The Transformers: The Movie 35th Anniversary Review

Hey, this is Springer. I've got better things

to do tonight than die, like listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. Transformers, the movie.

It is the year 2005 when the mysterious planet

threatens to devour the galaxy. Conceived in

the epic tradition of Star Wars, this spectacular

animated adventure stars Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron.

Robert Stack as Ultra Magnus, Judd Nelson as

Hot Rod, and Eric Idle as the junkie on Warrior

Wrecked Guard. And at film's end, when the monstrous

planet Unicron, played by Orson Welles, reveals

its long -held secret by transforming into the

most gigantic robot ever, you'll know you have

been watching a movie that is destined to bring

back audiences again and again. In the summer

of 1986, the most exciting adventure in the universe

is on planet Earth. It's rough out there, kid.

Holy crap, it's the TFG1 podcast. That's right,

folks. We're back and we are recording this August

8th, 2021. I am, of course, TFG1 Mike. Joining

me is TV's Mr. Neil. Hello, sir. Oh, shit. What

are we going to do now? Well, we're being sucked

into it. Yeah, not even Wheely could save that

trip. Oh, can we sacrifice a wheelie? So this

is not technically the first new episode of the

TFG1 podcast because we've had several episodes.

We just haven't been, you know, whatever. They've

mainly been crossovers with all things Transformers,

but this is the first new one that's dedicated

to The tfg1 feed and we're here because as i

said august 8 2021 it is now 35 years Since transformers

or i should say the transformers the i i just

like calling it transformers the movie Everyone

called it that it makes so much more like i get

it that's the name of the show the show is the

transformers i understand that but Ttftm just

doesn't sound right I think they had to put the

the in there for trademark reasons. Maybe. Because

it's the logo, so they had to have it in there.

Right, yeah, absolutely. So we've done celebratory

things for this film for the last 13 years that

the podcast has been around, the last 12 years

that the GeekCast Radio Network has been around.

There are several commentary tracks that we've

done for it over the years, I think usually like...

I think we did one once the 20th anniversary,

maybe the 25th, I know the 30th. We did a commentary

for it. We've done all kinds of celebratory things

for this animation masterpiece. And now in 4K

and Blu -ray Ultra from Shout Factory. Well,

this calls for a celebration. Yes, yes it does.

Let me ask you, since you're tech, even though

we've been working together for years now, you're

technically new to this specific podcast and

this is the podcast that I started with way back

when in 2008. What is your experience with this

movie from as a child to now? Well, when I first

saw it, my sister took me to see the movie because

I wasn't driving yet. I was quite a number of

years away from that. And we went walking up

to the theater, and there were duck footprints

painted on the walkway up to the theater for

Howard the Duck. And we just kind of laughed,

said, no, it's all the Transformers. And was

blown away by the awesome animation, the soundtrack,

all the shocking deaths that happened in the

movie, and oh my god, the swearing. And then...

I saw it once and then didn't see it again until

like the, uh, I'll do the finger quotes season

five with the puppet optimist prime. And then

it was quite a number of years after that. Cause

all I had was like a VHS copy of the broadcast

after that. And it was a number of years after

that before I even got the, the DVD never saw

ever saw a, uh, a VHS copy of it. Only got I

think it was like Rhino that put out the first

DVD of it I had that for a number of years and

then I got the 20th anniversary and that's the

version that I have to this day I'm gonna tell

you right now you should whether it's digitally

or or physically for physical media you should

invest in the 30th anniversary because it is

the Outside of the new 30 35th one. It is the

best Standard slash high def slash whatever you

want to call it. It's the best version Yeah,

and the car I think I believe the color of the

20th that the 20th anniversary was like a bit

over saturated because it was at that time They're

like, oh we could just crank up the colors and

they didn't realize they were ruining the film

Yes Yes, that's that's not good don't do that

folks don't don't ruin the film So like somebody

else got a hold of it and said now that's not

the way this is supposed to look Yeah. I mean,

Hot Rod is pink, but he's not that pink. He's

magenta. Yes. Is what he is. It's a combination.

Maybe you're better off purchasing it digitally,

but I'm looking at it. Oh, that's for the steel

book. That's what the steel book is $50 on Amazon.

Oh, Jesus. You just need the the actual regular

thing. But anyway, yeah, I mean, it's got 35

years. I cannot believe that it's been that long.

Yeah, man. Yeah, I did not I have seen this in

theaters, but I did not see this in theaters

when it came out I was six years old at the time.

I Remember seeing this in the format of season

5 with Tommy and power master optimus prime and

all of that and thinking oh we like Because I

had somehow I had skipped My my childhood and

I honestly don't remember if I've told this story

before right? Yeah been podcasting for 13 years,

folks. I can barely remember 13 minutes ago,

let alone 13 years ago. I remember seeing Return

of Optimus Prime. I do not remember seeing Rebirth

until somewhere, I want to say somewhere between

90 and 92, because I caught the VHS at a video

store or something. So I saw return to Optimus

Prime and then I saw. Season 5 quote unquote

and I'm like oh well then alright. I remember

I'm sorry no I'll get through this really quick

so I remember like seeing the power mass Optimus

Prime season and then one day I wake up because

I'm watching it anyway. One day I wake up. And

in my sleepy haze, I'm like, what episode is

this? I, this doesn't look right. And then, and

then I realized, you know, Ironhide and Ratchet

are getting murdered. I'm like, it's the movie.

