In the 1970s, cartoons were heavily censored and not as profitable as they were now. To cut costs, Hannah-Barbera would recycle as much as they could to produce a show as cheaply as possible. This lead to a lot of bland and tasteless cartoons. This would change in the 1980s as television became deregulated, a move that both saved and ruined animation as we know it. Toy based cartoons were everywhere in the eighties, ranging from shows like G.I. Joe and My Little Pony to even the Rubik's Cube. One of the most popular of these shows was The Transformers, a cartoon about alien robots that can transform into other vehicles, machines or even animals. It was such a popular product that in the late eighties, The Transformers were given their own cinematic venture, simply known as The Transformers: The Movie.
After an attack on the Autobot City on Earth, leading to the death of Autobot leader Optimus Prime, the Decepticon leader Megatron gets summoned by a new threat to the Autobots, a massive planet-sized robot named Unicron. Now, the Autobots, scattered around other planets, and now lead by Ultra Magnus, must reunite and stop Unicron from destroying the Autobot moon base and destroying the matrix of leadership. The plot in this movie is a bit messy, there were times I could hardly tell what was going on. I got confused at how the Autobots became separated, and whether Megatron was turned into Galvatron or not, the movie didn't really make that part clear. The plot is not this movie's strongest aspect.
I think character wise you have a decent collection. I would not say the characters are highly complex, I would even say some of them are pretty bland. While not terribly memorable, none of the characters in this movie were really annoying. Hot Rod has a couple moments of character, but nothing really stands out. Even Unicron, the main threat of the movie, what makes him stand out is mostly his voice. Not a whole lot about these characters stands out in many ways.
While I'm on the subject, the cast in this movie is excellent. Peter Cullen and Frank Welker do the excellent performances they're known for, Scatman Crothers returns for his final role as Jazz, and he does a fine job as well. Leonard Nimoy was unrecognizable as Galvatron, Judd Nelson did a good job as Hot Rod, Eric Idle was perfectly cast as Wreck-Gar, John Moschitta, Jr. did a fine job as Blurr, and Orson Welles did an excellent and menacing performance in his final role as Unicron. Cast wise, the movie has an excellent cast, though I do wish we got more of the original cast as well. It's hard to really say that cast members like Casey Kasem or Chris Latta (Cliffjumper and Starscream respectively) were in this movie because their roles were so minimal. Other than that, the cast did a fine job.
When it comes to the animation, this movie has it's peaks and valleys. On the one hand, it is a very detailed film, you can see all kinds of bits and parts and debris. Sometimes however, some scenes can be too detailed, which is only a problem in less than a handful of scenes, to be fair, but is still something I noticed. There is also a fair amount of bright flashing lights, so anyone that has problems with flashing lights would be wise to take precautions if you decide to view this movie. Aside from that, I noticed no animation flubs or any other major problems with the animation.
But let's be honest here, what really made this movie worth watching was the action scenes, and this movie has an abundance of them. All of them were really entertaining, and well done. A lot of the soundtrack matched perfectly with the action as well, and you see a fair amount of the carnage. Megatron stabs Optimus Prime with a chunk of rubble and you see not just it happen, but Optimus pulling it out and the damage it causes. You see characters get executed, an Insecticon's head get run over, a lot of this action is brutal, and I would recommend an adult be present if children are going to see this movie.
I think my only complain with the action is the odd choice of having a soft rock power ballad play during some of the fight scenes. It wasn't a terrible song, but it felt out of place hearing an 80s power ballad while being shown Megatron shooting Optimus Prime to death. It's a bit of a confusing decision is what I'm saying.
Overall, The Transformers: The Movie is one of the biggest products of it's time I've ever seen. Simple and messy plot, bland characters, soft rock power ballad and some fairly good, but still recognizable 80s art and animation. That being said, the action scenes were really what made this movie entertaining, it's a sickening and bloody sight that will entertain the young child that enjoyed blowing up spaceships in their backyard. It's a movie you have to have fond memories of to really love it, but as a newcomer, I was entertained by what I was given. I'm not sure if this movie is better than the Michael Bay live-action movie, the first one, but as a whole, I found it entertaining. If you have an hour and a half to kill and want to see some entertaining action scenes, there are worse ways to spend your time.
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