October 5, 2024 • 19 mins
Part 2 out of 3 of this Transformers retrospective. Breaking down the quintessential 1980s cartoon. What made this show stand out amongst countless other shows? Going over the plot, the characters, and the amazing writing and voice work that helped create the franchise. And a look at the 1986 Transformers Movie -- your host's personal favorite.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This production is brought to you by the Recess Bell
Hello everyone, I am a robot. I am an autobot.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
My name is.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Just kidding.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm not a robot. I almost almost got you. This
is the film Real right here on the Recess Bell Network,
and we're continuing our discussion on the Transformers, which was
one of the quintessential nineteen eighties cartoons. Now I talked
about my love and appreciation for the brand. I talked
about the toys. But now we're going to get into
(00:35):
the story of that television show leading into the nineteen
eighty six feature film. So let's start with the cartoon
show from nineteen eighty four. So the basic plot is
the Autobots and the Decepticons have been feuding for millions
of years. Which one do you think are the bad guys,
the Autobots or the decepticonds.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yes, you answered it correctly.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
So these guys they live on the torn planet of Cybertron,
and they somehow have the ability to transform from Cybertronian
vehicle to a robot mode. Now throughout their battles, they
eventually get on a spaceship, the Arc, and they.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Both crash land on Earth four million.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Years ago and they're out of commission, they get knocked out,
and eventually they are reactivated due to a volcano eruption.
So this all takes place in nineteen eighty four when
the series is on the air. So they get you know,
reactivated in nineteen eighty four, and they start taking on
alternate modes of not Cybertronian vehicles, but they want to
blend in and they want to be robots in the skies,
(01:39):
so they take on the forms of Earth vehicles and
Earth accessories. So, like I mentioned earlier in part one,
you know, sound Wave becomes a cassette player, Megatron becomes
a gun optimist, Prime a truck, and so on and
so forth.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So they're both.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Reactivated, and they're both on Earth now and they're trying
to get back to Cybertron, but they're also trying to
fight Enerjohn. That is the whole basic premise of that
show is their planet is low on energy Energon, and
I guess it's sort of allegory for oil. You know,
especially at this time seventies and eighties, a lot of
(02:16):
wars happening throughout the world due to oil, still to
this day still happening. And that's Basically the premise of
the series is, you know, the autobotism of the septicons.
They need to find that energy on they need that oil.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Huh or you say, some old bitch you cooking.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And throughout the series we're introduced to such a wide
variety of characters, all with different personalities, especially that first season.
That's the way a lot of cartoons worked back in
the day. They would have the initial season, which would
be anywhere from five episodes to thirteen episodes, and then
if the series got picked up, then they would start
producing episode in episode. Usual if you look at these
(03:01):
eighties cartoons, first season thirteen episodes or so. Second season
is like fifty episodes because now they're in syndication, so
they're just pumping out a new episode every single day.
I really do like the first season of the show
more so than any other season. It's a smaller group
of characters because by season two they have to introduce
more toys. Again, this is a toy commercial disguised as
(03:24):
a cartoon show, but it's more than that.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It is more than meets the eye.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think it is still a great show that does
hold up in certain aspects. Some of the episodes fall
a bit flat, as I mentioned, but some of them
are really well organized, well thought out, well acted. All
the shows are really well acted. Voice acting has always
fascinated me. I feel like I am a voice actor
in a sense. You know, I do a lot of
voiceover work for my job, and I love listening to
(03:52):
these nineteen eighties television shows because it was so much
more raw back then. When I was talking to Flint Dilly,
who is the writer on this show, he talked about
how the voice actors would all be.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
In the same room recording.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Their session, and it felt so much more organic that way,
because it was you know, if you look at a
modern cartoon, they are recording it separate recording booths, and
yet it sounds good, but it's not that same energy.
