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  • Accidental Aesop:
    • Sometimes, our heroes die fighting for the greater good.
    • Succeeding a great leader can be very difficult indeed; people will often compare you unfavorably with your predecessor.
      • On a similar note, make sure said predecessor cannot gain the opportunity to retake that leadership role.
  • Adaptation Displacement: After the cancellation of the cartoon series, the Movie, which was widely available on home video, became most people's introduction to the Transformers universe.note 
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Optimus Prime riding into the ravaged Autobot City and blasting the ever loving crap out of every Decepticon in his way. Then, proceeding to beat Megatron to a pulp, even after Megatron shoots him critically enough to wound him. Prime still manages to deliver one last punch so devastating that it practically leaves Megatron crippled. Just Prime being badass, Prime finally doing what needed to be done, or Prime going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge? He did declare, after all, that Megatron had to be stopped, "No matter the cost."
    • There has been some debate about how much, if any of Megatron's identity was changed when he became Galvatron. On one hand, conversations like his Pre-Mortem One-Liner with Starscream indicate that he maintains all of the same memories and experiences. On the other hand, conversations like his declaration to kill Ultra Magnus (where he says "just as Megatron crushed Prime" instead of something like "how I crushed Prime before") suggest that he might view himself as a different being from Megatron. It's also possible he was pretending he wasn't Megatron so as to not tip anyone off about Unicron's existence - he indirectly admits the truth to Hot Rod after Unicron's already shown up.
      • Gets even weirder when, in Five Faces of Darkness part 1, the Decepticons effectively lampshade this, as it's revealed that they know Galvatron is Megatron. But then it gets into Mind Screw territory when it's revealed in Starscream's Ghost that there's a crypt for fallen Decepticons somewhere on Cybertron— and there's a grave marker for Megatron!
      • Averted in the marvel comic book adaption, where it's made quite clear that Galvatron is simply Megatron with a new body and name.
    • The franchise's writers have two differing viewpoints on the Quintesson judge. Here they are always shown to declare their victims "innocent" before executing them - most writers have taken this to mean their "innocent" is our "guilty" and vice versa, but some writers assume that anyone brought before the court is executed regardless of the verdict and they only declare them innocent to mess with them.
    • Just to make it even more confusing, the "Transformers Universe" comic's entry for the Quintessons describes them as basically Unicron's clean-up crew, to chase down and kill anyone who escapes him. This was probably written long before the movie was even released, much less the "Five Faces of Darkness" miniseries that established them as the Transformers' creators.
  • Anti-Climax Boss: All three villains of the film fall pretty easily.
    • The Quintesson Judge is taken out with little effort after the Dinobots arrive and drop a door on their guard. After the Sharkticons turn on them, we don't even see what happens to them.
    • Galvatron is threatening until Hot Rod grabs the Matrix, after which he is effortlessly thrown through Unicron's side into space and out of the movie.
    • Unicron himself blows up almost immediately once Hot Rod uses the Matrix. Even before this, Unicron's invincibility seems to be gone as the Dinobots are able to damage him with little effort. Truth in Television: Many heavily-armored war machines can be easily disabled from the inside; delicate components such as electronics are readily damaged with little effort and impossible to armor.
    • During the siege of Autobot City, Optimus gives the order "Dinobots, destroy Devastator!" Viewers preparing for an epic battle between the Dinobots and Devastator will be sorely disappointed; Devastator takes out Grimlock and Sludge easily and then is shoved into a wall by Slag, and collapses through it as Swoop dives at him, causing him to be crushed by the rubble. The whole sequence takes less than a minute and has all the involved characters taken out by one blow each.
  • Ass Pull:
    • Megatron is in pristine condition for most of his final battle with Prime, and then a sudden Gross-Up Close-Up shows him to be heavily damaged, which then becomes the consistent detail up until he becomes Galvatron as part of him being too wounded to fight anymore. One must wonder if the damage was meant to be a result of Prime punching him over the cliff and the animators drew him with it a shot too early.
    • The existence of the Matrix is a little hard to swallow. Apparently, Optimus had this sacred artifact inside of him the entire time with no one ever bringing it up, nor was it visible during numerous scenes in the first two seasons where Optimus had his chest opened up and revealed differing interior designs that all lacked a Matrix chamber.
