Two Animated Transformers Movies in a Sea of Live Action

MURRIETA, CA--Before it became known as the blockbuster, live-action, movie monolith that it’s recognized as now, the Transformers franchise actually launched into cinema with an animated film: The Transformers: The Movie (TFTM). People, though, have seemingly forgotten Transformers’ first foray onto the big-screen, however, with the recent release of the Transformers: One trailer. On social media, some were stunned regarding the release of an animated Transformers movie; they knew it only as a live-action franchise after the Michael Bay movies had garnered such mass following and media attention, after all. I, however, am a massive fan of the original film, and immediately began to compare TFTM and One.

I think trying to compare is something of a moot point, though. Although it was tempting for me to wonder which would be superior, from the trailers alone it’s obvious that both are trying to be something completely different from one another. Transformers: One is most apparently a movie that is oriented toward kids, which is no surprise–the franchise is targeted toward children. The trailer focuses on humor for the most part, with bits of seriousness sprinkled in, but interwoven with jokes for the most part. This is not inherently negative, but it’s just apparent that comedy was the primary concern of the trailer, at least.

With The Transformers: The Movie, comedy was a core aspect of the film, too, undoubtedly. There were battles where “Weird Al” Yankovic songs would play in the background, or moments when Wheelie, the perennially annoying rhyming robot, would show up on screen to lighten tensions. But it’s important to understand that the movie begins on an incredibly dark note, for the first twenty minutes or so. For context, the movie takes place in the continuity of the original ‘84 cartoon, in which, at the end of every episode, no matter how ugly the battle, the Autobots would laugh and return home unscathed. The antagonists, the Decepticons, too, would be able to return to base without suffering any casualties. In the movie, within the first twenty minutes, fourteen of these characters are killed, often in grisly ways. Prowl, who is one of several Autobots to die in the opening scenes, is blasted through the chest by Scavenger, and is set ablaze from the inside. Ratchet, a medic, is killed by Starscream when he takes his eyes off of the battle to focus on a wounded comrade. It’s all very upsetting, and regardless of the comedy later on in the film, it doesn’t quite help to rebound from the initial dread of it all. When Season 3 of the cartoon came out, along with the story boards for the movie and comic book retellings of the events of the film, the death toll rose, too. Huffer was revealed to have died off screen (The Transformers, Season 3: “Dark Awakening”), Shockwave perished in the final battle on Cybertron (IDW’s Transformers: Animated Movie), and Red Alert was killed when confronting Devastator (TFTM original storyboards). Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust are all supposed to have died in the film, too, but they show up several times throughout the course of Season 3, even having speaking lines and core roles in the episodes, so I don’t count them. Factoring in Shockwave, Red Alert, and Huffer, though, the death toll is brought to a staggering seventeen dead.

The deaths in the film make sense: the Transformers are a warring race, and the movie does a good job of showing the grisly consequences of a war lasting as long as theirs. But it was also a very controversial move to kill off so many characters so swiftly (the real world reason for doing so was to sell new toys and kill off the old toys), so it should not be expected to be repeated in Transformers: One. But that does not mean the movie won’t have serious parts to it, either. Throughout the trailer, the audience is able to see glimpses of what we can expect to be the higher-stakes portions of the movie: D-16, a young version of Megatron and ally of Orion Pax, is shown to brand himself with a Decepticon insignia and take on a more combat-adept form, for example. Of course, this will inevitably lead to Orion and D-16’s relationship falling apart, a moment in the movie that will be of “biblical” proportions, according to the director. We don’t need the deaths of the original, then, for One to still be an interesting entry into the Transformers franchise; even if D-16 and Orion’s relationship being destroyed is the only serious part of the movie, so long as it’s handled correctly, I’m here for the ride (even if it’s interspersed with the kind of humor that was abundant in the trailer–again, it’s for kids). With the high-quality animation seen in the trailer and the more human-like faces of the transformers seen in One, too, those dramatic moments have the potential to bear even more weight, if done right.

Regardless, I will always prefer the original TFTM to anything that’s come after it; even though I was an early 2000s kid, I grew up on the movie and original show (my grandparents rented them for me several times from Blockbuster). The designs, to me, are classic–I love the design aesthetic of the original cast of characters, and the highly synthesized 80’s music that played in the film and Season 3 and 4. TFTM is beautifully animated, too, sporting intricate frames, character detailing, expressive faces, and enthralling battles that were revolutionary for the franchise. I am, however, still more than willing to go into One with an open mind, even more so since it’s trying something new, after decades of live-action films. I think all fans of Transformers should, too; if we want the franchise to be successful, we need to support new endeavors like this. I won’t lie, I originally was not a big fan of the trailer, or the designs for the characters, but both have grown on me over time. Hopefully they’ll grow on you, too, whether you’re a casual fan/watcher, or a more hardcore fan of the franchise.

References:

https://screenrant.com/transformers-one-josh-cooley-interview/

https://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Transformers:_The_Movie