Transformers: The Movie that Scarred a Generation
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- Опубликовано: 1 май 2019
- Transformers the Movie was met with mixed reviews when it came out in 1986. What do the kids of that generation think of it over 30 years later? Love it or hate it, it left a lasting impression on most. We also cover some interesting facts about the movie you may have never known.
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Probably the most informative review of the movie I've ever seen, and the only Transformers movie that anyone or everyone needs to see and one of the best animated movies ever made. I love the movie so much that I have like three copies of it on VHS including a factory sealed FHE release and I even have the soundtrack on vinyl cause the music in that movie kicks so much ass.
Thanks a ton. Glad you liked it
@@TheGameChasers No problem guys!
Totally agree. Thanks guys for sharing your thoughts on what was an iconic film.
I absolutely love this film. I was only 4 when it came out so I didn't have the issues some had with it killing off characters but I do get that. Still an amazing film to this day!
These guys are total losers!!! Everything that happened made it one of the best movies of all time! Grow up! Jesus. So much deceit. Anti-capitalists at best. WHO CARES if it was to sell toys one way or the other any way?! This movie was perfect the way it was. I don't even hardly believe them that they saw it in the theater. It BOMBED commercially. No one saw it except myself and few other folks I went with. Such dishonesty in this life about everything.
Jay didn't cry when Optimus Prime died...because he's made of sterner stuff.
More like stinkier stuff. Amirite?
@@TheMelvor that’s not funny!
I see what you did there
😃
My thoughts were, "damn you for this, Hasbro". They killed off the line's franchise character.
There were no dry eyes in the theater I watched it in.
Optimus’ voice as he christens Rodimus Prime is a reassuring reminder that he’s not really gone
Well if you watched the episodes as they aired, you already knew that his essence was going to be absorbed into the matrix like Alpha Trion's was. Starscream coming back was surprising.
@@WRESTLINGSOUP2010
Wtf you on about? The matrix wasn't even a thing until the movie. Alpha Trion went to vector sigma.
@@RobinSwede lol
I was 13 years old, sitting in a theater in Virginia Beach on opening day when I saw this with five of my closest friends. I remember how it blew us away seeing our favourites being killed. I remember hearing younger kids in the theater around me crying, especially when Prime died. It was really heavy for us all. We didn't talk much on the way home. It really was a pretty big deal. I still love this movie today. Still watch it and the series episodes on DVD when I can. I'm almost 50 now and I still love it.
The reviewers harp endlessly on how shocking it was to see that many beloved characters get blown up. So my question is... and I guess this is just to reflect-- what did you love about it?
@@benjamindalton8940 it was memorable because of the weight it carried, because things were so different back then. Things weren’t diluted the way they are now; this movie really had no peers. You didn’t see cartoon movies like this, especially done in a way that really felt like a Hollywood production. And you got to share the experience with others instead of just sitting in your room or whatever. (I’m probably the same age as the original commenter). So it was like going to a concert in that regard. It was 90 minutes of your favorite cartoon characters, & it was a once in a lifetime thing, particularly for a pre-teen/pre-high school age kid.
@@73clementines I'll tell you what I thought was interesting about it, and you're welcome to impugn me. Here goes:
1) The visuals are absolutely superior to anything standing anywhere near it, for the time. Someone in "anime land" in Japan decided to make this look really good, even if Hasbro didn't give a shit. To me, looking at most of the first season stuff, it's clear that they didn't. So I'd like to think that the decision to make the movie look visually superior might have come from Hasbro, but they certainly weren't behind supervising such. They certainly -also- had no similar movies at the time to point to in order to explain: "Yeah make it look like this film." Don Bluth? American Tail? Yea right.
2) It certainly went out of its way to turn everything on its ear, and when characters mutter that they've lost all hope, why would they not? Autobot city has been destroyed, the Decepticons took Cybetron, and now Megatron is possessed by a super-entity hanging out in the "suburbs of Cybertron" that is chillin' out until he decides to *eat* it. Yes, these guys were on Peyote or something. I love the sci-fi feel. I have some sympathy for little dickheads that look at the golden "shuttles" and say to themselves shit like "WHERE'S OMEGA SPREEM & HOW CUM THEY DON'T HAVE ROCKETS?" I feel for those that don't like the future vibe. A little bit. Most of me tells them to get a life. I'm putting myself in the writer's chair and thinking: wow, I have the freedom to imagine 20 years in the future for Transformers. Hey hasbro, can I make it really really bleak? NO. But you can make it progressively MORE bleak in the film, for dramatic purposes. Oooh!
Those mad about on-screen massacres can take Simon Furman to task, as he's basically tried to re-create the movie every time he has a few major characters bite the bullet. I'd also argue the impetus for this might have been Roy Fokker's death. No, I'm not kidding. As a marketer of toys, you kinda want to look at your competition, and if you were watching "Robotech" (every time I say that name instead of Macross I gag a little bit) Roy's death was the peak of dramatic tension and probably one of the ballsier moves of the 80s.
3) I have no idea who Ultra Magnus is, and I actually start to like him, despite constantly feeling Prime's void. Magnus knows he can't fill Prime's shoes, and there's no time to even grieve-- Unicron's attacking and it becomes clear as Springer challenges him a little bit in the shuttle that he has no idea what he's doing. Would you ever hear Prime snipe back at Springer? "I can't deal with that now" when being bitched at that Kup and Hot Rod just bought it?
I have no idea who Kup and Hot Rod are as I start watching but I start to like them. Particularly Hot Rod, even though the movie has no particular "center." Not Daniel and certainly not Hot Rod.
4) There's a reason Hasbro decided to market a 600+ dollar Unicron toy. The concept is terrifying, Floro Dery's design for the character is memorable, the "blue and yellow" aesthetic is in line with almost all science fiction where for some reason you see mostly blue with yellow trim, and Floro's art has this surreal feel that is perfect for ancient Transformer legend and backstory. It wouldn't surprise me if he designed, character by character, each Decepticon statue in Starscream's coronation ceremony.
5) Megatron's power-up produces Galvatron, a very memorable villain and perhaps the reason both Takara and Hasbro are stuck in a never-ending cycle of first producing the Megatron version of a toy, the the re-colored "Galvatron" version. They're re-living the last time anyone had an original idea for the intellectual property and where to take it.
