The Energon Pub

[Glyph]

Honestly, I figure at this point that the sooner folks admit to themselves that TF lore is all just a bunch of self-contained loosey-goosey retellings that rhymes more than it connects, the happier they are.

I can leave the obsessive continuity gap-filling to the Star Wars guys (OK, and the Japanese G1 guys, I suppose), and not get bothered at all that things look like they should fit together until you examine a single detail. *twitch*


--ETA--

If this low cost does indeed lead to a high profit, this could be the future of the franchise, theatrically speaking.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've been hoping this for a while now. I've seen a lot of people say that this is one of the best things to come out of the franchise in a while, and even though I haven't seen it, its not hard to see why.

TBH I hope this too. Good animation isn't cheap, but it's cheaper than ILM VFX and does help to ground the films in the family-friendly bracket where I tend to find on-screen TF works best, rather than trying to take itself way too seriously as a big-budget action thriller. (Yes, yes, animation is a medium, not a genre; I'm making allowances for Hollywood thinking. And there's space for serious stories too, but I feel comics are a better home for those.)

If TF:One does well and sets up a future of well-produced animated TF films, I'll be a happy camper.

[First-Aid]

It's all one giant Multiverse that will culminate in a giant crossover that will see the Transformers evolve into Go-Bots.

...and fight Thanos!

[cloudballoon]

Always thought animation is the direction to go whether TF:1 itself as a movie is good or not. We don't have to deal with the humans - whether in the plot or the whimps of the actors and it just expand the universe that much more as we don't have to ground the story to be on Earth only. It just opens out every possibilities for the franchise.

So it's good news that the early reviews seems to indicate it's a great movie and the buzz & hype around it seems like a thing too.

My only concern about it is that the Bot designs aren't great. Too same-y with OP, Megs, Elita-1 as main cast along with all the miner types (see the Iacon race scene & Blokees model kits). I like Bee, Alpha Trion & Sentinel though. So I hope the toy sales go well for Hasbro so the company can turn things around. Really widh TF:1 can help with the franchise's longevity.

I never really cared for Bay style action "spectacle" in the first place, non-sense Bay-bay-bay-plosions!!! is just not stimulating to me (that said, it's still better then Superheroes fights - when punches & kicks that cause massive environmental damage means nothing to the heroes/villain physically, I feel nothing.) and combine THAT with non-sense plot and unlikeable characters, I'm just not interested to experience it in the theatre and only worth a rental.

For live-action, I only love BBM, and that's because it gives me that '80's E.T. vibe that Spielberg was great at. '07 was OK because of its shock & awe value of what a live-action TF can be and deserves massive credit for it. But without that rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, it was just an OK blockbuster with nothing to love on repeat viewings.

So if Paramount learns any lessons, I hope it's that develop the Animation side as the main events, and the live action as side projects (go smaller, focus on plots).

[Rodimus Prime]

And Sabrblade, as for your separate continuities theory, it doesn't work. The 2007 movie can't be a part of both.

Counterpoint: the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons exist within multiple continuities. You got the 3H/Fun Pub BW universe, the Japanese G1 cartoon universe, the Dreamwave G1 comics universe, the 2006 IDW BW comics universe, Fun Pub's Wings Universe, and possibly even the Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers continuity.

Yeah and it's a non-linear mess. For most of us fans it's probably acceptable because we're used to it, but try to explain it to the average moviegoer who just wants to watch all relevant parts of the story. It's confusing.

As for Bee being here during WW2 in TLK and showing up in 1987 afterwards for "the 1st time" it would be easy to explain it with transwarp technology in a sequel to Bumblebee if we had gotten a capable story from a creative team that cared about the franchise instead of what we got with RoTB.

[chuckdawg1999]

It's all one giant Multiverse that will culminate in a giant crossover that will see the Transformers evolve into Go-Bots.

...and fight Thanos!

Well, that's all they have. Kang or Doom would make more sense.

