Transformers One Movie is Testing « Extraordinarily Well »

Call me a cynic, but I have become wary of trusting early screenings as any kind of benchmark for how well a movie may and/or may not do. Because the people who made this movie, and who have a vested financial interest in its success, are certainly not going to come out and say 'everybody hated it, we sure did a lousy job'. They're going to paint as rosy a picture as possible, because they want to lean on the scales and get people to buy tickets.

I know these test screening reports can be deceiving (The Flash also had a ‘positive’ test screening), but I can’t help but feel deeply excited because of this. I think this one is going to take us by surprise.

I've seen it go both ways. I've heard some movies that had terrible test screenings, actually turn out well, and vice-versa. Still its too early to tell. I'm going in with the expectation that this film will skew towards a younger demographic and there really wont be anything for me as an older fan. That way, if there is something good, Ill be pleasantly surprised. Seeing the preview on the Big Screen (they played it twice) during the Original TF 40th anniversary screening certainly didn't help.

o.supreme wrote:I'm going in with the expectation that this film will skew towards a younger demographic and there really wont be anything for me as an older fan.

Whenever I see people say things like this, I have to wonder, "Where is your inner child?"

I love '07 & BBM and ROTB is fine enough for me. But from a financial perspective, I think Paramount is scared of the budget for more live-action TF for awhile. The budget required for an animated movie is far lower and the risk much safer to stomach. Just look at Furiosa vs. Garfield on financials.

Whether TF:1 is made for me or not (sure, Hasbro/Paramount will throw fans of G1/Bay a bone or two as fans service, but that doesn't count as made "for" the fans), it's the right direction to go, even sort of the better/only option to save the movie franchise after ROTB outside of going on a decade long hiatus. So I'm OK with TF:1 being its own thing as long as it's entertaining for the whole family with a good plot and decent characters development.

I just hope TF:1 will take its time developing the lore, don't just throw in and immediately abandon plot threads like there's no tomorrow, always making a mess on continuity & logic.

And oh, so far, I'm not seeing Murder Prime rearing his ugly head. For that, I'm going to support TF:1.

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:I'm going in with the expectation that this film will skew towards a younger demographic and there really wont be anything for me as an older fan.

Whenever I see people say things like this, I have to wonder, "Where is your inner child?"

Bro you of all people know I have a deficiency. I never liked comedy relief characters or "kid identifying characters"

Snarf, Orko, and Oon (lame)
Bumblebee, The Wonder Twins, and Scott Trakker (dumb)
Superman, Optimus Prime, and mid-20s Spider Man. (These were my peers at 8 years old)

Lol....

o.supreme wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:I'm going in with the expectation that this film will skew towards a younger demographic and there really wont be anything for me as an older fan.

Whenever I see people say things like this, I have to wonder, "Where is your inner child?"

Bro you of all people know I have a deficiency. I never liked comedy relief characters or "kid identifying characters"

Snarf, Orko, and Oon (lame)
Bumblebee, The Wonder Twins, and Scott Trakker (dumb)
Superman, Optimus Prime, and mid-20s Spider Man. (These were my peers at 8 years old)

Lol....

I'm not seeing those kinds of characters in the trailer (and thank goodness for that). All I'm seeing are a bunch of adult-aged/minded characters living in a corrupt, oppressive society and trying to make the most of it or change it for the better.

The director admitted that he crammed as much humor into the trailer because of how real the actual movie itself gets.

A wise person once said, "a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story."

UHF was testing well too, just saying.

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:I'm going in with the expectation that this film will skew towards a younger demographic and there really wont be anything for me as an older fan.

Whenever I see people say things like this, I have to wonder, "Where is your inner child?"

Bro you of all people know I have a deficiency. I never liked comedy relief characters or "kid identifying characters"

Snarf, Orko, and Oon (lame)
Bumblebee, The Wonder Twins, and Scott Trakker (dumb)
Superman, Optimus Prime, and mid-20s Spider Man. (These were my peers at 8 years old)

Lol....

I'm not seeing those kinds of characters in the trailer (and thank goodness for that). All I'm seeing are a bunch of adult-aged/minded characters living in a corrupt, oppressive society and trying to make the most of it or change it for the better.

