Forget Bambi's mother. For children of the '80s it was the death of Optimus Prime in "Transformers: The Movie" that had children crying their hearts out. That moment and other wonderful scenes from the film have been restored by Sony on the film's "20th Anniversary Special Edition" DVD release. The result is a labor of love that is more than meets the eye.
The story of the Transformers is simple. Two races of robots are at war for control of the planet Cybertron: the heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the evil Decepticons, commanded by Megatron. Their war came to Earth millions of years ago when an exploration ship crashed and was reawakened thanks to a volcanic explosion.
The film begins 20 years after the second season of the TV show with the Autobots and Decepticons now threatened by a common foe, a planet-sized Transformer called Unicron that devours planets and is voiced by Orson Welles (talk about typecasting). And now Cybertron is in its path. The only weapon capable of defeating Unicron is the Autobot Matrix of Leadership possessed by Optimus Prime.
Unfortunately the Autobots and Decepticons are too busy fighting the biggest battle of their war on Earth to notice. When Prime dies, he passes the Matrix to Ultra Magnus, but the Matrix has eyes for the rebellious young Autobot Hot Rod, voiced by Judd Nelson.
The film is a race against time for the Autobots who must find a way to save their planet and survive the onslaught of the Decepticons' new leader, Galvatron.
"Transformers: The Movie" is a classic and has now been given the release it deserves. The color corrections and restoration truly showcase the animation with its beautiful designs. The animation was all done by hand, and while maybe is not at the level of classic Disney movies or anime, it has a style of its own that lends itself to its time. The soundtrack is pure '80s arena rock and heavy metal that perfectly fits a movie about warring robots, and is made for the 5.1 Stereo re-master.
Finally, there is the wonderful cast from the TV series who are joined by an eclectic list of celebrities, including Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Scatman Crothers, Robert Stack, Leonard Nimoy and the aforementioned Orson Welles in his final role.
The special features for the set are worth twice the price of admission. The widescreen and full screen versions of the film are included along with trailers, TV spots and test animation. There are interviews with the cast and crew, commercials for the Transformers toys, a Japanese-only episode of the show, a DVD-ROM video game and a fan and director's commentary that reveals interesting facts about the film's production.
Finally there is a preview for the live-action "Transformers" movie coming this summer from director Michael Bay.
"Transformers: The Movie" is an animated classic. It proved that a cartoon could be powerful and send a strong message without being cute and cuddly. So pick this up and go back to 1986, a time when a PG rating meant explosions and guns and when one's only worry in the world was missing "Transformers" at 4 o'clock.
