The Transformers: The Movie 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray

Megalith

Megalith

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Forget about the Michael Bay, robot farting/humping, live-action ones—this is the real deal! Originally released in 1986, the Transformers animated film has been restored and remastered from a 4K transfer and is getting a Blu-ray release in September. This was Orson Welles’ final role, who reportedly hated being in a “toy movie.”

The Transformers: The Movie has captured a special place in the hearts of millions and has been a staple in the pop culture zeitgeist since 1986. Featuring memorable characters - the heroic Autobots, villainous Decepticons and Unicron, thrilling action and a heartfelt storyline, The Transformers – The Movie is a cultural touchstone that spans generations. Beloved by legions of fans, this full-length animated adventure boasts the voice talent of Orson Welles in his final voice acting role and an all-star voice cast that includes Peter Cullen, Eric Idle, Casey Kasem, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack and Frank Welker. On September 13, 2016, Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Hasbro Studios, celebrates the 30th anniversary of this iconic movie with three new home entertainment releases.
 
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I actually was more a Voltron fan back then.

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This is actually pretty cool of them to do, not that I care about 4K transfers or whatever - I mean really, cartoons and animated features are already clear and sharp by nature of their line style artwork more often than not but, even so this will be interesting to check out when it's available. I'm a fan of the original Transformers series during its production run, not much of a fan of the generation 2 or 3 stuff, or the 3D "Beast" ones either. To be honest I am not happy with any of the Michael Bay movies, none of 'em at all, but at least I'll say that they really have done a great job on the CGI work for the actual Transformers themselves, they do look damned awesome, especially when we see great closeups of Optimus Prime's facial structure.

The fact that they did indeed get the original voice actor for Optimus Prime was a huge huge plus to me - seeing that character and somebody else's voice come from it would just be an insult to fans and the franchise. I am pissed they couldn't get the original Megatron voice actor - Frank Welker - but I guess there were reasons for that not becoming a reality.

Something to look - and listen - forward to. This clip on YouTube is pretty slick especially the character suits featured in the background:

 
Tiberian said:
I am pissed they couldn't get the original Megatron voice actor - Frank Welker - but I guess there were reasons for that not becoming a reality.
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The reason for that was because they didn't think Megatron's original voice was menacing enough. They did in fact try but it didn't feel like it was working with their ideas so they changed it.
 
Bleh, no original Megatron voice, no original Starscream voice, no original Soundwave voice... Michael Bay, what the fuck have you done to this once awesome franchise? :D
 
Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime, on the same show with the Unknown Comic.. this could only happen in the 1970s!!

 
Tiberian said:
Bleh, no original Megatron voice, no original Starscream voice, no original Soundwave voice... Michael Bay, what the fuck have you done to this once awesome franchise? :D
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Well, you can't be mad about them not getting the original Starscream. Chris Latta has been dead quite a while and no one could mimic what he did for both Starscream and Cobra Commander. Charles Adler did make a good Starscream in the Bay movies though. For the handful of lines he got during the three he was in.
 
I rewatched this movie a few years ago, it's a product of the time. It's clearly a kids movie designed to sell toys, but I can see why I loved it so much when I was a kid. It helps that they were very well made and incentive toys. I was a kid around the time the G1-G2 transformers where around and I loved them. I hate the Micheal Bay movies, but I'm not about to go back and watch all the classics shows and movies because they no longer really appeal to me.
 
Tiberian said:
This is actually pretty cool of them to do, not that I care about 4K transfers or whatever - I mean really, cartoons and animated features are already clear and sharp by nature of their line style artwork more often than not
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Most 2d cartoons and animated features had abysmal VHS transfers and poor DVDs, as well. Even with the better DVDs, the resolution and bitrate is often not optimised well enough to show the true nature of the colors and details in the painting and line work. Animated featues also often have random scenes where the resolution and clarity is inexplicably lower than the rest of the movie (Kiki's Delivery Service, comes to mind).

Blu-rays for Disney and Ghibli films are absolutely revelatory. Sleeping Beauty is an amazing sight. The backgrounds are endlessly detailed. Its almost as if you are viewing the original paintings used to film the movie.

Something more simple, like a saturday morning cartoon, is unlikely to benefit as much. However, a clean transfer with a decent bitrate @ 1080p tends to dramatically change/improve the look of just about everything.
 
I loved the transformers when I was a kid. I soo wanted to see the movie, but my family wanted to see other movies. I was soo sad...Then the next tv season came out, and I was all WAHT happened to prime?!! NUUUUUes :(. Yet in the end maybe it was for the best I can imagine child me watching the film in the movie theater. I would be all PRIMEE NOOOOOes >_<.
Did you know that primes fate saved duke in the original GI JOE animated movie. The response was soo strong they saved him at the end. Duke was suppose to die.
 
