New 'Bumblebee' Featurette Brings the Hero from Storyboard to Screen

As proven in multiple Transformers films, giant robots can convey a lot more emotion than you would expect them to be able to, thanks in large part to the efforts of the visual effects teams and the ways in which they bring those characters to life. The same is true of Bumblebee, with the film depicting the Transformer in a more emotional way than previous films, allowing audiences to connect with the character like never before. In the above featurette from the film's home video release, director Travis Knight and the visual effects team discuss the importance of storyboards when it came to conveying the character's emotions in the film. Learn more about Bumblebee, out now on Digital HD and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on April 2nd.

In Bumblebee, "Cybertron has fallen. When Optimus Prime sends Bumblebee to defend Earth, his journey to become a hero begins. Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), a teenager trying to find her place in the world, discovers and repairs the battle-scarred robot, who's disguised as a Volkswagen Beetle. As the Decepticons hunt down the surviving Autobots with the help of a secret agency led by Agent Burns (John Cena), Bumblebee and Charlie team up to protect the world.

Bumblebee is directed by Travis Knight and stars Hailee Steinfeld, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, John Cena, Jason Drucker, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Schneider, Ricardo Hoyos, and John Ortiz. The home video release includes the following special features:

• Sector 7 Archive
• Agent Burns: Welcome to Sector 7
• Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle at Half Dome (All-New Motion Comic)
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Outtakes
• Bee Vision: The Transformers robots of Cybertron
• Bringing Bumblebee to the Big Screen
• The Story of Bumblebee
• The Stars Align
• Bumblebee Goes Back to G1
• Back to the Beetle
• California Cruisin' Down Memory Lane

The Transformers series of films have regularly delivered audiences massive action spectacles, which utilized advanced special effects to create believable sequences. Knight previously revealed that, with the tone of Bumblebee being so different from its predecessors, he had to take a different approach to the film.

"It wasn't in any way addressing any feedback from the fans," Knight previously admitted to CNET. "It was just a story I wanted to tell. That last one [Transformers: The Last Knight] is one of the biggest movies I've ever seen -- and I couldn't go bigger than that. So let's go the other way, let's focus in on a small corner of this canvas and really get to know one of these characters. Let's balance the emotions with the explosions ... The core relationship mattered to me more than anything else. And if that didn't work, none of the other stuff matters. It's just bombast. It's just eye candy."

Bumblebee is out now on Digital HD and hits 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on April 2nd.