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Jul 01, 2009 Web Exclusive By Nick Hyman

Michael Bay’s sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has just redefined what a bad movie can be, and coming out to coincide with the cinematic apocalypse is Shout! Factory’s celebration of the original animated series’ 25^th anniversary. The set is a notable improvement on the now out-of-print original Rhino releases from 2002 that included cut versions of some episodes and missing animation. This new release has taken great pains to restore as much of that footage as possible to appease the diehards. After watching it again, though, you might wonder why they would have bothered. For a show that was primarily made to sell toys, Transformers is not bad and really holds a nostalgic place in many hearts for viewers who watched it as kids. The animation is rudimentary and the storytelling is pedestrian at best, but Soundwave still sounds awesome.

The history of the Autobots and the Decepticons are detailed on a revealing featurette that shows how a bunch of Japanese toys became a franchise that still generates hundreds of millions of dollars. The special features also include a couple of animated public service announcements, some archival toy commercials, and a printable version of the “Transport to Oblivion” script. (www.shoutfactory.com)

Author rating: 6/10