Tap to enter
I. Unicron Enters the Woods
II. Unicron Witnesses the Death of Optimus Prime
Coming Soon!
III. Unicron Crosses a Stream
The Unicron Tapestries
Like the Unicron Tapestries, but with Unicron.
Seven micro-short animations—one for each tapestry
Dropping one per day
Starting Mon, Sep 14
On unicrontapestries.org and @joshuafrankel on Instagram.
By Joshua Frankel
With audio from The Transformers: The Movie (1986):
Orson Welles as Unicron
Music by Vince DiCola
Go see the real Unicorn Tapestries at the Met Cloisters in NYC.
Go see The Transformers: The Movie,
In theaters Sep 17 - 22, 2026.
Read my statement about this work
Unicron — voiced by Orson Welles in his final role — was the chief antagonist in the hand-drawn cult classic, The Transformers: The Movie (1986). He’s a Transformer so big he transforms into a moon.
Released at the height of the popularity of Transformers toys and comics, the film shocked children across the globe (including six year-old me) when they killed Optimus Prime—25 minutes into the movie! Imagine if the Paw Patrol movie featured the death of Ryder.
As a result, at a very young age, my expectations around plot twists became unreasonably high.
In honor of its 40th anniversary, The Transformers: The Movie (1986) is being re-released in theaters in 4K. Hasbro has dubbed this the “Apology Tour”. It opens September 17. I'm taking my own kids to see it on Sunday.
The Unicorn Tapestries (c. 1495-1505) are masterpieces of medieval art, on view permanently at the Met Cloisters in New York City.
They are about man hunting the divine. Strangely, it gets caught and put in a cage.
Unicron is the divine hunting us. He devours all. Like time. We can only fight him if we work together and become our best selves—to an epic synth soundtrack.
The Unicron Tapestries are my love letter to art, myth and childhood fantasy.
You can find more about my artistic practice at joshuafrankel.net.
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