TRANSFORMERS - ILM footage is BS!!!

why would Michael Bay lie.

Probably from an effects house that didn't get the contract, why else bother to generate that much footage of a transformer?

I knew all along I could tell honest

thankfully, the AICN commando spy team ferreted out the truth, this coulda been a full-fleedged internet disaster.

No such luck. The biggest hack of all. Sigh.

Hollywood spies tell me they're actually robots...robots in disguise!

A Transformers movie is going to be nowhere near cool. Well, unless you're the kind of jackass who thought Van Helsing was cool...

The giant talking robots must convincingly emote or the movie won't get made. But a talking donkey can convincingly emote and we even get a sequel. Right.

Is this still up in the air? Don't they have a release date? And that is dependant on whether or not they can make machines emote? I just want to point out that they are worried about robots crying.

Then maybe we'll get some leaked footage of Duke balling Scarlet or Flint getting a hummer from Lady Jaye. Then we'll have something to talkback about.

And I am pretty hardcore Trnasformers fanatic. I can't remember a time in my life when I wasn't batshit for them. Think about it, what other director would really do an amazing job with htis film? Maybe Zemeckis or Spielberg but something tells me they doesn't want it. but other than that Bay is about the only other director who is realy gonna get the budget necessary to pull this off.

As much as people like to pretend Transformers are only about giant robots looking cool, what would actually make a great Transformers film are things Bay is probably not interested in. At least not beyond a superficial level.

Please, the less time we spend talking about this hack the less legitimacy he'll end up with.

...is how they are going to handle transformers like soundwave and megatron. 20 foot robots transforming into small things (guns and tape recorders). You know they're either going to give some lame ass explaination or have these guys transform into something else. I for one just hope they say "fuck it" and don't explain anything. Just have them do it.

...are these robots from another planet designed to disguise themselves as vehicles? what's the rationale? if that isn't explained, there's no way i can get interested. as a cartoon, okay, fine, they're robots that turn into cars, i'm eight years old, i don't care why they're made like that. but now that i'm seventy four and going to see sophisticated movies such as brokeback mountain and baseketball, i need a little supporting information in order to suspend my disbelief. and michael bay will always get a pass from me just for his involvement in Armageddon, which is the best movie of all time, don't even try to argue.

I don't know why. He-Man, Inspector Gadget, sure. Hell, even Thundercats. Just couldn't be bothered with G.I.Joe or the Transformers. No appeal to me. Anyone have a psychological insight into my indifference?

pay up Mother!!

However, Transformers of G.I.Joe I would have watched.

No Shit Sherlock, I thought everyone knew that

About it not being greenlit yet?!? Why the hell did they park a giant truck with a release date (month?) in the middle of comic-con if it's not green lit? Something doesn't add up there.

Freakin' weenies. Made King Kong look like Ed (that crappy movie with Matt LeBlanc, jerks. And did you know that Jim 'Jesus H.' Caviezel was in that piece?) To sum up, The Island was cool.

My friend a while back found a commerciall for this european car that transforms a lot like that and then dances. this could be test footage for a commercial like that. So it could be real test footage, just not for transformers.

Yeah, I agree. What's this about the movie getting greenlit? I thought this was a done deal complete with a release date, website, and a Steven Spielberg "I Love Transformers" testimonial-producer seal of approval. Strange. You know, I could care less but I have to say...a full, live action Megatron brandishing his Fusion Cannon would be pretty awesome to see on the big screen. He was truly one of the great cartoon/comic villains.

Never did I imagine I'd see Brokeback Mountain and Baseketball metioned in the same sentence. Riot...

Even fake this this isn't like the Beetle transformer from a few years ago, not to say its perfect (but it wouldn't be anyways would it, being "test footage"), this looks not only pretty professional but its on film. I'd think if it is fake whoever did it would step up and take credit for it eventually. Plus if everything in that conversation is true, it doesn't necessarily mean this is fake, it just means this is old.

Who has the ability to make something like that besides ILM or a comporable studio?

The marketing for it sucked though.

And he told me to go fuck myself and demanded to know who gave me his phone number in the first place.

Because the day this is released, they'll be gearing up for one.

Dude, you need tests for that? Why not just hire the guys who have already accomplished human-like CGI? ... "Yousa people gonna transform?"

...is he a robot in disguise?

I hope when he says emote, he means how to make their movements match the emotions the voice actors will provide (sadness over death, or Optimus Prime's John Wayne-like duty and honor schtick). The one who'll take the most work, obviously will be Megatron. It's gotta be tough to make a 30 foot tall robot with the dialogue of an old Buster Crabbe serial actually seem menacing and not 'Grando Calrissian'-level laughable. I put so many references in there, I hurt myself. Gonna go lie down now.

I can't stand Michael Bay but I grew up w/ Transformers & think he's the man to make a Transformers live action movie. No matter what he makes he throws in car chases & explosions. Well Transformers is supposed to be 90% car chases & explosions. He's perfect for this. And get all the original voices from the cartoon. The living actors that is.

Its a slim chance that they're going to get the original voices. This is Hollywood, my man. You can expect them to be courting Martin Lawrence for the voice of Jazz within 6 months

If the guy has nothing better to do with his time than to check the net for Transformers leaked footage and then gossip on the phone with Harry about it, then maybe he should pass the project on to someone that cares that it has a release date and a website. What studio makes a website for a movie they MIGHT make and then sends Speilberg out to shill for it?

