The Transformers: The Movie
| The name or term "Transformers: The Movie" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Transformers: The Movie (disambiguation). |
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 Featuring the deaths of all your favorite Transformers characters. | |||||||||
| The Transformers: The Movie | |||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Release date | August 8, 1986 | ||||||||
| Writer | Ron Friedman | ||||||||
| Directed by | Nelson Shin | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Toei | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
The Transformers: The Movie is an animated feature film based on the original Transformers toyline. It was released in the United States on Friday, August 8, 1986.
The film's storyline follows the same continuity as the Transformers cartoon. It introduces a planet-sized Transformer called Unicron who eats other planets, and is approaching Cybertron. As part of their continuing wars, the Autobots and Decepticons have a fierce battle on Earth which sees both Optimus Prime and Megatron mortally wounded. Prime passes the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus and dies, and Megatron is transformed by Unicron into Galvatron. Starscream (briefly) assumes leadership of the Decepticons, but is killed when Galvatron arrives at Cybertron. Galvatron then chases the surviving Autobots on Earth across space, splitting them up and taking the Matrix. The Autobots find their way back to each other, and follow Galvatron to Cybertron just as Unicron transforms into robot mode and begins to eat their world. Travelling inside Unicron, Hot Rod recovers the Matrix, transforms into Rodimus Prime, and uses the Matrix to destroy Unicron.
Often referred to by fans simply as "the movie" or "TFTM", the movie was a step up in almost every area from the television series, with a more sophisticated plot, more serious treatment of war and violence, a hugely ambitious scope and a greatly increased animation budget with well-known celebrities providing voice work. For these reasons the film remains very popular with children of the 1980s.
The film opens with characters who had been featured in the first two years of the toyline and associated media (cartoons, comic books, etc.), but quickly introduces new characters and kills many of the old ones to make room. In particular, Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream are all destroyed during the course of the film.
Synopsis
A mechanical planet travels through the depths of space, attacking a metal planet which has robotic inhabitants. Robots, vehicles, buildings, and even large chunks of rock are sucked off the surface and devoured by the monstrous planet.
It is the year 2005, and the Decepticons are now in control of Cybertron. The Autobots are preparing to launch an assault to retake the planet from hidden bases on two of Cybertron's moons. The Autobots launch a shuttle to pick up a final shipment of energon from Earth before they strike.
Plans for the attack are overheard by Laserbeak, who reports back to Megatron. The Decepticons attack the Autobot shuttle en route to Earth, wiping out its crew (including Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet and Brawn). Using the Autobots' own shuttle, the Decepticons are able to get very close to the Autobots' base on Earth, Autobot City, before they are detected, and begin a devastating surprise attack on the unprepared city.
During the battle at Autobot City, both Optimus Prime and Megatron suffer mortal injuries, and a number of others are also killed. Eventually the Decepticons retreat, but the damage suffered by the Autobots has been severe.
Shortly after the battle, Prime lies on his deathbed. He passes the reins of leadership to Ultra Magnus and gives him the Matrix of Leadership. (Though Hot Rod actually touches the Matrix before Magnus does.) Prime relates a prophecy: "One day, an Autobot shall rise from our ranks, and use the power of the Matrix to light our darkest hour." He then gives the oath, "'Til all are one", and dies. This sequence of events is observed remotely by Unicron, who appears unusually concerned by the survival of the Matrix.
The Decepticons are making their escape aboard Astrotrain, but are too heavy for him to get them all home under his own power. After putting the matter to a fair vote, the Decepticons decide to throw their injured members off the ship to better the chance of survival for the rest. One of the most severely injured Decepticons is Megatron. Starscream tosses him out and claims leadership of the Decepticon army.
Megatron and the other adrift Decepticons then encounter Unicron in interstellar space. Unicron offers to rebuild Megatron and his minions in exchange for their service. Megatron agrees, and is reformatted into Galvatron. The other Decepticons are turned into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps. Unicron provides them with a ship, and sends them to kill Ultra Magnus and destroy the Matrix, stating that the Matrix is the only thing which can stand in his way.
Galvatron first stops at Cybertron to take his revenge by killing Starscream and reclaiming leadership of the Decepticons. Almost immediately afterwards, Unicron arrives in Cybertron's vicinity and devours at least two moons—both of the Autobots' moon bases are destroyed. Under coercion by Unicron, Galvatron finally heads to Earth to kill Ultra Magnus, but Magnus and the other surviving Autobots flee in a pair of shuttles. Eventually Galvatron manages to cause one shuttle to crash on yet another metal planet (Quintessa), and detonates the other with a volley of missiles. However, the Autobots in the second shuttle escape unnoticed by separating the front portion of their shuttle just before impact.
The Autobots in the crashed shuttle, Hot Rod, Kup, and the Dinobots, find themselves separated and in a hostile environment. Hot Rod and Kup are captured by a squad of Allicons and taken before a Quintesson judge and his court. While being held there, they learn the name and nature of Unicron from Kranix, a survivor of the planet destroyed in the opening of the film, which he calls Lithone. Meanwhile, the Dinobots encounter and befriend a young, wild Autobot named Wheelie who has been living alone on Quintessa. Together, they crash the trial just as Hot Rod and Kup are fighting losing odds against the Quintessons' Sharkticons. The tide is turned, and the Autobots commandeer a Quintesson Cruiser.
The other group of Autobots has landed on the planet Junkion to make repairs, but are attacked yet again by Galvatron, who was tipped off to their survival by Unicron. During the battle, Ultra Magnus tries to open the Matrix to use its power, but is unable to do so, and instead is killed. Galvatron absconds with the Matrix, taking it away to Unicron. The remaining Autobots—Perceptor, Springer, Arcee, and Spike's son Daniel—are then ambushed by Junkions, the eponymous natives of Junkion, who are also giant transforming robots. This battle is cut short, however, by the arrival of Hot Rod's group in their Quintesson ship. After exchanging the universal greeting they all make friends, and the Junkions restore Ultra Magnus to life. Together, the whole group travels to Cybertron to try to recover the Matrix.
