The year is 1986, Prince Andrew Duke of York marries Sarah
Ferguson, Gary Lineker becomes the most expensive British footballer in a £2.75
million move, and The Sun newspaper alleges that comedian Freddie Starr ate a
live hamster, meanwhile I myself am 5 years old and when not enjoying my days
at first school, I am watching the adventures of robots that could turn into different
cool things, playing with the numerous figures, I even had themed wallpaper and
bedding, these of course were the Transformers. Originally released as a line of toys, Transformers was
given its own back story about a race of robotic aliens that crash on Earth in
prehistoric times and awaken in 1985, the two alien races of the heroic and
righteous Autobots, and the evil antagonists The Decepticons fighting each
other for survival as well as control of the life-giving Energon, each side
able to transform into differing vehicles, devices, and weapons, both guided by
their determined leaders, Optimus Prime and Megatron, these things were super
cool. The franchise was massive, with the toys and cartoon series
dominating the mid-eighties, the peak of this (at the time) was the release of
The Transformers: The Movie, an 85 minute cinematic spectacle introducing new
enemy Unicron, a planet-sized Transformer capable of consuming everything in
its path, when Megatron intercepts an Autobot plan he launches an attack on
their city on Earth, during which (spoilers) Optimus Prime gets killed and
passes on his Matrix of Leadership to 2nd in command Ultra Magnus,
Unicron senses this passing of the Matrix and upon reviving and taking control
of the injured Megatron sets about to destroy the Matrix and dominate the
galaxy.
For a children’s film the plot is surprisingly dark, many
Transformers actually get killed within the first few minutes of the story,
heads and torsos are vaporised in laser fire and explosions, some are fired out
of air-locks into deep space, and a few are even chomped by robot sharks, it
certainly raises the stakes from the consequence-less series, as a change from
most animated features this movie is also considered canon, with the death of
Optimus carrying on through the TV show until 1987 when he was written back in
due to popular demand. So much is packed into Transformers: The Movie it’s kind of
hard to look away for too long without missing a vital moment, at one point the
story is split between different groups of bots each doing separate things and
having had my nose in my phone for a couple of minutes, I found myself
wondering why they were suddenly facing an octopus-looking robot who was holding
court and about to sentence them to death by Sharkticons, this film rockets
along at a serious pace and if you don’t hold on it’ll leave you behind.
My prior recollection of this movie is having watched it way
back on VHS on what was probably a 22 inch TV, not even via Scart, this
would’ve been a bog-standard coaxial connector, the lowest of low resolution,
this latest viewing, remastered blu-ray, full 1080p on a 44 inch TV, and wow,
for a film that is thirty years old, it looks great, the remastering is nothing
short of stunning, lines are sharp, colours are bright, and the level of detail
in the backgrounds is a feast for the eyes. What you have to remember is this is an animated film, made
in the days when everything was hand-drawn, and it is glorious, there’s
something so pure about the old methods and this film is the epitome of that,
battle scenes are hectic, filled with laser fire galore and explosions aplenty,
yet still easy to follow and never confusing you with what you’re actually
looking at, unlike the Michael Bay live-action iterations, transformation
sequences are so smooth and often amazingly detailed that you’d almost be
mistaken for believing a computer had any hand in the original creation. The visuals are not the only beautiful thing about this
release, the audio is crystal clear too, voices and effects in full-on surround
giving depth to each action-packed scene, the classic sounds I recall fondly
from my childhood like Megatron’s gun firing, every transformation sequence,
and above all else the original and only (in my opinion) voice of Soundwave,
Frank Welker, everything pops with a clarity likely to have even been lost in
the film’s original theatrical run. We’re even treated to a hearty dose of 80’s synth rock with
the music, the straight-up classic score by Rocky IV composer Vince DiCola adds
beautifully to the warring outer-space alien-robots fighting for supremacy
perfectly and I dare anyone to try not to tap their feet when the action
sequence power ballads kick in, especially during Stan Bush’s rousing cult anthem
"The Touch". Everything in this release is not only as good as you
remember, it’s better, this flick could easily be called “The 80’s: The Movie”
but that doesn’t stop it being a classic story, good vs evil, strength of
character and purity of heart proving more powerful than any situation or
adversary, there’s plenty here for fans young and old, and is a perfect example
of why The Transformers are still as popular today as they were 30 years ago, as
ever there really is More Than Meets the Eye.
The Transformers: The Movie - Limited Edition, 30th Anniversary Steelbook is out now