Because that would mean that the film will definitely get a positive review. ;-P

Thumper2k1 - You mentioned what megatron and Soundwave are going to change into? Megatron is going to be a tank this time around. And so far Soundwave is supposed to be a Helicopter starting off but then possibly get a new form by the end of the movie. Megatron as a Tank I can understand and accept. I'd still prefer a gun but I can understand why that would be a lil controversial. Especially if they want to make him into a toy which you know they will.But Soundwave as a helicopter is a crap idea to me. That just blows. I personally think he still needs to be some kind of communication device. And pretty much all of the Transfandom agrees with me on that.I know tape decks are obsolete but how about a computer or something? I'd prefer anything like that instead of a freaking helicopter. mocky_puppet - You wanted to know the rationale behind the robots disguising themselves as vehicles and such. You just answered your own question. Thats exactly it. They do it to disguise themselves. They don't want the human population to know that they're here so they disguise themselves as earth vehicles and etc., If a car passes you on the street you wouldn't think twice about it. If a 20ft tall robot walks by i'm sure your gonna be thinking thats a lil out of the ordinary. I don't know what Harry means by "If it's Greenlit" As far as everything i've read about it it already has been. Just like someone already posted above, they have a release date for it already (7-04-07) and was advertising it at the San Diego Comic Con. I don't think they'd be going through all that if a movie was only being pitched around. And supposedly Spielberg flew to Hasbro himself to convince them to sell the movie rights to Dreamworks. Either New Line or Lionsgate or some other top company was in the lead to buy them but Spielberg went in and snatched them right out from under them. With this project being under his wing I don't think we have to worry about it not getting made but rather will it turn out good. And what test footage are all you guys talking about? Are you talking about that clip where it shows a white porsche looking car at a gas station or something and a person walks by? And then after the person is off screen the car transforms into a robot and pulls a gun out from its back? Is that what your talking about? If so that has been around for a year or two now. That has nothing to do with the movie. The guy that made that works in computer animation. He had that plus a lot of other cgi clips of other stuff on his website. He even had a whole behind the scenes article on how he made that car transform. That was his lil tribute to Transformers because he was a big fan. If I find the link to his site i'll be sure to post it.

I would love an update on Battle Angel and Project 880.

Or was it Shockwave, I'm talking about the tape player. "Ravage . . . Transform." Sweet memories . . .

http://tinyurl.com/a9ksg This is my personal collection. I figure I gotta show it off whenever the oppurtunity presents it's self. Let me know what you think.

Soundwave was voiced by Frank Welker who also did Megatron and just about every other original Decepticon on the show when it first started.

fuck that, if what mace says is true do they just eliminate ravage, rumble, and laserbeak? Is any of this going to be based on cybertron, it would be cool to see their pre-earth transformation modes

For shame...

Is that they're going to HAVE to get the original voice actors from the cartoon. Otherwise, I see this thing at number 1 the first weekend then a steep dropoff the next week because fans wouldn't accept new actors doing the voices. Really can anyone else imagine Clooney doing Optimus Prime? Pete Cullen for Prime all the way, plus they'll save a huge amount of money on budget costs.

all respect for this site is now gone.

Only 15 to (a generous) 50% of this movie's fanbase is going to remember or care about Peter Cullen's voice. No disrespect intended to you or him (I can't imagine any other voice for The Prime), but it's Hollywood my, man. The original voices is going to become one of those things like tall Wolverine and yellow spandex, or Mary Jane's blue instead of green eyes, or Superman's redesigned suit - a bone of contention for fans and fans alone.

Lord, Please guide Michael in the making of this film. Please guide the hands of the craftsmen that they may find those emotions that we all know are there inside the Transformers(TM. Please let this be the movie the restores Michael Bay to the greatness we all know he harbors inside. And Lord, if its not too greedy, please help this movie to make a zillion so that we may behold the power of another HE-MAN(TM) movie. God Bless America!

Where's the THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN movie?

Sorry, two last things: If cartoon to film movies are the next trend, I can't wait for SwatKATS: The Motion Picture....You know it's coming

If he could act worth a damn. He sounds eerily similar to Scatman Crothers.

Name 3 cartoon heroes cooler than Optimus Prime!!!

Michael Bay? Pft...I rather like Don Murphy&#39;s response to the footage <p> http://www.d13satellite.com/donmurp...15&pagenumber=1

oops...here&#39;s the full addy to Don Murphy&#39;s response about the footage http://www.d13satellite.com/donmurphy/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7815&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Knowing a few people in ILM I can garentee you Harrys been had, and this really IS test footage that wasnt supposed to be seen. Of course they said it wasnt they dont want people to know about it.

Then you list He-Man and Inspector Gadget as ones you did watch. Man, I enjoyed He-Man and Thundercats like most boys growning up back then, yet to me they both were way behind cartoons such as: Silverhawks, TF, G.I. Joe, Mask, Mighty Orbots word, and of course my favorite...ROBOTECH

Another words he thinks it will make a shit-load of money. Fuck You Micheal Bay! Go make the Island 2 you Pearl-Harbor-directin piece of shit!

I&#39;m sorry, but a Transformers movie wouldn&#39;t have much hope in Spielberg&#39;s hands (although he would work in some nice 9/11/Iraq allegories I&#39;m sure), what chance does it have with Michael fuckin Bay?

and make it all about how the Autobots feel bad about killing the Decepticons even though they chased them all the way from Cybertron to Earth and are intent on their complete destruction? Oh, wait. At least Bay isn&#39;t THAT kind of hack.

And isn&#39;t that all we really want?

with product placement of course. TF is the ultimate product placement flick. Not to mention NASCAR and Jessica Simpson in there in a bikini somewhere.

it would be kind of pointless to leave the violence out, eh?

