevor Devall as Jim McGrath
- Brian Dobson as Jason Naught and Morphos
- Mark Oliver as Miles Dredd and Engineer 1
Events[]
Continuity[]
- In the beginning of the film, a head of one of Toxzon's acid Goopanoids, from Supermania, is seen inside of a jar.
- An outdoor of Hero-Man, from Supermania, was seen when Max was tossed in a building by Morphos.
- The creation of N-Tek was revisited in flashbacks, showing Ja'em, Forge, Miles and Molly as young adults.
- The picture of Jim hugging Molly that was shown in the beginning of Come Together Part One is framed and seen hanging on the wall of the McGrath's apartment.
- A picture of Max, Molly, Forge, Kat and Jefferson holding a Steel-shaped cake, which happened in Got Turbo Star?, appears hanging on the wall of the McGrath's apartment.
Noteworthy Events[]
- Introduction of Morphos.
- Sydney hints that she knows that about Max Steel's secret identity.
- With the assistance of Ja'em, Max unlocks the Duo Strike technique, a process that allows him to combine his Turbo Modes. By fusing Turbo Spike and Turbo Cannon, Max successfully defeats Morphos and grants temporary victory over him.
- Morphos obtains the ability of combining two or more powers at once thanks to Miles Dread's security device, which was originally intended to destroy him.
Production[]
In 2015, Mattel partnered with Turner Broadcasting to air an exclusive lineup of Mattel content for the Latin American Cartoon Network and Boomerang channels. [3] Alongside The Wrath of Makino and Maximum Morphos, Dawn of Morphos was confirmed to be airing on Cartoon Network.
Gallery[]
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| Max Steel: Dawn of Morphos's gallery can be seen here. |
Trivia[]
- The title of the movie is likely a reference to the franchise The Dawn of the Dead.
- Dawn of Morphos has several references to Frankenstein. Morphos' character is heavily inspired by Frankenstein's monster, being brought to life under similar circumstances and being made made out of parts from other monsters. Upon its "birth", Dread shouts "It's alive! It's alive!", referencing a quote from the 1931 film Frankenstein. Additionally, Max calls Morphos "Stitcheinstein" in several occasions.
- Dawn of Morphos was the first movie of the 2015 trilogy to air.
- In late 2015, Mattel partnered with Kellogg's to release a promotional DVD containing Dawn of Morphos and Maximum Morphos, which was bundled with select cereal products. In 2016, several toys from the Latin American Max Steel contained a copy of Dawn of Morphos.
- In the flashbacks of Dawn of Morphos, Ja'em is shown to have escaped from planet Takion with a his own ship rather than a Makino deployer, as established in The Legend of Ja'em Mk'rah.
- The film marks the last appearance of Kirby Kowalski.
- The production codes of Dawn of Morphos indicate that it was the first movie to be produced for the 2015 trilogy. However, The Wrath of Makino appears to be the first chronological entry for the third season, as it opens with a celebration of Makino's defeat and Jim's return, heavily implying it takes place after The Final Countdown Part Two.