In Transformers: The Movie it's the year 2005, and the universe is going right down the toilet. Not only have the heroic Autobots lost their homeworld of Cybertron to the evil Decepticons, a giant metallic planet named Unicron is on the prowl, treating solar systems like a gigantic buffet and gunning for the Autobots' matrix of leadership. Fortunately, struggling against the odds is what heroes do best, and it is indeed hard to keep a good robot down. As the battle rages from space to earth and back into space again, characters die, others are reborn and, ultimately, good must face evil in a climactic battle for the fate of the universe. When this animated film arrived in American cinemas in the mid-1980s, the Transformers--both the robot toys and the television show--were at the height of their popularity. Transformers The Movie took these battling 'bots and, er, transformed them into film stars, albeit of the cult variety. The animation is a bit touch-and-go: at its best, it's up there with classic Japanese manga; at it's worst, it reeks of horrible 80s assembly-line productions. And the plot is little more than an advert for the (then) new toys, many of which show up as main characters in the film (Hot Rod, Kup, Ultra Magnus, Galvatron, etc). However, some of the action sequences are indeed spectacular--especially the battle for Autobot City--and the violence is a bit intense for what is, basically, a kid's film (they may just be robots, but they still die, apparently). What really makes this film more than meets the eye, though, is the names who show up as voices in the credits: Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, Robert Stack, Eric Idle and even Orson Welles, in one of his last roles, as Unicron. On the DVD: In order to please the growing numbers of hardcore Transformers fans out there, the DVD version of Transformers: The Movie has been beefed up with loads of extra features: the original theatrical trailer, introductory footage taken from the BBC's I Love 1984 and a picture gallery with music are all excellent additions, but best of all is Takara's "The Four Soldiers from the Sky". Though the dubbing and translation are a bit poor, it's still a rare opportunity to see a Transformers episode that never aired outside of Japan.--Robert Burrow
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