I loved Transformers as a kid, it would be neat to see the Dino-bots on screen as well. What would be cooler than seeing a giant mechanical Triceratops fuck some shit up? And didn&#39;t they combine to form one giant Dinobot? Utter coolness. Does anyone remember the go-bots utterly retarded response to the Dinobots? The "Rock-Lords!" I think that is what they were called. I don&#39;t know if they ever got a show on their own or if they only ever were in the Go-bots movie. Robots that turn into rocks and boulders! What fun! Think of different adventures you could get into playing with a.....ROCK! Reminded me of that scene in "BIG" when Tom Hanks&#39; character says "skyscraper? what is fun about playing with a skyscraper?" refering to the toy companies newest toy idea.

Michael clarke duncan as ookla!

You know it&#39;s true.

But you know people in Hollywood aren&#39;t creative enough to pull it off and are too scared of fantasy to go all out. We need more good fantasy films.

Ben Kingsley as Mummra

Would be better suited to direct a WWII Era Captain America movie scripted by Tony Gilroy and David S. Goyer. If anybody can do iconography, it&#39;s Bay

And that is Terence Stamp

Supposedly there saying that Soundwave will still have his minions but haven&#39;t said exactly how thats going to work yet. They&#39;ve hinted that if Soundwave is a Helicopter that the cassette/minions will be a part of him somehow. That&#39;s all the info they have given on it. That whole helicopter idea still sucks in my opinion. And as far as voices for the characters. I of course would want the original voice actors who played them on the cartoon. But thats realisticly not going to happen. There&#39;s a decent chance they still might offer Peter Cullen who voiced Prime and Frank Welker who was Megatron to possibly return to these roles since those two are the most famous characters from the show plus famous actors in real life. I&#39;m sure everyone reading this has heard both actors doing voice overs in 3/4 the shows/movies that are even made nowadays but you just didn&#39;t realize it was them. But as far as everyone else though you might as well start picking out name brand celebrities to fill those shoes.

Also, I hope they don&#39;t try to load up the film with peudo-techno references and explain how they "work". That&#39;s always really annoying.

All I know is that I near &#39;bout shit my pants when Soundwave turned up on Family Guy, beating Peter out of Employee of the Month.

to buffy Mummra? I guess there are ways to do this. But trying to picture Kingsley as buff ain&#39;t working for me.

Voltron--the one where the robot is assembled from multiple space vehicles, not the one with the lions. I&#39;d chime in with the above for Thundaar the Barbarian, and the Space Ghost hour. Inspector Gadget? That always struck me as a show for little girls, like My Little Pony. Now, would any of these make good movies? Likely not. Animated show concepts almost never translate well to live action. Except for GI Joe. That show was basically an updated Sgt Fury comic book take-off or something that sprung from a boy&#39;s adventure story anthology.

Kingsley=skinny Mummra The Rock=buff Mummra

I guess that movie has already been made, in fact several times. Great character designs, though!

I know it&#39;s the same guy who did Cobra Commander. Was that Cullen or Welker? And Thundar the Barbarian? Damn, I loved that show too. What about Blackstar, w/ the guy on the flying lizard & the dwarves flying around in the zeppelin? I even remember one of them had a lit candle on his hat all the time.

his head stays the same. The Rock isn&#39;t going for that. So maybe Buff Mummra isn&#39;t necessary anyway. I never really thought Buff Mummra was very scary compared to skinny Mummra, although when he transformed you could almost see up his skirt, which was REALLY scary!

M.a.s.k. was bascily another cartoon with the sole purpose to sell toys, still I remember the cartoon fondly. The vehicles that turned into tanks/jets/fighting machines. Does anyone remember Sectars? The half-human half insect guys who each had a giant pet insect of some kind?

Though, I heard they ditched the original script when the fans revolted at the idea of Thundro&#39;s organic energy rock shooters.

We all know what hooked us on Thundarr. It was the Sun Sword. It was basically a lightsaber, and what was cooler than a lightsaber when you were a kid?

I liked the sorceress and the funky steeds. Thundarr was kind of a meathead, though.

Ya your right about the Rock. Possibly they could go the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE movie route, where they never showed He-man as the wimpy Prince-Adam. He could just be Buff Mummra the whole time... or something. Either that or they could "Jar Jar Binks" him with a total CGI character!!! I can&#39;t believe we are talking about this....

Though I would like someone like Andy Serkis to give it a go. Not sure who else in the "A-list" has a scratchy enough voice for it.

Turns out its total BS. But hey, I did get to drop her name.

I think Mummra would be better as the scary sorcerer and let the Mutants be the buff meatheads. And let&#39;s face it, Lion-o never got by on his brains. Teamwork saved that guy&#39;s arse almost every time. Teamwork, and luck.

Can someone tell me where this phrase came from? I keep reading it more and more on this site, and it&#39;s just about the most irritating and inane cliche of all time. I just Googled it and it&#39;s fucking everywhere! Make it stop!!

Ray Park as Snake eyes. Jet Li as Storm Shadow. Sylvester Stallone as Destro. I like the idea of Any Serkis under the hood and/or helmet to play Cobra Commander. I&#39;m doing this just for the hell of it...

...SNARF!!! In a Thundecats based movie, this would get my money.

The guys is gret. I seriously feel sorry for all the people that doubt him. His Transformers movie will kick all kinds of ass. 2007 cant come soon enough. FUCK SPIDER-MAN 3.

But what&#39;s so amazing about GI Joe that cries out for a film? There are buckets of films about special ops with specialists. Street Fighter was your GI Joe movie.

War, product placement, war, product placement, war, with a side of war. NASCAR race. Hot chick. The End.

For nostalgic purposes I suppose. Plus the characters, if you want to call them that, are pretty damn weak in Street Fighter. Every hero or villian in the GI JOE universe had personality and an interesting back story. Take the Drednoks, Serpentor, and Refridgerator Perry for example(joking).

This would make a kick ass movie! I love this 80&#39;s toon & its the only time I can remember watching a post-apocalyptic saturday morning kids show.

