Transformers One is a unique animated film that merges the past and future of animation under the vision of Josh Cooley and his team. Under the Paramount Animation banner, President Ramsey Ann Naito addressed the original story of this franchise in the original animated film.

The voice cast includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, with Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm.

Here is the official synopsis:

Transformers One is the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cyberton forever.

LRM Online’s Gig Patta chatted with Paramount’s president of animation, Ramsey Ann Naito, about the project’s origins, Josh Cooley and his team, and the future of the animation studio.

Transformers One is now playing in theaters nationwide.

ALSO CHECK OUT: Transformers One | Brian Tyree Henry On His Love For Megatron and Decepticons

Read the full transcript of the interview below.

Gig Patta: It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ramsey. Congratulations on this new film, Transformers One. It is incredible to watch. You’re going to hear it a lot from a lot of people. This is a terrific film that you brought to the masses.

Ramsey Ann Naito: Thank you so much. I’m so proud of it. I remember being introduced to Transformers in Japan as a kid in the eighties. It was an absolute honor to be a part of the team.

Gig Patta: Tell us the genesis of this project. What were the initial discussions on what Transformers One should look like? Some of us have been used to live-action movies for decades; some grew up in the eighties with cartoons. What was the discussion at the beginning?

Ramsey Ann Naito: The team, who’s been together for so long, I’m referring to Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian, who’ve been with the franchise for 20 years. They always had this idea of an origin story. What would a movie on Cybertron look like? The stars just aligned with everything, which is great for me.

That animation allows you to create and align every detail with the story. In the beginning, it was that this movie is poised perfectly for animation because we can make a world we’ve never been to, and it can be transformative, right? [Laughs] Josh Cooley, who grew up with the franchise and loved it. He had such an incredible vision for it and put together a team that delivered on this sensational look. It was a story about a friendship we’d never seen before. Audiences will look at the previous live-action films differently after seeing this film by knowing how close they were and understanding how their ideologies shifted and what made them sworn enemies.

Gig Patta: Now the animation looks. Tell us about Paramount Animations trying to update the look of the animation to today’s standards. In this case, what kind of influences came into for Transformers One? I’ve seen many films like The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Paw Patrol. All the animations from Paramount Animation are vastly different.

Ramsey Ann Naito: I love working at Paramount Animation because we have embraced a know-how style. All of our films look radically different. We start with talent. We form our movies around talent and vision. The one thing that makes both Josh Cooley and Jeff Rowe significant commonality is that they love their perspective titles. Jeff loved Turtles. He grew up with Turtles. We couldn’t think of anything better to do with the four, or now, seven to eight years of his life. He just immersed himself in retelling these stories that impressed his childhood.

For Josh, it’s the same. It was about supporting him, finding his team, and developing a unique look that paid homage to what fans loved and what he loved—all because he is a super fan as well.

Also, it identifies aspects of the film that have never been seen before and takes liberties to blow that out of the park. That was Cybertron. There’s one more example that I think is great. At the beginning of this film, we meet Optimist Prime and Megatron, and they’re Orion Pax and D-16. They’re anonymous. They’re cogs. They’re miners. They’re small. They can’t transform. Their design is not who we know them today. Throughout the film, they get powered up. They get cogs. They come into their power of transformation. In the end, they are elevated once again. They are delivered as the characters we know and hate. We love and hate today. I guess it would be love too, because I think Megatron is an incredible villain who we to got love for it too.

Gig Patta: Well said. At the beginning of this conversation, you said that you grew up with the original cartoons. How important is it to circle back to the Japanese and the Asian influences in a film like this?

Ramsey Ann Naito: I think it is essential. As I recall, the original embraced this realistic futurism. It was this robot world. The animation embraced the future that came from Japanese culture and this fascination with Japanese culture. It embraced transformation, action, and design in a way that is based on anime. It’s infused with the DNA of what we see in all the Transformers. We paid homage to how the Transformers was created and brought it into today. We modernized it with technology and partnership with ILM, which is just the cream of the crop in terms of delivering quality–quality design, quality animation, quality effects, and quality camera work. We couldn’t think of a better, of a better partner than ILM on this movie.

Gig Patta: Let me wrap it up with one last question, Ramsey. Tell us about leading Paramount Animation into the future, the influences, and where we expect this company to be.

Ramsey Ann Naito: I’m so excited about Paramount’s future, all of the animation we’re making now, and also our great slate. We are making movies based on beloved IP with more Turtles, Transformers, and soon to come, Smurfs and SpongeBob. But we also have an incredible slate of originals that are meant to speak to today’s audience in a way that nothing else can and add to this incredible librarian be a franchise of the future. These movies are directed by incredibly talented men and women with teams behind them. They add to these films creatively in every way. The great thing about animation is that it’s never one person. Animation is not a one-human band ever.

It’s a collaborative process with many people behind it. We have Josh on Transformers. Then you have Jason William Sheier and Christopher Batty. Jason Sheier is the production designer. And Chris Batty is the head of cinematography. Then the film has Lynn Hobson, who’s the picture editor. You have solid leads helping to manage anywhere from three to 600 artists collaborating to bring these incredible stories to life. Every single movie has a unique vision. We’re not feeding one pipeline. So we dare to be different with each film.

Gig Patta: Ramsey, thank you very much, uh, for carrying this conversation with us for Transformers. Don’t sell yourself short because you, you, you are the leader and spearheaded a lot of these projects. You helped bring it all to the screen for us. So, thank you very much for this conversation.

Ramsey Ann Naito: Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day, and thank you for your time.

Transformers One is now playing in theaters nationwide.

Source: LRM Online Exclusive, Paramount Animation