I can't help thinking that doing something like this officially now, that was harder back in the '80's, would be a lot easier. Just take the unused storyboards (that fit with the given animation in the original movie version), animate them the same with current tech, take used sound effects and reuse them, and bring the end-result to DVD. Just not sure what to do about dialog, though. When I posted about this on tfw2005's "Transformers General Discussion" forum about using subtitles, I was told by someone that "wouldn’t make sense because it was an 'American market made movie' so to do that with the missing dialogue would be seriously criticized."

What do you guys think? Is the poster right? Am I wrong on any of this? Just brainstorming here, looking for others' thoughts/discussion on the actual truth behind what it would take to get this, if possible. Maybe it'd be best as a fan-project?

Also, got this from "amarnath" over there:
https://www.virtualtransformerstv.thetfcog.com/images/InspireHasbroToMakeExtendedTFTM.png

Again, the petition is here:
https://www.change.org/p/inspire-hasbro-to-release-a-director-s-cut-of-the-transformers-1986-film

Working on a Facebook group for this. Will be private (have to sign the petition to join), and have a poll to vote on about what kinds of storyboards should be added. And of course, you can add your own poll choice, as well..

- Rodimus_2316

On Sunday, August 6, 2023 at 5:44:00 PM UTC-6, Rodimus_2316 wrote:

> I can't help thinking that doing something like this officially now, that was harder back in the '80's, would be a lot easier. Just take the unused storyboards (that fit with the given animation in the original movie version), animate them the same with current tech, take used sound effects and reuse them, and bring the end-result to DVD.

There are a lot of technical limitations to such an endeavor. Any new animation created will not be drawn by the same animators using the same tools or the same paints, so there will be a noticeable jump in style and quality.. Music would need to be written or extended to fit the length of the longer scenes. And many of the voice performers who worked on the film have died or aged considerably (though I suppose this is less of a problem now than it used to be, given how they can use AI to create deepfaked voice performances now).

Also... there's a *reason* why scenes were cut. They slowed down the narrative flow. They were unimportant to the story. I mean, sure, as fans it would have been great to get a definitive reason why Red Alert or Sideswipe or Trailbreaker disappeared (they done got dead) and it would have been kind of cool to see some of the missing moments that were scripted, but the movie is a masterpiece and does not need to be tampered with. Look at what happened with Star Wars when George Lucas decided to spruce it up with fancy new CGI sequences. Fans went to great length to create a "de-specialized" edition to restore the movies back to what they had originally been.

With that said, I would not hate an AI-upscaled version of the movie with a higher frame rate. That would be a visual spectacle without being intrusive or an affront to my sensibilities.

Zob

On Monday, August 7, 2023 at 12:44:00 AM UTC+1, Rodimus_2316 wrote:
>
> Maybe it'd be best as a fan-project?

This. If there's somebody out there with the right skillset, it would absolutely be possible (though an immense amount of work) for them to animate the unused storyboards.

There's a video where somebody took a song from the Lion King Broadway Musical and spent two years animating 1 minute of it in the style of the original film (a second person provided the backgrounds). The end result looks stunning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kGEz1zDGgY I suspect if it was cut into the original animated film, there would be noticeable differences, but it's a great stand alone video.

For the reasons Zob said, I don't think we'd ever see an official version of the film with the unused storyboards, nor would I want one. If we're going to that sort of trouble, I'd rather have them re-animate Five Faces of Darkness into something that actually looks good. (I know that isn't going to happen, but giving the cartoon episodes a consistent standard of animation would be one of the biggest improvements to G1 canon.)

Anyway, if we have a decent group of amateur animators in the fanbase who are willing, you could get the storyboards animated. The hard part is getting somebody with the talent interested... Unless you're in a position to pay them, the motivation's got to come from the artist: you can't just *ask* somebody to put in that much work. But sooner or later, I expect somebody *will* have a go at it. It would definitely be fun to see.

Velvet Glove (who among us hasn't put a ridiculous amount of time and effort into some fan project?)