Never understood the love for this movie. It killed off all the guys I wanted to on the big screen, and replaced them with guys Nobody had ever heard of before.

And, Hotrod sucks!
 
I loved this movie. Looks like it is time to add it to my collection!
 
Watch this movie occasionally
Constantly blast "You've got the touch, you've got the power!!"
 
This movie fucked me up as a kid. I remember bawling in the movie theater when Optimus died, I was just crushed. I rewatched this a few years ago with one of my buddies, and we were shocked at how dark it was. That opening scene where Unicron just slaughters all those Autobots...jesus man, that was brutal for a kids movie. I fucking love it, but they didn't pull any punches.
 
chameleoneel said:
Blu-rays for Disney and Ghibli films are absolutely revelatory. Sleeping Beauty is an amazing sight. The backgrounds are endlessly detailed. Its almost as if you are viewing the original paintings used to film the movie.
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Having owned all the Miyazaki stuff on DVD and then repurchasing on Bluray I can attest this is absolutely true. The stark contrast differences between colors in an animation are a "worst case scenario" for compression and MPEG2 was no exception. Studio Ghibli in particular has a color style that leads to sharp color contrasts. Such as bright white clouds on a blue sky or bright uniforms. On DVD you get a lot of blur/dither between the color boundaries. Bluray it's a much sharper distinction.
 
They have restored this movie like 2-3 times already. Either A) the transfer looks great, but all the colors are wrong (hot rod is pink), or its grainy/fuzzy.

Still i wish they (after 30 years) would have the directors first cut that was so violent it got a pg13 or higher rating and had to be recut back down to kid friendly.
 
I still want the current movies to end with the same plot as the original movie. would be epic. oh yeah. how about using the original theme song for the end credits too?
 
B2BigAl said:
This movie fucked me up as a kid. I remember bawling in the movie theater when Optimus died, I was just crushed. I rewatched this a few years ago with one of my buddies, and we were shocked at how dark it was. That opening scene where Unicron just slaughters all those Autobots...jesus man, that was brutal for a kids movie. I fucking love it, but they didn't pull any punches.
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In the first 20 minutes most of the characters from Seasons 1 & 2 died. Several died off screen but there are shots of Autobot corpses lying around and one scene where they are gathering the dead albeit briefly. In contrast there were no Decepticon casualties. There were several severe injuries on their side, the bulk of which were inflicted by Optimus Prime. The Decepticons who "died" either died in space due to a lack of treatment, or had their personalities erased when they were reformatted by Unicron. It seems that none of the Decepticons save for Galvatron had any memory of their former identities / lives.

For a child, this was easily the most traumatic films of our childhoods. I was 7 at the time the movie came out. I watched since 1984 and thus, the Transformers was something I watched a good portion of my life by that point. Lots of kids were in the same boat. You watch all the characters you like get killed off horrifically and in some cases graphically. Optimus Prime however is the most traumatic by far. I never saw it in the theatre, but as I understand it kids cried their eyes out in the theatre. A lot.

What's funny is that there is more to the fall out from that than most people remember. The fan outrage at the death of Optimus Prime lead to his resurrection two more times. The first time was an episode called "Dark Awakening" in which the Autobots seek refuge in a mausoleum ship that carries the bodies of all the Autobots killed in the movie, or as they put it "lost in the Great War." It may actually contain more than just the bodies of the characters from the film, but that's what was shown inside. The Autobots discover Optimus Prime onboard the ship walking around while still showing the wounds he had from his battle with Megatron. The Quintessons (the creators of the Transformers in the series) reanimated Optimus Prime as a zombie and a Trojan horse to kill the Autobots and Decepticons so that they could reclaim Cybertron. Hot Rod relinquishes the Matrix of Leadership to Optimus Prime which causes his personality to emerge and conflict with his programming. Hot Rod is forced to fight Optimus Prime and reclaim the Matrix. Optimus sustains additional injuries during the fight and eventually returns the Matrix to Hot Rod. Then he flies into an exploding star and is shown getting blown up and vaporized. He ends up missing half his head, chest etc. before dying again. Essentially his first resurrection was WORSE than his death in the film and far more graphic.

This outraged parents once again. The second return of Optimus Prime was called "The Return of Optimus Prime" and was far more upbeat and disregarded the injuries he sustained previously despite the continuity error. Of course in the Japanese series he merged with Vector Sigma and immediately died again not far into that series which continued in Japan. All told Optimus Prime has died 25 times thus far in different continuities including films and comics. He's got Jean Grey beat and probably Professor Xavier as well which is saying something. However the movie we are talking about did Optmus Prime's death the best, and it did it first.
 