    • Ultra Magnus' revival can easily come off as this. After the first act of the film had a large portion of the cast be killed from even a single shot (Brawn, Prowl) or concentrated fire at a single area (Optimus Prime), Ultra Magnus gets blown to pieces but can be reassembled to perfect working order just fine. The intention might have been that his scattered parts sustained far less damage than the other cast members (he was originally going to die by being torn apart by the Sweeps) or the Junkions are just that good at repairing robots, but the scene has still left fans asking why the Autobots didn't bring their fallen comrades to Junkion and cancel a bunch of funerals.
  • Audience-Alienating Premise: This is presumably why the movie was a Box Office Bomb at release. Transformers as a franchise was still relatively new at the time, leaving most adults who might watch a movie about it today simply viewing it as just a standard Merchandise-Driven cartoon their kids could see for free at home. For the kids who wanted to see their favorite characters on the big screen, the film drastically changing the setting and opening up by killing off most of the familiar characters and replacing them with a new cast (who are the main focus of the poster with very few familiar faces, even) didn't exactly appeal to them, with children being traumatized by Optimus Prime's death as a main takeaway for the film among parents at the time.
  • Awesome Art:
    • Probably the best aspect of the whole movie. The animation is very fluid, with some great dynamic camera angles and exciting action sequences, and the backgrounds are utterly gorgeous paintings. When you consider that the scenery and characters consist primarily of complicated, hard-to-animate machinery, it's even more impressive (doubly so when you take into consideration that the designs were far blockier than most mecha designs in anime usually were by the mid-1980s)! Bonus points for Toei Animation' bringing in the heavy hitters of anime production to work as subcontractors on the animation, including Madhouse and Sunrise (yes, THAT Sunrise).
    • Unicron's transformation still looks amazing to this day. As Galvatron stares at his master's robot form in a mix of shock, horror, and awe, many viewers seeing the film for the first time are probably making the same expression.
  • Awesome Music: Every single track on the soundtrack is amazing, but special mention goes to Stan Bush's two tracks- "Dare", and of course, "The Touch".
  • Badass Decay: Despite Brawn being one of the strongest Autobots who has survived far worse than a shot in the shoulder, has apparently become so weak that such an injury is sufficient to kill him here. Because of this, and the fact that we never got a good look at any type of corpse, many fans believe Brawn is still alive.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Blurr's tendency to speak really fast is considered either funny or annoying. It helps if you know it's actually not sped up, and famous commercial Motor Mouth John Moschitta Jr. really is talking that fast.
    • Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime as well. People either enjoy him for how he contrasts with Optimus and consider him one of the few developed characters in the movie/cartoon, or despise him for replacing Optimus and being partially responsible for his death.
    • Unicron is either a fearsome God of Evil or the biggest Generic Doomsday Villain the franchise has to offer.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • The Junkions' dance with the Autobots on a Junk planet, to the tune of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 'Dare to Be Stupid' is probably a borderline case of this. The only thing keeping it from being such is Ultra Magnus being rebuilt during the scene, though as that comes after Wreck-Gar settles everyone down from the dancing number and a random Junkion kissing Grimlock during the dancing number.
    • The debut of "Cyclonus's Armada", which introduces a new character who has a plural name despite appearing in the singular, raises tons of questions relating to his creation, and vanishes in the very next shot.
    • While relatively minor compared to the other examples here, during his coronation Starscream is consistently drawn with really bizarre proportions, to the point where it doesn't seem accidental. In some frames he has visible lips, he's suddenly a very Top-Heavy Guy, and his turbine "boobs" take almost a third of his torso. It's likely meant to make him look more grandiose, but just comes off as odd.
