That is, The Transformers: The Movie: 40th Anniversary: The Apology Tour. That is the actual title of the event.

Anyway, The Transformers: The Movie is having a very limited run in theaters right now for the 40th anniversary of the film's 1986 release. Because of an accident of timing, it's also become something of a Peter Cullen farewell tour. (Which lands harder when you keep in mind that the initial marketing for the event leaned hard into "we're sorry about killing off Optimus Prime," hence The Apology Tour.

When I heard about this, I assumed the nearest theater showing it would be maybe an arthouse in Boston or something, well out of reach. Imagine my surprise when the dates were released and I discovered that it was, in fact, the Black Bear Cinema in Orono, in the shopping plaza just off the Interstate on Stillwater Avenue (formerly the Spotlight, when I was at UMaine). It played there for exactly one showing, which was tonight at 7 PM.

Heck yeah I was there. First time I've seen a movie in a theater since the first Avengers film in 2012.

When I got there, the ticket taker directed me to Theater 7, which I found interesting, since I only remember the Spotlight (as it was the last time I was there) having six theaters. The seats were plush electric recliners. An employee came in shortly before the show started and told us it was the first-ever showing in the new room. My butt was the first one that ever paid to be in that seat.

I was in the front row, which called for full recline. I had never watched a movie lying down before. It was an interesting experience.

As for the movie itself, well, I mean... it was The Transformers: The Movie. With the controversial-for-its-time "Oh shit!" left in (I think they deleted it from the home video versions, but I can't be arsed to dig out my Blu-ray and check). No big surprises there. I've probably seen the movie itself a hundred times--but never, I think, in a theater. If I got to it when it was originally in theaters, I can't remember it.

There was a new short after the credits, which I won't even pretend I understood. Optimus Prime's journey to the afterlife, maybe? It was very metaphorical. Also, it seems to contradict The Return of Optimus Prime. Kinda eerie that they recorded a short in which Optimus Prime confronts eternity as the last thing Peter Cullen ever voiced him in.

Anyway! A cool experience I'm glad I had. And there was a surprising number of people much younger than the movie itself there, which I wasn't expecting. I thought it'd be all nostalgic farts like me, but no! There were some actual kids, one of whom was wearing an "Autobots Forever" t-shirt.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-21-26 AT 02:04 AM (EDT)
 
>There was a new short after the credits, which I won't even pretend I
>understood. Optimus Prime's journey to the afterlife, maybe? It was
>very metaphorical. Also, it seems to contradict The Return of
>Optimus Prime. Kinda eerie that they recorded a short in which
>Optimus Prime confronts eternity as the last thing Peter Cullen ever
>voiced him in.
>

Transformers fans tied into current continuity and toylines can't make sense of that thing either. The mysterious entity in the afterlife claims Optimus is at fault for the war, because defending yourself from assholes trying to kill you creates an endless cycle of conflict or something? So he makes a 'noble choice' to abandon Bumblebee and the Matrix to Megatron? What?

And the short even admits Prime comes back to life in season 3 anyway.

Best theory I've seen is that it's a (kinda crappy) promotion for the upcoming Age of Megatron toyline.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

LAST EDITED ON Sep-21-26 AT 12:08 PM (EDT)
 
>So he makes a 'noble choice' to abandon Bumblebee and
>the Matrix to Megatron? What?

He seems to have been trying to drop the Matrix into the lava(? on Cybertron??), which I submit might be an even weirder choice than giving it to Megatron.

Also, the whole thing about blaming Prime for the war feels like those smugly postmodern takes on Batman that follow the "he attracts villains, ergo Gotham would be better off without him, I am very intelligent" line.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

There's nothing quite like postmodern enshittification trying to crap on your childhood heroes, is there?

Modern government doesn't want people gettin' ideas. Don't stand up against evil. Don't make a name for yourself. Don't aspire to heroism. That's what yer gummint is here for. Just surrender rights and free will to the gummint.