So the next time I paid attention to like, how

many episodes or what episode order they were

in. And then like, as soon as I knew it was coming

up, it was like record. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

And I remember after I had seen it, I had always

tried to, this was somewhere around, like I said,

somewhere between, at this point when I was trying

to do this, it was somewhere between like 91

and 93. I had all, as a kid, I fascinated with

audio and cassettes and LPs and records and all

that and everything else. But also as a kid,

I wanted, I've always been an audiophile to the

point where I need to listen to the stuff. Mm

-hmm, obviously I need to watch it, but I'm legally

blind. I was born with optic atrophy with nystagmatism.

So Literally, I'm as a kid in the 80s and 90s

I'm sitting literally like five inches away from

the like my nose is almost to the TV screen essentially

Kind of thing and I've had glasses over the years

and they work sometimes and then sometimes they

don't work and whatever but it's just one of

those things where I'm an audiophile. So as a

kid I tried to record via cassette recorder the

audio for this movie and never got a clean cassette

audio version of this because either I coughed,

I sneezed, my mom yelled at me like, Mom, I'm

trying to record the Transformers. And she's

like, what? What'd you say? Yeah. I didn't hear

you. What'd you say? I didn't hear you like oh

god damn stop. I I forget I honestly I honestly

forget which episode oh I think Wow Okay, so

we know there's cursing in the movie and the

reason why the cursing in the movie is because

to get the PG rating at the time Yeah, yeah,

yeah, whatever. It's kind of funny in modern

perspective Yeah, you would think considering

the everything that's in modern movies now. Yeah,

but I had a there was never sort of season three

or it might have been re I don't know I was over

at my aunt's house one day and I'm watching it

and watching it and enjoying it and whatever

All of a sudden one of them says something and

she's like did that robot just say ass. Oh my

god, like she's real Yeah, you know Christian

and oh my god, you can't say shit. You can't

say damn if you said hell you're going to hell

and Whatever I'm like, oh my god because I know

it wasn't the movie because it was no I want

to say it was and this is so silly because this

would I think this this would have been season

two not season three it I think it was a prime

problem or whichever one where where the illustrious

Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime Oh, a booby trap

that actually catches boobies. Oh. Yeah. Hey,

at least the Transformers wasn't as bad as the

Simpsons when the Simpsons came out. They're

like, oh, the parents groups back then. Woof,

boy. Well, the funny thing now is that... I'm

not sure that the casual swearing in this movie

would even like push it past the G nowadays,

but I think the violence would make it a hard

R because there were there's like there's some

There's some robots getting slaughtered in this

movie. Yes I mean nobody's ripping off anybody's

face, but it's you know, it's it's kind of still

the same thing I Dig this movie. I've always

dug this movie I'm, as of this recording, I've

been rewatching it throughout the day to day

on August 8th, 2021 to kind of, you know, celebrate

the day. And plus I'm preparing for the top 100

Transformers characters countdown. So if I need

cups, you know, calling Hot Rod a Turbo Revan

Young punk, I'm going to go to obviously where,

where, where it is. It's just one of those movies

that I can every, I don't watch it all that often.

I really don't. But every now and then I get

the itch to watch it. And it's like, hmm. Like

I said, I have the 30th anniversary Shout Factory

digital copy edition on Voodoo. And I'm watching

it today and I'm like, oh my god, this looks

so good. I wish this looked this good 35 years

ago. And now it can look this good as kind of

thing cuz shout factory just released the 35th

anniversary. 4k blu -ray disc edition and literally

this release so the last release the 30th anniversary

had livio ramandelli on the art for the cover

and everything else this time around they have

matt ferguson as the artist for the for the cover

and everything else and. This version is all

about hot rod and Galvatron. It's all about Rodimus

Galvatron The the blu -ray disc is like the inside

of the logo when they transition At the beginning

of the movie and you go inside of the the oh,

I think it's the Owen movie Yeah, the main disc

the the wide -screen UHD disc is basically Hot

Rod opening the matrix it's a close up on his

what I do like about this 35th anniversary set

though is. The background behind the discs and

behind the little pouch that they include with

some art cards which is like. Optimus about to

say you know the famous line one shall stand

wait it's that scene he's standing there waiting

for Megatron one card is. Hot rod holding, you

know the matrix choosing the right leader for

once kind of thing but the background of the

set of the image that they have here is basically

Unicron coming out of wherever he's coming out

of going towards I Forget the name of that. All

I remember is all this look look. It's Unicron

I forget what the name of the damn planet is.

The planet does have a name, but it's never mentioned

in the movie. It's in the comic, I know. Oh,

okay. Yeah. I think it's like Whistle or something.

Yeah, something like that. No, man, I just, it's...

I can just sit here and watch, and I don't even

have to, I can just sit here, and I'll be writing,

like, I'm about to script part five of the top

100 character countdown for Transformers for

GCRN, so... I'm sitting here and all of a sudden

I'm quoting Daniel and Spike. How? I don't have

a gun. Use your XO suit. I got to a point where

I could just close my eyes and basically play

the movie in my head because it was such a long

period of time where I didn't have access to

the movie that once I had it, I watched it almost

constantly for a couple of years. reached a point

where I had seen the movie more times than I

had seen any episode. So now it went from being

the rarest story that G1 had to the one that

I saw the most. And now it's just like, I don't

even need to watch this anymore. But it's always

fun to go back in and relive the awesomeness.

