The Transformers: The Movie
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2007) |
| The Transformers: The Movie | |
|---|---|
 Original theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Nelson Shin |
| Written by | Ron Friedman |
| Produced by | Joe Bacal Tom Griffith Nelson Shin (co-producer) Margaret Loesch (executive) Lee Gunther (executive) |
| Starring | Peter Cullen Judd Nelson Orson Welles Leonard Nimoy Robert Stack Frank Welker |
| Music by | Vince DiCola |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures De Laurentiis Entertainment Group |
Release dates | United States: August 8, 1986 Australia: December 26, 1986 Japan: August 9, 1989 United Kingdom: August 8, 1986 |
Running time | 101 min. (Japan) 84 min. (USA) |
| Countries |  Japan United States |
| Languages | English Japanese |
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 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 space-roaming artificial planet, destroys and eats robot planet Lithone, along with its population. A few of the inhabitants attempt to flee the planet in spaceships but only one gets away.
It is revealed that the evil Decepticons have gained control of the Transformers' homeworld, Cybertron at some point in the intervening twenty years since the beginning of the struggle between the robotic warriors on Earth (The exact means by which this victory was attained was never revealed). The heroic Autobots are readying themselves on two of Cybertron's moons for a strike against the Decepticons, preparing a supply shuttle for launch to Autobot City on Earth. Their transmission is intercepted by the Decepticons, who ambush the shuttle and kill its crew, consisting of Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl, and Brawn. The Decepticons then attempt to use the ship to infiltrate Autobot City on Earth without being detected.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Daniel Witwicky and Hot Rod fish in a lake nearby Autobot City, discussing Daniel's loneliness, as his father Spike is on one of the Autobot moon bases. They pick up the shuttle's signature, and race up to Lookout Mountain to see it land, irritating the old Autobot Kup in the process. They notice its damaged exterior and spot Decepticons, upon which Hot Rod fires at the stowaways. After a brief battle pitting Hot Rod and Kup against the Decepticons Blitzwing and Shrapnel, the Decepticons begin their attack on Autobot City. The outnumbered Autobots, including Autobot City Commander Ultra Magnus, Blurr, Springer, Perceptor, and female Autobot Arcee, transform Autobot City into a battle fortress and both sides settle down for a long siege that lasts the rest of the day and all of the following night. Early in the battle, Ultra Magnus sends orders to alert Blaster to radio for assistance from their commander Optimus Prime. An attempt to thwart the transmission by Soundwave and his cassette Decepticons fails, and the next morning Optimus and the Dinobots arrive to successfully repel the Decepticon invaders, including the here far more competent Devastator, who is displayed as being far more effective and brutal when compared to his depictions in the Television series prior to the release of the film.
Upon arriving, Optimus almost single-handedly takes down many Decepticons before confronting his arch-enemy Megatron. Optimus and Megatron engage in a memorable final battle that leaves Optimus mortally wounded, due to the untimely, though well-intentioned, intervention of Hot Rod. Optimus manages to turn the tide of battle however and defeats Megatron. Starscream takes command of the Decepticons and orders a retreat with their fallen leader and other war-wounded loaded aboard Astrotrain for transport back to Cybertron.
Inside Autobot City's walls, Perceptor alerts the other Autobots that the wounds that Optimus has suffered during his battle with Megatron are fatal. The dying 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. Optimus asserts that the Matrix one day will light the Autobots' darkest hour, right before he dies. Back in space, Astrotrain's shortage of fuel prompts the Decepticons to eject the dead weight of their injured — including the protesting Megatron. This leaves the remaining Decepticons lieutenants, including Starscream, Soundwave, and the Constructicons, to bicker among themselves for leadership.
Drifting aimlessly, 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 reluctantly agrees, and Unicron uses his power to convert Megatron into a new form: the powerful Decepticon warrior christened "Galvatron". His damaged underlings were also reformatted into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps. Unicron provides them with a craft on which they travel to Cybertron, where Galvatron confronts and obliterates the treacherous Starscream and takes command of the Decepticons, as his alter-ego Megatron did before him.
Back on Earth, the Autobots are alerted as Unicron consumes Cybertron's two moons, along with Autobots Jazz, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Daniel's father Spike (who are ultimately rescued). Galvatron leads the Decepticons in another assault on Autobot City. The Autobots board a pair of shuttles and flee toward their threatened planet of 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, and are then subjected to a mock trial by Quintesson executioners. Before the trial, they see 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. At the trial, Hot Rod and Kup battle the Sharkticons with determination, but luckily they are rescued by the arrival of the Dinobots. Dinobot Grimlock intimidates the Sharkticons to rebel against the Quintessons with ease, while the Autobots escape. With help from the Dinobots' new ally, Wheelie, the group locate a ship and depart for the planet to join the other Autobots.
