2:00 The funny (sad?) thing is how Welles sounds so tired that it actually gives Unicron an odd bit of poignancy. I have no idea if it was deliberate, but I get the sense that Unicron is so old, and has done this so many times, that eating planets is a distasteful chore at this point. He's got a real "vampire who's lived too long" vibe going.
In a interview done before he died he said he enjoyed doing animation voice work even if he didn't understand the script fully. The tiredness is more from his illness during recording he basically recorded this role on his death bed. The actor who originally was ashamed of being in the film was Nemoy who like with Spock changed his mind and returned to play Sentinel Prime in the live action movies before he died.
It was definitely not deliberate and all due to his illness. I remember an interview years ago they were worried when he showed up for the recording session wheezing like that and didn't think it would work and they would need to recast the role. Gave it a pass through the synthesizer and found it worked surprisingly well.
In honor of Oreo-Bot, can you sing the Spine Song? "Spine Spine Spine, I am skipping with your spine. Spine Spine Spine, it was yours and now it's mine!" The Spine Song will forever be recorded in the All-Spark.
And finally this movie is my top ten all time movies…I know it’s a giant commercial but there’s rarely any boring downtime…the music obviously crushes it…they kill prime (which at the time was monumental)…when people talk about transformers movies if they haven’t seen this I tell them it is a most no matter what you think of the bay verse
Orson Welles moments before death played the hell out of Unicron. That "I got out of bed for this?" energy is actually perfect for a malevolent sentient planet.
Agreed, the qualities of lazy omnipotent contempt absolutely made the performance iconic, and the work Nelson Shin had the sound techs do to make him sound powerful perfected it
It's a big problem today with all characters needing to "care" in someway when "just wanting to watch the world burn" or "because I'm hangry" are plenty good motives for the omnipotent.
Saw this first run opening night; when Prime died the movie theatre erupted into chaos. Kids crying parents screaming. The lights came on the movie stopped, free snacks and drinks made the rounds until things calmed down and then we continued. After that every showing at my movie theatre had a parent warning. Such a wild ride!
Even though Orson Welles didn't care for the role, him voicing Unicron is still the coolest villain voice that could be heard. Just like how Kevin Conroy's voice embodies Batman, Orson Welles' voice embodies Unicron.
You know Jon is the official backup Optimus now, right? He's doing the voice for video games and things like that, when Peter Cullen isn't available. I expect he'll take over the role completely whenever Cullen retires.
Just a correction: the movie uses "The Touch" only two times, not three. In the scene referenced at 2:30 the music isn't "The Touch" but "Dare," also sung by Stan Bush (with orchestration by Vince DiCola). It does sound similar so the confusion is understandable. Great video!
I was looking for this comment so I wouldn't have to write it myself. :D Of course, real fans know there is indeed a third canon use of the song, i.e. the end of the third season episode "The Return of Optimus Prime". Optimus uses the matrix to cure the 'hate plague' ravaging the known universe (something Earth seems to be suffering from IRL, over the past decade).
Out of the dozen or so video stores in my town, there was *one* store that had *one* copy of this movie. Every time we walked in there, I beelined for it, only to find it had been rented out. There was no reserve option at this store, so it was months before I happened to arrive at the right time, and my eyes were greeted by the miracle of an available VHS tape behind the display cover. I almost couldn't believe it was finally happening. Everyone who lived through the time of video stores knows that feeling, and this was the apotheosis for me. The struggle was so long, and the disappointments so numerous.
@@mysocalledknife07 Something similar here, except it wasn't even mom and pop video stores, it was local stores that sold gas, groceries, hot food, and VHS and Nintendo games. Also, despite it being in rural Virginia, it had an adult movie section. 🤣
This is my all-time favorite movie. I rented the VHS tape, bought the VHS tape, and now I have the anniversary Blu-ray. Along with the soundtrack on my playlist right now. I literally know every line by heart.
@@Starsaber222 remember that hunting music when Unicron first appeared at the opening. Dare. When hot rod and Daniel went up to the mountain. The death of Optimus prime music. The coordination of starscream. Nothing's gonna stand in our way, when hot rod fought off the squid. Hunger. When him and kup fought off the sharkticons, and the dinobots triumphantly saved the day. And yes the touch. Man you got me hyped thinking about this. I'm going to watch the movie tonight after work.
One of the few times where people are right and the original actually is the best, although the competition is five films created by Michael Bay, and the so paint-by-the-numbers Bumblebee, that I swear the script was AI generated.
@@rokeYouuer I am not expecting Rise of the Beasts to be good either, especially when I could just… watch the original Beast Wars, which still holds up very well.
They sent him out right. Other than Brawn, Prowl, Ironhide, Ratchet, Ironhide again, Wheeljack, windcharger, and even Starscream. The whole theater was dead quiet during those scenes like what the hell I just got that character for my birthday man. 😮😳🥺😭
I was like nine when this came out. I remember absolutely driving my mom and the video rental store clerks nuts trying to get a hold of a copy. Back in those days, the wait between theater and video release was like 6 mos to a year, if memory serves. When I did manage to get it, I literally jumped out of the car when we got home and ran inside the house to put it in the VCR. Coolest thing I had ever seen up until that point. Of course, I lost it when Optimus was killed. . . yeah, my mom said that was one of those moments she knew I was a total dweeb.
I was a kid when this came out on VHS. I remember being shocked by the level of violence and the language in the movie. The original cartoon was pretty mild. The movie was pretty savage. Everyone that I cared about was dead by the end of the movie.
“Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest imagination.” That tagline may be corny, but I love it. And the poster with the autobots shooting into the sky was great.
Peter Cullen called, he wants his voice back. You absolutely killed me with "The assassination of Optimus Prime by the Coward Hasbro". I'm also pretty certain this film is why I'm into hair metal even though I slightly missed that generation.
The Touch is fantastic, but Instruments of Destruction is an absolute gem, especially if it always makes you remember your toys being mercilessly gunned down by by your brother's toys.
it's hard to coohse man, Dare, Instruments, Hunger, THE FREAKING TOUCH, they are all bangers , and that's witohut mentioning the Vince Dicola tracks like the Autobot city battle
I can think of worse ways to retire a toy line to make way for a new one, but at least it has the effect of forever scarring so many kids for life, that they never forgot the franchise.
I grew up reading animorphs. It's hard to beat being mentally scarred and traumatized at 10 years old from that series. Applegate wrote a whole lot of horrific war crimes...committed by children...in her series, and she was good at it.
Oh God I'm rereading Animorphs.. can not believe these books were just sitting in the elementary school library. Should've come with a warning: May get second-hand PTSD and existential crisis
This film was my childhood for a long time. I was absolutely obsessed with it... And the toys too of course. Still the best Transformers film by a mile.
Ironically they deliberately had that one curse inserted to get PG and ensure more screening times at theaters. Most multiplexes in the 80's would stop showing G films in the evening to swap in adult movies
@@JeffreyPiatt It's funny that it would've received a G rating without that one swear. There's so much fighting and dying in the movie. That would never be G today.
"The Touch" was only played twice. That first scene featuring Hot Rod and Daniel featured "Dare," which was also played twice. Outside of that, this was on point!
You do the Optimus voice so well. Almost too well! The one thing I always hated about this movie was that they couldn't save Optimus when he had a single hole in his chest, but when Ultra Magnus gets blown to literal pieces, the Junkions just glue him back together and he's fine.
@@lostgallifreyan6436 tbh, the animation was great and the story was interesting. but it was pretty dark and depressing. joyless even. like transformers but if it was in the dc universe.
4:12 There was a group of female Autobots that already made an appearance in one of the Transformers season 2 episodes. They were a small group of brave defenders of Cybertron and they were even romantic partners with some of the male Autobots, like Elita One and Optimus Prime. For the movie and the season that followed it, the list of fembots was reduced only to Arcee, which is a mystery that can be added to the long list of inconsistencies of our beloved original cartoon.
The movie script was written before a lot of season two was finalised - hence Devastator was the only combiner team in it. It should have had Metroplex, Trypticon, Superion, Menasor…
I was terrified you were going to pan this movie, but you spared my aching heart. My only gripes are you forgot to mention Leonard Nimoy's Galvatron and the fact that Spectre General (Who were actually Kick Axe but the studio renamed them on the soundtrack album without their consent) did some absolutely amazing tracks on this album!
Often when I watch Honest Trailers for stuff I like I see issues I have with the trailer that compels me to defend the original product, but honestly the only complaint I have with the trailer is that in fact "The Touch" is played twice, not three times, in the film the scene near the start with Daniel on a hoverboard is in fact set to "Dare" also by Stan Bush.
50 here (yup!). I was 12 when Transformers arrived on the scene and 13 when the animated movie came out. So my appreciation was never through playing with the toys, but I loved the animated show, the animated movie and the comics (part of my learning of the English language). Perhaps unsurprisingly I started collecting the toys too and *still* hasn't sold them. It's in the pipeline, though. Better do it while it's still possible to get money for them in this inflation-riddled world.
