Courtesy of LongHaul, today's subject, the
K-T Collection Devastar (with Rodimus and Arcee), depicts a scene from
The Transformers: The Movie. Some of you youngsters out there might be thinking, "Hey, I don't recall seeing anyone called Rodimus in the movie...and Arcee was a motorcycle! And that looks nothing like Devastator! Where are the Twins?", but for many of us old-timers, the 1986 movie was the first time we got to see our TF heroes up on the big screen. Although it was widely panned by critics as an hour-and-a-half long toy commercial, as a 10-year-old kid, there was nothing more awesome. But why was it so great at the time? Beautiful animation? Check. A "rockin'" 80's
soundtrack? Double check. Characters that you've loved for years actually getting killed (with some actually staying dead)? Triple check! A planet-gobbling monstrosity voiced by
Orson Welles and a new Decepticon leader voiced by freakin'
Mr. Spock? Quadruple check!!
That's not to say that the 2007
Transformers movie and
Revenge of the Fallen aren't equally memorable as both were considered groundbreaking and have rightfully earned their place in Transformers history. In fact, when you think about it, one can draw several comparisons between the animated film and the live-action Michael Bay films. All three featured: 1) high-quality visual effects; 2) a previously-unheard of plot device that each film's plot was centered around; 3) death in some capacity; 4) humans/Earth being threatened by a seemingly-unstoppable "big bad"; 4) big name Hollywood stars (or semi-big name) lending their talents in the films; and 5) one of the previously-mentioned Hollywood stars appearing to be "less than enthusiastic" over their participation in the film (let's just say that Megan Fox was not the first to be somewhat "meh" about their role in a Transformers movie). In Orson Welles'
biography, he was quoted saying the following about his role (the voice of Unicron) in the 1986 film (he recorded his lines in September of the previous year):
"You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. Some terrible robot toys from Japan that changed from one thing to another. The Japanese have funded a full-length animated cartoon about the doings of these toys, which is all bad outer-space stuff. I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy Whoever-it-is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen."
It should be pointed out that Mr. Welles died shortly after recording his lines for the film...so...yeah, take a lesson, Ms. Fox. You might want to tone it down a bit. Besides, "Transformers blase" is
soooo 1985.
