'Transformers One' is an animated origin story with a light touch

Chris Hemsworth voices Orion Pax/Optimus Prime in Transformers One.

Paramount Pictures

The Transformers franchise has been around for decades, and it's brought us many toys, TV shows and movies. Now, in the new animated film Transformers One, the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron finally gets told. With a voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry, the movie hopes to offer a fresh entry point for the long-running franchise.

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

STEPHEN THOMPSON, HOST:

The Transformers franchise has been around for decades, and it's brought us many toys, TV shows and movies. Now in the new animated film "Transformers One," the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron finally gets told. The movie has a voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry, and it hopes to offer a fresh entry point for the long-running franchise. I'm Stephen Thompson, and today we are talking about "Transformers One" on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR. Joining me today is Jordan Crucchiola. She's a writer and producer and the host of the podcast "Feeling Seen" on Maximum Fun. Hey, Jordan.

JORDAN CRUCCHIOLA: Hello. Thank you for having me back.

THOMPSON: It is always a pleasure. Also with us is Ronald Young Jr. He is the host of the film and television review podcast "Leaving The Theater" and the podcast "Weight For It." Hi, Ronald.

RONALD YOUNG JR: Hello, Stephen.

THOMPSON: It is great to have you both. So the story of the Transformers can be complex. There is a ton of deep lore that stretches across a whole bunch of TV shows and movies. But really, it's pretty simple. You've got these intergalactic robots. They can transform into cars and whatnot, and they have loads and loads of whirring, clanking battles. In most Transformers movies, the stage has already been set with two warring factions. One is led by a good guy robot called Optimus Prime. The other is led by a bad guy robot called Megatron.

The new CG animated movie "Transformers One" documents their origin story, wherein Optimus Prime and Megatron are friends named Orion Pax and D-16, respectively. Here, they're voiced by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry. They are ragtag best buddies whose potential is limited by their inability to transform, but they've got big dreams and a desire to help leader Sentinel Prime, who's voiced by Jon Hamm. "Transformers One" is directed by Josh Cooley, who won an Oscar for directing "Toy Story 4." It's in theaters now. Jordan Crucchiola, I'm going to start with you. What did you think of "Transformers One"?

CRUCCHIOLA: I had a fun little time at this movie. And it was a daytime screening. It was at 4 p.m., which is unusual, but there were many children there. So you could see, like, the kind of audience that they were bringing in for this early look at the movie. And that crowd was very into it. There were applause at points where their applause was meant to be. This is for people who really knew what the Transformers lore was. And at the end of it, there was a bit of an ovation.

And being in a room like that helps me enjoy a movie more if I know that, like, I'm a little, like - I'm probably just a weekend warrior here, and there are a lot of people know better than me. And if I'm having a good time, and I hear those people enjoying themselves, then I'm like, OK, this movie is pulling off things that it needs to be pulling off. I felt moved. I did weep at certain points. I was emotional about this movie. But I also cry every time I see "The Wild Robot" trailer.

THOMPSON: (Laughter).

CRUCCHIOLA: But yeah, I had a good time. And if you've been enjoying the Transformers movies, and if you feel like you've gotten diminishing returns out of the live-action Transformers movies lately, I would say that "Transformers One" is a nice little rope back into the feature film-like experience of Transformers.

THOMPSON: Without spoiling any of the big - I'm not meaning to imply that there are massive plot twists in a "Transformers" prequel, but what made you weep?

CRUCCHIOLA: I'm always going to be a sucker for the power of friendship.

THOMPSON: Sure.

CRUCCHIOLA: And when it is clear this friendship is being torn asunder, it made me very sad to be aware that there would be not just irreconcilable differences, but I'm pretty sure, like, differences to the scope of it would be the undoing - eventual undoing of Cybertron between our main two characters, which is really very sad.

THOMPSON: I am a big movie crier.

YOUNG: Oh, I know.