...and after he threatened to bitch slap me, he told me every dork, on every message board across the globe thinks that he should direct the Transformers movie. Apparently they all think that this would be "Sooooooo kewl!!!"

However, I consider it a guilty pleasure. Since we know a GI Joe film will not delve into the backstory of every character, you have to go with the broad premise, which is really nothing special. Even Snakeyes is a character that is now sort of done to death. Are there any characters who you think are particularly strong?

Scratchy voice included

Ongoing series where they could build up the characters backstories. I agree that is the best aspect of GI Joe.

Well...I don&#39;t know if Snake Eyes is a strong character exactly, but I could see him getting a strong fan reaction and cult following sort of like Wolverine in the Xmen movies. Some cool "ooh shit" moments if you will. I always found the rivalry and story between him and Stormshadow to be fun. Other that that, I&#39;d have to admit its been years since I&#39;ve actually seen the cartoon so I&#39;m not really the best expert as to who is a strong character. Cobra Commander had some funny and orignal moments. The story of how Serpentor was created is kind of cool.

Because right now he IS unemployed!

I believe they&#39;ve made at least two Inspecter Gadget movies which prove your point.

Has no one here watched STAR WARS? That said, even though I watched the cartoon when I was young, a movie version of TRANSFORMERS just cracks me up every time I think about it. And not in a good way.

I seem to be one of the few people who remembers that show. Man, that was one kickass cartoon that deserves a movie. Amid the whole "parachuting to safety" lameness of GI Joe, this was the first American cartoon that had people die onscreen! It&#39;s also where Joss Whedon stole the whole "western in space" idea.

Indian cowboy and the robotic horse, or is that another one?

I can tell you that from the 80s cartoon revival that took place in comic books, almost all of it was pure garbage. The problem is that while these are all visually nostalgic and somewhat interesting high-concepts, the writers don&#39;t know what to do with them. Or how to translate them to an older audience looking for just a bit more depth.

Thank fuck Bay isn&#39;t involved with the POTC movies. Bruckheimer somehow gets away with it away from him. Kangaroo Jack is a classic movie.

Bravestarr was another animated half-hour toy commercial with a "lesson" at the end, not unlike He-Man. Galaxy Rangers had almost no merchandising, and was all about kicking ass and taking names. They even had a "Wolverine meets Clint Eastwood" character named Gooseman, who was a shapeshifter. There were robot horses, in both shows though.

ripoff. Then I&#39;ve never seen Galaxy Rangers.

It&#39;s worth it. Even today, they still hold up

HE BETTER PUT THE ORIGINAL VOICE ACTORS. Cameo voice actors is for animated comedies. Don&#39;t turn Transformers into that. Think of it as STAR WARS. Why would George Lucas NEVER have hired a famous actor to be one of his aliens? Because you have to sell the fact that they&#39;re aliens.

It was pretty fucking spot on!!

I would like to point out that even though the Transformer footage is not real, the transformation that THE IRON GIANT under went still remains authentic. Unlike the

His entire facial expression is about as complicated as a background Muppet character circa 1970s. He don&#39;t need to emote, he needs to transform, dammit! With that "E-ch-chow-cha-cha-chow" sound. That&#39;s all!

Yay! Right on.

the funny thing to me about all this... is that Michael Bay is claiming to actually being concerned about anything, "emoting." ...(snicker)...

That is all.

Damn you, Gamblor!! Ok, here&#39;s what I&#39;ll do, post each and everyone of your talkbacker names, along with a real name, bank account details and email addresses and I&#39;ll eventually get around to it. Until then, enjoy this link: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/gijoe.html

That GIJoe stuff at ebaums is some funny fuckin shit! thanks dude. my stomach hurts...

Knowing Bay, it&#39;s probably more like "stroke, stroke, stroke, stroke.... UUURRRGGGHHH!!!!"

Why that film deteriorated the way it did I&#39;ll never know. It really was passing by quite nicely.

The shoulder laser rocked.

The Man Makes sweet Popcorn blow the shit up movies and thats a fact. Although I wish to god they would use the Original voices for the movie. And I liked The Island

The man makes crap dreck. Why make a story when you can have a bunch of shit blowing up and that&#39;s a fact. If Bay could find a way to blow the script up in his movies, he&#39;d do it. Hell, he&#39;d blow the audience up. The Island sucks like Bay does.

that the footage was legit. It was cute, but come on, get real.

I loved that cartoon...can&#39;t remember a damn thing about it other than there was a big battleship (the ocean going kind) except it flew in space. What the hell was the name of that show??

I just got off the phone with Grando Carlissian who told me that Hulk Hogan had a beer and cheated on the sexiest tomboy beanpole on the planet, BROTHER!

Getting the FX and techinical stuff aint the problem.... the problem is getting the writing and characters to be good.... an area where Bay blows.

Megatron, Soundwave, etc. etc. etc. DEAR GOD bring the man in to do the voices!

There were 2 candidates, one of which being Irresponsible Captain Harlot, but I believe you&#39;re refering to Battleship Yomato, also refered to as Starblazers. It was the original &#39;spaceship with gigantic gun in it&#39;s bow&#39; cartoon. *** Anyways, I think the only people who are actually looking forward to any kind of &#39;Transformer&#39; film needs to work on / reassess their priorities. Maybe they need to lose their virginity first hmmmmm? Just a suggestion Harry.

