‘Transformers One’ Review: Animated Origin Story Reveals There’s More to the Series’ Central Conflict Than Meets the Eye
variety.comTodd Gilchrist editor Upon its release in 1986, Nelson Shin’s “The Transformers: The Movie” was massively influential — less as entertainment inspired by a popular line of children’s toys than one that was willing to kill off a major character in order to make room for new ones.
The death of heroic Autobot leader Optimus Prime proved so traumatic to a generation of young viewers that toy company Hasbro scrambled to rescue Duke from a similar fate in “G.I.
Joe: The Movie,” released a year later. For almost four decades, it prevented many family-friendly toons from raising the stakes too high.
Thankfully, “Transformers One” mostly ignores its predecessor’s downstream legacy. Now, in the first animated film in the franchise to play theatrically since that one, director Josh Cooley doesn’t commit widespread Cybertronian genocide.
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