  • Broken Base:
    • The debate over who was reformatted into Cyclonus is rather infamous in the fandom. Unlike Scourge, who was very clearly made from Thundercracker, Cyclonus and his Armada (which consists of only one bot) are made from Bombshell and Skywarp at the same time without distinction. One side believes that Bombshell was reformatted into him, as Bombshell was in the foreground of the scene and the only one shown in the storyboards, and other material (most notably Transformers Universe) declare it was Bombshell who formed him. The other side believes it was Skywarp, citing the symmetry (blue jet Thundercracker becomes blue hovercraft Scourge so purple jet Skywarp should be purple jet Cyclonus) and other material (like Macrocosmic seekers) declaring Cyclonus to have been Skywarp. A third faction is annoyed that future writers keep going back and forth and wish that one interpretation should be picked and stuck to. Others still interpret that the other damaged Decepticons were dead when Unicron found Megatron, the new Decepticons were built from their corpses, and Scourge and Cyclonus almost never show signs of who they "were", therefore it doesn't matter who was built from who. And to make matters worse, in early scripts, neither were Cyclonus, with him and Scourge being created from the "life sparks" of other deceased Decepticon leaders.
    • Brawn's death is also infamously debated among the fans. People believe that either Brawn survived because he was too tough to die, or he died because that was the intention of the filmmakers.
    • Whether the film should be watched in widescreen or full frame; the former is how it was originally presented in theaters and feels more "modern", but also crops off the upper/lower edges of the image, while 4:3 retains the entire frame. While most modern releases of the film simply include both, as of this writing only the widescreen version has been remastered for 4K UHDnote , which reignited the debate.
  • Catharsis Factor: After the untold attrocities he had committed over the course of the film, Rodimus Prime opening the Matrix to kill Unicron is very satisfying. Starscream's death by disintegration at Galvatron's hands (and at Starscream's coronation as leader, no less) is also considered satisfying by fans who were sick of how frequently Megatron let him get away with his backstabbing in the show.
  • Character Perception Evolution: Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime was infamously hated when he made his debut here, not only for being seen as a Replacement Scrappy to the beloved Optimus Prime, but for his Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment that made him partially responsible for Prime's death (though with how a lot of older fans talked about him, you would have thought Hot Rod had gunned down Prime himself). As the years have gone on, while still not universally beloved, many have come around and praised Hot Rod as an interesting character who contrasts from Optimus, with his role in Prime's death being recognized as part of his character arc in growing from a young reckless hot shot to a proper and responsible leader. It's rather telling that when an official comic was released that seemed based around the idea of Hot Rod being entirely responsible for Prime's death and getting mistreated by the other Autobots, the fandom felt the depiction was dated compared to how most fans view him now.
  • Common Knowledge: While a number people claim to have memories of Optimus crumbling into dust after death in the movie, he did not actually do that - it was the Armada Optimus who crumbled into dust on death. They may be confusing Optimus' death with Starscream's - 'Screamer did crumble to dust when dying, and both characters turned grey as they died.
  • Complete Monster: Unicron is an ancient, planet-eating Transformer that was created by Primacron. Primacron created Unicron to help him take over the universe, but he rebelled and destroyed Primacron's lab. Unicron travelled through space and devoured many inhabited worlds, including the planet of Lithone. After learning of Optimus Prime's death and his passing of the Matrix of Leadership, Unicron tracked down Megatron and tasked him to destroy it, as it was the only thing that could stand in his way. Torturing Megatron into accepting his deal, Unicron reformatted him into Galvatron and made him more susceptible to his psychic assaults. Galvatron, tired of being Unicron's pawn, tried to use the Matrix to turn Unicron into his slave, but it had no effect in his hands. In retaliation, Unicron started destroying Cybertron and attacked both Autobot and Decepticon alike. Unicron was eventually defeated by a Matrix-wielding Rodimus and only his head remained to orbit Cybertron, a testament to the Transformer that made even the mighty Megatron beg for mercy.
  • Covered Up: the song "Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way" by Kick Axe (Under the name "Spectre General") is actually a cover of a John Farnham song used for the movie Savage Streets. Subverted by the other Kick Axe song, "Hunger", which was written by members of Kick Axe but recorded first by King Kobra, making it unclear which one is the cover, but the Transformers version is definitely more well-known (if only marginally).
  • Critical Dissonance: Big-time. Before Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen came out, this was the prime example of Critical Dissonance in the Transformers franchise, although this actually took some time.
  • Cult Classic: Very much so. The movie wasn't critically acclaimed when it was first released, with even the positive reviews taking issues with some of the film's messages, bleak tones and rampant commercialism, but many Transformers fans remember it rather fondly.
