TFTM.net - The Transformers: The Movie

Here is a detailed description of all the known video releases of TF:TM, in descending chronological order by the time of release.

The Australian 2003 Madman DVD
Released: 2003
Format: Region 4 PAL DVD
Overall score (on a scale of 1-10): 6

This Region 4 PAL DVD, is essentially the same as the (disappointing) Madman U.K. DVD, but released for the Australian market. The package design and the special features have changed, however.

PICTURE QUALITY: BAD -- This is the same source as the 2001 Maverick DVD released in the U.K., which is the original 1986 telecine transfer, converted from NTSC to PAL, with the blurry 'dream-like' look.
AUDIO: The audio is taken from the 5.1 Rhino U.S. mix, including the "Swear Word". The only difference is the extra Victor Caroli narration at the beginning and end, which has been (poorly) edited back in.
VARIATIONS: This version uses the Star-Wars-like scroll (see any UK release described below) in place of the opening credits.
PACKAGING: COOL The cover is brand new artwork by Don Figuroa from Dreamwave Productions, and this is one of the slickest packages I have ever seen for the movie. The artwork on the disc is full-color and well designed, and the menus on the disc are fairly well designed. One of the special features on the disc shows the progression of this new cover art.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- ORIGINAL THEATRICAL TRAILER - Transferred straight from an original film print, which has already been matted for widescreen. The audio differs slightly from the trailer found on the laserdiscs (below) -- the "New Heroes, New Villians" part is gone, and at the end Victor Caroli says "Coming to theaters this August". (This is the same content as on the Maverick U.K. DVD.)
- 80's TV Spots - These are LOW QUALITY copies of the tv commercials that look like they came from a crappy MPEG-1 copy off the internet. (About the same level of quality as the clips on the Trailers and TV Spots page.
- "The Touch" Music Video another low-quality MPEG-1 blown up to MPEG-2. At least they fixed the audio...
- Character Biographies and Cast/Crew Biographies - FINALLY... A DVD with some bios on it. This kind of stuff SHOULD have been on the Rhino DVD.

Overall, I have to give this version credit for trying to make a comprehensive DVD with all the features that the fans want. Too bad the picture quality on both the movie and the special features is so bad.

The Maverick 2001 U.K. DVD
Released: 2001
Format: Region 2 PAL DVD
Overall score (on a scale of 1-10): 5

This Region 2 PAL DVD, which was delayed almost a full year (to the gripes of many retailers and pre-ordered customers), fell a bit short of its promised quality. About the only thing going for it is the remastered trailer and NRG song remix video.

PICTURE QUALITY: BAD -- The source is the original 1986 telecine transfer, converted from NTSC to PAL, but this time it has been "frame interpolated", meaning all the in-between frames became cross-dissolves of each other, which gives the film a kind of strobe-effect or a blurry 'dream-like' look.
AUDIO: The audio is taken from the 5.1 Rhino U.S. mix, including the "Swear Word". The only difference is the extra Victor Caroli narration at the beginning and end, which has been (poorly) edited back in.
VARIATIONS: This version uses the Star-Wars-like scroll (see any UK release described below) in place of the opening credits.
PACKAGING: BAD The cover is a poor scan of the original UK artwork (complete with the "screening" effect when you scan offset printed art), and the design/layout is sub-par.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- ORIGINAL THEATRICAL TRAILER - Transferred straight from an original film print, which has already been matted for widescreen. The audio differs slightly from the trailer found on the laserdiscs (below) -- the "New Heroes, New Villians" part is gone, and at the end Victor Caroli says "Coming to theaters this August".
- 1984 Retrospective - Clipped from a BBC special, "This is 1984", this video includes interviews with Simon Furman (writer of Transformers comics in England and in the U.S.), and some other British guys. It's an amusing little trip down 'memory lane', but has little to do with the movie itself, especially considering that Simon Furman was not involved in the creation of the movie. I prefer the interview with Vince DiCola found on the Rhino DVD.
- "Four Soldiers From The Sky" - a poorly dubbed (and bad copy) of the first episode of the Japanese Headmasters series
- "Music Picture Gallery" - a remixed version of the N.R.G. song "Instruments of Destruction", with animated stills scanned from a book advertising the movie

The Maverick 2001 U.K. VHS Release
Released: 2001
Format: PAL VHS tape
Overall score (on a scale of 1-10): 4

This VHS tape was released by Sony Wonder and Maverick Entertainment in the U.K. in 2001, just a year after their previous release (below). Though it is dubbed the "Special Collectors Edition," be warned that it is NOT the same digital transfer as the Rhino Special Collectors Edition - it is still the same old crappy transfer. The only thing "special" about it is the fact that it has a poorly dubbed episode of Transformers: Headmasters on it, "Four Soldiers From the Sky".
It is in PAL format and will not play on NTSC players, like those in the United States or Japan.

