This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

For me, TRANSFORMERS is a cultural thing. It's larger than the '84 TV show and taps right into childhood. It's like the '89 Batman where I can't separate that period sentimentalism from the actual thing. I sit down and watch this, and I'm plugged back into the formative years. It's kinda funny to think of the show as an adult because it was the direct result of the early '80s FCC deregulation, paving the way for half-hour toy commercials as kids' programming. But that's the Lisa Simpson in my head talking. Hasbro's campaign worked, and I've been a fan for 30 years . . . even with the show's dodgy production values and toy line that was both overly complicated (I was constantly referring to the instruction manual) and inconsistent with the animated characters. But the show worked its magic on me with a vengeance. And there are certainly bigger fans out there than myself. People who've spent years collecting the various iterations, series and live-action movies. But if we're talking the G1 stuff, I'm all over it. And there are other shows from that time that were better produced, but none that hit as precisely as this one. That link between TRANSFORMERS and being a kid is ironclad.8/10

Many cartoons inspired in toy-lines where made in the eighties, but not many of them resisted the test of time.The original "Trasformers" cartoon is one of those shows, that despite all the flaws that could have (It was, after all, a product of its time) was highly entertaining and had an interesting cast of characters, which were the most appealing element of this franchise, and made it survive among the decades.The backlash caused by the death of several characters done in the movie just serves to show how the viewers were attached to them: In that way, "Transformed" proved to be more than a simple cartoon done to promote a toy line. It had created (Probably in a unintentional way) several iconic characters, that were not only easily recognizable, but also have many likable traits that made this show to win the appreciation of the viewers. That's the main reason why new cartoon series based in the "Transformers" (Each one of them with different quality and entertainment value) are still being made until this day.The spirit of the story and the characters remains among the different decades, because it was very appealing, with many potential to exploit. Some of the animations that came later gave this a more mature approach, such as "Beast Machines" or "Transformers Prime", while others gave the same story a more lighthearted approach (such as the animated series done in the year 2007) but all those shows always tried to achieve the same essence of the original, because that was the key of the success of this franchise. Some of those series were good, others bad (And others were very, very bad) but the original one will be always my favorite, the one that started all my love and interest for this franchise.

Transformers is one of my favorite cartoons of all time taking place in 1984-1986. It revolved around a great war between the Autobots and Decepticons. The Autobots (protagonists) were led by Optimus Prime. The Decepticons (antagonists) were led by the power hungry Megatron. At points I actually found myself very invested in the plot line such as when Optimus Prime Died and gave the matrix of leadership to Ultra Magnus, I had found myself shocked whenever Galvatron (Unicron empowered Megatron) had taken it from Ultra Magus in the movie only to Have it stolen By Hotshot who became Rodimus Prime. Sudden plot twists like this on the edge of your seat and you thought about what had happened until the next episode.

The Transformers were a line of toys created by Hasbro in the 1980s for sale in the US. The TV show was part of an elaborate marketing campaign to promote the toys. (Like G.I.Joe and others) SPINOFFS: This was the first in a LONG line of spin-offs including series like Transformers Energon, Beastwars, Transformers Armada, and others, including a live-action/CGI movie in 2007 (not to be confused with an animated movie that is consistent with this story line). Some of those other series use characters from this series, sometimes they are new characters. The live-action CGI movie bares no resemblance to the animated show. It features some new characters, some of which have the same name as characters from the cartoon, but are featured differently. There is very little continuity between the different series. Because this was the first it is informally called Transformers Generation 1. These series are incredibly popular in Japan but have dwindled in popularity in the US.TECHNICALLY: It was an animated show filled with technical errors. Simple things like using the wrong voices for certain characters, painting a character the wrong color, or adorning a Decepticon logo to an Autobot character and vice versa. There were more serious technical glitches as well; including storyline problems like when/who created Megatron; one episode depicts him being built by the Constructicons, and one states that he created them. The first season of the show featured several robots, but the second season starting adding more without explaining where they came from. And other errors featured flashbacks to pre-Earth days but depicted the robots in Earth disguises even though they were not supposed to get those until they reached Earth. The list of errors is endless.PLOT: The general plot of the story featured the peaceful Autbots battling the military Decepticons. In a war on their home planet of Cybertron the two factions depleted their supplies of energy and left in search of more sources so that they could claim their homeworld.SEASONS: Before Season 3 an animated movie was released in theaters which advanced the timeline of the show to 2010, and hence Season 3 has been informally called Transformers 2010. Season 4 is not really a season, but a 3 part episode that could have continued the series in a new direction (like S3 did after S2) but the show faded away.SALES: Currently (as of Mar 1 2008) DVDs of the show are difficult to find. New copies of the show from US sources are extremely rare. Most new purchases are Chinese imports.2007 MOVIE: