Transformers (cartoon, 1986)

A new threat has appeared in space - a huge transformer Unicron . The planet Leeton was his next victim, and only a few residents managed to escape on ships.

2005 year . 21 years have passed since the transformers arrived on Earth, but the war between the Autobots and Decepticons continues. The Decepticons, as before, own Cybertron , but the Autobots have fixed on its two satellites, where they are preparing a counteroffensive. Optimus Prime sends Ironheid and several other fighters to Earth, in the city of Autobots ^[2] , for the energy. Immediately after their departure, the overheard “cassette player” Lazerbeck returns to Cybertron and reports everything to Megatron . The Decepticon squad, led by Megatron himself, intercepts the Autobot shuttle to enter the city, bypassing the early detection systems; the clash kills the entire crew, including Ratchet .

On Earth, Hot Rod and Danny Whitwicks saw an approaching shuttle. Hot Rod found aboard the Decepticons and opened fire on them, forcing Megatron to go on the offensive.

The garrison commander Ultra Magnus ordered Springer and Arsi to activate the defensive system. Starscream attacked them, but failed to break through. Optimus Prime flew to Earth with a detachment of dinobots and several Autobots.

In the morning, with the help of the Destroyer, the Autobot defense was broken, but at that time reinforcements arrived. While the Dinobots dealt with the Destroyer, Optimus Prime went to battle with Megatron. Finally, the leaders of the warring parties came together in a duel, as a result of which both suffered heavy injuries. Starscream, gloating, commanded a retreat; the surviving Decepticons hurriedly plunged onto Astrotrain and flew away.

Optimus Prime soon died of wounds, before passing the death to the Leadership Matrix Ultra Magnus, as the most worthy and saying that the Matrix will open to illuminate the darkest day of the Autobots. Unicron saw this.

Meanwhile, Astrotrain said it was overloaded and demanded to lighten the weight. The constructikons proposed throwing the wounded Decepticons, which Starscream did not fail to take advantage of, having pushed Megatron still alive into space.

Megatron, Skyworth , Thundercracker and insecticons attracted to Unicron. He offered Megatron a deal that he was forced to accept in the face of imminent death: a new body and army in exchange for the destruction of the Autobot Matrix. Unicron turned Megatron into Galvatron , and the other Decepticons into Skurge, Cyclone and Sweeps, who became his guard . On the new ship, Galvatron immediately set off for Cybertron, where Starscream was just being coronated. As soon as the newly minted leader of the Decepticons was about to make a throne speech, Galvatron shot at point blank range destroying the traitor, thereby restoring his power.

Meanwhile, Unicron absorbs the first satellite of Cybertron. Jazz and Cliffjumper try to fly away, but they suck in. This happens before Spike and Bumblebee , who transmit a distress signal to Earth. When Unicron destroys the second satellite, they activate the self-destruction system in the hope of undermining the monster from the inside, but the explosion does not harm him. Galvatron is trying to protest, saying that all the moons of Cybertron belong to him, but under the influence of powerful radiation is forced to put up with it. Unicron orders him to fly for the Matrix to Earth.

On Earth, they received a distress signal, after which Ultra Magnus ordered to return to the base. Autobots managed to start, but Galvatron caught up with them in space. The cyclone shot down one of the shuttles containing Hot Rod, Cap and dinobots, and its wreckage fell on the planet Quintess . However, the Ultra Magnus on the second shuttle managed to escape, sacrificing part of the ship. Galvatron is sure that he destroyed it with the Matrix, but he soon learns from Unicron that this is not so.

Ultra Magnus realizes that they will not get to Cybertron with such damage, and decides to repair the ship on the planet Junk . Unicron sends Galvatron there. Cap and Hot Rod are looking for Dinobots, but stumble upon unknown robots, they attack them and take them to their base. There they turn out to be witnesses of the court, where the condemned are dumped into the pit and are torn apart by sharctikons. The prisoners are locked up in a cell with Kraniks, the last survivor from Leeton. Before the execution, he managed to tell them about Unicron.

On the planet Junk, Galvatron attacked Ultra Magnus and the Autobots. Ultra Magnus, having sent his comrades to shelter, tried to open the Matrix, but could not. However, he refused to give up the artifact, for which the Swipes shot him. Galvatron takes the Matrix, but, instead of giving it to Unicron, decides to subjugate it to himself. In Quintess, Hot Rod and Capa are brought to trial and sentenced to death. However, they decided not to give up and joined the battle. When they began to be crowded, the Dinobots appeared and "put things in order", after which Grimlock ordered the Charctikons to attack the Quintessons. Having got rid of enemies, the Autobots flew away on their ship. On Dzhank they restored Ultra Magnus, and he told them where the Matrix is.

Galvatron threatens Unicron and tries to open the Matrix, but to no avail. Unicron, not paying attention to him, transforms into a huge robot and begins to destroy Cybertron. The Decepticons rush to repel the attack, but they can do nothing. Galvatron rages at point blank range, Unicron swallows it.

While the Jankions and Dinobots distracted, the Autobots managed to get inside Unicron, knocking out his eye. Danny, Arsie, Sprinter and Capa were attacked by a defense system, Hot Rod penetrated deeper and met Galvatron with the Matrix there. In the end, he manages to tear out an artifact that emits a dazzling radiance, turning Hot Rod into Rodimus Prime . He throws Galvatron into space and opens the Matrix. Unicron begins to fall apart, and the Autobots flee from it.

On Cybertron, Rodimus announces the end of the war and the beginning of an era of peace and prosperity. On the planet’s orbit, Unicron’s head remained to fly.

