The Transformers: The Movie is a 1986 animated feature film based on the animated series of the same name. It was released in North America on August 8, 1986.
The film was directed by Nelson Shin, who produced the original Transformers television series, and features the voices of Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Casey Kasem, Robert Stack, John Moschitta, Jr., Peter Cullen and Frank Welker. It was also the final role for both Orson Welles[1] and Scatman Crothers.
The story takes place in 2005, 20 years after the events of the TV series' second season and serves to bridge into the third season. Set to a hard-driving metal music soundtrack, the movie has a decidedly darker tone than the television series, with detailed visuals in Toei Animation's typical animated feature film styling, and Decepticon villains that are more menacing, killing without hesitation. The film features several grand battles in which a handful of major characters meet their end. The film's tagline was: "Beyond Good. Beyond Evil. Beyond Your Wildest Imagination."
Plot
Unicron, a roaming artificial planet, devours robot planet Lithone along with its population. Though many inhabitants attempt to flee the planet in spaceships, only one escapes.
The evil Decepticons have gained control of the Transformers' homeworld, Cybertron at some point in the twenty years since the beginning of the struggle between the robotic warriors on Earth. The heroic Autobots are using two of Cybertron's moons as staging areas, preparing for a strike against the Decepticons. A supply shuttle is readied for launch to Autobot City on Earth. A transmission is intercepted by the Decepticons, who ambush the shuttle and kill its crew. The Decepticons intend to use the ship to infiltrate Autobot City on Earth.
On Earth, Daniel Witwicky and Hot Rod fish in a lake near Autobot City, discussing Daniel's loneliness, as his father Spike is on one of the moon bases. They pick up the shuttle's signature, and race up to Lookout Mountain to see it land. They spot the Decepticons and launch a preemptive strike. After a brief battle, the Decepticons begin attacking Autobot City. The outnumbered Autobots, including Ultra Magnus, Blurr, Springer, Perceptor, and Arcee, transform Autobot City into a battle fortress. A siege ensues, lasting the rest of the day and the following night. Early in the battle, Ultra Magnus orders Blaster to radio for assistance from Optimus Prime. The next morning Optimus and the Dinobots repel the Decepticons.
Optimus confronts his arch-enemy, Megatron. They engage in a battle that leaves Optimus critically wounded due to Hot Rod's interference. Optimus turns the tide of battle and defeats Megatron. Starscream takes command of the Decepticons and retreats with their fallen leader and other war-wounded loaded aboard Astrotrain.
Inside Autobot City, Perceptor informs the other Autobots that Optimus Prime's wounds are fatal. Optimus calls on Ultra Magnus to assume command of the Autobots and bestows him with the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, which Optimus extracts from his chest. Before dying, Optimus asserts that the Matrix one day will light the Autobots' darkest hour.
Astrotrain's shortage of fuel prompts the Decepticons to eject several of their injured — including the protesting Megatron. The remaining Decepticons argue over who should lead them.
Adrift in space, the Decepticon castoffs encounter Unicron, who offers to give Megatron and the others new bodies on the condition that they destroy the Autobot Matrix, which, Unicron says, is the only thing that can stand in his way. Megatron agrees, and Unicron converts Megatron into a new form: the Decepticon warrior "Galvatron". His underlings are reformatted into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps. Unicron provides them with a craft in which they travel to Cybertron, where Galvatron obliterates Starscream and takes command of the Decepticons.
On Earth, the Autobots are alerted as Unicron consumes Cybertron's moons, along with Autobots Jazz, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Daniel's father Spike. Galvatron leads the Decepticons in another assault on Autobot City. The Autobots board a pair of shuttles and flee toward Cybertron. Hot Rod, Kup and the Dinobots are shot down over the planet Quintessa, while Ultra Magnus and company evade their pursuers and set down on the planet Junk for repairs.