The director admitted that he crammed as much humor into the trailer because of how real the actual movie itself gets.

THIS right here is what got me even more hooked after seeing the trailer. The build-up of relationships is going to be huge in the tragic twist we all know is coming, characterization between the Cybertronian characters that we’ve never had in the movies before.

If I wanted some humorless TF media, all three seasons of WFC are right there, lmao.

I’m anticipating a scene like the finale of Autocracy, Megatron betraying Orion at the crux of their victory, only for him to return as Prime, the moment of the war kicking off proper.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:UHF was testing well too, just saying.

What's UHF? Googling it gives me Weird AI's movie, but I can't figure out what that movie's got to do with TF:1 being well received with test audience (very different target audience & genre)

Maybe I'm way off and UHF is an acronym of a recent movie? Otherwise that reference feels a bit random... unless you're name dropping Weird AI because he was involved in the OG animated TF: The Movie?

Test screenings are not perfect, but they are a reliable metric. Especially when the testers didn't hesitate to roast the Hell out of the latest Indiana Jones, or especially the still in development Hell Captain America 3.

I'm looking forward the TF1 movie.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Test screenings are not perfect, but they are a reliable metric. Especially when the testers didn't hesitate to roast the Hell out of the latest Indiana Jones, or especially the still in development Hell Captain America 3.

I'm looking forward the TF1 movie.

Captain America 3 was Civil War. It released years ago.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Test screenings are not perfect, but they are a reliable metric. Especially when the testers didn't hesitate to roast the Hell out of the latest Indiana Jones, or especially the still in development Hell Captain America 3.

I'm looking forward the TF1 movie.

Captain America 3 was Civil War. It released years ago.

FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE, 4.

You should have guessed that's what I meant, FFS.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:UHF was testing well too, just saying.

One of my favorite childhood movie!

This is a good sign.

cloudballoon wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:UHF was testing well too, just saying.

What's UHF? Googling it gives me Weird AI's movie, but I can't figure out what that movie's got to do with TF:1 being well received with test audience (very different target audience & genre)

Maybe I'm way off and UHF is an acronym of a recent movie? Otherwise that reference feels a bit random... unless you're name dropping Weird AI because he was involved in the OG animated TF: The Movie?

It was Weird Al's movie. It was getting the highest test scores for Orion pictures since Robo Cop. When it was released, it bombed because the summer was loaded with soon to be classics. My point was just because a movie tests well doesn't mean it'll be a hit.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

cloudballoon wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:UHF was testing well too, just saying.

What's UHF? Googling it gives me Weird AI's movie, but I can't figure out what that movie's got to do with TF:1 being well received with test audience (very different target audience & genre)

Maybe I'm way off and UHF is an acronym of a recent movie? Otherwise that reference feels a bit random... unless you're name dropping Weird AI because he was involved in the OG animated TF: The Movie?

It was Weird Al's movie. It was getting the highest test scores for Orion pictures since Robo Cop. When it was released, it bombed because the summer was loaded with soon to be classics. My point was just because a movie tests well doesn't mean it'll be a hit.

Those are the classic hurdles a movie or video game must face. But at least, this means that the chances for a GOOD movie are high. That's the only thing that matters.

Beside, some "bombs" turns into cult classics over the years, so, time will tell.

Meanwhile in the MCU:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment ... r-BB1ngPac

chuckdawg1999 wrote:It was Weird Al's movie. It was getting the highest test scores for Orion pictures since Robo Cop. When it was released, it bombed because the summer was loaded with soon to be classics. My point was just because a movie tests well doesn't mean it'll be a hit.

Ah, got it. Yeah... just caught up on a UHF retrospective on Youtube. It's just unfortunate that UHF was stacked against such strong (now classics) movies for bums-in-seats that year. But a good movie is a good movie. May not work for the studio financially, but it's no big lost for fans that can pick up the movie later.

With the write-off tax laws that Hollywood gets, even a bombed movie can worth something to Studios. So as much sympathy as I have for studios with good movies that bombed at the box office (currently Furiosa), as long as the studio survives, I'm not too concerned.

Good news that it's testing well. Doesn't mean much either way for its chance of success, as others have said, but an indicator for general quality at least. Personally I'm expecting this to be enjoyable, relatively light, full of easter eggs, and a financial bomb because (a) it's releasing in September and (b) audiences will take it as a 'kid' / 'toy' movie rather than a stunts-n-explosions blockbuster.

Ah well. Still looking forward to it and I suspect it'll find its place in fandom overall.

Grace Randalph. .... yeah... known for some really bad takes.

Anyway, I hope it's a good enjoyable movie, really hope so. TF5 and Rise of the Beasts was really putting the big screen bots in the grave.

Trailer's a bit overly comedy only but I also heard/read that it does have a serious tone. Hoping for a good/decent movie!

Well, this sure sounds promising:

https://twitter.com/TomMCJL/status/1800271883356492003

#TransformersONE received a standing ovation at its surprise debut at the Annecy Film Festival.

There were multiple applause eruptions throughout the movie, getting rowdier & louder as it went on with the title itself being called an instant 'Hit', 'The Best Transformers Movie Yet' & 'Incredibly funny' with a 'great story' from those in attendance.

The story follows the fallout of Optimus Prime & Megatron on the brink of the War For Cybertron.

https://twitter.com/HollywoodHandle/status/1800245673872552109

‘TRANSFORMERS ONE’ receives a standing ovation during its screening today at Annecy.

A work-in-progress version of the film was shown.

(Via: https://www.thewrap.com/transformers-one-reactions-annecy/)

https://www.thewrap.com/transformers-one-reactions-annecy/

A work-in-progress premiere of the first fully animated “Transformers” movie since 1986 torn the house down.

On the second night of this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival, after an opening night that showcased the beautiful and brutal “The Most Precious of Cargoes,” the festival gave over to fun. In the same slot they previously premiered a work-in-progress print of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” Paramount debuted “Transformers One,” the first fully animated “Transformers” feature since 1986’s “Transformers: The Movie.” It played like gangbusters.

Josh Cooley, the former Pixar artist and director of the Oscar-winning “Toy Story 4,” introduced the movie after some preliminary words from Ramsey Naito, president of Paramount Animation. Cooley described the feeling of anticipation that goes along with giving someone a really cool present. He said he couldn’t wait for the Annecy audience to open that present, a love letter to “Transformers” of old and to animation in general. He thanked the amazing artists who worked on the film and the team at Industrial Light & Magic, who were responsible for the movie’s animation (ILM also provided the feature animation for “Ultraman: Rising,” which has its world premiere at the festival later this week).

“You are audience one,” Cooley said. Then the movie rolled.

It is exactly what it has been described as — an origin story for how two young robots (voiced by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry) went from being besties to mortal enemies, ultimately known as Optimus Prime and Megatron. The animation style previewed in the early trailer; a kind of painterly, 1980s lunchbox aesthetic, is very much present in the final film — all vibrant colors and shiny surfaces. That’s pretty much all we can say without giving anything away. But that’s all you should know going into the movie, debuting theatrically in September. Whereas the original “Transformers: The Movie,” while enjoyable, was pretty much used to hard reset the lucrative toy line, which was cobbled together from existing Japanese toy lines and given a fresh coat of paint. The toys had been flagging, the movie was a way to rejuvenate the line (it didn’t work). The cynicism of the earlier animated feature has been replaced with something joyful, beautifully alive.

And that joy was very much felt in the biggest auditorium at Annecy. There were applause breaks several times throughout the movie, getting bigger and rowdier as the movie went on. It was punctuated at the end by a standing ovation for Cooley and his collaborators. What seemed at first like a polite response to the movie also swelled, going on for several minutes while Cooley bashfully took the praise (down the row from him was Jeff Rowe, director of “TMNT: Mutant Mayhem,” who received a similar response last year).

This was a project that had been in the works for at least a decade. Finally, in a sleepy town in France, it transformed into something real.

“Transformers One” hits theaters Sept. 20.

Also, the movie's banner has been revealed:
https://twitter.com/arun09345/status/1800274574665216347

Transformers One Banner Officially Released
#Transformers #TransformersOne

Transformers One had its first screening in France at the Annecy Festival. While it did receive a standing ovation, that is a common occurrence in premier screenings in France, but fans there are giving us some tidbits that they can share. We will share those below but before we also have the runtime confirmed to be 94 minutes. Also, we learned that there are no pop songs in the film, it's all score.

