The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

The Autobots must stop a colossal planet consuming robot who goes after the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. At the same time, they must defend themselves against an all-out attack from the Decepticons.

Director:

Nelson Shin

Writer:

Ron Friedman

Stars:

Orson Welles, Robert Stack, Leonard Nimoy

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Norman Alden	...	Kranix (voice)
Jack Angel	...	Astrotrain (voice)
Michael Bell	...	Prowl / Scrapper / Swoop / Junkion (voice)
Gregg Berger	...	Grimlock (voice)
Susan Blu	...	Arcee (voice)
Arthur Burghardt	...	Devastator (voice)
Corey Burton	...	Spike / Brawn / Shockwave (voice)
Roger C. Carmel	...	Cyclonus / Quintesson Leader (voice)
Victor Caroli	...	Narrator (voice)
Regis Cordic	...	Quintesson Judge (voice) (as Rege Cordic)
Peter Cullen	...	Optimus Prime / Ironhide (voice)
Scatman Crothers	...	Jazz (voice)
Bud Davis	...	Dirge (voice)
Walker Edmiston	...	Inferno (voice) (scenes deleted)
Paul Eiding	...	Perceptor (voice)

Storyline

This theatrical movie based on the television series (which was also based on a popular multiform robot toyline) did not go over very well at the box office. The movie takes place in 2005, twenty years after the television series, and chronicles the efforts of the heroic Autobots to defend their homeworld Cybertron from the evil Decepticons. Both factions are seething with anger, and that hatred has blinded them to a hideous menace headed their way. That hideous menace is the colossal planet known as Unicron, who has been ready to consume anything that stands in its way. The only thing that can stop Unicron is the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, which is possessed by the Autobots and which the Decepticons, through Unicron's orders, plan to take away from them.

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Plot Keywords:

optimus prime character | megatron character | weapons fire | robotic animal | bozo as epithet | 

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Taglines:

Beyond good. Beyond evil. Beyond your wildest imagination.

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Family | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA Japan

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

8 August 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Transformers: The Movie

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,779,559, 10 August 1986, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$5,849,647

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sunbow Productions, Marvel Productions, Hasbro

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Springer was not a Triple-changer in the first few versions of the script.

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Goofs

(at around 5 mins) When Jazz first appears on Optimus Prime's monitor, he is missing the Autobot symbol that's usually on the square blue panel on his chest. The symbol is missing again, when he contacts Moon Base Two, and again when Cliffjumper begins the countdown for the shuttle launch.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Kranix: Arblus, look! It's Unicron!

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Alternate Versions

Metrodome Distribution released a 'reconstructed edition' of the movie in September 2005. The film was completely restored from the original film image for this DVD release. Metrodome went back to the original 35 mm (1.33:1 ratio) full frame negative and placed it within a widescreen format of 16:9 by creating an anamorphic transfer that respects the film's full screen format. The result is a side-curtained 1.33:1 image within a 1.78:1 ratio that fully preserves the entire field of potential viewable negative and presents the complete image with the maximum amount of visual detail possible.

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Connections

Followed by Beast Machines: Transformers (1999)

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Soundtracks

Instruments of Destruction
Written by Ernest Petrangelo, Robin Ward and Steven Serpa
Performed by NRG
Produced by NRG

User Reviews

Great Movie - perfect for the time

I thought it was perfect for its time. I recently acquired a VHS and enjoyed the movie all over again. The over rocked song, extra dramatic statements, the whole bit sent chills up my spine when I first saw it in 1986 and again in 2004. The animation wasn't the best, even for then, but that was not important. At the time I was a teenager and I enjoyed every bit of it. Transformers was my favorite cartoon, right after Voltron (the lion one). I liked the new characters, it didn't matter. It was a perfect 80's over sentimental, over rock tracked, bravado of a male ego movie aimed at little boys, even down to the vehicles, Semis, race cars, dump trucks, construction vehicles. Nowadays it wouldn't wash, with the violence and destruction (Unicron) but those were the 80's. Now everything is sanitized.

They should, however do a 2004 or 05 version revisiting OptPrime and MegaT - Imagine Pixar or whoever doing this movie it would look serious. Dinobots forever, (I dislike with a passion that stupid animal transformer series where Optimus Primal has to twist his whole body to transform. He looks rather stupid.