Their ship crashed on Earth and the ship&#39;s scanning devices scanned to find the dominant life form on the planet (assuming that all planets were populated by cybernetic life forms) and found cars and planes, totally missing the meat things inside them. The ship then "reconfigured" the transformers to look like these Earth life forms so that they could mingle freely. As Decepticons are naturally able to fly (usually) their ship chose the flying "life forms" and the Autobots&#39; computer chose the ground-dwelling "life forms" as the templates. Back home on Cybertron, they had forms that switched between their humanoid shapes (as we see them on earth) and completely generic flying/wheeled shapes. It&#39;s not that they are "cars" or "planes" but that one species of Transformer had a flying form, and the other had a ground travel form, and the two hate each other.

That was beautiful.

Bay&#39;s gotta get some tits on that screen, like sweet sweet Scarlett&#39;s.

Transformers are real, I tell you. Anyone who says differently is just kidding themselves. I have one living next door to me. It ate my dog.

I think I was what.. 8 at the time Starblazers came out? I know.. I know.. MOST 8 year olds are married with at least half-a-dozen kids .. I was a little behind the curve back then. Too much Japanese Anime I suppose... I didn&#39;t lose my virginity til I was 9, but there was this one time.. at Band Camp..

The question is, how many Michael Bays are there, and which one of them did Harry talk to? And does Harry know the one he talked to works for Radio Shack and was answering questions about voltage transformers?

Why bother to do a movie on such a lame ass transformers cartoon? Macross is far more great than transformers. Every time i saw the cartoon got numb and boring. The story (If it exist) is not creative. Some gay ass robots who fight little wars against each other. I&#39;m not a hater but there are some many great concepts rather than this. DO MACROSS SPIELBERG! It has story and it has a potential to be a great trilogy. Do it in the DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE Storyline. It can kick some serious ass. By the way what series to you are the most legendary? This-one-to-be-movie or Macross? I&#39;ll be waiting answer.

Shit I totally forgot about that, fuck Micheal Bay and Fuck Harry for thinking he&#39;s hot shit for "Just getting off the phone with him" Hey Harry did you see Island? or Bad Boys II? Fuck Micheal Bay. Shit I&#39;ve got a great true story about Micheal Bay but it&#39;ll just sound like bullshit because this is the internet and none of you fucks know me so fuck it I&#39;ll save it for myself.

I preferred Thundercats. Now there was nothing retarded about that one. ;P

and knowing is half the battle.

retards.

For the fifth time, they are tape decks and cars BECAUSE the computer on their preshitoric crashed space ship woke up in the 80s and remodelled them on contemporary technology as a means of disguise. In the story, if that hadn&#39;t happened, they would be flying and buzzing round in their old planet&#39;s forms - not a disguise. In updating Soundwave they are missing a trick. The whole thing is a nostalgia buzz, so it would be funny to have a central character that STILL IS in the 80s form, or by chance was modelled on a dilapidated tape deck. Character wise, his technology is shit hot, he just happens to turn into an old style tape deck. It&#39;d be funny, and a contrast to the utter sod that Soundwave is. And I want to see Megatron do his link to the black hole trick. Why have a go at Michael Bay - crash bang wallop is required. It aint Hamlet.

...and his sledgehammer approach to filmmaking. The guy&#39;s about as subtle as a brick wall on a motorway (or Freeway if you&#39;re American), and that can only be a good thing in today&#39;s world of PG13, Diet coke action movies. But The Island was A FUCKING DISGRACE. The product placement in that film was the worst I&#39;ve ever seen...even worse than I Robot. There was even one scene where Ewan Macgregor is drinking a beer, and the camera zooms in on the bottle as it sits on the table. Nothing else in shot - just the bottle. You would have been forgiven for thinking that this bottle was significant to the plot of the movie. But no, Bay just decided to randomly whore out his movie to anyone with a logo. The Island may have been a bomb at the BO, but I reckon it broke the

See, this is the problem. Bay wants to please the kids of today as well as kids who were into Transformers in the 80&#39;s - and you can&#39;t please all the people! I can imagaine this turning into a &#39;Thunderbirds&#39; style fiasco where you have a really cool retro property which was percieved as being a &#39;kids&#39; show and bastardising it beyond all comprehension. Don&#39;t for the love of all that is holy make this a &#39;kids&#39; film as it will just end up being patronising to anyone over 4 years old.

even as a kid in the 80&#39;s, when they were at their height of popularity, i thought the whole concept was pretty lame and boring. Voltron has a lot more to offer in that genre, imo. hell, if they are going to make movies of 80&#39;s action cartoons why not make a Thundercats movie? with the technology today they could pull it off, and as far as i am concerned it is a lot easier to emotionally invest myself in some catpeople heroes than some hunks of metal that look like the new Chevy heavy truck line.

with Kevin Spacey as Hordak, Uma Thurman as Adora/She-Ra, and Sir Anthony Hopkins as the voice of Spirit/Swift Wind. But they&#39;ll probably either go the Shrek route and cast Samuel L. Jackson as the wisecrackng african-american horse, or give the part to Richard Gere and turn it into some kind of cartoon musical with songs written by Elton John.

The managed it for a UK Ad for Citroen Cars http://www.devilducky.com/media/22272/

NOONE WANTS A KIDS TRANSFORMERS MOVIE. ITS A COOL STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT TO THE SCREEN WITH RESPECT YOU FUCKFACE.

haha.

that is a joke, right? a movie based on a kiddie cartoon about some robots that transorm into cars, NEEDS to be respected as a mature, adult story on the big screen? right, next i&#39;ll see how it deserves the Oscar treatment.

There are the Thundercats, and then there&#39;s Mumm-Ra. So Mumm-Ra rambling on and on about how when he takes out the Thundercats he&#39;ll rule Cat Earth makes no sense. You&#39;re going to "rule" a handful of cat people? And an empty crypt? Ra baby, I think Cat Earth is big enough to accomodate six or seven people without everyone having to fight.

All would own.