Here are some points shared on Reddit.

- film is not shallow, it is instead best film of the franchise so far
- pacing is very quick
- no pop songs in the film
- a lot of cameos
- no time skips or flashbacks, easy film to follow
- Transformers we see the most are Orion Pax, D-16, B-127, Elita-1, Sentinel Prime (leader of Cybertron) and Airachnid
- film is unbelievable fun, amazing action packed and side-splittingly hilarious
- Rise of Orion to Optimus and fall of Megatron is handled as best as it could have been
- film is gorgeous
- voice acting is really good
- kinda between Lego movie and first Avengers movie, innocent on the surface but dar underneath
- a lot of G1 references

Also, a new poster was unveiled for this first screening, it shows Optimus and Megatron in their final forms in the film.

This looks very, VERY promising.

And damn, having pop songs in the movie would have been very immersion-breaking. So I'm glad that the director decided to skip them, or he stood his grounds against corporate inference.

That's really cool. I hope if we get to see Megatron's downfall we hear Instruments of Destruction like on a montage

I was pretty excited for this movie both as a Transformers fan and as a dad. I took my daughter to the theater for the first time last year to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie (the Dreamworks one, of course ) and she had an absolute blast and loved it. She got super psyched when I showed her the trailer for TF One.
All this positive press is extremely promising and getting me even more excited for it. I cannot wait!

"best film in the franchise so far" guess that means the 1986 movie isn't good anymore then lol

Quantum Surge wrote:"best film in the franchise so far" guess that means the 1986 movie isn't good anymore then lol

To be fair, the 1986 movie is pretty bad. The movie is awesome from the start until the final battle between Optimus and Megs. But once that battle is done, we're back to the regular Sunbow shenanigans.

Anticipation cautiously building...

-Kanrabat- wrote:And damn, having pop songs in the movie would have been very immersion-breaking.

Yeah, imagine if the movie was in the middle of a pitched battle or something and a rock anthem suddenly started blaring out!

Glyph wrote:Anticipation cautiously building...

-Kanrabat- wrote:And damn, having pop songs in the movie would have been very immersion-breaking.

Yeah, imagine if the movie was in the middle of a pitched battle or something and a rock anthem suddenly started blaring out!

Yeah, that took me by surprise. A Hollywood-made non-Disney family film in this day and age having no pop songs whatsoever is super rare.

Yeah, I'm taking all that with a whole shaker of salt. I'm still going to see it, but I was hoping we would get a detailed view of life on Cybertron before things went bad, but if "the downfall of Megatron" is already included, it sounds like they're just rehashing the story in the same manner that's been done repeatedly. So my expectations are tempered. Still looks better than RoTB, but that not a high bar to clear.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah, I'm taking all that with a whole shaker of salt. I'm still going to see it, but I was hoping we would get a detailed view of life on Cybertron before things went bad, but if "the downfall of Megatron" is already included, it sounds like they're just rehashing the story in the same manner that's been done repeatedly. So my expectations ate tempered. Still looks better than RoTB, but that not a high bar to clear.

The "life on Cybertron" at this point in the story is probably "The Quintessons rule everything and oppress everyone, so life kinda sucks for most."

Rodimus Prime wrote:I was hoping we would get a detailed view of life on Cybertron before things went bad, but if "the downfall of Megatron" is already included, it sounds like they're just rehashing the story in the same manner that's been done repeatedly.

To be fair, I thought the movie's arc taking us from Op+Megs as friends to bitter enemies had always been the pitch. It's certainly what the trailer showed, with that quick little cut of Megatron in full villain mode.

I'd expect Act I to cover life on Cybertron and their friendship pre-war, with "things going bad" being roughly the end of Act II. That said, the test audience apparently said it was "really funny" so whether that's a consistent tone throughout (I've been expecting a Guardians of the Galaxy tone, overall) or mostly the first half remains to be seen.

--EDIT--
And yeah, as Sabrblade said, the Quints. I wouldn't be surprised if Megatron's revolution in this film begins as an uprising against the Quintessons, rather than following the IDW Autocracy / functionalism plotline.