PICTURE QUALITY: BAD -- The source is the original 1986 telecine transfer, converted from NTSC to PAL, but this time it has been "frame interpolated", meaning all the in-between frames became cross-dissolves of each other, which gives the film a kind of strobe-effect or a blurry 'dream-like' look.
AUDIO: The audio is taken from the 5.1 Rhino U.S. mix, including the "Swear Word". The only difference is the extra Victor Caroli narration at the beginning and end, which has been (poorly) edited back in.
VARIATIONS: This version uses the Star-Wars-like scroll (see any UK release described below) in place of the opening credits.
PACKAGING: DRAB The black background and embossed Autobot symbol design is just a bit too dull for me
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- "Four Soldiers From The Sky" - a poorly dubbed (and bad copy) of the first episode of the Japanese Headmasters series

The Animation Japan International DVD
Released: 2000
Format: Region Free NTSC DVD
Overall score (on a scale of 1-10): 6

This DVD was released in 2000 by "Animation Japan International". Many people say this is a Japanese release, but for some reason it includes subtitles in Chinese only. The copy I have has English dialog only, but I have seen some on Ebay that claim it contains Japanese audio as well.
There are no real extra features, and the menu is just one still graphic.
I am not completely sure this version is 100% legal. I'm of the personal belief that it may be a Chinese bootleg. My apologies to "Animation Japan International" if this is incorrect.

PICTURE QUALITY: DECENT - Since the picture was taken from the Rhino digital remaster the picture quality is good, but it appears to have been recompressed so it is not as clear as the Rhino version
AUDIO: MONO ONLY - The audio is taken from the unedited English 5.1 Rhino U.S. mix, except it has been downmixed to MONO.
PACKAGING: O.K. - The artwork depicting Rodimus Prime and Galvatron is derived from previously released promotional material from Japan. On the back of the case is a small painting of Optimus Prime in a battered state (close to the Ark, which makes no sense in the context of the movie).
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Chinese (?) subtitles

The Rhino "Special Collector's Edition" DVD (and VHS)
Released: Nov. 7, 2000
Format: Region 1 NTSC DVD
Overall score (on a scale of 1-10): 8

The Rhino "Special Collector's Edition" was released on Nov. 7, 2000 in the United States in the DVD (region code 1) and VHS formats.

PICTURE QUALITY: GOOD - The film has been Digitally Re-mastered from the original film negatives (except for the "Junkion Reel" -- see below)
AUDIO: 5.1 DOLBY DIGITAL - The audio is the UNEDITED English track, converted from Dolby Stero (4 channel) to 5.1 Dolby Digital. Dialog is clearer than in previous stereo/Pro-Logic releases of the film, but some of the separation in the audio is not as great as it could be. The sound effects have more depth on the Hillcrane laserdisc, such as in the scene when the Decepticons first attack the Autobot Shuttle and you hear the blast to the far left of the screen.
PACKAGING: FUNCTIONAL - The cover uses a bad scan of the U.S. poster art. The colors are not as bright as the old FHE and Avid VHS covers, and the back uses a bad scan of the U.K. artwork. The disc itself has a horrible trace-over of a screen grab from the film
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Storyboards of some scenes that were altered or cut
- Interview with the musical composer Vince DiCola
- Early batches of the DVD included a Collectible Card (see right)

Here is a list of complaints about the Rhino DVD:

One reel of the film (time code 1:01:20 to time code 1:07:04, or track #15 to Track #18), for some reason was not re-mastered. This reel is dubbed "The Junkion Reel" because is the scene where the Autobots meet the Junkions, up until when Galvatron threatens Unicron with the Matrix. (To those who are unaware: all movies are broken up into separate "reels" of about 20 minutes in length because that is about how much 35mm film can fit in one canister. When you see the "cigarette burns" at the top right of the screen, that is when you know that the reel is about to change. See the movie Fight Club if you do not know what I'm talking about.) This reel of the film was likely procured from the old transfer of the film (the 1-inch broadcast videotape master), and has the same image shakiness as the old versions of the film. It even still retains the "cigarette burn" just as the Junkion ship and the Quintesson ship take off. Apparently either Rhino didn't have access to the negative for this reel or it was far too heavily damaged. When contacted about this in 2000, Rhino denied there was anything wrong with the remastering... In a way, the claim that this version was "COMPLETELY Re-mastered" is false advertising, since only about 80% of the film has been re-mastered. Hopefully Rhino will be able to correct this problem in a future release of the film... but it will not happen unless they receive enough feedback from their customers... (hint hint.)
The disc is a single-sided SINGLE-LAYER disc (DVD-5), which means it only holds about 4.7gigs of data. This is the lowest common denominator for a DVD, and thus the film had to be compressed heavily to fit on the disc. The compression is heavily visible, especially in scenes with "strobing" lighting effects (an effect used frequently throughout the film). Also, for some reason Rhino did not encode the video at 24 frames per second, but at 30 frames per second (with a "3:2 pulldown" applied BEFORE encoding), thus making it look interlaced on progressive-scan displays, and taking up unnecessary precious space on the disc.
Not many special features. Would have been nice to have some of the trailers or TV commercials, or "The Touch" music video.
No alternate languages or closed captioning / subtitles
The menus are kinda lame. I could have done better...
Sometimes there is TOO MUCH color. One shot, where Unicron is eating Lithone, turns the screen so red that you can't even make out what you are looking at. It should have been desaturated a little bit.
Would also have been nice to have more storyboards, or character bios or production artwork or character designs.

