Is the Transformers movie on DVD different somehow from the one they showed in the theater? My roommate rented it the other day, but there wasn’t nearly as much carnage and death as I remembered from when I saw it in the theater back in 86, when I was 7. I remember there being a total robot holocaust, with many Autobots and Decepticons dying (I only saw a couple, more notable, characters dying when I just saw it). I also remember there being depicted an Autobot morgue of some sort that really freaked me out, but I didn’t see that when I just saw it again. Unless the DVD removed stuff that was considered traumatic to kids, I guess all this stuff was either a figment of my imagination or in some post-movie episode of the TV show.
Does anyone know if the DVD unchanged from the theatrical release? Also, was there more death and destruction of characters that took place in the TV show, after the release of the movie?
The third season that followed the movie was extremely dark and morbid, with plenty of dangerous journeys through underground robot-crypts, scary prophecies, intense battles, and archetypal creation-myths where vengeful gods would turn on their creations. Of course, this culminated in a 2-part episode “The Return of Optimus Prime,” and then a short fourth season consisting of a 5-parter introducing the Headmasters and Targetmasters. The Japanese series ran much longer and was even darker, with Daniel befriending the Decepticon Sixshot (who would kill Ultra Magnus), and Blaster and Soundwave battling each other until they both lay dead.
I remember the theatrical movie being extremely violent, particularly the deaths of Prowl, Brawn, Ratchet, and Ironhide in the beginning, the Prime/Megatron duel, the end of Starscream, and of course all the casualties incurred by Unicron. Last I saw on my videotape of the movie, it looked like it was all there. I do recall Ultra Magnus saying “Open, damn you!” while trying to activate the Matrix, and Spike saying “Shit” at one point, but I’m not sure if those have made it into subsequent releases or not.
I’m sure rjung will be along sooner or later to give a definitive answer, but I’m fairly certain the Rhino “Collector’s Edition” DVD is faithful to the theatrical release. I own the DVD, and saw a print of the film only a year or so ago, and don’t recall any substantial differences in content (swearing and all). I do seem to recall, though, that the DVD is Full-Screen, as opposed to the original apsect ratio.
You may be conflating the events of the Hate Plague and/or The Five Faces of Darkness with the movie, however.
Not really much for me to say, really, since caveman covered all the high points. Aside from the conversion from fullscreen to pan-and-scan, there’s no difference between the theatrical release of the movie and the home video/DVD versions. All the carnage and swearing of the original is still there.
The only Autobot morgue I’m aware of is the crypt from “Dark Awakening,” the third-season episode where the 'bots and humans find Optimus Prime’s corpse. Also, Optimus Prime’s floating space sarcophagus was shown briefly in “The Return of Optimus Prime” – which is a continuity goof, since he blew himself up in “Dark Awakening”.
That was “Rebirth,” the three-part endcap that re-eneergized Cybertron and featured every then-current character that could be squeezed into 70 minutes.
To be fair, Daniel befriending Sixshot (the “Decepticon ninja”) led to his eventual redemption and joining the Autobots. And Blaster and Soundwave were rebuilt/reincarnated/came back a few episodes later as Soundblast and Twincaster, respectively (the toys were modified so they could hold two cassettes simultaneously).
Though seeing Wheelie turn into an angry young punk and talking smack-down to the other Autobots is something you have to see to believe… :eek:
I’ve never actually seen any of those Japanese episodes, but I hear they are CRAZY, and subvert everything we American fans accepted about Transformers.