If you have people around you all recording their lines
at the same time, you'll be able to interact and
maybe you can improvise the line here or there. And
(04:27):
these are some of the most iconic voice actors of
all time on the show.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I mean, we're talking legends. I'm in the radio business.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
There's really not too many people in the radio business
more famous than Casey Kasum, and he does the voice
of several Transformers.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Just your friendly neighborhood descent to con Records.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Peter Cullin has cemented himself as one of the great
hero actors with his portrayal of Optimist Prime.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Now follow me and we'll give Megatron a taste of
his own medicine.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Frank Well Poker is the goat. I think he's the
greatest voice actor since mel Blank. He does Megatron, he
does sound Wave, he does countless Transformers and countless other
you know, iconic animated characters. It's it's a hodgepodge of
(05:21):
younger actors, older established voice actors, and it all works
and blends together to form this unique hodgepodge of characters.
That's what that show is. All the characters on this
show have different personalities. You know, you have wheel Jack
who's the scientist. You have prol who's the strategist, Grimlock,
(05:43):
who's this brute dinobot. You know, as I mentioned, Peter Cullen,
the heroic, stoic Optimist Prime, Megatron the evil leader of
the Decepticons, and then a character like Starscream I think
is probably the most interesting character I know. Flint Dilly said,
he's you know, was the face for people to write for.
He's Megatron's second in command, but he's always trying to
(06:06):
one up Megatron and take.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Over that leadership role.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Such a fascinating trope that I know they've done in
quite a bunch of television shows throughout the years. But
when I think of that trope, I always think of
Starscream and Megatron, and the voice acting by Chris Ladda
as Starscream is so damn good.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Theatobox would have lost ms ago A five been calling
the shots.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
My time will come Megatron.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So the show's on for two seasons, and in the
middle of season two, people start seeing commercials for Transformers.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
The movie Hold On Tight, the most incredible rock and
roll adventder ever is here to the shop to come
Starry with Judd Nelson as hot Rod, Leonard Nimoy as Galvatrock,
and orsonwell Hart transports. The movie coming to a theater
(07:09):
near you this August.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I couldn't imagine. I just couldn't imagine watching this cartoon
and then finding out there making a feature length film.
And they've got some big names attached to this movie.
We're talking big stars in the history of Hollywood are
attached to Transformers the movie orson freaking Wells. You know
the guy who directed, writ written, wrote in, writt wrote, written, written, written, Uh,
(07:34):
Citizen Kane. He plays Unicron in this movie. Leonard Nimoy,
you know, mister Spock plays Galvatron and the Transformers of
the movie. Judd Nelson, Hot Off the Breakfast Club, plays
the young hot Rod.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So you got some big names. Robert Stack, Eric Idol, these.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Are big names, big names in Hollywood attached to this
feature length film, and this movie pulled no punches.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So for the movie, they jumped forward.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
The movie took place in two thousand and five and
it was released in nineteen eighty six, so we're jumping
a bit forward. We don't know what happened from nineteen
eighty five to two thousand and five, and I think
if they did make another Transformer show set in that
same universe, I would love to see what actually happened
from eighty five to two thousand and five. I really
(08:23):
hope they make something like that eventually. You know, never
say never. They've been making a lot of these shows
have been coming back. You know, the X Men show
just came back. X Men ninety seven was fan freakantastic.
I know me and my buddy Corey talked about that
a few months ago. Check it out in the archives.
It's there somewhere. So this movie, it pulled no punches.
Like I said it, it was much more mature than
(08:47):
the series, which was a mature show for its time.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It wasn't super kid friendly.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
You know, it was about war essentially, but this movie
was way more extreme. It started off with pretty much
killing off the entire first season of characters. I don't
think any kid went into that movie thinking something like
that was going to happen. I did see that the
(09:13):
initial teaser trailers did tease the death potentially of Optimism Megatron,
because it does say they'll fight in their final battle.
But I did not expect them, or rather, I don't
think the fans, the kids expected all these characters to die.
