Animated cartoon series have been in the industry for quite some time. I’m sure most of us have grown up watching comedy animated television series: Tom & Jerry, the Powerpuff Girls, and Horrid Henry, to name a few. One of the most memorable ones, which has unexpectedly changed the industry character designs and animation techniques, is definitely Ben 10.
This show follows a very simple plot: a young, energetic boy, who is a hero in disguise with the special powers that his watch provides, goes about his days fighting villains along with the help of his cousins Gwen and Ken and grandfather Max. Read more to learn about the Ben 10 franchise and its watch order, especially the series, movies, and video games.
Let me give you a little introduction to the main characters: Ben, Gwen, and Max.
Benjamin Kirby Tennyson
Ben is the main protagonist of the Ben 10 franchise. He is a young, determined boy who wants to save as many people as he can and fight day and night to stop evil aliens from attacking and destroying Earth.
He has obtained a special futuristic watch-like device called the Omnitrix that allows him to transform into different alien-like hero forms with massive strength and other superpowers.
Even without the Omnitrix, Ben is still a very powerful young lad. He has fantastic savate and karate skills, thanks to Gwen. He has extremely good reflexes, even in his human form.
Gwendolyn Tennyson
Commonly known as just Gwen, she is one of the strongest members of Ben’s Team in the Ben 10 franchise. She is a great fighter who taught Ben savate and karate. Besides being an excellent female hero figure, she is a great magician.
Her magic powers originate from her grandmother, Verdona, who hailed from a super-powerful alien race called the Anodites.
Gwen works as a perfect team member, having smart tricks up her sleeves at any moment. She can project an astral energy-like aura around her called mana, and her powers are greatly influenced by the extent of the mana she possesses.
Magister Maxwell Tennyson
Our favorite Grandpa Max, in the Original Series, is a loving grandfather of cousins Ben and Gwen and takes them on a fun road trip across the country. Max is a great Plumber, known and feared by many.
Just like his grandchildren, Max is also a skilled fighter and is quite athletic despite being in his 60s. He is quick at grasping the situations at hand and helps Ben and Gwen while they fight.
The Ben 10 series starts off with Ben 10: Original Series, then continues with Alien Force, Ultimate Alien, Omniverse, and lastly, the Reboot Series. How to watch in order along with the movies? Read more to find out.
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Ben 10 Watch Order: An Ultimate Guide to Series and Movies
Ben 10: Original Series
The first of the series, Ben 10: Original Series, follows the canonical plot of a fun-loving siblings duo, Ben and Gwen go on a fun road trip across America with their Grandpa Max during their summer vacation away from Bellwood.
The Tennysons find themselves stumbling upon various villains and alien-like creatures who are determined to kill people and destroy towns. The trio, who are excellent fighters, is able to save many people across towns.
The youngest of the trio, Ben Tennyson, learns how to use his watch Omnitrix. He transforms into ten alien-like creatures and needs some help and patience to get used to his new skin. But as the series progresses, he picks up more alien-like creatures in his device and learns how to control his powers.
Gwen is also a major plot-defining character in the series, as she learns to control her magic powers and her mana. Along with Ben, Gwen also discovers and learns more about her magic powers, and throughout the four seasons-long series, she begins to master the art of controlling and releasing her magical powers.
She is a great help at solving riddles and is a young, smart kid, just like Ben. The cousins are not just strong but also extremely smart, and sometimes, they pull up dirty tricks on the aliens to defeat them.
Set in 2005, the original series has set a unique and quite fantastic action and adventure-filled sci-fi franchise for many years to come.
The creators did an amazing job of giving us good storylines to grow up with, as well as the perfect hero figures to look up to as children. The series will forever be remembered by many, especially for its unique character designs, which were way ahead of its time back then.
- Also known as Classic Ben 10
- Type: TV series
- Created by: Man of Action
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fantasy, Superhero
- No. of seasons: 4
- No. of episodes: 52
- Release date: December 27, 2005
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
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Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix
The movie is the first Ben 10 movie to have been released, and it has done a fantastic job of narrating the mysterious story and origin of the alien life that has given Ben and his team trouble.