Dan_D said:
If you go back and rewatch Transformers and Voltron, you'll find that the former stands the test of time far better than the latter. The voice acting on Voltron was / is atrocious.
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Netflix and Dream Works did a new Voltron, pretty decent work, doesn't exactly follow the originals, but worth a watch if you liked Voltron.
 
Dekar12 said:
Netflix and Dream Works did a new Voltron, pretty decent work, doesn't exactly follow the originals, but worth a watch if you liked Voltron.
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I felt they spent like 12 bucks per episode on animation, and spent the rest on cgi background and lions...
 
Dan_D said:
In the first 20 minutes most of the characters from Seasons 1 & 2 died. Several died off screen but there are shots of Autobot corpses lying around and one scene where they are gathering the dead albeit briefly. In contrast there were no Decepticon casualties. There were several severe injuries on their side, the bulk of which were inflicted by Optimus Prime. The Decepticons who "died" either died in space due to a lack of treatment, or had their personalities erased when they were reformatted by Unicron. It seems that none of the Decepticons save for Galvatron had any memory of their former identities / lives.

*snip*.
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I was blown away when I saw all that happen for the first time - a true wft moment lol (sure it made us all mad - but we were totally gripped to our seats waiting to see what happens next). but its because of that though that i highly regarded the series... its actually one of my fav tv shows into a movie of all time. and i totally want Unicron to show up in the new movies to do the same. redoing the original in the new movies would make for a fantastic movie :)
 
T_A said:
Loved that movie

"One shall stand , one shall fall!"
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The movie has so many fun, quotable, lines.

"Wait! I still function!"

"Wanna bet?"



"Who disrupts my coronation!?"

"Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy."

I watched the movie so many times growing up that to this day I can still quote the movie almost line for line while watching it.
 
Derangel said:
The movie has so many fun, quotable, lines.

"Wait! I still function!"

"Wanna bet?"



"Who disrupts my coronation!?"

"Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy."

I watched the movie so many times growing up that to this day I can still quote the movie almost line for line while watching it.
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Perceptor: Do you think you got through to Prime?
Blaster: Let's hope so. 'Cause if I didn't, we're all going to look like burnt out toaster ovens.
 
Armenius said:
Perceptor: Do you think you got through to Prime?
Blaster: Let's hope so. 'Cause if I didn't, we're all going to look like burnt out toaster ovens.
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Grimlock: "Me Grimlock want to hear war stories!"
Cup: "You're living one."
 
Dekar12 said:
Netflix and Dream Works did a new Voltron, pretty decent work, doesn't exactly follow the originals, but worth a watch if you liked Voltron.
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I've seen it. I rather enjoyed it. King Zarkon actually has some depth and background to him. Before he was like most 1980's villains who were evil just to be evil. There are some definite changes to the story and the characters, but overall I think it captures the spirit of the original well enough.
 
Derangel said:
The movie has so many fun, quotable, lines.

"Wait! I still function!"

"Wanna bet?"



"Who disrupts my coronation!?"

"Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy."

I watched the movie so many times growing up that to this day I can still quote the movie almost line for line while watching it.
Click to expand...

Armenius said:
Perceptor: Do you think you got through to Prime?
Blaster: Let's hope so. 'Cause if I didn't, we're all going to look like burnt out toaster ovens.
Click to expand...

Derangel said:
Grimlock: "Me Grimlock want to hear war stories!"
Cup: "You're living one."
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Megatron: What's in it for me?!
Unicron: You're bargaining posture is highly dubious........

Orson Wells was the perfect choice for Unicron. Very commanding and powerful.
Also, Leonard Nimoy did a good job as Galvatron.
 
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nightanole said:
They have restored this movie like 2-3 times already. Either A) the transfer looks great, but all the colors are wrong (hot rod is pink), or its grainy/fuzzy.

Still i wish they (after 30 years) would have the directors first cut that was so violent it got a pg13 or higher rating and had to be recut back down to kid friendly.
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That scene was never drawn. Just the storyboards exist. And the whole reason they added the "Oh Shit, What are we gonna do now!" line was to make it PG. I doubt the added scene would have added to that.
 
Be Weep Nana Weep Nini Ba

Most of the voice actors did a solid job. My mom almost dragged me out of the theater at that "oh shit" line and after my initial reaction to most of my favorite characters dying. However, this was the very first movie I got to see in the theaters and she seemed to not want to ruin that for me so we stayed. As a kid, I just assumed this all happened after the series ends. As in, this is way in the future. I actually cried when I saw the first episode of the next season and all those characters were actually dead.
 
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