Here's some stuff that could have been done better to have a tighter, more satisfying movie:
1) Who the hell is this guy Unicron and what is he here for? Look I don't even care if they want to leave it open-ended. I know there's going to be some fatass nerd out there that snivels at me "YA YOU NEED TO WATCH THE EPISODE KNOWN AS CALL OF DUH PRIMITIVES FOR DUH BACKSTORY OF UNICRON BLAH BLAH"
yeah yeah.
"a monster planet that devours everything in its path"... says Kranix. Okay, this punk looks casually into a telescope and knows about him..... from what? Legend? Has he been studying Unicron his whole life? I would have preferred a bit more relevance and maybe some feel that there's a reason Unicron needs to destroy Cybetron for a big game-over. The whole "Duh Primus is inside of Cybertron duh duh" crap doesn't cut it for me. Any Primus toy would have been better as a matrix shape anyway. Cybetron makes a great fictional planet, a lousy Transformer, aesthetically speaking. And even the name "Cybertron" would have been better as a faction name, like what we had with Transformers in Japan with "Cybertron" and "Destron." (Zentran and Meltran?)
2) Stuff just kinda happens. Why the crashlanding on Quintesson? have these wild, uncharted planets always been between Earth and Cybertron all the time? Couldn't Magnus been trying to go get reinforcements? Are these dummies-- Kup, Hot Rod, a handful of Dinobots, Daniel, Springer, Arcee, and Perceptor plus new leader guy really *it?* someone should hand Magnus a copy of Sun Tzu's "art of war" before he goes charging into that one. Well, hey, that's about what we see on the VHS cover-- Blur, Kup, Arcee, Springer, and Magnus pathetically firing up at Unicron, and by the look of it they're missing him by a 45 degree angle.
Despite these weak points and the non-cleanup job in "Call of the Primitives," this film is incredible. There are other reasons I haven't even bothered to get into, but if you can handle the lack of exposition in 2001: A Space Odyssey and make logical connections between things, you can make the whopping leap required to figure, ok, the Matrix of Leadership must have something to do with the deep past of the Transformers AS does Unicron. I'll also say it for the Nth time-- Floro Dery's designs make the mythos of the Transformers far more interesting than a "30 minute commercial for toys."
I was 10 years old when I seen this movie. I was just telling my son how packed the movie theater was. Seeing Wheeljack's lifeless body was really shocking to me. When I seen Ratchet die.... that's when I realized that this movie was something different. BUT seeing Options Prime actually die was just heartbreaking.
"It's not the epitome of the 80's. Though it kind of is"
-Me. 2016 or whenever the hell we shot this.
Game Sack “You got the touch!” 😆
Whats up Joe, tf1986 is back in theaters now
My father took me to see the movie opening week when I was 5. A month later he passed from a heart attack. I lost both my heroes in 1986. As they say in The Crow, "childhood is over the moment you know you're going to die."
To Mr. Stephens! 🍻🍻🍻
@@anthonybernero9720 yeah
Damn, that hurts ME dude...well...at least we know it can't rain all the time...
How did you cope?
Oh man, I'm so sorry to hear that happened to you.
In '86 I was 8 years old. Went to see this at the cinema, and was blown away. The opening sequence with Unicron had me in tears. I have it on VHS, and DVD. An astonishing movie.
I was 7, it crushed me. I had no warning when I went into the theater. I came out feeling lost. The good guys had "won", but ALL of my heroes died along the way.
Ditto. 😌I was a 5 year old dork of a girl when it came out, 7 when I saw it on vhs. I was heartbroken after the deaths of Optimus, Prowl, Ratchet, and Wheeljack.😭
I was an 11 year old dork of a girl with a tomboy best friend who went to see the movie all pumped up and absolutely also felt the same way as you. Jeez we were gutted walking out of the movie being over 10, I couldn't imagine how younger kids were trying to comprehend it all!
All of the movie's epic awesomeness was still an impact but overshadowed by the unexpected grief and shock we felt while we sat through the rest of it and going home feeling lost and crushed.
I watch it now as a 48 year old and and obvs now can attempt to come to terms with it better and all that, but I have to remark at the crazy contrast between the scene
(Coldly) 'Such heroic nonsense.' (blows our beloved Ironhide's head off)
CUT TO:
Hot Rod and Daniel are fishing and catch a fish. He misses his dad. 'How cute!'
I was a shocked mess in those few seconds and then I was like 'wtf, where the hell are we now??' 🤯😵
Vector - Sigma! 😅
I was ten, but I had a completely different reaction. For two seasons, Optimus only talked about being a hero. Dying in combat actually made him a hero. For two seasons, Megatron and the Decepticons were referred to as dangerous villains. The opening slaughter on the shuttle fulfilled that promise for the first time. It never made sense that Autobots could defeat the Decepticons so often and so easily. The Decepticons could fly, they were ruthless, and they had superior weaponry. The onslaught on Autobot City made perfect sense.
The death of Starscream made perfect sense. He'd had it coming for a long time now. Megatron really should have killed him long before. The death fulfilled his character, it made a logical sense, and it underlined Galvatron as a serious leader.
One last thing: this movie got a lot of flack, but it's a perennial seller to this day, despite the mountain of TRANSFORMERS content that has come out since. People were wrong about it.
I saw this in the theater and I was sad when Optimus Prime dead but for me the story was great. I never felt mad about the killing of characters I grew to love in the TV show. But war is Hell.
It also never made sense to me how they were at war for thousands of years yet the Autobots regularly thwarted their plans and defeated them with relatively little effort (plus I found most of the Autobots really annoying tbh) so seeing them get slaughtered just made sense to me.
@Dranoel wcs Cartoon's are so much more than just children's entertainment, what a stupid comment to make. This is not only the best animated movie, but it's my favorite movie of all time, and I first saw it in theaters when I was just 4 years old. The fact that the movie was mature enough to kill off characters lends credence to the seriousness of the plight that the leftover Autobot stragglers had to deal with. Without a real sense of threat, it might as well have been just another multi-episode arc, which they already did several times before. This movie would have been boring and bland if nobody died and there was no real consequences to an endless war between sentient giant robots. Making the animated movie mature was the best thing that they could have done, and it stands the test of time. And furthermore, what's "pointless" is watching a mind numbingly stupid cartoon with zero consequences, like Spongebob or some other nonsense. If you can't handle cartoon characters dying, then stick to Looney Tunes or some other meaningless cartoon with zero intrigue or meaningful plot developments just so your feelings don't get hurt.
