He Killed Optimus Prime: An Interview with Ron Friedman, writer of Transformers: The Movie | Todd Matthy.com

 

After reading this interview, I now really want to read his book when it comes out. Some really fascinating tidbits in this interview.

 

I didn't know that he is friends with Stan Lee.

 

Interesting.

 

I love it when a writer knows what he or she is doing, and this guy sounded like he definitely did, especially when he discussed all the elements he took into account when writing the movie. While I think the G1 cartoon is terrible, the movie is still one of my favorites ever. It managed to make Prime and Megatron feel like they had more character in 15 minutes than they did in the first two seasons of the show.

Very interesting to hear that Hasbro forced him to include Spike cursing in the movie. Did they want to appeal to an older audience? Because cursing isn't the best or only way to go about that  

 

Great read, Friedman has a lot of insight. I have watched interviews of him before, and he is very opinionated and entertaining. I look forward to the book.

 

No, but it is a way to move a cartoon in which no people die out of the dreaded "G" rating into "PG."

Apparently, the MPAA has no sympathy for robots collapsing into a permanently deactivated state (barring later animation errors) with huge quantities of smoke pouring out of them....

 

That was a great read! I will definitely pick up the book.

 

I love that phrase. As if an article isn't going to contain language of any type...  

(I can't help it, I'm a linguist with OCD lol)

 

I read somewhere that the cursing had to do with when theaters would show the movie. If the movie had no cursing, theaters would've only shown the movie in the afternoons when most parents are still at work, but with the cursing, they had evening showings when more people are able to go to the movies. That and they wanted a PG rating, not a G.

 

I don't know the guy, but he seems a bit pompous.

 

Motherfucker.

 

Interesting read, though I think he's wrong on a few cases. I assume the Marvel Action Hour he's working on was the 90's show. Iron Man was putting his armor in the breifcase way before that show in the comics.

 

I'll definitely check this out.

 

I was sort of thinking this too. Liked the read, but dude did seem a little full of himself.

 

What a nice read. The way he talks about Optimus, I hope all the people out there who don't understand why a lot of us can't bear Bayformers Prime read and understand it.

How so?

 

Indeed, kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I'll probably buy his book anyway though.

 

That was very interesting, and I definitely plan to buy the book after reading it (not available for preorder on Amazon though... hrmph). I think Friedman makes several good points about writing technique, decision-making involving forces outside the writing department, and what was behind his characterizations. The description of Junkion culture was quite poignant, as was the summation of Optimus and Megatron's characters.

He is a little bit dickish in the article, not sure if that's bitterness on his part for some reason, or just his general demeanor. His closing line was completely unnecessary. I hope the book is written with a more serious tone.

 

I agree on the pompous thing. It came out a few times in the interview.

When informed about the Elita cartoon also showcasing a female autobot, he said "I didn't know about that but I'm sure it was after mine." The facts aren't important there, it's just his implied assertion that if it was done, it must have been someone copying him, because that idea was his.

In the same vein he says he gets a kick that everybody's stealing his work. As if the tropes that he wrote are anything but standard fare. It would be like Eric Clapton complaining that someone is using his great blues riffs. Sorry, Eric, you got those from the guys before you, as they did.

Through the entire article he's generally dismissive of the cartoon and strip writers.

At one point he claims that he created more feeling about OP and Megatron in their brief appearances in the movie than in all of G1-dom before. Which, aside from being ludicrous, contradicts what he said previously about OP and Megatron being built through the entire G1 arc into primal forces of good an evil, and also into family members.

He spent a lot of time railing on execs, other writers, Bay (no disagreement from me), and even actors. "There are a lot of Al Pacinos", he says? How does the saying go? "I know Al Pacino, sir, and you are no Al Pacino"?

Also, when asked about Tony Stark getting married he waves his hands in an embarrassed fashion. "Next question please!" is how I read that.

Props to him for recognizing that OP is the glue that holds the series together, but that's 30 years of hindsight speaking, not wisdom, IMHO. He's had decades to work on that story.

Finally, I'm bothered that he rattles on about his artistic integrity, but had a big hand in the Movie, which IMHO was simply a way to kill off a ton of new toys, introduce a bunch of new ones, and charge everybody $10 for the privilege.

Perhaps I'm biased and shouldn't judge him, because I think the movie was an awful, spiteful disservice to G1 fans. On top of that, it wasn't even well-written, IMHO. The characters are hollow templates, the storyline (aside from the shock-kills) is predictable, and the theme is the sci fi cliche "save the galaxy". If I had wrote it I would hope more to make amends, not promote myself as Greatest Writer Ever for writing a movie that is only relevant today because it made a bunch of kids sad by mindlessly killing their favorite toy and because all of the G1 fiction before and after it was much-loved.

So yeah, I think he's a bit pompous, and on top of that I don't think he did good work on the Movie.

 

I thought that was very odd as well. I stopped reading there.