Transformers: The Movie

Template:Infobox Movie The Transformers: The Movie is an animated feature film version of the popular television series Transformers released on 8 August 1986. It was released in Japan as Matrix Forever, on the 9 August 1989. It was directed by Nelson Shin who produced the original Transformers television series. The film features the voices of Judd Nelson, Orson Welles, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle, Casey Kasem, Robert Stack and Frank Welker.

The film takes place 20 years after the end of the TV series' second season and acts as a "bridge" between the second and third seasons.

Tagline: "Tagline: Beyond good. Beyond evil. Beyond your wildest imagination."

Contents

1 Story 2 Character changes 2.1 Autobots introduced 2.2 Autobots killed 2.3 Decepticons introduced 2.4 Decepticons killed or altered 2.5 Other characters introduced 3 Cast 4 Success 5 Trivia 6 Soundtracks 7 External links

Story

The plot of the movie concerns the Transformers' battle with the gigantic planet-destroying robot Unicron.

During the course of the movie, many of the classic Transformers were killed or recreated (allowing Hasbro to launch a new line of Transformers toys). The Decepticon leader Megatron, for instance, was left for dead and rebuilt by Unicron as a new robot called Galvatron. The Transformers: The Movie marks an epoch in the history of the franchise, and began a series of storyline patterns that persist in the present day's Transformers toys and media.

The Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, was mortally wounded due to injuries sustained in a final battle with Megatron, and passed the Autobot Matrix of Leadership on to Ultra Magnus. Before dying, Optimus revealed a prophecy - that one day, an Autobot would rise from their ranks, and use the power of the Matrix to light their darkest hour. When Galvatron subsequently stole the Matrix of Ultra Magnus, that Autobot was revealed to be Hot Rod, who recovered the Matrix, and used its power to destroy Unicron, while at the same time becoming Rodimus Prime.

See Transformers (toyline) for descriptions of the characters.

Character changes

Autobots introduced

• Arcee
• Blurr
• Daniel (human ally)
• Hot Rod, who later became Rodimus Prime
• Kup
• Springer
• Ultra Magnus
• Wheelie

Autobots killed

• Brawn
• Prowl
• Ratchet
• Ironhide
• Optimus Prime
• Wheeljack
• Windcharger

In the episode, "Dark Awakening," Huffer is listed among the dead, though he is not seen to die in the movie itself.

Brawn's death has become a popular debate among fans - after all, he's supposedly to be a very tough character, and yet in the movie, seems to die from nothing more than a shot to his shoulder. This has led to a somewhat humorous ongoing debate on whether the character is truly dead or not. This is also fueled by the fact that the character appears in the post movie episode "Carnage in C-Minor", even though that particular episode is regarded as one of the worst Transformer carttons of all time.

Prowl and Wheeljack would later be seen to be alive in the Japanese Transformers series, but this is because the movie had not reached Japan at that point, hence they were unaware of which characters had died.

Decepticons introduced

• Cyclonus
• Galvatron
• Scourge

Decepticons killed or altered

• Megatron
• Thundercracker
• Skywarp
• Bombshell
• Kickback
• Shrapnel
• Starscream

It is a bone of some contention exactly which Decepticons become which characters when Unicron reformats them. The script does not specify this, and the animation shows Thundercracker becoming Scourge (the only uncontested transformation), Kickback and Shrapnel becoming his Sweeps, Bombshell becoming Cyclonus, and Skywarp becoming another Cyclonus.

Unicron refers to "Cyclonus and his armada," but one duplicate does not make an armada. The line is a carry-over from the original script, in which Cyclonus was to have multiple duplicates of himself, but this idea appears to have been summarily abandoned, since after this scene, the duplicate Cyclonus is never seen again, AND an additional Sweep has appeared. Hence, retroactively, the duplicate Cyclonus has become a Sweep. But then, the argument is - was it Bombshell or Skywarp who truly became Cyclonus?

There are those that consider Bombshell to be Cyclonus, simply because that's what the animation shows. However, there are those that support the theory that Skywarp became Cyclonus, generally born of the belief that being turned into an expendable Sweep seems an ill-fitting end for one of the original Decepticons. To break things down to their most basic facts: what we have here is a blue jet, a purple jet, a trio of three warriors, who get turned into... a blue spacecraft, a purple spacecraft and a trio of three warriors. There is a distinct logic to this, which supports the "Skywarp" argument, which is why this debate will never have a conclusion.

This, however, is without even getting into the confusion caused by the Insecticons. Despite their apparent transformations, the characters continue to make appearances in a small number of post-movie episodes, and most tellingly, Shrapnel even appears later in the movie itself. The script even specifies that he is to appear in this scene, meaning that the writer did not intend for him to be transformed by Unicron. This has led to some people speculating that the Insecticons transformed by Unicron could have been clones, as the Insecticons possess this ability. (It's also worth noting that the number of Sweeps constantly increases throughout the third season with no explanation - could the Insecticons have retained their cloning ability when transformed by Unicron?)

And this is without touching the ongoing debate over whether or not Galvatron is Megatron - although they share a reconstructed body, their minds seem particularly different (Galvatron's insanity notwithstanding), leading to frequent discussion over this point among the fandom.