CRUCCHIOLA: (Laughter).

THOMPSON: Ronald and I go to screenings together sometimes. So he knows full well.

YOUNG: (Laughter).

CRUCCHIOLA: But I thought, like, there was a tenderness. It's a great voice cast. Chris Hemsworth is a great eventual Optimus Prime. By the time he starts kind of, like, ascending to his new form, I was like, oh, wow. Like, I feel like this guy's been with me all along, and I really like that.

THOMPSON: (Laughter).

CRUCCHIOLA: It was sweet. There was such a sweetness to this movie that felt like - it did feel like, in that way, like, watching a '90s cartoon and just, like, liking my robot friends.

THOMPSON: (Laughter).

CRUCCHIOLA: And I love the live-action movies. But, like, the way that you kind of have to dance around a little bit of, like, the big box-office cinema cynicism around them where it can feel a little bit like a cash grab based on adapting toys. You watch a cartoon version of it, and there's just something feels a little bit more pure of heart about that, even if it's all, you know, commerce.

THOMPSON: I think that's a good point. All right. How about you, Ronald?

YOUNG: I'm not as enthusiastic about this movie as Jordan was, but there are parts of this movie that I really, really liked. I liked the idea of it being an origin story that's set on Cybertron that does not include, like, humans...

CRUCCHIOLA: That's it.

THOMPSON: (Laughter).

YOUNG: ...Running around. I feel like the idea of...

THOMPSON: Yeah.

YOUNG: ...Looking at them all at their house, doing, like, their, you know, Autobot slash, like, Cybertronian things. That felt fine with me, and I really enjoyed that. There's parts of it that feels like it's 100% designed for children, which is fine. It's a children's movie. But I also feel like, you know, in a world of, like, Pixar and the Spider-Verse movies and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," we've seen people that are able to really nail this in a way that I don't think "Transformers One" did, but I would definitely watch a sequel...

THOMPSON: (Laughter).

YOUNG: ...Because they did enough things right in this movie that I was like, yeah, I want to see where Brian Tyree Henry is going with this.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah.

YOUNG: Because I felt like, you know, we talked about Chris Hemsworth, but Brian Tyree Henry had to do, like, quite a bit of a turn in this movie.

THOMPSON: Right.

YOUNG: I enjoyed watching him do that, even in the voice acting that he was doing there. All of that being said. I also like the idea of them setting up villains the way we like to see villains now, which is a la Killmonger, a la Magneto, where it's like, this villain might have some points here. Maybe he's not such a villain. But I will say towards the end, when you get to the point of the villain turn actually being complete, there's a little bit of a leap they make, especially in terms...

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah.

YOUNG: ...Of the name Decepticon - where it comes from - which made me laugh out loud. I was like, come on, guys. But it was still fine. And I mean, all that being said, yeah, I'll watch another one of these. If they keep making them like this, or again, like the "Bumblebee" movie, I'd be way more interested in this lore. So I think worth going to see.

THOMPSON: All right. I basically agree with everything that both of you have said. I think for me, there's a little bit of a ceiling on how much I can love a "Transformers" movie.

CRUCCHIOLA: I feel the same about Wes Anderson movies, so I'm not going to come down on you for that.

YOUNG: Great comparison. Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

THOMPSON: I think that's weirdly a great comparison 'cause it's entirely personal, right? Like, for me, I didn't quite come of age at the right age to appreciate the Transformers toys. Every time I've been exposed to the lore, it just feels like a lot of portent and robot fights. I have wept at a great many robot movies, from "The Iron Giant" to "Big Hero 6," but I wasn't hugely moved by this film. For me, this film - first two acts do a really nice job of injecting levity into this story. Giving you a little bit of a scrappy underdog tale, as Jordan said, a tale of friendship. Keegan-Michael Key, who is...

YOUNG: Yes. Oh, man.

THOMPSON: ...Who is playing the robot...

YOUNG: Great.