Galvatron attempts to open the Matrix to use its power against Unicron, but is also unable to get it open. Unicron, not pleased with this attempted treachery, shocks Galvatron by transforming from a planet into a planet-sized robot. Unicron plucks Galvatron off his chest and swallows him, Matrix and all, and then begins attacking Cybertron itself. Shockwave scrambles the Decepticon forces to defend the planet, but they are ineffective against so large an enemy. Shortly the Autobots arrive from Junkion, and fly the Quintesson ship straight through Unicron's eye. This impact destroys the ship, and the Autobots fall out inside Unicron. Hot Rod, separated from the others, eventually runs into Galvatron. During their fight, Hot Rod gets his hands on the Matrix and hears Optimus's voice speak the words, "Arise, Rodimus Prime." Hot Rod grows in stature, adopts a much sterner demeanor, and quickly dispatches Galvatron by tossing him through Unicron's hull out into space. He then opens the Matrix, which fills Unicron with light and begins destroying him.
In the meantime, the other Autobots inside Unicron have located some of their comrades from the moon bases who had been presumed dead, including Bumblebee and Daniel's father, Spike. The Autobots, including Rodimus, escape through Unicron's remaining eye just as he begins to fall apart and explode. The scene then immediately shifts to the surface of Cybertron, where—for unclear reasons—the Autobots seem to be in charge again. Rodimus predicts an era of peace and prosperity, and the film closes with a shot of Unicron's severed head still floating in orbit around Cybertron.
Quotes
"Such heroic nonsense."
- —Megatron coldly finishes off Ironhide. The 'Cons always get the best lines.
"I've got better things to do tonight than die!"
- —Springer, telling it like it is.
"One shall stand. One shall fall."
- —Optimus Prime uttering the most quoted line of the Movie. An ass kicker cometh.
"You, who are without mercy, now plead for it? I thought you were made of sterner stuff."
- —Optimus Prime's trash talk is actually a lot cooler than it sounds
"Until that day...'til all are one..."
- —Optimus Prime's final words
"Oh, how it pains me to do this."
"Wait! I still function!"
"Wanna bet?"
- —Starscream fights back the tears as he throws Megatron out of Astrotrain.
"I have summoned you here for a purpose."
"Nobody summons Megatron!"
"Then it pleases me to be the first."
- —Unicron shows Megatron who's the boss.
"Who disrupts my coronation?"
"Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy."
"Megatron? Is that you?"
"Here's a hint!"
- —Galvatron drops "hints" for Starscream like others drop anvils.
"Did we have to let them detonate three quarters of the ship?"
"Seeing as how they would have detonated four quarters, I think it was a good choice."
- —Arcee and Springer
"For a time... I considered sparing your wretched little planet Cybertron. But now... you shall witness... its dismemberment!"
- —Unicron really needs to work on his anger management skills...
"Me Grimlock kick butt!"
- —Grimlock isn't speaking figuratively.
"Destiny... You cannot... destroy... my... destiny--AAH!!"
- —Unicron's final words
"Let this mark the end of the Cybertronian Wars as we march forward into a new era of peace and happiness! 'Til all are one!"
- —Rodimus Prime announces the end of the Great War... yeah, right.
Featured characters
*Credited, but may or may not have appeared.
**Credited, but did not appear.
Animation errors
- When Unicron is approaching Lithone at the start of the movie, at the line "Look, it's Unicron!", a cel stacking error results in Unicron's ring appearing in front of a building arch, making Unicron look very tiny in that shot. In the next shot, it is clear that Unicron is several times larger than the entire planet of Lithone.
- The inside of one of the Lithonian ships being devoured by Unicron is visible for a couple of frames. The pilot of the ship appears to be Kranix, even though he apparently screams out Kranix's name, and Kranix appears later in the Quintesson prison.
- When the inside of Unicron is shown after he devours Lithone, the "blinking energy" effect of Unicron's innards was apparently achieved by recycling backgrounds from other animated TV shows or movies. A frame by frame viewing reveals what appear to be several images of post-apocalyptic buildings inside Unicron, some of which are upside-down.
- When Optimus Prime asks Jazz to report security status, it shows both Jazz and Cliffjumper. Cliffjumper is seen twiddling knobs above the actual drawn computer, as if a section was supposed to be present.
- When the closeup of Cliffjumper doing his countdown is shown, his shoulders are blue (like his windows) instead of red.
- When the Decepticons blow a hole through the Autobot shuttle to get in, it is a clean break. However, Megatron is still shown ripping through random ship components to get in.
- Scavenger's head is white instead of black as he ducks from Prowl's shot.
- When the Decepticons are killing the Autobot shuttle crew, there is one of the common Starscream/Skywarp/Thundercracker miscolors. Megatron transforms into gun mode and Starscream catches him, killing Brawn. When they cut back to the Decepticons, Starscream is in front of the Constructicons without Megatron and is firing one of his arm rifles (this probably should have been Skywarp or Thundercracker). When they cut back to the Decepticons for the third time, Starscream has Megatron again and is finishing off the rest of the Autobots. In the shot of Starscream firing his own lasers, his wings are red instead of gray.
- When the Decepticons fly to the shuttle's controls, all of the Autobots have changed positions from when they fell—Brawn is now on his back, for example, while Prowl is now face-down. Ironhide's chest is also completely intact, despite having a bunch of holes blown in it.
- Hot Rod has at least two totally different transformation schemes during the course of the film.
- When Kup and several Autobots at the roadblock react to Hot Rod's attack on the hijacked Autobot shuttle, Bluestreak is represented by Prowl's animation model, in Bluestreak's grey and black colours.
- Sunstreaker appears with Kup's group on Earth as they observe Hot Rod firing on Ironhide's shuttle. Sunstreaker later appears as Optimus Prime's co-pilot when they arrive on Earth with the Dinobots, and is seen disembarking the shuttle along with Optimus Prime and Hound.
- In a wide aerial shot of the city under attack, a Reflector flies by in Ironhide's color scheme. Shockwave also makes his only appearance in the battle; considering both his role as Cybertron's guardian and his absence from any other scenes during the battle, his presence is probably an animation error. Rumble also flies past, despite being inside Soundwave at this point.
- Blaster's forehead is red instead of white after his "look out and shout!" line, and again after he returns to robot mode.
