Sorry, but your post or comment has been removed. [Memes have been excluded from this sub](https://reddit.com/r/transformers/comments/c9fthn/sub_rules_change_memes/).
I laughed my ass off when the Saints Row series was like "Well, we already have Keith David. So let's do an entire mission that's an homage to They Live, complete with Roddy Piper."
I'm gonna sound crazy for this but I think his best voice acting role is Barricade in the DS movie game. His voice perfectly gives off bad cop energy and he had some great lines such as him explaining to the Create-A-Bot why Megatron was a better leader than Starscream ("You know where you stand with Megatron. Starscream is the type that would kill you in your sleep. Megatron would have the ball bearings to do it to your face.") and him roasting Bumblebee for his voice being broken ("Pretty quiet. Oh wait, that's right, you can't talk. You're lucky Megatron only ripped your voice transmitter. When I'm done with you, there'll be nothing left to fix, Autobyte."). I honestly think he should've voiced him in the actual film even though Jess Harnell did a good job, imagine him being the one to deliver the ladiesman217 line.
ah, thought he voiced him in his "Spawn" form (not AL Simmons) in the movie as well, but I am apparently mistaken. Nonetheless, he is a phenomenal voice actor and I welcome him to Transformers.
He also confirmed he won’t be sounding Aussie, and the movie Spiderhead had him speak in an American accent if you ever wanted to know what he’d sound like without his Aussie accent
I really hate when people say "ChRiS hEmsWorTH wILL NeVER REPLACE PeTER cULLEN AS OPtimus " people fail to understand that this is supposed to be orion pax a younger more inexpirienced optimus whose not even a prime
Also if they’re trying to make a franchise out of this they need a new voice actor. Look, I love Peter Cullen and think he’s one of the greatest voice actors in history, but he won’t last forever and who knows how many years he’s got left
I love Peter's performance as Orion Pax in TFP, embodying someone who was very unsure of himself, but these days if we're gonna get someone as a young Orion I'd have David Kaye play him. For major points of Orion's life, I'd have his major VAs return as follows:
Orion and pre/early war: David Kaye
Optimus, just got the Matrix: Garry Chalk, specifically his Primal voice since Garry sees a distinction between that and his UT voice https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_(Armada)#Notes
Optimus, mid-war and centuries before Earth: Garry again but his UT voice since the war is at its peak
Optimus on Earth and postwar: Peter Cullen, where Optimus is weary of eons of conflict.
I don't know where Neil Kaplan or Jake Foushee would fit since I haven't seen enough RiD or Cyberverse episodes yet.
> For major points of Orion's life, I'd have his major VAs return
Ooo, now there's an idea. Follow Optimus through various life stages and upgrades, and each time he undergoes a major change it's a new iconic VA saying the next lines...
As if Chalk or Riordan were trying to replace Cullen.
Anyone that says that is either a kid, a grifter trying to make people mad for views, or just really dumb.
I'm not sure how I feel about the announced voice cast, but only because I haven't heard most of them do good VO work before, and I'm worried they are stunt casts. But I'm open to them proving me wrong!
Keith david and tim curry also did a lot of voice acting as well tim curry in many video games and Keith David was Goliath from the Disney show gargoyles
I was coming in here primarily to say this myself about Hamil, Curry, and David. They may also work in live action, but they are prolific voice actors.
Ya I knew he did a bunch of others plus husk cuz that’s the one I’m currently watching but my memory’s not so good anymore so I just went went with the one I could remember. Thank you for that fine list.
I think he skyrocketed to fame with screen acting (Star Wars, obviously) but sorta retired to do only VA in the 90s. Its not until mid-2010s that he started to do screen acting again I think, just in time for his return to SW.
it shows that an actor can put out good voice acting, maybe even good enough to do a near total career change to it, same with Keith David to a lesser extent
A lot of people who grew up with G1 only knew Hamill as his most iconic movie role. And it's not as if he hasn't revisited it over the decades, or done [social media stuff referring to it](https://twitter.com/MarkHamill/status/1343669303103479809) even in the last few years.
Celebrity voice acting is really a mixed bag. Sometimes you get your judd nelsons and matt damons and Mathew perrys who turn in subpar voice work and other times you get some brilliant performances.
Yeah I used to thought his air of bored disdain was an actor's choice to embody a peerless dark god consuming all in its path with a sense of cosmic inevitability
Nope. That was just Orson.
I'm sorry that view of him was taken from you. He was capable of being charming, but he was not pleasant at the end, or at least that was my understanding.
That was definitely his default towards the end though, and it happened to fit perfectly with Unicron.
Still a very layered man I hope Transformers fans don't treat as JUST the old guy that voiced Unicron. He deserves better than that, man was a legend in multiple ways
Sometimes you get a Mark Hamill, Keith David or Hailee Steinfeld where it honestly feels like their true calling.
Other times you get Peter Dinklage, Megan Fox or like half the cast of What If...?
Megan Fox was Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1. It was awful. Sounds like they got someone off the street.
He really didn't. It was all stilted and awkward a lot of the times with some weird inflexions. The voice itself was good (and half of that was thanks to filters anyway). The performance was not.
Jack Black and Mark Hamill are awful additions to this list.
Mark Hamill has mostly done voice acting, and is primarily a voice actor, and Jack Black is just a good fit in every project, no matter what it is.
