Review: Was ‘Optimus Prime: Awakening’ a Tribute to Peter Cullen?

Following the death of the longtime voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen, Hasbro was under the microscope as they advertised his last performance in their short film, Optimus Prime: Awakening, that played after the credits of their 40th anniversary release of the Transformers the Movie. Reviews have been mixed and have left Transformers fans divided on what this film means for the franchise. I watched the re-release of the movie that shattered my childhood and waited in anticipation with the rest of the theater for the post-credit film, and honestly, I was a bit baffled about what it was. Plot: Optimus Prime: Awakening picked up the moment Optimus Prime died as he floats above his dead body and appeared to be sucked into another world. This is where I initially thought this was his initiation into the matrix after he passed, and would be a tribute to the hero and a send-off to the great Peter Cullen, but that was not the case. Prime meets an entity that says it’s the end when all are one. Many fans are speculation that this is the Allspark, created in Beast Machines but popularized in the Michael Bay live-action Transformers movies. However, I personally felt that it could be the O...