Transformers: The Movie turns 30 this year, and John DeLuna asks Don and Brian Kilby where it stands in 2016. They share where they first saw it and how the death of Optimus Prime hit them. They debate whether Unicron has faded into a plot device. Brian loves the movie but calls it junk food. Don makes the case for its animation, Arcee and The Touch.
Where They First Saw It
John opens with Orson Welles’s dismissive description of the movie via TFWiki, and Don defends it. Brian first saw the movie about six months after release, on a friend’s HBO recording, and sobbed over Optimus Prime at about age seven. Don saw it in theaters at 16, the Saturday after it opened, at the Carmike Cinema 6 in High Point. His mom steered him to it over the GoBots movie. John saw it at six with his father and was shocked by Prime’s death.
Where the Movie Stands at 30
John argues the movie’s lore peaked before Armada Unicron, when its characters still lacked good toys. Don says fans now remember it as a simpler time, and the endless reimaginings have taken some of its weight. Brian calls it both the high and low water mark of the G1 era. He has watched it hundreds of times but says it is not a good movie. The crew remembers movie night as a major BotCon event, and Don says it plays best on a big screen with fans.
The Death of Optimus Prime
Brian does not think Prime’s death was as big a miscalculation as fans believe, and says Ninja Turtles mania was coming anyway. Without the deaths, he says, the movie would be remembered like the G.I. Joe movie. Don says the shuttle scene hit him harder at the time. Prime’s death landed when Hot Rod became Rodimus Prime and Peter Cullen’s voice was gone. Don points to an upcoming IDW what-if comic about Prime surviving.
Unicron Then and Now
John is surprised how far Unicron has faded. Brian calls Unicron the second biggest plot device in Transformers after the Matrix, and says both came from the movie. Don says Unicron has become a MacGuffin, used for anything a story needs. He wants Unicron to be what Galactus once was to Marvel: an arrival that makes everyone panic.
Rodimus, Arcee and The Touch
Brian credits the movie with giving him Rodimus Prime and Galvatron, and with making the Dinobots more approachable. Don praises the animation and battles, Arcee as a female Autobot with real screen time, and the soundtrack. He compares The Touch to Let It Go from Frozen as a song that binds a generation to a moment. Don picks The Touch over Dare by a slim margin, while John and Brian both pick Dare. Lion’s take on the theme also gets praise.
Contributors: John DeLuna, Don, Brian Kilby
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