The Energon Pub

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Yes, its been out a while. And reviewed a million times, by fans far more articulate than myself, too. Obviously, I won't be reviewing the movie, rather its restoration and production.

Image transfer

Firstly, the 6\4k rescan of the negative has yielded a couple of things, both good and bad. For a start, the image is incredibly crisp (more on this later) - which is awesome, but it'll also show up more animation mistakes than before.

The real winner on the new high res transfer are the backgrounds. With the increased depth of colour; resolution and altered contrast, you'll see more than you ever did before. Of real note is the underwater scenes on Quintessa, where submersed cities in the background now pop fully, as if emerging suddenly from a long forgotten Yes! album cover. In fact, album covers seems to be a good analogy as the vibrancy of the pinks, blues, reds and even blacks make shots like the inside of Unicron, generic space backdrops and the Battle for Autobot city look more like a Nektar, Starcastle or Asia record sleeve than ever before. Some backdrops suffer for it and the gloom of Unicron's innards are left feeling brighter and a little flatter, but for me the trade off is more than agreeable.

Despite the studios best efforts at clearing and cleaning the movie up, there are still some instances of dirt appearing on the film (a couple during Optimus Prime's "charge" against the 'Cons, for example). Although its much less noticeable than it was before.

Also of note were the "glow" effects in the movie. They're now much brighter as are flashes on screen like the flickers during the inside of Unicron whilst talking to Megatron. Things like monitors with the sparkles are brighter as well.

The colours all felt absolutely spot on, too. I still cringe when I think of the "red" Hotrod that Sony did way back. That is definitely not an issue here - the colourist needs a good pat on the back with this one.

Sadly, for whatever reason - there is one instance of blurry image, as the screen first pans down to view Hotrod and Daniel from the back. Maybe it was always that way, but with everything else looking so sharp - you'll spot it rather easily.

I read other reviews of this version saying the lines were not dark enough (or even grey). I didn't notice this. Though that may be because I'm rather fastidious with my TVs contrast and brightness settings.

Sound

I can't comment for the 5.1 Surround mix - only the standard stereo. I have to point out something else first, as it massively colours my opinion on the sound... I have my TV wired through a proper analogue amplifier and studio quality speakers.

The mix is excellent. Some of the cuts from chopping the songs up are a little more obvious, but the clarity is gorgeous. I was unsure of some of the mix choices at first, as some background sounds have been brought more to the fore (or perhaps its because they're no longer muffled, either way), but as with the work done on the backgrounds - I'm more than happy with the trade off. (To me), It also sounds like the music is actually clearer than it was on my OST CD as well.

Overall

Personally - this has been the best transfer we've had of the movie to anything digital so far. The increased resolution has a strange twofold effect of showing the backgrounds in their full glory, possibly going as far as to outshine the actual animation in places and a slightly detrimental effect on the actual animation itself as it shows more mistakes than ever. The 2.1 mix on the sound was brilliant. I wouldn't go back to an unrestored DVD version.

Overall - I'd give it a 9. I can see some room for improvement in the backgrounds and some minor nags with the sound mix stop me saying its a "10", though I also doubt we'll ever see anything better, even with the (almost inevitable) actual 4K transfer release.

The 5.1 mix is pretty good and not too forced, although that does mean there's barely anything in the two rear channels. Not surprising, to be fair. Closer to "3.1" where it's basically the stereo mix with most dialogue comic through the center channel.

I don't know if it already exists or not, but do you think a Blu Ray restoration of the entire Sunbow series would enhance or detract?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I don't know if it already exists or not, but do you think a Blu Ray restoration of the entire Sunbow series would enhance or detract?

Depends on what shape the original prints/tapes are in. If they can clean it up the way Sunrise was able to clean up Mobile Suit Gundam, which is five years older, then I think it'd be very fun to see! If the prints are beat to hell and would have to have details washed out en masse to look decent at 1080 or higher, then it's probblably not worth it.

Tbh I'd be more interested in Beast Wars and Beast Machines on Bluray, gotta figure those could clean up very well!