TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE
A film review by Christopher E. Meadows
Copyright 1997 Christopher E. Meadows
Directed by Nelson Shin, Written by Ron Friedman
Starring Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Lionel Stander, and Orson Welles
MPAA: PG Run time: 86 minutes
My rating: 8/10 (**** out of *****)
Many, many critics have knocked "Transformers: The Movie" as being a toy-line-inspired cartoon, derivative of "Star Wars" and designed only to sell toys to the kids. It's been called overly-violent, confusing, too loud, and a host of other names.
Still, how about we take a moment to look at it from a fan's perspective?
"Transformers: The Movie" appeared at the height of the toy line's original popularity. The Transformers toy line, along with G.I. Joe, was for a long time one of the most popular toy lines in the United States, and practically a household word among children everywhere in America (and Europe, and Japan...). It spawned a TV series that lasted several years, and a comic book that went all the way to 80 issues. It's not a big surprise that a theatrical movie would be attempted.
The animation (by Sunbow Productions, a premiere animation studio in Japan) was very good for its day, sometimes incredible. The voice cast included an all-star lineup, most notably the great Orson Welles (in his last featured role in any film). There were thousands of kids with the toys who were presumably all ready to rush to the theaters. There was even a G.I. Joe theatrical feature waiting in the wings should "Transformers" be a success.
What went wrong? Why was "Transformers: The Movie" an incredible flop?
At a guess, Hasbro forgot that, to be a success, the movie would have to appeal to the filmgoing public as a whole, as well. "Transformers" was a loud, raucas movie, with a heavy metal soundtrack and a storyline that was somewhat confusing to people who'd never seen any of the Transformers TV show. Almost no background was given, beyond the somewhat minimalistic voiceover at the beginning. While the kids might have loved it, the adults were left mostly in confusion. And let's not forget that the film was pretty violent, with planets being destroyed and characters dying sometimes left and right.
All the same, was it really such a bad movie? Fans of the Transformers franchise don't think so. In fact, it's quite a sought-after video now that it's out of print, and screenings are a big event at yearly Transformers conventions. The Internet Movie Database rates it at 8.8 out of 10, with 521 votes recorded. But why?
Perhaps at least part of it has to do with the similarities and differences between this movie and the Transformers TV series. In the TV series, which had gone on for two years prior to the movie, Autobots and Decepticons (the "good guys" and "bad guys") clashed repeatedly, but with no real resolution on either side--nobody died, there were no clear victories, thanks to what some cartoon fans refer to as "parachute syndrome" (from the G.I. Joe TV series habit of showing parachuting pilots for every Cobra airplane that was shot down)--to show death in a children's cartoon might risk offending parental watchdog groups. But here, in a theatrical movie, they had a bit more artistic freedom. Hence, in "Transformers: The Movie", there was conflict, there was death, and there was _resolution_. It felt more mature somehow to have the good guys take losses, and then blow the bad guys away.
And we also shouldn't discount the thrill of seeing time jump eighteen years ahead and finding out what happened to all our favorite characters years down the road. Of course, the story focused mostly on _new_ characters, but the old ones were still there (even if a lot of them died). They had a lot of the best lines, too.
And the storyline itself. Maybe it _was_ derivative of "Star Wars"...there were lightsabers, a female robot with a Princess Leia hairstyleish look, a giant sphere that destroyed planets, a saber duel between an old respected warrior and the evil bad guy...the warrior's spirit speaking to the young warrior type and helping him win...okay, in some ways it was _very_ derivative of "Star Wars". All the same, it was a _good_ story, quite action-packed, very exciting, and gripping to those of us of the right age to enjoy it. The people who liked the rest of the movie also liked its heavy-metal-oriented soundtrack, and the quality of the voice talent was also incredible. Robert Stack, Eric Idle, Leonard Nimoy, Orson Welles...? You just didn't usually find people like that voicing animated movies outside of Disney.
In retrospect, perhaps "Transformers" might have done better for Hasbro, not losing so much money, as a direct-to-video release, as its successor, "G.I. Joe: The Movie" was released the following year. All the same, I personally think "Transformers: The Movie" was not such a bad film, and perhaps deserves a bit more respect than it's gotten from professional critics. As an admittedly biased fan, my rating is 8 out of 10.
This review is copyright 1997 by Christopher E. Meadows. Permission granted for free distribution over Usenet and associated archival, and for archival and display associated with the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com). All other distribution requires permission from the author.
-- Chris Meadows aka | Author, Team M.E.C.H.A., Crapshoot & Co. Robotech_Master | on the Superguy Listserv (bit.listserv.superguy) robotech@eyrie.org | With a World Wide Web homepage located at robotech@jurai.net | http://www.eyrie.org/~robotech/index.html
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