Now back in, I want to say 2018 is when it happened.

They did the first ever one night only theatrical

run since the original release, I believe. Right.

And Karen and I went to that and it was based

off of, it was, yeah, it was based off of 30th

anniversary release. Oh, it was so good to see

it in the theater. It was so good to just see

this on a big screen for once in my life. And

I say that because I know next month they're

doing it again for another one night only event.

It's another one of the Fathom events things.

And probably what they've done is the same thing

they did, you know, two, three, however many

between last year. I can't keep track of years

anymore, folks. Uh, back in 2018, I'm sure that

was the 30th, I'm damn sure that was the 30th

anniversary version from Shout. And I'm sure

that they'll use this new 35th anniversary 4K

Blu -ray, whatever it is that they're going to

use. And I would like to go, but I don't have

to go because I've already seen it. And if I

really, really want to watch it, I can just pull

it up on my computer and just, you know, have

that Private moment after all. I don't want to

subject my I have to say it this way folks. You've

heard the story another podcast I don't want

to subject my ex -wife to more transformers that

she doesn't care about Which is fine. It's fine.

We each have our own things. It's okay. It's

not that big a deal Are you dragging me to see

this loud movie? Yeah Really, I mean, I mean

it is loud but it's not that loud Well, it's

like wall -to -wall heavy metal. It's true. It's

a lot of lots of explosions and screaming and

Very sure. Yeah So I'm watching it today and

I'm like, wait a minute. How is that possible?

So I'm watching the final scene because I'm trying

to get I was actually trying to get the screenshot

which I did get it and it's a screenshot that

I know you hate Because you're not one of the

people that actually enjoy Rodimus primes alt

mode, which is fine. That's whatever mr. Space

Winnebago. Whatever I'm just waiting for barf

ice cream truck. Yeah, I'm just waiting for barf

and and Lone Star to show up But I'm watching

the the the final scene when he opens the matrix

he opens the matrix it destroys everything in

Unicron We see Unicron's brain explode See his

brain explode And yet, like five seconds later,

you cannot destroy my destiny. Did we know it

was his brain? Just a cluster of monitors and

who are they for anyway? I want to assume that

it's his brain and I have not... Actively asked

Flint and Dilley or anyone I've not asked Flint.

I've not asked Ron Friedman or anybody about

it, but What else would it be? You you have to

show a planet, you know You have to show this

giant transformer and how he is seeing things

without actually showing him at the forefront

of the movie Yeah, exactly, you know him looking

into you know his monitors or whatever he's doing

and and seeing that the matrix is being passed

and letting oh no it's gonna get me and then

of course jettison some waiter will never make

it to cybertron yeah or astro train so again

i it's a little nitpick thing it was just something

i noticed today like i've never really put too

much thought into it but i'm like wait a minute

Yeah, there's like a lot of stuff in this movie

that's really not meant to be thought about like

gravity in space that doesn't make sense and

like that You know for a cartoon in the 80s.

They weren't really thinking about what those

monitors represented They're just like we need

some sort of visual representation of what he's

thinking So we'll just draw this thing and that'll

be it and I think on my end it's more because

I almost did have my brain pop out of my head

two years ago. So, you know, it's that kind of

thing where since I started this podcast 13 years

ago, I found out that for the longest time, I

don't even remember when it started, but I've

always had headaches and always this and always

that. And I started to look into it and go to

doctors and whatever else and ended up at one

of the hospitals downtown Chicago at the time.

And oh yeah. You have hydrocephalus and if you

don't have surgery like Monday, if this continues,

you're literally, the doctor, the surgeon said

my brain was two inches away from popping out

of my skull. So that's why, yeah, a lot of excess

fluid, a lot. Basically you look into Tim Conway's

death, he died of hydrocephalus. So yeah, I was,

And it happened at the same time that I was about

to go into surgery and I'm like, yeah So anything

with the brain nowadays that it gives me extra

heebie -heebies kind of thing because I'm like

anytime I don't care who you are. I don't care

what kind of headache you have I don't care what

caused it go get it checked out if it continues

because It could honestly be something that you

don't know Anyway, yeah unicorns brain explodes.

He still talks. It's okay I guess they had to

get one last line in before sadly. Well, he has

many lines yet in the series. Well, not by Orson,

he doesn't. Well, no, but there were two reasons

why they weren't going to get Orson Welles back.

One, he's too expensive, and two, he was dead.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I don't mean to laugh. The

man's death is not a funny thing, but... He was...

Remember like somebody figured out how long after

he recorded his lines. He died. It was like a

matter of days Yeah, it was. Yeah, I've heard

interviews with Flint Dilley I've heard interviews

with Susan blue and a couple other people they

said it was less than a week Wow time he finished

recording To the time that he actually died and

the only reason they know this is because he

was talking to his publicist on the day Yeah,

and they figured out what day that was. Mm -hmm.