Actually the new Transformers movie is about an auto garage run by trans-sexuals. There&#39;s more than meets the eye!

I&#39;m 38 which means most of my Saturday morning cartoon watching was during the mid to late 1970s. I&#39;ve seen a few episodes of Transformers but it always left me cold. What&#39;s the big deal? I can understand nostalgia and certainly don&#39;t mind giant robots fucking shit up on a big screen, but what&#39;s the deal with this particular franchise? It just seems so fucking dull, like a neverending toy commercial. Sure, I watched Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt when I was a kid but I wouldn&#39;t get a toon boner if I heard a big movie version was in the works. Why? Because the show was ASS.

It&#39;d be better than Kong.

..When are we going to get our Mysterious Cities of Gold movie? Ah, the joys of watching that cartoon series for an entire year on Children&#39;s BBC. I&#39;m sure they can condense it down to an hour and a half. I dare them.

I want my battle of the planets!

The 80&#39;s dropped on us a whole heap of cool. Whether it be the likes of bit Arny, Cameron, star wars, and a whole range of TV. Who didn&#39;t like nightrider? seriously! But when it came to Transformer, there was a psychological tapping into of the kids of the 80&#39;s. our dads drove trucks, and our bigger brother drove sports cars. And there were our own dreams of being fighter pilots and shooting guns. So put all these toether with the added love of &#39;Robots&#39; - something passed down from the 60&#39;s. which itself was past down from schlock black and white Sci-fi. Well, it certainly was more than meets the eye. And reliving Transformers again with the advent of DVD. it&#39;s just a step back through time. But thundercats was always pretty crap. I hated that to fast to understand whats going on action. He-man wasn&#39;t too bad. But even as a 10 year old I found it rather Homo-erotic.

YEAH, I SAID IT. ROBUTS.

Which would, of course, KICK FUCKING ASS!!!

Anyone notice that starscreams frozen jet friend was just robotech. And ther eseemed to be a bit of trouble with the accuracy of both the toys with they television counterparts. A sort of crossing between the two. What I mean is, Roboteck and the transformer toy looked the same, while the robotech toy and the Transformer cartoon look similar. i don&#39;t know what I&#39;m saying anymore. Yay. Robotech movie. But not before Evongel, or Voltron!!! the big cats Voltron, that is!

Robert Duvall/Ironhide, Alan Alda/Ratchet Seth Green/Huffer, Mos Def/Jazz, Keith David/Devastator, Rob Zombie/SkyWarp/ Carl Lumbly/Mirage BigBoy/Blaster, David Duchevney/Perceptor, Terry O&#39;quinn/WheelJack, Keifer Sutherland/Thundercracker, David Warner/Shockwave, Barry Pepper/Ratchet, Ashton Kutcher/Swideswipe, Wilmer Valderama/Sunstreaker Michael Dorn/Grimlock, and Frank Welker as Ravage/Laserbeak/Soundwave. As far as real humans, Adam Brody/Spike, James Gandalfini/Sparkplug Ben Mikenzie/Chip.

Or maybe they were turtles, but one thing&#39;s certain... it would be a REMAKE.

Imagine Bruce Willis as BumbleBee. Personally I can see someone like Kurtwood Smith as Megatron, or even Starscream. Man, I hope Starscream is the same little bitch. As for the human actors.... well.... That could ultimately bring down the film. I&#39;d like to see someone like Clooney as Sparkplug, But who for Spike??

All my friends and I had the giant 3+ foot tall toys. But I was the only one that figured out that the winged piece in the head was ACTUALLY a removable mini-jet that (due to a manufacturing flaw with the plastic parts) was stuck into the head and needed force to be removed! I RULE YER ASSES!! BWAHAHA HAHAhahahah hhahahahaha!! Ok.. Robotech is better, but only a little :(

You are forgeting the robotic bears (Burbles) and Willa and the woman warriors among others. This still doesn&#39;t prove the Third Earth was worth conquering, though.

It doesn&#39;t work. Adults do not know what kids think are cool. Making a film that appeals to all ages also doesn&#39;t COMPLETELY ALIENATE the key demographic. Have you guys seen the new Transformers shows? Their like Card Captors. No one wants to see 2 hours of that except 3yr olds and pervs.

Yes! I, too, know the power of MAZINGA! Shogun Warrior! I still have mine, complete with detachable red head-jet and (most of) his rockets. Hated the fucking wheels under the guys feet though.

word. http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war8.html

theres a blast from the VERY EARLY past. I never saw any animation, but the toy I had was the shittiest of plastic, and he wasn&#39;t 3+. I remember he was also a jelly confectionary that expanded in water. Causing lots of chokage.

Yeah, I had Mazinga, too. Although, I could not get the jet fighter out of his head, I was afraid I would break it somehow. But the triple-red-rocket launcher hand was money. Does anyone remember that show "TRANZOR Z"? They used the Mazinga design for that cartoon.

not another sequel to that crap, I&#39;m talking ILM Tiamat goodness with Jon Heder from N.D. as presto yeeeey

I also used to have large Godzilla and Rodan figures that were about 2 1/2 feet tall. You could launch Godzilla&#39;s right hand like a missle (???) and make him appear to blow fire by pulling a lever on the back of his head. Funny, the "fire" was actually a plastic tongue that flicked out. The Rodan figure had clasping claws and flappable wings. The damn head broke off though. I gave those things away years ago and they would probably be worth a fortune at some Con by now.

Just kidding, made you look! HAHA. Seriously though, it was a GIANT FUCKING MAC TRUCK at comic-con! This movie&#39;s "green-lit" or my name&#39;s Fred.

...but my fave 1970&#39;s toy was my Six Million Dollar Man action figure in tacky red jumpsuit, complete with plastic engine block he could lift "bionically". The Maskatron action figure kicked even more ass, actually, with his detachable masks and shoot-offable arms and legs.

