The Transformers: The Movie

The Transformers: The Movie
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	Nelson Shin
Produced by	Joe Bacal Tom Griffith
Written by	Ron Friedman
Based on	Transformers  by Hasbro
Starring	Eric Idle Judd Nelson Leonard Nimoy Robert Stack Lionel Stander Orson Welles
Narrated by	Victor Caroli
Music by	Vince DiCola
Cinematography	Masatoshi Fukui
Edited by	David Hankins
Production company	Hasbro Sunbow Productions (m4e AG) Marvel Productions (Marvel Entertainment) Toei Animation
Distributed by	De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Release dates	August 8, 1986 (1986-08-08)
Running time	85 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6 million[2]
Box office	$5.8 million (US)[3]

The Transformers: The Movie is a 1986 American animated feature film based on the animated TV series by the same name. It was released in North America on August 8, 1986 and in the UK on December 5, 1986.^[4]

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, Lionel Stander, John Moschitta, Jr., Peter Cullen and Frank Welker. It also marked the final roles for both Orson Welles, who died the year before its release,^[5] and Scatman Crothers, who died months after its release.

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.^[6] Set to a soundtrack of synth-based incidental music and hard-driving metal music, composed by Vince DiCola, the film has a decidedly darker tone than the television series, with detailed visuals in Toei Animation's typical anime film styling, and like G.I. Joe: The Movie, 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

In 2005, the war between the Autobots and Decepticons has culminated in the Decepticons conquering their homeplanet Cybertron, while the Autobots operate from its moons preparing a counter-offensive. Optimus Prime sends an Autobot shuttle to Earth’s Autobot City for Energon supplies, but the Decepticons led by Megatron, commandeer the ship, killing the crew. Travelling to Earth, the Decepticons attack Autobot City, slaughtering many Autobots and leaving only a small group alive including Hot Rod, Kup, Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Springer, Blurr, Perceptor, Blaster, and the human Daniel Witwicky. The next day, Optimus and the Dinobots arrive as reinforcements. Optimus single-handedly defeats the Decepticons and engages Megatron in a climatic battle that leaves both of them mortally wounded. On his death bed, Optimus passes the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus, informing him that its power will light the Autobots’ darkest hour, before he dies.

Elsewhere, the Decepticons jettison their wounded from Astrotrain, including Megatron at the hands of his treacherous air commander Starscream. The wounded are found by Unicron, a gigantic sentient cyber-planet who consumes other planets, and offers Megatron a new body in exchange for destroying the Matrix which has the ability to destroy him. Megatron agrees and is converted into Galvatron, gaining new troops from the other Decepticons present. Going to Cybertron, Galvatron crashes Starscream’s coronation as Decepticon commander and destroys him, before travelling to Autobot City to eliminate Ultra Magnus. The surviving Autobots escape in separate shuttles, but both are damaged by the Decepticons and crash land on different planets.

Hot Rod and Kup are taken prisoner by the Quintessons, multi-faced tyrants who hold kangaroo courts and execute prisoners by feeding them to the Sharkticons. Hot Rod and Kup learn of Unicron from Kranix, a survivor of Lithone, the planet devoured by Unicron at the beginning of the film. After Kranix is executed, Hot Rod and Kup try to escape their own trial, aided by the arrival of the Dinobots and the small Autobot Wheelie, who helps them find a ship to leave the planet. The other Autobots land on the Junk Planet, where Galvatron destroys Ultra Magnus and seizes the Matrix, intending on using it to control Unicron. The Autobots reunite, befriending the local Junkions led by Wreck-Gar via a universal greeting, and they rebuilt Magnus. Learning Galvatron has the Matrix, the Autobots fly to Cybertron, which Unicron, discovered to be a gigantic transformer also now in robot form, begins to destroy after Galvatron antagonizes him.

The Autobots crash their spacecraft through Unicron’s eye but are separated. Daniel rescues his father Spike and other Transformers from being slaughtered. Hot Rod confronts Galvatron, who at first tries to form an alliance, but Unicron forces him into attacking Hot Rod. Hot Rod obtains the Matrix, which transforms him into Rodimus Prime, the Autobot that Optimus said would turn the tide. Rodimus tosses Galvatron into space and then uses the Matrix’s power to destroy Unicron from the inside out. The Autobots celebrate the end of the war and the retaking of Cybertron, while Unicron’s head begins to orbit the planet.

