“The Transformers: The Movie” from 1986 created many memories for young kids, but how well does the movie hold up to modern day? I, Brianna Graham, set out to answer this question, along with my dad: Jason Graham.

To be clear, I would consider myself a casual Transformers fan, having watched and read a good chunk of the media. Jason, on the other hand, does not have strong, lingering memories of the cartoon.

He had at least a dozen of the toys, noting a couple of the Dinobots, and when questioned about characters he liked, he said “semi guy” and “plane guy”. Nevertheless, he remembers enjoying Transformers when he was a kid.

Keep a note

The Transformers franchise began with one main goal: to sell toys. As such, the cartoons and this movie were created to be an advertisement for kids. Here is an article that discusses Transformer’s history.

Keep another note

This should go without saying, but this article will include spoilers for “The Transformers: The Movie”.

Thoughts before watching

Jason was questioned on his thoughts before the movie was started. “Will it change my thoughts on Transformers now that I’m older,” Jason said, “Back then I liked it, now I’m going to wonder if it’s funny to watch.”

My own thoughts before watching was simply curiosity about how this older film would look, sound, and play out. Additionally, I was excited to see my favorite characters on screen again.

Plot summary

The plot of The “Transformers: The Movie” jumps from the twists and turns faster than Deception gunfire. The main plot follows Hot Rod and his fellow Autobots who are urgently trying to return to Cybertron. They need to stop Unicron from devouring the planet. All the while, the Autobots are being hunted down by Galvatron, and his group, who are out to destroy the Matrix of Leadership.

That’s a fistful of Transformers terminology, here’s a quick explanation for each:

➥ Autobots and Decepticons

In general, Autobots are the good guys and Decepticons are the bad guys.

➥ Cybertron

The home planet where Autobots and Decepticons hail from.

➥ Unicron

The main antagonist of this movie. He devours planets, creates Galvatron, and forces him to help.

➥ Galvatron

Galvatron is another antagonist, who was once Megatron. The leader of the Decepticons.

➥ Matrix of Leadership

An item held by the current Prime, the chosen leader of the Autobots. It carries immense power and can be used to stop Unicron.

Thoughts after watching

“Non-stop action, lot of killing, lot of stuff you wouldn’t see in today’s cartoons,” Jason said.

As I strongly hinted at earlier, the plot of The “Transformers: The Movie” moves incredibly fast. Jumping from fight scene to fight scene. Characters are introduced and immediately thrown into the fray. Familiar faces from the cartoon make brief appearances, only to be eliminated on screen.

The most shocking moment for me was Optimus Prime’s death. I knew it was coming, as I saw spoilers of the movie, but seeing it unfold on screen still caught me off guard. The director held nothing back.

Jason and I agreed that the visuals help up well to modern times. Not only was the animation itself done well, there is a unique charm to the old style of its animation. While there were some errors, most blatantly with Rumble and Frenzy’s coloring error, these were not game changing.

As for the audio, the voice acting was great. Familiar characters kept their original voice actors from the cartoon. New voice actors fit their character perfectly, helping the movie come together. There was nothing to note with the sound effects as they were just alright.

The music is heavy 1980’s, reasonably so. Songs in the movie include: “The Touch”, by Stan Bush; “Nothin’s Gonna Stand In Our Way”, by Spectre General/Kick Axe; and “Dare to Be Stupid”, by “Weird Al” Yankovic.

In all, Jason said the movie felt the same as it did when he was a kid. Despite its flaws, the movie delivers plenty of action, nostalgia, and a bold storytelling approach. In the end, it was an advertisement for a new line of toys, and it did exactly that.

The movie can be found for free on YouTube or through this link: Transformers: The Movie.