Sabrblade wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah, I'm taking all that with a whole shaker of salt. I'm still going to see it, but I was hoping we would get a detailed view of life on Cybertron before things went bad, but if "the downfall of Megatron" is already included, it sounds like they're just rehashing the story in the same manner that's been done repeatedly. So my expectations ate tempered. Still looks better than RoTB, but that not a high bar to clear.

The "life on Cybertron" at this point in the story is probably "The Quintessons rule everything and oppress everyone, so life kinda sucks for most."

Well that wouldn't be my top choice, but I guess it's different than "Pax and Megs are friends. They disagree over who should be leader. Megs gets in his feelings and becomes a petulant child. Rinse and repeat."

Glyph wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:I was hoping we would get a detailed view of life on Cybertron before things went bad, but if "the downfall of Megatron" is already included, it sounds like they're just rehashing the story in the same manner that's been done repeatedly.

To be fair, I thought the movie's arc taking us from Op+Megs as friends to bitter enemies had always been the pitch.

Yes, I was just being optimistic in thinking we might get a sequel if they manage to keep Megatron's turn until the very end. And then the sequel deals with the first few years of the conflict, whether it be against the Quints, Bots against Cons, or both.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah, I'm taking all that with a whole shaker of salt. I'm still going to see it, but I was hoping we would get a detailed view of life on Cybertron before things went bad, but if "the downfall of Megatron" is already included, it sounds like they're just rehashing the story in the same manner that's been done repeatedly. So my expectations ate tempered. Still looks better than RoTB, but that not a high bar to clear.

The "life on Cybertron" at this point in the story is probably "The Quintessons rule everything and oppress everyone, so life kinda sucks for most."

Well that wouldn't be my top choice, but I guess it's different than "Pax and Megs are friends. They disagree over who should be leader. Megs gets in his feelings and becomes a petulant child. Rinse and repeat."

The Aligned backstory that this movie seems to be deriving it's story from originally had "the rule and overthrow of the Quintessons" and "the friendship and breakup of Orion and Megs" be two different events separated by several ages of Cybertron history (the Quints originally ruled during the "Age of Wrath", then after they were kicked off the planet came an era of peace and prosperity called the "Golden Age", then came the "Age of Rust" that started with a rust plague that ended the prosperity and required a stricter sense of rigid order to end the chaos and panic brought about by the plague, leading to the caste system taking over), so it seems this movie decided to merge the once two different events together to make them one single event, with Orion and Megs opposing the Quints together instead of opposing the caste system together, and their falling out coming off the backs of the Quints' defeat instead.

Makes sense, and very much in keeping with the general approach of streamlining stuff to fit into a 90-minute movie.

It's also possible that they wanted to make this movie less political by having Orion and Megs overthrow oppressive evil aliens instead of an oppressive corrupt government, since overthrowing evil aliens is a more fantasy concept that all viewers can understand better and enjoy more than overthrowing a corrupt government.

Sabrblade wrote:

Glyph wrote:Anticipation cautiously building...

-Kanrabat- wrote:And damn, having pop songs in the movie would have been very immersion-breaking.

Yeah, imagine if the movie was in the middle of a pitched battle or something and a rock anthem suddenly started blaring out!

Yeah, that took me by surprise. A Hollywood-made non-Disney family film in this day and age having no pop songs whatsoever is super rare.

That just means I'll have to stand up in the theater and start singing, loudly.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Glyph wrote:Anticipation cautiously building...

-Kanrabat- wrote:And damn, having pop songs in the movie would have been very immersion-breaking.

Yeah, imagine if the movie was in the middle of a pitched battle or something and a rock anthem suddenly started blaring out!

Yeah, that took me by surprise. A Hollywood-made non-Disney family film in this day and age having no pop songs whatsoever is super rare.

That just means I'll have to stand up in the theater and start singing, loudly.

Mind if I join you? We can make it a duet of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". They'll love it!

Sabrblade wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Glyph wrote:Anticipation cautiously building...

-Kanrabat- wrote:And damn, having pop songs in the movie would have been very immersion-breaking.

Yeah, imagine if the movie was in the middle of a pitched battle or something and a rock anthem suddenly started blaring out!

Yeah, that took me by surprise. A Hollywood-made non-Disney family film in this day and age having no pop songs whatsoever is super rare.

