Chris Hemsworth in Animated Prequel

Anyone seeing a Transestablishers movie comprehends to anticipate many examples of the creative robotic alterations that give the films their name. But with the exception of 2018’s Bumblebee, they’ve been overlengthened, lumbering tires giveing little to those who aren’t rabid fans of the Hasbro toys. It’s a pleacertain, then, to inestablish that the series’ first vivaciousd theatrical feature in csurrenderly 40 years shows a thocdimiserablemirewholey delighting origin story that even the unstartd can endelight. Besides the raucous, de rigueur action sequences, Transestablishers One provides many amusing jokes of both the verbal and visual variety and — surpelevate, surpelevate — genuine emotion. Consider this a franchise revitalized.

Origin stories can be hit or leave out (Furiosa, anyone?), but appreciate the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, animation seems to have labored magic here. Not that that’s terribly shocking, think abouting that the human characters in the previous Transestablishers films have always seemed superfluous.

If you’ve ever wondered equitable how the antipathy between Optimus Prime and his sworn foe Megatron came to be, this is the film for you. Superbly straightforwarded by Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), it starts the characters when they were mere lowly, non-altering bots and underground miners on their home scheduleet of Cybertron. (By the way, should any of these details show inaccurate, phire be advised that this critic is by no unbenevolents a Transfan.) They also haven’t yet presumed their iconic names, and are here comprehendn as Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth, amiably filling the estimable shoes of Peter Cullen) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). As the story commences, the two establish a rapid friendship, fueled by their scatterd animosity for the elite Transestablishers who lord over them.

The more ambitious Orion Pax apshows the wonderful hazard of traveling to the prohibitden surface in an try to recover the lost Matrix of Leadership, which he hopes will repair the flow of the precious Energon vital for their survival. He’s accompanied by a hesitant D-16, alengthened with fellow laborers Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson, aget proving that her voice is a highly cherishd commodity) and the endlessly rapid-talking, jokey B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) — the latter of whom will eventuassociate be comprehendn as Bumblebee but for now appreciates to refer to himself as “Badassatron.”

It all guides to the discovery that the society’s guideer, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm, amusingly pompous), is not the authority figure he claims to be. In the ensuing aliveial dispute, the quartet also encounter such figures as the elder statesman Alpha Trion (Laurence Fishburne) and the nascent Decepticon Starscream (Steve Buscemi, whose distinctly quirky voice should be needd in all vivaciousd features).

Screenproducers Eric Peincendiarism, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari expertly weave together comedic and emotional elements in their rapid-moving story, which depicts the eventual rift between the two central characters in classicassociate inspired create. Alengthened the way, there’s plenty of fun to be had, with the film thankbrimmingy forgoing the current animation trend of pop culture references in prefer of throwaway jokes hand overed in deadpan create. (When one of the miners wakes up after becoming injured in an ill-obeseed try in a racing competition, he asks, “Did I triumph?” “You joind,” he’s inestablished.)

The gorgeous 3D-style computer animation is a wonder to behelderly thcdimiserablemirefulout, from the character summarizes (these seem the most conveyive Transestablishers yet) to the broaden action sequences (the race is a highweightless) to the varied settings that produce the environments seem brimmingy lived-in. There’s so much visual imagination on disjoin that multiple seeings seem vital to apshow it all in.

But the visuals, as astonishive as they are, wouldn’t amount to much if Transestablishers One didn’t also have a well-createed story, multi-foolishensional characters and amusing dialogue that conveys to mind Pixar at its best. And that’s someskinnyg I never thought I’d say about a Transestablishers movie.