I haven’t seen this posted, so I figured I’d ask. The ’86 transformers movie took on a decidedly darker tone than its TV counterpart, with characters dying and entire planets being extinguished (Prowl’s death always weirded me out). I’ve always wondered, though, why there are a couple instances of light profanity. Most notably is when Spike and Bumblebee abandon Moon Base 1 and attempt to destroy/slow down Unicron by detonating it. When it fails, Spike says “Look, It isn’t even dented…oh shit, what are we going to do now.”

Why throw in the random profanity, and how’d they get away with it. If I’m not mistaken, “damn” pops up once or twice later on in the film. I’ve always loved the glorified toy commercial, but I’ve always been curious about this. Any thoughts?

 

Probably so that they could get it bumped up to a later showing in the movie theaters so that it wouldn't languish in early matinee hell.

That way, they would still get the PG kids coming in and it would also be seen by a wider audience at the same time.

I'm sure that was mentioned somewhere on the DVD commentary. Not sure.

Alex

 

Yeah, they threw those couple of instances of 'profanity' in there just to get a PG13 rating, thereby allowing them to show it in the evening, which would allow more exposure.

*edit: uh, basicly what acollier said.

 

I love the word profanity. Sounds so pious.

And I think it reminds me of Christopher Walken in The Prochecy films.

 

It's so parents would have to come along with their kids. Parents would be the ones who would buy the new Galvatron and Rodimus Prime toys for them.

 

They were going for a PG rating to hopefully have the movie play to an older audience, like college aged teens and older. In 1986, movies rated G were not normally played past the afternoon. A PG rating guaranteed later showtimes.