Ben and Gwen are shown struggling with their powers since they’re still beginners and have only recently begun learning and training in order to fight opponents. There are several scenes in the movie that show Ben and his sister Gwen are still noobs and have plenty to learn and grasp.
The movie is mostly set on Tetrax’s ship. The plot heavily involves the pros and cons of Omnitrix and the dangers it can cause if it’s not destabilized in time.
Ben and Gwen mostly struggle with controlling their powers, but Grandpa Max helps them out along the way. Grandpa Max is also seen here as a major plot-defining character. He passes on his skills and knowledge, especially about the alien force, to his grandchildren.
Tetrax is later seen as a good guy and a major character in the later movie. Tetrax is a helpless guy but has a good heart. The movie has pretty decent animation VFX and is one of the finest animated Ben 10 movies to ever exist. The actors have also done a fantastic job along with the production team.
- Type: Movie
- Directed by: Sebastian Montes, Scooter Tidwell
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Family, Science Fiction
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Release date: October 10, 2007
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
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Ben 10: Race Against Time
The second movie from the franchise, Ben 10: Race Against Time, begins with a peaceful summer day. Ben has returned home to the city of Bellwood and is just about to start off with his school until he finds out that there is danger ahead.
A dangerous alien criminal that the Plumbers had captured several years ago, named Eon, has been haunting the city of Bellwood and creating havoc since it’s on a hunt for an ancient alien artifact called the Hands of Armageddon, which is hidden somewhere in the city of Bellwood.
Ben first meets Eon while he is still in his hero skin, called Heatblast, and confronts him about the situation. Ben tries to talk him out of it, and there’s a whole scene dedicated to just Ben sugarcoating words to calm down Eon, but this mission is a failure.
The movie was not made in animated style, but it was rather a live-action movie, which is loosely based on superhero powers. Of course, the live-action was terribly executed, although the direction was up to par, but the production team could have worked better and more rigorously.
The VFX and the blunt cinematography did not do the franchise justice. The plot is simple in this movie, and the production team somehow managed to give a good surface-level entertainment package, but of course, it could have done a better job at it.
- Type: Movie
- Directed by: Alex Winter
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
- IMDb Rating: 4.1/10
- Release date: November 21, 2007
- Where to watch: Apple TV
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Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens
Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens features recurring hero characters, Ben and Gwen. In this movie, Ben is seen coming back to school after a long and tiring summer vacation, but his school life is a sad one; he gets bullied because of his weak demeanor and his failing grades.
Despite this, he gets worked up when a mysterious alien force attacks Bellwood and searches for the creator of Omnitrix, Azmuth. The plot heavily involves the origin of Omnitrix and its powers and dangers.
The movie fared pretty well in the theatres as being one of the finest CG animated movies, which was considered way ahead of its time.
The CG effects and style were very innovative back in the early 2010s, so the experiment was a successful one. The story has also been well narrated and doesn’t have much plot twists. It is indeed an entertaining and action-packed movie, but of course, it could have definitely done better.
- Also known as Ben 10: Alien Dimensions
- Type: Movie
- Directed by: Victor Cook
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Family, Science Fantasy
- IMDb Rating: 5.8/10
- Release date: March 11, 2012
- Where to watch: N/A
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Ben 10: Alien Force
Ben 10: Alien Force is an incredibly written sequel to the original series Classic Ben 10. Set 5 years after the events of the original series, the sibling duo Ben and Gwen reunite for a common mission: to find Grandpa Max. Grandpa Max went missing for quite some time, and it is up to Ben and Gwen to find him safe and sound before anything bad happens to him.
The series focuses on their journey as a duo without any help from Grandpa Max. The series also focuses on the individual’s strength and weakness arcs, highlighting how versatile they should be with Omnitrix as well as the Anodite magic.
The duo is accompanied by Kevin Levin, a shy and pragmatic villain who has turned over a new leaf and shown his good side. Kevin is first doubted to be involved with the villains, but he proves to be trustworthy and reliable.
One of his abilities includes absorbing all sorts of material. He also upgrades his skills as the series progresses. Ben’s Omnitrix has also upgraded, and Ben is able to get ten new superhero skins, one of them being a fan’s favorite- the Swampfire.
