The fandom and the 1986 movie - a masterpiece or "the end of G1 as we know it"?

Starfield · Post by **Starfield** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:13 pm

The first part was great. They had to set up a completely new status quo with Decepticons ruling Cybertron and Autobots defending outlying moonbases. They had to sell that in just the first couple of minutes in a believable way and they did a great job.

Then they just started throwing in concepts out of left field that they did not do a good job in selling. The Matrix, Unicron, and Prime seemded to have a personality transplant. "'Till all are one!" What the heck is that? Prime got all mystical all of a sudden. I guess getting your chassis kicked in will do that to you. Why did Unicron want to eat Cybertron so badly? He was pretty obviously thrown in as a really dangerous bad guy for the Transformers to battle for no good reason. What's this Matrix thing and why exactly can it stop the prevously mentioned really dangerous bad guy? Who knows?

Oh, the animation and most of the music was really good (except most of the singing parts). I loved the Unicron theme. They still couldn't help the occasional animation error though.

The real problem was that I was getting older by then and not really interested in putting the effort into getting to know new characters. My interest in Transformers pretty much just faded after the movie. The toys didn't help. I didn't like the toys and I saw it as the start of a trend of Transformers not transforming into anything recognizable. Sure they were more durable, but they changed into bland "futuristic" cars and spaceships with (more often than not) pastel painjobs.

Springer007 · Post by **Springer007** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:54 pm

I enjoyed it, still do, even with the deaths of some of the beloved characters aside. The most amazing thing I found interesting was the use of color (illusion of metallics and electronics), and great animation style. It made it worth being called a movie. And even with the end of the movie, and start of Season 3, at least it picked up where it left off at. Very few movie cartoons do that in the actual series. Look at Dragonball Z movies, very few if none, ever pick up in the series entirely after the movie - but they do have great animation and illusions with the use of color being done correctly. I will admit I haven't see season 2 leading up to the movie, if it does at that. Hot Rod, Kup, Ultra Magnus, Arcee and Springer did bring in more personality to the cast. Each one had a real apparent flaw in each personality that even a first timer might pick up: UM with his self doubting and reluctance for leadership - albeit his leadership was unflinching and disciplined, Hot Rod with his cockiness and brash nature, Arcee with her Prime-like care for others before herself, Springer with the tough guy persona and a heart of gold to back it up, and Kup with his grumpy, knowledge filled lectures. If one hadn't seen the series to begin with, at least these main characters became apparent and personified prime's motto of "freedom is the right of all sentient beings". Anyways, not to ramble too much, it was a great movie for it's time. TF '07 was, but I still feel that Bay could have really learned from the past and the movie could have been much better in it's own right.

Dinobot · Post by **Dinobot** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:31 pm

I can see the flaws now as an adult in the 1986 movie but damn it I still just love it so much. There are so many scenes which still make my the hair on the back of neck stand up.

Grufflock · Post by **Grufflock** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:44 pm

C'mon..It must have been a masterpiece, Look at all the stuff Star Wars nicked from it....

:glance:

But on the other hand, it is a wonderful piece of 80's animation. It's got some very funny lines, some truly awesome fight scenes, and I blame both the Prime/Megs fight and Leonard Nimoy's Galvatron for me being the card carrying flag waving geek I am today.

And life would be so DULL without reading a hourly rant about Wheelie.....

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:05 pm

Now, hang on - Simon and IDW told us Wheelie's okay now. Sure, their evidence wasn't too compelling, but you legally can't poke fun at him now. Not without Cosplay Ryall coming round your house anyway.

Hmm, that made no sense. The more you drink, the less sense you make. Weird.

Springer007 · Post by **Springer007** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:55 am

Cliffjumper wrote:Now, hang on - Simon and IDW told us Wheelie's okay now. Sure, their evidence wasn't too compelling, but you legally can't poke fun at him now. Not without Cosplay Ryall coming round your house anyway.

Hmm, that made no sense. The more you drink, the less sense you make. Weird.

I have a feelign Wheelie is going to be some sort of insane carnie worker type in the upcoming spotlight (i always thought wheelie was a girl too for a bit, the voice from the movie sounds girlish...). Mebbe it'll be a success for the character, but maybe it'll be a pitfall and we will never hear about him again....

Energon Hot Shot · Post by **Energon Hot Shot** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:29 am

Springer007 wrote:I have a feelign Wheelie is going to be some sort of insane carnie worker type in the upcoming spotlight (i always thought wheelie was a girl too for a bit, the voice from the movie sounds girlish...). Mebbe it'll be a success for the character, but maybe it'll be a pitfall and we will never hear about him again....

Spotlight: Wheelie came out months ago. I have it. :\