This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I was, and still am, a Transformers fan. With that out of the way, the bias is going to show.I was so excited and stoked for this movie when the teasers started to appear in the newspapers and TV. A full-length motion picture of my favorite toys. I was very attached to the characters from the comic books and TV show. Little did I know how the movie was going to turn for said characters. It was unexpected and extremely emotional for me. I heard others in the theater openly crying in certain parts.Yes, this was probably made to promote the new line of toys that were being released, and needed new story lines for them. The movie... well, it was epic. The battle between good and evil. The struggles of loss. Meeting new friends. Facing new enemies. It opened new vistas, and even some glimmer of hope. The story was well-written, and will cure the itch for any G1 fan.The animation is a tad dated, but this was made over 30 years ago, so considering the age, it is not that bad. I watched it again after twenty odd years later, and it still hit the feels.My childhood revisited. Although not the best of times, but things like this made them a little happier.

SPOILERS AHEAD!I'm going to go through the most common criticisms for this film:1) They killed off the main cast.This is more something that angered 80's fans. Most people today would call it bold. There's a gravity to it... that later seasons of the cartoon decided to contradict that by bringing them back to like. However, they still managed to respect Optimus' death. Sort of life Gandalf the Grey coming back as Gandalf the White, his death in this movie was a setup for a victorious return.2) The animation is cheap.Computer-animating those shots to such detail would have already been a nightmare, so imagine how much manpower was put to bringing them to life by hand?3) There is no plot.The purpose of this film isn't to confuse little children with complex twists. The purpose was to expand The Transformers universe with an intergalactic adventure, depicting the fictional societies, politics, and technologies of several alien races, obviously including the titular Transformers.4) There is no character growth.Hot Rod was a young, innocent, but impulsive soldier who got Optimus killed. Optimus left the Matrix with Ultra Magnus, whose tactical leadership style is invaluable to the Autobot cause, but he would later find that the Matrix was never his to use. Meanwhile, Starscream usurps the Decepticon leadership from his injured commander, but Megatron is reborn as Galvatron, an almighty warrior who gradually admits to himself that he is only a pathetic slave to Unicron. The prodigy Hot Rod returns as Rodimus Prime and redeems himself by unleashing the light of the Matrix and destroying Unicron. That growth is pretty philosophical.5) There is no dramatic tone.If you didn't react when the movie opened with Unicron devouring a planet, when Optimus died, when Galvatron finally executed Starscream, when Daniel thought his father died, when Unicron transformed into a giant robot, when Galvatron failed to use the Matrix to escape Unicron's control, or when Hot Rod became Rodimus Prime and blew up Unicron, you must be no fun to talk to.Obviously, I'm also going to praise the excellent voice cast, the spunky rock soundtrack, some of the best one-liners I've ever heard, and the overall fun of the movie.

