Yahoo Movies has posted up a video interview where he talked a little about Transformers. You can find the full video here. Thanks to Chad for the link.The highlights:
- Bay said he did listen to the net "quite a bit." Acknowledged the early draft that was leaked but mostly listened to the comments about the Transformers artwork.
- Why flames on Optimus? Because he wanted flames. "Why pick a green house, why a yellow house? I wanted flames on Optimus."
- About fans saying he is wrecking their childhood: "I don't think I wrecked your childhood. If you look back at the cartoons now, they look really dated. My thing is I had to make these robots look real in real life situation."
- "Optimus Prime has 10,108 parts that are all moving and all interactive. Very complex model that fits in our live action very real."
- Engineering: They talked about parts discussing if alien or terrestial. Also how walked with the "bird-like things" for Starscream. Used 3-D models to determine how could move and joints that couldn't so correct them.
- Used AKA for the sets of robots which is why Frenzy was labeled Soundbyte for a while. Like Frenzy because he was "vicious."
- Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are Bay's favorites.
As for comment about the original cartoons, I have to agree. I have all the seasons on DVD. By the end it was just painful to get through. Just more sophisticated tastes now vs then I guess. Beast Wars to me, especially Season 2 and 3 was really the height of Transformers writing and execution. That the movie writers clearly used that series as a source of inspiration is part of the reason why have high hopes for this film.
Has anyone here seen Power Rangers? MechaZord or whatever they're called? Dude, if that's the kinda LIVE ACTION some fans want.. I dunno. That's NOT what I wanna see. That is laughable.
ReplyDeleteImagine OP in that form. Terrible. Would be amusing though to see OP clunk around duking it out in a carboard city with Devastator. haha
XD
ReplyDeleteThe Megazord for the movie was done in CG (when they were separated, it wasn't CG, I think) and was actually pretty cool, I thought... that was the height of the show...and went down hill from there. You could probably say that it paved the road for live action movies with giant mecha...only other movie after that (that looked good) was the live action Gundam movie: G-Saviour...unless there are more that I don't know about.
Btw, I'm saying that I thought the mecha looked good, not that the movies were good...
I understand the goal for realism and that makes the new designs sit right for me. But I have all the Kid Rhino G1 DVDs and they don't seem that dated to me. Yes there are A LOT of animation errors and some of the plot points are questionable, but it's still a lot of fun to watch. I'm going to make sure that these are the Transformers by kid gets first exposure to.
ReplyDeleteOf course 80s cartoons dont stand up to state of the art CGI of a 150 million dollar movie.
ReplyDeleteWithout that 80s cartoon mythos there is no movie for his ass to make.
Some of the changes Bay made were arbitrary and stupid:
1. Flames on Prime
2. Skates on Bonecrusher
3. The complete clusterf**k that is Frenzy
4. Starscream's entire design
5. Megatron's design especially his head and hands.
Im sorry if I dont share his hard on for thousands of moving parts.
Thank God for Don Murphy or else things could have been much worse. Bay's dumbass didn't want Cullen.
I still fail to see what's so bad about flames on prime...they're just..flames @___@'...he still looks a hell of a lot of like optimus prime to me..as for the skates on bonecrusher, those are his tires from the mine sweeper..and really it's no different from beast wars transmetal megatron xD..he had skates too in his vehicle mode..starscream, i love the look, I love the classic look but I also like this one just as much. I understand it's a big change but some of these complaints still seem silly to me..I will never understand how ANYONE can be so ticked off at some flame designs..would you rather they made Prime a fire truck?
ReplyDeletePrime's been a LOT of things. Shoot, I don't know why people aren't SCREAMING about how he was a freakin' GORILLA in Beast Wars. What da hell, man! He was a fire truck at one point, a crane in another, and has gone through opting out of blue and going with a red and gold paint job with a weird Armada-esk form. And now, he's a Mr. Potato Head junkie. Oh but wait, let's not forget his pure Cybetronian mode (2-3 diff versions now I think). And now... NOW he's merged into the Star Wars universe. WELL HOLY SHIT. haha So I'd like to know which is the correct one (well, of course I know that answer, jus' sayin'). :)
ReplyDeleteSource: http://www.transformerland.com/g1/optimusprime.html
So basically what I'm saying is I'm glad he's still a freakin' TRUCK, a BADASS truck (the Kenworths are substantially more powerful and visually cooler than the Peterbilts. And personally, I REALLY dig the flames. That just says to me, "FUCK YEAH! YOU DECEPTICON CREEPS ARE GOIN' DOWN!"
I'd like to point out that Optimus PRIME was not a gorilla, ever. It was Optimus PRIMAL that was a gorilla. Optimus Primal was kind of a relative of sorts to Optimus Prime, but they were two different characters completely. And likewise, Megatron from Beast Wars was a different robot from Megatron in Beast Wars; they just happened to have the same name, just as my name is Joey, and there are many other people named Joey.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's correct that Optimus Prime has been many different things, and I do think people are complaining more than they should about his robot mode. But that's my opinion, and those who disagree with me have a right to state theirs as well.
Thanks for the correction, dude. :) And thank god then that I don't have to live with any memories of him being a gorilla. I just can't.. can't.. caann't live with any nightmares of Orangutan Prime hanging upside down from the trees chomping on bananas and poking his crusty finger up MegaChimps feral ass. hahaha
ReplyDeleteGreat site + great article, have a look at http://www.badmovieknights.com/ when you get time ;)!
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