  • Discredited Meme: The film has proven very quotable and writers for decades since have loved quoting it, so much so that the references to it can get a bit tiresome. There's only so many times that official Transformers media can reuse lines like "Megatron, is that you" and "Soundwave superior" before the nostalgic charm wears off. A 2016 comic even lampshades this, with Galvatron quoting the famous "one shall stand, one shall fall" line, only for Optimus Prime (ironically, the one who usually says it) to punch him and quip "no cliches, Galvatron".
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Evil Is Cool:
    • Megatron's last hurrah is him at his most threatening and capable. The destruction and body count that his attack on Autobot City wrought stands heads and shoulders above most of his performance in the cartoon, capped off with his legendary fight with Optimus. His return as Galvatron is similarly cool, with Leonard Nimoy's performance giving him extra menace, and his murder of Starscream showing that he's not taking any more chances.
    • Sure, in terms of characterization Unicron is pretty bland, but he is a transforming planet with the voice of Orson Welles.
  • Fandom Rivalry: This film tends to get brought up often during arguments between fans of the original Transformers cartoon and fans of the Michael Bay movies. Fans of the former generally consider this movie to be the ideal way to bring Transformers to the big screen for keeping the spirit and tone of the original cartoon and lambast the live-action films series as a faux-mature Human-Focused Adaptation that breaks what doesn't need fixing. Fans of the latter on the other hand prefer the live-actions films for targeting an older audience, their Visual Effects of Awesome, and the G1 movie's much lower budget and narrower appeal. While some of the fans of the live-actions films will admit that Generation One fans have many justified complaints, they have also accused the fans of this movie of being overly-harsh in their criticisms of Michael Bay's films while overglorifying what can be described as a 80-minute toy commercial. Not helping things is that both versions are disliked by critics on Rotten Tomatoes (the G1 movie has a slightly lower rating than the first Bay movie and a higher rating than the sequels).
  • Fan Nickname: "Cyclonus's Armada" or just "Armada" for the one bot said armada apparently consists of.
  • Fanon:
    • Many of the fans who hated/despised Hot Rod tend to see him as a Decepticon masquerading as an Autobot.
    • The sheer stupidity of Galvatron trying to strangle Hot Rod in space is commonly ignored, and fans like to think Galvatron is trying to decapitate him instead.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: For many children who saw the movie during its original theatrical run, the final moments of Optimus Prime was where the movie ended for them. As far as Susan Blu was concerned, they just got up and left.
  • Fountain of Memes: Everything Unicron says is quotable, and die-hard fans can probably recite every line of dialogue he has.
    "Your bargaining posture is highly dubious."
    "You belong to me, now."
    "You underestimate me, Galvatron."
    "For a time I considered sparing your wretched little planet, Cybertron. But now you shall witness... its dismemberment!"
  • Franchise Original Sin: Some of the complaints about the live-action films can be traced back to here.
    • A common issue people have with the live-action films is how many beloved characters are brutally killed off, often with little fanfare. The first half hour of this movie kills off the majority of the original cast, and very few of them are given more than just a quick glance or passing mention. The difference is that these characters had a cartoon to give them more personality and screentime while the live-action films don't have as many side-materials to go off of. When studying both this film and the live-action ones, the huge amount of characters stuffed in makes it hard to give many of them development, but the original's cartoon helps to make up for that. This makes it less "they killed off a character I liked and I'm salty about it" and more "they killed off a character I liked before they could get more development".
    • The live-action sequels are often criticized for having Megatron get upstaged by other villains as the Big Bad and undergo Badass Decay as a result. In this movie, Megatron (well, Galvatron) serves Unicron and is treated as less of a threat compared to him. Unlike post-ROTF Megatron however, Galvatron does not undergo Badass Decay (if anything, his higher kill count makes him more of a threat), he still calls most of the shots, and actually attempts to overthrow his master on several occasions. Note that during the climax, it is Galvatron, not Unicron, who serves as Hot Rod's main opponent.
  • Growing the Beard: This film and the Marvel comics that were running at the time were the point where Transformers started gaining more elaborate plotlines. Fitting, considering the fact that this film indirectly establishes a lot of the mythos for the franchise that later incarnations would build off of.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • If you think Prime had it bad before he died, just remember now that before the events of the movie, he had to destroy an artifact that held the remnants of Cybertronian culture.
