...this is the best the film has ever looked.
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Autobots! Transform and roll out.
Growing up in the 80's, I had two obsessions: G.I. Joe and Transformers. Yeah, there were other action figures that I collected and other cartoons that I watched; "He-Man", "Thundercats", for example. While I liked them well enough, none of them could ever hold a candle to the best of the bunch. The Joes and the Transformers will always hold a special place in my heart.
The Transformers began as a series of unrelated toy lines manufactured in Japan by a company called Takara, robots that could change into cars, planes, and other objects. Hasbro liked the concept that they imported them into the States and hired the folks at Marvel Comics (who also worked with them on the G.I. Joe line) to flesh out a backstory for a cartoon series that would show their toys in action. It was Marvel that created the concept of the heroic Autobots at war with their arch-enemies, the evil Decepticons, along with giving the robots names and individual personalities. Hasbro also brought in Sunbow Productions to bring their toys to life in animated form.
On a wave of high ratings and sales, Sunbow planned a trio of feature-film versions of their cartoons for the summer of 1986. Production on "Transformers: The Movie" began in between the first and second seasons of the television series. However, along with "My Little Pony: The Movie", "Transformers" would fail to ignite the box office causing Sunbow to cancel a theatrical run for the already delayed "G.I. Joe: The Movie." Despite its initial failure, the film has held immense popularity and demand with Transfans across the world.
To coincide with the 20th anniversary as well as the upcoming Michael Bay film, Sony has released an all-new 2-disc edition of "Transformers: The Movie." The film is set 20 years after the end of the second season of the show and introduces the monstrous menace known as Unicron, a Transformer that is an entire planet. Ignorant of this grave, new danger, the Transformers continue their long-standing war. The Decepticons control the Transformers' home planet of Cybertron, while the Autobots maintain their presence on Earth. Low on Energon (their fuel source), the Autobot leader Optimus Prime orders a small group of soldiers to make a supply run to Earth.
The Decepticons, led by Megatron, ambush the ship and mercilessly kill everyone on board. Using the ship as cover, the Decepticons lay siege to Autobot City and have the good guys on the ropes until the cavalry arrives in Optimus Prime. Peter Cullen injected a little John Wayne into the voice of Prime and the similarities to the Duke were never more apparent than here. Prime mows down the Decepticon army en route to his final showdown with Megatron. Neither one of them walk away in the same condition they came in. In a controversial moment, Optimus Prime dies while Megatron is critically damaged. The Autobots don't even have time to mourn their leader when reports come in of Unicron gobbling up entire planets and moons as he makes his way to Cybertron.
"Transformers: The Movie" is just about everything you'd expect when a TV show makes the jump to the big screen. In my opinion, films like "Beavis & Butt-Head Do America" and "X-Files: Fight the Future" were really just extended versions of the episodes you would normally see. "Transformers" ups the ante big time. There are elements in the film that you would never see in the TV show. The budget is bigger, the animation is better (witness Unicron's transformation into robot mode), and the stakes are higher. They even threw in a curse word for good measure.
Megatron's assault on the Autobot ship really sets the tone for the entire film. Nobody ever died on the show. Even if they were seriously injured, you'd know in less than twenty minutes they'd get better and it would be like nothing happened by the next episode. But, Hasbro mandated that the original, Generation One characters were to be killed off to make room for new, more futuristic looking toys. Right away, fan favorites are brutally wiped out in one fell swoop. Who could forget Megatron's execution of Ironhide as he casually stands above the Autobot lieutenant and blows him to pieces with his arm cannon? "Such heroic nonsense."
Not even Optimus Prime was safe as he too would die during his final showdown with Megatron. Prime's death scene was milked for all its worth as he faded away from red and blue to a dark gray. It was a pivotal moment and many young fans were brought to tears by Prime's death. Not me though. Honest. Okay, maybe a little.
Along with the new characters in "Transformers: The Movie", comes an all-star cast in addition to the regular voice actors like Frank Welker and Kasey Casem. Perhaps, the most famous (and most unlikely) was Orson Welles whose final role was the immense Unicron. From "Citizen Kane" to "Transformers: The Movie", a bit of a dubious end. Reportedly, Welles was in awful shape and his lines were passed through a synthesizer to compensate for his poor condition.
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