Cast

Production

The film was budgeted at $6 million, six times greater than the budget used to create 90 minutes of the regular cartoon series.^[2] Nelson Shin's team of almost one hundred personnel normally took three months to make one episode of the series, so, despite the extra budget, faced considerable time constraints in making the film whilst also continuing production on the TV series at the same time.^[2] According to Shin, the decisions on which characters to include or kill off were made by Hasbro. "They created the story using characters that could best be merchandised for the film. Only with that consideration could I have freedom to change the storyline." Shin also came up with the concept of the Transformers changing color when they died: "When Optimus Prime died, I changed his color from red and blue into grey to show the spirit was gone from his body."^[2]

The Transformers: The Movie was the final film to which Orson Welles contributed.^[7] Welles 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."^[8] According to director Nelson Shin, Welles had been pleased to accept the role after reading the script and had expressed an admiration for animated films.^[2] 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 The Transformers: The Movie was the last film project he worked on; his last voice session was on October 5, 1985, and five days later, Welles died of a heart attack.^[9]

Music

Stan Bush's song "The Touch", which prominently featured in the film, was originally written for the Sylvester Stallone film Cobra.^[10] The song later appeared again for the Transformers franchise, along with a remixed version for the 2012 game Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. The film also feature other well known songs including "Instruments of Destruction" by NRG, Stan Bush's song "Dare", two songs by Spectre General, "Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way", "Hunger" as well as "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Dare to Be Stupid". The Transformers theme song for the film was performed by the band Lion.

Character deaths

Among the Autobots shown dead on screen are Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, Brawn, Windcharger, and Wheeljack.

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, there are virtually no permanent Decepticon deaths in the film, and the few that died were not killed by Autobots. Most of the Decepticons who were dead or dying are rebuilt by Unicron, and while Galvatron makes a few references implying he has Megatron's memories, it is less clear with Cyclonus and Scourge, as Bombshell or Skywarp and Thundercracker (who became Scourge), 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;^[11] 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". Mirage was originally supposed to be killed by Megatron in the original script but was later cut. Dirge, Thrust, and Ramjet were supposed to have been killed by Unicron but appeared in later episodes. One of the Sweeps did die by the hands of Grimlock's fire breath attack over Autobot City but it is unclear which character died. One of the intentions of the film was to rid the Transformers cartoon universe of the majority of characters from Seasons 1 and 2. Story consultant Flint Dille elaborated:

The film was produced by Sunbow/Marvel simultaneously with G.I. Joe: The Movie. The writers of G.I. Joe: The Movie film asked for permission from Hasbro to kill the Duke character. Hasbro not only approved the request but insisted that the writers of The Transformers: The Movie adopt the same fate for Optimus Prime.^[13] However, Optimus' death sparked much controversy and incurred so much backlash that it caused the writers of G.I. Joe to make changes so that Duke simply ended up in a coma from which he eventually awoke.^[14]

Optimus Prime's death in the Transformers universe would be relatively short lived. Due to the negative reaction concerning Optimus Prime's death, the staff of the television series went back into production to create the two part episode "The Return of Optimus Prime", which aired on February 24 and 25, 1987, and replaced The Face of the Nijika as the final episode of the third season of the series which aired nearly four months before. The story, which concerns Optimus Prime being brought back to life to help combat a hate virus that threatens the entire universe, was promoted every day on the series in the two week period before the episodes premiered.

Release

Box office

The film was released on 990 screens in the United States and grossed $1,778,559 on its opening weekend. It opened in 14th place behind About Last Night (1986 film) which had been in theaters for six weeks at the time. The film's final box office gross was $5,849,647 which made it the 99th highest-grossing movie of 1986.^[3] Hasbro lost US$10 million on the combined poor performance of this, and their previous collaboration with De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG), My Little Pony: The Movie.^[15] It also forced the producers of these films to make G.I. Joe: The Movie a direct-to-video release instead of theatrical, as well as scrap a Jem film then in development. However, Transformers has become a cult classic.^[16]

Home media

Although the trailer describes the film as "spectacular widescreen action", the film 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 DVD released by Sony in 2006 features remastered video, and includes both the fullscreen and widescreen versions of the film.^[17]

The UK version, as well as the 1999 Rhino Films VHS release feature 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."^[18][19]

The film was originally released in 1987 on VHS^[20] in North America by Family Home Entertainment.

The film was first released on DVD in 2000^[6] by Rhino Entertainment and distributed exclusively in Canada by Seville Pictures.^[21] This version restored Spike's "Ah, shit!" line. Also, viewers of Rhino's DVD could instantly access the line in the movie as one of the chapters on the DVD was titled "Swear Word".

Metrodome Distribution released an Ultimate Edition of The Transformers: The Movie DVD in June 2007 (a month prior to the release of the live-action Transformers film) in the UK (Region 2). 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 trailer. The second disc contains interviews with Peter Cullen and Flint Dille. Also "Scramble City" is included.^[6][22]

Reception

The Transformers: The Movie received mixed reviews and currently has 53% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes with 10 of 19 counted reviews giving it a "rotten" rating. The film has an average rating of 5 out of 10.^[23] Caryn James of the New York Times described the film by stating, "While all this action may captivate young children, the animation is not spectacular enough to dazzle adults, and the Transformers have few truly human elements to lure parents along, even when their voices are supplied by well-known actors."^[4]

Comic book adaptations

Merchandise

A Unicron figure was designed, but was never produced due to cost concerns, flimsy arms, and a faulty voice chip.^[24]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Transformers: The Movie

• The Transformers: The Movie at the Internet Movie Database
• The Transformers: The Movie at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Transformers: The Movie at Box Office Mojo
• The Transformers: The Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
• Storyboards from The Transformers: The Movie not included on the DVD