Perhaps it's due to time and perspective, but the Transformers 1986 animated movie is a big breath of fresh air - compared to the Michael Bay films, of course. Yes, this film is noisy and busy and it has a bunch of characters who, if you're not previously familiarized with them, may go by at times in a blur. And actually, no not kidding, there is a Transformer named Blurr by the way, who of course is the fast-talking robot. But besides the point, this is a movie that is very naked about it being from a TV show, itself taken from a line of toys. It's not there to be very deep and doesn't pretend to be, though it has a couple of oddly ballsy moves that I'll get to in a moment. It's there to entertain boys ages 5 to 10. And that isn't one of those trivial points; the age distinction should be listed on the side of the tape like on the side of an action figure or video game console.The plot... oh sheesh. So the Autobots have to fight the Decepticons (duh), and this time there's a, also no kidding, a giant Transformer that is basically a giant, spherical AI that eats planets. Or maybe Unicron IS a planet, or a planet made of artificial intelligence, I don't know, but this thing is coming after, well, everything, and it becomes a thing where even Megatron, the ostensible villain, is groveling at Unicron's, uh, not-feet. So the movie becomes a series of action scenes to string along this thin story, also involving a Transformer named Hot-Rod, who we can kind of distinguish because there's a little boy (the only human I think in the film) who is by its side when an attack happens on Earth.This is thin stuff, but it shouldn't be about the plot, right? The downside of course is that there IS a lot of exposition to get through, not at all times but frequent enough, and while, unlike in the Bay films, I can tell the robots apart visually I got lost when it sometimes came to just remember such-and-such's name. Of course the gaggle of celebrity voices does help things, and some of them are character actors (very memorable ones to boot): Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Lionel Stander (ever seen Cul de Sac?), Scatman Crothers and, wait, Casey Kasem was in this too(!) You can remember who some are since they are so distinctive, and Nimoy actually does a really memorable job as Galvatron, the "upgrade" for Megatron. I think, anyway.The one that makes the film almost notorious in a weird way is Orson Welles. This was the end of the line for the man who started in movies as Charles Foster Effing Kane. It's been said that it's the sort of bottom low for someone of his stature to hit by the (what wasn't known as) the end of his career at the time. And yet, call me crazy, but Unicron was one of the most fascinating parts about the whole movie. Yes, it's a kids movie involving fighting robots in space - and all the better that it barely takes place on Earth - but the concept of a gigantic robot, so massive that it has the impending doom of the Death Star from Star Wars, is a cool and curious piece of intelligent 'what-if'-ness.Though it's ultimately put to use for a 'Transformation' by the climax, I liked the idea that other robots, all robots, and worlds, would have to submit to this giant force, or what's called in psychology and philosophy as the "Big Other." It also just looks cool in the movie, and has depths and dimensions and designed parts that make it wholly stand out from most of the Transformer characters, who all have blank faces. At least Unicron, for as much as you might mock the name or its purpose to just consume, is distinctive and fits that out-there, science fiction cum comic book ideal. And Welles, albeit with an added post-production growl to his voice, does the character a deadly kind of presence that works as a performance.If only I could actually care about some of these situations, or if the script was just a little more focused; the section with Optimus Prime early on is the exception, which seems to come as a big 'Oh Wow' moment story-wise - taking out one of your main characters for what one almost assumes could be the end of the movie (all scored to "You Got the Touch" in epic fashion). It should be noted this was a 'bridge' between seasons 2 and 3 of the show, so this might have been an even bigger deal if one was attached to the cartoon. Just taking the movie on its own terms, it's a fairly bold move - maybe too bold considering the scope of the rest of the production.What else does one remember after the fire and fury of a movie like Transformers? Maybe the Sharktocons (sic) who have an appearance that brings out chuckles? Or how it's unmistakably Eric Idle as the one Transformer with a mustache and, of course, doing improv? Or the soundtrack (80's hair metal glory). A lot of this story is so light that it just barely makes up like three or four episodes connected of what the show would be, and the quality of the animation varies between having genuinely impressive and creative designs and effects, and looking just on level with all the other 80's animation of the period (Ninja Turtles and, to an extent, X-Men come to mind). But here, again, because of how the Transformers are designed, you can't exactly get too wrapped up in any of their features, just their voices. It is what it is, though it carries a certain charm I can never say the new Paramount productions carry.

At the height of the Transformers popularity, the Makers, Habro, decided that their demographic, had already bought most of the toys in the line. So in order to make parents shell out even more cash, they decided to release this deeply disturbing "movie"/ marketing ploy. How do you ask? Well simply put, by killing every single recognisable character from the original series, and replacing them with all new ones. If corporate America, ever had reason to hold its head in shame this was it. Not only was this series one of the worst offenders in the selling kids crap with 20 minute adverts thinly clothed as cartoons, but here a new low by making all those toys already bought, redundant, at least from the cartoon's perspective. The cartoon's sole purpose was to advertise pointless toys in the most consumer unfriendly way imaginable, it is quite an achievement in its self. Think about how often the Transformers actually transformed into anything, and how often transforming was a benefit. This film however, doesn't even try to attempt to tell an interesting story. In fact subsequent games based on the films and cartoons, did a much better job of telling a story and progressing the universe. Never really understanding the attraction of the original series, and having only a passing interest in the toys, I suppose I can't fully appreciate the nostalgia for many adults. However, that said there was nothing creative or in the least bit laudable about this film, or the cartoon franchise that spawned it. The sooner it realised for the marketing sham it was the better.