The Transformers: The Movie Review

The Transformers series has survived in the entertainment market for over twenty years. With countless TV series, down your throat merchandising of toys, and a recent live action film to boot, this exercise in mass marketing a toy is probably not going to die that soon. However, without saying anymore that is possibly making Transformer fans cry, the 1986 animation film is a fun and energetic film that will not disappoint its fan base and even might make new ones.

The film starts fast and with only a narration to backup those who don't know a thing about the TV series which this film follows. The Autobots (the good robots) are planning to strike the Decepticons (the bad robots) whom now control Cybertron. However, the Autobots do not have it easy as a gigantic planet that destroys everything in its path is targeting a powerful object that the Autobots possess. The film features the voices of Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle, Judd Nelson and Orson Welles (in his final film).

First to air some laundry. I am not familiar with anything that happens before this movie, as in what happens in the TV series. Going into this, I only know what I've learned from the live action movie, which I felt was good enough to know. However there is a narration that helps clear up the back story that will satisfy most viewers. It's necessary to point out this movie is a product of the 80's and to many, will seem dated. The most prominent being the heavy rock soundtrack playing in the background playing in battle scenes. Speaking of the battle scenes, they are very well edited and crafted. It is very easy to tell who is fighting who (a problem the live action film had). The animation is done in the classic, hand drawn fashion and it looks very good, even after twenty years. The voice acting has to be given the most praise though. The voices are all done by well-esteemed actors (from Robert Stack to Orson Welles) and their voices fit well with their characters and helps bring life to them as well.

To point out only the good of this movie would be disingenuous as the thing separating it from very good to great is the lack of character development. Save for a narration, there is none on the individual robots or the two human characters in the film. It maybe Transformers but it's also Transformers: The Movie and the writers shouldn't have skipped that point. Alas, it is also not a Merchant-Ivory production so if you're watching it only because it has robots killing each other in it, you probably will not come out disappointed.

Final Grade: B+