Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry talk to Melissa Nathoo about voicing such iconic characters as Optimus Prime and Megatron in new animated movie, Transformers One.
After seven live-action films, the Transformers franchise has undergone the animation treatment.
Set on their home planet Cyberton, the animated prequel Transformers One expands the mythology of the franchise and reveals why the Transformers are now divided into Autobots and Decepticons using a best friends-to-enemies storyline.
It follows Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) – who will go on to become Optimus Prime and Megatron. In this film, the best buds are miners who spend their days digging for Energon in Iacon City. They don’t have transformers cogs (none of the miners do) and are unable to change form.
One day, they come across an old distress message from an ancient Transformer and decide to go to the surface for the first time to investigate. Recruiting Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127/Bumblebee (Keegan-Michael Key), they go on their mission, hoping the coordinates will take them to the Matrix of Leadership, a powerful ancient artefact.
The franchise has been a mixed bag over the years and Transformers One is one of the better instalments. An animated Transformers movie makes a lot of sense – the franchise suits the medium well and it visually sets itself apart from its seven live-action predecessors.
This chapter is geared towards younger audiences but it will still appeal to the adult fans because of the strength of the story. Transformers fans will be dying to know the origins of Optimus Prime and Megatron and the rift between them and will be thrilled to see their favourite characters transforming for the first time.
While D-16/Megatron’s gradual shift from good to evil doesn’t feel totally earned in the script, Henry does a fantastic job navigating this change with his voice. D-16 starts out as a naive and innocent worker bee and gradually becomes more angry, hurt and resentful.
Peter Cullen has voiced Optimus Prime since the very beginning so Hemsworth had big shoes to fill as Orion Pax but he does well as a convincing precursor to Cullen.
It was refreshing to see the Transformers having more personality, humour and emotion than usual and interesting to find out the prequel links up to the original. However, the mission storyline wasn’t particularly engaging or as fun as it could have been and some of the action sequences were hard to follow. The overall results are a mixed bag, although it is still better than most Transformers movies.
In cinemas from Friday 11th October.
