Review of The Transformers: The Movie (1986) by Jordyn N — 12 Jul 2011

Now I'm sure an animated movie of The Transformers from the 80s might not mean much to most people, it's one of the most nostalgic childhood experiences. To me, this encapsulates everything that made The Transformers such a cool show and every time I see it, it brings me back.

While it does kill almost everyone off from the original series, it does so with such style and respect that it almost doesn't even matter. If you're going to kill Optimus Prime, it's fitting that he does so in a blaze of glory with "You've got the Touch" playing in the background and one liners spewing out left and right.

They also picked a formidable replacement; the Judd Nelson robot known as Hot Rod. I mean this movie really has it all: Robo-violence galore, a flawless soundtrack, a villain without rival, Spockbot, and dialogue that is larger than life.

The plot here is such a mammoth beast. The show always had doomsday type scenarios, but never in the form of a planet eating Orson Welles. It also dares to question who is fit to lead in a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons.

What they did with this movie was raise the stakes, made the animation 10x better, and made the idea all the more timeless and undeniably awesome. I don't think The Transformers would have as lasting of an effect as it does today if there hadn't been this slice of brilliance included.