Revisiting The Animated Transformers Movie...
Recently, I've been rewatching the Transformers animated movie (circa 1987) and I've noticed some differences between the 10th anniversary edition that I had on VHS and the 20th anniversary edition that I have on DVD.
The changes that were made to the Transformers movie seem, in my humble opinion, to be a bit too much of a good thing. I'm not against restoration. I just don't believe that the production studio did a faithful restoration on the print. Rather, they modified the print in what appears to have been a somewhat arbitrary process -- not unlike colorizing a black and white movie. Also, as if the color correction issue wasn't bad enough, I've heard, if you were unfortunate to have the fullscreen version of the 20th anniversary edition on DVD, you'll find that the publisher chopped the sides off widescreen version, rather than use the original uncropped print.
Despite Hot Rod being PINK, I did like the Transformers Movie. I gave it a 3 out of 5. As for the Transformers soundtrack CD, it has 10 tracks and I liked 8 for a total of 80% and a rating of 4 out of 4. By the way, may favorite track is the instrumental score for the Death of Optimus Prime.
More Than Meets The Eye! The year is 2005, and the Decepticons have retaken Cybertron from Optimus Prime and his Autobot warriors. Both sides are seething with anger, and that has blinded them to a hideous menace headed their way. That menace is Unicron, a monster so powerful he devours planets. Unicron has chosen to take control of the Autobot Matrix for his own evil purposes, and to accomplish this he has created a force of super robots. By gathering the remains of fallen Decepticons, including Megatron, and infusing them with life, he forms the Unicrons. With Decepticons on one side, Unicron on the other, and Optimus Prime lost in battle, Earth and Autobot survival depends on The Chosen One who must rise up to open the matrix and use its full power. Who that is remains a mystery.
The 20th anniversary edition has been digitally remastered and *color corrected*. Also, this release is widescreen, but, this version has been artificially cropped. You'll note in the remastered version that Hot Rod's hands are missing. Originally, the Transformers movie was produced with the 4:3 aspect ratio, but, was cropped for the theatrical release. I think that the most striking difference between the earlier version and the current version is the color. The new version is *much* brighter than the old version. In some scenes the color correction doesn't seem quite right. Just look at poor Hot Rod -- he's PINK!
The changes that were made to the Transformers movie seem, in my humble opinion, to be a bit too much of a good thing. I'm not against restoration. I just don't believe that the production studio did a faithful restoration on the print. Rather, they modified the print in what appears to have been a somewhat arbitrary process -- not unlike colorizing a black and white movie. Also, as if the color correction issue wasn't bad enough, I've heard, if you were unfortunate to have the fullscreen version of the 20th anniversary edition on DVD, you'll find that the publisher chopped the sides off widescreen version, rather than use the original uncropped print.
Despite Hot Rod being PINK, I did like the Transformers Movie. I gave it a 3 out of 5. As for the Transformers soundtrack CD, it has 10 tracks and I liked 8 for a total of 80% and a rating of 4 out of 4. By the way, may favorite track is the instrumental score for the Death of Optimus Prime.
