‘Til All Are One

Last week, I sat in a theater and watched a cartoon character die. Again.

The Transformers: The Movie came back to theaters for its 40th anniversary (has it been forty years already?), with the campaign being called the “Apology Tour.” An apology—forty years late, mind you—for the single most traumatic moment in an entire generation’s childhood; Optimus Prime’s death.

Now, I wasn’t a part of that generation, per se, see, I grew up on Transformers: Prime. I honestly discovered it on accident when I was flipping through channels and saw Bumblebee, who I only recognized from the live-action movies. Transformers: Prime was my gateway into the Transformers universe, including comics, Beast Wars, and, of course, the ‘80s cartoon.

Some people might think I’m weird for re-watching these shows and movies that I love, but the thing is, at least for me, it’s like falling in love with the story all over again. Sure, the animation of the ‘80s can be a little wonky, but it’s the story I’m interested in; it’s just that, the story of The Transformers: The Movie is speckled with grief. Great characters are killed off: Ironhide, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and, yes, Optimus Prime.

This time, though, the grief of watching Optimus die hit different. Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus for over forty years, passed away on August 26th. He was 85. He also voiced Eeyore, by the way.

You know, he told his older brother about his audition, saying, “I’m going to be a truck!” His brother, Larry, a U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran, told him not to play a Hollywood hero, but to play a real hero. “Be strong enough to be gentle.” And that’s exactly what Peter Cullen did. For four decades—the original cartoons, the live-action films, Prime, the video games—he played Optimus as a true leader. An entire generation of kids learned what strength looks like from a talking truck, and what that strength looked like was patience, compassion, and restraint.

When Optimus died in the 1986 movie, the backlash was so fierce that Hasbro had to bring him back! They thought they were killing a character to sell new toys, but they didn’t realize the character meant so much to everyone who watched The Transformers.

There’s no bringing him back this time, and maybe that’s the real reason the anniversary hit so hard this year. The “Apology Tour” became a farewell tour. We went to the theater to forgive Hasbro for 1986, and ended up saying goodbye to the man who made us need the apology in the first place.

“Be strong enough to be gentle.”

I keep coming back to those words. Transformers is a franchise built on endless war, but the most enduring thing about it turned out to be gentleness. That’s what forty years of Optimus Prime taught me.

Thank you, Peter. The Transformers fanbase will never be the same without you. ‘Til all are one.