Transformers' spinoff, Bumblebee, set to create a big buzz

A 4-meter-high sculpture of a bee was displayed at a promotional event in Beijing on Dec 14 for Bumblebee, a spinoff from the Transformers series to be released in China on Friday.

The film is set in 1987, when its other protagonist, Charlie Watson, saves a robotic bumblebee that has lost its memory. They join forces to fight the Decepticons, a common enemy.

"This is a story about the relationship between Bumblebee and Watson-these two lost, lonely, broken souls who find each other, heal each other and make each other complete. It's about how they define each other, and how Bumblebee grows and evolves-physically and emotionally," says Travis Knight, the film's director.

Speaking about why to Bumblebee was chosen instead of other Transformers as the hero, Knight says, "Bumblebee was always the Transformer who had the greatest affinity for humanity, the one who had the deepest connection to people."

Knight and his design team put many details into the character but also tried to make sure every detail was meaningful.

"Our version of Bumblebee became a bridge between what Michael Bay (Transformers' director) did in his five previous films and the original version of Bumblebee from the 1980s TV show," Knight adds.

Even before the films directed by Bay, Bumblebee was known to audiences from earlier TV shows. This film is set in the 1980s since it "made sense" to Knight.

"As we were telling an original story, we should go to the era that these characters were born in. And that's also when I was first exposed to them."