And that must have been, you know, crazy to be
(09:33):
a seven eight year old kid. You grew up with
these characters, you have all their toys, and then all
these guys die off in the first five ten minutes
of the movie, and you're introduced to a whole slew
of new toys, I mean characters, and these characters I love.
I love this movie. I've mentioned it before. This is
my favorite movie of all time. Transformers nineteen eighty six
(09:55):
is my favorite film of all time. It's the most
nostalgic movie for me, more so than anything, not just movies.
It's the most nostalgic thing for me ever. I've seen
it more than I've seen any other movie. And then
some the rock and soundtrack of nineteen eighties heavy metal
mixed with a far more advanced animation with I mentioned
(10:15):
that's still that great voice cast from the TV show.
But now you're getting Hollywood actors in there, and I
have my issues with getting Hollywood actors in movies. Was
it necessary to really get Judd Nelson in this movie? No,
but he did a good job byill did great jobs.
But you knew, a you weren't going to get them
back for the television show, because you're not going to
get the star of the Breakfast Club to voice hot
(10:36):
Rod or Rodamus Prime spoiler alert in a television show.
But you're gonna get them from the movie. So yeah,
you know, we got to talk about it. Optimist Prime
gets killed, Optimus Prime goes out in a blaze of
glory in this amazing battle between him and Megatron. They
both fight to the death and it's pretty much a draw.
They both die. Optimist Prime passes the matrix of leadership
(11:00):
to Ultra Magnus.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Ultron Magnus, it is to you, old friend, I shall
pass the matrix of leedership as it was passed to me.
But Priam I am. I am just a soldier I
have I'm not worthy.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And Megatron he gets transformed into a new character, Galvatron.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Badass design, badass character.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I love these futuristic designs because, like I mentioned, the
movie took place in two thousand and five and was
released in eighty six, so they tried to figure out
what cars would be like in two thousand.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
And five and they're way off. But I love it.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
It's it's an awesome design for characters like hot Rod
and Springer and Blur and Ultra Magnus, all these new
characters that were introduced to I really dig their designs.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And in this movie, there's a bigger threat, bigger than
you know.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Megatron Galvatron Alder the Septicons Combined is a character named
Unicron and Cranics.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Side Planet was destroyed by Unicorn.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Unicron, who's Unicron.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
A planet fifty hours everything in its path.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
So that's the Monster's way.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
And he's voiced by as I mentioned, Orson Welds, and
he is the Eater of worlds. Essentially, he's the Death
Star meets Galactus and he's just eating up planets. Why
I don't really know. And there's one thing that could
stop him, and that's the Matrix of leadership, something that
we're never introduced to in the TV show.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
This movie is so quick.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
You're introducing all these characters, you're introducing the concept of
the matrix of leadership, you're introducing Unicron.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So what is the matrix of leadership?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Essentially, it's this ball of energy that optimist Crime stores
in his chest and if you open the Matrix of leadership,
it could light their darkest hour. Whatever the hell that means.
You don't really know. You're five years old, six years old.
You're in the theater and you're just going, what the
hell just happened? And why did all my heroes just die?
But it's badass because you have this eighties rock and soundtrack,
(13:05):
and the animation, as I mentioned, is top tier, especially
for its time.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
So eventually Ultra Magnus gets killed off.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
He does get brought back, but he loses the matrix
of leadership that was passed to him from Optimist Prime.
Galvatron takes it, and eventually hot Rod played by Judd Nelson,
takes that matrix of leadership back.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
He opens it.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Up, lights their darkest hour and destroys Unicron.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Drive Optimist.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
People that have not seen this movie are listening to
me speak right now and have no effing idea what
the hell I'm talking about. That's fine, you're not gonna
understand it without seeing it. It is a bit complicated,
but I like that the show wasn't dumbing it down.
The movie wasn't dumbing it down. It was talking to
the kids as as you know, effecting them, respecting their intelligence,
(14:01):
and they weren't gonna, you know, spoon.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Feed you the plot.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
If you got it, you got it, And maybe you
have to see it a few times to understand it.