Great comment
Making so much sense to me I cannot see it any other way
That movie made you grow up by introducing you to the horrors of war in the most kid friendly way humans could think of. Appreciate it.
Yup, it had a depth that people back then couldn't handle.
Guess you didn't see a lot of Stallone and Schwarzenegger movies in the 80's.
Yes but this isn't what the movie set out to do!! It was to be a commercial for a load of new toys but you can't do that this way. Instead they killed the series for years in a big decline.
@AndreyofDoom You are a grown ass man, Let it go
@@richarddawkins7797 I'm dead 😂😂💀💀
It was such a good movie. I watched it about 100 times when it first came out. It couldn't have been that good without the loss that created the strong emotional impact. Optimus did come back in the later episodes, which was pretty epic at that time too. Starscream was also still around in later episodes even though alot of the transformers died they were still used in later episodes.
It was just an awful experience for me. I remember crying my eyes out when prime died. I didnt understand all the violence with fatalities. My grandmother picked me up at the movies and was pissed off cause i was a mess. I had not felt that bad before after a film.
I remember seeing this in the movies too. It WAS jarring. My mom really didn't get it. She thought characters died all the time and were back in the next episode
Exactly. My girl was oblivious to it so she also just figured they died all the time
@@dentpulla Your daughter?
Vince Dicola man. He is a legend
lol even she could not believe it
For an 'animated commercial', this truly was a stand-out production - exceptional artwork, outstanding voice talent, a bonkers soundtrack, action, humour, pathos, death and violence on a scale previously unheard of, and a planet and all of its inhabitants gets EATEN by a colossal new threat in the first five minutes! Flawed, imperfect and derivative? Without question, but an absolute gem of a classic regardless - thanks very much, guys!
The guy who did the synth soundtrack Vince DiCola was the same guy who did the amazing Rocky 4 synth soundtrack. I loved this movie because no budget was spared when it came to hiring the best people in the business to make it the best possible movie. It was much more intense than the regular cartoon, which makes it stand out. The storyline was fascinating and even the Bay movies borrow aspects from it including Unicron in Last Knight so it makes it very relevant still. Five Faces of Darkness was like a sequel movie but in a 5 series cartoon format to start season 3 and the origin of the Transformers was explained there.
Back in the 90's as a teenager one of the best concerts I ever went to was at an abandoned movie theater in my hometown. The band played on the second floor near railing that overlooked the lobby, concession stand, and entrance. Behind the band, across the lobby and above the entrance they projected The Transformers: The Movie. The band played original instrumental rock music to the film. It was kinda like listening to The Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of Oz. I never realize how dark the film was until I saw it in that context. It was so cool.
Just the instrumental sountrack bits rather than covers of the ones with vocals? Either way still awesome.
@@DIEGhostfish I never saw the band before or after that and I didn't recognize any of the music they were playing. I assume it was all original stuff. It was like a Black Sabbath and Kinski mashup. The world before mainstream internet meant experiencing stuff you would never see again. Pretty strange to think about it.
Good lord, you must live in the coolest town in existence.
@@benjamindalton8940 that town partied so hard during the 80's Playboy gave it an award.
@@FlareGunDebate Where is this mecca of dopeness?
I can’t think of any movie with a better soundtrack
I can't say it would be better but still great in its own right: street fighter 2 animated movie
I had to special order it on cassette and called the record store every day to see if it was in yet. Lol. I was going into 5th grade. I drove those people insane. Also had it on vinyl.
Creed 2 is in the conversation but The Transformers movie 1986 soundtrack is better
highlander hehehe
@@ivansmith9228 read my mind. Such a badass animated movie but top tunes.
When Joe said "Killing off Starscream, that was no good" all I could hear is Sonic.
Dude, that guy needed to go... he was on borrowed time and Megatron should have vaporized him in season 1!
@@nintendojoe2958 But the laugh is he didn't go. He became a ghost and more of a nuicance in season 3. Starscream is too much fun to kill off. Besides decepticons are masters of treachery and deception. Killing 1 traitor lead to many more.
I was 6 years old when this came out. I loved the movie as a kid. i remember loving the music, the animation and the deaths were shocking as a kid. however, i remember feeling the situation of realness to it and hoping the autobots win. hope. that FEELING MAN AS A KID, THAT FEELING, seeing hotrod become the one to open that device with the music during their darkest hour was amazing. i remember crying in joy seeing that. i watched that movie for years and still love it. Phenomenal film.
I saw this on original release in theaters at like age 4, I think. It was the first time I saw adults cry, let alone MANY adults cry. When Optimus died is literally one of the earliest memories I have of my life.
I still remember watching this in the theatre when I was 8 years old. I went in without any spoilers and was totally shocked by the amount death in it. After seeing all the episodes many times and never seeing one death, it was too much to handle at once. Great movie but it destroyed me emotionally as a kid.
I feel you man
I feel you bro, I wanted to leave LOL, but my brother who is the one that took me wanted to sit in the theater and wait for it to come on again so it was a miserable experience.
As a toddler I went into "minor" cardiac arrest after prime handed over the matrix and as it falls..... " - till all are one"
...... intrigued fully when I had given the video a friend told me their 5yo would wake up 1am like it had become real, ran to mum in a panic "mommy, mommy the Transformers..!! " .......
Lmao, back then but now looking back...I cannot help but wonder.
I understand were you're coming from. Here's your 100th like from me.
I was the same age when I saw it with my cousin in theaters , I was so shocked I couldn't even cry , I was completely numb for what seemed like days or at least the entire day, my cousin and I didn't even play after that , we just wanted to go home
I had my daughters watch all my old favorite cartoons when they were little. When I popped this in one day they were mesmerized. My youngest daughter fell in love with Hot Rod and I actually put him on her birthday cake that year. They bawled their eyes out at Prime’s death (just like I did when I saw it the theater in ‘85) and loved the Dinobots. Fast forward to 2007 and the first live action movie comes out, they were in heaven and so was I. But the animated movie still gets regularly watched in my household and now they’ve taken the reins and are working it on their little brother now. I have successfully passed that torch.
