Travis Knight Shares Why Bumblebee Uses All Original Footage

Fans are thrilled that ‘Bumblebee’ is using all new versions of the Transformers in the upcoming film and director Travis Knight is sharing why both Cybertron and the Robots in Disguise got a visual fresh coat of paint to tell the story. Nostalgia for these classic designs will likely help win back audiences who have lost interest in the “Transformers” franchise in recent years, but it remains to be seen how the box office performance of this film will pan out.

While it would save money, here’s why Knight did not use the prior ‘Transformers’ visuals:

“When we were talking to the VFX team and the producers, there was some discussion that we could skip some corners and use some assets from the previous films for [Cybertron], and it wouldn’t work aesthetically, at all”

As a fan who still loves the original look, I love that he doesn’t feel the new one has worked “aesthetically” with what he was planning to put together. It does mean that much of the budget had to be used in the cinematics:

“Every single character you see in the opening of the film was a new model, it had to be designed and built and that all costs money. I put as many as I could, but at some point, you run out of budget. I would have loved to have a bunch more in there, but we did the best with what we had.”

Knight also explained how it was “really important” to use the Generation One designs:

“It made perfect sense to me that if we were going to tell an origin story about one of the Transformers, we should set it in the era that the Transformers were born, to begin with, the mid ’80s. If we were going to do that, then let’s take advantage of the beauty and the boldness and the simplicity of that original design. It was striking. I remember seeing those as a kid and had never seen anything like it before. To me, we’ve seen 10 years of this specific aesthetic and design and [thinking about] what would make it new again, what would make it fresh and bold, and for me, it was going back to the beginning and try to pay tribute to that.”

While judgment is still out on how the movie will end up, I am fully behind how he has visually paid tribute to the classic style of the animated series.

Do you love why Travis Knight is using new versions of the Transformers in ‘Bumblebee’? Is the throwback style of the film appreciated or would you rather they had used the same character models and changed up the budget for something else? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.

‘Bumblebee’ will transform and roll into your local theaters on December 21st, 2018!

Source: Digital Spy