    • In a deleted scene, Shockwave is crushed by Unicron's hand. In Transformers: Energon, this is how his counterpart Shockblast dies.
    • Jazz survives the movie (he was with Spike, Bumblebee, and Cliffjumper in Unicron's body), but with the death of his actor, Scatman Crothers, the character disappears from the rest of the series.
  • He's Just Hiding: Many fans believe that those who weren't killed on-screen survived. One commonly cited example is Brawn, who went down with only a single shot to his shoulder. The fact that even after going down, he was on a shuttle with Decepticons for a lengthy period of time doesn't bode well for him. It doesn't help that Season Three had the habit of mistakenly reusing designs of deceased characters in background shots.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • People made jokes about Orson Welles' last role would be a planet. In this film that is his last role, he is a planet.
    • During the Autobots' battle with the Junkions, "Dare To Be Stupid" by "Weird Al" Yankovic is played. Many years later, Yankovic went on to voice Wreck-Gar, the Junkion leader, in Transformers: Animated, who at one point even boasts that he "dare[s] to be stupid".
    • In addition, "Dare To Be Stupid" contains the line "You better sell some wine before its time", a negation of a Paul Masson slogan that was popularized by Orson Welles in its commercials. Al probably didn't expect it to actually appear in an Orson Welles movie, let alone his final one.
    • Several Fanons of Hot Rod actually working as or with the Decepticons or being truly evil (though the former is subverted) has reached to fruition after Transformers: Shattered Glass (as an evil Autobot) and The Transformers: Power of the Primes (as a Unicron-corrupted character) has made.
    • The movie is Bloodier and Gorier than any other Transformers media before it, there's a cranky old mentor and a couple of scrappies, Megatron is resurrected and works for a villain whose plan involves the destruction of something that offends them by merely existing but who can't act before something related to Optimus Prime is gone. Optimus Prime kicks the bucket, but the villain is destroyed with ease after a Prime interacts with the Matrix and Megatron survives to fight an another day. Oh, and it was savaged by critics upon release. The Transformers: The Movie or Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen?
    • This fanmade YouTube clip reversing the roles of the Autobots attacking Decepticons is now this now that Transformers: Shattered Glass exists. Even more so when Shattered Glass has a mirrored version of the movie with the villainous Autobots attacking Decepticon City.
    • A full two decades before Michael Bay's Transformers (2007), Paramount had the Canadian distribution rights to this film through a distribution deal with De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.
    • Soundwave is called "uncharismatic" at one point - he's commonly seen as one of the franchise's most memorable characters, thanks to his unique voice.
    • The Anibots (a team of vicious animal-themed Autobots would eventually be realized as animal-based Decepticons called Predacons, but not those Predacons) would've been led by a lion-themed robot (who will eventually inspire Razorclaw, the leader of the original Predacons) named Simba.
  • It Was His Sled: Hot Rod becomes Rodimus Prime. Optimus Prime and several other Autobots die. Megatron gets reformatted into Galvatron. Galvatron murders Starscream. The giant planet Unicron has a robot mode!
  • Jerkass Woobie: Starscream. He has a massive ego and always acts like a dick, but when he finally won, he got brutally killed thirty seconds into his regime. Hilariously, later episodes show his reign was considered a real one and his grave is stored among those of every other Decepticon leader... but it only houses his feet.
  • Mandela Effect: Many fans misremembered Optimus Prime as crumbling to dust after he fades to gray upon death, probably mixing the scene up with Starscream's death who actually does disintegrate after turning gray.
  • Memetic Mutation: Is the source for many a quotation among G1 fans:
    • Ultra Magnus's "I can't deal with that now!" is strongly associated with him, to the point of it being exaggerated so he can't deal with anything that's mildly difficult.
    • Any time two Transformer fans argue about anything, someone will say "One shall stand, one shall fall."
    • "Coronation, <X>? This is bad comedy."note 
    • For that matter, Starscream's "coronation" outfit with his crown, cape, and shoulder pads, is surprisingly popular given he appears in it for less than a full minute of screentime.
    • Also: "Who disrupts my Combination?" for the Power of the Primes Starscream toy's ability to combine.
