You know i agree!!! As much as i hated some off the things in the films[devastators testicles} i really think we got a lot of good things from Hasbro because of the movies. M.Bay really did reinvent the franchise which will help the franchise for along time, and i think now that Hasbro has seen the success in this reincarnation of transformers they are bound to make another movie, trilogy, and TV shows.

 

No. Michael Bay did not rape my childhood in any way whatsoever, and TF1 is one of the best action movies I've ever seen. ROTF is a pile of turd, and DOTM was great until Ironhide dies. Then it goes down the drain ... and no, I give a rats ass about Ironhide as a character, other than I think that he is one of the 6 TFormers who should ALWAYS make it through a movie. My opinion.

The films have helped the franchise, but we'll never know if that's because of Bay or simply because of the TFormer campaign setting. It's not like Hollywood gave us every year a movie about gigantic effing robots talking and transforming into cars and jets.

No. I don't think we or Hasbro owe(s) Bay anything. There are dozens of directors who could make good TF films. It's not like the next option other than Bay was Joel Schumacher. What if Cameron directed the first TF? Or George Lucas? Or Spielberg? Or Christopher Nolan? Or Snyder? Or Peter Jackson?

Let's see a TF film by another director who doesn't suffer from the Superman Returns syndrome, and who will give us his own vision of the Transformers. Then we can decide how much of the TF films success is due to Michael Bay.

Until then, I'll give any success of the TF films to the Transformers themselves, especially in the last 2 films.

 

Would there even be a Transformers Prime if not for the success of the films?

I can't even begin to figure out what this means.

 

Would the films be just as successful without Bay directing them?

 

I'm gonna have to disagree with you, for the most part.
Does Bay deserve credit for reinventing Transformers? Not entirely. I would say the art department that created the Transformers designs deserve most of the credit.
Bay will be remembered for making the three Transformers movies, albeit as mediocre as they were. With out a doubt he made Hasbro A LOT of $$. But that doesn't always = a good movie.
But the style of the Transformers lays with more talented people.

Take Transformers Prime. Obviously they are inspired on the movie designs. But the stories are way better than anything Bay could direct.

 

I think having movies about the Transformers changed the game. Bay did a good job, but one impact is that he alone has taken so much credit and self promotes so much that his actual name and directing style is what is forever associated with Transformers, and for a lot of the general public their stance on Transformers as a whole now comes from their stance on whether they like Bay movies or not. Steven Spielberg and ILM were huge names too, and the look and feel of the actual bots themselves comes mostly from ILM so to be honest I regard them as the more critical element. There are a lot of other directors out there who don't self promote as much as Bay does who could also have made very good movies if teamed with Spielberg and ILM. Could any director have done the battle and explosion sequences on as large a technical scale as Bay did? No. That's his specialty and he's the best at it. But my point is that a lot of people contribute to the final movie product and I think with Bay due to his own ego and self promotion and unique style that his name gets emphasized more and associated more with the films than many other directors would have...and as a result the public's view of the Transformers franchise is now directly tied to the public's view of Michael Bay himself.

 

Indeed, TF Prime proves that the TFormers did not need Bay for good stories and exciting adventures. That's why I think that many directors could make TF films, and some of them make MUCH better TF films than Bay.

Unless cool explosions > characterization and story. If that's the case, Bay is one of the top choices to direct Transformers. But seriously, in the age we're living on, are there still people who are excited at explosions alone?

 

Did he change it? Maybe. Somewhat. But it'll change again. And again. And again. Stuff changes. Different people drive different change at different levels. Stuff ebbs and flows. A few years from now we'll probably be asking did *someone else now big in the TF franchise at that time* change the game. Bay is just the current flavour right now in a long meal of many flavours past and yet to come.

Sure there's Bay stuff in TF: Prime so it does seem to have influenced stuff, but there's also many things from other versions of TF past in it. Everything goes into the TF melting pot as it comes and goes and some sticks to the fondue fork of the next thing.

 

I'm just not sure that the theory of we have Transformers Prime because we have the live action films is a strong one.

Hasbro has always tried to have some sort of Transformers cartoon series on the air even if it is dubbed Japanese series. So it seems like there would be a push to have some sort of cartoon series even without any live action films.

Cartoon Network doing Hasbro so poorly also had a huge impact on getting the Hub and Transformers Prime. If Transformers Animated and GI Joe Sigma Six had been supported better those cartoons might still be on the air and Hasbro would not have felt a need for their own network just to get their shows on the air.

I think you could argue that we have the producers on Transformers Prime because their connection to the films opened up the opportunity to be producers on a Transformers related cartoon. But while we might not have gotten a show exactly like Transformers Prime I think Beast Wars is a good case of you don't need a live action movie to get a good cartoon series.

