Bob Chipman asks: Is The G1 Transformers Movie really that good?

Mako Crab · Sep 14, 2017

It's like that old story about the Friday the 13th movies back when Paramount was making them. The creative types at the studio hated those movies & wouldn't go near them. They were the black sheep of the family. But the people in accounting loved them, because they always turned a profit & everyone always got paid.

(Is suddenly not sure that analogy works here, but whatever)

Altered Prime · Sep 14, 2017

Mako Crab said: ↑

At first I thought I had clicked on the wrong video. What was all this stuff about the bull & girl statue? I checked the title of the video while it was playing to make sure. No, it definitely says it's the TFTM episode. But as it continued on, the point became clear.

The bull statue, a work of independent art, once removed due to its lack of permit & seen by many on Wall Street as an eyesore, was restored after public outcry & would come to symbolize Wall Street itself, which is probably the furthest thing from its intent or how it came to be located there.

The girl statue, actually commissioned by Wall Street investors & granted all the necessary permits, became something else too- a symbol of female strength, seemingly staring down the face of the raging bull with courage. The SHE in the plaque refers to the 3 letter corporation identified in the stock exchange, not a general "SHE" as in "all females everywhere." It seems more uplifting, but its intent & origins are rooted in calculated business dealings. It represents everything that people think the bull represents.

Likewise, TFTM is rooted in corporate cynicism. Buy new toys! Your old ones are dead! But somehow through chance or design, the movie came to mean something more than that to the generation of kids that grew up with it. There was something more there to kids than just a company's bottom line. And that's the part, about 20 or 25 minutes into the video, that I found really interesting.

The basic argument of Bob's video is that, there must be something more to this movie, because people are still talking about it today. There must be something there that people knowingly or not are affected by.
He argues that while the rest of 1980s media largely portrayed the resurgence of the stable nuclear family of the 50s, the reality was that divorce rates were rising, & families were breaking up.
TFTM creates a void in leadership for both sides. The new Autobots are mostly all young, & both Kup & Ultra Magnus are quickly shown to be either ineffective or unable to protect the kids on their own. It's up to the kids themselves, in this time of turmoil & change, to somehow pull through. And the movie promises that you'll make it through the deepest reaches of Hell and be okay.

It is strange then, that Bob showed but offered no commentary on the scene, where Daniel saves his dad. It matches up perfectly with Hot Rod saving Kup & the other young Autobots repairing Ultra Magnus. In a role reversal, the kids are shown having to protect their parental & authority figures. It makes sense then, when Ultra Magnus says, "I can't deal with that now." The guardian figures of TFTM are all shown to be either susceptible to death or ineffective.
Also notable is the absense of Daniel's mom, in keeping with the undercurrent of the failing nuclear family of the 80s, though she was later shown still married to Spike in season 3. That means nothing to people (like me) who never saw season 3 until a decade after! And also, the discussion is about the movie itself, not any extra info added afterwards.

Anyway, a very interesting take on the whole thing, devoid of the cynicism that I myself tend to display when talking about the movie. It covered a lot of the same bases that we've seen before, but at least a few new ideas were explored that were well worth the 48 minute runtime.
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I'm impressed very impressed by this post

RubberChicken · Sep 18, 2017

I liked the part where he said "Hot Rod sucks"

Nevermore · Sep 18, 2017

RubberChicken said: ↑

I liked the part where he said "Hot Rod sucks"
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Durr hurr

AutobotAvalanche · Sep 18, 2017

The people who despise Hot Rod and idolize Optimus are the same people who would do EXACTLY WHAT HOT ROD DID if put in his situation. They're all fanboys of the infallible Optimus like Hot Rod was.

WishfulThinking · Sep 18, 2017

This thread makes me feel old...

G1Prowl · Sep 20, 2017

ABrown said: ↑

Seriously? You're not a fan of the original animated movie? I'm not trying to be rude, but if you're hanging around TFW2005, what version of Transformers DO you find "that good"?
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SPLIT is a fairly big fan of Beast Wars, and probably even moreso Transformers Animated.

I'm not going to watch the video, as I'm at work and wouldn't be able to hear the sound anyway, but I will say that I never walk into viewing TFTF thinking it's on the level of Wrath of Khan. That would be absolute folly. I do, however, get just as much fun watching it as I do Flash Gordon, Krull, or Enemy Mine. It keeps me entertained, and therefore I believe that it is "good".

Moonscream · Sep 21, 2017

*hits 'Like'*

The guy really knows his stuff, both Transformers and history of the time.

--Moony

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Bob Chipman asks: Is The G1 Transformers Movie really that good?

Mako Crab Well-Known Member

Altered Prime Well-Known Member

RubberChicken Well-Known Member

Nevermore It's self-perpetuating a parahumanoidarianised!

AutobotAvalanche Number One in Boogieland

WishfulThinking The world has moved on...we've always said.

G1Prowl Prick, apparently

Moonscream YES, We Exist, and We DON'T Want to Date You

Log in or Sign up

Bob Chipman asks: Is The G1 Transformers Movie really that good?

Mako Crab Well-Known Member

Altered Prime Well-Known Member

RubberChicken Well-Known Member

Nevermore It's self-perpetuating a parahumanoidarianised!

AutobotAvalanche Number One in Boogieland

WishfulThinking The world has moved on...we've always said.

G1Prowl Prick, apparently

Moonscream YES, We Exist, and We DON'T Want to Date You

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