One of the biggest opponents the trio face in their mission is the new alien race called the Highbreeds. The Highbreeds are known to devour and destroy all sorts of life and property, living or non-living, across the universe.
The Highbreeds pose a major threat to humans, as they have neared the earth and have come in contact with few human life forms. Ben, Gwen, and Kevin fight to the death with these creatures and ultimately find Grandpa Max along the way.
- Type: TV Series
- Created by: Man of Action
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Science-fiction, Fantasy, Drama
- No. of seasons: 3
- No. of episodes: 46
- Release date: April 18, 2008
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
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Ben 10: Alien Swarm
When evil threatens, it’s hero time! Ben is a young, energetic teenage boy, and it’s natural for him to rebel against his grandpa. But this time, he deliberately goes against his grandpa’s commands and ends up teaming up with the daughter of an old foe.
It’s not just Ben; the daughter Elina Validus wants to defeat the up-and-coming villain alien force. The movie begins with Ben, Gwen, and Kevin doing something fishy. They have been dealing with alien nanotechnology illegally without informing Grandpa Max.
Throughout the movie, we see a huge character development of Ben, especially as the bearer of Omnitrix and also as a young teenage boy.
This is another live-action movie directed by Alex Winter. It is a huge improvement from the previous live-action movie Ben 10: Race Against Time, which was also directed by the same director. The VFX is also greatly executed, and the cinematography is way better than last time.
The cast has also done a fantastic job in delivering lines as well as expressing the most precise emotions on screen. Since the movie is heavily based on Ben and his character development, the cast plays their parts precisely and accurately.
The pacing is a bit slow throughout the first half of the movie, but it picks up the pace in the latter half. It is surely one of the best movie adaptations from the Ben 10 franchise.
- Type: Movie
- Directed by: Alex Winter
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fantasy, Superhero
- IMDb Rating: 4.5/10
- Release date: November 15, 2009
- Where to watch: N/A
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Ben 10: Ultimate Alien
This is also a perfectly written action-packed sequel to Ben 10: Alien Force. Towards the end of the Alien Force series, we see that Ben has successfully destroyed his watch Ominitrix. However, he attains a newer advanced version of Omnitrix called the Ultimatrix.
Ben also shows immense character development, and with the help of the new Ultimatrix, Ben is able to transform into newer, highly evolved species.
In the series, Ben and Gwen are joined by Kevin Levin, who later turns out to be one of their biggest opponents. Kevin transforms into an evil Ultimate Kevin and wants to destroy Ben and the world.
But the biggest shocking scene in this series is when Ben’s secret identity is revealed to the whole wide world. New alines like Clockwork, Chamelion, and Buzzshock are introduced. Ben seems like an overpowered character from this on.
The biggest villain here is the Aggregor, who has managed to deploy several alien bots to fight with Ben and his team. The Aggregor faces Ben at the end, and he tries his best to defeat him to take the Ultimate Prize.
- Type: TV Series
- Created by: Man of Action
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Science-fiction, Fantasy, Drama, Superhero
- No. of seasons: 3
- No. of episodes: 52
- Release date: April 23, 2010
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
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Ben 10: Omniverse
The series is a sequel to Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and adds a sad twist to the storyline: Gwen and Kevin are out of the team as they head off for college.
Ben, the youngest among the trio, is still in high school and has to fight off villains and alien creatures all by himself. But he’s not all alone. No worries, Grandpa Max helps Ben out by providing him with an amazing young, smart, and strong Plumber as his partner. His new partner goes by the name Rook. Rook is a newbie in the field of Plumbers and hails from the planet of Revonnah.
Along with Rook, Ben embarks on a journey of his own to the city of aliens that lies just below his hometown Bellwood. The city is known as Undertown, filled with new alien species that come from across the universe.
The Omniverse is a whole new concept to the Ben 10 franchise, one where Ben has an array of hero skins to choose from and a whole multitude of aliens to also fight against.
The main antagonist in the series must be Khyber, who goes to every nook and crook of the town to find Ben and capture him. One of the other highlights from the series is that the duo, Ben and Rook, slightly acts as a comedic relief to the franchise storyline, which has never been done before.