You're a good father for this
Same for me and mine.
I can relate, I still pop Transformers: The Movie into the ol' bluray every couple months. It's a great comfort film for me these days.
My dad showed me this movie when I was super young, late 2000s, and I have to say. Love it. Definitely impacted me.
Saw it in the theater. An experience I’ll never forget.
I'm 45 years old now and I saw this movie in the theater when I was 11-12 years old. To this day, I've only been to two movies where the theater went dead quiet with a lot of sniffling. They were 1. Titanic and 2. Transformers when Optimus died.
that was my experience at the theaters too; i read where another guy said the crying drowned out the movie when optimus died...it was like a freaking snuff film! I mean you kill brawn with one shot...ONE SHOT!
I was 7 or 8 at the time. I was one of the sniffles.
It's a good movie. The story itself is better than anything the bayverse put out. Plus it took risks and more consequences than the bayverse movies.
I had to turn sideways to wipe my tear and I was 16 lol.... Never messed with the new series but still like the movie minus the script
You should check out Platoon, Cinderella Man, Backdraft, Field of Dreams, Road to Perdition....
This movie didn't muck around.
I got into the G1 Transformers in the 90s and saw this movie as a kid and full on cried when Optimus died. I couldn't imagine what kids felt that grew up with in the 80s and the movie theater on the big screen must of been an experience.
I honestly can't relate with a lot of these reactions. Born in the late 90's, grew up with Armada so my Prime had already died and came back, and that trope would continue well beyond that, so Prime's death in the film never effected me in the same way as many of you.
With that said, I can see where a lot of the death scenes were a bit extreme, but in a morbid way it's always pretty metal. Overall I think the film is one of the best Transformers productions in the franchise aside from the animation errors.
It wasn't good at all. It was like having the foundation of your house crumble and suddenly the whole thing was done for. Kids crave stability and so to rob them of that, especially for the sake of commercial products (inferior ones at that) really was a kick in the teeth. Optimus Prime eventually returned. Starscream made it back too. The series that followed tried to forever refer back to G1, having recognised in hindsight the special affection kids had for THAT and not any of the other stuff. The live action movies are a disgrace and I can't pretend I have seen much of them but it is once again telling that the most successful outing was the Bumblebee film which got as close to the original designs as any of the other movies.
It really is the case that those making the decisions are ENTIRELY detached from knowing what the appeal is of these shows. Men in suits who think you can bend it and twist it any way, thinking it won't break and that people will continue with it forever.
Your exactly right. Messed me up. Never watched the new tv show. The movie is great minus the script
@@cochranesimon you are correct. 1000 correct
35 years later my friends & I still talk about this movie. Personally I was only upset about Optimus dying. Didn't care about the others. Such a great soundtrack
This video portrays the movie in a negative way, for me this is one of the best movies ever made, it has the best soundtrack, the most unexpected plot twists with character is dying out and everything new they added to the Transformers universe at the time was brilliant
Exactly! The way these guys are talking you'd think all they wanted was a 90 minute regular season episode. The very things they're complaining about are what made the movie GREAT and still loved almost 40 years later. The Transformers franchise "grew up" in that movie and finally offered real gravitas and stakes that the episodes never did. If the movie went the way they wanted we wouldn't be talking about it still to this day.
These guys are so cringe I could hardly make it through the video. They whine so incessantly it’s sickening. This was my favorite piece of Transformers media. To hell with Starscream he got exactly what he deserved.
Yeah I love the movie the soundtrack is sick. They actually died it’s as impactful as top gun was for me and I can watch both movies all the time.
Cringe is RIGHT! They miss the point that everyone experiences death, the Soy-Boys are the worst!!!!! Ugh! Transformors was, is and will forever be a very touching impactful movie! Cheers!
I loved and hated the movie when I was 9 years old and saw it. The music and some of the action was awesome. Killing Prime and the other transformers. Yeah all the stuff above was justified. Hasbro killed the series via that movie.
When I would see “Does Prime die?” in the trailer, I suspected they’d bring him back by the end, as the cartoon series would have done.
You mean does, season 4 prime comes back to life and somehow and starscream comes back as a ghost. Then they try to set up a new line of toys called headmasters where all the robots had smaller robots inside there heads/ weapons.
@@xGLLx crazy seeing you here
Exactly. As a kid, I was like "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Optimus will have a brush with death like he does every 4-5 episodes."
i think this was my first time crying in a movie. when i was young i was too young to appreciate the soundtrack , but once i got older i instantly fell in love with the soundtrack. Primes death is still hard to watch!
Agreed.
Exactly
Prime died surrounded by grieving friends. I felt worse for the others that died so unceremoniously like Wheeljack
Considering that I've never grew up with the original show and film, it just makes me cry when I have to hear when Sideswipe was scripted to die. He's just my favorite Autobot. And if he ended up dying, I would do anything to bring him back.
Before seeing the movie, I'd expected to see way more characters. I also was completely shocked when the first autobots were blown away. I vividly remember seeing the pink smoke after Brawn has his back blown out.
Dude, schools in the ’80s were the best. I remembered watching Explorers with River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke on a class trip to the local theater. We watched Michael Jackson’s Thriller in class. Also witnessed the explosion of the Challenger on television as everyone was glued to the monitor. We were all speechless. Those were the days we learn about actual world events as elementary students.
Yup good old days
OMG the Challenger. I was in the 7th grade and we watched this live in Science class. I remember it exploding and we clapped because we thought that was supposed to happen. Reality sunk in quick.
@@christographerx64 I was 6 when the Challenger blew up. Thought that sh*t was real too until a few years ago. Sure the shuttle blew up but none of the so called astro nots were in it. Nasa is bullsh*t. But everyone believes what they want to.
Peace.
@@karloaquinde3476
I love the things people believe when facts show them its not true. Good luck fighting reality.
@@christographerx64 Let me guess, you don't question the nature of you're reality, do you? Nothing is off limits. Do you simply trust everything you were ever told or do you stop think? I'm always questioning the bullsh*t presented to us.
Peace.
I felt that the death of the characters that we knew and loved gave it gravity and made it that much more epic. I do believe it left an emotional resonance that sticks with 70s babies/80s children till this day
YEP it does; when I watch the movie sometimes i have to skip optimus's death scene because it takes me back and I"m 42 now.
