The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

“I’ve got better things to do tonight than die.” – Springer

Number of Times Seen – 1 (2 Aug 2017)

Brief Synopsis – Twenty years after the Autobots and Decepticons arrived on Earth, a new threat appears while the war between the two factions escalates.

My Take on it – For some reason, despite being a fan of the animated TV show of the 1980’s, I somehow never got around to seeing this film.

Thankfully, I listened to a podcast this week of Zeng This! which featured the Down the Hall Guys Rodney and Chet who joined Zenger and Ellie for a show about the best Sci-Fi War movies.

Based solely on Zenger’s suggestion, I decided to watch this film.

Wow! I was blown away by the way that they took this idea of “robots in disguise” to such a higher level than the show or comics ever were able to.

Loved the way that they dove right into the war between the Autobots and Decepticons because they assume that we already are familiar with the characters their individual abilities and personalities.

The action in this animated film is truly non-stop and they do so many things here that most people wouldn’t even dare to do in a live-action film.

For anyone expecting this film to be tame like the TV show, you’ll definitely be in for a surprise.  I personally was quite surprised by the amount of animated violence and even the language here, but it helps take this Universe to a whole different level.

When they made a GI Joe: The Movie (1987) feature film the following year, they didn’t take any cues from the way this film was made and kept things in the “tame” realm of a children’s TV show which takes away from the potential of something like this.

The ability to step “out of the box” and give us a real story that both kids and adults can enjoy on various levels is done really well here.

Yes, they still add a bit of normal animated humor and some silly and odd character to the mix, but it doesn’t take much away from the overall feeling that this film could have taken the series to a whole new plane had they continued to follow through.

This film is so much better than the live action films of the 21st Century and it’s really a shame that they never continued with this thread.

HUGE thank again to @zenger for getting me to watch this film!

Bottom Line – Great sci-fi War film because it assumes that we know most of the characters and their abilities/personalities and dives right into the battles themselves. This is truly a divergence from the “tame” TV show that we all know from the 80’s and things really are raised up a few notches with the way things are depicted.  Yes, some of the new settings and characters seem a bit odd or silly, but it still adds to the diverse ambiance of the whole Universe.  By far much better than the live action films of the 21st Century. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Spike originally said “Oh shit, what are we going to do now” in the theatrical release when he and Bumblebee realized that blowing up the moon did not affect Unicron. “Oh shit” had been put in the theatrical release to guarantee a PG rating as G rated movies could not be played as often during the day as PG, PG-13 or R rated movies back then. However, the line had been taken out of every VHS release until the Rhino re-release in 2000 and it was also restored in the 2000 Canadian DVD and the 2001 Rhino DVD released in the United States.(From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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