Other characters introduced

• Arblus
• Kranix
• The Quintessons
• The Sharkticons
• Unicron
• Wreck-Gar (Junkion ally)

Cast

Actor	Role
Gregg Berger	Grimlock (voice)
Susan Blu	Arcee (voice)
Corey Burton	Spike/Brawn/Shockwave (voice)
Roger C. Carmel	Cyclonus/Quintesson Leader (voice)
Victor Caroli	Narrator (voice)
Peter Cullen	Optimus Prime/Ironhide (voice)
Paul Eiding	Perceptor (voice)
Dan Gilvezan	Bumblebee (voice)
Stan Jones	Scourge (voice)
Chris Latta	Starscream/Wheeljack (voice)
David Mendenhall	Daniel (voice)
John Moschitta	Blurr (voice)
Judd Nelson	Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (voice)
Leonard Nimoy	Galvatron (voice)
Neil Ross	Bonecrusher/Hook/Springer/Slag (voice)
Robert Stack	Ultra Magnus (voice)
Lionel Stander	Kup (voice)
Frank Welker	Megatron/Soundwave/Rumble/Frenzy/Laserbeak/Wheelie/Junkion (voice)
Orson Welles	Unicron (voice)

Success

David Mendenhall who played the role of Daniel, in 1987 was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Exceptional Young Actors in Animation - Series, Specials or Feature Film.

The film made $5,849,647 (USD) only including USAs domestic box office ticket sales.

Trivia

• This was the last project Oscar winning actor Orson Welles of Citizen Kane fame worked on. Rumours have claimed that he passed away before all his lines could be recorded, causing Leonard Nimoy to be used as his replacement for the final few lines, but voice director Wally Burr refutes the claim.
• The theatrical release included a conversation in which a character responded with "Oh, Shit!". It has been deleted on many of the subsequent releases.
• The theatrical release did not include the Star Wars-esque scrolling text, and narration at the start and the end, but was later included for home releases and included in some theatrical releases outside the USA.
• The credits list several characters that either did not appear, or did not speak, in the finished film - namely Prowl, Gears, Inferno and Dirge. Most of these lines can be seen in the original script (save Inferno's), but it is unknown if they ever made it to the animation stage.
• Originally co-produced by Dino de Laurentiis's company, the film's opening logos originally featured the insignia for De Laurentiis Entertainment Group [DEG]. This logo does not appear on the DVD version. Instead, it begins with the Sunbow and Marvel logos that originally followed the De Laurentiis logo.
• Many second-season characters do not appear in the movie. It has often been claimed that they did not exist, or that their animation models had not been completed, at the time the movie was scripted - while this may be true for the Aerialbots, Stunticons, and other combiners, it is certainly not true for the large amount of Autobots who do not appear in the film, since all the second-season Decepticons make appearances, and the storyboards for the film show some deleted appearances of missing Autobots such as Tracks and Red Alert.
• The movie was being produced by the same company, and at the same time, as G.I. Joe: The Movie. When it was decided that G.I. Joe's leader, Duke, would meet his end, the idea was adopted for Transformers: The Movie, and Optimus Prime breathed his last. However, Optimus Prime's death sparked some controversy and caused the writers to change Duke's death to a coma. Theoretically, had G.I. Joe been released first, Optimus Prime may have survived the movie.
• Grimlock's line to Kup, "Tell Grimlock about petro-rabbits" is a reference to John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" in which Lenny continuously asks George to "Tell me about the rabbits."
• A Unicron toy was designed, but the prototype had flimsy arms and a faulty voice-chip, and was abandoned.
• Of the original 18 Autobots featured in the first episodes "More than Meets the Eye", 14 are seen in the movie (eagle-eyed viewers will spot Gears sitting beside Ironhide on Moonbase 1 at the film's beginning). Mirage and Trailbreaker do not appear at all, nor does Sideswipe, although he was scripted to appear in one scene on Earth.
• Contrary to popular belief, there is no true widescreen version of Transformers: The Movie. Animation cels acquired by collectors have proven that the film was animated in full-screen, which was then cropped down to widescreen for theatrical showings.

Soundtracks

In 1992, the official soundtrack was released in the USA.

Track listing:

1. The Touch (Performed By Stan Bush) (Produced by Richie Wise)
2. Instruments of Destruction (Performed by N.R.G.) (Produced by Ernie Burns)
3. Death of Optimus Prime (Performed by Vince DiCola) (Produced by Vince DiCola and Ed Fruge)
4. Dare (Performed By Stan Bush)
5. Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way (Performed By Spectre General) ¹
6. The Transformers (Theme) (Performed by Lion) (Produced by Richie Wise)
7. Escape (Performed by Vince DiCola) (Produced by Vince DiCola and Ed Fruge)
8. Hunger (Performed By Spectre General) ¹
9. Autobot/Decepticon Battle (Performed by Vince DiCola) (Produced by Vince DiCola and Ed Fruge)
10. Dare to Be Stupid (Performed By Weird Al Yankovic)

Note 1: Originally credited as 'Spectre General', but the band's name is actually Kick Axe. When the soundtrack was being assembled, the producers of the film thought the name "Kick Axe" sounded too threatening, so they listed them as 'Spectre General'. The band was not notified about the change.

In 1997, 3H Enterprises released an album titled Til All Are One that features the score of the film. Released on two CD's. Total Duration: 01:46:17.

In 2001 an album was released by 3H Enterprises titled, Lighting their Darkest Hour that features the instrumental score. Released on one CD, Total Duration: 01:15:57.

3H Enterprises in the same year released an album that features early demos, outtakes and alternate themes, linked with narration by composer Vince Dicola, titled The Protoform Sessions. Total Duration: 00:57:10.

The third TF:TM related CD released by 3H Enterprises that year was Artistic Transformations - ten themes from the movie, reinterpreted for solo piano. Total Duration: 00:51:06.

External links

• The Transformers: The Movie fan site (http://www.transformersthemovie.com/)
• The Transformers The Movie.net (http://tftm.net/)
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• Transformers Movie Mistakes Database (http://www.transformersmmdb.tk/)ja:TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE

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