Child of the 80s and can confirm.
Exactly
@@patrickburns4821 exactly and I'm 54. It wasn't cool then or now but the graphics and soundtrack was nice. Never watched new tv show
The younger generation needs to watch this video because they get their feelings hurt way too easily. A whole generation of people have had to watch their favourite characters die. Anybody who's had to live through a school shooting, I have respect for them. And watching this cartoon was a milder version of going through a school shooting. The rest of them complain way too much and that's why we call them snowflakes.
I was 13 years old watching this in theaters with my best friend John and my cousin Andre. When Optimus died there wasn’t a dry eye in the theater. Seriously. Not just Optimus but, it was so shocking at the time to see so many Autobots die. It was also crazy watching Starscream basically turned to ash. When Unicron was defeated I remember everyone cheering and clapping. And “The Touch” and “Dare” by Stan Bush was forever etched into our heads. Stan Bush also did another great song “Never Surrender” for Kick Boxer. To this day I still wonder what happened to Sunstreaker the yellow Lamborghini. He was always one of my favorite Autobots. I actually had the red version toy of him made by Diaclone that came with a cool little pilot with magnetic feet.
I was never able to see it in the movie theatres but rented it on VHS at a Bait and Tackle store in my small hometown in 1987. I was lucky I was older than most. I was 13, but I remember watching the first scene and thinking to myself - this is different. There was a real feeling of danger. Then the Decepticon sneak attack happened and I was shocked.
The music was crazy good and I remember how it took the feels to a whole other level. Then Prime was killed and I paused the VHS tape and realized my little 6-year-old brother was watching it with me, bawling his eyes out. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
I unpaused the rest of the movie and the story arc was truly epic. The way they reached the bottom and came out with the Junkions and Dare to be Stupid was played was crazy good. Leonard Nemoy as the voice of Galvatron, Orson Wells as Unicron. Epic. I keep using that word...but it was.
The end of the movie truly marked an end of the old and a rebirth into a new beginning. I bought the soundtrack on tape and listened to it over and over - even though most of the music never made the top 40 - I tied the music into the feels from the movie. I got a CD of it when I was older and now have the music transferred to my phone for listening to when I'm depressed.
This movie makes me feel alive like I was young again. My brother and I bonded over the shock - looking back it was a good thing. The real world is a scary place and this movie took my blinders off.
By far I've seen Transformers The Movie more than any other movie. Only movie i'd rent as a kid too. 😄
Best Review of Transformers The Movie that I've seen/heard. 👏👏👏
I recently saw this in theatres in 2018 and I might've teared up.. from happiness! 😋
Thanks dude!
For me it was Ghostbusters but Transformers was decent.
As strange as it is... i think DC cab was my most watched movie as a kid... but then again, it had boobies so XD
Honestly i loved that movie so much because Gary Busey.
Same story for me, probably my most watched movie and also the only thing I'd ever rent from my local blockbusters.... I still get pissy even now when anyone talks about starscream dying, or when you see a dead wheeljack and Co without even seeing it happen.
I don't care..... this is STILL, to this day, the best soundtrack EVER made for a movie!
amen buddy! i have all the songs on a usb i play in my car. gets me pumped up for a tough work day
Nope.
Abso-freaking-lutely. Aside from the 80's inspired rock, Vince DiCola's instrumental's are beyond amazing.
phenomenal soundtrack
Yes sir. No doubt
As someone who recently watched the Transformers movie as well as S1 and S2, I think that the only problematic thing about the movie was the timeskip. I checked several times to see if there were episodes that I missed. Also I really wanted to see what happened in those 20 years.
Absolute rollercoaster of a movie. Rented it on vhs in the summer of '87 and watched multiple times. Ironhides death scene in particular had my jaw on the floor. Like Megatron, this movie took no prisoners!
"The Movie that Scarred a Generation". And we're better adults for it. We turned out okay. But then we started shielding our kids. And that isn't turning out well at all.
Indeed.
The major complaints expressed here are exactly what makes this movie and our time so unique and special imo.
Your very correct
I was really into Japanese anime at the time, where main characters die all the time. I guess that’s why the death of the transformers didn’t effect me that much. The death of Roy Fokker in Robotech though, that one got me.
Damn you were a weeb in the 80's ? Jesus
Robotech all three arcs were fantastic. Diana's arc too
into japanese anime yet mention robotech...
@@Diesel436 Robotech does not make one a weeb.
Man. Don't tell me about it. I was a huge robotech fan growing up. I'm from Sweden and we didn't get all the episodes here so I had to rewatch the first 4 vhs's over and over again growing up. In my teens and thanks to the internet I got a hold of some American tapes of robotech to complete the series. Not until then I realized that fokker died and it crushed me. He had basically been alive all my childhood until I found the rest of the series years later. I was depressed for days lol
I was 9. This was so hardcore compared to the regular series. I felt so broken seeing some of these deaths. The storyline of "our darkest hour" was definitely oversold.
I still love this as part of my childhood. It really taught me what death meant, my first experience being my grandpa about the same time, but his death wasn't like the ones in this. It was "grandpa died while sleeping", while in reality death is a scary thing that is hard for children to understand. My 6yo daughter cried when her goldfish died.
Transformers are a bunch of wimps that my kids watch these days. It bothers me that we shelter our children so much. Death is a reality, and as much as this movie made me understand it, it was better than glorification of something that we should celebrate.
I too was a victim of this in my childhood years. My dad died a year earlier and I buried myself in transformers and other toys. This really ripped the scab off of the wound.
Megatron didn't die, he was reformatted as Galvatron by Unicron.
(Edit 2 years later: Namewise, yes, Megatron died, but he was still Megatron to the core as Galvatron; even though Galvatron is more villainous and insane (Post movie of course). If Megatron did die, why did he kill Starscream? I mean, it couldn't have been just for the hell if it; Starscream booted Megatron off Astrotrain to float in space and die. It had to be an act of revenge on Megatron/Galvatron's part.)
He ceased to be.
@@greensakana2673 Namewise, yes. But he was still Megatron to the core.
Meh. The characters had little to nothing in common. Megatron was cold and calculated. Galvatron had to litterally be commited. They were only the same in that one, totally scene.
