Transformers – Beginnings

It’s not quite better than the 2007 movie and it’s not quite as fun as any of the G1 cartoons, but Transformers – Beginnings is a nice, kid-friendlier companion piece to the film. In 20 minutes, Transformers – Beginnings tells the story of how Optimus Prime and Megatron became enemies in Cybertron’s early days, and follows through to the events leading up to the film... including the origins of Sector 7, Sam’s inheritance, the Deceptacon integration into our society and Bumblebee’s somewhat shaky first days on Earth.

This film is a video comic book. The art work is nice, but its animation is more or less limited to the camera sliding across a picture. Sometimes elements of the pictures are in motion, but there’s not a lot of detail beyond that. None the characters’ lips move (not even Optimus Prime’s).

The full-cast audio, though, is the highlight of this one.

Peter Cullen reprises his role as Optimus Prime and, as an added bonus; Frank Welker gives voice once again to Megatron. Welcome Back, Mr. Welker. Here’s hoping that you and Soundwave turn up in the sequel.

If you find that you have to choose between the one with Transformers – Beginnings and Two-Disc Special Edition… Honestly, you’ll probably get more for your money with the Bonus Feature DVD, but there are a lot of features like the “BayBot,” “Michael Bay’s cameo” and “Autobots Roll Out” in which Michael Bay discusses working with Chevy to design the cars seen in the film.

Personally, I was glad to hear Welker’s Megatron winding up Cullen’s Optimus for the first time in way too long.