Review of The Transformers: The Movie (1986) by Franky F — 14 Jun 2009

Alright! Time to review one of THE movies of my childhood! Now, I give a decent amount of spoilers in this review so if you've never seen this movie or have a desire to see it, be warned! :).

Anyway in the 80's, the Transformers were arguably the most popular cartoons and toys in the world. The "Robots in Disguise" were truly "More Than Meets The Eye". When it was announced that a full-length feature film was coming to theaters to coincide with the end of the 2nd season, I begged my dad to take me to the movies. He figured; hey, it's a harmless cartoon, what the hell? I was just a little kid, but little did I know, this movie would change my life.

The tagline for it was "Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest imagination"...that was for sure. It was also billed as the final showdown between Optimus Prime & Megatron, which I was psyched for.

After about 20 minutes in the theater, a lot had happened. For starters; there was something that I had never seen in a cartoon and to the best of my knowledge had never happened before in an animated series; the death of significant good guys. In one of the opening scenes, the Decepticons take over an Autobot ship and within seconds KILL Brawn, Prowl, Ironhide & Ratchet. Suddenly some of my favorite characters were wiped out like nothing. Usually when someone on Transformers got shot, good or evil, they would be wounded or get back up and fight...these guys were DEAD! No one ever died on TV, let alone in a cartoon. I remember some parents actually taking their kids out of the theaters at this point. My dad & I were shocked but we stayed.

Not long after that, Optimus Prime arrives on Earth to battle Megatron. We all remember that scene were a takes out almost every Decepticon while "You've got the touch..." plays in the background. Too cool! Then Prime has is battle with Megatron...huh...the final battle is 20 minutes into the movie? That's weird...or this is a really short movie!

When the battle was over, Megatron was defeated but Optimus Prime died from the battle. I was six-years-old, my hero had just been killed on screen, and I never cried so hard in my life.

The rest of the movie was more of my favorite characters either being killed, changed into new robots and newer Transformers being introduced. Ultimately building to Hot Rod rising up and becoming Rodimus Prime and the new leader of the Autobots. Even as the story progressed, you still kind of wondered if Optimus would be somehow brought back to life later in the film (if he was on the Junkion planet, he may have had a shot).

One scene that always stood out in my mind was when Galvatron (Megatron's new form) kills Starscream by turning him to dust, then steps on his crown and crushes it. To me, that part was the End of G1.

Although Transformers still had a 3rd season and a very short 4th season, the show was never the same for me. I still watched, but those characters never captured me like the previous characters did.

Now I'm not bitching about all that because this movie is awesome and is a significant part of my childhood. I think part of me grew up during this movie. This movie took some serious chances. Instead of a "toy" show introducing new characters and having the old ones just not appear, they had them die on screen...that took serious balls. And for a cartoon, this movie has a lot of balls. They even had some swearing in this movie which was big back then!

They had some big names at the time providing voices too like Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack and in his last role ever Orson Wells. It also had a kick ass soundtrack too.

For those of you that have only seen the 2007 live-action movie and want more, definetly check this out. Transformers G1 Season 1 is also being released on dvd and that is something I am waiting for.