That just means I'll have to stand up in the theater and start singing, loudly.

Mind if I join you? We can make it a duet of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". They'll love it!

Smell that, that's what a viral moment smells like.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah, I'm taking all that with a whole shaker of salt. I'm still going to see it, but I was hoping we would get a detailed view of life on Cybertron before things went bad, but if "the downfall of Megatron" is already included, it sounds like they're just rehashing the story in the same manner that's been done repeatedly. So my expectations are tempered. Still looks better than RoTB, but that not a high bar to clear.

I agree especially with some of the idiots on reddit.

AlexanderLuft wrote:That's really cool. I hope if we get to see Megatron's downfall we hear Instruments of Destruction like on a montage

But the news post said there are no pop songs in the movie.

Yup, not a joke, that headline is a direct quote from Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who took the time to give some interesting quotes at the first screening of Transformers One in France. He was interviewed along with Josh Cooley, the director of Transformers One, as well as the head of Paramount Animation and Hasbro's head of film. You can read the full interview below, which comes from Variety.


This is the first animated Transformers movie in 40 years. What challenges did you face in getting it made?

Cooley: There were a lot of different challenges on this film. The fact that it’s animated, I think, is a benefit, though. Being that it’s set on Cybertron, there are no humans, and it’s all about the robots; it just feels natural to animate that as opposed to doing any other version. We went as big and as epic as possible just to match that feeling that people remember from the ’86 film.

Di Bonaventura: What’s so surprising about the ’86 film is how dark it is. Honestly, I don’t understand why people love it so much. For some, maybe it was their first cinematic experience, but it’s really a downer movie. Interestingly, when we showed our trailer for the first time, the fans’ reaction was to compare our movie to that one. But they’re so not comparable because that’s so dark, and this has so much humanity. They’re completely different movies in many ways.

Naito: I think for us at Paramount Animation, what was so great about partnering with Lorenzo and Josh is that this particular story could really only be told through animation. I mean, the world that Josh envisioned for Cybertron is extraordinary. It has so much innovation and beauty alongside a story that has so much heart.

Foreman: An animated “Transformers” movie was not part of the other piece of our relationship with Paramount and the live-action movies, so it’s something independent that we both had to agree on. But, from the very beginning, we all decided this was something we wanted. We brought Josh onto the project and developed it with Paramount as equal partners, and it’s basically been that way throughout the entire process.

Can you lure audiences who are not fans or familiar with the Transformers?

Cooley: It’s an origin story, so we not only talk about these characters that people know, but of the origin of the species itself. We go back to the beginning. This is what happened. This is how we got to this place. You can go in knowing absolutely nothing and enjoy this film.

Naito: That’s really important because we don’t want people to feel like, “Wow, I need to see seven movies before I go see this.” With this film, you don’t have to understand anything to follow along and enjoy it.

Josh, you previously directed “Toy Story 4.” How is it to be back again with a movie about a toy franchise?

Cooley: I didn’t approach this one as toys. In “Toy Story,” they are physically toys, and so everything they do is down on the floor, and they can only go as fast as their body allows them. But in this film, the characters are robots. They are on another planet. They are huge. They can do a lot more than a toy. That’s how I approached it, making sure that we still have those restrictions in play of what these characters actually are, which makes it way more fun when you’re watching it. It doesn’t feel like two people in suits acting it out. It’s like, “No, these are robots that are actually going a bunch of these emotions that you’re feeling and you’re along with.”

And you’ve enlisted some big Hollywood talent to voice these characters and bring them to life.

Cooley: Yeah, we have an incredible cast. I can’t believe how great it was. Everybody was fantastic. I would walk them through the scene, and they’d suggest a lot of stuff. Keegan[-Michael Key], of course, rifted like crazy on things. But Chris Hemsworth is also extremely funny. I was not prepared for how funny he is. A lot of his lines in this film are riffs off of what we had written, but he just brought his charisma and his comedy to it. He totally got it.

Di Bonaventura: That was really important because, from a fan point of view, the original voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen, is revered. To have somebody else voice Optimus Prime was like, “Whoa, we better get this right.” We couldn’t use Peter because the audience needs to feel the character’s youth. That’s why we pursued Chris. I was surprised, too, but not how funny Chris was. I’ve seen him in things where he was funny. But he has a very strong sense of story. That’s not true with every movie star.