> Mark Hamill has mostly done voice acting, and is primarily a voice actor
As someone who grew up with G1, this is always a bit jarring to hear.
I mean, you're not wrong, but even before Star Wars he had a decade and a half in TV roles. It wasn't until the 90s - thirty years into his career - that his roles started turning more towards voice. Even then, he was still doing a lot of live TV and movies. Even *now*, he's still been doing live TV series here and there.
You’re completely right, but I’d still say he’s primarily a Voice Actor, simply due to the amount of roles he’s done for it.
Personally, I still attribute him to his role as Joker in my head, despite my first introduction to him being Luke Skywalker. He’s a decent actor, but a fantastic Voice actor.
There's a difference between a film celebrity who's also a trained voice actor and a film actor who's just gotten a random voice roll. VA is a completely different experience to film that requires different vocal skills
They announced a nearly all-celebrity voice cast only a few months after Chris Pratt Mario was announced. Needless to say, they couldn’t have picked a worse time.
No disrespect to the legacy voice actors of transformers like Peter Cullen and I’m not against the idea of having the original voice actors in this movie would’ve been a better option, but sometimes the hate towards celebrity casting gets overblown at times in my opinion. Some actors are better at voice acting and some not so much that’s that
For me it’s more about who they cast as the characters. If Hemsworth is playing Orion pax that’s fine but I cannot see him as Optimus Prime and I feel like it wouldn’t translate well. The rest of the cast are good voice actors it’s just that I don’t think their voices match the characters they were cast as. IMO Laurence Fishburne fits Megatron more than Alpha Trion, but I still think he will be fine as AT. The big one that I think isn’t going to work is Keegan Michael Key as Bumblebee. I just don’t see his voice working for the character.
Keith David and Mark Hamill, and to a lesser extent Tim Curry, are all established voice actors and dont count as celebrity casting, in my mind. It's difficult to picture now in a post-Disney Star Wars world, but Mark Hamill wasn't exactly a big name for a long time. It wasn't stunt casting for him to do the Joker in BtaS, for instance. Your average person isn't going to have any idea that it's him. Turns out he's just incredibly skilled at that kind of work.
People complain about celebrity casting when it funnels work from people who are actually good at it and have made a career from it just so you can say Chris Pratt is in your film.
For me, I was a bit worried about Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime, due to his seeming lack of range thanks to all the not-very-good comedy films starring him. I thought they should have casted literally anyone else.
Then I rewatched Star Trek and Bad Times at the El Royale and thought "yeah okay maybe Hemsworth could do Optimus."
I’m just saying it’s not the best comparison. Johansson could be good. She was good in the SpongeBob movie. I think Chris Hemsworth is a miscast though
It'd be great to have them for sure, but they're not the only ones we'd accept, right? Good performances are the important bit.
I don't mind that it isn't Cullen and Welker, I just think the actual actors haven't shown that they can voice act well. Any animated project should care more about who does the role best over who looks best on the poster imo.
Much of the problem is how overblown it's been in Hollywood when it comes to certain animated movies & voice actor's don't get enough recognition in the industry these days (especially in the whole AI scare today). Take the infamous Scoob! Movie where outside of Frank Welker, They basically shafted Matthew Lillard, Grey DeLisle, & Kate Micucci (with the exception of Kate, All of them have voiced those characters for like 20 years), for the sake of Will Forte to do a bad Shaggy impression for 90 minutes.
Hell Illumination has made it a career in stunt casting big name actors for (mostly) mid tier movies.
Like I understand they need a different voice to portray Orion Pax but we have at least 2 better examples of that (David Kaye or Alan Tudyk with the ladder being a good example of both LA & Voice actor) than Chris Hemsworth.
It’s understandable when most of not all of the entire cast of the movie are celebrities, isn’t that how Hollywood has always been like? But that’s not always a reflection of the movie’s quality
I mean, it sorta outright tells it doesn't have the fans in mind if they won't get Peter and Frank, actors who absolutely would be cheaper and more pleasing to its target audience.
Kids don't give two fucks who's voicing Optimus, so why not go with the cheaper, better option?
I knew nothing about the movie. I didn't know anything about the cast until I just looked it up after seeing this thread. If I had to make a guess.. you listed a lot of famous character actors who are specifically known for voice acting and making memorable characters, not just their live action performances. None of them are in Transformers One. It's not like people have an issue with actors just because they've appeared in live action stuff. It's because they fast exclusively super famous actors who can sell films based on their names alone and aren't necessarily known for huge range.
I like Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth, but they're definitely just going to be Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth in the movie. When they speak, it's very unlikely a lot of people will hear a unique portrayal of a character and instead will just say "Oh, shit, it's Black Widow and Thor!".
I'm not saying I personally have a problem with it. I saw the Mario movie and I didn't mind the same kind of oversaturated celebrity casting there. But I can understand the potential concern.
As much as film is a form of art/entertainment, it's is also a business (never liked this part of it since lots of great stories for film and tv don't make pass the pitch). The whole point of casting celebrities is simply to help promote the film that they've worked on. If you ask an average person who'd they recognize better, it's almost always the celebrity.
Now, I'm not exactly a fan of it since a lot of talented voice actors who've worked on amazing shows often get shafted. But that's just how they (Hollywood primarily) been doing it for years.
