Transformers The Movie (1986)

[Mike]

Transformers The Movie followed the amazingly successful Series 2 and Toy Line up and pitted the ancient enemies Optimus Prime against Megatron for a final time. To be honest Series 2 ended in a lack lustre manner with ever worsening story-lines and animation mistakes, however, the film is beautifully animated and clear with some great artwork and a cheesy but entertaining sound track. The cast of voices also included such heavyweights as Peter Cullen, Leonard Nimoy, Orson Wells and Eric Idle (there are more famous people but these are the ones I recognised!). Not surprisingly it took only $5million in the opening weekend in the USA and was a total flop (thank Wiki!). My copy was un-remastered and quite poor but I would be tempted now to buy the remastered edition, the only thing holding me back is the addition of unfinished scenes (though according to Wiki the full original is on disk 2 with a scene by scene comparison of showing the bits unintended for viewing).

The brief summary of the plot is a giant planet eating robot is zeroing in on Cybertron for no good reason other than to give a good bit of planet eating destruction. This is set against a backdrop of the Autobots beginning their final preparations to re-capture Cybertron from the Decepticons from Moon Base 1 and 2. During their last fuelling mission to Autobot City on Earth a very high number of Autobots (coinciding with their toy counterpart removal from production) bite the last ticket. Megatron then manages to use the shuttle to bypass Autobot security and launch a devastating assault that culminates in Optimus Primes final battle. The story then leads onwards and features the moon bases being eaten and the remaining Autobots get chased around the galaxy by a temporarily frustrated Decepticon army. The story culminates in a final battle at Cybertron where the goodies are eventually victorious and Rodimus Prime (the new leader of the Autobots) is born.

As a kid I remember the horrifying moment where some of my favourite Autobots were destroyed with such casual ease. Obviously I did not recognise the toy connection at that point but it sort of makes sense. To put the very high death toll into perspective about 12 robots were destroyed in the first 25 minutes!

Autobot deaths: (supplied by this Wikipedia article. Their deaths way outnumber the Decepticons therefore leading me to assume that the Decepticons were a more popular toy!
Optimus Prime
Huffer
Ironhide
Prowl
Ratchet
Brawn
Windcharger and
Wheeljack

I think that you can tell from the long winded review that I am going to award this one . It deserves it Cult Following that is for sure.

PS I forgot to mention that I was involved with Mike Riley being listed in the writing / editing credits.

[BarcelonAl]

PS I forgot to mention that I was involved with Mike Riley being listed in the writing / editing credits.

Very impressive considering the length of time it would have taken to produce the animations way back prior to the massive use of computers that is prevalent now. You must've been about 4 when you were doing your work!

Do you get any kind of royalties for the film?

[Mike]

I will have you know that I was five. The royalties are not forthcoming I am afraid, probably because the film was a total flop!

It is interesting, I must have been into Transformers at 4 or 5 because I definitely had a Ratchet toy. That particular toy was discontinued in 1985/6. . . I also remember having a Transformers City, Ultra-Magnus, Rodimus Prime, Cyclops and Scourge toy as well. I wonder if they are still at my parents. I guess that they are worthless because of the extreme battering they received.

[BarcelonAl]

My Optimus Prime went on eBay for not much more than the postage. Somewhere in the loft there is a Megatron, but we couldn't find it for all the other junk up there!