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This news is both encouraging and worrying at the same time.

I love Transformers and while the Michael Bay Transformers movies haven’t been the best, I still get excited to see these big bots on the big screen.

One of the drawbacks of the Transformers movies of the past is that the CGI budget is so big that it can hamper other parts of the production and sacrifices are made that affect the quality of the end product.

So the news of this particular project being animated is good because you don’t have to just have massive grey silver shiny CGI monstrosities smash into each other while the primary actors stare off in the middle distance on a green screen soundstage.

However, saying a movie will be animated means a lot more now in 2020 than it did in years past. Will it be animated like a 2D cartoon like the old Transformer’s cartoons, animated like Netflix’s Castlevania, or will it be animated like a Pixar film?

Also, when considering an animated project the voice cast is very important. Do you cast the right voice for the role, do you do some fan casting, do you seek out celebrities?

Another question this news brings to mind is where this movie falls in the Transformers cinematic timeline. There were the original Michael Bay movies, then Bumblebee (2018) was a prequel that revamped the series. So then this new movie will be the prequel but also the sequel to Bumblebee?

Lastly and most importantly, the director they’ve chosen for this project has the credentials to pull this off. Josh Cooley has an Oscar from directing Toy Story 4 and was nominated for an Oscar from his work on Inside Out. Yeah, he’s got this.

An untitled animated prequel to the “Transformers” franchise is in the works at Paramount Pictures and Hasbro’s eOne with “Toy Story 4” director Josh Cooley.

Screenwriting partners Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari have written the script for the untitled project, while Paramount Animation and eOne will develop and produce the film. The film is in early stages of development. After winning an Oscar for “Toy Story 4,” Cooley is attached to direct, and producers are expected to be Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian.

The new film will be the seventh “Transformers” movie. Michael Bay directed the first five blockbuster movies, which generated $4 billion at the worldwide box office for Paramount. Bay’s run concluded with the release of 2017’s “Transformers: The Last Knight.” The studio then revamped the franchise with 2018’s prequel film “Bumblebee,” directed by Travis Knight with Hailee Steinfeld starring. The series is based on the popular Transformers toy line — produced by Hasbro and Takara — featuring the long-running battles between the Autobots and the evil Decepticons.

Cooley won the Oscar in the animated feature category for “Toy Story 4” along with Jonas Rivera and Mark Nielsen in February. It was the 10th Pixar title to take an Oscar since the category was created in 2001. Cooley was nominated for the original screenplay Oscar for 2015’s “Inside Out.”

Source: Variety