Captured by Quintessa guardsmen, Hot Rod and Kup witness the sentencing and execution of Arbulus, a native of Lithone. While imprisoned they meet Kranix, now Lithone's last survivor, who then tells them about Unicron, before he's taken away by the Quintessa guardsmen to also be fed to the Sharkticons. Hot Rod and Kup are then subjected to a mock trial by Quintesson executioners, who sentence them to execution. Battling the Sharkticons, they are rescued by the arrival of the Dinobots. Grimlock persuades the Sharkticons to rebel against the Quintessons while the Autobots escape. With help from the Dinobots' new ally, Wheelie, the group locates a ship and departs to join the other Autobots.
Galvatron finds and hunts down the Autobots on Junk. Ultra Magnus tries but fails to awaken the Matrix's powers, and is dismembered by the Sweeps. Galvatron, no longer willing to serve Unicron, steals the Matrix, stating that he will use it to make Unicron his slave. The remaining Autobots are harassed by hostile Junkion natives, led by Wreck-Gar, until Hot Rod's party arrives and befriends them. The Junkions repair Ultra Magnus and provide a vessel to help the Autobots fight against Unicron.
Galvatron attempts to subjugate Unicron using the Matrix but is unable to unleash its power. Unicron, saying that Galvatron underestimates him, transforms into a planet-sized robot and attacks Cybertron. Galvatron opens fire on Unicron, but Unicron swallows him. Decepticons attempt to counter Unicron's attack, to no avail. When the Autobots arrive Hot Rod crashes their ship through one of Unicron's eyes and they find themselves separated within his body. Wreck-Gar and his Junkions fight back against Unicron, but Unicron crushes their ship. The Dinobots also attack Unicron, with little success.
Inside Unicron, Hot Rod confronts Galvatron while Daniel and the other Autobots rescue Spike and the survivors of Unicron's assault on Cybertron's moons. The Autobots and Decepticons work togather to try and fight Unicron. Galvatron tries to assist Hot Rod, knowing that Unicron is a greater threat, only for Unicron to take control of Galvatron. Hot Rod recovers the Matrix and unleashes its power, transforming him into Rodimus Prime. Rodimus throws Galvatron deep into space freeing the decepticon from control.Rodimus then unleashes the Matrix's true power from insde of Unicron, finally oblitirating Unicron. Rodimus leads the other Autobots out of Unicron's body before it explodes. The Autobots, triumphant and now outnumbering the Decepticons, reclaim Cybertron. Unicron's heavily damaged head orbits Cybertron as a new satellite.
[edit] Character deaths
Autobot casualties outnumbered those of the Decepticons. Among the Autobots shown dead on screen are Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, Brawn, Windcharger, and Wheeljack. Outside of these characters, a substantial number of Autobots from the first two seasons of the show do not appear after the film, leaving their fates uncertain.
Aside from Starscream and several Sweeps, there are virtually no Decepticon deaths in the movie, and even those who die are not killed by Autobots. Several of the injured Decepticons are reformatted by Unicron, and while it is clear that Galvatron has Megatron's memories, it is less so with Cyclonus and Scourge, as Thundercracker, Skywarp and Starscream are depicted as having grave markers in a subterranean Decepticon crypt on Cybertron in the episode "Starscream's Ghost". Shockwave's death was scripted but cut from the finished film;[2] it was reinstated for IDW Publishing's adaptation of the feature, printed in 2006. However, a rather different-colored Shockwave makes a couple of appearances in the season premiere sequel Five Faces of Darkness. One of the intentions of the movie was to rid the Transformers cartoon universe of the majority of characters from Seasons 1 and 2. Story consultant Flint Dille elaborated:
| “ | In the next season (3), we were going to have all these new characters, and people are going to be wondering what happened to the old characters that they liked so much. What we knew, in a business sense, is that they had been discontinued, because they were the 1984/1985 (toy)line – but, we needed to tie them off. So, we had this one scene where the Autobots basically had to run through a gauntlet of Decepticons. Which basically wiped out the entire '84 product line in one massive "charge of the light brigade". So, whoever wasn't discontinued, stumbled to the end. That scene didn’t make it into the finished movie. But if you think kids were locking themselves in the bedroom over Optimus Prime, basically in that scene they would've seen their entire toy collection wiped out.[3] | ” |
The movie was produced by Sunbow/Marvel simultaneous to G.I. Joe: The Movie. The writers of the G.I. Joe film asked for permission from Hasbro to kill a character, Duke. Hasbro not only approved the request but "insisted" that the writers of Transformers: The Movie adopt the same fate for Optimus Prime.[4] However, Optimus Prime's death sparked much controversy and incurred so much backlash that it caused the writers to make changes so that Duke simply ended up in a coma (and eventually woke up from the coma).[5]
Cast
In addition to the above-listed characters, many additional Transformers appear throughout the film in non-speaking roles.