- A laser blast that should be behind Blaster is instead layered in front of him as he acknowledges Perceptor's orders.
- In the big lineup of firing Decepticons, Soundwave's cheek guards are blue instead of white.
- When Soundwave sends out his cassette troops, Rumble is the same color as Frenzy.
- Blaster first ejects what looks like Eject, who stays blue up until he gets to the edge of the screen. He then turns black like Rewind. Then Blaster ejects another blue cassette, which after about a second turns black. This one gets through half his transformation colored black, then turns blue for a split second then turns black again. Then, when the cassettes are fighting each other, Eject runs in from the left and jumps over Perceptor. And then he runs in from the left again to shoot Ravage.
- As Springer runs up to the launcher, Wheeljack's body is visible, but he's in red, white and blue colors.
- While Springer and Arcee are trying to move the launcher into place, Springer's face is the same color as his helmet.
- When Devastator forms in Autobot City, his chest plate is the same green as the rest of him. In the next shot, it's the usual purple. However, it promptly turns green again in the next shot.
- As Devastator lays into the walls, Shrapnel is white where he should be black.
- While Perceptor and Grapple are shooting, Swoop's lower half runs by in the foreground, long before the rest of him gets there.
- Megatron's pelvis is white instead of black as he gives the "let the slaughter begin!" order.
- Prime's dramatic transformation sequence far outlasts the transformation sound that's supposed to go with it. It's also the wrong sound (ascending pitch) for his robot-to-vehicle transformation. His trailer is also missing the Autobot logo, which reappears for the rest of the scene.
- When Prime drives up behind the Decepticons, Blitzwing's head is tan instead of purple. It becomes purple when he turns it, then goes back to tan again as he turns it back.
- Prime is missing the transformation sound as he blasts back to robot mode.
- The gun Megatron uses to fatally injure Optimus is blue and white for most of the shots it is seen in, but when Megatron screams "Fall! FALL!" while shooting Prime again, it is black.
- The gun Megatron fires uses the same sound effect as his fusion cannon.
- Prime's antennae are white as he tries to stand after knocking Megatron off the ledge.
- As he orders Astrotrain to take off, Starscream's face is gray instead of black.
- Starscream's whole nosecone, rather than just the canopy, is yellow as he looms over Megatron.
- When Optimus Prime takes the Matrix out of his chest to give to Ultra Magnus, there is another Matrix beneath it in his chest. (On which note, see also Matrix of Leadership, Universe comic.) Also, he initially grabs just the core of the Matrix, while the rest of the scene shows the entire assembly.
- When Ultra Magnus accepts the Matrix, he's seen inserting it into his chest twice, or at best readjusting its "fit".
- As the other Decepticons prepare to push him out, Bombshell's chest is rendered as a shapeless gray mass, rather than with its yellow canopy.
- The voice that says, "Brothers! Don't!" is nowhere close to the voices of any of the five Decepticons shown getting thrown out of Astrotrain.
- Starscream's got an extra yellow segment on his canopy as he nominates himself for leadership. Man, even the A-list animation team couldn't keep this straight.
- Most of Megatron's chest emblem isn't colored in as he first speaks to Unicron. It might pass for battle damage, but a few shots later it's fully purple.
- Even after the Battle of Autobot City, characters who are supposedly dead continue to appear in crowd shots and battles. Shrapnel's role in the fight on Junk is the most noticeable (and he was called for by name in the original script), but Thundercracker, Skywarp and Kickback can all be seen at Starscream's coronation. The two jets are later seen again, flying into Unicron's mouth.
- Hook has two eyes instead of a visor as he looks around in confusion during the trumpet scene.
- An early establishing shot clearly shows Cybertron with two and only two moons in low orbit. Yet a third moon is visible right after Unicron finishes eating the two Autobot bases.
- When Galvatron introduces himself to the Coronation party, Soundwave's chest window is drawn far too small.
- When Cyclonus is strafing the Autobot shuttle in space, he briefly flies offscreen, and during that time his laser blasts come from a point that in no way matches his flight path.
- Daniel's lips don't purse when he whistles.
- Wreck-Gar's mouth doesn't move at all during his first lines, despite the camera pushing in all close on his face.
- The pistol Ultra Magnus fires uses the same sound effect as Optimus Prime's rifle.
- Shrapnel's lower legs are white when he lands on Junk, instead of black. Must be a side effect of being dead.
- During the Junkion chase scene, Trashbin attacks Arcee. When she fights him off his motorcycle, his model is switched for Junkyard's when he falls down.
- When Hot Rod tells the Junkions the universal greeting, the Autobot insignia on his chest is coloured black.
- When Grimlock gets kissed, his eyes are round instead of triangular.
- When Unicron transforms, the first hand we see (his right) is backwards relative to how the arm is shown on screen.
- After transforming, Unicron has all-white hands (instead of white with gold knuckles) and a white, rectangular chin (instead of the double-triangular chin with a goatee) he has later.
- As Hot Rod falls off one of Unicron's inner spikes, his lower body isn't drawn in. It looks like it should be blocked by our view of the spike, but is layered above it instead.
- Hot Rod's missing his Autobot symbol as he regains his footing inside Unicron.
- During the same sequence, we see a standard-looking control panel next to Hot Rod. It's unlikely Galvatron had time to create one inside Unicron, so where did it come from?
- As the Dinobots fly around Unicron, both his eyes are intact. (The left one had been shattered.)
- As the Dinobots fly away from Unicron, the spikes on Grimlock's right arm are gray instead of gold.
- The third smelting victim (who looks a lot like another Bumblebee) doesn't fall from the conveyor belt; he simply vanishes.
Continuity errors
- The Dinobot Snarl is mysteriously absent from almost the entire movie, even though the Dinobots as a group are featured prominently. Copies of the script which have come into fans' hands repeatedly list the Dinobots, but never make mention of Snarl by name. In fact, at one point the script refers to "the four Dinobots". Despite this, Snarl does appear in three very brief shots—in which at least one other Dinobot (Swoop in one, Sludge in another) is entirely absent. Hmm.