Also, we see two versions of Ben; one is a 10-year-old young, energetic Ben, and the other is a gloomy 16-year-old Ben who seems to appear as the complete opposite of the other Ben.
- Type: TV Series
- Created by: Man of Action
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Science-fiction, Comedy Drama
- No. of seasons: 8
- No. of episodes: 80
- Release date: August 1, 2012
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
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Ben 10: Reboot Series
This is the latest series based on the Ben 10 franchise, which ended on April 11, 2021. The reboot series follows a similar plotline as the Classic Ben 10 series, where a young Ben Tennyson stumbles upon a unique futuristic watch called the Omnitrix.
Here, Ben’s cousin Gwen and Grandpa Max are normal human beings with no magical or athletic powers or skills. The reboot series has a more child-like cartoon vibe to it, especially due to the animation style and character design.
It primarily caters to the younger audience because of its simple and comedy-filled scenes and routines. It doesn’t dive much into the darker themes as it used to in the previous installations of the franchise.
Similar to Ben 10: Omniverse, this series also had plenty of comedic elements incorporated into the storyline to appeal more to the younger audience. One of the most amazing highlights of the series is that all versions of Ben from different timelines gather and devise a plan to fight their biggest opponents of all time. Yes, it’s similar to what Spiderman: Into the Multiverse portrayed in its attempt to give us a glimpse into the complex multiverse theory.
Another mind-blowing feature that the Omnitrix provides Ben with is the superpower to transform into any of the Cartoon Network‘s characters like Gumball Watterson from The Amazing World of Gumball and Finn from Adventure Time.
Fun fact: The reboot series has the longest-running season, Season 3, in the Ben 10 franchise as well as the shortest-running series, Season 5, with just three episodes.
- Type: TV Series
- Created by: Man of Action
- Genre: Action-Comedy, Adventure, Science Fantasy
- No. of seasons: 4
- No. of episodes: 178
- Release date: October 1, 2016
- Where to watch: HBO Max
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Ben 10 Versus the Universe: The Movie
Ben Tennyson, a young lad who is the main hero of the world that saves it from several alien forces, seems to zone out sometimes because he thinks that all he does is getting monotonous, and he doesn’t get excited about it anymore.
Hence, he begins to slack off until Grandpa Max gets a call from their friend Phil. As soon as Ben hears the news, he gets super-excited to use his superpowers for something challenging. The challenge here is that Phil tells the team that a huge asteroid has drifted from its trajectory and is headed toward the Earth.
The world is in great danger if the asteroid hits the earth, as it will mean the destruction of life and property and the extinction of human form. Phil requests Ben and his team to send help as much as they can in order to prevent the world from ending.
In his attempt to stop the asteroid, Ben mysteriously gets teleported to a different universe. This is one of the major plot twists as it is revealed that this was Vilgax’s doing. Vilgax is Ben’s old-time archnemesis, who wants to take revenge against Ben for defeating him several times before. Fueled by rage and jealousy, Vilgax fights with Ben but ultimately fails to do so. Ben is again trapped in the Null Void by the Incurseans due to some misunderstandings.
Here, we finally meet Azmuth, the creator of Omnitrix. Azmuth and Ben are also in an argument about whether to keep the Omnitrix with Azmuth or Ben. The debate goes on, and the fight resumes. But this is not the end.
Back on Earth, Grandpa Max and Gwen are struggling to keep the Earth in safe hands as they cannot seem to find Ben. But surprisingly, they find Kevin instead, but Kevin alone cannot save the world. His special watch, the Antitrix, itself is not working properly. The world is nearing its doom, is what they believe.
But again, the plot keeps getting unpredictable. Vilgax has arrived on Earth and is ready to fight with Kevin and his alien bots. Gwen and Grandpa Max are still on their way to find Ben, but they seem to run out of clues.
Throughout the movie, Ben does not ever take a rest; he is constantly fighting and using his powers and strength. Although we have a good ending to the movie, Vilgax is captured by Azmuth, and Earth is in safe hands. The franchise is finally complete with this movie.
- Type: Movie
- Directed by: Henrique Jardim, John McIntyre
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Family, Science Fantasy, Superhero
- IMDb Rating: 5.3/10
- Release date: October 10, 2020
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
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