You Are Not Emotionally Prepared For Peter Cullen’s Final Optimus Prime Performance

When I heard that Hasbro was releasing a new short film called “Optimus Prime: Awakening” just weeks after Peter Cullen’s death at the age of 85, I assumed it was a quickie greatest-hits highlight reel meant to boost interest in the 40th anniversary re-release of The Transformers: The Movie. Some clips of Optimus Prime throughout the years, maybe some never-before-heard Cullen outtakes, and that’s that.

I was wrong.

“Optimus Prime: Awakening,” which will play after anniversary screenings of The Transformers: The Movie, is very much its own distinct short. (It runs about 12 minutes.) Hasbro doesn’t want the contents of the film spoiled, and that’s fair enough. But it’s not a spoiler to say that it is an all-too-fitting farewell for an iconic pop-culture voice. I don’t know anything about “Awakening”’s backstory or when Cullen recorded his lines for it. But it’s hard to imagine any short having more thematic resonance with its lead actor’s passing if it had been expressly designed as a curtain call.

Hasbro

READ MORE: Relive Peter Cullen’s Greatest Transformers Moments

Part of that has to do with Cullen’s performance itself. In his final turn as Optimus Prime, Cullen doesn’t sound frail necessarily. Just ... older. He doesn’t produce quite the same booming, resonant tone you expect from this character after decades of cartoons, films, and video games. It’s not how Optimus Prime is traditionally “supposed” to sound. This character is a sentient semi-truck. He’s the leader of a group of semi-immortal warrior robots from an alien world. As played by Cullen, Optimus Prime became the sonic embodiment of wisdom and courage and leadership to a generation of kids.

And yet the Cullen heard in “Awakening” — more fragile and vulnerable and maybe even a little melancholy — winds up matching the film’s content and message perfectly. (Cullen’s longtime Transformers co-star Frank Welker appears in “Awakening” as well, voicing Decepticon leaders Megatron and Soundwave, and sounding just as much like a living boombox and cannon as he always has.)

I’ll be honest: I was not emotionally prepared for this short. When I started the screener, and I realized what it was ultimately about, it hit me much harder than I expected. I imagine fans who are more invested in the Transformers mythos than I am — I watched the cartoons as a kid and I have watched the movies mostly out of professional obligation as an adult — will be pretty devastated by a couple of moments in this.

Hasbro

The short is certainly not perfect, and while I wouldn’t spoil what transpires in it, I will say that I was unsure how I was supposed to interpret the ending. (That’s another element that will probably mean a lot more to hardcore Transformers fans.) I also don’t know that I would say you need to go out of your way to watch “Optimus Prime: Awakening” if you do not have especially fond memories of vintage Transformers cartoons. But I will say if you are planning to see The Transformers: The Movie, I would make sure to stay for “Optimus Prime: Awakening” too. And I might make sure to pack a handkerchief too.

“Optimus Prime: Awakening” plays after Fathom’s anniversary screenings of The Transformers: The Movie starting on September 17. More information on the film’s re-release can be found here.