Dennis Hopper as the head ghost or BUST!!!! YEAH!!!!!!

...were Big Jim and all his other "Big" friends. I still have a couple of the Mattel catalogues left somewhere and viewed with today&#39;s sensibilities they are a riot of homoeroticism. Scenes of big, strapping, bare-chested action figure guys wearing really tight pants and camping together. Big Josh (with Village People facial hair, denim vest, denim shorts, hiking boots and an axe!) was the most blatant, but then you also had Big Jeff, Big Jack and Dr. Steel! They could be seen doing all kinds of manly things together, like going on safaris, skiing, motorcycle riding, sailing, off-roading, and mountaineering. It&#39;s like a tampon commercial for men.

http://www.vecchigiocattoli.it/bigjimlibro.jpg

you wanna talk 80&#39;s homoeroticism, remember "My Buddy" dolls? http://www.dollinfo.com/mybud90s.htm THAT was a tampon commercial for boys!

As long as someone mentioned Mazinga-Z, my main memory of that show was the female robot Aphrodite-A who had missle tits. I was the only one of my friends old enough to realize just how over-the-top that was...

I can see the poster tagline now: "You WILL believe a Camaro can fly..." Re: fans not caring about voice actors--dunno, I&#39;ve been to a TF forum or two, and there&#39;s plenty more than 50% who&#39;ll be very disappointed if Peter Cullen doesn&#39;t get the gig. Yes, it&#39;s a new continuity, but it&#39;s supposed to be closer to G1 than any of the other incarnations.

Man... any trip to a toy store today and it&#39;s just depressing the lack of imagination and fun the kids of today are growing up with. In the 80&#39;s, you had a plethora of interesting (for kids, anyway) cartoons, toys, and movies to choose from and they were all battling one another for attention and shelf space at toys r&#39; us. I think toys r us wouldnt even be in existence if it wasn&#39;t for star wars and then the 1980&#39;s. Anyway, I haven&#39;t seen anyone mention Go-Bots. I can barely remember the cartoon, but the toys were like G.I. Joe sized transformers. Anyone remember that there were always characters that you barely saw but that were fucking impossible to find the action figures for? Snake-eyes is probably one of the most memorable, continuing in the tradition of Boba Fett. In Transformers, one such character that you almost never saw that I did have the toy version of was that big huge guy that could change into a rocket and a tank with an entire track for the tank that ran around the perimeter of the rocket launcher? The toy was massive... just like the SEVEN AND HALF FOOT air craft carrier that they made for G.I. Joe&#39;s. I remember always walking past the enormous box for it at Caldor&#39;s and Bradlees in NJ and it was something like a hundred bucks. Never got that one, but I did a lot of mental measuring as a kid to see if it would actually fit in my room. Another funny thing is how every show had this group of off-shoot misfits that would show up once in a while, and then they had their own line of toys to boot. In transformers it was the constructicons and the dinobots. In He-Man I think it was the Horrde or something like that? That thing even had it&#39;s own little swamp/castle greyskull like playset. And then in G.I. Joe it was that group of guys that I think ALSO lived in a swamp and they had tattoos and shit. The head guy had a cloth that hung over his head. Can&#39;t remember the name of their little gang... anyway, it&#39;s always fun to wax nostalgic on this stuff. It&#39;s no wonder all they&#39;re attempting to do now is remake the same cartoons and toys we grew up with. It&#39;s weird today, you see 9 year olds listening to eminem and singing the lyrics... trying to be hard and talking about sex at an age when a lot of us were building forts and arguing over whether BMX was better than Mongoose or whatever the hell it was. Your exposure to sex was usually by finding a nudie magazine in your dad&#39;s armoire or at the scary older kid&#39;s abandoned spot in the woods. Ahhh... how times have changed.

why not make a good movie, like Stand By Me, about what it was like to grow up in the 1980&#39;s?

If it&#39;s fake then ILM needs to hire the guy that did it. I look pretty damn good to me!

"I look" = "It looked" well the transormation looked good. After the transformation looked a little hoakie though!

transormation = transformation The hoakie part didn&#39;t look any worse than some shots from King Kong! Friend don&#39;t let friends drink and type!

Hard to fathom when you think what this site was like a a month ago.

Knights of the Magical Light indeed.

...also has its origins in the 80s. At least for me. 1987 was the year I was introduced by my high school friends to the card game Bullshit, which is like Uno or the popoular-on-college-campuses drinking game, Asshole, in that you lay down cards in numerical sequence, with the object being to get rid of your cards first. Only in Bullshit, you lay the cards face-down and try to convince your opponenets that you have multiples of a given number so you can get rid of them faster. If you don&#39;t believe the guy accross from you has three threes, for instance, you snatch up his cards and call "Bullshit!" If you&#39;re right, he has to take the whole pile. If you&#39;re wrong, it&#39;s yours. As for the appeal of Transformers, I dug them specifically because they reminded me of the Shogun Warriors I had played with as a younger kid. The first wave of Transformers and the toon came out about the time I turned 10 and, even then, I thought it was pretty fucking funny that the giant robots&#39; ships had assumed the cars and planes and whatnot were the dominant lifeforms on the planet. The backstory was engaging and sophisticated enough to keep me digging the comic books and cartoons through Junior High. But I boxed up all the toys with my G.I. Joes when I got to High School. Then I sold them in college for beer money so I could play Asshole. World keeps spinning. Looking forward to this movie, though.