Yeah Yeah, it's very very sad. Yeah What is your

favorite scene in this film? Oh Probably the

rebirth of Megatron into Galvatron just because

it's such a cool animated scene. It's such a

It's such an 80s anime thing. Yes Which is the

only good anime it is all in the 80s Which I

do count among it Transformers inspector gadget

and all those so it's not just like it's not

just like, you know Robo tech, you know So yeah,

that's that's a good scene. There's lots of good

scenes this movie although I just love the animation

in general because it's it's their movie department

they had over in Japan that did it so that's

why it was like a Huge step up from the from

the from the TV series. Yeah So yeah, but that's

that's got to be the one that's the best just

because it's such It's such a dark scene, but

it's also really colorful and just you know,

just really cool Yeah, and the music's good.

Oh the music's amazing Yeah, that whole that

whole scene there actually I don't know how far

I don't think you're Collecting action figures

these days if you are I don't know every okay.

So anyway, I I admire the new action figures,

but I'm like I don't have money for this Right.

Absolutely. That's fine. It's not that big of

a deal. But the point is they have these new

red figures, robot enhanced design. They're essentially

non -transforming figures. And they are doing

one based on Megatron's, basically his transformation

kind of thing. So he's all like pinkish, purplish.

And it's got the grid design on half of its leg.

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I'll send you a link

here in a little while. I did a comic book cover

based on that once. Did a parody of it. Cool.

Yeah. You know, this movie, Transformers the

movie, it's not what I... It is and it isn't

what I remembered as a kid because as a kid I

was really screwed up and... Want to say there

was a version where hot rod actually did get

the matrix first and no I'm not thinking of a

comic book or anything like that and whatever

I don't Somebody told me a weird story when I

was a kid and obviously that's not true. But

anyway Like he really instead instead of just

handing it to madness. He's like no mine mine

Yeah, then they just roll credits because that's

the end of the movie Yeah My favorite scene I

have to say Even though I always nowadays and

it's only because of the the people who who actively

are like Rotimus sucks and When I say actively,

I mean like our act sometimes not everybody but

sometimes Actively in my face about it and I'm

like, okay. Sure. That's your opinion. Great

You're wrong, but that's your opinion just like,

you know, I'm wrong on plenty of things, but

I still have my opinions but it's one of those

things where if I have to Pick a scene that was

done so well besides what you picked I gotta

say primes dismount from the ship and his run

to meet Megatron his whole Truck run and he basically

kills all the decepticons by himself. Yeah, it's

like by thrust see insecticons, uh, you know

Oh, man, I love and it's not just because of

stan bushes the touch which which is obviously

what plays there but Just that scene of you know,

we saw optimus for two whole seasons be in action,

but When this movie starts off he's He's on moon

base one basically being a he's He's basically

the Nick Fury of Transformers He's basically

directing everybody. That's fine kind of thing

and I was like, oh this is gonna be good and

I am fully in the camp of Optimus's death is

his own damn fault. You are so wrong So what

was he supposed to do by was he supposed to just

shoot Megatron in the face? Yes, that's called

a war crime. We have a Geneva Convention that

says you do not shoot a surrendering unarmed

combatant. First of all, I know we're talking

about a movie about a cartoon movie about robots,

but there are. Human beings who wrote this movie

who believed that and they're right. Yes. Yes.

But here, but the thing of it is, is he had every

opportunity, even when Megatron stabbed him in

the headlight, you know, when he stabs him in

the lower abdomen part and he's holding it, you

know, whatever it's like, he had every opportunity

to take out the Decepticon leader. And there's

even a line in the series where he's like, We're

the only ones that can stop them or something.

It's from I forget which episode it's from. Again,

go ahead. But I'm talking about like when he

actually had a clean shot at Megatron, he cannot

shoot him in that moment. And besides, correct

me if I'm wrong, but Hot Rod has three gun turrets

on each arm. He sees Megatron going for the gun.

See, the problem is Optimus doesn't see the gun,

so he can't, morally, he cannot shoot. Yeah.

But Rodimus sees it. Hot rod. I'm sorry. Yeah,

and he why doesn't hot rod to shoot him instead

of or like even shout? Hey, he's got a gun instead

of like running into the scene See I was gonna

come in this like actually Mike it's a little

ambiguous it might be his fault might not and

then I was like I was looking at him like no

actually it is his fault he he could have Hot

rod could have shot at Megatron And stop him

but instead he's like wait stop. Oh yes he did

try to tackle him saying. But i do think that

it's more the intent is more of an ambiguity

thing that like yeah like the intent is that.

Hot rod doesn't know how it would have turned

out if he hadn't done that. If maybe he would

have like just let things go as they went like

would optimists still have died He doesn't know

so he's it's kind of this burden on his mind,

but it's really it's really not to say that it's

his fault it's just to say that he might be a

cog in this thing that caused primes death and

that's that's all it's really was really was

ever meant to meant to Symbolize I don't I don't

I don't believe this thing that like Rodimus

caused prime to die, but I do think that Especially

in terms of telling the story. It's a vital component

of the story that he has to bear Something from

that scene, and I think there's a very real way

you could show that yeah I think the problem

is with the whole scene though Yeah, and the

reason why some people say that it's all Optimus's

death is all his own fault is Because there's

a point in there where he actually goes away

and gets his rifle to come back You don't leave

the battle like if you if you have the upper

hand you don't leave Well Megatron is that he

wasn't going anywhere. It's laying face down

It's a whole and oh my god These people now It's

so weird what we argue about when it comes to

this movie Yeah, I say argue in a friendly kind

of way cuz honestly as you said It's a cartoon

made 35 years ago with fictional characters.

