There is a mind-numbing thud that greets the arrival of each new entry in the live-action "Transformers" franchise, so it's a relief to say that "Transformers One" finds the robots back in their optimal, animated form.

As origin stories go, director Josh Cooley's breezy, action-packed genesis tale reintroduces Optimus Prime, Megatron and the rest of the Transformers gang, without any pesky humans hanging around the edges of the frame to muck things up. Kids will dig it, and that's who this film is for; those who grew up with the toys and cartoons in the 1980s have their own memories of the Transformers of their youth.

Chris Hemsworth voices Orion Pax, the bot who becomes Optimus Prime, back on his home planet of Cybertron. Brian Tyree Henry voices his best friend, D-16, who after a dark flirtation with power grows into Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, and there's no realm in the known universe where this would be considered a spoiler.

The movie opens as they're both lowly miners, unable to transform, and while there's no human parallel to the way these robots age, they're depicted as teenagers. Orion is the more adventurous spirit of the pair, willing to skirt around the rules to get what he wants, and D-16 is his somewhat reluctant tagalong pal.

Orion sneaks them into a marquee race, the Iacon 5000 — think of it as their planet's Indianapolis 500 — where they nearly win the checkered flag from their much more accomplished competitors. But their risk-taking lands them in the dumps, where they meet B-127 (voiced by Keegan Michael Key), the wise-cracking bot who will become Bumblebee (although he prefers his self-given nickname "Badassatron").

Scarlett Johansson, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Hamm and Steve Buscemi voice various other bots, and there's plenty of talk of leadership, teamwork and discovery of one's destiny. The animation style is crisp and fluent, and the film's visual language is well-defined.

Director Cooley ("Toy Story 4") keeps things moving at a brisk pace, and screenwriters Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari pack the story with enough flip humor, visual gags (Orion encounters a malfunctioning data chip and fixes it by blowing on it like an NES cartridge) and casual jokes to amuse kids as well as the parents who brought them.

"Transformers One" is overly protective of Transformers mythology, but at least it earns its investment in the story, unlike the live action movies, which have yet to transform into anything interesting. For a familiar franchise, this feels like a new beginning.

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'TRANSFORMERS ONE'

Grade: B-

MPA rating: PG (for sci-fi violence and animated action throughout, and language)

Running time: 1:44

How to watch: In theaters Sept. 20

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