I know, me explaining the plot of an eighty seven
minute movie and four minutes. Again, if you haven't seen
this movie, one you're probably still not listening to this podcast.
And two, if you are listening to it, you know,
making an incentive to actually watch this movie I'm telling you,
if you get in an altered state of mind and
(14:26):
watch Transformers of the movie from nineteen eighty six, which
is available for free on YouTube, you're gonna have a blast.
The colors, the animation, the transformations, the voice acting, the music.
It's freaking trippy as hell, man and it's just a
fun time. It's a fun, quick movie. But there are
layers to it, so the movie is not really a success.
(14:47):
But it leads to season three of the series, which
is an interesting season for this series because now you
have a new leader, hot Rod, who opened that matrix
of leadership, transformed into Rodhamus Prime, and season three really
talks about guilt. It talks about being a leader when
you really don't want to be a leader, and maybe
(15:08):
not living up to the expectations of the previous regime.
I think that character of Rodham's Prime, hot Rod, is
a very complicated character.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And it's great the show grew with this audience.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
They knew that the people that were watching the show
maybe started when they were six seven years old. Now
they're nine, ten years old, so they're getting more adult
themed episodes and that season three is a lot darker,
not just you know, on the pages, but also through
the artwork. It's set in space, and it has more
of a darker.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Feel to it.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Still, I think that first season of the show is
when the show is at its best. It's lighthearted, serious
at the same time. And if I am going to
watch any Transformers, it's usually you know, the first ten
fifteen episodes or so. But all the seasons have their highlights,
they have their low lights. Some of the animation. You know,
they send the shows to be animated overseas to different studios,
(16:05):
so sometimes you get a good studio that can animate
it and it looks really good, it looks almost as
good as the movie. Then other times there's so many
animation errors. It just doesn't flow it look good, and
that's what happens. That's what happened with those those eighties
cartoons unfortunately. But yeah, this show was super successful. It
(16:25):
ended after technically four seasons. The fourth season was just
a few episodes, and they kept on selling toys, and
eventually that died down because of the success of other
programs like The Ninja Turtles, the Ghostbusters, Batman, Power Rangers.
Every toy line has a shelf life, but Transformers has
stayed relevant because it reinvented itself. In the nineties, there
(16:48):
was a show called Beastdwarfs and it took that same
concept of good guy bad guy. Now they're not autobots
and decepticons, they're predacons and maximals, and instead of turning
into vehicles, they turned into animals. And this was the
first and maybe the second actually fully computer generated television
show of its time. It was groundbreaking, and actually, believe
(17:11):
it or not, this show is far more consistent than
that original show.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It's not more nostalgic.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
For me, I'll always go back to the original Generation
one show, but the Beastwars cartoon show is probably a
better written show. It's more consistent. They have an overarching
storyline from each season, and it's not trying to sell
as much toys.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
There is a smaller group of characters.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
What they do though to sell toys, because again it
is about selling toys. Actually, now that they think about it,
they don't kill off the characters or introduce so many
more characters, but they change their modes. So optimist, primal,
he's called he turns into a gorilla, he'll turn into
a different mode, he'll be trans metal, Optimist, prime and
he has like three different versions, so you could sell,
(17:57):
you know, different toys of Optimist p time. You couldn't
do that in the eighties because there's Optimus Prime as
a truck.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
That was it.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Once Beast Wars ended, the brand never ended because he
went from Beast Machines, the Robot in the Skies, Armada
and or John different programs of Transformers set in different universes,
continuing the brand to this day. And in two thousand
and seven, the brand would take its boldest leaf yet
it would have a feature length live action movie directed
(18:29):
by Michael Bay. And we're gonna get into why I
think these movies are absolutely horrendous, and we'll get into
the newest film in the series, Transformers one, which I
think was a very well made movie. But we'll get