>There's nothing quite like postmodern enshittification trying to crap
>on your childhood heroes, is there?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If grad school taught me anything, it's that if a thing is worth thinking, it's worth overthinking. :)

>Modern government doesn't want people gettin' ideas. Don't stand up
>against evil. Don't make a name for yourself. Don't aspire to heroism.
>That's what yer gummint is here for. Just surrender rights and free
>will to the gummint.

... I don't think Hasbro is colluding with the federal government to produce propaganda devaluing the concept of the heroic character, but... I guess in 2026 you never know. Everything else about this decade so far is virtually satire-proof.

--G.
"Optimus Prime cares a lot for his fellow robots, and he doesn't want anything to happen to them. I think he'd make a neat president!" - Spike Witwicky, 1984
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-23-26 AT 01:22 AM (EDT)
 
>Also, the whole thing about blaming Prime for the war feels like those
>smugly postmodern takes on Batman that follow the "he attracts
>villains, ergo Gotham would be better off without him, I am very
>intelligent" line.

On the plus side, I should give credit where it's due and note that I liked the dropped-in reference to Convoy in the... narrator thing's... list of Prime's names. It has kind of an "I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh" vibe. :)

--G.
Fun fact: unlike the multiversal nature of the short, the same individual has had all three of those names in UF. Orion Pax is his original name; Convoy was his "stage name" as a slave-gladiator during the Quintesson Occupation; and Optimus Prime is his Matrix name.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Orion Pax is his original name; Convoy was his "stage name" as a slave-gladiator
>during the Quintesson Occupation; and Optimus Prime is his Matrix
>name.

Now I wonder if Gryph knew about Convoy during Transformers: Flesh and Steel, or if that was just one reference that happened to hit another.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>>Orion Pax is his original name; Convoy was his "stage name" as a slave-gladiator
>>during the Quintesson Occupation; and Optimus Prime is his Matrix
>>name.
>
>Now I wonder if Gryph knew about Convoy during Transformers: Flesh and
>Steel, or if that was just one reference that happened to hit another.

Oh no, he definitely had the history in mind when he said it, seeing Prime's "optimized for ass-kicking" new model. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-21-26 AT 04:09 PM (EDT)
 
Two takes I’ve read on the Awakening short that I’m leaning towards, YMMV:

https://tfsource.com/blog/2026/09/21/countdown-optimus-prime-awakening-8-reaction-thoughts/

https://www.tumblr.com/dynared/828092167588298752/sooptimus-prime-awakening-spoilers-under-the

My personal thought is that it’s not intended to be a The Last Jedi-style denial of the Idea of Optimus Prime, but that it’s trying to say if we’re not careful, we could get stuck in the loop of eternal rehashing of the same story beats over and over again in the franchise. (Not for nothing there’s a The Many Deaths of Optimus Prime page on TFWiki. And never forget the cries of TRUKK NOT MUNKEY from the days of Beast Wars…).

Still, neither Peter Cullen nor Frank Welker phoned it in for this, and given their long friendship (and off-and-on cancellations from con appearances on Cullen’s part for the past year or so), I’d say this short works as well as anything for a final farewell for Peter Cullen’s portrayal of Optimus Prime.

Where the franchise goes from here, only the creatives, execs, and the teeming hordes of fandom can try to say…

—- Philip

(Additional edit: TVTropes appears to lean towards the entire scenario as being a means to see if Optimus is capable of renouncing the cycle of violence and reaching for peace instead, but that’s always a thorny problem no matter the background of the setting and characters…)

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Above all, do not lament my absence. For in my spark, I know that this is not the end, but merely a new beginning. Simply put: another transformation." Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

>if we’re not careful, we could get stuck in
>the loop of eternal rehashing of the same story beats over and over
>again in the franchise.

Honestly, that's on Hasbro and the show writers more than anyone else.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

I haven't seen the short, I don't think there's any showings here, but I saw one take being that this was a way for Cullen to retire. Before the subject got forced, you know.