Many people have griped about the fact that Rhino, having gone through the trouble of digitally remastering the film, have not released a "widescreen" version. Of course there is a reason for this: there IS no "widescreen version". The film was shown theatrically on a wide screen by cropping off the top and bottom of the film frame using a "closed matte". For a detailed explanation of this, visit the technical details section.

While this disc has not lived up to everyone's expectations, it is still the best version (and best transfer) of the film released to video thus far. Rhino has remastered the entire U.S. television series and released boxsets, which seem to be selling pretty well. We can always hope for a dual-layer progressive-scan re-release with additional features some time in the near future...

Rhino has also issued a VHS version of this "Special Collector's Edition", in both clamshell and cardboard sleeve packages. Try not to confuse this version with their previous VHS release from 1999, which was NOT from the new digital transfer. The main difference on the packaging is the yellow "Special Collector's Edition" strip at the top. The VHS tapes also do not have any extra features.

The Canadian Seville DVD
This DVD was released in Canada September 12, 2000 by Seville (formerly Malofilm). The cover art is nearly the same as the Canadian Malofilm VHS (below), and the contents of the disc are nearly the same as well. This DVD is in full-frame, the audio is MONO, and has NO SPECIAL FEATURES. The color is washed out, and the image shakes a little. (Note that nearly all video releases of the movie have this shakiness to them, but on the DVD it is even more obvious.) About the only good point of this DVD is that it is UNEDITED. My recommendation is to purchase the Rhino DVD (see above), which is also UNEDITED (despite what Videoflicks.com reports), and is in full Dolby Digital 5.1 with special features.

Japanese Catco VideoCD
This interesting item was released in 2000 by a Japanese company called Catco. It is in NTSC VideoCD (VCD) format - a format that was widely popular overseas but never quite took off here in the United States. However, many DVD players (and most computers) will still play the format.
The content (and cover art) is virtually identical to the Hillcrane Laserdisc (below), right down to the trailer at the beginning and the Dolby Stereo audio track. Unfortunately, VCD only supports one audio stream, and the audio is in Japanese. The picture quality is limited by the specifications of VCD (which uses MPEG-1 encoding), so it kinda sucks. It is also broken up into two discs. It splits at the same point as the laserdiscs.
VideoCD labels

I particularly like the full-color artwork on the discs.

The Maverick U.K. (2000) VHS Release
This copy was produced by Sony Wonder and released by Maverick Entertainment in the U.K. on February 21st, 2000. It uses a modified version of the American box art on the front. It is in PAL format and will not play on NTSC players, like those in the United States or Japan. It has the Star Wars-esque scrolling text at the beginning, just like the original Video-Gems release (below), as well as the additional narration by Victor Caroli, but does NOT contains Spike's infamous "S" word. Maverick also released G.I.Joe: The Movie, and My Little Pony: The Movie around the time this tape came out.

The (1999) Rhino VHS Release
This tape from Rhino Home Video (Kid Rhino) was released in the U.S. in October 1999. It uses the American box art on the front, with a portion of the U.K. box art on the back, and comes in a small clamshell case.
This version is actually a re-release of the U.K. Video Gems release, with the scrolling intro and the extra Victor Caroli narration at the beginning and the end of the film. The audio track is in HiFi MONO. Since it is the same version as the original UK release, it is edited. (No "S" word.)
Do not confuse this tape with the 2000 Rhino VHS 'Special Collectors Edition', which was released only a year later on VHS and DVD, and uses the same box art with the exception of the yellow "Special Collectors Edition" strip at the top. The more recent tape has been remastered, and is unedited.

The Pioneer Japanese VHS
This VHS tape was released in Japan, along with the Pioneer Laserdisc (below), and it is pretty much the same exact version of the movie, but it is ONLY in Japanese (no additional English track). And like the Pioneer laserdisc, it is also in mono. The artwork features a meched-out rendition of Rodimus Prime.