- Also curiously absent are the 1985 Autobot cars and Mini-Vehicles, such as Inferno, Smokescreen, Cosmos, Warpath, etc. It would seem that these characters were available at the time of the movie:
- Perceptor and Blaster both debuted at the same time in the cartoon as the 1985 cars, and both play prominent roles in the movie.
- Grapple is seen very briefly during the battle for Autobot City.
- The 1985 Decepticons (Astrotrain, Dirge, etc.) appear in the film.
- Tracks, Red Alert and Smokescreen (who was supposed to be the corpse in place of Wheeljack next to Windcharger) all appeared in storyboards but not the finished film.
- Devastator is treated as the ultimate threat, while in the cartoon, his role (and apparent power) was already being severely diminished, presumably because several other combiners had been introduced. In story terms, the absence of these newer combiners, not to mention the mighty Omega Supreme, is inexplicable. In real-life terms, those characters didn't exist when the film commenced production. (The Transformers: The Animated Movie adaptation shows Omega Supreme, Superion and Defensor guarding the Ark against an attack by Bruticus and Menasor, attempting to retcon the problem away.)
- The existence of Cybertron's moons is contentious at best.
- On the one hand, in numerous close and distant shots of the planet throughout the first two seasons, not a single moon was seen. Ever. Even after it got knocked out of Earth's orbit.
- On the other hand, Megatron does refer to Cybertron as "land of the metal moon" (note the singular) during "Microbots", suggesting otherwise. The fact that he was overenergized at the time and lost consciousness in mid-sentence - just before he might have specified a plural number of moons, (in)conveniently enough - makes it unclear just how much credence we should lend this statement.
- The movie promptly introduces two (possibly three) moons over the planet. In continuity terms, they must either have highly elliptical orbits with periapsides (points in their orbits that bring them closest to the planet) that just happened to coincide with the timeframe of the movie or they were constructed sometime after 1986.
- During the Battle of Autobot City, Starscream gets his leg caught. He shoots downward and gets away while screaming "My foot!", but it's his shin that's smoking while his foot looks fine. Later he kicks Megatron with the same foot. Shouldn't that hurt, according to him? Note there is a time lapse between the "foot shooting" and the kicking, leaving the option of a battlefield repair.
- So Ultra Magnus just happens to have a ready-made Matrix chamber installed in his chest cavity? Is this standard issue for all Autobots?
- The cartoon had already established that Astrotrain increases his size when he transforms to shuttle mode, being large enough to carry a pair of Decepticons in his cockpit. However, within the movie itself, his size is noticeably inconsistent: When he leaves Autobot City, he's just large enough for the Decepticon army to cram themselves in; later, he's so huge that the Constructicons can quite comfortably form Devastator inside him.
- Speaking of Astrotrain, his entire body flips over when he transforms from train to space shuttle to escape from Autobot City. The Decepticons inside must have loved that!
- The number of minions created by Unicron changes throughout the film, with more Sweeps appearing as the story progresses. A second Cyclonus ("Cyclonus, the warrior, and his armada") is shown being created but disappears shortly thereafter. At least seven new characters are shown at one point, created from only six Decepticons thrown from the shuttle.
"Yes, I bet you have."
- Galvatron is capable of reducing Starscream to ashes with a single shot from his cannon mode. Though in later episodes Galvatron is shown blowing up even small planets with his cannon, his extraordinary killing power seems to be gone—like when he scores a direct hit in cannon mode on Ultra Magnus in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5" and Magnus isn't especially hurt at all, or how a similar blast against Scourge in "The Burden Hardest to Bear" only leaves the latter temporarily incapacitated. Marvel Comics bios explain this by suggesting that Galvatron had nearly limitless power through Unicron... but then again, Galvatron himself claims to be "more powerful than ever" after Unicron is dead in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2". Who knows.
- Why didn't anyone notice Unicron until he was within devouring distance of Cybertron's moons?
- Despite running out of energon goodies on Quintessa, Hot Rod has at least one to offer to the Junkions. Maybe he got some on the ship. It's also possible that, when he told the Allicons "No more," he meant that he wasn't going to feed them any more energon goodies, not that he didn't have anymore.
- Daniel, who was just learning how to use his exo-suit, had to knock down the acid cover inside Unicron to save his loved ones. Why couldn't the more experienced Spike do the same with his suit from above? He had both of his arms free and a clear shot at the cover. On the other hand, the clamp holding him may well disable his exo-suit's weapons and movement abilities-if it didn't, Unicron probably wouldn't have eaten half as many victims by now...
- It's not clear how Rodimus Prime (carrying two humans) and the other Autobots survived their jump out of Unicron's eye and their plunge towards the surface of Cybertron.
- It's also unclear just how the dozen or so Autobots (and one shipload of Junkions) managed to retake the whole planet of Cybertron. Did Unicron really wipe out that many Decepticons?
- When the Autobots are repairing Autobot City, Blaster is present, but a few minutes later, he's nowhere to be seen. And he isn't seen getting on one of the shuttles. It is possible that they took off without him, but Daniel noticed Arcee was not on board. Guess he cares more about Arcee than Blaster.
- Ultra Magnus blows up, but later his parts are just in individual sections. The Junkions place them together and shine him up, and he's fine! No welding or reprogramming, no replacing damaged parts...
- Makes you wonder why they couldn't fly Prime's body over and repair it, too. At the end of season three, we find out the Matrix can be given back to him, so that's not the issue...
Not necessarily errors
- Fans have noted throughout the years that Astrotrain, in his flight through zero-gravity space, should not have needed to "jettison some weight" in the literal sense. However, since the ejected Decepticons quickly fall behind Astrotrain instead of floating alongside him, he must still have been accelerating and thus would have needed to burn a greater amount of fuel in order to push a larger payload. Perhaps he should have said "jettison some mass", but then again, just being a spaceship doesn't make him a rocket scientist.
- Starscream is shown just inside Astrotrain's cargo bay when he commands him to take off, but in the next shot (Astrotrain's door closing as his rocket engines ignite), Starscream is nowhere to be seen. It's possible that he walked further in, but he should still be at least partially visible.
