Why did they change Bumblebee's body from AoE to TLK?

Discussion in 'Transformers Movie Discussion' started by Rodimal Rodimus, Apr 5, 2021.

  1. Gee Won 1984

    Gee Won 1984 Mandatory Stunning and Brave Fiction in Fiction

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    They changed Bumblebee every movie, it got some people to buy a new toy version of the exact same character every year until they got sick of them. Also I think he was hiding in possibly that movie and it was a better disguise to change the vehicle more. Enemies would all be looking for a yellow camaro to catch Bumblebee. Also a lot of people just like old school muscle cars more than the new cars that all look the same, so it was catering to a different crowd.
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2021
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  2. supernova222

    supernova222 junkion

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    the aoe design did really grow on me, especially with all the added buffs the concept art showed it to have. plus it fit with the AOE autobots theme of different warrior types; hound/commando, crosshairs/paratrooper, drift/samurai, optimus/knight and bee/ninja
     
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  3. Runamuck86

    Runamuck86 Well-Known Member

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    Because the AoE design was barely recognisable as a transformer and probably the ugliest bumblebee of all time.
     
  4. LieutenantBeeTheScout

    LieutenantBeeTheScout Active Member

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  5. Girl Pants

    Girl Pants Well-Known Member

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    Honestly, I think the real anomaly was Bee taking on Stinger's body in the latter part of AOE. His first AOE form was pretty in line with his previous looks, with more black than usual. So him going back to a more "normal" look after the Autobots don't need to be in hiding anymore is sensible.

    The whole thing with Bee being insulted at humans making a "better" copy of him was a cute gag and it made for a neat mini-arc and antagonism with Stinger. The part where Bee then decides to reformat himself to look like Stinger... is just kinda weird. Maybe if Bee (or Stinger) talked we could have gotten a more nuanced look at his thought process but "I hate that you think this is better than me, so I'll become that to prove that I'm better" is just a jumbled character arc.

    For my own 2 cents, I never liked that body as Bee. I really enjoy the look as Stinger, though.
     
  6. Insurgent

    Insurgent The Amazing Tango Mysterio

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    Bee has always been sensitive about not being the cool kid. It's been a character trait since mikaela called him a banged up old beater in 07. He takes on a copy of stinger to show hes just as cool as stinger, by them being on equal footing, because stingers look is what is cool now. It's like a kid who is always the cool one is seen with last years latest fashion seeing a kid with this years fashion being called cooler than him, so he goes out and buys the exact same thing so he has this years fashion, then challenges the other kid to a dance off and wins, becoming the cool kid again. Eventually he goes back to an updated version of last years look because that's what he prefers (bee in tlk)
     
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  7. Girl Pants

    Girl Pants Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, that works. It's just a lot left to your own imagination to fill in with no actual dialog or actual scenes between them before the meet up for battle at the end. Which is fine, I don't need everything spelled out all the time or anything, but it didn't hit with me as much as I would have liked (maybe if I liked the look of Bee in that body I'd have liked the execution more, who knows).

    In a different movie where the Autobots weren't on the run, you could have had the two interact more early on outside of combat. The way the movie ended up, it's almost like if you had Top Gun, but only kept the scenes in the jets and removed all the stuff in the navy base between the characters.
     
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  8. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    This would make perfect sense if we every actually saw him scan Stinger or have anyone remark that he took Stinger's appearance.

    But AOE rather weirdly omits any acknowledgement that is the case, even though it's obvious, and it gets stranger when you realize Bumblebee beat up the inactive Stinger because it copied him. It's a strange instance of him getting offended, staunchly iterating how he's better than the imitation... only to then imitate the imitation. It makes Bee look less like he has a fragile ego and more like he's just an idiot.

    Also saying he "preferred' his old look in TLK isn't supported by anything in the film. It's why I think AOE and TLK stand out as particularly bad for TF movies in that so much happens for no actual reason and is completely unacknowledged.
     
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  9. Galvatross

    Galvatross Dom Dom, Yes Yes Veteran

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    Why does Barricade disappear without an explanation before the Decepticons arrive in Mission City? Why does he not show up in RotF?
    How is the Allspark able to lose mass to the point Sam can carry it?
    How does Frenzy survive being a decapitated head?
    What happens to the Allpsark mutations in Mission City?
    What happens to Jolt? The Arcee triplets we are not shown getting killed? The Twins? I know the real world reason for the latter, but what's the in-universe reason.
    Why do the meteor modes for Transformers transportation disappear after RotF?
    How does Sentinel know immediately after being awakened that the Space Bridge violates humanity's laws of physics?
    Why does Soundwave's head design completely change from RotF to DotM?
    Why does Laserbeak change into a pink Bumblebee of all things? I know, he's supposed to be cute or appealing is the likely reason, but we're never explained that.

    The Transformers movies have always had plenty of things go unexplained, and characters often change whole or partial designs with no exposition. Character disappearances go unexplained in 2007 through DotM. Things happen in the first three films that are never explained. This idea that some of the movies are "good" in that regard and others "bad" is nonsensical. The quality of all of these movies by the same director and often the same writers is the same. AoE and TLK get hated for completely different reasons other than that...

    If something is already obvious, why does it need a definite Shrexplanation?

    Have a Shrektastic day!
     
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  10. Livingdeaddan

    Livingdeaddan DEFIANTLILHORDE

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    Wait.. what's happening here?! Are you using the movies poor continuity and storytelling as a defence for the movies poor continuity and storytelling?!?
     
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  11. Insurgent

    Insurgent The Amazing Tango Mysterio

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    Agreed it could have been written better between them and it does come off a bit poorly executed.

    He gets upset that stinger is being called the new and improved bumblebee, the cooler one, better in every way and so bee updates himself to be the cool one. Just because we don't see scan beams didn't mean they didn’t happen when the camera was focused on shane. And shane was the only one of the main cast to pay attention to stingers robot mode before the battle of hong kong, so none of the others would even know they look the same until much later, when they have much more important things to worry about.

    And no, it's not supported by anything in tlk. It was an analogy, not a 1:1 comparison. But then again, it's not too much of a stretch to infer it. Even in aoe, his robot mode was that style of look when he was in his high octane body so he clearly likes that style, especially given how much his cool look is important to him.

    Oh, and he didn't beat up the inactive stinger because it copied him, he beat it up because it was replacing him as the cool kid.
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2022
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  12. Galvatross

    Galvatross Dom Dom, Yes Yes Veteran

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    I'm saying that, regardless of whether you think these movies are "good" or "bad" adaptations of Transformers, that I don't think that some of them are on a completely different level of quality than any of the others. One can prefer 2007 to the sequels, or one of the sequels to the other films, or the first three films to AoE/TLK, or AoE to the first three, and so on. Furthermore, I can say that some films do individual things better than the other films. Personally, my choice for the best Transformers movie would be Age of Extinction, but others can like any of the other four Bay films more, and that's okay. However, we are not talking about a huge difference in quality between the five different Bayformers films.

    I will also say this: many, and possibly a large majority, of the flaws of the Bay movies are a result of being adaptations of the source material and not middle fingers to any pre-existing fiction as some fans like to pretend. And whether you like it or not, characters popping up or disappearing was a regular feature of G1. If anything, G1 was even worse about it than the Bay movies were.
     
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