THOMPSON: ...Who will become Bumblebee...

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah.

THOMPSON: ...Who is, we can all agree, the most lovable Transformer.

CRUCCHIOLA: Who has had a psychotic break as a result of terminal loneliness being shunted into a job in the bowels of Cybertron.

THOMPSON: Sure does. I think that stuff is all working really well. For me, where this movie really starts to kind of come apart is in that third act where it kind of has to shift into a lot of chaotic final battles, and a lot of that big, deep-voiced portent, good and evil clank, clank (vocalizing) that I didn't find as moving. For me, like, as Ronald said, I can't help but compare this film to the kind of reworkings of Spider-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in those animated franchises. And I think this is definitely, especially the first two-thirds of this film, are using those films as a template.

But I think once it kind of gets into the mechanics of wrapping up its story, it loses me quite a bit. I do agree that I did basically enjoy this film and recommend it to people who are interested in the Transformers, interested in this lore, maybe looking for an entry point, maybe who have kids who are enjoying these things and want to enjoy this with them. All that stuff - I think it works fine. For me, this thing doesn't quite stick the landing.

CRUCCHIOLA: For me, the fact that this goes full kids' movie is something I actually really appreciated about it because in my "Transformers" ranking at Vulture, I will have you know the No. 1 is "Bumblebee."

THOMPSON: Yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: No. 2 is the first "Transformers," and then No. 3 is "Age Of Extinction." That movie rules.

YOUNG: Oh, come on.

(LAUGHTER)

YOUNG: I was with you.

CRUCCHIOLA: So, this movie being a fully animated kids' film was like, listen, this is where these movies were going anyway, so I'm glad we have fully committed now with "Transformers One." So, that actually had an appeal to me. Like, you're absolutely right about it not having the levels and layers that some of, like, master works of animation that we've seen that can go to so many people in one room watching a movie. But I thought the, like, more single-lane focus of this was like, that feels better than the cacophony that I feel like has gotten out of control in mainstay Transformers universe for me.

YOUNG: I think you're right, Jordan, but I feel like the idea of them - like, for instance, the single-lane focus, I feel like, is the difference between, like, "Despicable Me" and "Big Hero 6."

CRUCCHIOLA: Totally.

YOUNG: Where it's like...

CRUCCHIOLA: OK, yes.

YOUNG: You know, like you walk in and being like, I can take my kids to both of these.

THOMPSON: Right.

YOUNG: But one of these I'm going to take my kids and be like, hey, we can see as many of these as you want...

CRUCCHIOLA: Yes.

YOUNG: ...Because daddy also had a good time, you know what I mean?

THOMPSON: Right.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yes.

THOMPSON: Ignore the fact that Daddy's face is very wet at the end of this film.

CRUCCHIOLA: (LAUGHTER)

YOUNG: Yeah, don't worry about that. I'm having a great time. Don't worry.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah, definitely. Like, I wasn't crying on the level of Bing Bong in this movie...

(LAUGHTER)

CRUCCHIOLA: ...But, like, I was drying my eyes.

YOUNG: To your point, I would say, like, I don't think it goes all the - it does go mostly into kids' movie territory.

CRUCCHIOLA: Sure, sure, sure.

YOUNG: If it's a four quadrant, it's probably more into the kids than we've seen before, but it's not quite "Despicable Me." Like, I'm sitting there.

CRUCCHIOLA: I would agree.

YOUNG: And especially when you think about, like, the way they're setting up the villains. Again, this whole - they do more of the Malcolm X, Martin Luther King thing that you're used to seeing in "X-Men" in this.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah.

YOUNG: Which I will say that brings me to the third act problem that you were talking about, Stephen, because I think part of it is that you get to the end and you get to the rush and you're like, why are you so - you shouldn't be this angry.

THOMPSON: Right.

YOUNG: Everyone else went through the same thing.

THOMPSON: Right.

YOUNG: You got way more angry.

