With two seasons of G.I. Joe under it's belt the next step the animated series was to head towards would be the full length movie territory. As with many of Hasbro's toy lines in the mid 1980s, G.I. Joe was to join the likes of Transformers and My Little Pony to get itself a feature film for a cinematic release, which would give the writers a chance to put in many new characters who were the new action figures in the toy line.But the G.I. Joe movie was never released in cinemas and went straight to video instead. A slow rate of production meant that the movie was delayed and the Transformers and My Little Pony movies were released before it. These two films failed at the box office and in the case of Transformers, caused a lot of criticism so the G.I. Joe movie was further delayed to make some last minute changes and put out on VHS instead in order for Hasbro to not lose money on it. The movie was finally released in 1986 and has a mixed reception with fans - they either love it or hate it.
However I'm not a real G.I. Joe fan, in fact I've never seen an episode of it in my life. I just saw the intro for the movie on YouTube and thought it looked great, so I bought it off eBay, and I enjoyed the whole film when I watched it. To me, the G.I. Joe movie is just like the Transformers movie in the way that you don't have to be a fan to enjoy it. It's got a simple enough story and lots of great characters, along with fantastic looking animation. Possibly helped that I'd done nothing but watch various Transformers seasons for the past couple of months before I got it so it was nice to see something different for a change.In terms of getting the movie, all I can say to people in the UK is to get the Prism budget release, which seems to be the only thing available on DVD and VHS. Sadly it's got no extra features and the picture quality isn't that great but it's all there really is other than going as far as trying to get the original Action Force VHS which has the awful intro. I take it that the movie is available in the US but I have no idea on that. But anyway, check this movie out as it's one enjoyable action adventure.
