So the Transformers One 3D animated movie came out last weekend, on September 20th, 2024.… and it bombed at the box office, making 25 million dollars over 3 days [which is what some hit movies make in 1 day]. And the movie cost roughly 75 million dollars to make, which does not include marketing or other post-production expenditures.
Here is a link to the movie trailer on Youtube:
HERE And here are a couple of points worth considering, about why the animated movie failed to connect with the original fans.
1. Severe Brand Damage – For those who don’t know, the pointless pronouns / woke shit had already crept into the franchise with the release of Transformers Earthspark on Nickelodeon. Plus Optimus Prim and Megatron, two male robots, had a “son”. Hence a Ton of longtime Fans and Parents walked away, along with their kids.
2. The Marketing for Transformers One was horrendously bad – From the movie trailers, it came across as a watered-down childish melodrama, for very young kids that like other franchises like Despicable Me and Minions. The original Transformers cartoon series from the mid-1980s was far more mature, and just all around more solid. And unfortunately, the perception overshadowed the reality. Therefore, many original TF fans, myself included, didn’t bother to give the new movie a chance.
3. Revisionist History, presented at its finest – If you are a long-time adult fan, this new origin story may not have appealed to you or your wallet [lets face it, the guys in their 40s who grew up on the original Transformers are the ones that buy those toys for themselves and their kids]. The movie’s trailer showed scenes and events that were not tied to the original lore, while presenting them in a childish carefree manner.
4. Immature Themes – If you watch the original cartoon series, the was a true sense of gravitas and high stakes, as the Autobots fought the Deceptions. It was “cartoony war”, with elements of camaraderie, bravery, loyalty and even treachery [from the bad guys]. Conversely, the vibe of the new movie from the trailers was just not solid enough. Frankly, it was soft and jovial.
5. Poor overall direction of the story – Strangely, those open minded fans that have gone to see the Transformers One movie have said the whole thing was good [although the first act = 1/3rd of the movie, was fueled with childish antics, before things got serious].
But if Hasbro were wise, they would have made a 3D movie based on the original Transformers G1 series, with the 80s original designs presented in smoother 3D form, showing what led the Autobots to flee from Cybertron. In that timeline, linked to the comics and the former cartoon series, Optimus Prime was a working class robot, while Megatron was some sort of gladiator. And they were not “Close Buddies”. Doing that, and sticking with the original set up, would have likely brought back parents and their kids, for nostalgia.
6. Some Character Design Flaws were too jarring to ignore – Some of the character designs in the new TF movie seem to be strongly influenced by the current-day manga / anime robot design themes. And while the small torsos, high pants, and long legs work for Japanese Anime Mecha Robots and souless Gundams, they don’t necessarily work well for Western Giant Robots.
And if you take a candid look at the design of Arcee [standing on the extreme right in the poster that I shared, above], you’ll see that her overall design looks awful, in terms of her feminine proportions… it's like she was not allowed to look like a beautiful woman, at all. Hell, just slap a menacing mask on her, and have her crouch low like a monkey, and she’ll look like a pink robot troll. Her design from the 1980s was more than 10-times better. And those references were obviously ignored.
After the recent video game failure of Concord [which cost Sony over 400 Million Dollars to make], it has become evident that Woke minds hate feminine beauty. And unfortunately, the leading female in this Transformers One movie was designed as such.
