Transformers One, Voiced by Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson, Now Streaming on Netflix

17 Oct at 16:35 Comment Views: 6

Under director Michael Bay, Paramount built a billion-dollar franchise across five live-action Transformers movies. After Bay’s final turn behind the camera, 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight, the franchise started heading in unpredictable directions. The 2018 prequel Bumblebee was a critical and commercial hit, unlike Bay’s films, though it didn’t reach the billion-dollar highs of earlier entries. 2023’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts failed to turn the franchise around the way Paramount hoped.

Paramount swerved in 2024 with one of the best Transformers movies to date, the animated prequel Transformers One. It didn’t light up the box office or please every Transformers fan. Now the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron is finding new life on streaming.

Transformers fans missed out on 2024’s excellent prequel

Transformers One was recently added to Netflix after a multiyear run on Paramount Plus. According to streaming data from FlixPatrol, Netflix audiences are giving the animated feature another shot. It quickly landed in the top 10 most-watched movies on Netflix this week, charting at No. 6 in the U.S. It sits between Twilight (it’s officially “Hoa hoa hoa” season) and the animated comedy Ice Age.

Netflix viewers are right to give the film the overdue attention it deserves. Our review called it “sweet, occasionally heartbreaking, and utterly convincing in telling an origin story for friends-turned-foes Optimus Prime and Megatron.”

Transformers One has a spark the live action films are missing — You can’t go wrong with Starscream, especially when Steve Buscemi’s voicing him.

The story follows the early friendship of young Optimus and Megatron on their homeworld of Cybertron, where they are known as Orion Pax and D-16. Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry) start out as cogs in a machine, low-class miners of the resource Energon. They are lifelong, genuine friends who aspire to greater things, including the ability to transform. Not every Cybertronian can do that. Both put their faith in Cybertron leader Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), who is searching for the Matrix of Leadership to restore the planet to its former glory.

Transformers One is full of Marvel stars

The animated feature is star-studded. Joining Hemsworth, Henry, and Hamm are Laurence Fishburne as Alpha Trion, Scarlett Johansson as Elita-1, and Keegan-Michael Key as B-127. Transformers One can be dramatic and occasionally quite violent for an animated movie, but it’s also packed with humor. Almost all the jokes land, including nods to the 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie and even classic Key & Peele sketches.

Early fans of the film’s charms were out of luck at the box office. Transformers One grossed just $129 million worldwide, which sealed the fate of the planned spinoff franchise. Paramount is going back to the drawing board with Transformers. It has enlisted Steven Spielberg to “focus on all creative aspects of the next live-action Transformers film.” The studio is also bringing back Michael Bay, the franchise’s most proven director, to revive the brand.

Transformers One is now streaming on Netflix and Paramount Plus.