I remember watching this when I was 8 or 9 years old. My first shock was that all these classic Autobots got gunned down like it was nothing almost first thing (including the first one I ever owned, Cliffjumper). And then Optimus Prime said, "Damn you, Megatron!" And I was like, "Optimus Prime cussed?!?!?!?" And then he got killed. And then Megatron died. And then Starscream finally got his. Man, this movie was brutal. And I loved it.
I'm 36 right now, and I can assure you this movie shocked me when I was a kid. It was so good and well animated. It wasn't well received at that time because it was meant for kid show but the killing here was really sad
Remember that the trauma of children who witnessed Optimus’s death was so bad that they rewrote the GI Joe movie at the last second to say Duke was in a coma and would recover instead of dying outright
It is to bad that Transformers came out first. Killing Duke would have worked better and it would have been easy to rework Transformers to spare Prime by giving him a makeover and new accessory.
I grew up in the 80s, traumatising children was just par for the course! If you wanted to watch the best most interesting movies, you just had to accept that trauma and nightmares came along with it. It was….interesting.
Two small corrections: - "Dare" is a completely different, but also awesome, song from "The Touch". While "The Touch" acknowledges a master, "Dare" inspires an up-and-comer. - Orson Welles was actually relatively happy about voicing a cartoon because he found the animation medium fascinating. It was probably more fun than the commercials he worked on.
The strange thing is that this is actually the best transformers movie ever made. I love that my grandad kept letting me watch it on repeat once I finish my work in the back garden. Thank you honest trailers 👏👍
I don't know, Bumblebee is a great movie, and it makes a lot more sense than '84. Yes, '84 has nostalgia, great original music, all the OG guys duking it out in fantastic animation and all. But most stuff after Starscream kicks the bucket up to Unicron's transformation is really high on filler.
I've owned this movie on Betamax, VHS, DVD, and now have it downloaded. I've seen this movie so many times I not only can recite the ENTIRE movie word for word, one of my horcruxes is an action figure of Wheelie. 😂
My father died when I was nine years old. At the time, I was really into the Transformers toys and cartoons. I guess I didn't realise that Optimus kinda became a surrogate father. Peter Cullen's voice was a perfect combination of strong yet caring. Then two years later this film came out and I went to see it at the cinema. I cried quietly in my seat, not wanting my friend sitting next to me to see. I knew I had until the end of the film for my swollen eyes to calm down. Utterly traumatic. Will never forget.
Yep! I was one of the 80 or so people that saw this when it was first released in theaters (judging by the box office numbers). I was six and loved every second of it. But Prime's death was traumatizing.
@@doro626 That's kind of funny. Optimus Prime dying was depressing to us kids back then. Movies didn't hide that stuff back then. That did alter the GI Joe animated movie.
I was working, and a kid working with us put children's songs on the radio. The theme from this movie came on, and I kindly informed that child: "don't skip that if you value your life."
One of my most ingrained memories was seeing this in theater with my father and when Prime died all the father's and sons were crying. I remember crying and not feeling alone because others were and my dad was trying to hold the tears back, lol.
I love this soundtrack. Every song is perfect. I absolutely love 'The Touch'. And though it may be blasphemous... I think 'Dare' is the best song in this movie.
My dad took me to see this in theaters. Optimus Prime dying did actually make me cry, although I was quite embarrassed by it. My dad made me walk home. My family moved to another town before I finally got there. I'm still homeless.
Love the Orson Welles call out, but can we acknowledge that Leonard Nimoy and Weird Al Yankovic also voiced major characters in this movie? Weird Al even rerecorded a song from his first album for it (Dare to be Stupid).
"Silence, or you'll be held in contempt of this court!" "I have nothing BUT contempt for this court!" I still haven't seen this movie, but I think it's amazing that it produced some surprisingly EPIC quotes.
I watched this movie over 300 times since 1986. It just never got old. "You have to see it twice to take it all in!" What's really really crazy is I'm STILL finding things in that movie I'd never noticed before. Like there being TWO Rumbles when they go to attack Blaster.
The touchiest thing about Stan Bush's "The Touch" was that it didn't beat around the Stan Bush when it concerned the multiple times it was repeatedly used in the 1986 The Transformers: The Movie.