Continuity notes
- The Movie has had a huge effect in shaping the mythos. Among the elements and characters which would reappear in many other iterations of Transformers are:
- The notion that Cybertron has moons
- The Matrix as a physical object, rather than the computer program previously depicted in the Marvel Comics. Even the Marvel Comics would eventually shoehorn this one in.
- Autobot City
- Unicron
- The notion of Megatron becoming Galvatron
- And it killed off Optimus Prime before it was cool!
- Gadgets and powers:
- Springer deploys a small flip-out twin laser from his wrist during the Autobot City battle.
- Arcee and Hot Rod both activate a long-distance scanner of some sort by lowering a red visor from under their helmets over their eyes.
- Hot Rod uses a saw blade that extends from his retracted wrist.
- Blurr has the same kind of hooked welding tip used by various Autobots as far back as "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2".
- Arcee unleashes a nasty barbed post from her fender to fend off a Junkion.
- Grimlock shows the never-before seen ability to shoot lasers from his fists.
- < < What makes Starscream the leader? Megatron's
deadalmost dead!
Real-world references and Easter eggs
- When Sludge gets haymakered by Devastator, his eyes pop out of their sockets in Looney Tunes fashion.
- Kup's storytelling sequence aboard the shuttle is drawn from the novel Of Mice and Men, complete with Grimlock in the Lenny role asking Kup to "tell Grimlock about petrorabbits again".
- The Quintesson jail cell includes robot debris strongly resembling the mobile suits RX-178 Gundam MK II and the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam from 1985 Japanese animation Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
- The Junkions speak almost entirely in pop culture quotes and pastiches. Littered among the generic phrases like "operators are standing by!", "Film at eleven" and "eliminate even the toughest stains" are more specific references, such as:
- "Don't look behind door #2, Monty!" - a reference to the game show Let's Make a Deal and its host, Monty Hall.
- "Ger-ronny-doo-ron-ron-ronny-mo!" - both the famous "Geronimo!" war cry, and the 1963 hit "Da Doo Ron Ron".
- "You check in, but you don't check out" - a parody of the tagline for Roach Motel insect traps.
- "Happy motoring!" - the slogan of gas company Esso.
- Star Wars sound effects (yes, even the high-budget Movie uses them):
- The Millennium Falcon engine burst noise is used extensively throughout the film, over and over and over, almost any time a Decepticon takes flight.
- Luke Skywalker's deactivating lightsaber is used as the sound of the Quintesson ship's ramp extending.
- Clashing lightsabers are used as Unicron fires eye-blasts at the attacking Transformers.
- An igniting lightsaber is used as Rodimus opens the Matrix.
- The Star Trek sliding door sound is used as Wreck-Gar pulls out his
iPhonemini-TV. - Also, the sound used for the communicators on Star Trek was used when Daniel was activating his blaster to save Spike
Adaptations
- A comic adaptation of the movie was published by Marvel Comics in 1986, concurrently with the movie's theater run. It was based off a non-finalized version of the script, and differs in many details from the final film. Additionally, most of the major character models (and possibly their unedited original character write-ups) appear in Issue #4 of the Transformers Universe series.
- A storybook adaptation was released in the UK by Ladybird Books.
- A four-part adaptation was released in 2006/2007 by IDW Publishing, as part of the film's 20th anniversary celebration. It was titled Transformers: The Animated Movie to differentiate it from the Michael Bay live-action film. Unlike its predecessor, it adheres rigidly to the script and plot of the finished movie.
Soundtrack
Promotions
- Early in the movie's production, a promotional trailer was made to sell the project to potential investors.
- The movie was advertised on related 1986 toy packages via the Decipher the Decepticon Sweepstakes, which included a pack-in poster and contest.
- The movie was heavily advertised directly by TV commercials, and tail-end segments on Transformer toy ads. Portions of its story were also retold in altered fashion by animation segments of commercials for the movie character toys, such as a spot showing Springer doing battle with Wreck-Gar.
In the comic continuity
The Marvel UK comic made extensive use of the Movie as the basis for a series of stories involving the Transformers in the future. However there are several differences between the events seen on screen and those referenced in the comic:
- The comic always dates the movie to 2006, following the date given in a treatment that was all Simon Furman had when he wrote Target: 2006.
- In Target: 2006, Cyclonus states that he was previously "Life Spark".
- The Matrix is always called the "Creation Matrix" in the comic, a name that predates the "Matrix of Leadership" but which is now used for the same physical object.
- Brawn and Wheeljack both survive the events, both later appearing in Space Pirates! (set in 2008).
In addition, Shockwave definitely survives the attack by Unicron.
The US comic almost completely ignored the events of the Movie, though later in the run an alternative future is briefly shown in "Rhythms of Darkness!" and "A Savage Circle". In this timeline at least some of the events of the Movie took place such as the creation of Galvatron from Megatron, which is dated to 2005, though Prowl's death was overlooked. Wouldn't be the first time. Or the last.
- The US version of the future story The Big Broadcast of 2006 implicitly has the events of the movie as part of its backstory. However, since the rest of the US series ignored the movie, this issue's place in the continuity is questionable.
Edits
Several English-language versions of the film exist, with the following differences in content from the American theatrical run:
- In some versions (notably the European version) the opening credits are replaced with a scrolling text ("Star Wars style") which provides backstory.
- In some versions (notably the European version) the film ends with a narrator reassuring the audience that Optimus Prime will return.
- Instances of swearing in the film (there are two) were edited out; sometimes one, sometimes both. Those instances are: Spike yelling, "Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?" after the self-destructing Moon Base 2 fails to scratch Unicron, and Ultra Magnus growling, "Open, damn it, open!" while trying to open the Matrix to fend off Galvatron and the Sweeps on Junkion. The United Kingdom cinema version had the swearing included but, when it was released on VHS in the United Kingdom, Spike's line was cut ("damn" not being considered offensive in the UK). However it has been restored on all United Kingdom DVD releases.
- In some early FHE video releases, the shot of the Matrix falling out of Optimus Prime's hand and being caught by Hot Rod is edited so that it appears that Ultra Magnus simply takes the Matrix from Prime. Why this was done is not known, and the replay of the Hot Rod catch on Unicron's monitors was left intact.