[Sabrblade]

My only concern about it is that the Bot designs aren't great. Too same-y with OP, Megs, Elita-1 as main cast along with all the miner types (see the Iacon race scene & Blokees model kits).

Without spoiling anything, there is an in-story reason for that.

For live-action, I only love BBM, and that's because it gives me that '80's E.T. vibe that Spielberg was great at.

Funnily enough, that "80's E.T. vibe" is the reason we got radio-speak Bumblebee in the first place. Spielberg wanted recapture the magic of E.T. by having Bumblebee be the human leads alien sidekick who doesn't speak much, like how E.T. was. In fact, Spielberg originally wanted none of the Transformers to speak at all, which is why most of the Decepticons' dialogue in that movie is in a subtitled alien language. For once, this is a case where Spielberg did not have a good idea.

And Sabrblade, as for your separate continuities theory, it doesn't work. The 2007 movie can't be a part of both.

Counterpoint: the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons exist within multiple continuities. You got the 3H/Fun Pub BW universe, the Japanese G1 cartoon universe, the Dreamwave G1 comics universe, the 2006 IDW BW comics universe, Fun Pub's Wings Universe, and possibly even the Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers continuity.

Yeah and it's a non-linear mess. For most of us fans it's probably acceptable because we're used to it, but try to explain it to the average moviegoer who just wants to watch all relevant parts of the story. It's confusing.

Yep, all because multiple disparate parties want to play in the same sandbox but not with each other.

The same thing also happened with the first three movies, leading them to occupy multiple continuities too. 2007/ROTF/DOTM exist in a main movie universe with AOE and TLK, in an expanded universe with the IDW movie comics/the "Ghosts of Yesterday" novel/"The Veiled Threat" novel/the Cyber Missions web cartoon/the Classified novel trilogy/and a few other things, and in a UK-original expanded universe with the comics published in Titan Magazine plus AOE again.

[Glyph]

It's all one giant Multiverse that will culminate in a giant crossover that will see the Transformers evolve into Go-Bots.

...and fight Thanos!

Well, that's all they have. Kang or Doom would make more sense.

I guess we still need Disney to buy Hasbro so that we can get Circuit Breaker back, re-release issue #3 and finally settle Unicron vs Galactus...

Yeah and it's a non-linear mess. For most of us fans it's probably acceptable because we're used to it, but try to explain it to the average moviegoer who just wants to watch all relevant parts of the story. It's confusing.

"So this movie calls back to these other things, you can watch them if you want to get the references but you don't need to, it's not really a series, they're all just kinda doing their own thing. Don't worry about it."

[cloudballoon]

My only concern about it is that the Bot designs aren't great. Too same-y with OP, Megs, Elita-1 as main cast along with all the miner types (see the Iacon race scene & Blokees model kits).

Without spoiling anything, there is an in-story reason for that.

One of the trailer said "they were brothers" so my guess is that they're functionist miners and made the same along with many others, and they're in a lower cast so that's why when Elita-1 saw OP & Megs in the Iacon race she was so surprised & excited and called on all miners (sort of brethens?) to watch the race. That's my guest.

Note that I'm not saying the designs are BAD, the never-skipped-legs-day design is a problem and I'm OK with it really, it's just that I want a lot more body variations on a shelf. That's why the toy buying urge might be dampened for me on this toyline.

But Bee is a winner. I said it before that this is the best looking Bee ever for me.

Still, I haven't looked forward to a TF movie as TF:1 since '07.

[Sabrblade]

It's all one giant Multiverse that will culminate in a giant crossover that will see the Transformers evolve into Go-Bots.

...and fight Thanos!

Well, that's all they have. Kang or Doom would make more sense.

I guess we still need Disney to buy Hasbro so that we can get Circuit Breaker back, re-release issue #3 and finally settle Unicron vs Galactus...

IDW's last reprint volumes of the Marvel G1 comics included issue #3 in all its Symbiote Spidey glory, and remastered to boot.

