But then we’re taken inside Unicron and shown its inner workings, which aren’t so much mechanical as something from an acid flashback: there are glowing orbs, pulsing synapses and flowing rivers of lava-like ooze. It’s a cool design, like the Death Star crossed with some kind of rotund insect. Take the opening sequence, for example: we see Unicron’s outline, floating ominously through space. What it leaves out are the odd story and art touches that T ransformers: The Movie‘s writers and animators place around the main narrative it’s as though Hasbro, once it was satisfied that the film would involve killing lots of Transformers and introduce new ones, simply left the filmmakers to their own devices. That’s the plot in skeletal outline, anyway.
Transformers: The Movie is also completely bonkers. It’s a coming-of-age story about a young and reckless Autobot – Hot Rod, voiced by ’80s rising star Judd Nelson – growing into the role of a heroic leader. As well as a feature-length toy commercial, Transformers: The Movie wound up being a story about death, transfiguration, guilt and redemption. In retrospect, Hasbro’s cold business decision – to wipe out one generation of toys in order to replace them with new ones – resulted in a far more effective movie. Thanks to an edict handed down by the powers that be at Hasbro, pretty much every toy in the original Transformers 1984 line was wiped out in the course of the film’s events and by the time the noble Autobot leader Optimus Prime died at the hands of Megatron towards the end of the first act, a generation of youngsters were scarred for life. The shadow of death hung like a black curtain over Transformers: The Movie. The following contains spoilers for Transformers: The Movie.