- Instead of DEG, the Rank Film "gong man" appears before the film, as Rank were the United Kingdom distributors.
None of these edits significantly affect the story. They should not be confused with various other sequences which were changed before the film's final release:
- Originally, Ultra Magnus's "death sequence" on Junkion called for him to be lassoed and drawn and quartered by the Sweeps' energy beams, but this was deemed too graphic for audiences, hence the less disturbing "shot to death" sequence seen instead. There is evidence that the original sequence had been fully animated when the decision was made, however; the Sweeps still kept their solid energy lassos when they fire upon Magnus, and Magnus is seen visibly straining against what appears to be said lassos (edited out and replaced with laser fire) before exploding.
- A number of other sequences were illustrated as storyboards but dropped, presumably without ever being animated. Among them were:
- A short scene showing Ironhide piloting the Autobot shuttle through huge chunks of ice from the tail of a passing comet, explaining how the Decepticons caught them unawares. In response to a reprimand by Prowl who prickishly disapproves of Ironhide's piloting shenanigans, Ironhide exclaims, "I can sure as shootin' dodge a couple of ice chunks". When the Autobots are suddenly jolted by the Decepticon strike force as Megatron and his troops attempt to enter the shuttle, Ironhide tells the others on board, "That was no ice chunk...". Heroic nonsense ensues...
- An extended sequence with Hot Rod and Daniel outside the city.
- A sequence of Mirage blasting Bombshell and being fired on by Megatron.
- The Autobots finally bringing down Devastator with a barrage of missiles (and the Constructicons subsequently shooting Red Alert in the back).
- The Decepticons dogpiling Optimus Prime, explaining why he seems to be standing up just before his fight with Megatron, and no longer holding his rifle. According to storyboards, Prime gets bum-rushed by Blitzwing (who causes Prime to drop his gun), Starscream, Astrotrain, and Skywarp. While it is not clear how Prime defeated the first four hand-to-hand combatants, Dirge is later shown attempting one final sneak attack (and gets his can handed back to him) as Prime is talking to Megatron before the two leaders' final fight.
- Trailbreaker is shown dead among the wreckage of Autobot City as the Decepticons begin their retreat.
- Some of these concepts were in earlier versions of the script, and hence made it into the comic adaptation.
- Rumors have occasionally circulated in the fandom of additional animated footage that was dropped from the film, such as ultra-violent battle scenes. No evidence has ever surfaced to back these claims; the only known edits are those listed in this section.
- For further information, see: Misconceptions and urban legends about Transformers#The Transformers: The Movie
Reception
The Transformers: The Movie was almost universally panned by professional critics upon its release.
Well-known film critic and animation enthusiast, Leonard Maltin, gave it a rating below 1 1/2 stars in his 1987 Movie & Video Guide, regarding it as a "bomb", then proceeded to write an unflattering blurb denouncing the film as a "feature-length toy commercial" (well, he was right).
Caryn James of the New York Times admitted in the August 9, 1986 edition of the paper that the film was intended for young children, pointing out that the kids in the audience were having a grand ole time with the Transformer toys and comics they brought with them to the theater, but derided the film as having little to no appeal to adults (man-children, on the other hand...).
Variety's Film Reviews 1985-1986, Volume 19 was far less even-handed in their review, claiming the film had no appeal to adults or children. They predicted the film would perform poorly in the box office (and were correct, in that regard).
Carrie Rickey of the Dallas Morning News chided the film in the August 13, 1986 issue of the paper, describing it as "essentially a cartoon Star Wars about robots from a toybox galaxy far, far away". She then went on to say that the film "never takes off" and derided it as "uninspired".
Janice Kennedy of the Montreal Gazette verbally disemboweled the film in the August 23, 1986 edition of the paper, criticizing it as overly commercial, profane, loud, violent, humorless, heavy-handed in its religious messages and chaulk-full of gratuitous celebrity voice-overs. Her only compliment: "But The Transformers: The Movie does have at least one good thing going for it, a howlingly appropriate song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It's title? Dare to be Stupid." Ouch.
Nanciann Cherry in the August 13, 1986 edition of the Toledo Blade claimed the robots in the movie had little personality and faded into the background. She even went on to say that Challenge of the GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords was a superior film! Her review was filled with inaccuracies, however, citing characters such as "Unicon" and claiming that the destruction of Cybertron's moons by "Unicon" is what caused the Autobots to travel to Autobot City, at which point Megatron attacked. To be fair, she readily admits, "About 20 minutes into the film, I gave up on the plot and tried to count all the ideas that were stolen from other sources. Now that kept me busy." So she wasn't really paying attention, anyway.
Kathryn Buxton in the August 22, 1986 edition of the Palm Beach Post gave the film a whopping one star, calling it "a ripoff of a successful toyline", whatever that means. In the same article, she also gave David Cronenberg's The Fly one star, just for reference.
In the August 8, 1986 edition of the LA Times, critic Charles Solomon made clear his dislike for the film centered primarily on the fact that none of the characters had interesting or believable motivation. He stated, "Not even the best actor can create a character out of nothing. Not one of the robots has a reason for doing what he does." Solomon then pointed to Unicron specifically as an example of the lack of deep, multi-dimensional motivations in the characters.
Over time, however, the movie has acquired something of a cult following beyond the core base of Transformers fans, particularly among children of the 80s. It is sometimes screened as a midnight movie at colleges. Online, it is not hard to find amateur reviews lauding everything about it as utterly awesome, from the premise to the soundtrack, and dismissing more critical views out of hand.
To date, the budget of the film has not been disclosed—at least, not in any place the fandom has found. According to most box office tracking sites,[2][3] The Transformers: The Movie made $5,849,647 in domestic (e.g., United States) theaters. Comparing this with other animated films of 1986, the results are not particularly charitable; while it did better financially than GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords[4] ($1,338,264) and Heathcliff: The Movie[5] ($2,610,686), it performed worse than the My Little Pony movie[6] ($5,958,456) and the second Care Bears movie[7] ($8,540,346). Bringing up The Great Mouse Detective[8] ($25,336,794) and An American Tail[9] ($47,483,002) would really just be overkill.
