speaking of transformers...

ok, so with the new transformers movie coming, i decided to watch the oh-so-classic, 1986 animated one on dvd.

and oh man... awesome.








the above image is a character hot rod - voiced by judd nelson - with the "autobot matrix of leadership." that's right. matrix. of. leadership. what it really amounts to is a funny little light up sphere wih handles that apparently gives autobot leaders the power to... ummm... lead, and is the only thing that can destroy unicron
(voiced by orson wells, in his last film role... which, on some level is awesome and in another is somewhere along the same lines as the last raul julia's last film to be in theaters having been "street fighter.")



so, awesome plot aside, this movie has some major... well.... things.

1. deaths. lots of them. optimus prime, ironhide.... megatron (though he comes back as "galvatron"), even starscream buys it (disintegrated). and it's all so... violent. megatron shoots ironhide point blank in the head AFTER having already more or less destroyed him. and this was for kids...
2. swearing. just for a second, bumblebee - innocent bumblebee, who always seemed to be a kid on the cartoon, if only due to his size (a role taken up by hotrod, before he becomes "rodimus prime"), on seeing that unicron is on the way to devour the moon their one - yeah, devour... it's sort of a galactus rip off, really... with a bit of death star thrown in for good measure - says "oh shit, what are we going to do now?" why? who knows. was the swearing necessary? it definitely gave it it's pg rating but...
3. awesome 80's "rock" soundtrack (best song: "the touch" later immortalized by mark wahlberg in "boogie nights" (you've got the touch... you've got the power!) yeah, at times it seems sort of pointless and doesn't fit but... really, nothing says "transformers" to me like white lion on the soundtrack. the only non-metal track is weird al's devo homage "dare to be stupid," which also seems to feature a very odd dance party with several of the major characters.

despite everything above, the dinobots walk away with the best fucking thing in the entire movie award. seriously, when in doubt, give Grimlock something to say....

so, michael bay, maker of crappy big budget shite in the mid 90's, the gauntlet is thrown...