The Transformers

The Transformers was an animated TV series jointly made in Japan and America that ran on American television between 1984-1987. With The Tranformers, Hasbro unified several of its existing Japanese toy lines. Hasbro was excited to pursue a multi-platform approach to its marketing. Consulting with Marvel Comics, a storyline for the animated series was created along with a series of comics that differed greatly from the animated series and explored a much more serious plot that involved more interaction with humans. Also, although Hasbro essentially canceled the show after its third season in 1987, Marvel’s Comic book series continued for a longer period. There were four additional Transformers-based series in Japan and previous Transformers episodes continued to be played on American television.

= Future =

Riding on the popularity of the live-action 2007 film of the same name, the Cartoon Network and Hasbro announced that in 2008 there will be a new incarnation of the animated Transformers series called Transformers: Animated. 

Movie
Transformers is a 2007 live action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg based on the Transformers franchise. The film stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, who has the coordinates to the location of the All Spark, an object at the center of the war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. It also stars Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight and John Turturro, and it features the voices of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving as Megatron. Cullen voiced Prime in the 1980s cartoon.

Producers Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto developed the film, and Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wrote the script, aiming for a realistic interpretation of the characters. Though not a Transformers fan, Bay was convinced by Spielberg to direct, and he created an intricate design aesthetic for the computer-generated robots. General Motors and the United States military lent their support during filming, to keep the budget under $150 million. Armed with an enormous marketing campaign including comics, toys and tie-in deals, Transformers opened in the United States on July 2, 2007, and broke the box office record for the highest-grossing opening week for a non-sequel. Critics praised the special effects, but criticized the characterization. A sequel is expected for release on June 26, 2009.