Optimus Prime Awakening (2026) Review
THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Saying goodbye is hard. You don’t buy that? Look at Optimus Prime Awakening.
PLOT
The 2026 short film is an epilogue for The Transformers: The Movie, showing the iconic Autobot leader enter a void after just died facing Megatron. He encounters a supernatural entity, the One, and he pleads to be revived so he can continue helping his brethren against the ongoing fight with the Decepticons. The One rebuttals that in every timeline, he’ll always die fighting a prolonging war and would show him visions of various battles in which defeat feels inevitable. One vision put him against a defected Bumblebee (Jarrett LeMaster) who berates him of war they can’t win. Another vision shows of Unicron destroying Earth saying more life will be killed the more he confronts conflict. As Optimus refuses to give up, he is taken to one last vision where he saves Bumblebee from Megatron and still spares his rival despite the urging of his friend. This time, he discards the Matrix of Leadership and enters a glowing doorway telling Bumblebee he’ll understand this decision one day. The story concludes in a cliffhanger showing Megatron recover the Matrix for himself.
THOUGHTS
This epilogue was released on the 40th anniversary re-release of the classic animated film. What was meant to be a simple tribute to the overall franchise that has evolved ever since, has instead become a tribute to a definitive puzzle piece that has brought together many fans. Apart from stellar visual effects that give us the 80s aesthetic and a dope Bobby Krlic score, this short quickly grew to be a tribute of not just the character Optimus, but the definitive voice performance of Peter Cullen who had passed away nearly a month before the re-release. We all know Cullen first played the character in the G1 era, but would return to the role in the live action films produced/directed by Michael Bay, paving the way for him to do not only video games (War for Cybertron, Cybertron Adventures, Fall of Cybertron, Rise of the Dark Spark, Devastation, Earth Wars, Transfromers Prime - The Game, and the tie-in games to Bayverse movies) but also more cartoons for the franchise (Transformers Prime, Rescue Bots, Robots in Disguise, Titans Return, and Power of the Primes). We all know there have been other actors that have had the chance to play Prime as well (David Kaye of Transformers Animated, Chris Hemsworth of Transformers One and Garry Chalk of both Beast Wars & Armada), but Cullen was always the definitive voice of the character because from a story that’s been reshared, he went into it with his brother’s advice on being strong enough to be gentle. In this case, it feels like this is what this short was all about because all want to keep fighting to do right by others but at some point, we earn permission to rest after years of putting them before you. Optimus was always that selfless being for the most part and this was his first epiphany that he didn’t have to fight forever. Simon Henderson was an excellent choice to be the One because he nails the philosophical approach on how war is neverending for generations, thus showing other timelines to prove his point, in turn making almost every iteration canon to one another. No matter how many times there are ruthless threats the way Frank Welker portrays the likes of Soundwave & Megatron, hence taking the Matrix, there will still be generations of successors like Bumblebee who will continue fighting & carrying the torch because of leaders like Prime paving the way to do so. As much as Prime didn’t want to stop fighting, he accepted he couldn’t do it forever and was able to do it with content rather than overthink & regret all at once. If great leaders know when to stop fighting then one day, we’ll know when it’s time for us to do the same and we thank characters like Prime for laying down that inspiration. In conclusion, Optimus Prime Awakening is the be all end all when it comes to epic franchise tributes that brings all fans together. Whichever kind of fan you are when it comes to Transformers, I assure you this is worth your while.
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