The soundtrack was first released in 1986 on phonograph records, cassettes and CDs ^[4] . It hit only 10 tracks.

In the future, expanded publications appeared: on the 20th anniversary of the film and in 2014.

Regarding the hit “The Touch,” Stan Bush said he had never heard of Transformers until the song was over. He and Lenny Macaluso wrote it under the influence of the images of Sylvester Stallone (“ Cobra ”) and Luis Gossett Jr. ^[5] . In the movie Iron Eagle , Gossett told the young pilot: "Kid, you've got the touch."

As a result, “The Touch” was perfect for the Transformers universe and turned out to be a cult song for many listeners. The author received feedback from fans who claimed that it changed their lives and inspired them in difficult times. For Bush, there was a kind of Eye of the Tiger . Therefore, he further participated in the creation of the soundtracks " Blood Sport " and " Kickboxer ".

In 2007, Bush rewrote the song at the suggestion of Paramount Pictures , in connection with the release of the Transformers action movie. But she never got into the movie. She, along with a remix, was included in the 2012 game Transformers: Fall of Cybertron . Another version ("The Sam's Theme") was not taken in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen .

According to the performer, “This is a double-edged sword. I suppose you have to thank that there is what you are known for. At least this is a positive song. ” ^[6]

The film was originally released in the United States by Family Home Entertainment in 1987 on VHS , Betamax and LaserDisc . The format is full - screen 4: 3 (1: 33.1). The original sound is stereo 2.0.

The release on DVD with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound took place in 2000 thanks to Rhino Entertainment ^[7] .

In 2007, Sony BMG Music Entertainment released a special two-disc version for the 20th anniversary of the cartoon, for the first time demonstrated the widescreen version of 1.78: 1 (16: 9) ^[8] . Additional materials are included there: trailer, remote and alternative scenes, storyboards, comments by director Nelson Sheen, story consultant Flint Dill and actress Susan Blue (voice of Arsie) ^[9] .

September 13, 2016 there was a version on two Blu-ray in honor of the 30th anniversary, published by Shout! Factory ” ^{[10] [11]} . The difference from the previous ones was in the aspect ratio of 1: 35.1 and 1: 85.1, as well as in the sound of DTS -HD Master Audio 2.0 and 5.1. The film was re-scanned and converted to 4K ^[12] , in additional materials there is a brief comment by a FotoKem laboratory employee that the original scan was carried out with a resolution of 5K . Also noticeably improved detail. Instability of the image is present when overlapping in the episode of dating Hot Rod and Daniel Whitwick and a slight fluctuation in the DEG logo at the very beginning of the film.

On September 27, 2018, the film was screened in US cinemas with the support of Fathom Events, Hasbro Studios, and Shout! Factory ” ^[13] .

The film received controversial reviews from critics and viewers, as it was very different from the series. The full-length version came out darker and more serious, resulting in a PG rating .

Karin James of The New York Times noted that the brutality shown in the cartoon and the murders of several main characters do not fit well with the plot, which will be interesting only to young children. In her opinion, Transformers are a combination of commerce and children's imagination. For adults, it may seem like an evil joke that in the last role, Mr. Wells portrayed an entire planet ^[14] .

The fees amounted to only 5 million dollars. Despite the good animation, Transformers were not successful at the box office, only bringing them to the next season of the animated series: the Autobots had a new leader, Rodimus Prime, and Megatron turned into Galvatron.

Most of the drama turned out to be dictated by purely commercial considerations - the characters were based on Hasbro toys. And most of the heroes died only because their models were no longer produced, replaced by new ones ^[15] .

Despite criticism, there was a high-quality soundtrack from composer Vince Dicola, who had previously worked on music for Rocky 4 .

Later, the negative reaction gave way to a positive one, and the film became a cult classic among fans of transformers and Western animation lovers of the 1980s ^[16] .

In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter , in connection with the release of the Bumblebee action movie, recalled that for 32 years the Transformers cartoon began to look better than Michael Bay and even restarting the franchise. Although the plot is erratic, strange, the subsequent paintings lack the craziness and that crazy bravado that Grimlock costs with his cesium salami and “My not healthy, my king!” ^[17] .

Randy Miller from DVD Talk noted that many had seen Transformers: The Movie a thousand times in their childhood and were fascinated by toy figures. Even if you do not take into account the pathos, banal one-liners, strange characters and a memorable soundtrack, given the circumstances, you still get a pretty solid story of good and evil. The experience was overwhelming at the age of 7 due to the death of Optimus Prime, when children and adolescents were emotionally turned over from killing their protagonist. Obviously: at that time they did not know that the sudden appearance of Hot Rod as a leader only opened a new line of toys. Oddly enough, the creative team had no idea that Optimus was such a favorite among schoolchildren. Prime's unexpected death - not to mention the others - made young viewers around the world recoil in horror, burying the success of the film in movie theaters. This forced the creators to soften a little further history, where Prime still returned.

August 1986 both came and went - fortunately, after 20 years, instead of being mad at the film for killing his childhood friends, most are surprised at the fact that he had the courage to do so. For this reason, Transformers gradually gathered an army of fans, nostalgia is doing its job. No matter how strong the pink glasses are, in the first 30 minutes there are too many events to immediately understand them. As the plot develops, the narrative becomes confused, leading to a bloated ending. Just like Akira , only in smaller quantities ^[18] .

• The Transformers: The Movie on the Internet Movie Database
• Anime "Transformers: The Movie" in the Anime News Network Encyclopedia
• Transformers The Movie 20th Anniversary Edition DVD by Sony BMG - Region 1
• Transformers The Movie DVD by Metrodome - Region 2