Starring Peter Cullen, Orson Welles, Judd Nelson, Robert Stack, Leonard Nimoy, Scatman Crothers, Eric Idle, Sue Blu, Frank Welker, Casey Kasem, Lionel Stander
Written By: Ron Friedman
Directed By: Nelson Shin
Studio: Sony Music / Sony Wonder
Buy on Amazon.com link

Okay, let’s just get one thing out there right off the bat Transformers: The Movie is the single greatest movie ever to exist ever. It gets even more points for overcoming its origins it essentially existed to get rid of the old characters and introduce a bunch of new toys, err, characters. Yet somehow it ended up being the greatest movie ever. I won’t say much about the plot, other than that it jumps the story from the TV show ahead by twenty years (it takes place in the far-flung future of the year 2005) and involves the battle against Unicron, a giant Transformer who threatens all life. Yeah, that’s right. ALL LIFE. But anyway, instead of a plot rehash, I’ll just give you a list of the most awesome aspects of the movie.

Top Ten Most Awesome Things About Transformers: The Movie

10. Insecticons being used as ramps whoo! Look at that head get crushed!

9. Megatron being tossed into space by Starscream Starscream finally gets his chance to lead the Decepticons. And he gets it by chucking a severely wounded Megatron out of Astrotrain. That’s just great.

8. The horrible horrible violence in the TV show, it was amazing for anyone to even get more than a minor injury. In the movie, dozens of characters are killed off within the first half hour. That’s hardcore.

7. The swearing You just didn’t hear lines like “Oh shit, what do we do now?” or “Open, damn it!” in 80s cartoons. Because 80s cartoons were obnoxiously sweet and innocent. Stupid 80s cartoons.

6. “First you crack the shell, then you crack the nuts inside!” I like to randomly throw this quote into my conversations. It confuses people. It’s great.

5. Unicron. He’s not just a robot, he transforms into a giant planet that flies around space eating other planets. And he’s voiced by Orson Welles.

4. Stan Bush’s “The Touch”. It’s simultaneously the most rockin’ and most inspirational song to come out of an 80s movie. In your face, “Eye of the Tiger”!

3. There’s a giant fight scene set to Weird Al’s “Dare to be Stupid”. Seriously. How often do movies do something that awesome? Not often.

2. The Autobots get their asses handed to them until Optimus Prime shows up and annihilates the Decepticons, once again proving that he’s the most awesome character ever.

1. Starscream blows his own foot off. I mean, come on. This is Starscream we’re talking about. And he blows off his foot. Enough said.

Okay, so there have been one or two DVD releases in the past, and I didn’t get them, and I’m glad I waited. First off, this set has two versions of the movie widescreen and fullscreen. There’s a great new surround-sound mix on the audio, and the image has been cleaned up and color corrected and looks AMAZING. There’s also a lot of special features. There are some interview segments with cast and crew (which are actually informative, rather than being purely promotional in nature like so many DVDs these days), audio commentaries, classic 80s toy commercials from both here and Japan, and a special episode called “Scramble City”. This episode is interesting. It was produced for and aired in Japan, after the series was cancelled, and served as a bridge between the second season of the show and the movie/third season. It starts with a brief recap of the first two seasons, then introduces new Combiners (Aerialbots, Stunticons, etc) while Ultra Magnus oversees the construction of Metroplex. Only problem is that it doesn’t have the original audio or subtitles or anything it plays ONLY with an English commentary track. But it’s still pretty cool. And it’s one awesome DVD set.

Features:
Autobot Matrix of Knowledge (Full-Length Movie Featuring Fun Facts and Trivia)
Commentary with Nelson Shin (Director), Flint Dille (Story Consultant) and Sue Blu (voice of Arcee)
Fan Commentary
Original Theatrical Trailer and TV Spots
Cinex and Credit Test
Photo Gallery
Scramble City Episode with Commentary
Re-mastering Side-by-Side Comparison
Transformers 2007 Live Action Movie Trailer and Special Sneak Peek
Activate Autobot City Trivia Game (DVD-ROM)
All-New Featurettes: “Death of Optimus Prime”, “Cast and Characters” and “Transformers Q&A” with Nelson Shin (Director), Tom Griffin (Producer), Joe Bacal (Producer), Flint Dille (Story Consultant) and Sue Blu (Voice of Arcee)
Promotional Trailer with Commentary
Test, Deleted/Alternate Footage with Commentary
Animated Storyboards
US and Japanese Toy Commercials
Scramble City Commercials
DVD-ROM Link to Exclusive Content
Easter Eggs on Both Discs!

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC

Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color
Standard 1.33:1 Color

Subtitles:
Spanish, French

Favorite Scenes: Optimus Prime showing up and single-handedly kicking the Decepticons’ asses, Galvatron shaking his fist at Grimlock
Rating: NR
Running Time: 84 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: