The Transformers: The Movie brings out families

Saskatoon’s Landmark Cinemas increased showings

A VHS re-release of The Transformers: The Movie from 1995.

Sunday became my “Transformers Day” in Saskatoon.

Going by the show times that were originally announced for the 40^th anniversary showing for The Transformers: The Movie and juggling my work schedule, my plan was to see it today (Sunday). At first, the only Sunday showing was set for 10:20 a.m. at the Landmark Cinemas on the far east edge of the city. I live on the west side of Saskatoon, so the theatre that was showing the Transformers movie was one of the longest cross-city trips I could do.

Late Saturday night, I double checked the show times and noticed the Landmark Cinemas added more showings on Sunday including at 12:10 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. I saw in social media reaction from Transformers fans online that they were pleasantly surprised to be watching this movie in full theatres in various other communities.

In the local mainstream media outlets in Saskatoon and in numerous centres in Canada, there are pretty much no entertainment reporters or movie reviewers left. I had no idea what I would experience when I would head out to see this movie again in the theatre for the first time in 40 years.

For a quick history lesson about The Transformers: The Movie, it was produced with the budget of US$6-million, and it brought in US$5.9-million in its original 1986 box office run domestically to be considered a bomb. The Transformers: The Movie didn’t have many folks coming out for a repeat viewing due to the death of Optimus Prime, who was the heroic leader of the Autobots voiced by the late, great Peter Cullen - a product of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

A ticket for The Transformers: The Movie.

Back in 1986, it was not common to kill off main characters in animated series, and Optimus Prime is often remembered as the shocking first time this happened.

As the decades have gone on, The Transformers: The Movie developed a cult following with numerous physical media releases and various returns to theatres. The 40^th anniversary return has been dubbed “The Apology Tour” by Hasbro for killing off Optimus Prime in 1986.

It is followed by a 12-minute animated short called Optimus Prime: Awakening. That is the final time Cullen reprises his role as Optimus Prime.

The 40^th anniversary showing hit theatres this past Thursday with Cullen’s recent passing coming this past August 26 adding a new dimension to the experience. The voice acting great was the first and is destined to go down as the definitive voice of Optimus Prime.

When I arrived at the Landmark Cinemas at 12:05 p.m., I was surprised to see the parking lot in front of the theatre was pretty much full. The Transformers: The Movie was the only thing showing at the 10:20 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. time slots at that location.

The Landmark Cinemas in Saskatoon.

The people I saw at the theatre were like 95 per cent families. Lots of dads were coming with their kid or teenage sons, and lots of dads were coming with their kid or teenage daughters.

After I got out of my car in front of the parking lot at the Landmark Cinemas, I saw a dad getting out of a big pickup truck with two teenage daughters. By their appearance, they came from the rural area and likely came some distance as the daughters were putting comforter blankets away. The daughters gave off the vibes they were there doing something special with their dad.

When I walked into the theatre, the concession line was really long. It was filled with families hanging together in their family groups. There were a handful of geek/nerd types in the concession, but they were a really small minority.

I went to purchase my ticket to get into the showing, and I realized there were both a premier seat and a standard seat showing. The premier seat showing was sold out, so I got into the standard seat showing.

Classic animated Optimus Prime.

The theatre room I went into was packed. With family turnout, the majority of the folks in the standard seat room were young kids.

Right there, I was having flashbacks of seeing The Transformers: The Movie back in 1986. Back in 1986, I saw that film on the last day it was in theatres in Winnipeg thanks to my oldest sister taking me. While the repeat viewings weren’t happening at that time, the theatre had a decent crowd with a lot of kids in attendance when I went.

During the showing I went to at the Landmark Cinemas, you got the feeling everyone in the room had seen this movie at least two or three times. It did hit differently watching The Transformers: The Movie on the big screen, because you realized this was how this film was meant to be seen.

As the movie advanced on, there were a lot of times a voice in my head was mouthing all the characters’ lines. In my life, the only two movies I have likely seen more than The Transformers: The Movie are another 1986 release in Top Gun and Major League from 1989. At times, the lines from those flicks feel like they are burned into the memory.

Another thing it felt like I noticed watching The Transformers: The Movie this time around was how smoothly the film ran. The flow was noticeably better from my view compared to movies I have seen in theatre in recent years.

I was impressed to see most of the kids in the theatre were locked in watching the film from their seats. It kind of went against the preconceived notion that kids today have attention spans that are super short.

A promo photo of the late Peter Cullen.

I enjoyed the Optimus Prime: Awakening short. To me, the whole short was about Optimus Prime making his journey into the afterlife after dying in the 1986 movie.

On the crazy timing front, I thought it worked as a beautiful tribute to Cullen playing Optimus Prime and closing the book on that part of the history of the Transformers franchise. When Cullen was recording the lines for this short, I don’t think it was going through anyone’s mind that he would pass away shortly before this hit theatres. When the short ended, a tribute dedication was shown for Cullen.

I came away feeling good enough from this experience that I went down to 8^th Street Quentin’s Comics and Toys on 8^th Street in Saskatoon and picked up a couple of Transformers figures from the Studio 86 Series Line that is dedicated to The Transformers: The Movie.

I also attended the 7:20 p.m. showing in the premier seat theatre with my mom. She actually enjoyed the experience.

This time there were only about 50 per cent families in the crowd and a larger turnout from the geek/nerd crowd. It was still a great time.

This anniversary run for The Transformers: The Movie was originally supposed to wrap up on Monday in North America. The run at the Landmark Cinemas is running through to Wednesday.

An Optimus Prime from 1984.

At the moment, the film is set to show at 12:20 p.m. on Monday, at noon and 7:20 p.m. on Tuesday and at noon and 6:50 p.m. on Wednesday.

In my life, I was born eight years before Transformers made its debut in 1984 and most of my knowledge of the franchise’s story arc comes from the original Generation One line. 

It is pretty rudimentary of all the different iterations and story tellings that have occurred around the decades.

Thanks to life being busy, I am not able to consume and follow all the interpretations of Transformers as they come out. 

I have been able to see all the Michael Bay live action Transformers films along with the Transformers One animated picture.

When I went to the 40^th anniversary showing of The Transformers: The Movie, I realized there were a lot of folks similar to me in that way, and a number of people in my age group still have a fond place in their heart for the original 1986 animated movie. 

Yours truly at the Landmark Cinemas in Saskatoon.

To be able to share watching it in theatre with family was a priceless moment that was never conceived for the bucket list.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Optimus Prime became iconic with his 1986 death

Autobot leader is heart of the Transformers franchise

Optimus Prime’s 1986 death in The Transformers: The Movie.

Optimus Prime’s death in 1986 allowed him to live forever.

Optimus Prime is the iconic main hero in the Transformers franchise as the leader of the Autobots in their war against the Decepticons. Over the 42 years that franchise has been running since 1984 including numerous story adaptations, fans and followers of Transformers pretty much all know about Optimus Prime’s death in The Transformers: The Movie from 1986.

For kids that grew up in the 1980s when The Transformers: The Movie came out, Optimus Prime’s death was jarring, especially when it came 26 minutes and eight seconds into the film that ran about 90 minutes in length.

Back in 1986, main character deaths in fictional animation, comics and other stories targeted to children didn’t happen. Even if superheroes like Superman or Spider-Man had died in comic books or in animation, they were usually revived or brought back to life sometimes as early as that same comic book or episode the death happened.

Likely the only experience kids might come across at that point in time with main character deaths came from the Japanese animated Robotech series that first aired in North America in March of 1985. In order to see Robotech, you have had to be in a community that was fortunate enough the television stations picked up and showed that series in syndication. Also, Robotech first aired without a toy line until one came out for it a short run in 1986.

For those that didn’t live in the 1980s or grew up in it, it was the ultimate decade when it came to marketing to children. That was due to the United States government removing many of the restrictions regarding the placement of promotional content within children’s television programming. (*A big thank you to President Ronald Reagan on that front*).

Classic animated Optimus Prime.

The standard practice was for companies to create a toy line and then have an animated series hit television networks to market the toy line. Thanks to that marketing strategy, toy lines like Masters of the Universe, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all created and took off from that decade. Hasbro rebooted the G.I. Joe toy line in 1982, and it is still carrying on in the present day.

