Greatest ’80s Movies (That Will Traumatize You) 40 Years Post-Transformers

For nearly half a century, Transformers has stuck around to be one of the most lasting multi-generational franchises of the ‘80s, with countless beloved cartoons and comics, among many other forms of media. Its crowning achievement, though, may be the very first feature length animated film, The Transformers: The Movie, which was released 40 years ago this week. Not to be confused with the live-action Michael Bay monstrosities blockbusters, 1986’s Transformers: The Movie is an interesting microcosm of ‘80s weirdness that includes, but is not limited to…

1. Voice acting by Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, and the very last performance ever by *checks notes* Orson Welles.
2. A predominantly glam/arena rock/heavy metal soundtrack that also includes a song by *checks notes* Weird Al Yankovic.
3. A corporate directive to kill off old characters so that toy company Hasbro could sell action figures of new characters, which included the death of *checks notes* Optimus Prime, the most famous Transformers in history (sorry if that was a spoiler—the movie’s been around for 40 years and it is the single biggest piece of information associated with the movie).

This is on top of the fact that the movie is quite impenetrable if you’re not already in the know (try showing it to an adult who did not grow up with Transformers. It’ll be interesting, to say the least).

Despite the rather stellar animation (basically any scene with Unicron is a thing of beauty), Transformers: The Movie was released to overwhelmingly negative reviews, with critics finding it dark, overly violent, incomprehensible, and basically one big toy commercial for kids. Honestly, all that is a pretty fair assessment. Fortunately, time has been kind to the film, as its critical status has slowly risen. More importantly, its dedicated cult following has kept the movie alive and relevant 40 years later. It’s not without its flaws, but for the most part, society seems to have come around on this strangely bleak kids’ movie about talking alien robots.

Of course, that doesn’t change the trauma of ‘80s kids seeing their childhood hero, Optimus, die in the first act. I mean, the initial fan reaction was so bad that the plot for G.I. Joe: The Movie was quickly changed in order to not kill off their heroic leader figure (they really wanted kids to latch onto new characters, apparently). This year, Hasbro (co-owners of the Transformers franchise) is celebrating the 40th anniversary with a very tongue-in-check “Apology Tour,” but if you grew up with the movie, the damage is already done.

To be fair, though, traumatizing kids is pretty on-brand for kids’ movies in the ‘80s. Sometimes the trauma comes in the form of a dead robot father figure like Optimus, sometimes your horse best friend sinks into the Swamp of Sadness (see The NeverEnding Story below). There’s plenty of trauma to go around, across seemingly all genres. So, in celebration of a movie that is both a masterpiece of animation and deeply, deeply upsetting, check out this selection of similarly distressing films from a decade that was cranking them out in droves.

For more great movies, make sure to check out the offerings of your local branch as well as the Kanopy app.

The Transformers: The Movie

All Dogs Go to Heaven

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 

The Brave Little Toaster

The NeverEnding Story 

The Secret of NIMH

The Land Before Time

An American Tale

Return to Oz

The Fox and The Hound