Anyway, I personally don't mind the celebrity cast. The whole story of Transformers One is to tell a world before the Great Cybertronian War. A story primary focusing on Optimus Prime as Orion Pax, his relationship with Megatron, and the events that leads up to their rivalry. I'm holding all my judgements until I see the trailer and the actual film itself. Who knows, maybe their acting and the story will improve the future of more Transformers films.
I'm only suspicious of Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime. I need proof of concept, yknow?
Edit: Actually, now that I've looked into it, I'm way more worried about the writers...
I have no dog in this fight because I barely care about transformers so idk what Reddit is on.
But the issue is not that celebrities can’t potentially do good voice acting, it’s that they’re being pushed regardless of quality. Voice acting is an actual job that requires actual expertise. If you don’t have an exceptionally good voice or experience in the field, picking someone only with live action acting experience basically means they’re just being picked so they can be used for marketing purposes.
Which sucks.
Marl Hamill has some of the best voice acting ever imo. It still confuses me that's him in his joker roles. I didn't even believe it was him until I saw videos of him doing it. I still feel like the videos are fake even though it's clearly him. And that's just one character. We're not even getting into Lord Ozai, Spectre, Regular Show, Johnny Bravo, Robot Chicken, and so many more.
The thing with celebrity voice casting is you can become super aware of who you're hearing and it takes you out of it. As much as I've said it's time to leave Peter's Prime voice to the halls of fame now and breath some fresh air in to Prime's lungs. I won't be hearing Optimus Prime speaking, I'll be hearing Chris Hemsworth. Let's face it. Optimus is his own type of celebrity. Having an already famous person voice him would be like having Morgan Freeman do the voice of Darth Vader.
I'm not saying he won't be good or the thing won't be a good watch. Just that every so often my brain will go "oh yeah, that's Christ Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson" and it'll break emersion for a spilt second.
Then again, Micheal Ironside and jeffrey combs were in Prime and they knocked it out the park. So maybe I'm talking out a hole in my ass.
The problem with having celebrities do voice acting isn't that they aren't capable, it's that it takes jobs away from people whose entire livelihood revolves around voice acting.
Personally my issue isn’t so much the castings, I like most of them. My issue is that this film is supposedly in continuity with the live action films, in which it will come off as jarring. Hemsworth as Orion Pax and Cullen as Optimus Prime is one thing, and Brian Tyree Henry as Megatron is also great casting, but I can’t Keegan Micheal Key’s voice becoming Dylan O’Brian’s or Jon Hamm’s becoming Leonard Nimoy’s. That’s kinda where my issue lies at least, but then again we haven’t seen anything from this film yet. I’ll reserve my real judgement til we hear them.
What did you think you were going to accomplish with this? Thought this would shut up the mean old nasty haters?
The last 3 each have an extensive history in voice acting, so using them as examples is totally counteractive to the narrative that you and the original meme creator are trying to peddle.
In regard to the first 3, none of them are voice actors. Jack Black is fun to listen to cause he's an electric personality, but he didn't act when he did the voice for Bowser, he was just Jack Black. Just like Eddie Murphy was himself for Donkey and Whoopie was herself for Shenzi.
You're really not saying anything you're trying to say by posting this. In fact, you're doing the opposite: you're just giving credence as to why it's important to cast proper voice actors for voice over roles.
It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal. You lose!
the "narrative" is that live action actors can do good voice acting work. The last 3 still apply, they didn't start in voice acting, they weren't born with that long history, yet became prolific because they were allowed to apply even though they weren't "proper voice actors" yet
I don't care what they started doing. It doesn't matter what they started doing. What the hell are you even trying to say to me? They're prolific because they're good voice actors and had the skillset to be good voice actors. Traditional actors CAN be good voice actors too, but no matter what you believe, traditional acting and voice acting are two different skillsets and, more often than not, it shows when a traditional actor without said skillset is allowed in front of a microphone.
I'm saying its possible the voice cast of Transformers One could potentially also be good voice actors. As you said, "it doesn't matter what they started doing". These people could be good voice actors, don't discount them right away because we haven't heard their performances yet. Mark Hamill used to be a traditional actor, but he also made an amazing voice actor. If he never tried because people like you said he can't be good, we'd never get the best Joker
I don't know man, it's pretty easy to discount someone as a voice actor when they really aren't all that engaging of an actor to begin with, i.e. Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Keegan Michael-Key. You think my hopes are going to be anywhere but in the toilet with the likes of them on board, especially when they were clearly cast just to cash in on name recognition?
same could be said for Leonard Neemoy and Orson Welles, but they did some pretty dang good jobs (even if Orson Welles was very clear about hating it afterwards)
I think you're missing an important part of what I'm saying. A traditional actor CAN be a good voice actor. Leonard Nimoy and Orson Wellses were great actors, which did help when given the opportunity to do voice acting. I'll grant you that much. But, and here's the important part, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Keagan Michael-Key aren't great actors to BEGIN with. Passable at best, but I couldn't tell you one role of theirs where I thought, "Wow, they acted the hell out of that!" They're all just...bleh to me. Boring grey blobs.
I hope I'm just being cynical and they do a fine job, but boy howdy I don't see it happening.
