What happens when you take an adorable puppy for a run, videotape it, put the clip in slo-mo, and add some fiery explosives?

You get the cutest Michael Bay film ever made.

Perhaps best known as the director of Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and the occasional Shia LaBeouf-filled Transformers movie, Bay gets his fair (?) share of teasing on Reddit, largely for his use of a subtle cinematic device called the HUGE EXPLOSION.

The joke that Bay overuses his big-budget fire power somehow snowballed and mutated over the years into an entire community on Reddit called Michael Bay Gifs, devoted entirely to taking normal, explosion-free gifs and adding in—what else?—some good ol’-fashioned ka-booms.

But while most Bay Gif connoisseurs choose human subjects, redditor ThereIsNoCutlery went in a bolder, furrier direction, by making the star of this blockbuster a cuddly four-legged hero you can’t help but cheer for.

Like most projects graced by Bay’s pyrotechnic artistry, the conflagrant canine’s video soon inspired a sequel:

And another sequel:

Thus, the Transformutts franchise was born. With Transformutts 2: Revenge of the Basenji, and—who could forget?—Transformutts 3: Bark of the Moon.

But dogs were the only animals who found themselves licking the flames.

There were cats (every action movie needs a villain, after all):

Parrots:

Armed parrots (with arms):

Even a pair of manta rays set the water ablaze:

The commenters seemed to make a strong case for the next Michael Bay movie to feature more running, more animals, and above all… MORE EXPLOSIONS!!!

Check out the original discussion thread to see all of redditors’ best pyrotechnic direction for the animal kingdom.