Millions of years ago, on a planet far, far away, a civilization of mechanical beings lived in seeming harmony, ruled over by the much beloved Sentinel Prime (voice of Jon Hamm). It’s a society living on the memory of an earlier, more prosperous time, however, when the life-giving Energon flowed freely through the mechanical cities. But the original Thirteen Primes are gone, and most Transformers now lack the T-Cog that allows them to transform, instead relegated to work the dangerous Energon mines deep in the heart of the planet.
Transformers One revolves around two of these downtrodden miners, the earnest D-16 (voice of Brian Tyree Henry) and the perpetual follower Orion Pax (voice of Chris Hemsworth). Buddies since their first day on the job, they are known for their endless hijinks and inability to follow orders, often given to them by their shift chief Elita-1 (voice of Scarlett Johansson). She’s single-mindedly working towards promotion but has her hopes dashed when her crew violate mining protocols to rescue a worker who would otherwise have been crushed in a cave-in.
Orion’s upset and feels guilty for Elita-1’s demotion, but D’s busy hatching his newest scheme: Having the two of them enter in the city-wide Iacon 5000 road race. A race that’s historically always been just for Transformers who can transform, it features a road that’s built as it’s driven upon. Very exciting! But miners who can’t transform in the race? That’s an awful idea. Or is it?
When they come to the attention of big boss Sentinel Prime, it seems like all is about to come up roses. Except Darkwing (voice of Isaac C. Singleton Jr.), their sworn enemy is in charge of their reward and sends them down to the sub-sub-sub-basement to work on trash sorting with the nutty but amusing B-127 (voice of Keegan-Michael Key). It’s not a good place to be and takes a matter of minutes before D-16’s inquiring about how they can escape. They do, and the story races off from that point, with lots of twists, action sequences, and surprises.
The first Transformers movie was the awkwardly titled 1986 The Transformers: The Movie and was considered quite a success. It even had Orson Wells as the voice of Unicron. Transformers One is only the second major animated film in this hugely successful franchise that has been more focused on TV shows, comic books, and toys. In the interim, explosion-meister Michael Bay released a series of hit-or-miss live-action Transformers films, most recently 2023’s middling Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
Interestingly, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg are both listed as producers for Transformers One, which undoubtedly gave it huge leverage and a budget far beyond most theatrical animated features. Some of the visuals were also done by Industrial Light & Magic, a world-class VFX company that almost exclusively focuses on live-action visual effects. These combine to deliver an animated film with a very cinematic sense and tempo that looks great on screen and delivers an exciting story with few slow passages.
There are also plenty of laughs, notably a running joke from B-127 (who will later transform into a much beloved Autobot) and some wonderous visual ideas that will keep even highly distractable children glued to the screen. It’s a long, long way from the animation style of the 1986 film, that’s for sure.
As with many modern productions, Transformers One should really be seen on the big screen with a big sound system. Featuring a soundtrack by über-composer Brian Tyler, it’s one of the best and most entertaining animated features that’s come out in 2024. Even if you’re not much of a Transformers fan, I promise, this will be worth the ticket price.
Tip: There’s a hilarious mid-credit scene and a completely unsurprising post-credit scene, so stick around after the credits start rolling to catch them too.
Note: This article originally appeared on PlanetDave.com with the title Film Review: Autobots Assemble for “Transformers One”