A little post-Thanksgiving bonus before the Christmas specials start.
It’s rare to get a movie based on a TV show. I don’t mean these reimagined garbage movies that bear little to no resemblance to the source material unless it’s outright mocking it. I mean the show itself having a movie. You had the occasional reunion like Star Trek: The Motion Picture or The Return Of Maxwell Smart, but an active movie, especially a kids cartoon, getting a theatrical exclusive? Not likely. Then there was The Transformers: The Movie, a 1986 movie that altered the timeline of the cartoon. The movie was set in the far off year of 2005, with season three taking place in 2006. It introduced a new cast while killing off a huge amount of the old one to do so, as Hasbro wanted to push the new toys and didn’t realize the kids had connected so strongly to the old characters.
In Japan, kids are used to watching their heroes die to be replaced with new characters whether there were toys involved or not. Instead of the final three episode miniseries “The Rebirth”, they got The Headmasters, which killed off Optimus Prime (known in Japan as “Convoy”) a second time, after having to explain his death in Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010, since they opted to go five years beyond the American timeline. It wouldn’t be until after The Headmasters, Masterforce, and even Victory that select events got to see a Japanese subbed version of the English movie, and even longer before a Japanese dub of the movie would be made. Tonight I bring you that dub with English subtitles, bring things a bit full circle. You can learn more about the history at the TF Wiki.
You may be wondering why you should even bother watching that version when you already have the English version available to you, or at least you’ve seen it. That’s where the first of our extras comes in, also a way to make this post viable if the feature presentation is every taken down. TJ Omega is how I learned of this version of the movie showing up on YouTube, and he explains why it’s worth watching. Of course, you might want to wait until after you see the movie, to see if you can spot the differences first and then wait for TJ to list them all. That’s one of two extra bonuses before we get to the movie itself. Enjoy.
Our second extra is The Transformers: The Movie – Apocalypse: Be Eternal, Matrix is a 10+ minute preview for the movie released in Japan on VHS to promote the film. The version I found does not have subtitles for the Japanese parts, but I thought people would find it interesting. It includes the Japanese intro for the first two seasons, which if memory serves was just the one show there prior to 2010 translating season three like an original show, toy ads, and of course material for the movie. Also, intros for 2010, using clips from the US toy ads, as well as the Japanese exclusive series. I explore those in more detail in my “Many MANY Intros Of Transformers” series during part one and part two of the Japanese intros. It also includes a Japanese subtitled version of the extended trailer for The Transformers: The Movie.
And now, our feature presentation…if it’s still up when you get here. The subs are using the Japanese names. The Autobots and Decepticons are respectively the Cybertron and Destrons, while Optimus Prime is just called Convoy, among others. One mistake the sub makes is that Kup’s Japanese name isn’t “Chear”, it’s “Char”. I am curious why they used the Star Wars style crawl from the UK version if, according to the subtitles, they aren’t reading them exactly. As for the Japanese sound, they apparently didn’t leave any scenes silent, which in a couple of parts isn’t as dramatic as the original silent version, like Prime’s death, but at others becomes more horrific when you hear the screams of the dying. Otherwise, see what differences you pick up on.
I hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving, as Saturday Night Showcase prepares to add to the Christmas specials playlist…if I can find enough to cover the month.
BW Media Spotlight 