The Pioneer Laserdisc
This laserdisc was the last laserdisc version to be released in Japan, and was released by Pioneer in 1998. This version is similar to the Hillcrane Laserdisc (with the Star Wars-like opening, character names, and trailer). The main difference, however, is that this time, the audio is IN MONO, and the English audio is on the analog tracks while the Japanese dialogue is on the digital tracks.
One good thing about this disc, when compared to the Hillcrane disc, is that it does NOT have the Japanese characters at the bottom of the screen every time a new character appears.
Another difference is that the theatrical trailer is shown AFTER the movie. Also, the audio for the trailer is almost one second out-of-sync from the video.

The Malofilm VHS Release
This 1995 Canadian VHS release was from Malofilm, who also released some Transformers episodes on VHS. The box art features Optimus Prime with Cybertron in the background. It comes in a big plastic "clamshell" case. There seems to be a lot of these tapes floating around on Ebay.

NOTE: This tape was the first release of the film in its UNEDITED format, with the original audio track that contains Spike's expletive. Too bad it is NOT in stereo. The picture quality is a tad sharper than the original US releases from Avid (below) and F.H.E. (below). In fact, it seems to be from a different master - with more of the film frame visible on the right side. (Though the new Rhino remastered version still blows it away.)

The Avid VHS Release
This copy of the movie was released in 1991 from Avid Home Entertainment and Live Home Video. This version used the same packaging as the F.H.E. release (below), except the F.H.E. logos were replaced with Live Home Video logos. It was low-priced (around $9), to sell to the budget family video market, and was recorded in SLP/EP slow speed, which uses much less tape. Therefore, the video quality is somewhat diminished. Fortunately, however, the audio is recorded in Hi-Fi. Though the audio quality will be barely audible without a HiFi-ready VCR, those with a Hi-Fi VCR can listen to the sound in Dolby Stereo Surround.

The RCA / Columbia Pictures / Hoyts Australian Release
This VHS tape was released in 1987 in Australia. While the front cover is the same artwork as the American version, the back is different.
(If anybody has a better scan of the cover art, please Email Me.)
It is in PAL format, with Hi-Fi stereo, and Spike's expletive is edited out.

The Hillcrane Laserdisc
This laserdisc, released by Hillcrane in Japan in 1987, is probably the rarest version of the movie. The Japanese cover art is beautiful, and the picture and sound quality are second only to the Rhino DVD (above). The digital audio tracks contain the English dialogue (recorded in Dolby Surround) and the analog tracks contain the Japanese dialogue (also in stereo). It was available only as an import, and is extremely hard to find, as it has been discontinued since April 1990.

The Hillcrane disc is slightly different from the U.S. release in the following ways:

The opening credits are replaced with a Star Wars-esque scrolling pre-story, just like the previously released Video Gems version (below). On the Japanese audio tracks, this "pre-story" is narrated by a Japanese narrator, but on the English tracks, only the music plays (unlike the UK and Rhino releases, which feature Victor Caroli in this part).
Every time a new character is introduced, his/her name appears at the bottom of the screen with Japanese characters.
The disc is double-sided, recorded in the CLV mode, and the movie is therefore split into half - the split occurs right after Ultra Magnus and the Autobots narrowly avoid being blown to bits in space by Galvatron and the Decepticon ship. Side B starts with the underwater scene on Quintessa as Hot Rod and Kup fight the robotic squid.
At the beginning of the disc is the full theatrical trailer!

For another review of this disc, click here.

The Takara VHS copy
This VHS tape was probably released around the same time as the original Hillcrane laserdisc release, or perhaps sometime shortly thereafter. It does not say Hillcrane anywhere on the packaging, but Takara logos are everywhere.
If anybody has any additional information about this release, please contact webmaster@tftm.net.

The Video Gems VHS (PAL) Release
The movie was originally released in the U.K. by Video Gems. The U.K. poster art is featured on the cover. This version, like the Japanese laserdiscs, has the opening credits replaced with a Star Wars-esque scrolling pre-story. There is also extra narration by Victor Caroli. (Caroli reads the pre-story while the text rolls, and he adds a bit at the end hinting at Optimus Prime's impending return to the TV series.)

The Broadcast Airing
The movie was broadcast on television in 1987, in the same way that G.I. Joe: The Movie was. It was hosted by Powermaster Optimus Prime, along with some annoying live-action kid named Tommy. The narration by Victor Caroli was replaced by narration from Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen). It was broken up into 5 parts, one part for each day of the week.
If anyone has a good copy of this version, please Email Me.

The Original 1987 F.H.E. VHS release
The movie was originally released on video in 1987 by Family Home Entertainment. You may be able to find a copy of this release in video rental places that have been around a while. This version's editing is identical to the theatrical release except that it has Spike's expletive edited out. It is recorded in the NTSC VHS format, in HiFi SP mode, though many people complain that the stereo effect on this version is rather weak.

If anyone has any more information about video releases not mentioned here, please email webmaster@tftm.net.

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