@@wuuspigs Actually they were the same character to the core. The only reason why galvatron acted differently in the show was because he was driven insane after some fucking pool dip in the movie aftermath as it was made to keep Rodimus and Galvatron on even playingfield by making Galvatron insane as Old sane megatron variation of galvatron whooped his ass with relative ease.
From the Marvel UK story Target:2006
Jazz: "You're just like him, aren't you? Just like Megatron!"
Galvatron: "No, Jazz... not like Megatron - I am Megatron!!"
That opening scene with Unicron - Epic start, you knew at that point we're not in Kansas anymore .
The absolute nerdiness and geekiness on display in this vid is fantastic lmao
Seeing Wheeljack's corpse as a kid still haunts my dreams
Yep. 😌I loved Wheeljack, Ratchet, and Prowl.😭
Yeah, Wheeljack deserved a death scene.
I had a chuckle when that one guy said about killing off G.I.Joe characters. Cause Duke was suppose to die in there movie until the backlash from the Transformers movie. But at least people learned there lesson in killing off the main character of the show and replacing them with a Imitator for the franchise. Right Kevin Smith.
I came here looking for this because I remember Duke dying in the original release and then they retconned the whole thing because KIDS. Tragedy like this molded us and shaped us. For a certain group out there that knows "Pineapple Salad", you know what that heroes can die and we may never recover fully but we will endure.
@@iammojo75 And the weird thing is that the audience of G.I. Joe were OLDER than the Transformers audience. So….they didn’t need to change that scene anyway. If you watch Duke’s “coma” scene without audio, it’s plainly evident Duke dies.
the Toy Executives fucked up so bad
This was my main G1 experience growing up and I loved this movie. The high stakes really give the film a different energy from the cartoon.
I'm a 2000s kid, and my dad (who was an 80s kid) rented this movie for my brothers and me on Blockbuster only a couple years before it shut down. It's one of my favorite movies, and gen 1 is one of the best 80s cartoons hands down.
I remember well the sound of kids crying in the theater, some inconsolable and the parents having no clue what to do. Thank God they didn't actually show Ironhide get his head blown off, or you'd have a whole lot of 40-somethings getting disability checks for PTSD right now.
It still hurts … but it’s a great movie .
One of the greatest movies ever made!
I loved it back then and still love it till this day
Besides the big moments discussed in the video, the two scenes that got to me were the Quintesson's court, dropping screaming robots to their deaths and then laughing about it, and inside Unicron, when screaming robots were dropped into the acid pit. Some of the first really brutal, heartless scenes I had seen as a kid in 1986.
I saw this only once in the theater back in 1986. Vince DiCola's score was amazing. This animated movie is a HUNDRED times and MILES better than the shit that Michael Bay has greenlit in theaters today. The "original" Transformers will rule FOREVER.
Oh man. Me and you agree 💯.I haven't watched any of that garbage or the new characters. I was done after Optimus died
@@dentpulla Wait, were you done with animated series after Optimus died in "The Movie"? The show continued on after "The Movie" following Season 3 and a very short Season 4(continued on in Japan, however). I just saw "The Movie" in theaters today(the 26th & 28th), with one showing only. It is the 35 Anniversary of its release back in 1986. It was just as AWESOME today as it was back then. Good stuff.
My experience with this movie was very similar to those in the video. My aunt took me and my brother to see it as a surprise, and we were pumped. Right from the intro I remember feeling disturbed with its tone as Unicron ate the first planet and Kranix got pulled in while trying to escape. I remember the ambush scene thinking to myself, "here we go, the autobots are gonna kick their butts", and then not believing my eyes as they were casually gunned down one by one. The Prowl death really got me, as it was my first time seeing such a gruesome death on screen with the smoke coming out of his mouth. It was like watching all my heroes/best friends being brutally slaughtered right before my eyes. By the time Optimus died I was just numb and in a state of shock. Towards the end of the movie it was a very solemn atmosphere in the theater, and I remember one kid running up and down the isles after the junkion scene trying to get everybody turned up about going after Unicron. As a young child I didn't like the movie, but was still pumped to get some of the new toys, as well as hoping that some of the characters would be revived in the new season. However, after rediscovering it at around 12-13 it became one of my favorite movies of all time, and remains so to this day. I would watch it over and over wishing the cartoon had been this cool. Some of the creators sort of play innocent about the whole thing, but I think they knew what they were doing. Most of these shows were animated in Japan, plus the comic books had already been killing off characters in this manner to make room for the new toys they had to advertise. This movie was basically an unfiltered version of the television show, and it shows the talent of the creative team. Even the voice acting was turned up for this. I always wished the original creators had gotten back together to make a more mature series depicting what happened in between the 2nd season and the movie. I don't think I'd want to see anyone else do it but them.
There is a lost episode out there from Japan that takes place between season 2 and the movie. It’s about the creation of Autobot City aka Metroplex.
Good lord you just jogged my memory of Megatron pointing his fusion cannon at the ground and killing and au to autobot and saying
"Such hororic nonsense"
And the metal comes flying up. It was so gruesome they didn't even show the kill shit. Dang that was wild til this day
My Aunt took me and my cousins and best friend to see this on my 8th birthday. The movie came out on August 8th 1986, my visiting cousin Chad's birthday is on the 8th, mine is on the 10th, we were so pumped out of our minds to see this!
I remember watching this on VHS and the music when Optimus was dying is still fresh in my mind even now. Possibly my first movie where I actually balled my eyes out seeing Optimus go gray and turn his head. This movie stirred my love for great music (awesome title track and of course, The Touch!) and possibly fueled my passion for playing instruments, even with dinky fingers.
I still cry when Optimus Prime dies. My best friend died when I was 10 and this was very fresh for me when I saw this.
I remember going to see this with my cousin. The audience was almost 50% kids and the crying after Prime died drowned out the audio thet actually had to rewind. About a third of the audience left as parents almost started a riot to get their money back. We were given free popcorn and drinks to shut us up before they restarted the movie. Whilst I was a fan, it was more the comics and toys for me so death wasn't so surprising. I'd already seen Optimus Prime beheaded in the comic and Buster Witwicki driven insane from having the creation matrix stored in his brain. Seeing characters butchered didn't hurt as much as those primarily fans of the cartoon.