the full review of Transformers one and my hatred for
(18:51):
the Michael Bay Transformers movie in Part three, the final
part of this Transformer's retrospective. Thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I'm allad Am allad Am alad
This production is brought to you by the Recess Bell
Hello everyone, I am a robot. I am an autobot.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
My name is.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Just kidding.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm not a robot. I almost almost got you. This
is the film Real right here on the Recess Bell Network,
and we're continuing our discussion on the Transformers, which was
one of the quintessential nineteen eighties cartoons. Now I talked
about my love and appreciation for the brand. I talked
about the toys. But now we're going to get into
(00:35):
the story of that television show leading into the nineteen
eighty six feature film. So let's start with the cartoon
show from nineteen eighty four. So the basic plot is
the Autobots and the Decepticons have been feuding for millions
of years. Which one do you think are the bad guys,
the Autobots or the decepticonds.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yes, you answered it correctly.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
So these guys they live on the torn planet of Cybertron,
and they somehow have the ability to transform from Cybertronian
vehicle to a robot mode. Now throughout their battles, they
eventually get on a spaceship, the Arc, and they.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Both crash land on Earth four million.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Years ago and they're out of commission, they get knocked out,
and eventually they are reactivated due to a volcano eruption.
So this all takes place in nineteen eighty four when
the series is on the air. So they get you know,
reactivated in nineteen eighty four, and they start taking on
alternate modes of not Cybertronian vehicles, but they want to
blend in and they want to be robots in the skies,
(01:39):
so they take on the forms of Earth vehicles and
Earth accessories. So, like I mentioned earlier in part one,
you know, sound Wave becomes a cassette player, Megatron becomes
a gun optimist, Prime a truck, and so on and
so forth.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So they're both.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Reactivated, and they're both on Earth now and they're trying
to get back to Cybertron, but they're also trying to
fight Enerjohn. That is the whole basic premise of that
show is their planet is low on energy Energon, and
I guess it's sort of allegory for oil. You know,
especially at this time seventies and eighties, a lot of
(02:16):
wars happening throughout the world due to oil, still to
this day still happening. And that's Basically the premise of
the series is, you know, the autobotism of the septicons.
They need to find that energy on they need that oil.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Huh or you say, some old bitch you cooking.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
And throughout the series we're introduced to such a wide
variety of characters, all with different personalities, especially that first season.
That's the way a lot of cartoons worked back in
the day. They would have the initial season, which would
be anywhere from five episodes to thirteen episodes, and then
if the series got picked up, then they would start
producing episode in episode. Usual if you look at these
(03:01):
eighties cartoons, first season thirteen episodes or so. Second season
is like fifty episodes because now they're in syndication, so
they're just pumping out a new episode every single day.
I really do like the first season of the show
more so than any other season. It's a smaller group
of characters because by season two they have to introduce
more toys. Again, this is a toy commercial disguised as
(03:24):
a cartoon show, but it's more than that.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It is more than meets the eye.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think it is still a great show that does
hold up in certain aspects. Some of the episodes fall
a bit flat, as I mentioned, but some of them
are really well organized, well thought out, well acted. All
the shows are really well acted. Voice acting has always
fascinated me. I feel like I am a voice actor
in a sense. You know, I do a lot of
voiceover work for my job, and I love listening to
(03:52):
these nineteen eighties television shows because it was so much
more raw back then. When I was talking to Flint Dilly,
who is the writer on this show, he talked about
how the voice actors would all be.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
In the same room recording.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Their session, and it felt so much more organic that way,
because it was you know, if you look at a
modern cartoon, they are recording it separate recording booths, and
yet it sounds good, but it's not that same energy.
