Product: The Transformers - The Movie (1986)
Rating: 4.0
"Tell Grimlock about Petro Rabbits again."
I just recently purchased this remastered version of Transformers: the Movie and I was pretty impressed with the color correction that brightened up and revealed more of what to see on the characters, planets, moons, and surroundings. Yet some shaded areas deserved to remain untouched to show definition between light and dark areas. The new underwater ripple effect with Hot Rod and Kup looks really good and they cleared up that orange yellow underwater haze from the original.As far back as I remember before the animated movie, the Transformers made their first commercial televised appearance promoting the release of their debut in a 4-part comic book mini-series from Marvel Comics. That commercial caught my attention when I was a kid back in the 80's, the comic book made a huge impact for a marketable toy product line which led to a 3-part animated mini-series that prompted for the animated series for several seasons to the height of the Transformers' popularity for the animated movie that continued the animated series for several more seasons until the Transformers popularity died down. Until 2004 and last year, the Transformers were reactivated by IGW Publishing that relaunched their popularity for alternate versions of the G1 Transformers which leads us to the remastered version and the upcoming live-action movie for 2007. (Whew! Who's up for a coffee break?)Yet it's hard to believe it has been 20 years since "The Movie" was released in theaters in the summer of 1986. It didn't draw a high box office rating when I was one of a few mid-teen year olds watching this movie in a theater that recently closed down which became another Good Guys store that recently closed down as well. Normally any moviegoer would've expected a movie that earned critcal acclaim after several decades would get an anniversary re-release, but the Transformers? Come on, be serious! "Heavy Metal" would be acceptional but, those Autobots and Decepticons skyrocketed to popculture status.I've only seen a few of the bonus features so I don't want to ruin it for anyone else who plan on purchasing this item. Not like how the other reviewers have done, several leading characters were killed off especially, the big shocker on the Death of Optimus Prime, I've seen the preview on Amazon showing the cast and crew discussing their roles in the movie. So I have yet to see the rest.In a movie theater, the live-action trailer came up when I was going to see "Pirates Of The Caribbean 2". I started laughing in embarrassment and disbelief going, "Oh my god!" when the Transformers title came up. It's like, they can't be serious! I wasn't sure if I would see it when it comes out. As for the live-action "sneak peek," Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay summed up what they had in mind about their movie project. And I was surprised they were very serious about making this movie to be believeable as possible. The robots will look similar in design to Robocop 2 but not how they appear in the comics and animation. Sooooo, on my 'To watch or Not to watch' meter, it's moving slightly close towards 'To watch' but nowhere near 'Definitely'.