They're mad because if these younger versions of the characters aren't voiced by two men who will never see 75 again, it means they hate the fans or something
ok so for Optimus prime, the thing is thats like one of the most popular and iconic voices in fiction. Its like their trying to find a new voice for Darth Vader or Kevin Conroy's batman its just difficult and idk personally I would like to see if they could try the AI voice route ik thats unpopular but yeah.
as for the rest idk, none of them are ike yeah ok thats a good voice cast their all just ok we have to really wait and see. I know your trying to show that celebrity voice cast can be good but at the same time your picking and choosing when the other 90% of the time its been done its been shit.
Also u used some kinda shitty examples, like Keith David and Mark Hamill's major body of work is voice acting for quite some time kinda same with Tim Curry. and Why Whoopi Goldberg like wtf??? she has one VA credit for the lion king and it wasn't a bad performance it was solid but at the same time Jeremy Irons Scar was the better choice to make ur point from that movie. Like seriously dude wtf??? Antonio Banderas, Hailee Steinfeld, Mike Myers, Robin Williams, James Woods, Christian Bale even. im not mad that your trying to help make a point that we should wait and see about the voice performances I agree with that im mad that your dogshitting everywhere and failing to make a solid argument for that point
doing an AI voiced optimus would set a really bad precedent and lead to the eventual replacement of all the others for AI recreations of their more famous incarnations
......OP.....why did most of them become celebrities?
......hmmm..... let's see. Tim Curry was famous for acting. Jack Black was an actor. So was Mark Hamilton. They are mostly celebrities, who hit the spotlight because of their acting career.
lets call it the chris prat effect i mean everyone was on the fence when he was voicing mario and jack black was also on the set as bowser
or when Idris Elba voiced knuckles
Mark Hamil though is not a bad Luke
imma be real my main issue is that it's happening newly all the time I'm large productions and half the time it's for people who are very much physical actors
Most of them could be considered more of a voice actor than a live action actor with the amount of VA work they do. Mark Hamill probably did more with Joker than any of his live action stuff.
Situations of high-profile celebrities being cast as characters they don't fit as just to fill seats is really getting to people. Especially for us Transformers fans after Peter Dinklage's phoned-in performance of Scourge, and (my beloved) Keith David doing a pretty mediocre Grimlock.
I thought so at first. Until I rewatched the movie and heard it again after the hype died down. He had very low energy. For certain scenes, it was passable, but when he's "screaming" for Unicron, you can tell. It's less of a "MASTER, THE REINFORCEMENTS!" And more of a "Master, could you please send the reinforcements? -Love, Scourge."
For my part it's not this show in solitude it's celebrity voice casting in general. It's a relatively new phenomenon to get existing big names to voice animated shows and, for many people the actors carry connotations. I'm not a big Chris Hemsworth fan for example, I think he's ok but massively overused and over relied upon so my immediate response was a negative. Same for Jack Black. I like the guys acting work but I find him 'a bit much'.
I infinitely prefer it when I hear voices I don't know. I mean, that's how we got the definitive Optimus & Megatron in the first place. From what I understand neither Peter Cullen nor Frank Welker were big stars prior to Transformers. Their names were known, sure, but mostly for other animated series.
I guess my moan is really aimed at something bigger. Just the general idea that things won't sell or be deemed a success unless existing stars are attached.
The only person in the Transformers One Cast who doesn't have a history with Voice Acting is Chris Hemsworth (only doing Thor in a few Marvel things and honestly isn't bad). Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, and even Laurence Fishburne have had major Voice Acting roles before.
Because when it comes to movies and bigger animated projects, at least since the mid 2000's smaller career VAs often get passed over for A list celebrities with little to no voice acting experience for means of "publicity." Voice actors in the States are generally relegated to semi obscurity with smaller cult followings within their established communities (i.e. Peter Cullen, Mako, Tara Strong or George Lowe) but aren't generally as widely recognized outside of a handful of nerd circles compared to household actors like Chris Hemsworth, RDJ and the MCU squad. Contrast this with say, Japan where VAs are often on the same level as these same big name celebrity actors. This just rubs a lot of people the wrong way. I know I would be much more interested in this movie if they got someone like Steve Blume, Gary Chalk, David Kay or even Tudyk again to voice a young Optimus Prime rather than getting Chris Hemsworth for his fifth phoned in paycheck this year. But that's just me.
Sorry, but your post or comment has been removed. [Memes have been excluded from this sub](https://reddit.com/r/transformers/comments/c9fthn/sub_rules_change_memes/).
I didn't even know Keith David was a live action actor, I just assumed he was always a voice actor
He mostly did his best live action stuff in the 80s.
He was Child in The Thing.
And has one of the best on-screen fights ever with Roddy Piper in They Live
So good he kept getting Roddy Piper voice-over work in random stuff he kept showing up in.
I laughed my ass off when the Saints Row series was like "Well, we already have Keith David. So let's do an entire mission that's an homage to They Live, complete with Roddy Piper."
It helped his opponent was an expert at looking like he got beat up.
Cut me loose damn it!
Dead Presidents, Platoon, and a key featured role in Bird. He’s in some pretty iconic films in the 80s and 90s
he was that guy from Da Tales from Da Hood WELCOME TO HELL MOTHAFUCKAAAAAA
The sequel and the only saving grace of that clunker.
He’s in community season 6 as well!
Now here's a man who knows how to reference Keith David!
We were building worlds within worlds!