Still loved the film and the little detail of Prime passing the creation matrix to Hot Rod, not Ultra Magnus.
You mean there was someone else in the theater than YOU?! I went too as crew but it is fascinating hearing other people's experiences especially since it bombed commercially. You would think hearing your report that there were quite a few people there. Honestly, please tell more about them re-winding it! That's crazy insane! What I mean is how did that really happen and far did it go before the rewound it? Lol.
woooow..for real! you could her crying but i think a lot of kids were in shock! i was crying but not aloud!
Wow where were you located. That was super gangster. I love it
I didn't freak out. I was only 6 and accepted that you should fight in what you believe in, no matter the cost. I found it to be heroic. Over the years; it might have caused me to be stubborn and never truly admit defeat and I have risked safety and my life for many things when I could have just walked away and said "I'm wrong" or "you're right".
Who knows if it's to blame or one of many things. I do know this: It's probably one of the few things I look back at fondly from my childhood.
I have watched my favorites die in the film, and that it has made me quite a tough, numb and a feelingless dude. I actually was surprised that despite the characters being shot like a tons of times, still survived. But I completely agree that at that period, the iconic villains and heroes were loved intensly, and that their deaths was actually a real traumatic and emotional experience for the fans, the kids, and they couldn't bear it. I agree.
-from India🇮🇳
Hands down, my favorite movie of all time, as well as the soundtrack. I was blessed to see this in the theater during its initial run. You don't forget something like that.
I have multiple copies of each, in nearly every version available. Still hits me as hard today as it did then.
Thankfully my favorite was soundwave. I guess his toy sales were high enough to avoid being murdered.
Perhaps, but, I think Soundwave was allowed to remain because he was high value, a very versatile, sophisticated Decepticon. He is a one robot army with his Decepticon cassette Transformers(Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, Ratbat and Laserbeak).
Oh man, if they had killed off Soundwave, I would have lost my shit!
They needed a rival for ughhh whats his name, the annoying boom box dude.
@@shawnawesome7770 That was' Blaster'.
@@KnightIndustries-qi1sb thank you! The way the portrayed blaster in the war for cybertron series was awesome though, just a different color soundwave.
This movie was what introduced me to the franchise. My dad had it on VHS from his childhood and played it for six year old me. TFP furthered my love for the series when I was twelve, and here I am today in my twenties rewatching G1.
This was my first exposure to Transformers. The Transformer’s theme rendition by Lion still kicks ass
Yep.😎😌
Im glad my dad made me watch his favorite cartoons and movies from when he was a kid cause i just love this stuff man we watched things like Thunder cats Masters of The Universes and yes the holy grail of them all Transformers and i enjoyed every momment of watching those icconic shows🤘😁
Yeah, same with me
you have an awesome dad! i hope you cherish the time spent with him
I hope voltron is on that list
Gi joe too
I have shared Transformers with my sons and they love the movie. It's a constant request. It's a very special thing.
"I got obsessed with death." - Joe
This movie poster is framed in my room. One of my favorite gifts ever. ‘Til all are one.
I think the movie was pretty well done, the writing, score, animation and plot are really well done and I still enjoy these facets and appreciate them more than I did when I was younger
The insecticons were way better than the sweeps and way cooler.
Rodimus sucked and prime should have lived.
@@BIGDINKMAN The writers admitted it was a mistake which is why he returned in season 3.
@@BIGDINKMAN
The hate for Hot Rod is irrational. Now he's been replaced by Bumblebee and nobody bats an eye.
@@cooljim1376 creating hot rod was irrational. Lol.
He wasnt close to bumblebee. Mind you i would like to look at the back of their boxes and compare their intelligence levels.
@@BIGDINKMAN
Yet he's practically serving the same exact role. Hate to pull the boomer meme, but the people that whine about this film are intolerable crybabies.
I remember the amount of kids sobbing loudly in the theater when Prime died was staggering. It was like hearing dozens of souls all being crushed at once.
I saw this as a kid in the 90s. The real soul crushing part of this for me is that we'll probably never get a human transformer suit like they have at the beginning. Death is inevitable, the fact that it was as impactful as these guys are saying proves the geniuses who created this movie nailed the message.
I saw it in the cinema when I was seven. I only had vague memories except for a few key scenes: HotRod fishing, Optimus' fight with Megatron and his death, Starscream gettting vapourised, and the Unicron transformation sequence.
It wasn't until the mid 90's that they showed it on TV as four episodes , as part of the regular series timeslot. I grabbed a tape and recorded them. There was a lot of surprises. Weird Al? Leonard Nimoy? Orson Welles? Later I got the DVD and more recently the Blu-ray.
Despite not really remembering it all that well from the first viewing, this film gives me a huge nostalgia hit.
I don't recall ever being disturbed or upset about the death scenes. I just found them to be epic, dramatic and unexpected.
It is a shame that so many characters didn't even appear, or were seen only as corpses.
I was the naive kid when it came to this movie, I saw Optimus die, but figured he’s gonna come back, they are gonna come back!...but they didn’t...
I remember seeing this in the theater and bawling my eyes off when my favorite, Prowl, died the way he did. 30 years later and I will still listen to the soundtrack and occasionally watch this.
Omg. So happy to know there are others out there who view this movie as such an important part of childhood. It affected me on every level, from art, to my musical taste, to getting used to death. It had it all
I’m 40 & I still get teary eyed when prime rust away
I just watched the Transformers episode of Toys That Made Us on Netflix. That was probably the most interesting episode of the show they've made so far.
I LOVED THIS MOVIE, except when Optimus died, and Ironhide, Wheeljack, I could go on and on. I was 31 when this came out, I have the dvd and the tv series and of course all the movies.................Killing off Starscream, HE was my FAV bad guy! I figured who gave a crap about Megatron, SS had so much charisma..................
When this came out, I was 10 years old. No one I knew had an issue with this movie being traumatic. Every kid I knew loved it. Nearly every Gen X person I meet loves it. If there were complaints by parents, they were likely exaggerated for the news. It's only in recent years that critics in their 20s are saying it was traumatic.
I just wasn't so for most kids back then.