    • "Soundwave superior, <X> inferior." note 
    • "Generation 1 superior, Bayformers/Michael Bay inferior". explaination 
    • "Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost." note 
  • Misblamed: As can be gleaned on this page, Hot Rod is not particularly liked due to his indirect role in Optimus' death, some going as far as giving him the Ron the Death Eater status. Except, as properly analyzed by RodimusPrimal in this video, not only is Hot Rod not as at fault as most claim him to be, but Optimus himself is just as much to blame for letting Megatron have the opening to shoot him with the inexplicably convenient random blaster hidden from Optimus' sight.
    • Hot Rod's actions were indeed rash, but only one of many bad options, and Optimus clearly should have seen Megatron crawling towards and reaching for something. In fact, Megatron would have had the surprise gun visible seconds before Hot Rod even calls out to him then tackling him.
    • Deleted scenes and lines showed that Kup, Arcee, and Optimus himself never once pin the blame on him, and the movie itself shows the cast having a complete lack of disdain for Hot Rod beyond his regular attitude, and even then, it's gone by the time they reunite on the Junkion planet. The mistreatment of Rodimus in later media mostly being the result of fans who didn't take kindly to the whole scene and expressed their distaste for Rodimus in future media.
    • The original script, which was used for the Marvel Comics adaptation of the movie, does not have Hot Rod interfere at all, and Megatron is able to grab the blaster and shoot Optimus, so the outcome was the same either way (oddly, to help justify this, the comic depicts Optimus as not having picked up his weapon yet when Megatron went for the blaster - a situation that would have justified Hot Rod's interference, as he would have been trying to defend his leader from being shot while unarmed).
  • Moral Event Horizon: See here.
  • Narm:
    • The opening scene with Unicron devouring an entire planet is chilling, but when we see a masher within Unicron making cartoony chomping noises, it loses some of its punch.
    • Galvatron attempting to strangle Hot Rod in the climax has been widely mocked, as A) being a robot means Hot Rod wouldn't need to breathe in the first place, and B) they're in space. As a result, many choose to believe Galvatron is actually trying to decapitate him instead.
    • Cyclonus' armada isn't so threatening when you realize it consists of only one bot.note 
  • Narm Charm:
    • While no one will claim that it's a pinnacle of high-quality cinema, the movie is filled to the brim with Rule of Coolnote , from the giant robot fights set to '80s hair metal music to the surprise inclusion of Orson Welles and Leonard Nimoy as two of the movie's badass villains. This is what helps hold it dear to many a fans' heart, along with the mandatory nostalgia.
    • If ever there's a scene that represents this, it is when immediately after the death of a main character, our heroes are attacked by a group of robots led by Eric Idle who talk using TV references, with "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Dare to be Stupid" playing in the background throughout the action, which is resolved when the other main faction of good guys show up, say the "universal greeting", which is pretty much just gibberish to our ears, but then causes both groups to join together in a dance party, after which, the villains join the heroes and effortlessly resurrect their fallen friend. It's just as ridiculous as it sounds, and yet, it's one of the film's most famous and awesome moments.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • Ultra Magnus' "I can't deal with that now!" in response to seeing Hot Rod and Kup get shot down has become popular in the fandom to make him look like an incompetent fool/massive Jerkass. In context, he has the Decepticon flagship hot on his tail, and he doesn't know whether they've even survived the crash - it's not really a stretch that he needs to focus on the Autobots (and a human child!) in the shuttle with him that he knows are alive, but the way he puts it turns a lot of fans off. In short, the way fans portray him would make you think he is going "who cares?" when it is closer to him saying "I'm kind of busy here".
    • Despite Hot Rod immediately regretting the part he played in Optimus' death and begging him for forgiveness, the majority of fans refuse to see him as anything but the guy who got Optimus killednote .
  • Older Than They Think: This movie gets brought up often by people who feel Michael Bay is actively trying to destroy their childhoods with the new films. However, a lot of the complaints are also present in this film. An (annoying) human character and a robot who has an (annoying) unique speech pattern? Daniel and Wheelie. Product placement? Come on, the majority of the film is this. Brutally killing off characters? Watch the first 30 minutes of the film.note  Filler scenes? See Big-Lipped Alligator Moment above. Then of course, the film adds new characters out of nowhere, and the Matrix had never been even mentioned before (even when Prime's chest was opened in A Prime Problem.) Celebrity voice actors? Lets see... there's Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Eric Idle, Orson Freaking Welles.
