The Transformers: The Movie

As a piece of film history, Transformers: The Movie is pretty weak. But as an entry into the lexicon of popular Eighties culture, the Transformers phenomenon is on par with Matchbox cars, G.I. Joe and (at the time) queen Barbie herself. Long live Optimus! Long live Transformers! Read full review

As an '80s curio and perhaps the only film to feature the voices of both Welles and That Guy From The Micro Machines Ad Who Talks Real Fast, it possesses a kitschy, low-budget charm. Read full review

The film actually unfolds in a reasonably engaging manner; one dramatically sophisticated sequence contrasting the goodies’ and baddies’ responses to their leaders’ respective demises stands out. The anime-inflected look is generally impressive too, although the power-rock soundtrack is unsalvageable. Read full review

Has cult status now but the plot is fiendishly complicated. Read full review

These robots transform in a flash; the colors are shocking pinks and electric greens; the film is packed with one-to-one combat, large-scale battles and exploding planets. Despite these improvements, though, the movie is not for anyone too grown-up. Read full review

This is yet another example of the Big Studio pushing out a film for the sole reason that they own the intellectual property and believe that we, like sheep, will see it because… well, we’ll see anything because we’re desperate for content. Read full review

There is so much action in the animated feature, The Transformers: The Movie, that you can't wait to get back into one of those Chrysler products whose vocabulary is limited to "A door is ajar," and "Thank you." [12 Aug 1986, p.C10]

In an effort to generate some excitement (and disguise the limits of the animation) director Nelson Shin keeps the camera constantly in motion. The Transformers has so many cuts that it looks like the film was developed in a Veg-O-Matic. Because it features ineptly blended drawn animation and computer graphics, The Transformers is billed as state-of-the-art. It seems more like state-of-the-marketing. [08 Aug 1986, p.8]

Hard to believe that this barely watchable animated cash-in from the heyday of those Robots In Disguise was the cinematic swansong of Orson Welles. [05 May 2007, p.17]