On the girls’ side, Hasbro’s Jem and The Holograms line based off the female rock bands of that time rose up to rival Mattel’s iconic Barbie line for about three years. The Jem line was tightly linked to the 1980s music scene resulting in rare reboot attempts.

The Transformer toy line produced by Hasbro debuted in early 1984 and an animated series to promote the toys hit television screens on September 17 of that year. It ran two seasons before The Transformers: The Movie arrived in theatres on August 8, 1986.

Over the first two seasons of the Transformers animated series, Optimus Prime was established as the main hero. Voice actor Peter Cullen, who passed away on August 26 of this year, was the first and is destined to be the definitive voice of Optimus Prime.

When auditioning for the role of Optimus Prime, Cullen followed the advice of his older brother, Larry Cullen, who served as a Marine in Vietnam. After mentioning the audition to Larry, the older brother told his younger brother to not be a Hollywood hero that yells and acts tough if he was going to play a hero.

The advice was given, “If you are going to be a hero, be a real hero. Be strong enough to be gentle.”

The result saw Peter Cullen establish Optimus Prime as a father figure of the Autobots as well as being their leader. Optimus Prime came across as a character you would envision being the ideal dad that you could be proud of.

An Optimus Prime from 1984.

While the storytelling of the original Transformers animated series might look campy, it was good in fleshing out the characters. The characters – especially those that came out in the 1984 line – had worked out backgrounds that allowed audiences to identify with them. It was done in a way that wasn’t seen at that point in time in a series targeted for children.

As a 10-year-old in 1986, I didn’t see The Transformers: The Movie on the first day it hit theatres. I started hearing from my friends really quickly on the playground that Optimus Prime died in the movie. The first thing that ran through my mind was that it wasn’t possible.

On the last day The Transformers: The Movie was in theatres, my oldest sister took me to see the film. I had already dealt with the deaths of two uncles at that point in my life, so I had a rudimentary understanding of what real life death was like.

When the opening credits of the movie ran and I saw a list of new characters that didn’t appear at that point in the animated series and Peter Cullen wasn’t put on that list for voicing Optimus Prime, I knew something was up. I was surprised to see like half my toy collection get blown away in that movie and was stunned by Optimus Prime’s death scene where he turned from red to grey due to his injuries from his final battle with infamous Decepticon leader Megatron.

I actually enjoyed watching the movie in the theatre, and I was fine in the theatre. I was still stunned that Optimus Prime was killed off in the movie, and I admit I did have a cry about it before falling asleep when it was bedtime one night shortly after being at the movie.

A VHS copy of The Transformers: The Movie from 1987.

Little did I know at the time, I found out through the decades lots of kids took Optimus Prime’s death a lot worse than I did. There were kids who had to leave the theatre after Optimus Prime’s death scene.

There were kids locking themselves in their bedrooms for lengthy stretches of time due to the fact Optimus Prime had died. I was unaware that a grassroots letter writing campaign from fans and parents was flooding the Hasbro offices to bring Optimus Prime back.

That reaction sharply contrasted the really cold corporate treatment of Hasbro to the young franchise at the time. The original 1984 line of Transformers was being discontinued and the new 1986 line was hitting retail store shelves.

The executives at Hasbro saw The Transformers: The Movie as the vehicle to basically write off the 1984 toy line and introduce all these great characters in the 1986 Transformers toy line.

Screenwriter Ron Friedman, who wrote for the Transformers animated series, advised against killing off Optimus Prime and told Hasbro executives they would have to bring him back if they went in that direction. Hasbro executives said they had no plans to bring Optimus Prime back and had other great plans for the franchise and told Friedman to kill him off in the movie script that he was writing. Friedman followed orders.

As a result, The Transformers: The Movie was produced with the budget of US$6-million, and it brought in US$5.9-million in its original box office run domestically to be considered a bomb. The Transformers: The Movie didn’t have many folks coming out for a repeat viewing due to the death of Optimus Prime.

To add to that factor, 1986 was the year Top Gun was in theatres and folks of all sorts had “the need for speed” coming out to see that flick in droves. Movies in theatres in 1986 included Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Aliens, The Karate Kid: Part II, Stand by Me, Crocodile Dundee, Platoon and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

A VHS re-release of The Transformers: The Movie from 1995.

