Transformers: the Movie on DVD

________
Original TF:TM poster design, plus the disc art for the Rhino DVD

Here's a fun fact: the week that TF:TM was released in fall 2000, its sales actually made the top ten new release statistics nationwide. And to think, when it was originally released in theatres in 1986, the film didn't even break even! Maybe some things do get sweeter with age...

Here's the synopsis from the back cover:

The year is 2005, and the Decepticons have retaken Cybertron from Optimus Prime and his Autobot warriors. Both sides are seething with anger, and that hatred has blinded them to a hideous menace headed their way. That menace is Unicron, a monster so powerful he devours planets. Unicron has chosen to take control of the Autobot Matrix for his own evil purposes, and to accomplish this he has created a force of super robots. By gathering the remains of fallen Decepticons, including Megatron, and infusing them with life, he forms the Unicrons. With Decepticons on one side, Unicrons on the other, and Optimus Prime lost in battle, Earth and Autobot survival depends on the Chosen One who must rise to open the Matrix and use its full power. Who that remains is a mystery. The all-star cast of voiceover artists include Monty Python's Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Robert Stack, Orson Welles, Scatman Crothers, Casey Kasem, and Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy.

Now, for a bit of comparison, here's the synopsis from the back cover of the Avid Entertainment video release, which is listed as copyright 1991:

There's an all new force in the universe. A monster planet that devours everything in its path. And it's heading for the small planet of Cybertron where a unique race of transforming robots continues to fight a civil war--a war between good and evil that has raged for millions of years.
The evil Decepticon Transformers, led by the maniacal Megatron, have sworn to crush their enemies, the Autobots. To this end, they have relentlessly pursued them across the galaxy from Cybertron to planet Earth and back again. But the heroic Autobot Transformers and their courageous leader Optimus Prime are not easily defeated.

Food For Thought: In writing, you have the concept of an understood audience. Who's going to be reading this? So what do you think the synopses writers for the old Avid release had in mind, versus the Rhino release? You may notice that the old video synopsis writes as though you may not know what the Transformers are as you pick up the box, but the Rhino synopsis assumes that you've already heard of them, maybe even know some things about the movie--notice their blurb gives away the fact that Prime dies, but the old one doesn't! It tells us some interesting things about the target market of the original release, as opposed to the target market for Rhino's releases.

Back to Voices of Cybertron