If you have people around you all recording their lines
at the same time, you'll be able to interact and
maybe you can improvise the line here or there. And
(04:27):
these are some of the most iconic voice actors of
all time on the show.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I mean, we're talking legends. I'm in the radio business.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
There's really not too many people in the radio business
more famous than Casey Kasum, and he does the voice
of several Transformers.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Just your friendly neighborhood descent to con Records.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Peter Cullin has cemented himself as one of the great
hero actors with his portrayal of Optimist Prime.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Now follow me and we'll give Megatron a taste of
his own medicine.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Frank Well Poker is the goat. I think he's the
greatest voice actor since mel Blank. He does Megatron, he
does sound Wave, he does countless Transformers and countless other
you know, iconic animated characters. It's it's a hodgepodge of
(05:21):
younger actors, older established voice actors, and it all works
and blends together to form this unique hodgepodge of characters.
That's what that show is. All the characters on this
show have different personalities. You know, you have wheel Jack
who's the scientist. You have prol who's the strategist, Grimlock,
(05:43):
who's this brute dinobot. You know, as I mentioned, Peter Cullen,
the heroic, stoic Optimist Prime, Megatron the evil leader of
the Decepticons, and then a character like Starscream I think
is probably the most interesting character I know. Flint Dilly said,
he's you know, was the face for people to write for.
He's Megatron's second in command, but he's always trying to
(06:06):
one up Megatron and take.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Over that leadership role.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Such a fascinating trope that I know they've done in
quite a bunch of television shows throughout the years. But
when I think of that trope, I always think of
Starscream and Megatron, and the voice acting by Chris Ladda
as Starscream is so damn good.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Theatobox would have lost ms ago A five been calling
the shots.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
My time will come Megatron.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So the show's on for two seasons, and in the
middle of season two, people start seeing commercials for Transformers.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
The movie Hold On Tight, the most incredible rock and
roll adventder ever is here to the shop to come
Starry with Judd Nelson as hot Rod, Leonard Nimoy as Galvatrock,
and orsonwell Hart transports. The movie coming to a theater
(07:09):
near you this August.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I couldn't imagine. I just couldn't imagine watching this cartoon
and then finding out there making a feature length film.
And they've got some big names attached to this movie.
We're talking big stars in the history of Hollywood are
attached to Transformers the movie orson freaking Wells. You know
the guy who directed, writ written, wrote in, writt wrote, written, written, written, Uh,
(07:34):
Citizen Kane. He plays Unicron in this movie. Leonard Nimoy,
you know, mister Spock plays Galvatron and the Transformers of
the movie. Judd Nelson, Hot Off the Breakfast Club, plays
the young hot Rod.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So you got some big names. Robert Stack, Eric Idol, these.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Are big names, big names in Hollywood attached to this
feature length film, and this movie pulled no punches.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So for the movie, they jumped forward.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
The movie took place in two thousand and five and
it was released in nineteen eighty six, so we're jumping
a bit forward. We don't know what happened from nineteen
eighty five to two thousand and five, and I think
if they did make another Transformer show set in that
same universe, I would love to see what actually happened
from eighty five to two thousand and five. I really
(08:23):
hope they make something like that eventually. You know, never
say never. They've been making a lot of these shows
have been coming back. You know, the X Men show
just came back. X Men ninety seven was fan freakantastic.
I know me and my buddy Corey talked about that
a few months ago. Check it out in the archives.
It's there somewhere. So this movie, it pulled no punches.
Like I said it, it was much more mature than
(08:47):
the series, which was a mature show for its time.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It wasn't super kid friendly.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
You know, it was about war essentially, but this movie
was way more extreme. It started off with pretty much
killing off the entire first season of characters. I don't
think any kid went into that movie thinking something like
that was going to happen. I did see that the
(09:13):
initial teaser trailers did tease the death potentially of Optimism Megatron,
because it does say they'll fight in their final battle.
But I did not expect them, or rather, I don't
think the fans, the kids expected all these characters to die.
And that must have been, you know, crazy to be
(09:33):
a seven eight year old kid. You grew up with
these characters, you have all their toys, and then all
these guys die off in the first five ten minutes
of the movie, and you're introduced to a whole slew
of new toys, I mean characters, and these characters I love.