As Friedman predicted, Hasbro had to bring Optimus Prime back permanently, which they did at the conclusion of season three of the animated series with the two part episode “The Return of Optimus Prime” that aired in late February of 1987.

In another twist that came out years later, G.I. Joe: The Movie was in production at the same time and plans were originally set to kill off one of the main G.I. Joe heroes in Duke. G.I. Joe: The Movie was intended to come out first, but production delays resulted in The Transformer: The Movie being finished first and thus hitting theatres.

Due to the reaction to Optimus Prime’s death, the scene of Duke’s death had been animated, but the story dialogue was changed to announce Duke went into a coma and it was stated at the end of the film he lived. 

The soundtrack there didn’t go with the footage of Duke taking a fatal wound to the heart. G.I. Joe: The Movie premiered on direct-to video on August 25, 1987 and hit television syndication in September of 1987.

Had G.I. Joe: The Movie came out first with Duke’s death as part of the film, his passing likely wouldn’t have hit the same as Optimus Prime’s. Duke was written as a typical military fictional hero that yelled, acted tough and was tough. Plus, it could be argued characters like Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Hawk, Flint, Lady Jaye, Roadblock and Scarlett were as equally or more popular than Duke.

As the decades have gone on, The Transformers: The Movie developed a cult following with numerous physical media releases and various returns to theatres. It is slated to make an upcoming return to theatres for its 40 anniversary running in most North American markets starting on Thursday and running through five days later to the following Monday.

A DVD of The Transformers: The Movie re-release from 2006.

The 40^th anniversary return is being dubbed “The Apology Tour” by Hasbro for killing off Optimus Prime in 1986. It will be followed by a 12-minute animated short called Optimus Prime: Awakening. That will mark the final time Cullen reprises his role as Optimus Prime.

In Saskatoon, it will run at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Scotiabank Theatre. Those will be the only showing at that location.

The Transformers: The Movie will start a short run at the Landmark Cinemas on Thursday at 3:45 p.m., 6:50 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. It will show there once on Friday at 12:50 p.m., and once on both Saturday and Sunday at 10:20 a.m. The Landmark Cinemas run ends on Wednesday, September 23 at 6:50 p.m.

The Transformers: The Movie is endeared by the generation that first watched it for being a film that treated its audience as being more mature.

The initial reaction to the death of Optimus Prime causing Hasbro to bring him back in short order made him an iconic hero. In various new stories and interpretations of the Transformer franchise over the decades, plots involving Optimus Prime’s death often via self-sacrifice and later coming back to life have been featured frequently.

In the early 1990s, even Superman and Spider-Man storylines of dealing with a more permanent death before coming back to life were rolled out in the comics.

A 40th anniversary edition of G1 Optimus Prime from 2024.

For most Transformers fans, Cullen’s recent passing means they will check out the re-release of The Transformers: The Movie in theatres as part of the way they remember the man who gave Optimus Prime his voice.

Ultimately, Optimus Prime’s death in The Transformers: The Movie in 1986 and the backlash that followed made him very much different from any other fictional hero especially because Cullen presented him as the hero that was strong enough to be gentle.

It made Optimus Prime the iconic fictional character he is, and he will be remembered by the public at large forever.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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COVID-19 pandemic times lead to rediscoveries

Visiting my Dad’s resting place in Regina.

    It has been great to have weekends again for an extended stretch.

    That has been one of the many rediscoveries I’ve come across during these coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic times.

    For the last 20 years, I really haven’t had regular weekends over a lengthy span of time due to making a career covering sports events. When massive shutdowns started to occur on March 11 and 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my weekends opened up.

    With all that noted, I miss covering sports events a great deal. The clock in my head keeps telling me the Saskatoon Hilltops should be well into their CJFL regular season.

I’ve enjoyed getting out to cut the grass during the pandemic.

    The 2020 CJFL season is one of many things that have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Even with local baseball and softball starting up in early July and the Saskatoon Stock Car Racing Association springing to action at the Wyant Group Raceway on Aug. 8, the last sports event I covered with a focus and intensity was the Saskatoon Contacts getting eliminated from the Saskatchewan Under-18 AAA Hockey League playoffs on March 12 at Merlis Belsher Place.

