Transformers the Movie 40th Anniversary Tour

[LordGigaIce]

That said, I'd be very hesitant to say this takes place in the Sunbow-verse. They need an "All Hail Megatron" style coda to get it to fit in there.

Be quiet, or John Hasbro will hear you

That's the thing though; there are multiple continuities where peace has been achieved or the war is otherwise irrelevant. Multiple continuities where the Decepticons have actually been defeated. And we're not even talking about minor continuities either. Trying to portray it as some kind of multiversal constant, that it's some kind of a unstoppable inevitability that the only way to win is to not play... Not only does it not ring true, it's also a real negative stance to take, especially around a figure like Optimus, who is going to fight for what's right until the day he's offline.

In fairness, Armada kind of played with that too. With Unicron goading Optimus about how he was just as eager a participant in the War as Megatron was, and how it took both sides endlessly fighting to fuel Unicron. Megatron Galvatron and Optimus both realizing that deciding to end it in their own ways ends the madness. And it admittedly did a better job with that idea then this short did. Then again, they had a full length tv episode to explore that, the peeps here had twelve minutes. Then again, if you know you only have twelve minutes you gotta be smart about what you're tackling...

 

[Noip]

It's not a valid message though. At all. When the alternative is stepping backand allowing Megatron to enslave or slaughter anyone wearing a red symbol, you really have no choice. Contrary to the cliché it does not actually take two sides to make a war. But when a war is one sided we tend to call it a massacre.

 

[LordGigaIce]

It's not a valid message though.

Never said it was.

 

[Sabrblade]

It wasn't the worst thing ever, but it was definitely one of those things that was written like it thought it was better than it really was, as though it thought it had something really deep and thought-provoking to say when it was mostly just full of itself. It was built upon one potentially interesting idea, but executed so bizarrely to the point that almost none of it made any sense.

The whole argument of Optimus needing to move on from a never-ending war falls apart when we have countless examples of the war actually reaching a proper conclusion. Beast Wars itself even canonically states that the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons officially ends with the Autobots defeating the Decepticons, so it's not a never-ending war. It will eventually end, with the good guys victorious, even.

Animated is another case where the Great War ended a whopping four million years before the series' first episode, with that war likewise ending in the Decepticons' defeat. And even in cases where the Decepticons either successfully conquer Cybertron or ruin it to the point of it being inhospitable, the Autobots tend to make a comeback by the finale and restore everything back to order. Good triumphs over evil in this brand's motion-picture media, because this is a children's toy brand meant to sell plastic playthings to impressionable youngsters.

Also, the irony was not lost on me of TFTM having been a movie that wanted viewers to move on and accept Optimus's death, and now 40 years later it is accompanied by a brand new short that wants Optimus to move on and accept his own death. History may not always repeat, but certainly it does rhyme.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

In fairness, Armada kind of played with that too. With Unicron goading Optimus about how he was just as eager a participant in the War as Megatron was, and how it took both sides endlessly fighting to fuel Unicron. Megatron Galvatron and Optimus both realizing that deciding to end it in their own ways ends the madness. And it admittedly did a better job with that idea then this short did.

We would remember Armada as one of the best shows if it had just gotten a decent dub.

 

[Sabrblade]

We would remember Armada as one of the best shows if it had just gotten a decent dub.

Eh, even the best voice acting in the world wouldn't be able to save its first half from being so tediously dull (which is sadly still the case even in the better Japanese version)

 

[LordGigaIce]

We would remember Armada as one of the best shows if it had just gotten a decent dub.

I still love it, rushed dub and all.
I will die on this hill, Armada had both the best take on Unicron and the best Optimus/Megatron Galvatron final fight.

 

[lastmaximal]

Armada had some fascinating ideas at the core (I'm not fond of the kids being part of the Mini-Con origin like that, but it works well in context). A clean error-free dub script that got punched up as much as RID2001's and Cybertron's would elevate the dub immensely.

As for this short...

Part of the problem is that it quickly went off the rails from "you coming back will just prolong the fighting" to "you coming back will lead to a specific but undefined apocalyptic outcome that includes a terrible Bumblebee head design, Unicron checking out Earth before a meteor hits it, and your left hand becoming a glowy blue human hand".

Trite as it was, there was some validity (not a lot) to the question of the imbalance created by restoring one of the war generals to just keep the war going. But that wasn't good enough so they had to raise the stakes with weird portents of a destructive event. (As I've said elsewhere, not hard to see why people read this as maybe having intended to set something up.)

I don't mind a short that sends the meta message of having us accept Optimus' death by having Optimus accept his death. That would actually be GREAT. That is n a way what "Dark Awakening" did, in a more twisted but much more satisfying manner. But this went about it in a strange way. Rather than help Prime come to terms with it, the narrative all but threatens him with a scary alternative and browbeats (and just beats) him into accepting it. Then ends with him just giving in to the threat, for no reason other than it being brought up again ("haven't you learned yet"... from WHAT), and walking away to avert... Something.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Eh, even the best voice acting in the world wouldn't be able to save its first half from being so tediously dull (which is sadly still the case even in the better Japanese version)

Hard disagree. Later events wouldn't hit as hard as they do without that slow start.