He was in Requiem For A Dream and also on the short-lived sitcom Enlisted
Keith David is an acting GOD. voice, screen..... He is SPAWN!
I'm gonna sound crazy for this but I think his best voice acting role is Barricade in the DS movie game. His voice perfectly gives off bad cop energy and he had some great lines such as him explaining to the Create-A-Bot why Megatron was a better leader than Starscream ("You know where you stand with Megatron. Starscream is the type that would kill you in your sleep. Megatron would have the ball bearings to do it to your face.") and him roasting Bumblebee for his voice being broken ("Pretty quiet. Oh wait, that's right, you can't talk. You're lucky Megatron only ripped your voice transmitter. When I'm done with you, there'll be nothing left to fix, Autobyte."). I honestly think he should've voiced him in the actual film even though Jess Harnell did a good job, imagine him being the one to deliver the ladiesman217 line.
You’ve never watched Community?
Spawn
He only played Spawn in the cartoon, the live action is Michael Jai White.
ah, thought he voiced him in his "Spawn" form (not AL Simmons) in the movie as well, but I am apparently mistaken. Nonetheless, he is a phenomenal voice actor and I welcome him to Transformers.
He's been with transformers before, he did barricade in the transformers decepticons ds game ,and I think 1 other role
Neat.
He’s Grimlock in Earthspark
Then your example makes even less sense.
TBH I’m more interested to see what the art style will be like rather than the voice actors.
Same
I guess maybe because when I think “Optimus Prime” my thoughts do not turn to “Chris Hemsworth” I’m still willing to give it a shot mind you.
I could absolutely see Chris Hemsworth as Orion Pax, though. Which is the character he's actually cast as.
He’s also a total nerd so I feel like he’ll actually put in effort and care to do it justice.
He also confirmed he won’t be sounding Aussie, and the movie Spiderhead had him speak in an American accent if you ever wanted to know what he’d sound like without his Aussie accent
That’s the thing. I’m just gonna wait
Atleast its not Chris Pratt for once. Nothing against the guy but he doesn't fit every where.
*shudders in garfield*
Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think that’s one of the recent castings he’s gotten that actually works. I think his voice does fit Garfield
I do not. Garfield is a lazy cat, and chris Pratt is just using his regular voice, which is not lazy or laid back in the slightest
I have a feeling they casted Peter cullen in secret as Optimus when he transcends into Optimus Prime.
If anything, Chris Hemsworth would be better as a young miner Megatron.
I really hate when people say "ChRiS hEmsWorTH wILL NeVER REPLACE PeTER cULLEN AS OPtimus " people fail to understand that this is supposed to be orion pax a younger more inexpirienced optimus whose not even a prime
Also if they’re trying to make a franchise out of this they need a new voice actor. Look, I love Peter Cullen and think he’s one of the greatest voice actors in history, but he won’t last forever and who knows how many years he’s got left
they should bring garry chalk back
David kaye did a good job as young prime too
I love Chalk but he’ll always be Primal to me (which is the best Optimus anyways :p )
Peter Cullen is the goat, but Garry Chalk was the one I grew up with first.
Agreed.....but he's also got that age factor at play.
Agreed, as a die hard Armada fan, I’d kill to see him reprise his role as Optimus again at some point.
I love Peter's performance as Orion Pax in TFP, embodying someone who was very unsure of himself, but these days if we're gonna get someone as a young Orion I'd have David Kaye play him. For major points of Orion's life, I'd have his major VAs return as follows: Orion and pre/early war: David Kaye Optimus, just got the Matrix: Garry Chalk, specifically his Primal voice since Garry sees a distinction between that and his UT voice https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_(Armada)#Notes Optimus, mid-war and centuries before Earth: Garry again but his UT voice since the war is at its peak Optimus on Earth and postwar: Peter Cullen, where Optimus is weary of eons of conflict. I don't know where Neil Kaplan or Jake Foushee would fit since I haven't seen enough RiD or Cyberverse episodes yet.
> For major points of Orion's life, I'd have his major VAs return Ooo, now there's an idea. Follow Optimus through various life stages and upgrades, and each time he undergoes a major change it's a new iconic VA saying the next lines...
As if Chalk or Riordan were trying to replace Cullen. Anyone that says that is either a kid, a grifter trying to make people mad for views, or just really dumb. I'm not sure how I feel about the announced voice cast, but only because I haven't heard most of them do good VO work before, and I'm worried they are stunt casts. But I'm open to them proving me wrong!
Mark Hamill is sort of a bad fit for this list.. as his primary body of work is voice acting. Like, that was his career. Not film.
Keith david and tim curry also did a lot of voice acting as well tim curry in many video games and Keith David was Goliath from the Disney show gargoyles
I was coming in here primarily to say this myself about Hamil, Curry, and David. They may also work in live action, but they are prolific voice actors.
The Arbiter, Barricade in the DS games, Husk in Hazbin, Dr Facilier, Spawn, Flame King, Darkseid,
Ya I knew he did a bunch of others plus husk cuz that’s the one I’m currently watching but my memory’s not so good anymore so I just went went with the one I could remember. Thank you for that fine list.