The Transformers: The Movie was the final film to which Orson Welles contributed, although not the final film released. He was in declining health during production. Shortly before he died, he told his biographer, Barbara Leaming, "You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy." He elaborated, "I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy Whoever-it-is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen."[6] Welles' voice was apparently so weak by the time he made his recording that technicians needed to run it through a synthesizer to salvage it. The voicework for Transformers: The Movie was the last movie project he worked on; his voice session was on October 5, 1985, and five days later Welles died of a heart attack.[7]
The credits list several characters that either do not appear or do not speak in the finished film. Bell is also credited as Prowl, who does not speak. Messick is credited for Gears, who doesn't speak, instead of Scavenger, who does. The credits include Bud Davis as Dirge, who had lines cut from the film's original script, and Walker Edmiston as Inferno, who does not appear in either the film or script.
Peter Cullen is credited above Scatman Crothers, even though the cast members are usually listed in alphabetical order.
[edit] Release
Although the trailer hails the film as "spectacular widescreen action", the movie was animated in 4:3 "fullscreen" format. The feature was vertically cropped to widescreen dimensions for theatrical showings and released in fullscreen on home video and DVD. The 20th anniversary release of the movie by Sony, however features the cropped widescreen presentation.[8] The UK version of the film features scrolling text and narration at the beginning of the film replacing the cast credits, and an additional closing narration assuring viewers that "Optimus Prime will return." The Japanese version of the movie also includes these additions, and displays each character's name briefly at the bottom of the screen when they first appear. The film has been released on Blu-ray Disc outside the United States, however those versions are region-free and will play in an American Blu-Ray machine.
[edit] Reception
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008) |
The Transformers: The Movie was met with mixed reviews. The film currently has a 50% "rotten" rating on Rottentomatoes. Critics panned the film for its animation style which was then unfamiliar to American audiences. The movie was also criticized for flat characters, as well as the grief it caused younger viewers with its massive character deaths and dark tone. The death of Optimus Prime came as a major shock to both critics and audiences, which caused his voice artist, Peter Cullen, to realize Optimus' overwhelming popularity. Some critics said that the action scenes in the film were enough to keep children's interest into the feature, but also said the storyline would bore viewers who were over 10 years of age. The Transformers: The Movie was also a huge flop in the box office, taking in only $5 million during its opening weekend. Nevertheless, the film has developed a cult following towards audiences inside and outside the Transformers fandom. Many fans especially praised the film's soundtrack, with songs performed by Stan Bush and "Weird Al" Yankovic, as well as the synth-based score of Vince DiCola. Bush's song "The Touch," which prominently featured in the film, was originally written for the Sylvester Stallone movie Cobra. [9]
[edit] Commercial releases
The film was originally released in 1987 on VHS[10] in North America by Family Home Entertainment. This version removed Spike's "Oh, shit!" line. The video transfer suffered from a slight clockwise tilt (but no more than a couple of degrees).[citation needed]
The film was first released on DVD in 2000[11] by Sunbow Productions and distributed exclusively in Canada by Seville Pictures.[12] This version restored Spike's "Oh, shit!" line. The film was later released on DVD by Rhino Entertainment in North America and Maverick in the UK, both in 2001. Metrodome later licensed the movie to Prism Leisure to release a budget version in June 2003.
