By the time The Transformers: The Movie hit theaters on this date 40 years ago, the commercials hinted that Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots was going to be killed by Megatron, leader of the Decepticons.
But was it just a ploy to get more people in the theaters. The Transformers were a popular toyline by Hasbro and a popular animated TV show. So a feature movie was inevitable. Except for a lot of people who left the theater in early August 1986 that it was just an hour and a half commercial for new toys and the upcoming third season.
And with all those new toys, it meant the older Transformers characters had to die.
I’ve watched the movie twice in the last week and I still can’t make much out of the plot, which is just like the live-action movies I guess. (Well, Bumblebee was an ok movie.)
But I realized watching it that the movie was never really intended to make a lot of sense. Its intended audience was basically a bunch of elementary school level kids. I don’t think many kids over 10 were into the franchise anyway. I know I wasn’t when I was 10 even though I liked them when I was younger.
Maybe that’s one reason the movie didn’t do so well. Its intended audience had already grown out of it. The shelf life for any popular franchise aimed solely at kids is only a handful of years as the next biggest thing happens which attracts younger minds. The movie, released as the fourth movie through the independent movie studio De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, was released one week after Howard the Duck and a few weeks before school started. As far as I know it didn’t play at my local theater which was a Carmike Cinemas franchise.
There are some great action sequences most notably the showdown between Optimus (voiced by Peter Cullen) and Megatron (voiced by Frank Welker) as Stan Bush’s “The Touch” plays on the soundtrack. But what should’ve been the movie’s climax happens in the first half which means Optimus is mortally wounded and absent from the second half of the movie.
That also means the main protagonist is the new Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (voiced by Judd Nelson). And most of the famous Transformers who aren’t easily killed off spend much of the movie as background extras. And those expecting Optimus to pop back up in the final act resurrected were left upset. The Janet Leigh/Psycho style of filmmaking might have been impressive if Hot Rod was a better more intriguing character. But like his name, he’s too cocky and juvenile.
Imagine if they had killed off Old Yeller in the first half. And the rest of the movie is about the family dealing with it as they get a new dog that isn’t the same.
You can’t top what Cullen has brought to the character in the many years he’s voiced him. Cullen was inspired by his late older brother Capt. H.L. Larry Cullen of the U.S. Marine Corps and Optimus Prime’s deep authoritative voice made him a favorite of many kids. It also made it more believable he could command the Autobots through the tone of his voice. And Cullen’s delivery of “One shall stand; one shall fall” drives home the seriousness of his upcoming battle with Megatron.
Cullen, who along with Welker, was (and still is) one of the most prolific and versatile voice actors, was unaware of the popularity until a public outcry and letter writing campaign led to Optimus being resurrected in the season 3 finale of the animated show.
And that may have been the problem. The animation is the same in the movie as it was in the series produced through Sunbow Productions, Marvel Productions and Toei Animation. Actors like Eric Idle, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack and Orson Welles (who passed before the movie was released) lend their voices. And Weird Al Yankovic’s “Dare to be Stupid” is also on the soundtrack.
Yet it never does bring that extra spark that is needed to make the leap from TV to the big screen. Produced on a budget of $6 million, it only made about $5.9 million. Why pay money to see it in a theater when the series is just the same? Earlier that year, Hasbro didn’t have success with My Little Pony: The Movie either. This caused a planned theatrical release of G.I. Joe: The Movie to go straight to video in 1987 as well as some quick dialogue changes in which Duke, who was supposed to die, lives as characters say he will get better.
Public opinion has changed over the years but I feel it’s more about nostalgia than anything else.
Zane Says 