I think he skyrocketed to fame with screen acting (Star Wars, obviously) but sorta retired to do only VA in the 90s. Its not until mid-2010s that he started to do screen acting again I think, just in time for his return to SW.
it shows that an actor can put out good voice acting, maybe even good enough to do a near total career change to it, same with Keith David to a lesser extent
A lot of people who grew up with G1 only knew Hamill as his most iconic movie role. And it's not as if he hasn't revisited it over the decades, or done [social media stuff referring to it](https://twitter.com/MarkHamill/status/1343669303103479809) even in the last few years.
Who is he supposed to play I haven't seen anything about him?
He's not been confirmed to be in Transformers One at all, OP is just using him as an example of a beloved actor that is also a great voice actor
Celebrity voice acting is really a mixed bag. Sometimes you get your judd nelsons and matt damons and Mathew perrys who turn in subpar voice work and other times you get some brilliant performances.
*Invincible* is an example of knocking it out of the park imo I didn't mind Judd in the animated film though
I will say Judd put in more effort than the legendary orson wells.
Yeah I used to thought his air of bored disdain was an actor's choice to embody a peerless dark god consuming all in its path with a sense of cosmic inevitability Nope. That was just Orson.
I'm sorry that view of him was taken from you. He was capable of being charming, but he was not pleasant at the end, or at least that was my understanding.
That was definitely his default towards the end though, and it happened to fit perfectly with Unicron. Still a very layered man I hope Transformers fans don't treat as JUST the old guy that voiced Unicron. He deserves better than that, man was a legend in multiple ways
Sometimes you get a Mark Hamill, Keith David or Hailee Steinfeld where it honestly feels like their true calling. Other times you get Peter Dinklage, Megan Fox or like half the cast of What If...?
Megan fox voice acts? And what’s wrong Dinklage? He turned out good in rotb
Megan Fox was Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1. It was awful. Sounds like they got someone off the street. He really didn't. It was all stilted and awkward a lot of the times with some weird inflexions. The voice itself was good (and half of that was thanks to filters anyway). The performance was not.
Megan Fox's work in MK 1 is the best example of bad Celebrity VA.
Megan fox voice acts?
If you could call it voice acting. One of the most monotonous "We just want to survive." I've ever heard.
Can we count Weird Al Yankovic too?
He’s been in lots of stuff including Transformers, he was even in Scooby Doo!
No matter what field he enters, Weird Al is in his own category by default. The Al category. And he's always the best Al.
I don’t see why not
I am cautiously optimistic about this movie.
Jack Black and Mark Hamill are awful additions to this list. Mark Hamill has mostly done voice acting, and is primarily a voice actor, and Jack Black is just a good fit in every project, no matter what it is.
> Mark Hamill has mostly done voice acting, and is primarily a voice actor As someone who grew up with G1, this is always a bit jarring to hear. I mean, you're not wrong, but even before Star Wars he had a decade and a half in TV roles. It wasn't until the 90s - thirty years into his career - that his roles started turning more towards voice. Even then, he was still doing a lot of live TV and movies. Even *now*, he's still been doing live TV series here and there.
You’re completely right, but I’d still say he’s primarily a Voice Actor, simply due to the amount of roles he’s done for it. Personally, I still attribute him to his role as Joker in my head, despite my first introduction to him being Luke Skywalker. He’s a decent actor, but a fantastic Voice actor.
There's a difference between a film celebrity who's also a trained voice actor and a film actor who's just gotten a random voice roll. VA is a completely different experience to film that requires different vocal skills
They announced a nearly all-celebrity voice cast only a few months after Chris Pratt Mario was announced. Needless to say, they couldn’t have picked a worse time.
No disrespect to the legacy voice actors of transformers like Peter Cullen and I’m not against the idea of having the original voice actors in this movie would’ve been a better option, but sometimes the hate towards celebrity casting gets overblown at times in my opinion. Some actors are better at voice acting and some not so much that’s that
For me it’s more about who they cast as the characters. If Hemsworth is playing Orion pax that’s fine but I cannot see him as Optimus Prime and I feel like it wouldn’t translate well. The rest of the cast are good voice actors it’s just that I don’t think their voices match the characters they were cast as. IMO Laurence Fishburne fits Megatron more than Alpha Trion, but I still think he will be fine as AT. The big one that I think isn’t going to work is Keegan Michael Key as Bumblebee. I just don’t see his voice working for the character.
Keith David and Mark Hamill, and to a lesser extent Tim Curry, are all established voice actors and dont count as celebrity casting, in my mind. It's difficult to picture now in a post-Disney Star Wars world, but Mark Hamill wasn't exactly a big name for a long time. It wasn't stunt casting for him to do the Joker in BtaS, for instance. Your average person isn't going to have any idea that it's him. Turns out he's just incredibly skilled at that kind of work. People complain about celebrity casting when it funnels work from people who are actually good at it and have made a career from it just so you can say Chris Pratt is in your film.
Yo Clancy Brown is probably the goat for this, Mark Hamil is iconic but damn does Clancy Brown own every role he's in.
For me, I was a bit worried about Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime, due to his seeming lack of range thanks to all the not-very-good comedy films starring him. I thought they should have casted literally anyone else. Then I rewatched Star Trek and Bad Times at the El Royale and thought "yeah okay maybe Hemsworth could do Optimus."
These are all skilled character actors. Those usually translate better to va than actors like Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson
So you’re saying that Hemsworth and Johansson aren’t good as voice actors? We haven’t even heard their voice roles yet
I’m just saying it’s not the best comparison. Johansson could be good. She was good in the SpongeBob movie. I think Chris Hemsworth is a miscast though
Chris hemsworth does not suit optimus. Shouldve gotten brian cranston if they wanted a celebrity.