On Monday, August 7, 2023 at 2:31:27 AM UTC-6, Velvet Glove wrote:
> On Monday, August 7, 2023 at 12:44:00 AM UTC+1, Rodimus_2316 wrote:
> >
> > Maybe it'd be best as a fan-project?
> This. If there's somebody out there with the right skillset, it would absolutely be possible (though an immense amount of work) for them to animate the unused storyboards.
>
> There's a video where somebody took a song from the Lion King Broadway Musical and spent two years animating 1 minute of it in the style of the original film (a second person provided the backgrounds). The end result looks stunning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kGEz1zDGgY I suspect if it was cut into the original animated film, there would be noticeable differences, but it's a great stand alone video.
>
> For the reasons Zob said, I don't think we'd ever see an official version of the film with the unused storyboards, nor would I want one. If we're going to that sort of trouble, I'd rather have them re-animate Five Faces of Darkness into something that actually looks good. (I know that isn't going to happen, but giving the cartoon episodes a consistent standard of animation would be one of the biggest improvements to G1 canon.)
>
> Anyway, if we have a decent group of amateur animators in the fanbase who are willing, you could get the storyboards animated. The hard part is getting somebody with the talent interested... Unless you're in a position to pay them, the motivation's got to come from the artist: you can't just *ask* somebody to put in that much work. But sooner or later, I expect somebody *will* have a go at it. It would definitely be fun to see.
>
> Velvet Glove (who among us hasn't put a ridiculous amount of time and effort into some fan project?)

I love this idea, for all of the reasons, but I think - as Zob and Velvet Glove have noted above, it will be a tall order to make happen. Beyond the issues of the animation and animators, there is also the associated issue of the music, and its rights.

I would expect that, if an expanded movie version was produced and released, we would also need to re-negotiate these rights with featured bands and artists.

For some groups that are no longer in operation, this could present a legal and logistical challenge - much like how we heard a lot of "soundalike" TFTM score music in Season 3 of the cartoon.

I love this care and enthusiasm, Rodimus_2316! Please keep it coming!

JB

I wholeheartedly support this, but I feel that if it actually ends
up working that the new animation would clash with the traditional
hand painted cel animation.

Today's animation is ugly. It's too clean and cold. It's 100% done
digitally these days, and ends up lacking any of the hand crafted
warmth of animation from the 80's. It's one of the reasons I can't
fully enjoy modern 2D animated features, like those DC Batman films
WB releases. They're off. Something just ain't right, and I blame
the digital process.

But if we did get those new scenes maybe they could finally succeed
in creating a look that closely matches cel animation. It's been a
long time since the first failed attempt seen in Justice League:
The New Frontier. That wasn't a bad movie, but the animation was
awful. They attempted to make it look like an old-school cartoon
and I think that made it especially hard to watch.

But rant over. I want this petition to succeed and I have already
signed it, so I will try and get the word out. Let's make this
happen!

I'll just keep my thoughts on the new animated sequences to myself.

--
"Change is not always growth, but growth is often rooted in change."
-- Drizzt Do'Urden

I think the animation wouldn't be the biggest hurdle, the new TMNT Mutant mayhem proves there's still the ability to go for drastically different animation styles, and we've had independents create new scenes of cartoons on YouTube.

My issue is that the unused storyboards belong to a drastically different movie. In the original storyboards Rodimus and crew travel deep under Cybertron where we see the Season 2 bots violently killed to awaken Cybertron using the matrix, instead of The Matrix killing Unicron. I think changing the original movie that much would cause many people to be upset and possibly a new young generation a new genre-defining moment as they watch even more Transformers die.

On Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 7:33:30 PM UTC+2, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:
> I think the animation wouldn't be the biggest hurdle, the new TMNT Mutant mayhem proves there's still the ability to go for drastically different animation styles, and we've had independents create new scenes of cartoons on YouTube.
>
> My issue is that the unused storyboards belong to a drastically different movie. In the original storyboards Rodimus and crew travel deep under Cybertron where we see the Season 2 bots violently killed to awaken Cybertron using the matrix, instead of The Matrix killing Unicron. I think changing the original movie that much would cause many people to be upset and possibly a new young generation a new genre-defining moment as they watch even more Transformers die.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think the largest interest would be in using the deleted storyboards from the final version, not the first draft of the movie. Some fans have already tried to animate some of these scenes on their own from the Autobot City battle, this one collects several authors attempts into one continuous scene intercut along with the scenes from the finished movie, it's really interesting. Especially the added scenes with Devastator and the Ultra Magnus/other Autobots-battle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl2ZTk6kGa0

