Paramount has released the latest featurette and TV spot forBumblebee, featuring the music of Swiss band Yello and the introduction of the Triple-Changers. While the name of the band Yello isn’t necessarily recognizable, their song “Oh Yeah (Yello Song)” is instantly recognizable fromFerris Bueller’s Day Offand a number of other movies, TV shows, and commercials from the 1980s. TheBumblebeespot uses the song as a way for theTransformerto find his voice while driving down the road with Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie Watson. It’s a fun piece of promotional material that should bring some old schoolTransformersfans back to their youth.
TheBumblebeemovie isset in the 1980s, bringing theTransformersfranchise back to its roots. The movie takes place in 1987, 20 years before the first Michael Bay-directed installment as Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie finds the mysterious Autobot in a small California beach town. Soon, they find themselves being hunted by the United States government and someDecepticons. From the recent trailers and TV spots, it looks a lot different from the rest of the franchise, which is refreshing.
In 1985, Hasbro launched a special set ofTransformersthat were able to shift into three different things. From robot, to vehicle, and then a second machine. Thesetriple changerswere first announced byBumblebeedirector Travis Knight at San Diego Comic-Con over the summer and fans have been super excited to see their big screen debut. In addition to the latest TV spot, Paramount has also released a new featurette that briefly describes the triple changers and shows how excited the producers are to finally bring them into the movies.
Angela Bassett’sShatter is a Harrier Jetwho can also take the form of a red Plymouth Satellite, while Justin Theroux’s Dropkick is a Bell AH-1 Supercorba helicopter who also becomes a blue AMC Javelin. Their appearance is going to make things pretty hard on the Autobots whenBumblebeehits theaters later this month. In the featurette, there’s a tiny snippet of a scene which shows the beloved Autobot taking a pretty brutal beating at the hands of a Decepticon. Blitzwing will also be featured inBumblebee, though only in aerial form, not the tank form that he is known for as well.
Bumblebeeopens in theaters on December 21st, which is also the same day that Warner Bros.‘Aquamanis released as well. While theTransformersmovie is expected to do well at the box office, it’s not going to beat James Wan’s first superhero movie. In fact, it’s looking like it will earn anywhere from $15-$25 million domestically, which would make for the lowest opening for aTransformersmovie yet. However, much likeAquaman, theBumblebeemovie has seen some decent early praise that could generate more traffic in the coming weeks. For now, you can check out the new TV spot and triple changer featurette below, thanks to the Paramount Pictures YouTube channel.
