Editing The Transformers: The Movie (section)

=== Later reception ===
The [[review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reports that 62% of the 26 surveyed critics gave ''The Transformers: The Movie'' a positive review. The site's critical consensus reads: "A surprisingly dark, emotional, and almost excessively cynical experience for ''Transformers'' fans."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transformers_the_the_movie |title=''The Transformers: The Movie'' |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date=August 2, 2021 |archive-date=November 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126103124/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transformers_the_the_movie |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2007, John Swansburg of ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' wrote, "Though a modest film compared with [[Michael Bay]]'s blockbuster <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Transformers (film)|2007 ''Transformers'']]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, the original ''Transformers'' is the better film ... [T]here's nothing even approaching the original's narrative depth." He recalled the film giving him a new curse word and childhood trauma: "Only in our scariest nightmares would we have imagined that a mere 20 minutes into the movie, Optimus Prime, the most beloved of Autobots, would be killed ... It just blew me away. Witnessing death on that scale was [...] every bit as shocking as ''[[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|War of the Worlds]]'' had been for Grandma and Grandpa."<ref name="SlateWelles">{{cite web|last1=Swansburg|first1=John|title=When Orson Welles Was a Transformer|url=https://slate.com/culture/2007/07/transformers-why-the-original-animated-movie-is-still-the-best.html|website=Slate|access-date=August 8, 2016|date=July 2, 2007|archive-date=May 31, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531213653/https://slate.com/culture/2007/07/transformers-why-the-original-animated-movie-is-still-the-best.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Gabe Toro of ''CinemaBlend'' wrote in 2014: "...''Transformers: The Movie'' otherwise provides the sort of chase-heavy thrills that comes from robots that can become cars. Contrast that with Michael Bay's vision, where the robots basically abandon their transforming skills to have endless, violent punch-outs that annihilate cities. Bay's films show the action as a junkyard orgy. The '86 offering slows down to allow for actors like Leonard Nimoy and, yes, even Orson Welles to give actual performances. Fans of Michael Bay's ''Transformers'' movies are free to enjoy them. But they'll never top the gravity and excitement of ''The Transformers: The Movie''."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Toro|first1=Gabe|title=Sorry, Michael Bay - Why 1986's Transformers: The Movie Is The Best|url=https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Sorry-Michael-Bay-Why-1986-Transformers-Movie-Best-43582.html|website=CinemaBlend|access-date=August 8, 2016|date=June 24, 2014|archive-date=October 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011095846/http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Sorry-Michael-Bay-Why-1986-Transformers-Movie-Best-43582.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Kashann Kilson of ''Inverse'' wrote in 2015: "[N]ostalgia is a funny thing: for many of us in the 30-and-over ''Transformers'' fan club, that first movie was an integral part of our childhood. To hell with what the reviews said—the O.G. ''Transformers'' movie rocked our collective worlds ... We still love the original so much today, part of the fun of watching Bay's explosion-fests is being able to wave our canes at the youngsters and wax poetic about how back in our day, Hollywood knew how to make a real movie about giant, alien robot warriors."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kilson|first1=Kashann|title=6 Enduring Legacies of 1986's Animated 'The Transformers: The Movie'|url=https://www.inverse.com/article/7309-6-enduring-legacies-of-1986-s-animated-the-transformers-the-movie|website=Inverse|access-date=August 8, 2016|language=en|date=October 22, 2015|archive-date=September 21, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240921022540/https://www.inverse.com/article/7309-6-enduring-legacies-of-1986-s-animated-the-transformers-the-movie|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the late 2010s, ''[[Den of Geek]]'' published several retrospective reviews focusing on the film's gruesome but quirky tone, and on the traumatic cultural impact of its violence which is heavier than most preceding animated films. In 2018, it said "the shadow of death hung like a black curtain" over the film and called the psychedelic scenes of Unicron's world-eating guts "a futuristic rendering of [[Dante]]'s [[Inferno (Dante)|''Inferno'']]" in "apocalyptic detail".<ref name="Quirky">{{cite web | title=The Quirky Brilliance of Transformers: The Movie | date=December 20, 2018 | first=Ryan | last=Lambie | work=[[Den of Geek]] | url=https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-quirky-brilliance-of-transformers-the-movie/ | access-date=April 19, 2021 | archive-date=August 28, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828105222/https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-quirky-brilliance-of-transformers-the-movie/ | url-status=live }}</ref> In 2019, the film was called "The Great Toy Massacre of 1986" which "traumatized a generation of kids with a string of startling deaths".<ref name="Massacre"/> It is remembered as "a story about death, transfiguration, guilt, and redemption",<ref name="Quirky"/> and as "a milestone in animation history".<ref name="Nostalgia"/>