My Mom had to leave the theatre when Optimus gives his speech to Magnus. She still quotes it to this day. She loved Robert Stack, and always spoke of what happened to his son.. to her, it was more than a character, HE was the voice of someone she liked before seeing the robot he voices.. I was explained that Optimus doesn't TRULY die, as the motto "'til all are one" means they're still in the heart of each Autobot who did not perish (so to speak).
Not to mention I was really young, and homeschooled. So, to me, I wasn't as sad as most just due to my Mom's guidance on life, and death at the time. Being explained they don't die the way we do really softened the blow I think. The worse part I can think of is seeing her have to walk away crying.. definitely a pivotal moment for a young kid for sure.
Great upload, btw. I like hearing what others thought all those years ago...
Great review guys. I know those deaths hit everyone and it was quite shocking to see for the first time, but remember that this was designed to be the future where your favorites still exist until that point. It's kind of like how Destroy All Monsters is set at the end of the 20th Century (1999 in the English dub) and Ghidorah still shows up in later Godzilla movies in the Showa series. I am surprised you guys didn't talk more about the later half of the film and only focused on the first half. The new characters are quite enjoyable in my opinion, especially Springer and Wreck-Garr. I think I've talked at length before about the whole Hot Rod thing, and him opening the Matrix at the end while facing Galvatron still gives me chills.
We should have asked you for your thoughts. It would have been good to get different opinions on characters like Magnus and Rodimus. I don't remember how much we talked about the latter part of the movie. This was shot a long time ago and Billy edited it. I will say my favorite part of the ending is that Perceptor, Jazz, Bumblebee and the Dinobots survived! 😏. Thanks for watching man. Loved the Reflector video!
@@TheMelvor well in fairness, I didn't meet Billy and Jay until last year at Too Many Games. Shame I can't make it again this year (funds and hotels are booked.) Maybe we can all do a collab in the future though.
@@RodimusPrimal I will hold you to that!
Losing Starscream was almost as devastating as watching Optimus die for me.
That SOB needed to go!
@@nintendojoe2958 Long live Starscream!
If anyone was due to be taken out, it was Starscream.
He actually deserved more than what he got from galvatron. I've seen episodes of G1 showing Starscream and my god, after getting to know his original character, I've realized he's worse than Bayverse Starscream. Imo, and as a Decepticon fan, he deserved worse death than galvatron's death ray.
“It was really hard to see these characters die.”
Me anime watcher: “First time.”
I still love that starscream's voices the same voice as Cobra Commander and I absolutely love the soundtrack to that movie and I have the movie and the soundtrack
I remember my first cinema experience, first time I knew cinema was a thing, first taste of coca cola, first taste of popcorn, first movie I ever saw and all on the same day - this was a life changing experience for me. And I got home and found my mum and lil sister had used all my Lego to make a really realistic house. Great day. This movie has the best place in my heart and memories.
I respect these guys points of view. I think they painted a different picture of how I remember it. I was transformed to some what inside for seeing something emotionally raw as a 8 year
old. I quickly realised at the time it was the Greatest cartoon I'd ever seen. And to this day would easily say to be one of the greatest cartoon epics of all time. The deaths went to far but I would of mentioned more of the cartoon technologies in its animation. Like Unicron. That was the second most epic character beside the holy matrix. I'm still in aw of it. It helped a kid a lot in mighty efforts of good driving nature to overcome destructive forces. The point is it was based on merchandise. But at the end of the day it was Optimus with matrix and some what rodimus that moves the mind and the heart. Til all are one
Saw it in theaters back in 86, I was 12. In the row in front of us sat a couple and their young son, 7 years old or so. That child was scarred for life 15 minutes into this film. After watching Prime die this kid lost it. He had to be quickly removed from the theater. Mom and Dad both shot each other distressed looks. Little dude was a shambles. He wasn’t the only kid who bailed out early.
I saw this movie a couple decades after, and I’m not a part of the generation that grew up with the original 80s cartoon. Besides Armada, Animated, and a little bit of the original cartoon, this movie was my introduction to the Transformers universe and I still absolutely love it
Maybe I question a little bit the idea that the Autobots die instantly, but at the same time it makes sense. The Autobots aren’t as vicious as the Deceptions, and they don’t put as much focus in aggression or just generally evil acts, with some exceptions with rogue or militaristic Autobots
The soundtrack is still awesome, even as a kid who grew up with Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin, who also doesn’t really listen to music from the time period (out of disinterest)
I was 6 years old at a birthday party when i saw it for the first time. I remember the group of us that were there watching it had never seen it n were SO EXCITED to finally see it. Needless to say the birthday boys mom who played it for us instantly regretted it when the entire party burst into tears. Im almost 40 n remember this pretty vividly still lol
Dude, were you in Indiana because I watched it at my 7-8th birthday, lol.
I remember having my mom take me to go see it 1987 was epic.
That is SO fascinating since it only came out in the summer of 1986 but, um, o.k.! :)
@@alexkx8599
It was ran a second time in '87.
@@chasingembers6167 Are you saying it was shown as sort of some kids thing locally or it was re-released "everywhere" whatever that would mean? Not an airing in its regular afternoon slots on t.v.?
I saw it at a movie theater in 1987 in Avon Ohio. It was a re release special weekend outing for kids.
I was born in the late 90s and grew up with a VHS copy of it. Must have watched it 1000 times before I finally lost the tape. Never to be seen again.
Just reading the title of this video and I knew exactly what would be spoken about. I still remember the first death.
It didn't scar us... It just prepared us for when we were 17 and Sephiroth killed Aerith (Aeris at the time ofc).
I was still pissed, I had her ultimate weapon and used her solely for healing.
🤣. True. I was 7 when FFVII came out, and Aerith's death destroyed me for days.
The movie was insane. You would have thought George RR Martin wrote it
Are there dragons and penis's?
@@Acrophobia1981 yup
Nicely done. Still my favorite all-time animated film, my kids and I will break out into songs from the soundtrack often.
I was about 8 at the time, and saw the movie in theaters after religiously watching the beginning seasons of the cartoon.
This was an ADULT movie, the way they wiped out the Gen 1 to make way for the Gen 2.
My balls dropped, that day. At 8 years old. I suddenly had to accept life and death a little sooner than I was ready for.
Amazing soundtrack, great animations, and this movie is Absolutely iconic and notable!!
Thank you, one of my favorite animations of the 80s.