Meanwhile, Galvatron finds and hunts down the Autobots on Junk. Ultra Magnus tries but fails to awaken the Matrix's powers, and then is destroyed by the Sweeps. Galvatron, no longer willing to serve Unicron due to being put through a form of psionic torture by Unicron on two occasions already, steals the Matrix, stating that he intends to 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 touches down to befriend them. The Junkion allies repair Ultra Magnus and volunteer a vessel to help the Autobots fight against Unicron.
Back in space, Galvatron attempts to subjugate Unicron using the Matrix but is unable to unleash its power. Unicron, saying that Galvatron underestimates him, transforms into a huge planet-sized robot and attacks Cybertron. As protest against this, Galvatron opens fire on Unicron, but Unicron simply swallows him up. Decepticon defenders scramble to counter Unicron's attack, to no avail. When the Autobots reach the scene, Hot Rod crashes their ship through one of the giant's eyes and then they find themselves separated within Unicron's body. Meanwhile, Wreck-Gar and his Junkions fight back against Unicron, but Unicron crushes their ship. However they survive. The Dinobots also attack Unicron from behind, but to no avail.
Inside, Hot Rod fights the recently consumed Galvatron. Hot Rod secures his grip on the Matrix, and the power of The Matrix is unleashed, transforming him into Rodimus Prime. Rodimus unleashes its power to destroy Unicron from within, but not before he throws Galvatron deep into space. Rodimus leads the other Autobots out of Unicron's body before it explodes, sprawling parts of the giant across the galaxy. The Autobots, triumphant and now seeming to outnumber the Decepticons in the aftermath of Unicron's assault on the planet, reclaim Cybertron. The final scene depicts Unicron's heavily damaged head floating through space in orbit around Cybertron as a new satellite.
Character deaths
Autobot casualties outnumbered those of the Decepticons by a large amount. Among the Autobots killed, or shown dead on screen, were Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, Brawn, Windcharger and Wheeljack. Huffer's name was also listed among the dead in the Season 3 episode "Dark Awakening", although it has never been established as to when or where he met his end. Other Autobots were depicted as being killed, or dead outright, in the movie’s storyboards, among them Smokescreen, Red Alert, and Trailbreaker.[citation needed] Outside of these characters, a substantial number of other Autobots from the first two seasons of the show did not reappear after the film, leaving their fates uncertain.
Aside from Starscream and several Sweeps, there are virtually no Decepticon deaths in the movie. Several of the injured Decepticons were reformatted by Unicron, and while it is clear that Galvatron has Megatron's memories, it is less so with Cyclonus and Scourge, meaning that one might be able to consider Thundercracker, Skywarp and the Insecticons among the "dead"[who?]. Indeed, Thundercracker and Skywarp along with 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[1] but cut from the finished film; 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.[2]
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.[3] 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).[4]
The "universal greeting"
"Baa weep grahna weep ninny bong."
Cast
In addition to the above-listed characters, many additional Transformers appear throughout the film in non-speaking roles.
The Transformers: The Movie was Orson Welles' final film. He was in declining health during production. Shortly before he died, he told his biographer, Barbara Leaming, that he had spent the day "playing a toy"[5] in a movie about toys who "do horrible things to each other." Film historian Joseph McBride quotes Welles saying of his participation: "I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed."[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.[6]
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.
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.[7] 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.
Reception
| This article needs additional citations for verification. (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[who?] 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.
Commercial releases
The film was originally released in 1987 on VHS[8] 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[9] by Sunbow Productions and distributed exclusively in Canada by Seville Pictures.[10] 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
- 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).[11] 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,[12] 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.
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.
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.
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| Beast era | |
| Unicron Trilogy | |
| Aligned Universe | |
| Prime Wars Trilogy | |
| Other | |
| Animated films | |
Inter-series references
In the 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. Also, the scene where Jazz attacks Brawl evokes a similar scene in the animated movie when Kup jumps on Blitzwing. [citation needed]
Merchandise
A Unicron toy was designed, but was never produced due to cost concerns.[13] A Unicron toy would not be released to the general public until 2003, as part of the Transformers: Armada toyline.
External links
- Transformers The Movie 20th Anniversary Edition DVD by Sony BMG - Region 1
- Transformers The Movie DVD by Metrodome - Region 2
- Template:Bcdb
- The Transformers: The Movie at IMDb
- The Transformers: The Movie at AllMovie
- Template:Ymovies title.
- Transformers: The Movie at the TCM Movie Database
- Transformers: The Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
- Transformers: The Movie at Box Office Mojo
- Storyboards from Transformers The Movie not included on the DVD
References
- ^ "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
- ^ Coyle, Jake. (AP), "Film legend Orson Welles' last role was in 1986 animated'Transformers' film", Yahoo.com, 2007-06-25, Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
- ^ a b 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 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. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
- ^ "The Transformers: The Movie (1986) - Company credits". Imdb.com. 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
- ^ http://www.transformersontheshelf.com/UnicronPage.html
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