Product: The Transformers - The Movie (1986)
Rating: 5.0
A modern animated classic
I grew up on the animated series "The Transformers". The animation back then is considered outdated by today's standards and the writing is relatively cheesy yet entertaining. And of course due to popularity, there had to be a Transformers movie. Here the animation is vastly superior than the original series. Unfortunately in the movie a lot of classic characters were killed off to introduce new characters. When I first saw this movie as a kid, I was thoroughly disappointed to see Optimus Prime killed off as well as Prowl, Ironhide, Rachet, Wheeljack, etc..etc... . Thankfully the dinobots remained intact (although where the heck was Snarl the stegosaurus in the movie?) as well as Bumblebee, Jazz, and Cliffjumper (the few classic characters that remained on board). Of course on the decepticon side, some of my favorite characters were changed: Skywarp, Thundercracker and the Insecticons, and even Starscream when Galvatron (i.e Megatron finally got his revenge). I was thoroughly impressed that the movie producers managed to get legendary actor Orson Welles to play the voice of the destructive planet/robot Unicron. Unlike the series, the movie takes a darker tone in the storyline by killing a good number of the original characters and intensifying the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, making the war more angst-ridden and filled with despair. And in the movie, the viewer sees a grown up Spike who has a son of his own. As far as new characters are concerned, I loved the introduction of new villains the Quintessans with their minions the Sharkticons. Again, I loved the improved animation in the movie. It adds a bit more depth to the characters themselves. The silly part of this movie I thought was when the autobots were leaving earth to escape Galvatron and his cronies was that they left behind Blaster and whatever remaining Autobots were left. Where was Skyfire? Or the Aerialbots? On the Decepticon side, the Combaticons? I know there are others but I just can't seem to name them at the moment. Nevertheless the movie is a good popcorn movie and pretty much remains faithful to the series despite the loss of some of my favorite characters.