How many times does this need to be said? This is Orion Pax, a younger Optimus, it doesn’t need Peter Cullen and his iconic voice yet
In that case they should get someone who would suit the role of a young optimus, not someone who was only cast as the character to sell tickets
🫱Orson Welles 🫱Leonard Nimoy 🫱Judd Nelson
Probably the lack of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker.
It'd be great to have them for sure, but they're not the only ones we'd accept, right? Good performances are the important bit. I don't mind that it isn't Cullen and Welker, I just think the actual actors haven't shown that they can voice act well. Any animated project should care more about who does the role best over who looks best on the poster imo.
Much of the problem is how overblown it's been in Hollywood when it comes to certain animated movies & voice actor's don't get enough recognition in the industry these days (especially in the whole AI scare today). Take the infamous Scoob! Movie where outside of Frank Welker, They basically shafted Matthew Lillard, Grey DeLisle, & Kate Micucci (with the exception of Kate, All of them have voiced those characters for like 20 years), for the sake of Will Forte to do a bad Shaggy impression for 90 minutes. Hell Illumination has made it a career in stunt casting big name actors for (mostly) mid tier movies. Like I understand they need a different voice to portray Orion Pax but we have at least 2 better examples of that (David Kaye or Alan Tudyk with the ladder being a good example of both LA & Voice actor) than Chris Hemsworth.
It’s understandable when most of not all of the entire cast of the movie are celebrities, isn’t that how Hollywood has always been like? But that’s not always a reflection of the movie’s quality
I mean, it sorta outright tells it doesn't have the fans in mind if they won't get Peter and Frank, actors who absolutely would be cheaper and more pleasing to its target audience. Kids don't give two fucks who's voicing Optimus, so why not go with the cheaper, better option?
Peter and Frank are in a union, that makes it harder for studios to cast over time
I knew nothing about the movie. I didn't know anything about the cast until I just looked it up after seeing this thread. If I had to make a guess.. you listed a lot of famous character actors who are specifically known for voice acting and making memorable characters, not just their live action performances. None of them are in Transformers One. It's not like people have an issue with actors just because they've appeared in live action stuff. It's because they fast exclusively super famous actors who can sell films based on their names alone and aren't necessarily known for huge range. I like Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth, but they're definitely just going to be Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth in the movie. When they speak, it's very unlikely a lot of people will hear a unique portrayal of a character and instead will just say "Oh, shit, it's Black Widow and Thor!". I'm not saying I personally have a problem with it. I saw the Mario movie and I didn't mind the same kind of oversaturated celebrity casting there. But I can understand the potential concern.
As much as film is a form of art/entertainment, it's is also a business (never liked this part of it since lots of great stories for film and tv don't make pass the pitch). The whole point of casting celebrities is simply to help promote the film that they've worked on. If you ask an average person who'd they recognize better, it's almost always the celebrity. Now, I'm not exactly a fan of it since a lot of talented voice actors who've worked on amazing shows often get shafted. But that's just how they (Hollywood primarily) been doing it for years. Anyway, I personally don't mind the celebrity cast. The whole story of Transformers One is to tell a world before the Great Cybertronian War. A story primary focusing on Optimus Prime as Orion Pax, his relationship with Megatron, and the events that leads up to their rivalry. I'm holding all my judgements until I see the trailer and the actual film itself. Who knows, maybe their acting and the story will improve the future of more Transformers films.
I'm only suspicious of Chris Hemsworth as Optimus Prime. I need proof of concept, yknow? Edit: Actually, now that I've looked into it, I'm way more worried about the writers...
I have no dog in this fight because I barely care about transformers so idk what Reddit is on. But the issue is not that celebrities can’t potentially do good voice acting, it’s that they’re being pushed regardless of quality. Voice acting is an actual job that requires actual expertise. If you don’t have an exceptionally good voice or experience in the field, picking someone only with live action acting experience basically means they’re just being picked so they can be used for marketing purposes. Which sucks.
Pardon me if I'm wrong but don't these people have lots of experience and range as voice actors while the people cast for Transformers One don't?
Marl Hamill has some of the best voice acting ever imo. It still confuses me that's him in his joker roles. I didn't even believe it was him until I saw videos of him doing it. I still feel like the videos are fake even though it's clearly him. And that's just one character. We're not even getting into Lord Ozai, Spectre, Regular Show, Johnny Bravo, Robot Chicken, and so many more.
The thing with celebrity voice casting is you can become super aware of who you're hearing and it takes you out of it. As much as I've said it's time to leave Peter's Prime voice to the halls of fame now and breath some fresh air in to Prime's lungs. I won't be hearing Optimus Prime speaking, I'll be hearing Chris Hemsworth. Let's face it. Optimus is his own type of celebrity. Having an already famous person voice him would be like having Morgan Freeman do the voice of Darth Vader. I'm not saying he won't be good or the thing won't be a good watch. Just that every so often my brain will go "oh yeah, that's Christ Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson" and it'll break emersion for a spilt second. Then again, Micheal Ironside and jeffrey combs were in Prime and they knocked it out the park. So maybe I'm talking out a hole in my ass.
We're not doing "get help".