It's, you know, it's not the real world here,

folks. There's a thread on Twitter of people

trying to figure out what color Hot Rod is supposed

to be. I think from a production point of view,

I think and preservation, I think there is a.

Valid reason to care about the color, but I think

I also think that the current version has it

right anyway So yeah, no like problem solved.

Yeah And that and that's what I said see that's

that's the problem there you so People are trying

to use the I guess the original So apparently

in the 20th anniversary version the Sony version

the widescreen Because that came in widescreen

and full screen the widescreen has one color

The full screen has another color one is magenta

pink sort of and one is red I'd never noticed

that I think maybe because I only watched one

disc right Exactly. Yeah, I know he's absolutely

not supposed to be red. I don't know why that

happened He's not supposed to be like red red

until the very Okay, so again as I mentioned

I have the the screenshot of you know his final

form right before Spike and Daniel get inside

of him. The back, you know what I mean. I know.

You snickered. The back of him is kind of reddish

thing, whereas his front is still magenta -ish.

But it's like, really? And I even said to some

of these people, I'm like, look. This is from

the 30th anniversary edition the shout factory

edition and I share I I freaking love shout fact

like I don't ever remember seeing this but I

took a screen cap of the scene where he is underwater

trying to save cup and It's the scene where he's

going to shoot at the at the squid or the octopus

or where I assume It's a squid because it squid

uses ink to get away. Mm -hmm. He goes to shoot

It's right before you it's right before right

after you see the fire. I know I can see the

bubbles I Can see the underwater bubbles in front

of him. I'm like, that's amazing It's just the

little things I guess folks yeah It's amazing

what you can see in old movies that have been

transferred to High definition and you're like

wow that was impossible to see in 480i on my

old TV. Yeah Like literally impossible Some things

that pop up in old movies that you didn't see

before I I'm like I know there's stuff in like

King Kong and Wizard of Oz that you absolutely

could not see on VHS but on But on blu -ray it's

like holy shit. Yeah, it's it's crazy. It's Really

crazy and I think that's great. I think it's

awesome. I think it's fun. Yeah, and I just this

movie Well, like we already said it is so quotable.

We practically know it by heart It's a movie

that people that People it either brings people

together or it forces them on to opposite sides

of certain things like, you know Bottomless rules,

you know, obviously not everybody's gonna agree

with me. Some people will but Well, I just like

him more in season 3 in the movie he's fine like

as as I think Transformers the movie would but

it would have been an excellent finale In season

three I'm like I don't think I like this guy

anymore I You know, I don't know it's one of

those things where he's a young growing leader.

