TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (1986)

TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (1986)

Tagline: It is the year 2005, and a new evil threatens the galaxy in the most incredible adventure you've ever seen.

(Animation, Adventure, Action, Literally more than meets the eye) [PG] 

For a time, I considered sparing your wretched little planet, Cybertron. But now, you shall witness... its DISMEMBERMENT!

So when I was growing up there was a show in Phoenix, AZ called the “Wallace & Ladmo Show” it ran from 1954 to 1989, but this would have been in 1984 when they started running about 6-minute segments of the original THE TRANSFORMERS animated TV show. So naturally, when us kids found out they were making a movie, we basically lost our little minds. 

This damn movie had the most head scrambling explosive plot ever as a giant robot named Unicron was devouring planets in the most terrifying way possible. I mean the opening sequence of this thing is out of freakin control. It’s up to the Autobots to stop the earth from being a victim all while facing an onslaught from the Decepticons who have ambitions of galactic dominations for themselves. 

Along with a stellar cast that included everyone from Peter Cullen (the voice of Optimus Prime) to Arthur Burghardt (who once voiced Destro from G.I. JOE) this thing was just wow. Even Orson Welles was involved as the voice of Unicron (but apparently hated the movie). As a kid, I was mega pumped. We also got an amazing soundtrack that was so timeless it’s still being covered by bands to this day. The movie was considered as a stop-gap between THE TRANSFORMERS TV show season 2 and season 3, so we get a lot of new characters and just a ton of cool stuff introduced in this thing.

Art-wise I would have to put a lot of this movie on the same level as HEAVY METAL. A lot of the transformation scenes seemed too quick while others you could tell the artists took painstaking effort to get in as many movements as they could. 

On the downside, in spite of having a phenomenal plot the execution did seem jumbled in the final product. There are a few entire scenes that seem to really add nothing to the movie. The “Dare To Be Stupid” sequence for me at least came across as ridiculous even as a kid expecting ridiculous. There is an event in this movie that basically killed any chance at a sequel anytime soon and in fact, to this day we never got an animated TRANSFORMERS theatrical movie since. Although most of that is likely due to the fact that the movie itself cost more to make than it took in at the box office. Kind of like the “all-spark” in the TRANSFORMERS movie, the “matrix of leadership” wasn’t a thing before this movie came out. 

After a certain moment in this film, I have to say my interest plummeted, my heart sank in my chest and honestly, it was like having your dog die right in front of you and then watching that dog lit on fire by that idiot uncle everyone hates. Because of that reason, it took me 30 years to even want to watch this movie again. None of that means I didn’t appreciate the effort of the animators and Hasbro’s undying effort to sell me toys that broke really easily.

For its cinematic “one of a kind” presence, what we got on screen, and the sequential tearing of the heart from the chests of millions of children, then just watching it bloodied and beating in their cashless hands, I have to give TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE a 4 out of 7. As much as I love the TRANSFORMERS, I am far more fond of the live-action stuff (and this is coming from an artist). 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SUNBOW PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.