I love this movie. I've mentioned it before. This is
my favorite movie of all time. Transformers nineteen eighty six
(09:55):
is my favorite film of all time. It's the most
nostalgic movie for me, more so than anything, not just movies.
It's the most nostalgic thing for me ever. I've seen
it more than I've seen any other movie. And then
some the rock and soundtrack of nineteen eighties heavy metal
mixed with a far more advanced animation with I mentioned
(10:15):
that's still that great voice cast from the TV show.
But now you're getting Hollywood actors in there, and I
have my issues with getting Hollywood actors in movies. Was
it necessary to really get Judd Nelson in this movie? No,
but he did a good job byill did great jobs.
But you knew, a you weren't going to get them
back for the television show, because you're not going to
get the star of the Breakfast Club to voice hot
(10:36):
Rod or Rodamus Prime spoiler alert in a television show.
But you're gonna get them from the movie. So yeah,
you know, we got to talk about it. Optimist Prime
gets killed, Optimus Prime goes out in a blaze of
glory in this amazing battle between him and Megatron. They
both fight to the death and it's pretty much a draw.
They both die. Optimist Prime passes the matrix of leadership
(11:00):
to Ultra Magnus.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Ultron Magnus, it is to you, old friend, I shall
pass the matrix of leedership as it was passed to me.
But Priam I am. I am just a soldier I
have I'm not worthy.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And Megatron he gets transformed into a new character, Galvatron.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Badass design, badass character.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I love these futuristic designs because, like I mentioned, the
movie took place in two thousand and five and was
released in eighty six, so they tried to figure out
what cars would be like in two thousand.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
And five and they're way off. But I love it.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
It's it's an awesome design for characters like hot Rod
and Springer and Blur and Ultra Magnus, all these new
characters that were introduced to I really dig their designs.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And in this movie, there's a bigger threat, bigger than
you know.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Megatron Galvatron Alder the Septicons Combined is a character named
Unicron and Cranics.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Side Planet was destroyed by Unicorn.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Unicron, who's Unicron.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
A planet fifty hours everything in its path.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
So that's the Monster's way.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
And he's voiced by as I mentioned, Orson Welds, and
he is the Eater of worlds. Essentially, he's the Death
Star meets Galactus and he's just eating up planets. Why
I don't really know. And there's one thing that could
stop him, and that's the Matrix of leadership, something that
we're never introduced to in the TV show.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
This movie is so quick.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
You're introducing all these characters, you're introducing the concept of
the matrix of leadership, you're introducing Unicron.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
So what is the matrix of leadership?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Essentially, it's this ball of energy that optimist Crime stores
in his chest and if you open the Matrix of leadership,
it could light their darkest hour. Whatever the hell that means.
You don't really know. You're five years old, six years old.
You're in the theater and you're just going, what the
hell just happened? And why did all my heroes just die?
But it's badass because you have this eighties rock and soundtrack,
(13:05):
and the animation, as I mentioned, is top tier, especially
for its time.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
So eventually Ultra Magnus gets killed off.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
He does get brought back, but he loses the matrix
of leadership that was passed to him from Optimist Prime.
Galvatron takes it, and eventually hot Rod played by Judd Nelson,
takes that matrix of leadership back.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
He opens it.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Up, lights their darkest hour and destroys Unicron.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Drive Optimist.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
People that have not seen this movie are listening to
me speak right now and have no effing idea what
the hell I'm talking about. That's fine, you're not gonna
understand it without seeing it. It is a bit complicated,
but I like that the show wasn't dumbing it down.
The movie wasn't dumbing it down. It was talking to
the kids as as you know, effecting them, respecting their intelligence,
(14:01):
and they weren't gonna, you know, spoon.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Feed you the plot.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
If you got it, you got it, And maybe you
have to see it a few times to understand it.
I know, me explaining the plot of an eighty seven
minute movie and four minutes. Again, if you haven't seen
this movie, one you're probably still not listening to this podcast.