Closer timestamp, new scenes start after Optimus' charge:

https://youtu.be/Gl2ZTk6kGa0?t=108

On Friday, August 11, 2023 at 11:44:20 AM UTC+1, Avaran wrote:
> On Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 7:33:30 PM UTC+2, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:
> > I think the animation wouldn't be the biggest hurdle, the new TMNT Mutant mayhem proves there's still the ability to go for drastically different animation styles, and we've had independents create new scenes of cartoons on YouTube.
> >
> > My issue is that the unused storyboards belong to a drastically different movie. In the original storyboards Rodimus and crew travel deep under Cybertron where we see the Season 2 bots violently killed to awaken Cybertron using the matrix, instead of The Matrix killing Unicron. I think changing the original movie that much would cause many people to be upset and possibly a new young generation a new genre-defining moment as they watch even more Transformers die.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I think the largest interest would be in using the deleted storyboards from the final version, not the first draft of the movie. Some fans have already tried to animate some of these scenes on their own from the Autobot City battle, this one collects several authors attempts into one continuous scene intercut along with the scenes from the finished movie, it's really interesting. Especially the added scenes with Devastator and the Ultra Magnus/other Autobots-battle:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl2ZTk6kGa0

That's actually really fun--clearly not on a par with the original's quality, but it was great to see. I watched one of Artist Stan's videos on animating the storyboards of Megatron and Optimus' fight and it's interesting seeing how he's making choices to deviate from the storyboards both as a creative choice and in order to keep consistent with later injury depictions (i.e. cutting Starscream from an Optimus battle since he shows no visible damage later).

It makes me realise that animated stuff is going to become a more common fan creation going forward, and I think we can gradually expect it to become more sophisticated, with fan-animation communities developing, character artists pairing up with background artists, etc. Most of it will be terrible, but there'll be some really good little bits and pieces that will emerge.... Little two minute extras for established canon. Music videos. Trailers for non-existent movies. Animated scenes from comics. Somebody will make it their life's work to devise and animate transformations for the female Autobots from Search for Alpha Trion...

Velvet Glove (We'll have a golden decade of fanimation and then, as software and AI improve, the dreck will outweigh the actual talent and it will become impossible to find good stuff.)

On Friday, August 11, 2023 at 11:14:43 PM UTC-7, Velvet Glove wrote:
> On Friday, August 11, 2023 at 11:44:20 AM UTC+1, Avaran wrote:
> > On Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 7:33:30 PM UTC+2, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:
> > > I think the animation wouldn't be the biggest hurdle, the new TMNT Mutant mayhem proves there's still the ability to go for drastically different animation styles, and we've had independents create new scenes of cartoons on YouTube.
> > >
> > > My issue is that the unused storyboards belong to a drastically different movie. In the original storyboards Rodimus and crew travel deep under Cybertron where we see the Season 2 bots violently killed to awaken Cybertron using the matrix, instead of The Matrix killing Unicron. I think changing the original movie that much would cause many people to be upset and possibly a new young generation a new genre-defining moment as they watch even more Transformers die.
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I think the largest interest would be in using the deleted storyboards from the final version, not the first draft of the movie. Some fans have already tried to animate some of these scenes on their own from the Autobot City battle, this one collects several authors attempts into one continuous scene intercut along with the scenes from the finished movie, it's really interesting. Especially the added scenes with Devastator and the Ultra Magnus/other Autobots-battle:
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl2ZTk6kGa0
> That's actually really fun--clearly not on a par with the original's quality, but it was great to see. I watched one of Artist Stan's videos on animating the storyboards of Megatron and Optimus' fight and it's interesting seeing how he's making choices to deviate from the storyboards both as a creative choice and in order to keep consistent with later injury depictions (i.e. cutting Starscream from an Optimus battle since he shows no visible damage later).
>
> It makes me realise that animated stuff is going to become a more common fan creation going forward, and I think we can gradually expect it to become more sophisticated, with fan-animation communities developing, character artists pairing up with background artists, etc. Most of it will be terrible, but there'll be some really good little bits and pieces that will emerge.... Little two minute extras for established canon. Music videos. Trailers for non-existent movies. Animated scenes from comics. Somebody will make it their life's work to devise and animate transformations for the female Autobots from Search for Alpha Trion...
>
> Velvet Glove (We'll have a golden decade of fanimation and then, as software and AI improve, the dreck will outweigh the actual talent and it will become impossible to find good stuff.)

Ok, seems ArtistStan was going to helm this thing, but is suffering some personal problems and can't commit, so I may take over, even though I can't animate, or draw. Changed the name of the project to:

Fan-Project For Extending Transformers 1986 Film, Using Unused Storyboards

FB group for project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1303492000252163/

Sent ArtistStan to change the wording on his petition. No word back yet. I've just finished a post to the group, to get everything going, saying we should all examine all the storyboards from ONLY the final version of the film, and decide which to use and maybe how, located here:

https://www.tfraw.com/p/tftm-storyboard-set.html

Please come if you'd like to help with the project. Thank you! :)

- Rodimus_2316