For two glorious years, Optimus Prime was America’s hero. He starred in Transformers, a thriftily animated series (cynics would call it a half-hour toy commercial) that pitted Prime and his army of Autobots against the vicious Megatron and his Decepticons. On the small screen, these robots in disguise were more than cartoons, they were towering titanium gods, massive in their machine carapaces: tractor trailers, cop cars, fighter jets.
In toy form, Transformers combined the tantalizing tactility of a Rubik’s Cube with the vroom-vroom automotive voyeurism of Hot Wheels. Add a touch of Cold War moral clarity and we were hooked. Boys ages 5 to 11 — and it was boys — faithfully tuned in week after week to watch the saga of these doughty bots, who struck out from their home planet, Cybertron, with vague and mixed motives — conquest, freedom, resources, defense — and brought their civil war to our planet. We welcomed them as liberators and adopted Prime as our mech-daddy. Some quite literally: In 2001, a 30-year-old National Guardsman from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, legally changed his name to Optimus Prime. “I really latched onto him when I was a kid,” Prime said to TV reporters before shipping out to the Middle East in 2003. “My dad passed away and I didn’t really have anybody around.”
Then in 1986, the original Prime did something that distinguished him from most other cartoon heroes. He died. He died for freedom, for righteousness, and for shelf space. In the toy biz, there’s no room for fatherly affection — only next year’s line. The Transformers: The Movie, released in August of that year, was Prime’s swan song. For nearly two decades, through various toy lines and dubious toon reboots (a gorilla named Optimus Primal? Please.), the sons of Prime waited for Papa Bot.
At last, in July 2004, it was decreed from the throne of Steven Spielberg: There would be a live-action remake of Transformers. (Wonder! Joy! Blogging!) A year later, another revelation: Michael Bay, best known for such Truffautian explorations of modern manhood as Armageddon and The Rock, would direct.
[Wired Magazine goes Behind the Scenes with Director Michael Bay]
Enjoy this great bacground on the TRANSFORMERS Movie that comes out July Third. Besides it coming across as commercial for the upcoming movie, its also a interesting look at a show loved as a kid.
Tags: Comic, Interesting, Movies
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