CRUCCHIOLA: It does. It's like, wow, this is so disproportional.

YOUNG: Correct.

CRUCCHIOLA: Like, do you know that you're ruining your own life right now?

YOUNG: Exactly.

CRUCCHIOLA: Like, you're so angry, but, like, I think you're hurting you more than anyone else right now.

YOUNG: Yes. I don't know, Stephen, if you felt like maybe that was part of, like, the rush of the third act that was, like, getting to you?

THOMPSON: Yeah. I think part of it was, like, you are third movie angry, but I'm watching first movie.

YOUNG: (LAUGHTER)

THOMPSON: I guess my last Transformers question is, this movie is clearly meant to launch a, kind of, new Transformers timeline/franchise/format, right? Like, this is supposed to launch a string of animated films. Are you interested in where they go next? Or, conversely, should they go back even further to Transformer babies?

YOUNG: Oh, my gosh (laughter). I said I'd watch a sequel. Matter of fact, I think y'all can stay away from Earth for a few more movies.

THOMPSON: Oh, for sure. Keep the humans out of this story.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yes. 100%, yeah.

THOMPSON: Because for one thing, if you have a bunch of humans, you're going have to tell me who they are.

(LAUGHTER)

YOUNG: No, I don't - I don't need that.

CRUCCHIOLA: You just met a lot of people.

YOUNG: And when you put humans in the movie, you got to put them in the center of the movie where they got to be the one to pick up the key to save the - like, no, leave them on Cybertron, let the war play out a little bit. Let's watch that. I'm interested in that.

CRUCCHIOLA: I would honestly, I would take a sequel or I would take a prequel to a prequel.

YOUNG: (Laughter).

CRUCCHIOLA: Because if it was, like, a capsule movie where it's just, like, those two sweet boys dealing with the foibles of Cybertron high school, like, that as just, like, a little side quest movie, I think it would be just so charming.

THOMPSON: Just keep going backwards. Eventually, we meet their parents and find out about their dating lives.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah (laughter). We just get to, like, where it was just actually really nice on Cybertron still and the Primes were still alive.

THOMPSON: Yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: And it's like, this was good.

YOUNG: This is fine. Let's just end it here.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah. If there's not, like, a conflict, it's just like a coming-of-age movie.

YOUNG: Oh, my God.

CRUCCHIOLA: Just like a silly - his first romance.

YOUNG: You've given this a treatment. This is incredible.

THOMPSON: Yeah. These ideas are free, people.

CRUCCHIOLA: This could be a lot of fun.

THOMPSON: All right. Well, we want to know what you think about "Transformers One." Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pchh. Up next, What Is Making Us Happy This Week?

Now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What Is Making Us Happy This Week. Jordan Crucchiola, kick us off.

CRUCCHIOLA: This week, what's making me happy is the Netflix series, "The Perfect Couple."

THOMPSON: Ooh.

CRUCCHIOLA: "The Perfect Couple" is, it's a wedding, and our star Eve Hewson, the bride, is just a plucky gal from a normal family marrying into this, like, you know, rich lineage. And there is a death/murder on the night of the rehearsal dinner, basically. Wedding's the next day. And then the first episode ends with discovering a body on the beach, and then the rest of the show is a timeline-jumping, back-and-forth reveal to what happened, who was the murderer? How did this go down? What were the motivations, kind of thing?

Everybody is doing a great job in this exact, very refined format that Nicole Kidman has honed to the sharpest possible blade. I love that Nicole Kidman has made her, like, career where it's like, listen, if I'm going to be an actress who is typecast at the age that I am for this point in my career, I am going to play this woman that you will eat up every single time you see her. And there's a control and a dignity to choosing where, like, a woman in her 50s, going into her 60s gets to do in Hollywood. Like, watching it, I've had this undercurrent of just being so impressed with this stage of the career that Nicole Kidman has built for herself and her ability to perpetuate it so, like, robustly, that, like, yeah, it's a great time and also, go, Nicole Kidman. You're a titan, you're an institution.

