When Michael Bay set out to translate my favorite cartoon as a kid to a giant budget movie, I was ecstatic. And although it got some things wrong, I ultimately loved the first Transformers movie. Just not Bumblebee.
One of my biggest beefs with it was that Bumblebee was a Camaro and not a Volkswagen bug. Sure, they gave us that little easter egg Beetle at the car dealership while Bernie Mac screamed at his Mamie, but it wasn’t enough. It turns out that the Bumblebee I wanted, had landed on Earth in the 80s.
Origin Story
I’m not typically a fan of prequels, but it seems like Hollywood is mining that well pretty hard right now. This one has me interested, however, as it’s a period piece set in the 1980s. In this origin story, Bumblebee is found in a California beach town by a girl named Charlie Watson.
Watson, played by Hailee Steinfeld, is almost sure to follow the same story trajectory as his relationship with Shia LaBeouf’s character Sam Witwicky. I’m pretty ok with this though because the rest of the Autobots likely won’t show up to steal the screen and kick over fountains in Charlie’s parent’s yard.
It seems Charlie must save Bee from the secret government organization, Section 7, led by none other than John Cena.
And the memes will make themselves.
What’s got me most excited is the aesthetic present here. Bumblebee looks very much like he did in the 80s cartoon and Starscream even shows up in his old school red and white to cause trouble.
There is more heart in this trailer than in all five of the previous Transformers movies.
That likely has a lot to do with first-time live-action director Travis Knight. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because he was the animation director on the films “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” and “The Boxtrolls.” He made a huge splash, however with his first directing gig on the amazing “Kubo and the Two Strings.”
Here’s The Official Synopsis:
On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.
We’ll see how the yellow transformer with a heart of gold met his first friend on December 21, 2018.