He doesn't have like he didn't He didn't come

with the matrix MacGuffin filled up with all

millions of years of wisdom He emptied it remember

Optimus did he's like you are never getting this

matrix again Couldn't you leave a little bit

more in there pride nope nope Gotta drain it

all out. Yeah so many characters and that like

I'm really surprised going back today and watching

this just How many care besides the new characters

like of the old characters like and I know Everyone's

gonna say oh, it's just a sign it is it was to

them. But again these writers in these story

Editor people and everything, you know, they

had to make sense of a story for this Kind of

thing and they had to do this and they had to

do that and they had to figure out You know,

it's kind of like made a man rest in peace kind

of like when David wise was talking about rebirth

where Rebirth initially was supposed to be five

parts and then they're like, yeah, no, we don't

have enough money cut it down to three Okay,

how am I gonna fit 120 new characters into three

episodes? Oh, they they get you they each get

like five point two seven seconds on screen so

we know who they are whatever, but this movie

man, I just It's just so fun and so many 80s

voice actors Now that movie is kind of like a

who's who of you of like who's died in oh, I'm

just it's like every year I know it's like oh

someone else from the movie died Yeah, that's

that's not good Why no time passes, but yeah,

it's just yeah, I don't know something about

like the 80s you know when we're like nine or

ten Or six we don't like we think it's just gonna

be like this all the time and like we don't realize

just how finite life really is and then yeah,

you know, it's like it's like wow, like You know,

it's like all these people that uh, we thought

would be around forever Like would just they

just disappear like chris lotta. I mean he was

one of the not the first but one of the first

people From this movie to uh expire Yes, and

of course Roger C. Carmel before him and of course

Orson Welles but like Chris Lauda's death was

just like wow I don't know why that hit me so

hard, but I was like really surprised to hear

when he died like in the was it like 93 94 Yeah,

it was 94 actually. Yeah. Yeah Wow here your

talk here of all the deaths of all the actual

sadly actor deaths My god plus we don't realize

just how old some of them were like, yeah Scatman

Crothers, I didn't like I'd never knew who he

was I'm like, oh, it's I knew him as the voice

of Hong Kong fooie But I didn't know who he was

until like well after he died Yeah, I never saw

the shining Yeah, no, it's wow and nearly half

the cast is gone. Mm -hmm Between scat man and

like we've already mentioned Orson Welles and

lot of some Casey Kasem and oh Geez stack stack

is gone Robert stack. Yeah. Yeah, Robert's title

standard. I don't stand there And again, I as

you said, I think Lionel was was pretty up there

in age at the time Oh, yeah, but I look at this

movie and I think Holy crap, you know Leonard

Nimoy friggin Galvatron Galvatron and unicorn

are both gone and You know just oh my god, and

the other Rodimus Prime Yeah, he sees season

3 he's gone But I look at this and I'm like I

enjoy this so much and all of those actors even

though to some of them this to some like Leonard

Nimoy I bet this was Yes, I'm sure he put everything

he could into it But again, it's just a job it

was like he wasn't already on the show or he

wasn't this or wasn't that and I don't know I

can't speak for the guy maybe one day I'll get

an interview with his son or something and ask

him about it and if he ever if his, if Leonard

ever said anything to Adam about, about this

experience, but it's just one of those things

where even though this was a job for them, not

necessarily to them, but a job for them to act

out what they did, what they gave us and the

lasting impression it's made on all of us. Anyone

who is, anyone who is old enough, I want to say

from the age of 5 to 12 I want to say cuz sometimes

When you're 13 and you forget which year a show

came out because you know You've been waking

and baking for the past two decades Sorry from

wrong show 83 Smith 83 not 81 anyway It's just

one of those things where this touched us Whether

we cried in our closets or whether we you know,

oh my god optimus again This is one of those

early moments early, you know lately you said

it's one of those early things of teaching children

of the 80s that characters and people expire

they died we're not gonna be here forever and

You know, I always anybody can say what they

want about Daniel in season 3 Because Daniel

was an annoying little kid in season three. He

had one good line. Two heads are better than

one cyclonus. And that wasn't until that wasn't

until rebirth. But anyway, you know, that moment

at the end of Prime's death scene when basically

Daniel buries his head in the robot's hand like

that's a good that's a good scene. Yeah, that's

a scene that like, oh. This affects. As a kid

you recognize that yeah, you're crying so hard

that you're not even making a sound and it's

something that only children do Yep Absolutely

This movie folks transformers the movie it's

so good it is so fun between like we said all

the animation stuff The remastered versions the

the good versions of it now the high def versions

the blue rays the four case the whatever between

that the music not not just the music not just

the stand bush or the. Kick -Ax or specter general.

What in the hell? I know they were on Jericho's

podcast saying that they did the record label

basically told them they had to change their

name. That's yeah. It was some trademark issue.

It was some. Yeah, it was some trademark issue.

Whatever. But whatever like between them and

obviously like the weird Al has a song on the

transformer soundtrack. Holy crap. And obviously.

Mm -hmm. Yeah had they ever like I don't ever

remember hearing anything else from them I know

that they probably did other things back then.

Well, the funny thing about NRG is that No, they'd

never recorded anything else in the 80s. Oh my

god, but like in the early 2000s They I don't

know if they were still together if they got

back together, but they made an album and it's

uh, oh my god It's around here somewhere and

I forget the title of it. I think it's called

It's some sort of Transformers pun, but I don't

remember the title of it but they've recorded

all the songs or some of the songs they had written

back in the 80s and through through like a remixed

version of of a Oh God that I keep on to say

Symphony of Destruction. No, it's uh Instruments

of Destruction Instruments of Destruction. It's

not make a death instrument. Yeah, they threw

on like a slight remix of that song and they

put it out and I think it's like limited to a

thousand copies or something and I have one of

them. So it's around here somewhere. Wow. Yeah.

Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. Absolutely love this.

But the Vince DiCola score, I think, is what

you're going for. Well, no, both. I mean, both.

Yeah. But everyone talks about the soundtrack

album that came out, but then there was a whole

other album that came out years later that was

the full Vince DiCola score. Yeah. And try to

put it out, I want to say 2014. Yeah, it was

basically the 30th anniversary is when that happened.

And I have it. I had seen two years after it

released, I had seen, I had gone to BotCon 2016

at the time, which was the last BotCon. Louisville,

Kentucky ruined BotCon, folks. No, some people

that work at BotCon ruined BotCon. Anyway, I

was only, they were putting on, in Louisville,

they have 4th Street Live, which is basically

this. Open air venue that they can put stages

in and do musical acts and things like that So

it feels like you're outside because it's open

air it used to be the the Galleria mall and it

used to be this giant glass thing and It still

is glass. It's not never not been glass, but

it's now all opened up and everything else so

Stan and Vince we're gonna put on a free concert

one night before it was April 8th to 2016 so

Lady rec and I who's a another frequenter of

the geek cast reader network. Uh, she, she and

I went down there and, and we saw the Stan and

Vince concert. Cause it's very rare that Stan

and Vince get together for a concert. So we had

to go see it and they had copies of the score

on everything. CD cassette vinyl. They had it

on everything. I was like, damn, where was this

30 years ago? But you know, Hey, It works. It

was fun. It was fun seeing Stan and Vince live

and it's just another part of the thing. You

know, you're right. It's like every little piece

of that music of that score of Vince's stuff.

Just off the top of my head, Closing In and Twisted

Planet are two of my favorite tracks that they

did besides the tracks that everybody knows,

which is like the Death of Optimus Prime and

Autobot Decepticon Battle. But closing in is

when they're chasing the Autobots, when they're

chasing them in the revenge. And then Twisted

Planet is when they show up on or not show up

when they crash land on Quintessa. That that

one in particular is a really good track. And

when it's in the movie, it's so buried in the

mix that you cannot hear it. So to actually get

a clean version of this, I'm like, I've never

I've never heard this before. Because it's like.