On September 5, 2005, Metrodome Distribution released a remastered DVD entitled Transformers: The Movie Reconstructed. Returning to the original negative of the film, Metrodome reconstructed the picture image, adjusting and shrinking it to reveal additional footage hidden by overscan, as well as remastering the video quality. Some complaints[who?] arose from the fact that this exposed areas of unfinished animation as these parts of the frame were not intended to be seen. Magno Sound's Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound remix contains many sounds not in the original version, as with the remixes done for the Transformers season boxsets, and Magno subsequently claimed that they had always been present.[citation needed] The DVD also included the first subtitled episode of the Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: The Headmasters, the entirety of which was released in a DVD boxset for the first time in the UK, and the west, on September 26, 2005.
20th anniversary DVD
Sony BMG released "The Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD" in North America (Region 1) on November 7, 2006. It features both the 16x9 widescreen version seen in cinemas and the full-frame version of the film. This version also restores the DEG opening logo that was part of the original screened version but was cut from the Rhino DVD. The two-disc set contains the following features:
- Disc 1
- 16×9 theatrical widescreen version
- Autobot Matrix of Knowledge (full-length movie featuring fun facts and trivia)
- Commentary with Nelson Shin (Director), Flint Dille (Story Consultant), and Sue Blu (Voice of Arcee)
- Fan commentary
- Original theatrical trailer and TV spots
- Cinex and credit test
- Photo gallery
- Transformers: Scramble City episode with commentary
- Remastering side-by-side comparison
- Transformers movie trailer and special sneak peek
- Disc 2
- Full-screen version
- Activate Autobot City trivia game (DVD-ROM)
- Featurettes: "Death of Optimus Prime", "Cast and Characters" and "TRANSFORMERS Q&A" with Nelson Shin (director), Tom Griffin (producer), Joe Bacal (producer), Flint Dille (story consultant), and Sue Blu (voice of Arcee)
- Promotional Trailer with Commentary
- Test, deleted, and alternate footage with commentary
- Animated storyboards
- American and Japanese toy commercials
- Scramble City commercials
- DVD-ROM link to exclusive content
Due to licensing issues, the Scramble City animated feature is missing its original Japanese-language audio, which is replaced by a commentary track by webmasters of some of the leading Transformers fan websites. Also, for legal reasons, the old toy commercials in the discs have the children's faces blurred out.
The version selling at Costco came with an exclusive bonus disc featuring the original 1984 pilot. The Wal-Mart edition included an iron-on Autobot symbol decal.
Metrodome Distribution released an Ultimate Edition of The Transformers: The Movie DVD in June 2007 in the UK (Region 2).[13] The extras include many of the extras that were contained on the "Remastered" edition of the film on the first disc, with fan commentary serving as the only addition besides a fan-made Transformers movie trailer. The second disc contains interviews with Peter Cullen and Flint Dille. Despite promises of the only episode of Transformers: Zone,[14] only "Scramble City" is included. Later in 2007 Metrodome released the movie, in a "bare bones" form on Blu-Ray Disc; the Blu-ray version is only available in the UK, but is free of region coding and thus can be played on Blu-ray players from anywhere.
The film was also released on Universal Media Disc for the PlayStation Portable by Pink Entertainment and Metrodome in the UK. The UK cinema version (4:3 aspect ratio) of the film was used and the disc contains no extra features.
[edit] Comic book adaptations
A three-issue miniseries adaptation of the feature film written by Ralph Macchio and drawn by Don Perlin was published by Marvel Comics to market the film, with no continuity ties to the regular comic series. Differences to the animated feature include the original designs for the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and Ultra Magnus' original death at the hand of Scourge and the Sweeps.
Although the cartoon and comic book stories by Marvel were normally kept unrelated,[citation needed] the movie linked the two in the UK comic series, where it is portrayed as the eventual future of the comic's timeline. The direction the comic took afterwards pertaining to the origin of Unicron once again diverged from events depicted in the cartoon: a disruption to the fabric of spacetime caused by actions of Galvatron was explained to have altered the timeline, with the "movie future" becoming an alternate potential chronology for the comics, while a story in the U.S. title saw Unicron attacking Cybertron and being destroyed in the present day.