Significance in Transfandom
The Transformers: The Movie remains one of the most important elements of the entire Transformers brand, both within the fiction and from the perspective of the brand's popularity and "mindshare".
Fictionally, it established several story concepts that have been used repeatedly in the years since 1986, some of which—such as Unicron and the Matrix—are now central to the entire Transformers mythos. The movie is also the centerpiece of the most well-known Transformers continuity: the Generation 1 animated universe. The Transformers cartoon is split into "pre-movie" and "post-movie" sections which feature different characters and settings, and even somewhat different visual styles. (Most pre-movie episodes were animated by the studio Toei, while most post-movie episodes were animated by AKOM.)
On a practical note, it was widely available on videotape, and remained so long after the The Transformers cartoon had gone off the air. Only a handful of series episodes were available on video, making The Transformers: The Movie the logical choice for someone looking to pick up a Transformers cartoon; this made it far more well-known among fans than any particular cartoon episode.
To an entire generation of young fans, the movie was the most visually spectacular and narratively epic Transformers experience of their entire youth. Events such as the death of Optimus Prime are widely reported to have reduced many kids to tears. It is hardly a surprise that these emotional experiences embedded themselves deeply in many fans' memories.
Criticisms
All this is not all to say that the movie is a "masterpiece", exactly. The film met with extremely harsh critical reviews on its release, and some of those criticisms still ring true today.
The film displays an arguably cynical attitude towards itself as a vehicle for advertising toys, especially in the way beloved characters are killed—sometimes gratuitously—for sake of justifying the story's focus on a new group of toys. (Note that with the exception of Laserbeak and possibly Buzzsaw [1] the poster at the top of this article features only new characters.)
Further, the two primary plot devices—Unicron and the Matrix—have no prior establishment in the fiction. Unicron is given no backstory or justification; he simply exists, is very dangerous, and is afraid of the Matrix, all for no adequately explained reason. The introduction of the Matrix itself is a heavy retcon. The story asks the audience to accept that this cosmically powerful artifact has been in Prime's possession all along (even though an X-ray of Optimus Prime's innards in the second season episode "A Prime Problem" show absolutely no signs of said Matrix), but has somehow never been relevant before. In fact, this lack of prior establishment is what led Simon Furman to develop the divinity backstory of Unicron and Primus in the UK comics run.
The movie bears many similarities to Star Wars: There are several character-parallels (Springer is a Han Solo-type and Arcee even has Princess Leia's hairdo!), the primary threat is similar (it's the Death Star... but it transforms!), and both feature a climactic battle where the young hero hears the voice of his dead, wise mentor one last time before saving the day.
To be a bit more fair to The Transformers: The Movie, however, most of these similarities are either superficial (Arcee's Leia-hair; Megatron's "lightsaber" he briefly uses in his duel against Optimus Prime) or can be seen as elements common to thousands of years worth of epic storytelling through human history, not just common to Star Wars. As a simple example, the phenomenon of two charismatic leaders dealing each other mortal injuries in battle hearkens back to some versions of the "King Arthur" myth; in their final battle, Arthur and his arch-enemy Sir Mordred deal one another lethal injuries and both apparently expire—though Arthur according to the legend will return when England's need is greatest.
Formatting
Although it was billed in some advertisements before its theatrical release as being "widescreen", the movie was in fact animated in a 4:3 (fullscreen) aspect ratio. For its theatrical screenings, the film was matted down in the projector by the projectionist to a 16:9 aspect ratio (widescreen), chopping the top and bottom off the picture, but all video transfers of the movie were done without mattes, meaning that there was actually more picture visible in the fullscreen video and DVD releases than there would have been in theaters. Across 2006 and 2007, new editions of the DVD of the film were released by Sony BMG and Metrodome which applied the mattes in order to replicate the original theatrical presentation of the film for the first time in home entertainment. Some fans, however, didn't realize that the film wasn't actually animated in widescreen, and, hearing that the DVD was to be in widescreen, expected to see the fullscreen image with additional footage at the sides, causing them to complain that the top and bottom were cut off, thereby totally missing the point.
International versions
Commercial Releases
- The movie was originally released in North America on home video in 1987 by Family Home Entertainment, minus Spike's swear. Not long after, it was released in the UK by Video Gems. This version featured the opening text crawl and closing narration inherent to the UK version of the film. In Australia, the film was released on video by RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts. In Japan, Hillcrane released a Laserdisc version alongside a VHS copy, both sporting a gorgeous painted cover that decorated many a fan's desktop back in the day.
- The movie was released spottily in the '90s, beginning with a budget VHS by Avid Home Entertainment in 1991. Malofilm released a VHS in Canada in 1995, notable for being the first home entertainment version to include Spike's swear. In 1998, Japanese company Pioneer produced another pair of Laserdisc and VHS releases. In 1999, things kicked off when American company Kid Rhino secured the Transformers license and released the film on VHS once again.
- The 21st century's flirtation with The Transformers: The Movie started with a UK budget VHS release of that country's version by Sony Wonder, distributed by Maverick Entertainment. A Japanese company called CatCo followed this up with a VideoCD, and Malofilm—now Seville—were the first to release a DVD version of the film, though it was just a dump of their VHS version.
- In November 2000, The Transformers: The Movie got its first, full professional DVD release from Kid Rhino. This edition, labelled a "Special Collector's Edition", is the first to feature remastered video and audio, and several special features, including storyboards and an interview with Vince DiCola. Rhino concurrently released this version on VHS, sans extras.
- In 2001 in the UK, Sony Wonder released their own much-delayed DVD version of the film. It was the UK version of the film, but included Spike's swear. However, the release was burdened by badly interlaced video, though it notably included the Omni Productions dub version of the Headmasters episode "Four Warriors Come out of the Sky" as an extra. This version (including the Headmasters episode) was simultaneously released on VHS.
- The movie was released on DVD in Australia in 2003 by Madman Entertainment, using the same video as the Maverick version, but distinguished by some nifty new cover art by Don Figueroa, and special features not seen on other editions, such as The Touch music video and 80s TV spots.