 

I tend to look at it like this:

Post G2 era (1996 - 2000) -

-Beast Wars
-Beast Machines
-Machine Wars

Small fandom, lowest point of popularity for the franchise in general, and possibly some of the worst toys out of the entire franchise. However, Beast Wars and Beast Machines probably provided some of the some of the best written fiction up until Animated and Prime.

Pre-Bay era (2002-2006) -

-RID
-Commemorative Series
-Armada
-Energon
-Cybertron
-Universe
-Alternators
-Masterpiece
-Classics

These were the various TF lines before the Live Action Movies. The Transformers brand is going strong amongst kids and fans, but the majority of the public still thinks that the brand died off in the late 80's, and Hasbro has been importing animated shows from Japan since 2000 instead of developing their own TV shows for North America.

Enter the Bay-era (2007 - present) -

-Movie Franchise (TF1/Allspark Battles/ROTF/HFTD/DOTM)
-Animated
-Universe 2.0
-Generations/Reveal The Shield
-Masterpiece
-Transformers: Prime

The Transformers franchise blows up   due to the success of TF1, Animated is the first North American - produced TV series since Beast Machines in 1999, and recognition of the franchise finally goes beyond the confines of kids and the fandom. And now, Hasbro continues to produce the fiction in North America.

Was Bay was lucky enough to be the one selected to direct the live action movies? Definitely. There were other - dare I say - more talented directors out there, but would any of them even go near this franchise? The closest Speilberg wanted to get was as Executive Producer. However, the fact is that Bay was the one and his films raised the franchise to a level of popularity that hasn't been seen since the 1984 - 86 period.

So yes, like it or not - he, along with ILM (who did the robot designs) changed the game. Now it's up to Hasbro to not drop the ball.

 

This.

We owe bay a lotof changes to tha franchise that will be incorporated into futures series and making transformers an even to be excited.

 

well put!

 

True, but my statement was that it was due to the success of the films. The first film proved that the Transformers franchise was still a viable property, and reignited awareness in some people and introduced awareness to others. And that's probably why the writers of that film decided to develop a television series as part of the franchise.

So yeah, I'm sticking with my theory that the live action films are at least partially responsible for the existence of Transformers Prime.

 

Fully agree with the original poster's sentiments. I grew up watching G1 too, and I loved it to bits. Loved the subsequent Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory too. I was probably the luckiest kid on the block, with parents who bought me almost every other TF toy I wanted from that era.

But I really got disenchanted after that. The changes in design and direction within the cartoons made me lose interest totally.

That is until the live action movies came along. It resparked my interest, and captivated my imagination once again. So after 15 years, I started collecting, and lived and breathed Transformers again.

People may find many reasons to hate the live action franchise, but I loved every part of it. From the robot designs, to the visceral visuals in the film, it suited my tastes and preferences well. Let's just put it this way, when I watch a film, I want to be taken on an experience that I will never get in real life. I'm not interested in all that emotional connection or witty lines aspect.

Which is why I've seen the 3 films in the cinemas around 25 times collectively so far.

I wouldn't say Michael Bay alone changed the franchise, for it was a collective effort, from the studios down to the graphic artists. So far that, I salute everyone involved for bringing my favourite childhood fascination to life, and also for bringing it to mainstream audiences.

Say what you want, but each time I walk into Toys'R'Us and see teenage girls picking up TF toys and discussing the characters in detail, I know it's all due to the live action films.

The $2.5billion in profits will definitely do wonders for the brand on the whole. And as I type this, I'm eagerly anticipating the next trilogy of films. Each time I come to TFW2005, there's a little bit of me hoping to see a front page news item that TF4 has been greenlighted. My fingers are crossed that it will happen sooner rather than later.

 

Damn right. He is the reason why im slaving over the PC late at night, loosing sleep looking for plastic crack lol. I was ALWAYS into Transformers, but i wasnt collecting toys untill that movie came out and the rest was history.

 

How?

 

For starters, the style that's used with the transformation sequences pops up everywhere now.

See: Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Cowboys and Aliens, etc...

 

Hmm ... I'd rather call that a "slight influence", rather than "changed action movies in general".

 

I really love the legacy these movies left for future TF series, the transformation style... finally some nice update (we're seeing it in TF Prime already)
about movies, they are great, not the best story (but that never was a strong part in the TF universe), nice action play, nice interactions (for being a movie and not a series), and all that stuff... I must admit I don't like the fact that the autobots won the three movies (well, Sam in the first one), but even with that, I really like this  

 

Meh, I'm ok with the Autobots winning at the end of every day, I just wish we'd seen more exciting battles, rather than quick one-sided fights. And more con' time.