My poor Dad. As a child of the 80s I dragged my Dad along to many a picturehouse in North London to witness some great films (Back to the Future, all the Star Wars, Labyrinth and so on), and some really bad ones. I can still remember his face after sitting through Transformers: The Movie, while mine was a gleeful mess of Butterkist and delight.

Time, however, has been kind to the big screen outing of the Transformers cartoon, and with a new 4K transfer Blu-ray coming out this Christmas it seems like a good opportunity to revisit Orson Welles’ penultimate film.

Boasting a bizarre cast (Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, Eric Idle – and Welles as a giant robot planet-eating planet) and some fine animation Transformers: The Movie did what so few franchise films have the courage to do: kill their heroes.

Continuing the cartoon series this film is a far cry from the orgiastic car crash of Michael Bay’s saga, and may be best observed as a time capsule. This is how they used to do it, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

The Blu-ray boasts some new special features, and a 4K transfer, and is out on the 12th of December.

Check out the trailer below,

The AUTOBOTS, led by the heroic OPTIMUS PRIME, prepare to make a daring attempt to retake their planet from the evil forces of MEGATRON and the DECEPTICONS. Unknown to both sides, a menacing force is heading their way – UNICRON. The only hope of stopping UNICRON lies within the Matrix of Leadership and the AUTOBOT who can rise up and use its power to light their darkest hour.   Will the AUTOBOTS be able to save their native planet from destruction or will the DECEPTICONS reign supreme?