by Bumblevivisector » Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:11 am
I'll gladly respond to this first.
I was in kindergarten in '84/'85, when the mid-80s toy-franchise boom was really ramping up, a perfect time for sheer variety of cartoons, when I could see the vestiges of '70s Saturday morning glory alongside Muppet Babies cross-promoting Lucas and Spielberg's epics, in addition to all the action cartoons that defined the weekdays. My first TF was Sludge just after Christmas of '84 from someone on my dad's side of the family. I got a few of the mini-vehicles from my Mom throughout 1985, but never enough TFs to wage some actual battles until early '86, and there's a reason for that.
Before I figured out when and where Transformers was on TV, my favorite cartoons were Thundercats and Voltron, but of the former, I only ever got Lion-O with Snarf because my mom thought they were sexually suggestive or something; not sure if that was because of Cheetara's voice, or if she was actually paying attention to the first episode where they were all naked. She must not have been watching Voltron too close, because when I described him bisecting the robeasts with the blazing sword, she was disgusted until I explained, "No, they're not people, there's just static inside them". My dad was kind enough to buy me the big ol' die cast metal Voltron on his lunch hour. But when I actually got into a fight with a classmate over whether Lion or Vehicle Voltron was better (I think we were actually both arguing for the Lion Force, but I confusingly called him "Voltron 3", his label from a smaller toy's cardback), and I insisted on having the toy of Hagar the Witch (mom didn't understand her importance as creator of the Robeasts, briefly buying into that "hidden-satanic-messages" goat-shit from other adults who just didn't understand the toys or corresponding action cartoons American children were into these days because for the first time in human civilization, both mediums had actually gotten GOOD, the crowning achievement of the Reagan administration), mom and dad had to get me to shut the f#@k up about Voltron somehow: buying me all the Transformers I wanted within reason was the only viable answer.
I know, TMI, but the point is I wasn't quite there for TF from the very beginning, so the first 2 years' toylines blurred together, and I felt a little behind the other kids, so TF:TM was the first jumping-on point I was "there" for. I first learned about the movie from the promotional poster sent to me after I mail-ordered Camshaft and Drill-Dasher. The reverse side showed Unicron in robot mode, which should've been a horrible spoiler, but ultimately did nothing to stop TF:TM from being the most surprising experience I'd ever have in a theater: in a world where movies never quite live up to their trailers, one would actually leave me in a state of shock by being several times better than whatever I expected going in.
See, I'd watched enough action cartoons to become cynical about the lack of continuity between episodes. A few eps made a big show of introducing new characters, but nothing ever changed. Sure, GoLion had an ongoing story that asserted itself at the beginning and end, but the producers of Voltron undermined it by coping out on most character deaths, confusing me so badly that I never gave Robotech a chance back in the day, something I actually got mad at Voltron for in hindsight when Toonami let me revisit it. In the more coherent G.I.Joe and Transformers series, nothing ever really changed the dynamics of their respective wars, and shortly after my 7th birthday, I went into that theater knowing that nothing, not even a planet-eating monster, ever would.
You know, IDR how many movies I'd even seen before then, live action or animated. Maybe 20? Not that I don't remember them, it's just that at some point before I got up to leave, none of them mattered anymore. I knew I was seeing my eternal favorite movie for the first time, THE film against which everyTHING I ever saw would be judged.
The only distinct audience reaction I remember was kids saying "Laserbeak!" upon finally seeing someone they recognized after the disorienting apocalypse that must've briefly left some confused as to whether they were in the right show. Theaters full of kids crying is something I only know of third hand. I certainly wasn't upset by Optimus Prime's death, just stunned that they actually did it. After nine-million/two years of war, the fighting actually led to what were clearly permanent casualties, proving that the cartoon creators I was beginning to develop a dim opinion of had the brains and balls to tell a story epic enough to produce consequences that could change everything, playing for the higher stakes than I could've ever imagined!
I was the last one to leave the theater. My parents played mostly country and folk music at home, and we didn't have MTV, so I had to soak in every last note of the soundtrack. More than that, I just didn't want Transformers: The Movie to end.
"I didn't know a movie could BE that good!"
"Uhhhhhh...next time, we're picking the movie."
I'll have more thoughts on this later...even if other Seibetronians respond so you don't need them. Hope this is a good starting point...or did you already find any of the past threads reminiscing about TFTM?
Are you writing this for college? Or some book on pop-culture? Just curious.
Last edited by
Bumblevivisector on Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:29 am, edited 2 times in total.