THE Transformers THE Movie THE Apology Tour: We're Sorry for Killing Optimus Prime

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
IMG_1773.jpeg


So... this is a thing.


 
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Stepwise

...even Team Whirl.
Citizen
Ok. That's ridiculous - and funny - and completely unexpected.

I wonder how many takes the narrator needed, because he sounded close to cracking up a couple times.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Who did they get to narrate this? It sounds an awful lot like Brian Cummings.

Which, if it is, then major kudos to Hasbro for getting the narrator voice for all 80s/90s family/kids VHS tape advertising promos.
 

lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I'm almost certainly wrong about this, but it sounds like I've heard it elsewhere, and every time I think it's Chris Parnell, which it almost certainly is not.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Thinking more about it, I'm actually a little surprised they didn't get Victor Caroli to narrate this.
 

Agent X

Kreon Bastard
Citizen
This ad is so full of jive. With all the whining little heads they have at the beginning, all but about 2 or 3 of them would have weren't even born when the Movie came out and inflicted massive damage.

Is "The Neverending Story" gonna start with their "We're sorry we made you feel something" PR stint.

At least on the 1:27 mark of the video we can see Astrotrain's chest transformed properly.
 

Princess Viola

Dumbass Asexual
Citizen
i too love how the increasingly older manchildren who are still upset over hot rod killing their 80s cartoon dad 40 ******* years ago are now getting official corporate approval from hasbro. very cool i love this brand, i love nostalgia slop. can't wait for the 45th anniversary where they release some AI generated edit of TFTM where optimus doesn't die and instead personally apologizes to everyone who was upset as a kid in 1986 that it happened.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
i too love how the increasingly older manchildren who are still upset over hot rod killing their 80s cartoon dad 40 ******* years ago are now getting official corporate approval from hasbro. very cool i love this brand, i love nostalgia slop. can't wait for the 45th anniversary where they release some AI generated edit of TFTM where optimus doesn't die and instead personally apologizes to everyone who was upset as a kid in 1986 that it happened.
IMG_1787.gif


just noticed the typo in the thread title

transfromers
Complaining about a fun thing and pointing out minor spelling mistakes? You going for Internet Dweeb Bingo tonight?
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
Ten years ago, I would have been amused. At this stage, with most of the “kids” who actually watched this in theatres are now well into their 40s, if not 50s. I’m all for a good bit of fun, but given recent broader trends socially and within the brand Itself? I’m just kind of over all this pandering to aging crybabies As a general rule.
If there ARE fans still butthurt over this, then it’s well past time they buck up and get over it, the little bitches.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
Ten years ago, I would have been amused. At this stage, with most of the “kids” who actually watched this in theatres are now well into their 40s, if not 50s. I’m all for a good bit of fun, but given recent broader trends socially and within the brand Itself? I’m just kind of over all this pandering to aging crybabies As a general rule.
If there ARE fans still butthurt over this, then it’s well past time they buck up and get over it, the little bitches.
I'm over people who can't get over fandom wars from 20 years ago, on both sides.

I mean the video shows a bunch of stock images of toddlers crying in movie theatres. "Pandering to aging crybabies" isn't what I'd describe it as.
 

Stepwise

...even Team Whirl.
Citizen
It's Satire. Ridiculous, funny, unexpected satire.

(That's the word I should've used 15 posts ago. I'll now go on a tour complete with a social media campaign and apologize . . . )
 

Sciflyer

Two arms and one smile
Citizen
I like The Transformers The Movie. I watched it in the theater as a kid, and I appreciated it, warts and all. I made my peace with all the deaths/reformattings long ago. I still like watching it in a movie theater from time to time, if I get the chance. Seems like that chance might become more likely this year, so cool.
 

Exatron

Kaiser Dragon
Citizen
I'd like to watch it in a theater. Never got to do that before. I didn't get to see it for the first time until my local video rental store got it in. I rented it several times, generally watching it multiple times each rental.

The first time I rented it in particular, I watched it a bunch of times. Basically, I'd watch it, rewind it, and then start it again. Repeat until bedtime, and then repeat that each day until I had to return it. Each time, I'd bawl throughout Optimus's death scene. And each time, I'd be elated when Hot Rod became Rodimus Prime. I found it downright bizarre years later when I found out a lot of people hated Hot Rod because of Optimus's death.

It really did hurt watching Optimus die. However, I've only been joking when I've called the damaged SS86 figures Childhood Trauma Edition versions. I fully appreciate the humor here. I got a really good laugh out of this video.
 

lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Pretty sure this is Hasbro just having a bit of fun by leaning into what's become an indelible part of the brand's history. There's some humor in finally, belatedly, shifting from just rah rah celebrating the movie to acknowledging that oh yeah, that's also where THAT happened, and putting what's arguably a very "current" spin on it. The Reaction Video clips from people (which partly explains those too young to have been contemporaneous with the movie), the whole notion of an explicitly labeled damage control Apology Tour... It's a very postmodern bit, and a funny one. In this current era, nostalgia-mining is itself old hat, and legacy or anniversary celebrations are so commonplace they're becoming transparent as cash-grabs. So to bother to put a spin on Yet Another Anniversary Celebration is appreciated, and all the better that it's got some lolz to it.

That said, of course there are morons out there who'll think this is entirely sincere and that this company, who's been making money by selling them toys of Dead Optimus Prime, actually feels bad about killing off the character and is just now realizing it was a bad move (not, y'know, right after it happened, making them undo it), and is now approaching them on bended knee for forgiveness to not go broke, as if they ever stopped throwing money at the company. There's already "hurr durr 40 years late" posts, and I think at least one "why isn't Hot Rod delivering this apology", dusting off the unfunny joke they've milked for 40 years. Of course there are.

It's absolutely not that deep, but neither are some people.

Still, there's no point expecting any different, so I'm just tuning all that right out and enjoying this fun little gag.



That said, from childhood I've been wanting to see this in an actual theater. At the time I only ever saw it on borrowed bootleg VHS, then another borrowed bootleg VHS years later that was more tracking than Transformers, and it would be quite the experience to get this colorful sensory overload on a huge screen. "Dare" and "The Touch" and Orson Welles' voice in full surround, bathing in the big-screen light of Matrix glow and explosions? Mmm.

But then again, I'd have to watch it with a normie audience. I don't relish the idea of seeing it with a theater full of fellow fans, whom I can only picture as itching to get their jive in at the predictable times because they've had 40 years to practice their comedy routines and we're at an all-time peak for "make this about me" behavior as a society.

Of course they probably won't, not out in the real world with real people, and I'm probably just being a mis(f)anthrope. But ehh, it's not like such a return to theaters is ever going to happen in this corner of the woods anyway.
 
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