If compared to its contemporaries, It holds up pretty well. The planetoid fly-by in the intro certainly challenged the state of the art at the time. It’s more closely related to Ghibli’s Castle in the Sky [1986] in style, being produced by Toei Animation, especially if compared to its two box office winners that year, Bluth’s An American Tail and Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective. Is it trying to sell toys? Yes. Did families have to leave the theaters due to inconsolable children wailing over the death of Optimus Prime? Yes. Does it deserve more than 2.5 stars… Maybe not. Am I glad that it exists and broke ground to provide for the state of animated story telling today? Absolutely.
If this is what I read in the reviews on rotten tomatoes, I’d be ok with it. I do think inconsolable children isn’t as much a misstep but more of a miscalculation. The fact that children would be upset that their favorite character dies just shows the actual investment kids had in the transformer universe. Especially when you consider Transofmers wasn’t setting the stage for Prime to die.
Transformers was a fun simple idea. It was very successful in what it was trying to do. Even if it was just to sell toys, which, I think we can all agree, toys are great.
The review was penned in 2004
Oh, I c, my bad.
If compared to its contemporaries, It holds up pretty well. The planetoid fly-by in the intro certainly challenged the state of the art at the time. It’s more closely related to Ghibli’s Castle in the Sky [1986] in style, being produced by Toei Animation, especially if compared to its two box office winners that year, Bluth’s An American Tail and Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective. Is it trying to sell toys? Yes. Did families have to leave the theaters due to inconsolable children wailing over the death of Optimus Prime? Yes. Does it deserve more than 2.5 stars… Maybe not. Am I glad that it exists and broke ground to provide for the state of animated story telling today? Absolutely.
If this is what I read in the reviews on rotten tomatoes, I’d be ok with it. I do think inconsolable children isn’t as much a misstep but more of a miscalculation. The fact that children would be upset that their favorite character dies just shows the actual investment kids had in the transformer universe. Especially when you consider Transofmers wasn’t setting the stage for Prime to die.
Transformers was a fun simple idea. It was very successful in what it was trying to do. Even if it was just to sell toys, which, I think we can all agree, toys are great.