One of the trailer said "they were brothers"

Without spoiling anything, that's just a reference to their friendship. The Aligned backstory lore that's become the standard backstory lore for several modern versions of Transformers fiction established Optimus and Megatron as former friends who were once as close as brothers before falling out and becoming sworn enemies. It stemmed from a line spoken by Optimus in the 2007 movie after Megatron was killed by Sam shoving the AllSpark in his chest: "You left me no choice, brother." Then the Prime cartoon had Optimus describe Megatron as "someone I once considered a brother". It's less literal siblings and more of a close bond of friendship.

it's just that I want a lot more body variations on a shelf.

[Sabrblade]

Positive-wise, it means the film accomplishes its mission of telling an origin story for not just these characters but for their factions too within just one hour and a half. Negative-wise, it means a lot of story beats are rushed. Optimus goes from a guy who doesn't really respect the rules to the Optimus Prime we know in a few days while Megatron also goes through a significant change in parallel. So take that as you wish. I personally would have wanted more time spent on this, but I also recognize how efficient the story telling is to convey all this in a short movie for all ages.

This, I feel, stems from the fact that it's an animated Hollywood movie in general. Historically, animated Hollywood films have tended to be kept under 2 hours in length, as it seems there's still a belief in Hollywood that "casual moviegoers won't want to sit through a 2-hour cartoon", rooted in that age-old belief that live-action is better than animation because "live-action is for adults/matured audiences while animation is for children/losers/stupid people".

Looking at Wikipedia's list of longest animated films, the vast majority of films on the list are Asian in origin (Japan, China, Russia, India), and of the films listed as exceeding 2 hours in length, only seven are from the United States. And of those seven, four of them are independent movies. Of the remaining three, two of them weren't fully animated films, as Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings used a hybrid of animation with live-action rotoscoping, while Disney's Fantasia had plenty of live-action segments interspersed between its animated short segments. This leaves only one US film on that list that was completely animated and longer than two hours, that being Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which was itself a big gamble of a film leaving itself on such a massive cliffhanger, but which it could better pull off after having had such a successful preceding Spider-Verse film to help boost its own chances of success.

So, Transformers One being an animated Hollywood film was always gonna have an uphill battle in making its runtime be as long as it could be.

[Big Grim]

As someone who has felt starved for good Transformers media (comics excluded) since Prime ended, I hope this movie is successful enough for Hasbro and Paramount to lean into.

Gods, I miss Prime. I don't understand why these shows aren't easy to get on Blu-Ray. I prefer a physical copy of stuff like this because when they disappear from streamers (as Prime has) there's no means of watching it. (It's why I want a boxset of netflix Voltron as well.).

Lookin' forward to ONE. While I will probably always prefer the IDW version of Pax the cop and Megatron the Miner come revolutionary, I will always welcome new ideas. I learnt my lesson after watching Beast Wars years (and years and YEARS!) ago thanks to AlexKingdom and finding that it was *gasp* GOOD?!?

~ Grim

[william-james88]

Gods, I miss Prime. I don't understand why these shows aren't easy to get on Blu-Ray. I prefer a physical copy of stuff like this because when they disappear from streamers (as Prime has) there's no means of watching it. (It's why I want a boxset of netflix Voltron as well.).

Lookin' forward to ONE. While I will probably always prefer the IDW version of Pax the cop and Megatron the Miner come revolutionary, I will always welcome new ideas. I learnt my lesson after watching Beast Wars years (and years and YEARS!) ago thanks to AlexKingdom and finding that it was *gasp* GOOD?!?

~ Grim

No joke, of all TF content, the one that feels most similar to this film is the Prime show. Very much for kids, but with lots of nice lore for longtime fans.

I do find it cute how the film has a predictable twist for adults but something that could be mindblowing for a 6-8 year old.