 

[lastmaximal]

I'm not a fan of THAT slow a start, myself. Maybe cut or compress a few episodes. But I agree SOME chill, idyllic episodicness in the first handful of episodes helps sell the escalation later.

But again, maybe even the slow meandering pace would work well if the script weren't so flat. I can put up with a lot if the characters are clever and engaging and the interactions aren't half "huh you serious" and half "my blood sugar". Then again, this can only go so far before it starts to feel like the Bay films' habit of dubbing in lines said just off-camera to make sense of what footage they cobbled together on-camera. But for Armada it might be enough... For a show like Energon I don't know.

 

[MrBlud]

My take from the Awakening short, which I’m positive was neither the Director or Hasbro’s intention, was that “G1” Optimus and the overall “evergreening” of the franchise is locking it into the same creative death spiral that killed it back before Beast Wars and that he needs to move on so that other, new heroes (even ones still named Optimus Prime) can carry on the fight.

The Prime flashbacks they used (G1, Movie, Prime, Animated) are the most G1 coded and the ones they didn’t (AEC, RiDv1, etc ) are rather drastic design departures.

Very metatextual, so again I don’t think that’s what they *intended* to convey and obviously the stinger with the Matrix kinda goes against it too but those were the broad strokes of how I viewed it.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Hard disagree. Later events wouldn't hit as hard as they do without that slow start.

I'm also a Headmasters fan, which most other people find boring. And Victory, which is like Armada in that people think the start is kinda dull before it picks up. Maybe I just dig Transformers shows that dick around a bit first? I donno.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It's better than when the writers get a racing start and then realize they don't have as many ideas as they thought, and now they have half a season left and no idea what to do next.

 

[LordGigaIce]

It's better than when the writers get a racing start and then realize they don't have as many ideas as they thought, and now they have half a season left and no idea what to do next.

I was still a kid when Energon was current, and even I was like "... really?" when the plot just starts doubling back on itself halfway through.

 

[lastmaximal]

It's better than when the writers get a racing start and then realize they don't have as many ideas as they thought, and now they have half a season left and no idea what to do next.

I'd rather they plan out a whole intentional chunk (a season, at least) before the episodes are even made.

I don't know if production realities always follow that sequence -- I do know a lot of shows certainly don't feel like they had that level of planning -- but that's what I'd prefer.

 

[Teufel]

I'm pretty sure it's a documented thing with these Fathom events that even though they're usually in service of hawking a shiny new physical release with 4K and/or Atmos, the actual showings often aren't actually of those. The last 4K Shout released was promoted with a TF:TM release in theaters a few years back and it was also a bit lacking in visual and audio oomph. It was only showing at a crappy old theater so I chalked it up to that at the time, but it was a nicer one this time around and seemed like the same thing.

But I've been watching this movie since before I knew how to talk so I still get a thrill seeing it up on the big screen. My modest 4K projector and budget speaker system kicked the crap out of this with the last Shout 4K release, but I still remember Kid Teufel being jealous of people who'd say they got to see it in theaters back in the day or watched theater showings at Botcon. So just like I'll always buy every "Malibu Stacy has a new hat!" version of this movie, I'll always go see it in theaters.

I did not love the after movie short. Following up a beloved hand-animated classic with CGI and a half-baked multiverse spin on things was an odd choice. Also... Optimus is incompetent? He goes to toss the Matrix in lava, peaces out, and oops he missed so Megatron gets it instead. I'd feel different if it was just online somewhere. Some cool moments, nods, and of course awesome to hear Peter Cullen and Frank Welker do one last dance. But I think of the 87Render guy on YouTube and his Starscream vs Megatron video that was infinitely better and wish they'd had that guy do something instead.

No cool movie themed stuff to buy at my theater. I would've been all over that popcorn bucket. The advertised pinball machine was neat but a little out of my price range unless I'm also going to be cremated and buried inside it.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

You know, I hope that once they're done showing this thing in theatres, or at least sometime after the home video release, they'll let videos with stuff from the movie like the one with the animatics based on the unused storyboards back on YouTube.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

It was never going to happen, but I'd have rather had the animatics brought to life than... whatever this was.

 

[Steamed Hams]

So it's Regeneration One all over again. Sad.

 

[Cybersnark]

Going on the assumption that this is setting up a follow-up, have we considered the possibility that the One was an unreliable narrator?

If this whole trip was some kind of vision quest, then maybe that wasn't Megatron laughing evilly over the Matrix, but the puppet master gloating that he'd successfully tricked Optimus. For that matter, this could be the inside view of the Quintesson plot in "Dark Awakening."

Possibly the (planned) future arc would be post-death Optimus realizing he's been mislead and having to fight his way back from the actual afterlife.