In the beginning, the main characters are seen playing a Beast Wars video game. Beast Wars was a television series, toy line, and video game about robots who could transform into animals, and an extension of the Transformers series. When the Animorphs action figures would be released, they would be a sub-line under the Transformers series. No attempt was made to tie the Animorphs into the Transformers fiction, however.
This episode and My Name Is Jake: Part 2 (1998) were based on "The Invasion", the first novel in the "Animorphs" series.