[#1 Signal Lancer fan]

While I will probably always prefer the IDW version of Pax the cop and Megatron the Miner come revolutionary, I will always welcome new ideas.

I've always been more of a fan of the Aligned data clerk origin vs the IDW cop origin, but that may just be because I didn't love IDW Prime in particular.

But miner-gladiator-revolutionary Megatron is unmatched. That, to me, is the definitive Megatron origin story. (Although I do love the Armada-esque "opposing military commander with respect for his rival" take on the character too)

[o.supreme]

Gods, I miss Prime. I don't understand why these shows aren't easy to get on Blu-Ray.

Well they aren't too ridiculous yet. Id get them while you can. I got all Prime the blu rays when they were first released. But right now on Amazon S1 is about$38, S2 is $48, S3 is $20, and Predacons Rising is: $15, so the whole series for around $120. It could be far worse, once these really go OOP.


As for the TF One film budget. I bet at least a third of it was the celebrity VA's. salary. I've noticed with the Godzilla Monsterverse entries, each one gets bigger in spectacle, but they choose actors who are less famous, which actually helps. Kong Skull island was loaded with A List actors , but arguably was far more expensive because of it. GxK actually had a cheaper budget, but more went into the story and Effects than the actors.

I appreciate that the A List actors for TF One are getting praised, but if we had actual industry VA's the budget for this film could have been under 50M, and would have been just as well liked I'd imagine.

[william-james88]

At Cinemacon, we saw an Orion Pax popcorn bucket that seemed transformable. We have since seen the Cinemark popcorn buckets for Transformers One, which you can see below, and those did not include that transforming bucket. And now we know how AMC's Transformers One popcorn bucket looks like and it is not that either. So that Orion Pax transforming popcorn bucket is MIA.

For AMC, it turns out their bucket is unoriginal. It's just a tin with the characters on it. They also have cups with toppers.

For Cinemark, you will see below that they offer a B-127 Popcorn Container with lanyard , an Orion Pax Snack & Drink Vessel, a Cup and Topper Combo Set, Fleece Blanket and Enamel 4-Pin Set.

You can see all images below.

AMC





Cinemark













Nowhere

[Emerje]

The transforming popcorn bucket was the only interesting one! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

Emerje

[Big Grim]

I've always been more of a fan of the Aligned data clerk origin vs the IDW cop origin, but that may just be because I didn't love IDW Prime in particular.

I liked him just fine until somewhere after Dark Cybertron. He really went downhill when he got the self-titled book. I like the aligned/Prime data clerk version too but I kinda adore the hero cop nonsense. I think it might talk to the eighties action film fan in me. Plus, y'know, the idealised "Prime is a goddamn hero" feeling a lotta characters held him up too.

But miner-gladiator-revolutionary Megatron is unmatched. That, to me, is the definitive Megatron origin story. (Although I do love the Armada-esque "opposing military commander with respect for his rival" take on the character too)

I do have a soft spot for Armada Megatron and good ol' Beast Wars Megatron. Prime Megs was a delight as well but no one showed the character grown that IDW Megs had, in my opinion.

Well they aren't too ridiculous yet. Id get them while you can. I got all Prime the blu rays when they were first released. But right now on Amazon S1 is about$38, S2 is $48, S3 is $20, and Predacons Rising is: $15, so the whole series for around $120. It could be far worse, once these really go OOP.

Ah. I'm in the UK and as far as I'm aware, these are still region locked.

~ Grim

[Glyph]

Well they aren't too ridiculous yet. Id get them while you can. I got all Prime the blu rays when they were first released. But right now on Amazon S1 is about$38, S2 is $48, S3 is $20, and Predacons Rising is: $15, so the whole series for around $120. It could be far worse, once these really go OOP.

Ah. I'm in the UK and as far as I'm aware, these are still region locked.

I believe they're all here for the grabbing, but absolutely this trend of "No physical media, pay for streaming forever until we take it away anyway" needs to die in a fire ASAP.

