Paramount Pictures has released the first clip from Transformers One, the upcoming animated origin story exploring the one-time friendship between Optimus Prime and Megatron.
Here, we see them and the movie's other leads attempting to transform for the first time...with hilarious results. Orion Pax, D-16, Elita, and Bumblebee are all rookies and a long way off from being the war machines we're used to seeing square off on screen.
The clip gives off major "Saturday Morning Cartoon" vibes, though that's not necessarily a bad thing!
During a recent interview, Transformers One director Josh Cooley addressed the decision to go with a CG-driven look for a franchise which has typically been presented in classic 2D animation.
"Because of where it exists in the timeline, there was no reason to have humans. So the live-action aspect of it was off the table," he explains. "This whole thing being on their planet and Cybertron, which is completely made of living metal, which means that it can transform itself and move around, and that our characters are robots, it just felt natural to tell this movie in CG."
"Even though it is animated, my whole goal was to make it feel believable. You don't look at it and go, 'This is real,' but you look at it and you almost forget that you're watching an animated film and you're just enjoying this characters," the filmmaker continued. "So my goal is always to have a level of believability to it."
Check out this new look at Transformers One from last night's Kids' Choice Awards below.
Transformers One is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.
The first-ever fully CG-animated Transformers movie features a star-studded voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth (Orion Pax), Brian Tyree Henry (D-16), Scarlett Johansson (Elita-1) and Keegan-Michael Key (B-127), Steve Buscemi, with Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm.
Transformers One is directed by Josh Cooley and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom DeSanto & Don Murphy, Michael Bay, Mark Vahradian, Aaron Dem and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Zev Foreman, Olivier Dumont, Brian Oliver, B.J. Farmer, Matt Quig.
The movie is set to be released in theaters on September 20.