And two, if you are listening to it, you know,
making an incentive to actually watch this movie I'm telling you,
if you get in an altered state of mind and
(14:26):
watch Transformers of the movie from nineteen eighty six, which
is available for free on YouTube, you're gonna have a blast.
The colors, the animation, the transformations, the voice acting, the music.
It's freaking trippy as hell, man and it's just a
fun time. It's a fun, quick movie. But there are
layers to it, so the movie is not really a success.
(14:47):
But it leads to season three of the series, which
is an interesting season for this series because now you
have a new leader, hot Rod, who opened that matrix
of leadership, transformed into Rodhamus Prime, and season three really
talks about guilt. It talks about being a leader when
you really don't want to be a leader, and maybe
(15:08):
not living up to the expectations of the previous regime.
I think that character of Rodham's Prime, hot Rod, is
a very complicated character.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And it's great the show grew with this audience.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
They knew that the people that were watching the show
maybe started when they were six seven years old. Now
they're nine, ten years old, so they're getting more adult
themed episodes and that season three is a lot darker,
not just you know, on the pages, but also through
the artwork. It's set in space, and it has more
of a darker.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Feel to it.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Still, I think that first season of the show is
when the show is at its best. It's lighthearted, serious
at the same time. And if I am going to
watch any Transformers, it's usually you know, the first ten
fifteen episodes or so. But all the seasons have their highlights,
they have their low lights. Some of the animation. You know,
they send the shows to be animated overseas to different studios,
(16:05):
so sometimes you get a good studio that can animate
it and it looks really good, it looks almost as
good as the movie. Then other times there's so many
animation errors. It just doesn't flow it look good, and
that's what happens. That's what happened with those those eighties
cartoons unfortunately. But yeah, this show was super successful. It
(16:25):
ended after technically four seasons. The fourth season was just
a few episodes, and they kept on selling toys, and
eventually that died down because of the success of other
programs like The Ninja Turtles, the Ghostbusters, Batman, Power Rangers.
Every toy line has a shelf life, but Transformers has
stayed relevant because it reinvented itself. In the nineties, there
(16:48):
was a show called Beastdwarfs and it took that same
concept of good guy bad guy. Now they're not autobots
and decepticons, they're predacons and maximals, and instead of turning
into vehicles, they turned into animals. And this was the
first and maybe the second actually fully computer generated television
show of its time. It was groundbreaking, and actually, believe
(17:11):
it or not, this show is far more consistent than
that original show.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It's not more nostalgic.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
For me, I'll always go back to the original Generation
one show, but the Beastwars cartoon show is probably a
better written show. It's more consistent. They have an overarching
storyline from each season, and it's not trying to sell
as much toys.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
There is a smaller group of characters.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
What they do though to sell toys, because again it
is about selling toys. Actually, now that they think about it,
they don't kill off the characters or introduce so many
more characters, but they change their modes. So optimist, primal,
he's called he turns into a gorilla, he'll turn into
a different mode, he'll be trans metal, Optimist, prime and
he has like three different versions, so you could sell,
(17:57):
you know, different toys of Optimist p time. You couldn't
do that in the eighties because there's Optimus Prime as
a truck.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
That was it.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Once Beast Wars ended, the brand never ended because he
went from Beast Machines, the Robot in the Skies, Armada
and or John different programs of Transformers set in different universes,
continuing the brand to this day. And in two thousand
and seven, the brand would take its boldest leaf yet
it would have a feature length live action movie directed
(18:29):
by Michael Bay. And we're gonna get into why I
think these movies are absolutely horrendous, and we'll get into
the newest film in the series, Transformers one, which I
think was a very well made movie. But we'll get
the full review of Transformers one and my hatred for
(18:51):
the Michael Bay Transformers movie in Part three, the final
part of this Transformer's retrospective. Thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I'm allad Am allad Am alad
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!