Transformers The Movie (1986) Full Length Score

[JediKnightButler]

I’ve been very interested (as I’m sure a lot of other Transformers fans are) in eventually owning a copy of Vince DiCola’s original full-length instrumental score for Transformers The Movie (1986) for a long time and I actually e-mailed him about it recently and he was nice enough to write back. He stated that he does not currently have any plans to re-release the full-length score again anytime in the future. It didn’t sound like he necessarily ruled out the possibility of doing so but he didn’t really commit to it either other than to say that if circumstances change that he would make the information available on his website and other fan sites. To date, his full-length score to the movie has only been available to attendees at the annual Bot-Con conventions (which, sadly, I have never had the opportunity to attend). The latest (2007) re-release of the original soundtrack to the movie does feature some additional well-chosen instrumental tracks from the movie (i.e. Unicron's theme) but the full-length score still remains frustratingly elusive. I have been trying for awhile to think of some way that those of us who really want a copy of the score might rally enough fans to encourage Mr. DiCola to seriously consider making the full-length score available again on CD or, at the very least, making the score available to download (i.e. MP3). Seeing as how there does not seem to be any way of finding the previous albums anywhere at this time (they are out of print and the company that produced the albums-3H Enterprise-is out of business), does anybody have any suggestions on how we might be able to encourage Mr. DiCola to make his full-length score to the movie available in some form again? If not, does anybody have any ideas (other than eBay) about where I might be able to find a copy of either the 1997 “Til All Are One” or the 2001 “Lighting Their Darkest Hour” albums?

 

[Chindogu]

I've had the full sound track for a couple of years now but needed to rely on "other means" in order to acquire it after running into similar troubles as you. I do wish it got a proper release but full scores are kind of rare in general. Especially those from cartoon movies of the 80's.

Great music in general, even if some of the synth sounds are a bit dated. It gets a bad wrap from some circles, in my opinion.

 

[JediKnightButler]

I assume that the "other means" that you are referring to probably are ones that you would rather not discuss?


I don't know if I would want something less than an official release and probably wouldn't feel comfortable with getting it otherwise but it is an album that I certainly would be willing to shell out a pretty healthy amount of money for an official CD release or MP3 downloads of the entire score to be sure.

I don't know why the score would get a "bad rap" and I can't really imagine who would dislike it. I think it is perhaps one of the best instrumental scores ever composed for a movie (the Star Wars movies notwithstanding). Like the Star Wars movies, Vince DiCola's score is as much a "part" of the movie as the characters are. It is puzzling why Vince DiCola has not done more movie soundtracks since then. I love synthesized music and get bored with the same old orchestra-based scores that most film composers utilize. BTW although the full length instrumental score is not (properly) available for the movie, you can purchase Vince DiCola's "Protoform Sessions", which is a compilation of demos, outtakes, and alternate versions and variations of themes from the movie. He even included a composition ("Legacy") not written specifically for the movie but which got him the job in the first place. He also provides an introduction to each track in between. Like I said it's NOT the original soundtrack but it is a good listen and definitely worth buying. He also has another CD called "Artistic Transformations" which has music from the score as performed by Vince DiCola on a solo piano. You can buy the album on CD or download individual tracks as MP3s like I did. I thought that it was interesting to hear the development of the themes for the movie and piano music is always relaxing to me. These albums can be purchased at Travis Dickerson Recording Studio (that Vince records his work from) at http://vincedicola.com/vince.html

One has to wonder why, with THESE albums (which were also previously only available at Bot-Cons) still available, he can't re-release the full-length score out in all of its synthesized glory, especially since he has full access to his own material and appears to have the means to get his work released?