As for the TF One film budget. I bet at least a third of it was the celebrity VA's. salary. ... I appreciate that the A List actors for TF One are getting praised, but if we had actual industry VA's the budget for this film could have been under 50M, and would have been just as well liked I'd imagine

NGL, I'd prefer actual VAs over big-name casting just about always, but I understand the studio calculus that assumes they need the names to bring in the casual viewers. Pretty likely that the movie cast won't voice any tie-in media past the first game and will just get more expensive for each sequel; maybe we'll get a Bayverse Megs situation and end up with classic / industry VAs doing the voices in tie-in media until they eventually take over the movies too. May the series last so long!

[First-Aid]

(It's why I want a boxset of netflix Voltron as well.).

Oh, God....I SOOOOO want this. Anyone want a kidney in exchange?

[Big Grim]

I believe they're all here for the grabbing.

Shiny, thank you!

(It's why I want a boxset of netflix Voltron as well.).

Oh, God....I SOOOOO want this. Anyone want a kidney in exchange?

Right? I would GLADLY pay for a physical set of that show.

~ Grim

[o.supreme]

Regarding Voltron:

Here in the U.S. there's a 26 episode S1/2 set which seems to be unavailable at the moment.

The "S3-S6" 26 episode DVD set is still inexpensive, only $17: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QHJ9HX3/re ... Bfc2hhcmVk

There's been a rumor for along time, the reason why "S7-S8" (the last 26 episodes) were never released on DVD was because the writing took a huge nosedive and the series ending was very poorly written, which is a shame because for those first few years it was great.

Id still purchase the whole thing if it was offered, but it is odd because another show that DreamWorks produced and Netflix Distributed (Dragons race to the Edge) got fully released on DVD.


Regarding the TFO Popcorn Bucket--Maybe because of the general audience the film is made for, they wanted to avoid contributing to the weirdness of Popcorn Buckets that has occurred in 2024. Not saying there's anything wrong with a Transforming bucket, but you know it would probably be included in some articles compared with others of questionable taste

[Sabrblade]

Spoiler warning: Watch this only after you've seen the movie, cuz they mention a few things from the movie in this:

[#1 Signal Lancer fan]

Do we know one way or another at this point if this is in-continuity with the live action movies? My guess would be it's not, but I haven't been able to find a confirmed answer online.

Major spoilers below:

Having seen the movie, I don’t see how it could possibly be made to connect.

Sentinel Prime is dead, Optimus does not look up to him, and Megatron would never work with him.

Megatronus is not The Fallen and is dead.

The Matrix is on Cybertron, not with the Primes on Earth.

Speaking of, the Primes died on Cybertron, not Earth.

[Sabrblade]

Do we know one way or another at this point if this is in-continuity with the live action movies? My guess would be it's not, but I haven't been able to find a confirmed answer online.

Major spoilers below:

Having seen the movie, I don’t see how it could possibly be made to connect.

Sentinel Prime is dead, Optimus does not look up to him, and Megatron would never work with him.

Megatronus is not The Fallen and is dead.

The Matrix is on Cybertron, not with the Primes on Earth.

Speaking of, the Primes died on Cybertron, not Earth.

Like I told'ja before, it's impossible for this to fit with either ROTF or DOTM.

[chuckdawg1999]

Do we know one way or another at this point if this is in-continuity with the live action movies? My guess would be it's not, but I haven't been able to find a confirmed answer online.

Major spoilers below:

Having seen the movie, I don’t see how it could possibly be made to connect.

Sentinel Prime is dead, Optimus does not look up to him, and Megatron would never work with him.

Megatronus is not The Fallen and is dead.

The Matrix is on Cybertron, not with the Primes on Earth.

Speaking of, the Primes died on Cybertron, not Earth.

Like I told'ja before, it's impossible for this to fit with either ROTF or DOTM.

Clap your hands and say it with me! MULTIVERSE!!!