  • Once Original, Now Common:
    • Transformers: The Movie was the first Western animated feature film to rely on ideas from anime and comics (and yeah, Star Wars) to set up an elaborate space opera with a backstory and continuity tie-ins to resulting episodes of the series. After it came out, all the other Saturday Morning TV series copied the idea. With the rise in popularity of anime and elaborately plotted multiverse continuities in every franchise, Transformers or otherwise, it's considered no big deal now (at least on TV and in live-action film— it's still rare in animated film).
    • Many lines from the movie have been quoted in other Transformers media (e.g. "One shall stand, one shall fall", "I still function", "Soundwave superior"). It's been joked that one of the appeals of the film is that every line in it sounds like a cool one-liner you'd hear in a trailer. Though once applauded, fans are now sick of hearing them over and over, to where even Prime himself got sick of it in The Transformers: Robots in Disguise:
      Galvatron: Today -— one shall stand, and two shall fall!
      (Prime decks Galvatron)
      Optimus: No cliches, Galvatron.
    • Optimus Prime's death was very unexpected and shocking, as the audience reactions can attest to. Nowadays, with every other incarnation of Prime dying and coming back to life at least once, it can be hard for modern viewers to see what the big deal was about.
    • Heck, just a piece of Transformers fiction killing off characters has fallen into this. Parents and children alike were shocked to see the characters that had before just flown off into the sunset at the end of every adventure get killed en masse. After series like Beast Wars and pretty much every comic series followed the Anyone Can Die rule, it can be hard to see why killing off the franchise's characters would surprise people.
    • The line "Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?" mainly serving the purpose to Avoid the Dreaded G Rating. As Disney had already learned the hard way with The Black Cauldron a year prior, intentionally aiming for a higher rating didn't mean a film was going to appeal to a wider audience. This was likely because the PG-13 rating was in its infancy at the time, so PG still meant content that kids weren't explicitly banned from seeing. The practice of throwing in elements for a higher rating wouldn't be the norm until the following decade for live-action movies and the Turn of the Millennium for animated movies.
  • Replacement Scrappy: The film kills off a large portion of the cast so that new characters could be introduced in their place, so this trope is to be expected. To list a few:
    • Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime to Optimus Prime. The latter is incredibly popular and his death infamously traumatized pretty much every kid who saw this movie. Not only was introducing a character to replace him a massive challenge in of itself, but Hot Rod being partially responsible for Optimus' death did not do him any favors.
    • Daniel and Wheelie to Spike and Bumblebee. They all fit into the Kid-Appeal Character trope, but the former group fell into the exact pitfalls that Spike and 'Bee avoided, like being too young and having annoying voices.
    • Galvatron generally gets the least of this (possibly because he technically is Megatron, just in a different form), but many still prefer Megatron due to feeling that Galvatron came off as less competent and didn't have as many interesting dynamics with his troops.
  • Ron the Death Eater: As far as a lot of the fans who hate Hot Rod for being partially responsible for Optimus' death are concerned, he is either an undercover Decepticon or a Jerkass who wanted Optimus to die so he could take leadership for himself. The numerous times that he stops the Decepticons' plans paired up with a notable lack of moments of aiding them seem to disprove the former, and season 3 features two episodes back-to-back that seem to disprove the latter: one where Rodimus is perfectly willing to give up leadership, and one where he decides to revive Optimus.
  • Sacred Cow: This film set up many aspects of the Transformers lore and many of its scenes are still beloved by fans. While there has been some debate about how well this holds up compared to later works, calling this film a bad one is like asking to die.
  • The Scrappy: While Hot Rod has always had his defenders, you'll find virtually none for Wheelie, who's nigh-universally loathed by fans for his Rhymes on a Dime shtick and Bratty Half-Pint antics. The kindest thing most people will say about him is that he's not as bad as his live-action version, who's even more despised.
  • Signature Line: "One shall stand, one shall fall". Arguably the most iconic line of the series. However, there are a few iconic runner ups.