Comedy is also a great way to broaden the appeal, right?

Cooley: The comedy in the live-action Transformers is always the balance between the humans and the robots. It’s almost like a fish-out-of-water story. I knew that would be a challenge with this film because we don’t have humans to play off of. It really had to come out of these characters. They had to be strong characters that could do what I call the elevator test, which is you could take two characters and put them in an elevator together and just let the scene play out.

After the success of “Mutant Mayhem” last year, Paramount is on a real high. How important is it that you follow that up with a film of the same quality and one that resonates with audiences the way that film did?

Naito: Extremely important. I think this film will appeal to the super fans and usher in a new generation of fans that will just ignite their interest in the entire franchise in a really exciting way. The film is beautiful. It’s innovative. The vision that Josh and Lorenzo have brought to the film is just incredible. The movie has so much soul.

And what does this film signify for Hasbro?

Foreman: For Hasbro Entertainment and the new iteration of our company, we are more likely to be more closely involved in the creative than we have been in the past with our brands. We’re in it for the long-term health of these things, the beautiful, emotional, nostalgic attachment that people have to these evergreen properties like Transformers. We want to make sure we protect them in every way possible. In the past, the company has been okay with dropping these pieces of IP off with other people, and I think the approach is different now. I’m hoping with movies like ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ and this one, people see the quality has a little bit to do with our involvement.

Fair. I mean they off most of our beloved childhood cast as an opener. I get his perspective.

What can I say? Time heals all wounds. I forgave them when OP came back. Plus I always loved Hot Rod, Galvatron, and Unicron.

eh, it's di Bonaventura so it probably only needed the first four words, really. AFAICT he just says whatever's convenient to the moment anyway so I don't set much stock by it.

That question from the interviewer is revealing though: "How is it to be back again with a movie about a toy franchise?"

That's a big reason why I don't think the film will do well financially, even if it's (as we all hope) a really good, fun film in itself. The perception that it's just "a toy movie".

He "doesn't get it" because he's not really a fan. He's a producer who has been attached to a franchise he really knows little about, par for the course in Hollywood these days.

Also, I love how all these articles state this is the first animated TF film to be in theaters since TFTM in 1986.... That might be true for North America, and most of the world....but there was a TF animated film in theaters in Japan in December of 1998, and it is actually quite fun. No humans in it either.

Kind of a clickbait-y title when that bit about Lorenzo not getting why people like the '86 movie is only a minor aside mentioned in passing and largely irrelevant to what all the interview talks about.

o.supreme wrote:Also, I love how all these articles state this is the first animated TF film to be in theaters since TFTM in 1986.... That might be true for North America, and most of the world....but there was a TF animated film in theaters in Japan in December of 1998, and it is actually quite fun. No humans in it either.

Japan got two. They aired the Beast Wars Season 3 episode "Cutting Edge" in theaters with an extended prologue made from parts of "Optimal Situation". It never saw release on DVD in Japan, only as a standalone VHS release, and was left out of the Beast Wars Metals series DVD release (same with the Season 2 episode "Bad Spark", which was likewise released in theaters with the Beast Wars Second movie).

Yeah. I thought that was all one event. I only mentioned the BWII movie because it was the new portion. The rest was recycled stuff from BW (although it was new to Japan at the time).

o.supreme wrote:Yeah. I thought that was all one event. I only mentioned the BWII movie because it was the new portion. The rest was recycled stuff from BW (although it was new to Japan at the time).

Nope. They got two.

Beast Wars Special: Super Lifeform Transformers was a triple-feature released in theaters on December 19, 1998. It consisted of "Clash! Beast Warriors", "Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger!", and "Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers - Metals".

The 1999 Summer Toei Anime Fair was a three-part anthology released in theaters on July 31, 1999. It consisted of "Beast Wars Metals: Convoy's Great Transformation!", a special for Microman, and a special for Licca-chan.

And both of these came before Beast Wars Metals even started broadcasting on Japanese television, so Japan got to see both "Bad Spark" and "Cutting Edge" ahead of the series proper.