In Transformers, Rise of the Beast's Good Space Robots and Evil Space Robots

Battle for the Fate of the Universe. Led by Optimus Prime, the Autobots returned to do battle

with the forces of the villainous Unicron

and our heroes enlist new helpers along the way.

I'm Stephen Thompson.

Today we are talking about Transformers Rise of the Beast on Pop Culture Happy

Hour from NPR. Joining me today is Switched on Pop producer

Riana Cruz. Welcome back, Riana.

Happy to be here, Stephen.

Thank you for having me.

It is great to have you.

So I'm not sure how deeply we really need to go into the lore here, but here is the gist.

The best known good guys in the Transformers movies are the Autobots.

They're aliens who can take the form of either robots with legs or vehicles with wheels.

Optimus Prime is their leader, he's voiced by Peter Cullen,

while other Autobots in Rise of the Beast include

wise-cracking Mirage voiced by Pete Davidson.

But there are other good guys including the Maximals who take the form of robot animals.

They include a bird creature called Airraiser, voiced by Michelle Yo, and are led by Optimus

Primal, a robotic gorilla voiced by Ron Perlman. The bad guys include the brutal overlord

Unicron and his primary minion ruthless killer robot

Scourge who is voiced by Peter Dinkledge. And then there are our human heroes.

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