Sometimes, The World Looks Perfect - Nothing to Rearrange

[pseudohistorian]

In honour of the currently playing Sex and the City (already past the US$120 million mark at the box office as of this writing), I thought I'd take a look at that rarest of categories to which it belongs: the feature film which exists in the same continuity as the television series which spawned it

Comments

[lampbane]

Notes:

The Transformers was really meant to be first in a series of theatrical, in-continuity releases. But I guess the box office numbers weren't all that great, so the G.I. Joe movie went straight to video, the Thundercats movie went straight to TV, and the Jem movie never got made. All of these movies were made with the intention of defining the status quo so they could sell new toys with the premiere of the next season.

Anime is pretty well-known for doing feature films out of their television series. Escaflowne did a retelling of the entire series in two hours, while the Dragon Ball Z tells its own out-of-continuity stories (which aren't retellings so much, they just kind of pick a point in the series storyline and just run with it from there), and then the Cowboy Bebop and Pokémon movies are in continuity but have absolutely no bearing on the television series at all.

Actually, The Simpsons Movie was referenced in the season premiere of The Simpsons, but continuity-wise it's unlikely to have any bearing on the program.

[tiggerallyn]

I think that by 1986 we were Transformers-ed out. The cast had become unwieldy, and what we were talking about in school excitedly in 1984 wasn't talked about in 1986.

The ironic thing is, looking back, the third season of Transformers that spun out of the movie was, barring the ending, pretty damn good, and damned sight more memorable than most of what preceeded it. Also, it was an attempt to do what Star Trek: The Next Generation would do a year later - take a familiar franchise and kick it forward, introducing new characters and new settings. Only unlike TNG, it didn't go over well.

Also, I have a lot of affection for Rodimus Prime. He's a rare character - prone to doubt, regret, self-loathing. I think the producers made a huge mistake bringing Optimus Prime back to life at the end of the season, because it cemented the idea that Transformers was the classic characters of the first season

[pseudohistorian]

I'm with you on the post-movie Transformers, which had more of a continuing storyline and less formulaic repetition than previous episodes. This was where I really became interested in the series, though, so I never experienced the franchise fatigue you're talking about.

Yes, I also enjoyed the implicit GI Joe crossover, even if I was always frustrated that they never followed up on it. :/

Finally, for being a robot, Arcee was pretty hot.

I guess you're glad she's in the next live-action movie, then...

[lampbane]

(whoops, meant "redefining the status quo" though you know what I meant)

[daytonward]

...as projects which were intended for television but had a theatrical release internationally, like the original pilots for Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century...

Not just overseas. I saw both Galactica ("In SENSURROUND!!!") and Buck Rogers in theaters when I was a kid :)

[pseudohistorian]

I knew that both of those movies had made it to Canadian cinemas in North America (much like, say, Caravan of Courage), but I didn't realise they'd gotten onto screens in the States, too...

Nevertheless, I'd still argue that the theatrical versions of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers don't count in this category, since they kill off characters (Baltar in the former, Ardala's henchman Tigerman in the latter) who show up alive and well in their subsequent series.

As such, the two movies are actually in slightly different continuities from those of the series, the same way something like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is in a separate continuity from the television series even though they share much of the same cast.

(Random Fact: They Might Be Giants contributed a song to the MMPR: The Movie soundtrack called..."Sensurround." See how I brought it all together? ;))