Cause like when it starts, you know, it starts

with the shuttle just flying away from the camera

and it's so loud in the mix that you don't hear

the music at all. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess, uh,

I don't know what else we want to say about this

thing. 35 years later. Um, it's an old movie.

It yeah, yeah something else about the passage

of time is that I remember when I in the 80s

when I was a kid I would look back at like TV

shows that were made in the 60s and that was

like That seemed like it was like an eon ago

like all the 60s were so long ago This is the

80s and now the 80s are like twice as or like

it's like twice as Long ago as what the sixties

were back then and it's like, yeah, it doesn't

seem like it was that long ago and it feels like

the eighties are more relevant now today than

they ever were. Certainly more than the sixties

were. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it, it, it's just crazy.

And it's crazy looking back on when all of this

happened, when it was released, how old we all

were at the time. And here we are, 35 years later,

still going back to the well of all sparks of

this film, this franchise. And I've said this

for 13 years now. You can like any version you

want. Transformers is for everybody. We're all

not going to have the same likes. The fact that

I prefer Rodimus. I don't particularly prefer

him over Optimus. I just... Optimus Prime was

never to me personally was never a father figure.

Yes. He gave good advice. Yes. He taught me lessons

But I never imprinted on him as oh, this is you

know, Optimus Prime Joe daddy. No, never He kind

of talks like people's dad. He's like, he's like

he's like the man of like like meaningless platitudes

That's how this prime talks. Yeah It's like there's

a I think he said something what once that's

like there's a thin line between being a hero

and being a memory Yeah, you just had like those

little one -liners that dad say yeah, I think

that's that's part of the reason why Plus he

just sounded like a dad. Yeah, he did Come sit

on my knee little man. You know that kind of

shit. Yep, unless you Unless you listen to him

in Knight Rider No car that's right Or in the

go box You know, it's so funny Where else Peter

Cullen pops up? Like he's the voice of nightstick

in rebirth and I'm like, oh my god like Look

cool me you dirt. I'm like, oh my god. Is that

optimus prime? I mean obviously he's playing

a completely different character, but it's like

he plays a lot of characters in the rebirth I

was kind of surprised just how many times he

got cast Yeah, I remember nightstick was kind

of he kind of like had this old this old tiny

voice like yeah We're gonna rub them out. I think

that's one of like two lines. He said yeah. Oh

It's just so funny and yeah What's funny about

the go -bots in particular is that the go -bots

were already over by the time this movie came?

I know it the go -bots died before Optimus Prime

did oh You know, it's even what's even worse

is Is the so again, I'm going through the the

series and What's even worse is certain things

that happened in out into optimus in the series

So I was looking for some laser beak stuff because

laser beak just made the top 50 kind of thing

and Okay, where am I gonna get a good laser beak

squawk from what scene? Oh, okay, I can grab

this thing where Peter Cullen says, Lazerbeak,

you tin -foiled turkey. And I can then go get

this other scene where Lazerbeak is actually,

they're having to work on Optimus something.

I forget which, it's the one where Lazerbeak

attacks him inside the Ark. And you see the super

close up on his chest as the attack basically

destroys his entire chest. I'm like, it's a good

thing the Matrix wasn't in there yet. Kind of

thing. Yeah, it's It's gonna be crazy. Alright,

so We I want to make sure these are two different

nights but or whatever so fathom events as I

said Tickets for this event aren't on sale yet.

Okay, that's fine. I just want to know when it

is okay, they're doing a two -night event Sunday

September 26th and Tuesday September 28th of

this year. So that's what they're doing. Celebration

30th anniversary, yada, yada, yada. It's probably

gonna be, you know, the same experience, sort

of. I mean, obviously, they're probably gonna

use the, like I said, the new 4K edition, the

4K transfer. You know, but it is what it is.

But yes, folks, YouTube can go see transformers

the movie live in theaters Sunday September twenty

sixth or Tuesday September twenty eighth. Yes

have this link in the show notes and yeah I mean

you got a favorite line from the movie. I would

really have to think about that I don't I don't

know. Know I'd have to think about it. I really

don't have anything jumps out at me But there's

so much that jumps out yeah, it's a very quotable

movie Not really a lie, but I guess I'll go with

the scene that is when they kind of quote or

paraphrase from of mice and men with Grimlock

Yeah, but the petro rabbits. I'm like ah very

I see what you did their movie All right, actually,

I know I know one and my sister laughed at this

it was the scene where the Dinobots come crashing

into the save the day on in the courtroom of

the quintessence and And slag just kind of leans

over and looks at the looks at the one guard.

That's like buried under the door. He goes, excuse

me Well, that's because right before he went

Excuse me Like, he burped as he came in the door.

Oh, that ruins the scene. Because I thought it

was just, like, him being sarcastic and courteous.

