The Energon Pub

I don't think this goes in the Movie forum, as it seems dedicated to the current movie, rather than this one.

So I was hanging out in the DVD section of my local Wally World this afternoon and I happened across the 20th anniversary DVD of the G1 movie. I just subjected my wife to it, who I don't think was into it since she got up and wandered around at various points. Short attention span or something.

At any rate, I'm pretty happy about how it's aged. Aside from the soundtrack, it's still an excellent movie. Killing off Prime continues to be a mistake, but it was cool when the Matrix chose to open for Hot Rod; I may warm up to Rodimus Prime yet. I know I enjoyed the whole thing because it felt like it was over before it began.

I recently finished watching the first two seasons of the original series (bought the Rhino DVD set on Amazon), and in comparison, the animation is really top-notch, and it's obvious with the first few transformations. The robot models transform into their alternates with alot more detail than in the first two seasons of the show, though I'm not sure how that all compares to the later eps, since I haven't watched them yet. Well, I haven't watched them since they originally aired when I was 9 or 10 years old.

Now, the soundtrack today really is bad. I remember The Touch being a good song, and my memory has kinda failed me in that regard. I love Weird Al, as I have every single album, but Dare to be Stupid was way out of place. It would have done better to stick with the synth soundtrack that was heard when it wasn't licensed music.

All in all, I think it's aged better than the first two seasons, though that may be because it's that much better. The first two seasons were really enjoyable, but the movie - minus Wheelie (man, that was irritating) and a couple of out-of-place word choices (I doubt that s*it and damn were necessary and they sounded very weird coming from the Transformers) - is just that much better. Well worth the $15 at le Mart du Wal. I thought I was going to have to order it online but I decided to hit the B&M stores before I went through that trouble; glad I did.

Fifteen bucks? Shoo! I mean, it doesn't belong in the 2 for $11 bin, but come on! I can watch the entire thing on Youtube, so I'll keep my $15 and spend it one a comic or something.

I agree that the animation is top notch. I like "Dare" (in fact, it's been in my head ALL DAY), but yes, "Dare to Be Stupid" did NOT belong there. But at that point in the movie, the story had deevolved a little...ok, a lot.

I've never disliked Hot Rod/Rodimus. So that aspect of the movie doesn't bother me. But Wheelie...how many times can we all say we hate that stupid little bot?

All in all, while the animation is 10x better than the show's was, I still prefer the regular G1 show to the movie. At least everyone fought to live another day.

Cash was burning a hole in my pocket, and the picture was better than Youtube.

Moonbase2 wrote:deevolved

I think this explains "Dare to be Stupid" - since it was a style parody of Devo.

Haha. the 80's music is cheesy but I love it. Wouldnt be the same without it.

I've gotta say I think the sound track is great. It's the only CD I have in my collection that I cannot listen to in my car. When "Dare" play's, I tend to find my right foot getting way heavier and "Hunger" is still one of the most bad ass songs to appear on a movie soundtrack ever.

The soundtrack works in the context of the film. But not compared to today's standards.

All in all, it's still a damn good, and surprisingly brutal film, considering it's supposadly a 'kids film'.

yeah, definitely brutal.

My complaint about the soundtrack is really more about the audio remix (at least on the full-screen version; maybe they left it alone on the theatrical release version on disc1). It's like the Region 1 DVD release of the show; the sound effects and music are so loud sometimes as to cover up the voices, then at other points it's aggravatingly quiet. That's not the movie's fault, so I didn't mention it in the OP, but it's true of the particular re-master.