Post by StevePulaski on Mar 2, 2020 10:50:45 GMT -5
The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Directed by: Nelson Shin
Directed by: Nelson Shin
Rating: ★★½
NOTE: This film was recommended to me by Nick J. for "Steve Pulaski Sees It," a yearly event where I take recommendations from readers.
I'm always both hesitant and hyper-aware of my ignorance when I choose to review films based on TV shows I didn't watch growing up. I had the same conflict watching Pokémon: The First Movie, and after my aversion to it, I passed on the sequels. I've contemplated doing a mini Digimon movie marathon but have refrained for the same reason. Now, based on a recommendation, I'm faced with The Transformers: The Movie, another film based on a TV series I didn't regularly watch as a kid. Not even the Transformers toys interested me much. I'm not sure you need to be a fan of the series in order to appreciate the 1986 feature, but it probably would help a great deal.
The Transformers: The Movie is a chaotic 85 minute battle sequence between the Optimus Prime-led Autobots and the Megatron-helmed Decepticons with the fate of the planet Cybertron at stake. It takes place after the second season of the Transformers cartoon series, which ran four seasons from 1984 to 1987. Early in the film, a devastating attack on Autobot City leaves numerous dead and prompts the rise of Unicron (voiced by Orson Welles of all people, in his final film role). Following the attack, the Autobots include Hot Rod (Judd Nelson, The Breakfast Club), Ultra Magnus (Robert Stack), and the young human Daniel Witwicky (David Mendenhall).
The film is a surprisingly dark affair with no ambiguity in showing the effects of genocide and the casualties that come with war. It's a brave creative venture that subverts the inherently harmless Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe of the series with a degree of bleakness not usually prevalent in the material. The animation is colorful and vibrant; an assortment of regular and irregular polygons contextualized to give the robots dimension and characteristics, even though I couldn't tell you the aesthetic differences between Megatron and Galvatron. It's enticing to watch, even more than 30 years later seeing as films of this nature are simply a relic of the past.
Few animated films could boast such an eclectic cast for that matter too. Beyond Welles — whose reaction to his own role has conflicting reports — we have Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy loaning his voice to the aforementioned Galvatron, the eminently talented Susan Blu, who would go on to provide voice-work in Jem and Nickelodeon's Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and radio legend Casey Kasem.
One thing I wasn't expecting was the rocking soundtrack, comprised of pop and glam metal. Stan Bush gets two rousing pop ballads in "The Touch" (the film's unofficial theme song) and "Dare," both energetic works of pop rock that sound like Phil Collins spent an evening with Jefferson Starship. I was elated to hear "Weird Al" Yankovic's classic "Dare to Be Stupid" put to great use during a late montage; its presence is effective in undercutting some of the gloom that comes after an hour of watching an army of Autobots and Decepticons being pummeled into submission. Dripping with synths and power ballads, the soundtrack is unequivocally the most satisfying element in The Transformers: The Movie, for it works two ways in setting the mood and elevating it whenever it risks becoming to grim.
Alas, the film is a muchness; a cacophony of violence and mayhem designed to appeal to young children and adults who get the warm fuzzies whenever they revisit it. I found it difficult to sympathize with any of the Autobots insofar that I'm not familiar with their plight (I assume I'll be lectured by some in the future) nor does the film provide much in the way of "human" interest, using that term loosely, to them as characters. The entire film is essentially one long climax, and if you're invested in the series, it's undoubtedly a high-stakes battle. It's one I'm not willing to criticize too intensely, but one I'm not overly eager to embrace either.
Voiced by: Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, Robert Stack, Susan Blu, Orson Welles, David Mendenhall, and Casey Kasem. Directed by: Nelson Shin.