- After acquiring the license to release Transformers DVDs in the UK, Metrodome focused on completing their run of series box sets before turning their attention to the movie properly, releasing only a cheap budget DVD of the UK version through Prism Leisure with no extras, and a UMD of the same version.
- In 2005, Metrodome released Transformers: The Movie - Reconstructed, a new version of the film designed to expose as much of the animated picture as possible. This, however, only resulted in exposing the rough, unfinished edges of the animation, and an overly pale remaster was compounded by excessive interlacing due to an unnecessary NTSC to PAL transfer. This, coupled with a 5.1 remix from Magno Sound & Video, featuring the same extra sound effects that they added to Rhino's season box sets, made this release both controversial and disappointing to many. This was the first time that the US version of the movie was released in the UK, and the first to feature the US poster art as a cover (although a Silverscreen store exclusive version of the disc included a reversible cover with the UK poster art as well). Extras include trailers, TV spots, the character biographies from the Madman release, and a subtitled version of "Four Warriors Come out of the Sky".
- For the movie's 20th anniversary in 2006, new license holder Sony BMG released a two-disc special edition of the film, featuring both a high-quality widescreen remaster and the original fullscreen version, audio commentaries from crew and fans, several new featurettes interviewing those involved in the movie's production, storyboards, tv spots, American and Japanese commercials and more. Most notably, this version included the first Western release of "Scramble City: Mobilization", albeit silent and unsubtitled, featuring only audio commentary. This release featured two covers by Don Figueroa: one is of the '84-'85 cast that appear in the movie, and one is of the movie's new characters, available either as a lenticular hologram that switches between the two, or as a reversible sleeve with the images printed on either side.
- Delayed a bit to coincide with the hype for the 2007 live-action movie, Metrodome also released a two-disc "Ultimate Edition" with a different widescreen master. Like "Reconstructed", this version used the US edition of the film, but this time, the UK version was also included, in fullscreen, on the second disc. Extras include TV spots, commercials, the Madman biographies, storyboards, commentary, "Scramble City" (with audio and subtitles), featurettes with Flint Dille and Peter Cullen, and more. The double-disc edition was sold in a steel case featuring new art by Andrew Wildman, with the UK poster art adorning the standard case inside. Various store exclusives were available, including postcards from Play.Com, a reversible cover with the US poster art from HMV, art cards from Virgin Megastore and posters from Woolworths and Toys"R"Us. It was also available in an extra-less single-disc version. This version was premiered at the Mid Ulster Film Festival in Ireland which was the only cinema showing of the remastered version of the film to date.
- The film was released in Full HD 1080p on Blu-ray in the UK in October 2007. The Blu-ray is not region-locked, so it will play anywhere in the world. It features a 2.0 soundtrack, 5.1 Dolby Digital track, and a full bitrate DTS 5.1 track. The master used was the same used by Sony for their US DVD. The picture is quite stunning and the sound very good. Sadly, there are no extras on the DVD. The version of the film on the Blu-ray is the US one, complete with swear word.
- Madman produced their two-disc special edition through some collaboration with Metrodome, and consequently it features much of the same content, with additional extras taking the form of The Touch music video and a bonus episode of Beast Wars. This release again features cover artwork by Don Figueroa, specifically the cover of IDW's Transformers: The Animated Movie adaptation.
Television Broadcasts
Following an airing during Season Five in parts, the feature film was only ever aired on American television in 1989 via the Fox stations. Air dates and times were June 17 at Noon, July 30 at 11 A.M. and September 2 at 10 A.M. Of course, this was the language-edited video release from Family Home Entertainment.
Notes
- According to Buzz Dixon, Hasbro's decision to kill off Optimus Prime was actually an attempt to maintain some brand-storytelling parity with G.I. Joe, as Dixon had just convinced them to allow the death of Duke in G.I. Joe: The Movie and both films were in production at the same time.[10]
- This film was the last professional performance by Orson Welles, who died only a month later. According to production materials shown at BotCon 2000 by Tim Finn, the voice recording sessions for The Transformers: The Movie were done on September 10 and 11 of 1985. Welles died on October 10 of that same year. It has often been speculated that Unicron's last line ("Destiny… you cannot destroy my destiny!") was recorded by another actor—possibly Nimoy—because it sounds different than the other lines. This speculation has been quashed by statements by Transformers voice director Wally Burr.[11]
- With the exception of Starscream and possibly Shockwave, only the Autobots suffered fatalities in the movie. All of the other "dead" Decepticons from the Autobot City battle were rebuilt into Galvatron's new troops, and although more Decepticons were shown taking heavy damage and suffering huge casualties while fighting Unicron, their identities and their final condition are uncertain. Additionally, both Starscream and Unicron survived in the post-movie series in some form or another. Shockwave's death in the finished film is highly uncertain, although in the script it is fairly strongly implied. He does make some miscolored appearances in crowd shots in later cartoon episodes, but these are probably examples of the fairly common animation errors in those episodes.
- Somewhat ironically, though only three of the original eighteen Autobots - Jazz, Cliffjumper, and Bumblebee - are definitively shown to have survived the movie, two would quite literally never be heard from again: Scatman Crothers passed away (though this didn't stop Jazz from making any number of background cameos) while Casey Kasem quit the show early in the third season. Fate's finger is fickle indeed.
- A robot resembling Beachcomber appears alongside Spike and the Autobots inside Unicron seconds before Daniel blasts the acid cover. Whether this was actually meant to be Beachcomber or just coincidental coloring is unknown, but regardless, Beachcomber shows up alive and well in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5".
External links
- The Transformers: The Movie's box office domestic gross.
- The Transformers: The Movie "Unofficial Fansite", an extremely thorough site about the movie
- The Transformers: The Movie deleted storyboards
Footnotes
- ↑ "Orson Welles: A Biography" page 522
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=transformers.htm
- ↑ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1986/0TRTM.php
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=gobots.htm
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=heathcliff.htm
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mylittlepony.htm
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=carebearsmovie2.htm
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=greatmousedetective.htm
- ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=americantail.htm
- ↑ http://www.joeheadquarters.com/interviews_dixon.shtml
- ↑ http://cybertronchronicle.freewebspace.com/60-astrominutes/wally-burr/wally_burr_3.html
