Berkeley-born filmmaker Josh Cooley went under the hood of a worn-out franchise, tinkered about, tightened up storytelling nuts and bolts, even put in a new engine.
Opening Friday in theaters, “Transformers One,” the Oscar-winning director’s animated overhaul of floundering series, is the best, certainly most cohesive “Transformers” entry yet. It’s an exciting visual dazzler the entire family can enjoy.
The eighth “Transformers” film is the series’ first animated outing in four decades.
Sumptuously animated and gripping from start to finish, “Transformers One” uncovers what led Orion Pax (voice of Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (voice of Brian Tyree Henry) to go from best buddies to relentless adversaries, then transform from cogless robots on the planet Cybertron into, respectively, Optimus Prime and Megatron.
Cooley, 45, has been a fan of the Hasbro toys and the animated “Transformers” TV series since he was a kid. He enjoyed working on one of his childhood favorites with a crew that knew the sci-fi universe it inhabited so well.
“When I came on, I read the first draft of the script and it was an origin story—that idea of being friends to enemies—and I just love that idea,” the Oscar-winning director of “Toy Story 4” said in an interview in San Francisco.
“I was like, that is fantastic — that we know the audience will be coming in with the expectation that they’re enemies.”
His film charts a welcome direction for the lucrative series, re-energizing it and possibly paving the way for further animated adventures for a franchise that had been running out of gas.
One of “Transformers One’s” best, riskiest moments is one of Cooley’s favorites, and one that worked for audiences during test previews.
“There’s a moment that happens between (Optimus Prime and Megatron), and I was like ‘let’s drop the sound out completely,’” recalls Cooley. “And for that moment, and at the audience preview, you could hear a pin drop and nobody was moving. It gave me goosebumps. And I was like this is why I do it. I don’t know if it’s selfish or whatever, but just the idea that I did this thing with this amazing group (of people).”
Throughout his career, Cooley has worked with amazing creative types and animators. He started as the first story intern at Pixar, then spent 18 years at the Emeryville company, where was among the Oscar-nominated screenwriters for the Oscar-winning “Inside Out.” He also worked on “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “Up,” “Coco,” “Incredibles 2,” “Onward” and “Soul.”
The extra-busy Cooley’s other projects in the works include his first live-action feature, an adaptation of the best-selling young adult novel “Malamander.”
For now, he’s enjoying advance critical praise for “Transformers One,” one of a few animated features heading to theaters this fall.
Other animated features we’re looking forward to:
“The Wild Robot”: DreamWorks Animation is billing it as a new classic, and it lives up to the hype. Director Chris Sanders’ adaptation of Peter Brown’s beloved “Robot” children’s books is often just as gorgeous and stirring as an impressionist painting. Following the exploits of Roz, a people-pleasing robot that becomes the de facto guardian of an orphaned gosling, it’s the family treasure we’ve all been craving. (Opens Sept. 27 in theaters)
“Memoir of a Snail”: For fans of adult-themed animation, this 1970s-set Australian stop-animation feature promises to be endearing, weird and irreverent. In it, a bullied young girl bonds with a kooky woman in her 80s with quite a colorful past. (7 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Sequoia Theater during the Mill Valley Film Festival; opens Oct. 25 in theaters)
“Spellbound”: Netflix has produced an impressive slate of animated features as well as a few duds, and this musical comedy directed by Vicky Jenson, who co-directed “Shrek,” looks promising given its goofy trailer. An impressive voice cast (Rachel Ziegler, John Lithgow, Tituss Burgess, Nathan Lane, Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman) is certain to enliven a story about a resourceful young daughter trying to reverse a spell that turned her parents into monsters. (Begins Nov. 22 on Netflix)
“Flow”: A flood destroys the home of a cat that then learns it need to bond with various critters. It’s Latvia’s pick for best international feature at next year’s Academy Awards. (Opens Nov. 22 in theaters)
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