Hard to believe, this rockin' animated Sci-fi classic is 35 this year.

What are your fond memories of it? and when did you first saw it?

I saw it in theaters when i was 5 with my dad in one of Henderson's theaters and i enjoyed it despite i felt sad for Optimus as that death was quite hard, i love the soundtrack as i had the soundtrack on cassette as a kid then later got the CD version at age 13.

 

I wanna say I first saw it around, 9 years ago? Haven't seen it since, I enjoyed it. It had some good parts, Optimus' death probably didn't impact me 'cause I didn't grow up with G1. If I'm being honest, I've never liked it's soundtrack. I really did like the new characters they introduced, Springer, and Hotrod had the best desings of the bunch. And any scene with Grimlock is a joy.

 

Terrific soundtrack. The first few minutes of this movie are amazing, imo. The rest of it, however.... yeesh. It’s paced jarringly similar to ROTF, where every scene that isn’t an action scene and doesn’t have a soundtrack can put you right to sleep.

(Except for the Junkion scenes- the dancing and “Dare to Be Stupid” make it even more grating. Doesn’t put you to sleep, but makes you question what the hell you are doing with your time).

 

I saw it in the theater for my birthday. I bought it on vhs and wore out the vhs tape. It would distort when Springer was talking to Daniel on the planet of junk. It also distorted towards the end when they were leaving Unicron.

Bless my grandmother's patience as I used to watch that movie everyday and she never said anything. She had to have gotten sick of it.

 

How old were you when you saw it?

 

First saw it on DVD in the late 00s. I used to love it and still enjoy watching it but always feel kind of underwhelmed

 

I remember my grandfather rented it for me. I was always picking the same Transformers movie (which was not a movie, but the More than meets the eyes episodes). It was a Betamax cassette. He must have been sick of it. I was 4 or 5. I hated it at first ! Optimus dying and a bunch of new characters I didn’t care about. It also felt darker and I didn’t like the space setting instead of earth. I would eventually come around to the cast with season 3 but I think I never saw the movie again for many years until I bought the Rhino dvd in the early 2000’s. Then I realised how awesome the movie is. I actually just watched it again a few days ago.

 

I was 7 or 8. Missed it in theaters, but rented it on vhs from a local video store, that’s since been long gone.

I don’t remember being upset by Prime’s death. The moment that scene was over, they were on to the next thing like nothing had happened & his death wasn’t ever really mentioned again.
I think Starscream’s death stood out more just for the sheer shock value of watching him disintegrate to dust.

I’ve gone back and forth on it over the years from loving it as a kid, to seeing its shortcomings as an adult, to revisiting and rediscovering it and finding it still has merit. It’s been a rollercoaster of thinking it’s cool to thinking it’s not & back again, but these days I’ve settled on seeing it as a flawed classic. But I like it.

 

Still have my original VHS of it  

It's the only reason why I kept my old VHS player.

Fun fact of the day, apparently VHS players work on 4k TVs.

 

I don't remember when I first saw it because I watched it so damn much when I was a kid!
So, fun little fact! I had forgotten they swore in the film twice because I was just so enamored with it, that during a special movie day in first grade, I got to bring in the film for everyone to watch (This was like, the same year Beast Wars first aired, so Transformers were back in vogue)
Fortunately (Or unfortunately), the tape I brought in, for some reason or another, wouldn't play the audio. I legitimately don't know what happened, since the next kid who brought in a film played audio just fine, and when I got home, it worked as normal as well.
I guess God was saving my ass from a rather stern talking to (Since I did attend a Catholic school up until 6th grade)  

 

Divine intervention!

 

I saw the film properly around 10 years ago or so. My dad pirated the film on DVD and I got to see it. Up until that point, the film had this almost mythical status to 11 year old me who could only ever see clips on YouTube. My expectations were high and I was at that age where anything would meet them.

I loved the movie and still do. It’s really flawed yeah, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it.

 

I honestly can't say for certain, maybe 7 or 8. Not in the theaters, but we'd rent a VHS copy of it from time to time since it was one of the few movies I'd want to rewatch from the video rental places around us. I bought my first copy years later as a teen when Transformers was making a comeback in VHS.

 

I was 7 when I saw it.

 

I saw it after it was either released on VHS or aired on broadcast TV (can't remember...just remember watching it on the TV in our living room when I was kid...probably around 10 years old in 1987 thereabouts). I loved it and still do. I tend to rewatch it every couple of years. I also saw it during the theater re-release a couple years ago since I never got to see it on the big screen when I was a kid. I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up a little...

 

I finally got a big screen viewing of it that way too, though mine was more around several years ago, when Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood had a double feature event of that with "G.I. Joe the Movie".

 

The G.I. Joe movie is one I need to rewatch...haven't seen it in a really long time.

 

Dark of the moon is also turning 10 this year, but nobody will come to its birthday party. : (

 

I will! It's my all time favorite movie.

 

I did'nt see it in theatres, actually, i don't know if any animated feature beyond Disney stuff was shown here in Europe at that time....

That aside, i caught it on tv, it was shown after Season 3 had already started on tv.

Yeah, we did'nt have the movie to bridge the gap between S2 and S3.When i saw the movie......a lot started to make more sense.

I loved this movie as a kid.
Point.

Now recently i actually bought it on Bluray,
I think its the UK version, 30th anniversary edition?

I watched it and i was back beeing a kid.
No nitpicking, visceral dissection of faults and errors as taught by years of Nostalgia Critic viewing in my younger years. I could just enjoy this for what it is.

In no order, why i love this movie:

- the soundtrack, Dare is actually my favorite track
- the new bots, i love Rodimus Prime and Kup
- the animation, sorry but 80'ties Japanese animation still is pure art, this is Bubblegum Crisis, Megazone 23 level of insane details.
- Orson Welles as Unicron. (Still scary as ****)
- all the celebrity voices, Nimoy, Nelson etc.
- Optimus death scene, it still hits like a brick.

Things i did not love:

- Wheelie
- Wheelie
- Why god, why has thou forsaken us and giveth us the Wheelie?
- okay, i might be, nope!, Wheelie

I cannot stress enough how great this movie looks, sounds and feels. My nostalgia goggles may be clouding my judgement but its great, it really is.