By 1986, the Transformers franchise had gone beyond being a simple success to becoming a worldwide phenomenon. The toys were selling with like crazy, the Marvel comic book series was a smash, and kids were tuning in every weekday to check out the animated adventures of the robots in disguise. It was inevitable that the Transformers would eventually hit the big screen. In the summer of 1986, Transformers: The Movie hit movie theaters every where (except Japan).Production on the movie began around the beginning of season two's production. For this reason, many of the season two characters featured in the film didn't have speaking roles as they hadn't had their characters established yet. Toei Animation returned to animate the film, and their work proved to be some of the best on screen animation ever produced at that time. The animation was far superior to the animated series with highly detailed visuals and very few animation errors. Also, Vince DiCola (who had arranged the soundtrack for Rocky IV) was brought on board to create the film's iconic 80's rock soundtrack. Flint Dille took the helm as the head writer of the film, and Nelson Shin directed. Jay Bacal of Hasbro said in a 2006 interview that "what we were going for was to bring in the older audience". Hasbro's thinking was that the original fans were growing older, and so it was time to make the story more appealing to the older audiences and the college aged crowd. Hasbro also used the film to introduce a new era of heroes and villains and subsequently wipe out the characters that had forged the franchise.
The film was set in the then future world of 2005 (twenty years after the events of season two which took place in 1985). It told the story of a powerful planetoid called Unicron which could devour other worlds. After destroying a planet called Lithone, Unicron made his way towards Cybertron. Meanwhile the Decepticons (who have taken control of Cybertron) are planning to make a final strike against the Autobots by destroying Autobot City on Earth. Megatron and his forces capture an Autobot shuttle and kill its crew (Brawn, Prowl, Ironhide, and Ratchet) and they infiltrate the city on Earth. At this point, Autobot City is guarded by a new group of Autobots (Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, Blurr, and Springer) who along with Autobots of the past attempt to repel the Decepticons. Optimus Prime eventually arrives and in an absolutely epic battle defeats both the Decepticons and Megatron, but he is mortally wounded. The Decepticons retreat back to Cybertron. On Earth, Optimus Prime dies and passes the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus. In route to Cybertron, Starscream betrays Megatron and jettisons Megatron into deep space. Megatron is discovered by Unicron and is reformed into Galvatron. Several of his soldiers who were cast into space with him are also reformatted into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps. Galvatron returns to Cybertron, kills Starscream, and retakes control of the Decepticons. All of this took place in the first 35 minutes of the movie. Talk about epic change!
Even though most fans have seen the film by now, I'll be nice with this post and not spoil the rest of the film. In the final hour of movie, a lot of amazing things occur including the introduction of the Junkions and Quintessons; the Unicron War (Unicron transforms from planet mode to a gigantic robot to attack Cybertron); and the rise of the new Autobot leader, Rodimus Prime. The film was definitely a much darker film than anyone in the summer of 1986 expected. The film was rated PG at the time, but in today's world, it easily would have been rated PG-13 (in 1986, there was no PG-13 rating). The film was brutally violent with many of the franchise's key characters being killed off on screen to make way for the next round of characters (toys). There was also two swear words dropped in for good measure which Jay Bacal said was done intentionally to make sure the film got a PG rating. It has been reported that one child locked himself in his room for two weeks after seeing Optimus Prime die on screen. The public and critical outcry to the film was pretty negative due to the film's violent nature and its borrowing of several Star Wars elements. However, the film has earned its status today of being a "cult" classic, and in 2006 it earned the honor of being released once again but in a sort of "ultimate" edition by Sony BMG with the two-disc Transformers: The Movie: 20th Anniversary Special Edition.
The film is hailed by fans and most people as the most recognizable and important story in the history of the franchise. The negative outcry mainly arose from the drastically different nature of the film compared to the animated series. In the animated series, the wounded Transformers would always be repaired or ride off into the sunset to fight another day. This film brought the conflict into a sort of reality never touched on by the show in such a strong fashion. The Cybertronian wars were filled with "real" violence and not every character was going to make it out alive. Also, the events of the film are what has enabled it to become the classic film that it has. Flint Dille said in another 2006 interview "I never would have thought I would be sitting here twenty years later talking about the Transformers movie." Optimus Prime's on screen death, as well as the first appearance of the Matrix and Unicron are now staples in the Transformers mythology. Hasbro at the time had no idea how iconic the characters had become, and it was this lack of knowledge that hurt the series going into the third season. If you have never seen the 1986 movie, it really is the highlight of the original Transformers franchise. The movie would end up being a part of the animated series canon and would bridge the gap between seasons two and three.
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