I’ll admit it: I very much liked the first Michael Bay Transformers movie. In fact, I loved it. And actually, if you’ll recall, so did quite a few other people – it’s a lot better than you remember. And then, the sequels – oh the sequels – came along and sullied it somewhat. The second one was atrocious, third a bit better, fourth probably the best, and fifth, well I’ve lost interest now and haven’t even seen it.
But there’s one more Transformers movie out there that I haven’t mentioned – the one that started it all, 1986’s Transformers: The Movie. This one holds a much fonder place in the hearts of millions of now-adults. Ostensibly a children’s film, it was surprisingly grown-up (for a film about giant robots that turn into cars), and while I’m on a course of admitting embarrassing things: pretty upsetting.
Well, maybe the brains behind the franchise (or at least the brains that currently hold the rights) have also experienced franchise fatigue like me, because they’re going back to the start and getting to work on a new animated movie. Hasbro have confirmed this’ll be the first to hit cinemas since the original animated film, and will hopefully be a return to form (we can but dream, I guess).
Unfortunately, it’s going to be set within the same timeline as the Michael Bay-directed movies, though it’ll focus on the origins of the cool dude car-robots. Of course, as it’s 2017, and everything has to be a giant franchise juggernaut with little or no respect for storytelling, the plan is to have a new animated Transformers movie released every year after this one. And that’s on top of all the other live-action Transformers flicks currently being planned (which is absolutely loads, for some reason).
Either way, we’ve got a while to wait – no official date has been attached, but it’ll probably be soon: you can’t wait around when there’s sweet, sweet moolah to be made. No time to waste to get that smooth, stinky cashish.
(Image: Rex)
