Transformers The Movie: Ultimate Edition
By Mal Simons, Blockbuster.co.uk

Just so you know, I was a massive Transformers fan when I was a kid. I first saw Transformers the Movie when I was about six years old and it was permanently placed in my VCR for the next year. It used to drive my parents crazy. I was more than a little excited at the chance of reviewing this super-duper edition of the movie from my childhood that I so loved.

For those of you unfamiliar with Transformers basics (as far as the TV series is concerned); The Transformers are giant robots from the Planet Cybertron. While organic lifeforms developed on Earth, on Cybertron, life is very different – life has evolved in a robotic form. Each of these robots is capable of transforming themselves into another form. Traditionally Autobots transform into land based vehicles and Decepticons into jets – it makes it easier for them to get around. There a few exceptions to this rule however and there are Transformers who can transform themselves into dinosaurs, insects, tape players and even guns.

For over four million years, a war has raged between the peace loving Autobots and the evil and twisted Decepticons. Back in the cretaceous period, a ship carrying the elite forces of both of these rival groups of Transformers crashed on Earth and became buried on the planet, the occupants were only reactivated in 1984, however since then they have begun their war anew.

The Decepticons have won control over the planet Cybertron and are trying to plunder the natural resources of Earth (Al Gore will not be pleased!); the Autobots are the good guys, trying to stop them.

The movie is set in the future – 2005(!) The heroic Autobots are set to retake their homeland with support from an Autobot city built on Earth; the Decepticons are aware of the impending invasion and instead decide to make an all out assault on Autobot City – crushing the Autobot cause forever. On reflection it’s quite a reasonable thing for them to do… especially given that they’re evil anyway. However as a child, I never appreciated this at the time.

“All we need is a little energon and a lot of luck”
- Optimus Prime

Anyway this is when the death fest begins as the Decepticons burst their way onto an Autobot shuttle enroute to Earth, mercilessly slaughtering the Autobots onboard. Using the captured shuttle to get through the Autobot’s early warning systems; they are only discovered when young Autobot Hot Rod takes his human friend Daniel up to lookout mountain to watch the shuttle land. Firing on the shuttle, Hot Rod alerts the other Autobots to the impending invasion. The fight for Autobot City then begins.

What is striking even to this day, is the sheer brutality of the combat in Transformers – as the filmmakers were told to kill off the discontinued toy lines and introduce new characters, they began an unrelenting killing spree destroying robots on both sides of the political divide.

“One shall stand, one shall fall”
- Optimus Prime

The most shocking death in the film is one of the most memorable and talked about scenes in any animated movie – the death of the iconic hero Optimus Prime. When first shown at the cinema, there was an uproar from parents as their youngster’s cried over the death of their hero. At the time, the filmmakers did not realise that Optimus Prime was such an iconic figure, they believed given that these were simply robots, characters could be replaced with relative ease. It is this death that makes Transformers so memorable and popular to this day. This is why we have an Ultimate Edition to enjoy today.

It is not long before both sides discover a threat to them all that is impossible to ignore – a monster planet called Unicron that is devouring everything in its path heading for their small planet of Cybertron. After the Decepticon leader Megatron is mortally injured in a fight with Optimus Prime, his body is found by Unicron floating in space and he is rebuilt as Unicron’s slave – Decepticon leader Galvatron. He reclaims the Decepticon throne in rather a dramatic fashion and then travels to Earth to destroy the remaining Autobots, and along with them, the only thing that can possibly defeat his master – the Autobot Matrix of Leadership that has passed from Optimus Prime to the current leader Ultra Magnus.

“Prime…I’m just a soldier”
- Ultra Magnus

The Autobots must make their way across the galaxy, defending themselves against Galvatron and other threats on their way home to stop Unicron and save Cybertron by letting the Matrix ‘light their darkest hour’.

Part action adventure, part coming of age epic, part rock and roll adventure; Transformers The Movie is an animated rarity – a one of a kind film that is as good today as it was back then. It has an amazing cast from ‘Brat Pack’ member Judd Nelson (Hot Rod) right through to Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy (Galvatron) and Monty Python’s Eric Idle; this film also has the honour of being the last film that Citizen Kane’s Orson Welles ever ‘starred’ in – he voiced the monster planet of Unicron and after coming in for a day, he was dead within weeks (hopefully it wasn’t the canteen food that killed him).

“I considered sparing your wretched little planet Cybertron…but now, you can witness its dismemberment”
- Unicron

This special edition version of this iconic movie includes a feature length commentary made by a Transformers expert, all the trailers and movie clips; an interview with one of the writers and even a Q&A with Peter Cullen, the man who voiced Optimus Prime. For the Transformers fan this release is simply unmissable. For everyone else… it’s an iconic picture and well worth a watch – a chance to remember the eighties and the wonderful toylines!

So what are you waiting for? Transform and roll out…or at least… add this to your list now.