THOMPSON: So, that's "The Perfect Couple" on Netflix. Check your POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR feeds. We did recently do an episode on "The Perfect Couple." Thank you, Jordan Crucchiola. Ronald Young Jr., what's making you happy this week?

YOUNG: So, I'm finally catching up on a lot of shows that I haven't watched, and one of the shows that I had never seen was "Attack On Titan," which is about this village, this world, and they're just constantly being beset upon by giants that are just coming to eat and kill them. And it's about this corps of people who, like, basically suspend themselves from the air and also from trees and also from the giants themselves in order to fight against these titans as they come in. It's available on Hulu, and I just started watching it, and I've been wanting to watch it for years, and I have not been disappointed so far. I think I'm about four episodes in. I've been watching the subtitled version 'cause you can do a sub or a dub, and I'm a sub guy. So, I've been watching that.

CRUCCHIOLA: Same.

YOUNG: I've really just been enjoying it. It's been a good time. I understand the fuss about anime. Previous to this, I'd only watched "Avatar: The Last Airbender" on Nickelodeon, but I don't think people consider that to be anime. I don't know if they do, because it's on Nickelodeon, but I really watched that. So, now I'm watching "Attack On Titan," and I'm hoping this does not start me down a path of deep into "One-Punch Man," and all the rest of them, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

THOMPSON: Nice. That's "Attack On Titan." You can stream it on Hulu. Thank you, Ronald Young Jr. What is making me happy this week? NPR Music has a book.

CRUCCHIOLA: (Laughter) Woo-hoo.

THOMPSON: It's called "How Women Made Music." It is a spin off-of our wonderful Turning The Tables project, which I have talked about on this show before. If you don't know Turning The Tables, Turning The Tables was a project where NPR Music writers kind of re-envisioned the rock 'n' roll canon through the lens of women, and basically kind of looked at all those, like, "Rolling Stone" guides to the 500 greatest such and such, and just imagined, like, what if those lists were entirely made up of music by women, to kind of flesh out and re-examine the musical canon.

We did several seasons of Turning The Tables on the NPR Music website, but now there is this wonderful, wonderful book out October 1, edited by Alison Fensterstock. Ann Powers worked heavily on this book, Marissa Lorusso worked heavily on this book. The NPR Music team, you know, a lot of our editors worked on it. I did not. So, I just get to pick it up and flip through it and just delight in it. It is multi-genre. It is coming at this music from a bunch of different angles. Sometimes, it's just short capsule recommendations of canonical pieces of art. Dozens and dozens of contributors, many of my favorite NPR Music contributors. In the interest of full disclosure, my partner has a tiny little entry in this book...

CRUCCHIOLA: Ooh.

THOMPSON: ...Which we are very excited about. But the fact of the matter is, I would be excited about this book even if I didn't work for NPR Music, even if my partner did not contribute one tiny little piece of it. It is a marvelous, marvelous document. It is wonderfully illustrated and designed. If you have ever read any of NPR Music's coverage in this area, if you've ever looked at Turning The Tables, if you are interested at all in expanding your music knowledge beyond a lot of that "Rolling Stone" canonical, you know, here's the 100 best so and so, and we forgot to include women, this is a really, really great book, and I'm so excited to have it in my hands and for people to check it out. Again, it's called "How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History From NPR Music," and that is what is making me happy this week. If you want links for what we recommended, plus some more recommendations, sign up for our newsletter at npr.org/popculturenewsletter. That brings us to the end of our show. Ronald Young Jr., Jordan Crucchiola, thanks so much for being here.

YOUNG: Thanks for having me.

CRUCCHIOLA: Thank you so much for having me.

THOMPSON: This episode was produced by Hafsa Fathima and edited by Mike Katzif. Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy, and Hello Come In provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next week.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.