uses the same master and prints from the US Shout! Factory release, being released under license from the company. Funimation UK later reissued the Blu-ray and released the movie on 4K Blu-ray in October 2021, once again using the same prints and masters from the Shout! Factory release. Japan On January 25, 2001, Pioneer LDC released the film on Region 2 DVD with Japanese and English audio (which was presented in the UK version). That release is no longer in print. Reception Initial reception Contemporary film critics had a mostly negative tone. Many perceived a thin but darkly violent plot appealing only to children, based on blatant advertisement, unintelligible action, and supposedly lookalike characters. The day after release, Caryn James of The New York Times described the film: "While all this action may captivate young children, the animation is not spectacular enough to dazzle adults, and the Transformers have few truly human elements to lure parents along, even when their voices are supplied by well-known actors." Scott Cain reported a "packed theater", but complained that "as a jaundiced adult", he irritably "never had the slightest clue as to what was taking place" even after consulting several excited children and the irreconcilable four-page studio synopsis. He did not care to identify the voices of famous actors and concluded that "non-stop action is sufficient for kiddie audiences [but] I am offended that The Transformers is a 90-minute toy commercial. Even worse, it paints a future in which war is incessant. The only human child among the characters is in tears almost constantly." Richard Martin said "It's everything you'd expect from a Saturday morning cartoon blown up to feature length and designed to sell more toys to more kids. [... Unicron is] a monster planet that consumes everything in its path, just as the movie seems set to do." Jack Zink said "Dino De Laurentiis has seen the future, and it is spare parts", calling the film "a wall-to-wall demolition derby for kids". As "an animated, heavy-metal comic book [with a] maddeningly simple story", he said "The art and graphics may be substantially more complex than the TV series but the net visual result is less impressive than most viewers have a right to expect. [...] Not bad for what it is, but not much in the face of precedents like Heavy Metal (1981) and Fritz the Cat (1972)." He said most of