Second Screening - The Transformers: The Movie (1986) 40th Anniversary

Note: This review contains spoilers for The Transformers: The Movie (1986).

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie (1986), Hasbro held a promotional campaign framing it as an Apology Tour, centering on the trauma many ‘80s kids faced from the infamous death of Optimus Prime in the film and culminating in a special theatrical screening from Fathom Events. While this campaign was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, the recent passing of Optimus Prime voice actor Peter Cullen shortly before the planned screening made the whole thing very awkward, leading both Hasbro and Fathom to downplay the Apology Tour aspect, save for whatever was too late into production to change. Truth be told, before Peter Cullen’s passing, I was actually planning to skip the screening entirely until I learned there was to be a new animated coda attached to it, at which point I got tickets when they went on sale; similarly, I was also going to skip the upcoming 40th anniversary Blu-ray set (I already own the Rhino DVD, Sony DVD and both of Shout! Factory’s 30th and 35th anniversary sets since they all have different bonus features on them) until I learned said coda was going to be included. As for the screening itself, I still found the movie worth celebrating for Transformers fans, but felt mixed about the extra content.

Prior to the main feature, the Fathom Events trailers were frontloaded with ads for upcoming and current Transformers product, including the recent Studio Series toys based on the 1986 film. Following this, there was a rather touching tribute to the late Peter Cullen, featuring interview and recording booth clips interspersed with footage from the various versions of Optimus Prime that he voiced (specifically G1, Prime, the live-action films and the High Moon games).

The main feature, of course, has a familiar premise. In the year 2005, the Decepticons have reclaimed the planet Cybertron, leading the Autobots to go into hiding. When Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) sends a group of Autobots on a mission to Autobot City on Earth, the Decepticons, led by Megatron (Frank Welker), ambush the shuttle, killing every Autobot on board before launching an attack on the city. While a new group of Autobots defend Autobot City, Optimus Prime ends up fatally wounded in his battle with Megatron and passes the Matrix of Leadership to Autobot soldier Ultra Magnus. However, this leaves both the Autobots and Decepticons to deal with a new threat: the evil planet Unicron (Orson Welles), who seeks the destruction of the Matrix by any means necessary.

After 40 years, the movie still holds up well as both an important piece of Transformers history and as an epic tale in its own right. It does help to have at least some passing knowledge of the 1984 cartoon’s first two seasons going in, but after having seen the movie multiple times and read both the Marvel and IDW comic adaptations, I feel that what helps the movie work on its own is also the most controversial element: Hot Rod (Judd Nelson). The story features a number of worldbuilding elements and greater contributions to Transformers lore that are still felt to this day, some of which, such as the Quintessons, are even plot points in the Void Rivals comic book from Skybound’s Energon Universe, but Hot Rod’s character growth from a brash upstart to a leader worthy of the Matrix provides the main throughline that helps tie everything together.

Hot Rod (Judd Nelson, right) did nothing wrong.

For better or worse, Optimus Prime’s death scene is still talked about for a reason, especially in the context of the first two seasons of the 1984 cartoon where he was one of the main characters, and the passing of Peter Cullen made the scene hit even harder for me than in previous viewings to where I started tearing up a little as it happened.

This scene also acts as a catalyst for Hot Rod's character development. During Optimus' final confrontation with Megatron, with the latter begging for mercy after all he had done, Hot Rod interferes and jumps in to prevent Megatron from reaching for a hidden gun. Unfortunately, Hot Rod fails and is used as a shield to prevent Optimus from returning fire after a lethal shot. Following his impulsive act, Hot Rod begs for forgiveness, but the other Autobots, including Optimus himself, don’t hold this against him. Throughout the rest of the film, Hot Rod seeks redemption and ultimately receives it when the Matrix deems him worthy during the final fight against Galvatron and Unicron, transforming him into Rodimus Prime and letting him "light their darkest hour". In this same moment, the voice of Optimus himself even says "Arise, Rodimus," indicating that he had forgiven Hot Rod for his actions and found him worthy of being a Prime.

By comparison with the original cartoon, the animation is gorgeous, featuring a level of fluidity and shadow work that only a bigger budget would allow. However, this does not prevent some animation and coloring errors from slipping through, many of which I only began to notice after a number of rewatches over the years. As for this specific screening, which used the widescreen aspect ratio from the original theatrical presentation as opposed to the fullscreen aspect ratio it was animated in, I noticed a couple scenes where the visuals were a little blurrier than usual. This didn’t detract from the animation quality too much, but it does make for a somewhat less-than-ideal first experience.

Where the visual quality was affected, the audio quality was not. While some modern movies have gotten loud enough to make me start unironically wearing earplugs in the theater, the sound mixing for this screening was good enough that I didn’t feel the need to and the voice acting sounded just as good as I remembered. I will also admit that hearing Vince DiCola’s score on its own through a CD release, as well as a recent reissue of a pair of long-out-of-print BotCon supplemental CDs, helped that part of the soundtrack stand out a lot more this time around, creating a much fuller audio experience for me. As a testament to its enduring popularity, the soundtrack was recently re-recorded in a Reformatted Edition as part of the Apology Tour promotion, with Stan Bush and Vince DiCola themselves participating; from having heard it myself, my thoughts on the Reformatted Edition skew positive, but it’s probably not something I would listen to as much as the original.

Unique to this screening is a new CG animated coda, Optimus Prime: Awakening, which takes place after Optimus Prime’s death in the film. The intent of the short was clear to me, that being Optimus learning to accept his fate, but the storytelling to get to that point felt a little rough. That said, I thought the animation was decent in how it translated the character designs to CG and interspersed it with clips from the movie when necessary. The voice acting was generally fine, but the best performances came from Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprising their respective iconic roles. With the knowledge that this short also represents Peter Cullen’s final performance as Optimus Prime, I thought he went out on a high note.

Throughout the franchise’s ups and downs, The Transformers: The Movie (1986) still stands as an important pillar in Transformers history and this 40th anniversary screening was a good reminder as to why it continues to be celebrated more than some of its contemporaries of the time. It may be a sub-90-minute toy commercial deep down, but it manages to work as a good story on its own due to its more epic scope and Hot Rod’s character development, not to mention a soundtrack that has stood the test of time. The anniversary theatrical run may be over, but now is as good a time as ever to revisit the film or even experience it for the first time.