Corresponding with the animated movie's 20th anniversary DVD release, IDW Publishing, the current Transformers publisher, released a four-issue adaptation of the animated movie entitled Transformers: The Animated Movie. It was written by Bob Budiansky and drawn by Don Figueroa. The trade paperback features three pages of scenes not featured in the movie, including the activities of Omega Supreme and the other Combiner Teams and why they were not present at the battle for Autobot City.
[edit] Soundtracks
In 1987, the official soundtrack was released in the USA by Scotti Brothers Records (now Volcano Entertainment).
The soundtrack was re-released on May 29, 2007. This version includes all ten tracks from the original soundtrack, plus new bonus material provided by Vince DiCola, who composed and produced the film's score. The bonus material includes three additional score cues and an alternate version of the Transformers Theme.
In 1997, 3H Enterprises released an album titled 'Til All Are One that features the film's score on two CDs. In 2001, 3H also released Lighting Their Darkest Hour, featuring the instrumental score; The Protoform Sessions, featuring early demos, outtakes, and alternate themes linked with narration by Dicola; and Artistic Transformations, featuring ten instrumental themes from the movie interpreted for solo piano.
Inter-series references
In the first live action Transformers film, Optimus Prime says to Megatron, "...one shall stand, one shall fall," in a homage to their confrontation in the animated film.[15]
References
- ^ "Transformers The Movie | Film". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/may/04/orsonwelles.animation. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
- ^ "SHOCKWAVE'S POV - OUT HIS WINDOW: Unicron's hand reaches towards the window, squeezes, and the walls crash in. SPACE - UNICRON AND CYBERTRON: Unicron tears off the tower and crushes it as..." http://tfarchive.com/cartoons/info/movie/draft.php
- ^ Transformers: The Movie (20th Anniversary Special Edition) feature "Death of Optimus Prime".
- ^ G.I. Joe Interview - Buzz Dixon
- ^ G.I.JOE - A REAL AMERICAN F.A.Q. at YOJOE.COM
- ^ Leaming, Barbara. "Orson Wells: A Biography" page 522
- ^ Swansburg, John., "When Orson Welles Was a Transformer", Slate.com, 2007-07-02, Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
- ^ Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary DVD official site
- ^ The Touch Songfacts
- ^ "The Transformers - The Movie (International Version): Norman Alden, Jack Angel, Michael Bell, Gregg Berger, Susan Blu, Arthur Burghardt, Corey Burton, Roger C. Carmel, Victor Caroli, Regis Cordic, Scatman Crothers, Peter Cullen, BJ Davis, Paul Eiding, Walker Edmiston, Ed Gilbert, Dan Gilvezan, Eric Idle, Buster Jones, Stan Jones (II), Nelson Shin: Video". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Movie-International-Version/dp/B00001U0DX. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
- ^ "The Transformers: The Movie (1986) - Company credits". Imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092106/companycredits. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
- ^ The Transformers: The Movie printed text on DVD and accompanying packaging reads: "Distributed exclusively in Canada by Seville Pictures."
- ^ Email from Metrodome
- ^ Interview with Jezz Vernon of Metrodome
- ^ "Transformers (live-action movie)". Anime News Network. 2001-09-11. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=5734&page=22. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
- ^ "UnicronPage". Transformersontheshelf.com. http://www.transformersontheshelf.com/UnicronPage.html. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
[edit] External links
 | Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Transformers: The Movie |
- The Transformers: The Movie at Transformers Wiki
- Transformers The Movie 20th Anniversary Edition DVD by Sony BMG - Region 1
- Transformers The Movie DVD by Metrodome - Region 2
- The Transformers: The Movie at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- The Transformers: The Movie at the Internet Movie Database
- The Transformers: The Movie at Allmovie
- The Transformers: The Movie at the TCM Movie Database
- The Transformers: The Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
- Transformers: The Movie at Box Office Mojo
- Storyboards from Transformers The Movie not included on the DVD
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