The Transformers The Movie (1986) Retrospective
Image Source: DC Heroes RPG Wiki
With the coming release of a new live-action Transformers movie, Rise of the Beasts, as well as reports of a new animated Transformers movie coming out soon, it only seems appropriate to go back and re-examine the first animated Transformers movie, entitled, The Transformers The Movie. The Transformers The Movie was released in 1986, ostensibly to capitalize and expand on the then-explosive toy line of robots that could transform into vehicles and other objects, along with its popular animated TV show.
The show, The Transformers (1984), focused on an intergalactic war, mostly fought on Earth, between two warring factions of Transformers, one known as the Autobots, the heroes, and, the other known as the Decepticons, the villains. Despite garnering mostly negative reviews at the time among critics and creating significant polarization among Transformers fans, over the years the movie has nevertheless become a cult classic that is still being talked about fondly today.
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The Story
Image Source: TFsource
As announced at the beginning of the film by the show’s narrator, the movie is set in then-futuristic 2005, approximately twenty years after the end of the second season of the animated series. The movie primarily included characters from the first season of the show, since some of the second season characters had not been created yet when the writers began working on the movie. The movie also introduced several new characters such as Hot Rod, Kup, Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Blurr, Springer, and Daniel, who would all go on to be main characters during subsequent seasons of the show. The movie primarily focused on the Autobots and Decepticons battling a planet-sized creature, known as Unicron, who devoured planets and threatened their home planet of Cybertron.
The movie also continued the struggle between the Autobots and Decepticons, particularly during the opening of the film, which led to the death and/or alteration of several legacy characters, most notably Optimus Prime, the Autobot leader, as well as Megatron, the Decepticon leader. Throughout the course of the movie, the Autobots gained a new leader and new allies, were triumphant over Unicron, and managed to retake their homeworld of Cybertron from the Decepticons, setting the stage for the remainder of the show, which carried onward from the events of the movie.
Reception
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According to Rotten Tomatoes, Transformers The Movie grossed 5.8 Million Dollars at the time of its initial release and currently sits at 62% on its “Tomatometer” and has an 88% Audience Score. Many critics of the film have dismissed the movie as a movie-length “toy commercial” by its killing off of several legacy Transformers characters and introducing new characters for kids to buy instead. Others point out that the movie is quite dark, violent, and cynical for what was supposed to be a movie for kids, who, after all, were its target audience. The most notorious aspect of the film for many kids, myself included, was the death of the valiant Autobot Leader, Optimus Prime, who many kids considered their hero from the show.
The extreme level of shock expressed by many kids to the death of many of their favorite characters, especially Optimus Prime, took the writers by surprise, leading them to reconsider creative decisions for other Hasbro-affiliated toy lines and animated shows like G.I. Joe, which was getting its own movie on the heels of this one. However, in spite of all this, or maybe even because of this, nostalgia about the movie continues to be high, with the movie continuing to be screened at conventions, talked about, and quoted endlessly by Transformers fans, particularly those who, like myself, were growing up on the toys and animated show. The movie has also seen multiple home video releases since 2000, as well as even periodic movie screenings at Transformer conventions, as well as by film revival companies such as Fathom Events in recent years.
Trivia
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Contributing to the enduring nostalgia for the film are the interesting bits of on-screen and behind-the-scenes information that have come out over the years about some of the surprising casting choices made for the movie, as well as some of the things considered but ultimately rejected in the finished movie.
In terms of casting choices, the most unique casting choice in the movie had to be that of iconic actor Orson Welles, whose voice appeared in the film as the planet-devouring villain, Unicron. Welles finished his lines for the movie a scant five days before his death in 1985. It was reported that his voice was almost unusable due to his deteriorated health at the time, but it was salvaged by running his voice through a vocal synthesizer.
Other noteworthy casting choices include Star Trek alum, Leonard Nimoy, as Galavatron, the new character created by Unicron out of Megatron, 1980’s “Brat-Pack” alum, Judd Nelson, as Hot Rod, comedian Lionel Stander as Kup, actor Robert Stack as Ultra Magnus, John Moschitta Jr. (aka the fast-talking “Micro Machines guy”) as Blurr, and Monty Python alum, Eric Idle, as Wreck-Gar.
All of the original voice actors from the animated series reprised their roles in the movie, including notable actors and entertainers such as Casey Kasem as the voice of Cliffjumper and Scatman Carouthers as the voice of Jazz, which, like Orson Welles, was also his final movie credit. Also noteworthy is that several more characters were originally scripted and/or storyboarded to appear in the movie and, even with the movie’s already violent nature, more characters were slated to be killed off.
Soundtrack
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No discussion of the movie is complete without a discussion of the movie’s unique heavily synthesized instrumental score paired with a very 1980s heavy metal rock soundtrack that has continued to be a favorite of fans and collectors of Transformers The Movie memorabilia. The movie’s instrumental score was composed by Vince DiCola, whose most significant credit at the time was composing the instrumental score for Rocky IV (1985), and helped get him the job of composing the score for Transformers The Movie.
The iconic instrumental score is supplemented by several hard rocking 1980s vocal songs, one of which has become particularly iconic, The Touch, performed by Stan Bush, featured in the movie during a heroic battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron. The song was originally intended for the movie, Cobra (1986), featuring Sylvester Stallone, but was later used for Transformers The Movie. It has gone on to be featured elsewhere such as Boogie Nights (1997) and has been re-recorded and performed several times by Stan Bush over the years. The piece was also brought back for the Transformers animated show in one of the final episodes.
Vince DiCola is also often invited to perform pieces from the score, as well as Dare, which he co-wrote and performed by Stan Bush in the movie. In addition, Vince DiCola has quietly released demos and piano versions of his instrumental work for Transformers The Movie and even composed the similar-styled instrumental score for the videogames, Angry Birds Transformers (2014) and Transformers Devastation (2015), whose character designs were entirely based on the original animated show. Weird Al Yankovic also had his 1980’s tongue-in-cheek hit, Dare To Be Stupid, included in the film’s soundtrack. The soundtrack itself has seen numerous commercial releases, including the instrumental score, which has been harder to find, as it was initially sold exclusively at Transformers conventions.
Legacy
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As mentioned several times throughout the article, despite some of the criticisms, Transformers The Movie has become a popular and cherished movie, particularly among people who grew up loving the toys and animated series, and some story concepts and characters from the movie have become enduring aspects of Transformers lore moving forward, particularly the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. The lessons learned by the writers of Transformers The Movie also lead to them NOT killing off their main character in that series, Duke, in the aforementioned G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) movie, which came out shortly after the movie, opting instead to make his fate more ambiguous.
The furor over Optimus Prime’s death in the movie led to the writers bringing Optimus Prime back in the third season of the animated series. Additionally, Peter Cullen, who originally voiced the iconic character in the original animated series and movie, has continued to portray various incarnations of the character over the years in the newer Transformers series, most notably in the Michael Bay live-action Transformers film series.
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Source(s): IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Collider, Screen Rant
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