We have to say that, on the surface, it feels pretty dumb to make a Transformers prequel. And look, we’re not insulting fans here who have a vested interest in seeing the weird lore of the pre-Earth adventures of Orion Pax (Optimus Prime) and D-16 (Megatron) as they go from best bros to enemies on the machine world of Cybertron. What we mean is that it’s weird to try and make it for a general audience — after all, the whole appeal is that these robots are on Earth and that they turn into cars, household objects, handguns, and so on — and it feels like it just kind of strains the premise to the breaking point.
Anyway, Paramount’s still trying to milk the property for all it’s worth, so Transformers One, the first animated Transformers film to be theatrically released since Hasbro ruined childhoods all the way back in ’86, is going to tell you everything that you didn’t want to know about Cybertron (and didn’t want to ask). The studio dropped a trailer for the film earlier on Thursday after showing some scenes at CinemaCon, and hey, the animation looks pretty nice.
Peep it:
Here’s a grammatically strange synopsis:
“‘Transformers One’ is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever. In the first-ever fully CG-animated ‘Transformers’ movie, ‘Transformers One’ features a star-studded voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi with Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm.
That one would come back blood-red in any middle school English class.
Anyway, Transformers One will transform and roll out in theaters everywhere on September 20. Kids will love it. If you’re an adult with fond memories of the Transformers series, we highly recommend you check out Daniel Warren Johnson’s comic — it’s published by Image, who makes all the comics the cool kids free-read at Barnes and Noble — because it kicks ass. Seriously, we’ve read it, and it rules.