Just watched this again and could really take it in as a work of art. The cel animation is outstanding (anyone who has ever painted a cel knows what I mean). Youre painting front to back instead of the usual back to front, so youre essentially painting the highlights and working backward.

The watercolor backgrounds are beautiful. The twisted landscape inside Unicron is amazing- his brain center, the mouth, his stomach, throat, etc. Junkion must have been an unbelievable pain in the ass to paint, but it also looked amazing.

The animators must have really studied not only bipedal movement, but animal movement as well. Think about how much Laserbeak moved like a condor when he was filming the Autobots, and how much Kickback "stuck" like a grasshopper when he was caught on the receding bridge. Outstanding work.

All done by hand, no computers, 12 cels for every second, hundereds of background paintings, some seen for only a few seconds. Thats talent.

 

Well, I guess you could say that they definitely had... the touch.  

 

I've always been a fan of the cel animation. Despite how long it took it was a work of art. Today it's more with computer graphics which saves time, but it feels that something is lost.

 

You speak the truth, good sir. Glad to hear more people sing the praises.

 

I prefer Cel Animation over CGI.

 

"It's a lost art"

 

Indeed. The quality of construction bares through even today.

 

Agreed, the cel animation in this film really is magnificent. Light years ahead of the cartoon series, but even nicer than a lot of contemporary animated films.

It has stood the test of time very well.

 

To echo everyone else's statement, it truly is a work of art, as was the GI Joe movie, animation-wise. Truly a lost art today with the lousy flash animation that looks like one of my 6th grade students drew it in their notebooks.

 

Speaking of cels, I always hated that moment inside Unicron when Hot Rod is supposed to be lying on a spear but the cels are placed way higher. Protoman, c'mon, you know that!

 

I agree. With computer animation, you lose the hand-drawn human element. Plus I still havent seen a computer animation that renders flesh believably. I also like seeing eraser lines on finished drawings though....

Back when I was in college, I wanted to be an animator. I made one cel animation- Ravage runs to Spike, holds him with a paw, and bites and rips him in half. Lasted about 30 seconds (Ravages run was a cycle, shot over again a few times) Took me over 2 semesters. Then I though about different careers...

 

There's definitely a reason that it's my favorite movie of all time (animated or otherwise). It easily blows away the live movies.

 

That I do, his legs were too high for the "cel cut"

 

Yes, even though the quality was great the animation still had a few glitches.

 

I just watched this last night. Loved every minute of it. It made me think about the days leading up to the first live movie coming out, and I realized something. This movie set the bar too high for the live movies to reach. In 2007, I just assumed that Transformers movie = one of the greatest movies ever created (or ever will be created). And the live movies just aren't at the same level as the original animated movie. So naturally, I was greatly disappointed when I saw the first live movie.

 

It's sad that the hour and half animated toy commercial is better than the bombastic live action version.

Maybe it's because the 86 movie has had 25 years to saturate it's awesomeness.