The Touch is honestly such a great song. When Hot Rod pulls open the all spark and the song starts vibing, I got chills all over me. The single greatest scene in this movie is Hot Rod transforming into Rodimus Prime while The Touch is blaring in the background.
I once tried to watch one of the Michael Bay transformers movies. I was impressed that I managed to get almost halfway through before I shut it off, I feel that really shows my fortitude is stronger than I had anticipated. Honest Trailers really summed it up well - "2 hours of throwing electronics into a woodchipper".
I saw this in the cinema when I was 4/5 years old and Optimus’ death was really upsetting! Apparently so many patents in the US wrote letters to Hasbro to complain that they had to add a voice over to the end of the film before it was released worldwide, which says ‘the greatest Autobot of them all, Optimus Prime, will return’. You can see the differences in the Blu ray release which has the US cut and the European cut. Also, minor point: The Touch is only played twice in the film: during Prime’s fight with Megatron and during Rodimus Prime’s fight with Galvatron. During Hot Rod’s first scene with Daniel it is the equally great and cheesy ‘Dare’ also by Stan Bush.
this movie was one that created what/who i am today. add in star wars and highlander. i still listen to The Touch. its in my daily playlist. watched the movie so much my dad started calling me Hot Rod.
This was the first movie I ever saw in a theatre and the callous murder of my childhood favorites scarred me for years - that being said, this movie effing ruled.
@@TheVincentKyle Well. . . . Yes. . . .. Killing them got me to care for them. . . . It might be true for a great many tv and film characters. I didn't care for a great many characters until they died.
THAT. WAS. 80'S. AWESOME. I'm gonna get out my old cassette tape of the Transformers soundtrack, wait fifteen minutes for it to rewind to "Instruments If Destruction", Transform And Rock Out!
I've watched Honest Trailers for years and this is literally the first time I've ever rewatched one, immediately! The trailer for Transformers The Movie blew my little middle school mind back in 1986. I could not wait to go see it. When I saved up and bought a VHS of it from Toy-R-Us, I completely wore it out rewatching it countless times. It seemed crazy to me that this movie had not been done yet by Screen Junkies, but here we are. And, I got caught almost every reference made. It was the actor's credits/renames that threw me a couple times... Oh, can you say, "Turbo-revvin' young punk... I'll straighten you out yet!" Even if it's in your normal Honest Trailer voice on another non-transformer-related video. Thanks! I've also never requested you say anything in all the years I've been watching/subscribed. PS: I'm actually subscribed on my personal channel (Forrest Young), not this one. Hope that still counts!
I still laugh about how I finally was able to watch it for the first time almost fifteen years late. My family rarely went to movie theaters, so young me was confused when the new season happened and most of the familiar Transformers were suddenly missing. Eventually we rented the VHS but somebody taped over it and there was only video store in town so I was SOL. Naturally my interest quickly faded. Fast forward to college and I discover eBay. One night I looked up if any of my old toys were worth anything and to my delight Fortress Maximus was fetching a nice sum (and still does to this day). I brought it back with me and had it in my dorm. My roommate had a buddy visiting who spotted it and we started talking about Transformers. I mentioned how I never did get to watch the 1986 movie and he proceeded to pull the VHS out of his backpack. I was excited to finally watch it and equally a little creeped out that this guy traveled with a copy of Transformers: The Movie. Also obligatory shout out to the Cybertronic Spree. They put on a great concert that's definitely worth checking out.
I've been slowly buying all the best versions of each character from the movie poster (the Studio Series figures are amazing) so I can recreate it on my dresser. I'm pretty excited by it.
I was both devastated & equally elated when the autobots were getting shot down. It was always a major contradiction to my 4 year old mind that my action stories never had any consequence. So when this movie delivered, it was a rush.
@@RogueWolfArtist Compare that to this year when all four superhero movies, _Quantumania, Shazam! 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 3_ and _Through the Spider-verse_ had no sacrifice by the major characters (though Shazam was resurrected) in their movies.
Saw this film on opening night, five days after my 9th birthday. I couldn't believe they killed off all of my favorite characters. Sat there in shock with my dad and my 2 younger brothers. Still think it's a classic (from the year that defined the 80's: 1986), And, looking back, the most important thing is that it confirmed the origins of my love for heavy metal that still resides in me today. That Spectre General tune "Nothing's Gonna Stand in Our Way" was baddass, and fit perfectly in that underwater scene with Hotrod and Kup. RIP G1 and G2 .... we missed you, eternally, from this point forward, and effectively ended my interest in the toys by January 1987.