I still remember a few of my toys from back then. Stretch Armstrong, the ORIGINAL G.I.Joes with the fuzzy short hair and beard, Tonka Trucks & Hot Wheels made from steel instead of plastic.. I thinik I had like 8 diffrent play sets for my GI Joes, including the Ocean/under water set, and the G.I. Joe Command Tower. Gigantic Orange tower with various rooms and a chair a figure could sit in, and rotate around with a big-ass light that worked as a spotlight you controled with the chair. Kinda wish I hadn&#39;t decided to do a big &#39;war-scene&#39; between all my GI Joes and my Star Wars toys, and simulated a nuclear attack by setting everything on fire with WD-40. I had build this huge moat full of water and once it all started burning.. well.. lets just say I "had some &#39;splainin to do Lucy!"

"....you got the powahhhhh."

It gave us the last role of the great, Shakesperian performer Orson Welles. Even he knew a role that would pair him opposite of Judd Nelson was belied by the greatness of the Transformer mythos. Respect the fat!

With all this chatter about cool toys from yesteryear, why hasn&#39;t anyone mentioned the Micronots? Now, THAT is fodder for a badass mobie. I had all those little plastic bastages. Acroyer could way kick Wolverine&#39;s ass. Great stuff, even when they started milking the premise with the ones with the removeable glow-in-the-dark brains. Gimme magnetized Baron Karza, that centaur assed muthafucka!

The parts were interchangeble.. but even better was my Space 1999 Eagle!!

...I dug me some Micronauts, too. And largely for the same reason as the TFs initially. They reminded me of those cool ass Shogun Warriors. And why not...it all came from Japan, where toys are serious fucking business. Plus they all had that giant anime robot styling like Red Ronin from the old comic books. Hell, I was even entertained by the Voltron concept.

When someone says they have made a "kids" movie. You know it will be shit. Thats just an excuse to pardon a crappy film. They just say, "don&#39;t knock it, its a KIDS movie". (I&#39;m looking at you, George Lucas.) Thats bull. A good movie is a good movie, whether its appropriate for all ages or for just adults. And once you try to pander to a child&#39;s sensibilities, the end result suffers greatly.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181262/miscsites http://www.flyingclodhopper.com/thundarr/Info%20Pages/fanart.html

I want his number so I can verbally ass rape him. THE ISLAND was the mother fuckall king of product placement. The next runner up would be BLADE: TRINITY. Jessica Biel creates playlists on her iPod before kicking vamp ass. Bullshit.

Machine Men!! Now those dudes had a sound effect when they &#39;transformed?&#39; that rivaled Transformers!

Anyone recall just how fucking solid Transformers used to be. As oppose to the plastic shit they try to pass off these days as quality. I still have some of my Transformers in full working order. But I let the kiddies play with them and most of them just didn&#39;t survive. Kids today are so fucking rough!

Michael Bey,now there`s a name that makes me want to run out and see this movie..........................NOT! After the great big piles of steaming turd that were Pearl Harbour and the Island this charlatan shouldn`t be allowed behind the camera ever again...........I mean Transformers???...FFS! Grow the Fuck Up America!!!

Yea he`s so good I can`t even remember the fuckers name....LOL

wait a few years and make it a series. I don&#39;t want it to be wrapped up nicely in 2 hours. That wasn&#39;t the appeal of the show.

Admittedly.. you cannot be too sure about all this chit chat. There IS more than meets the eye.

Starscream:

Visionaries would rock! That is all.

I was actually excited that Bay could be doing Transformers until I read the EW article describing the direction they would be taking the film. Maybe the article was a misstep, but it made the whole thing seem like it was going to be about a Boy and his Transformer, in the vain of something like American Grafitti with robots. That 60s vibe, which seems to me to contradict the whole idea of Transformers. It could still go either way, as Bay has made some good movies in my opinion (The Rock, Bad Boys 1 and 2), but then, he&#39;s also made some mediocre messes, and some truly terrible ones as well (The Island, blah). Props to the Zero talkbacker for setting the record straight on why the Transformers have their form. It makes complete sense, and works just fine in explaning it (ship crashes, scanning local lifeforms and assuming that all dominant species are robotic in nature, thus immitating them to disguise themselves not realizing the meat creatures, humans, are the dominant species here). I&#39;m hoping for the best with this live action adaptation, same goes for the CGI Ninja Turtles.

I can understand them looking like motor vehicles as they were robots in disguise but wouldn&#39;t looking like dinosaurs blow their cover? I haven&#39;t seen an episode of the Transformers in about 22 years but I can still remember when they were introduced and the one transformer was saying to Optimus &#39;don&#39;t make me pull the plug on them&#39; and I was like &#39;yeah...they just want to live damn you!&#39; fortunately they did live and some dinobots became available right at the same time. I talked my parents into buying every one of them. Thank you very much bitter custody dispute.

Well Skoobyx, it depends which version of their origin story you want to believe. In the cartoon Wheeljack and Ratchet just decided to build the Dinobots after being taken to a museum and being shown dinosaur fossils by Spike and Chip. In the comics the slightly more interesting explaination was that straight after the Autobot spaceship crashed on Earth (millions of years in the past) it detected the Decepticon Shockwave approaching the ship and used the last of it&#39;s energy to revive 5 Autobots to stop him, but in it&#39;s confused state it made them look like dinosaurs as they were still the dominant lifeform. Hmmm, I clearly have way to much free time.

...pretty sh*t. Just my opinion though.

I always wondered why the ship&#39;s computer would mimic animal based life forms when thousands of years later it would mimic mineral based &#39;life forms&#39;. Still, way prefered the comic Dinobots. That whole "Me, Grimlock!" crap spilling out of technology beyond Earth human capability never sat well with me, even when I was 10.

this footage was shot with a DV camera, so you wouldn&#39;t be seeing 35mm sprocket holes. A good job (except for the "actor") but a obvious fan film.

only the Robot Chicken knows.