    • "Untill the day... till all are one".
    • Soundwave superior, Constructicons inferior."
    • "I’ve got better things to do tonight than die".
    • "Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?"
  • Signature Scene:
    • Optimus' final fight against Decepticons while Stan Bush's The Touch plays in the backgrounds.
    • Optimus Prime's death, immediately after the aforementioned fight.
    • Unicron's incredibly long and detailed Transformation Sequence, something that was kept out of the movie's previews for maximum shock value, which kicks off the film's climax as he declares his intent to destroy Cybertron for Galvatron's defiance and punctuates it by slamming his fist right into the planet.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: The Unicron melody is very similar to the Ivan Drago theme from Rocky IV, which Vince DiCola also composed for.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: While most likely unintentional, Grimlock's first words towards Wheelie is saying that he hates him, right before swatting him.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Kranix could've been potentially interesting as an ally to the Autobots, especially considering how much he seemed to know about Unicron. There was also potential for developing him as a character to see how he kept himself going from day to day knowing he was The Last of His Kind.
    • Plenty of the new characters, especially Scourge, Cyclonus, Blurr, Springer, and Arcee, get very little characterization and don't have much of anything to do in the actual plot aside from the occasional fight scene. The third season helped them shine, though.
    • During the reformation scene, Unicron introduces Galvatron to Cyclonus' Armada... consisting of only one member who vanishes without a trace immediately after to seemingly be replaced with another Sweep, making you wonder why he existed in the first place. Wouldn't it have been cool for Galvatron to have more than one type of Mook at his disposal?
  • Took the Bad Film Seriously: While the film is generally seen as a toy commercial with a big budget, pretty much the entire cast - Celebrity Voice Actor or not - seems to be putting genuine effort in their performances.
    • While Peter Cullen has stated he initially wasn't a fan of killing Optimus Prime, he still gave the role his all, managing to both portray Optimus at his, well, prime, and to make his final moments a massive Tear Jerker.
    • Leonard Nimoy makes Galvatron feel like a genuine threat, and is a serious contender for the title of giving the best performance in the entire film.
    • Even Orson Welles, who notably didn't give his all (he barely understood the context of his lines and and his health was so bad he died only weeks after recording them) manages to sell Unicron's lack of interest and patience in anything he considers to be below him, and anytime he does show emotion stands out as a result.
  • Tough Act to Follow: If there is one thing the entire Transformers fandom can agree on, it's that Orson Welles is the best take on Unicron. Every later voice has the misfortune of being compared to his performance.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: Vince DiCola's synthesizer and heavy metal soundtrack, as well as Daniel Witwicky's monogrammed tracksuit place it heavily in the 1980s. That's to say nothing of Soundwave and Blaster still being depicted as cassette players in 2005.
  • Viewers in Mourning: Optimus Prime's death, to an extent that nobody except for Ron Friedman (the writer) expected it to be as big of a deal as it was. Despite the filmmakers openly admitting that the whole film was a commercial for new toys, we had children leaving the theaters in tears, as well as the one kid who locked himself in his room for days on end to grieve.
  • Vindicated by History: At the time of release, the movie was slammed by critics and failed to make back its budget. Nowadays, it is one of the most beloved Transformers works for its contributions to the lore and sheer Rule of Cool. The death of Optimus Prime began as something known for traumatizing unprepared children, but today is seen as something that made the film far more memorable for it's willingness to kill off beloved characters (even if the reason was naked greed).
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: As noted under Darker and Edgier, this film surprised a lot of parents (and children) who expected the same lighthearted tone as the TV series, only to see hordes of Autobots die in the first ten minutes. And Spike clearly says "shit".
  • Woolseyism: The Japanese dub has a few changes for the better. In addition to adding some truly horrific screams to the death scenes, along with giving Prowl and Ratchet some dialogue prior to their deaths, the shuttle scene has a few dialogue revisions, from Astotrain's request being to eject dead weight, to Soundwave’s insult becoming “Soundwave: is a genius. Buildrons: are idiots”, with Hook’s put down changed from calling him The Bore to calling him The Creon. But of particular note is Starscream and Megatron’s final exchange.
    Megatron: Wait, I can still function just fine.
    Starscream: Then function.

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