No, no, no. He burps when he walks in. I'll have

to look at that again. Oh, man. That whole scene,

though, that whole scene from the time they crash

in to the, oh, man, I have it somewhere on YouTube

or whatever. Maybe I'll embed it. It's basically,

it's the scene, you know, They've got more Sharjah

cons that we do have photon charges Well, let's

uh, let's set up a demolition derby and they

go through and the music kicks up and everything

And i'm like, oh god, this is just so good And

then of course at the end, ha ha ha ha didn't

even bend a fender Um, no, but I mean, you know

one shall stand one shall fall. I thought you

were made of sternum I mean, there's all kinds

of lines. I think Don't know if it's just my

inner child because it happens every single time

I watch it I Tear up at two moments in this movie

Obviously when Hot Rod wrestles the matrix away

kicks kicks galvatron out of Unicron's ass Which

I assume might mean we never really see which

I just always assume because Grimlock and then

well anyway so he's got the matrix and you know,

he's holding it up and he's doing the whole thing

and You don't as a kid. I'd never like they killed

optimus. I assumed he was gone Never expected

the ghost of Optima. I never expected force ghost

optimus prime to show up arise Rodimus prime

No, no, no, no, no And then at the very end because

it's famous last words that have been transferred

onto the new leader and it's just so simple and

stupid but You know, it's Judd saying Autobots

transform and roll out. It's like you're never

gonna hear Really hear optimus say those ever

again at that point at the end of that film Or

so you thought we're so you thought yeah, you

know he always had to say it in the movie Yes,

first First they're gonna bring him back as a

zombie Controlled by the quintessence or whomever

the hell controlled him and then they're you

know gonna Go save him from the hate plague But

transformers the movie it is what it is. It is

awesome. It is something that I go back to every

now and then Obviously more recently now because

of this and because of the top 100 transformers

characters countdown I'm actually going to so

again as I mentioned earlier in the episode I

had always wanted a audio recording and By God,

when the 20th anniversary came out, I made a

full -on 86 -minute audio recording of the film.

Now that the new versions are here, it's like,

oh, maybe I should update this. It's still all

the same audio, but still, hey, at least I'll

have a better version of it than I did X number

of years ago. All right, sir, where can the people

find you online? They can find me at ravinghipster

.com or patreon .com slash Mr. Neil. That'll

take you to my, well, obviously take you to my

Patreon for $2 a month. You can get all my movie

commentaries, which we have a commentary of this

very movie, JT from Saskatoon joined me for it.

And we have a bunch of like, you know, like Star

Wars commentaries and like commentaries of Netflix

shows and just weird movies in general. And I

have a gaming podcast called the gaming hipster,

which is right here on, uh, right here on the

GeekCast radio network. And you can also get

like a deluxe version of it on the Patreon with

like a pre -show stuff, after show stuff, stuff

that's like raunchy. So I cut it out of the podcast.

So you get a, you get like a deluxe version of

the podcast. If you give me your $2 a month and

for $20 a month, you can even tell me what movie

you want me to watch. Which i'm always amicable

for that are you sure because i not anytime soon

but in the future i may just pay you twenty dollars

for a certain film i probably not gonna like

what i hear but it better not be better not be

episode nine oh no no no no okay good no no something

much better than that oh no oh you already know

we argue about it all the time anyway sorry go

ahead continue the promoting Um, that's pretty

much it. I have a webcomic called to see in at

to see in .com. It has not updated in quite some

time. Uh, it's going through some revision at

the moment. So I'm still waiting on the damn

swimsuit issue. Damn it. Yeah. The swimsuit issue.

Uh, it's part of a larger, uh, collection of

stories and I can't put it out and like have

it be the only thing that comes out. It has to

be part of the big collection. So that will be

coming out at some point or another, but I'm

kind of like the point of a swimsuit issue, right?

It's a monthly magazine and that's once a year

that the swimsuit issue comes out. Yeah, that's

that's just for Sports Illustrated. I could put

mine out anytime I want. I know, I know. But

anyway, there's that I do. Art commissions for

people so if you want to pay me you just Hit

me up on Twitter. I'm at at TVs. Mr. Neal Mr.

Is abbreviated MR, you know So you there's that

um, I think that's I think that's the whole shebang

at the moment. Oh Facebook .com slash raving

dot hipster for the Facebook Yes, the Facebook

just drop the the Anyway, it's a bad social network

joke, folks. All right, I am at TFU and Mike

on Twitter. You can also follow at Dcast Radio

and all the other networks updates there. TFU

and Podcast is going to be coming back soon -ish.

I don't know when exactly, but we have sort of

a plan, I think. I don't know. I've always had

this plan of redoing it right, because the first

time around. It was really rough until about

episode 17. So episode 17 is when we started

season three and episode 17 is when I finally

had full -on co -hosts join me. But yes, there

are plans. Yes, I am thankful to everyone who

has stuck around all these years and I'm sorry

for all the old audio. I didn't know any better

back then. I've tried to learn since then. even

though it usually takes me about four hours to

edit one episode. I go through every second of

audio. I have to. If I don't, then she'll get

left out. I'll say, I want to put Rodimus saying

this here. And then if I skip it, then I... put

anything there and it'll be blank. Alright, folks,

we're gonna get the heck out of here. As I said,

TFD1 is coming back soon -ish. I know I've been

promising that since 2014, but yes, we are. We

have a plan, sort of. I just have to flush it

out a little more, much like people want to flush

out Wheelie. Are we sure that Wheelie just isn't

a go -bot? You know, I don't kind of look if

you look at the toy he kind of looks like one.

Yeah But I don't think he is Hey, he's He's slightly

cooler than I go bought I Guess he's better slightly.

Yeah. Well, anybody's better than scooter hell

T Bob is better than scooter. Oh god And I hate

T Bob anyway Unleash the Transformers geek in

you and we will catch you next time here on the

TFG1 podcast. Transform and roll out.