Transformers: The Movie/Trivia


 * Old Shame: Reportedly, Leonard Nimoy was so embarrassed by his participation that he avoided talking about it. Nowadays, it's remembered as one of his better (and few) villain roles, even by Nimoy himself, who was quoted around the time of Revenge of the Fallen as wanting very much to be a part of Transformers again. The opportunity finally arose with Dark of the Moon, wherein he plays Sentinel Prime.
 * The Other Darrin:
 * When Megatron got upgraded to Galvatron, his voice changed to Leonard Nimoy during the story itself. After the movie, he changed back to Frank Welker.
 * In the series, Ultra Magnus went from Robert Stack to Jack Angel, Kup went from Lionel Stander to John Stephenson, Tony Pope replaced Eric Idle as Wreck-Gar, Roger C. Carmel took Orson Welles' position as Unicron's voice actor, and Rodimus Prime's Judd Nelson became Richard Gautier. John Moschitta stayed on board, however.
 * There is a long-prevailing myth among the fandom that Orson Welles died before the recording of Unicron's final lines and that Leonard Nimoy completed for them - with the recordings speeded down to match Welles' pitch. Voice director Wally Burr has since debunked this in interviews however.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * Originally, they were to kill Smokescreen instead of Wheeljack, and Red Alert, Trailbreaker, and possibly Mirage would bite the dust as well. Ultra Magnus, Red Alert, Sideswipe, and Tracks would get a scene where they fight Devastator.
 * Considering the fact that the Dinobots' battle is somewhat short-lived and ends with all the Dinobots in crumpled heaps, it is quite possible they were planned to die.
 * Likewise, the earlier drafts of the films featured many, many different elements, in one revision, Windcharger was to be flown up and torn apart by Cyclonus, his remains falling down on a shocked Blaster. Another version described Ironhide and Ratchet's deaths as them being fused together from all the laser blasts, then blown apart.
 * At one point, Megatron was not to be jettisonned from Astrotrain, but brought back to Cybertron and killed by a falling statue while other Decepticons fought for leadership, with his ghost ("life spark"), as well as ghosts of Decepticon legends enshrined nearby, being gathered by Unicron to become Galvatron and his troops.
 * Just before facing Megatron, Optimus Prime is inexplicably missing his rifle. The reason for this is a cut scene, where Blitzwing was supposed to knock it out of Prime's hands, before being hurled away by Prime.
 * Early drafts included a large number of generic Decepticons participating in the assault on Autobot city. That way, Perceptor's comment about the Autobots being outnumbered would have actually made sense.
 * There were plans to market a Unicron action figure, but it never got past the prototype. It wouldn't be until 2003 that he got such a likeness, during the Transformers Armada line, but it was clearly better than the old prototype.