Bumblebee Goes Full '80s in April Fools Day VHS Trailer

CBR

By Ian Cardona

Published Apr 2, 2019

To celebrate the home release of Paramount's Bumblebee solo film, a new video was released, framing the film as an '80s VHS release.

Left to right: Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in BUMBLEBEE, from Paramount Pictures.

Bumblebee is finally coming to home release -- but sadly, it won't be on VHS.

In order to hype up the April 2 release of Bumblebee on Blu-ray and DVD, Paramount has released a new trailer for the Transformers spinoff that re-frames the film as an old '80s release. The trailer comes with your classic distorted lines to alter the video's quality, and a 4:3 screen ratio. Starting with the classic Paramount logo of old, a fun, old school voice-over gives introduces us to the movie's main characters, Hailee Steinfeld's rebellious Charlie and her robotic friend from another planet, Bumblebee.

The homage of this new trailer comes directly from the era the movie is based in. As fans know, Bumblebee is a throwback film set in 1987, which serves as an origin story for the fan-favorite yellow Autobot. But while the trailer ends by informing fans that the film will be released on VHS, a subtle asterisk informs us that, unfortunately, that isn't really the case. This is just a fun April Fool's joke meant to tie into the home release of the film, which will only be released on Blu-ray, DVD and digital.

While Bumblebee was first billed as a prequel to the Transformers film series, enough changes were made in the cinematic timeline to set it apart from Michael Bay's movies. Later, Hasbro would confirm that the spinoff film was in fact a reboot of the movie series. Even so, a sequel to 2017's Transformers: The Last Knight is reportedly still in the works.

The Bumblebee movie was a critical, if quiet, success. While it didn't make as much money as the previous Transformers film, a sequel was already given the green light. In fact, in a recent interview, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed that the next film would mix the heart of Bumblebee with the action of Michael Bay's movies. "I know the next Transformer, our attempt anyway, is to sort of do a fusion of Bumblebee and the Bay movies, " the producer said. "A little more Bayhem. And a little bit more of the character falling in love within the emotional dynamic of the movie.

Directed by Travis Knight from a script by Christina Hodson, Bumblebee stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Pamela Adlon, Jason Drucker, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow, Ricardo Hoyos and Gracie Dzienny, and is will be available on Blu-ray and DVD April 2.