    The Contacts fell 5-3 to the Moose Jaw Warriors, who swept a best-of-five league semifinal series 3-0.

    Well over five months have passed since that game was played, and weekends have become actual weekends. There is anticipation when Friday arrives and a dread when Monday rolls around.

Yes, I own the DVDs to the “Disney” Star Wars trilogy.

    I haven’t had this many weekends in a row that have been actually weekends where you can have down time since the summer of 2000.

    During weekends, I will do things that need to be attended to at home like clearing snow or cutting the grass depending on what season it is. When the pandemic got real in Saskatoon, winter was still on in full force.

    It seemed like it didn’t start to get warm outside until the beginning of May, and it has been warm ever since.

    On weekends, I will do my workouts in my weight room in the basement. I’ve gotten used to watching movies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

I used the Denver Broncos to win the Super Bowl in Madden.

    I’ve actually found a new joy in just hanging on the homestead on Saturday nights.

    On Saturdays and Sundays, I can often be found playing a game or two of Madden 2008 on my PlayStation 2, or I can be seen venturing on a long bike trip through the city.

    For the first time in like five years, I’ve started and completed a regular season of Madden inside of a calendar year. I can’t remember when was the last time I finished a Madden season inside of six months.

    I used the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers just to be different and have fun. The Broncos ended up winning the Super Bowl over the Panthers 56-28.

    Besides creating storylines on Madden, I got to have a little fun in the statistics department.

The Denver Broncos raise the Super Bowl trophy in Madden.

    With the Panthers, I signed a younger computer generated quarterback with a 99 overall rating and receiver Calvin Johnston, who was nicknamed in real life “Megatron.”

    Johnston had a 98 overall rating when he was signed and was boosted up to a 99 overall rating by the end of the season. I had Johnson catch 83 passes for 2,398 yards and 23 touchdowns appearing in all 16 regular season games.

    I’ve re-watched a lot of Star Wars movies including all three that are part of the “Disney” trilogy.

    I rediscovered the 1980s animated television shows for Transformer, G.I. Joe and Robotech. I viewed the Transformers shows off old VCR tapes I own.

    I started out watching G.I. Joe and Robotech episodes on YouTube.

A pandemic DVD purchase. Can’t go wrong with 1980s G.I. Joe.

    I later bought a couple of DVD sets of G.I. Joe television shows from the 1980s at Hi-Tech Gametraders in Confederation Mall in Saskatoon.

    I totally endorse shopping at Hi-Tech Gametraders, which is a good local Saskatoon business.

    I found the complete Robotech series on DVD for sale online in the United States and purchased it and had it shipped to my place in Saskatoon.

    The DVD sets were pandemic buys, because I likely wouldn’t have bought them had the world gone on like it normally would.

    I finally made a road trip for the first time in the pandemic traveling to Regina on Aug. 19 and 20. I brought my mountain bike to Regina, and biked there for the first time in 10 years.

    In a cool twist, the mountain bike I road in Regina was the same one I won following the University of Regina Cougars women’s basketball team to U Sports nationals in Thunder Bay, Ont., in 1999.

Another pandemic DVD purchase. Robotech is still cool.

    I won the bike hitting a half-court shot during a halftime competition at the tournament’s championship game.

    I’ve only hit a half-court shot one other time in my life since.

    During my Regina stop, I visited the resting place of my late father, Dan Steinke.

    While it was great to finally hit the highway again, I’ve discovered during the pandemic that I have grown comfortable with being a home body.
    I haven’t been a home body since I was in Grade 9.

    Still, it does suck that the world hasn’t progressed in a normal fashion specifically in North America since early March. When the pandemic does end, I hope I can become active again covering the sports teams in the hockey and football world that I’ve covered over 24 years before the pandemic started.

    There are no guarantees that will happen as that depends on how events in the world play out the longer the pandemic goes.

In the pandemic, I plan to keep making the best with the cards dealt my way.

    With that noted, I am going to continue to rediscovering doing a few things I used to do in taking advantage of the cards that have been dealt to me in the present.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.