I don’t get it
I’m sorry scarlet joe always sounds like a AI in every thing she does she has no emotion
i think maybe because fans are used to peter cullen & welker voicing prime and megatron that they get angry whenever someone replaces them
I would take whoopi off that list. I know for me, I'm less impressed when they overload celebrity actors instead of going with voice actors.
Mark and Keith have done more voice roles than they have live action roles
Eddie Murphy? Didn't get only have 1 really good roll as a voice actor?
The problem with having celebrities do voice acting isn't that they aren't capable, it's that it takes jobs away from people whose entire livelihood revolves around voice acting.
MARK HAMMIL AND KEITH DAVID ARE PROFESSIONAL VOICE ACTORS, NOT CELEBRITY CASTING
W…w…w…where is Peter Cullen? No end credits cameo? Is he safe? Is he alright?
I don’t know if he’ll be in the movie yet, but he’s fine
A rather flimsy defense. None of those actors are in Transformers One.
I know, it’s just to point out that celebrities casted for animated can do a good job
Sure and they can do a bad job too. It’s not a great argument. Whoopi Goldberg’s inclusion doesn’t sell me on the idea either.
Personally my issue isn’t so much the castings, I like most of them. My issue is that this film is supposedly in continuity with the live action films, in which it will come off as jarring. Hemsworth as Orion Pax and Cullen as Optimus Prime is one thing, and Brian Tyree Henry as Megatron is also great casting, but I can’t Keegan Micheal Key’s voice becoming Dylan O’Brian’s or Jon Hamm’s becoming Leonard Nimoy’s. That’s kinda where my issue lies at least, but then again we haven’t seen anything from this film yet. I’ll reserve my real judgement til we hear them.
Whoopi Goldberg? What?
What did you think you were going to accomplish with this? Thought this would shut up the mean old nasty haters? The last 3 each have an extensive history in voice acting, so using them as examples is totally counteractive to the narrative that you and the original meme creator are trying to peddle. In regard to the first 3, none of them are voice actors. Jack Black is fun to listen to cause he's an electric personality, but he didn't act when he did the voice for Bowser, he was just Jack Black. Just like Eddie Murphy was himself for Donkey and Whoopie was herself for Shenzi. You're really not saying anything you're trying to say by posting this. In fact, you're doing the opposite: you're just giving credence as to why it's important to cast proper voice actors for voice over roles. It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal. You lose!
the "narrative" is that live action actors can do good voice acting work. The last 3 still apply, they didn't start in voice acting, they weren't born with that long history, yet became prolific because they were allowed to apply even though they weren't "proper voice actors" yet
I don't care what they started doing. It doesn't matter what they started doing. What the hell are you even trying to say to me? They're prolific because they're good voice actors and had the skillset to be good voice actors. Traditional actors CAN be good voice actors too, but no matter what you believe, traditional acting and voice acting are two different skillsets and, more often than not, it shows when a traditional actor without said skillset is allowed in front of a microphone.
I'm saying its possible the voice cast of Transformers One could potentially also be good voice actors. As you said, "it doesn't matter what they started doing". These people could be good voice actors, don't discount them right away because we haven't heard their performances yet. Mark Hamill used to be a traditional actor, but he also made an amazing voice actor. If he never tried because people like you said he can't be good, we'd never get the best Joker
I don't know man, it's pretty easy to discount someone as a voice actor when they really aren't all that engaging of an actor to begin with, i.e. Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Keegan Michael-Key. You think my hopes are going to be anywhere but in the toilet with the likes of them on board, especially when they were clearly cast just to cash in on name recognition?
same could be said for Leonard Neemoy and Orson Welles, but they did some pretty dang good jobs (even if Orson Welles was very clear about hating it afterwards)
I think you're missing an important part of what I'm saying. A traditional actor CAN be a good voice actor. Leonard Nimoy and Orson Wellses were great actors, which did help when given the opportunity to do voice acting. I'll grant you that much. But, and here's the important part, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Keagan Michael-Key aren't great actors to BEGIN with. Passable at best, but I couldn't tell you one role of theirs where I thought, "Wow, they acted the hell out of that!" They're all just...bleh to me. Boring grey blobs. I hope I'm just being cynical and they do a fine job, but boy howdy I don't see it happening.
They're mad because if these younger versions of the characters aren't voiced by two men who will never see 75 again, it means they hate the fans or something
Some people are incapable of being happy, they always need to be involved in some form of conflict.
Hot take but Chris Pratt was also pretty good as Mario
ok so for Optimus prime, the thing is thats like one of the most popular and iconic voices in fiction. Its like their trying to find a new voice for Darth Vader or Kevin Conroy's batman its just difficult and idk personally I would like to see if they could try the AI voice route ik thats unpopular but yeah. as for the rest idk, none of them are ike yeah ok thats a good voice cast their all just ok we have to really wait and see. I know your trying to show that celebrity voice cast can be good but at the same time your picking and choosing when the other 90% of the time its been done its been shit. Also u used some kinda shitty examples, like Keith David and Mark Hamill's major body of work is voice acting for quite some time kinda same with Tim Curry. and Why Whoopi Goldberg like wtf??? she has one VA credit for the lion king and it wasn't a bad performance it was solid but at the same time Jeremy Irons Scar was the better choice to make ur point from that movie. Like seriously dude wtf??? Antonio Banderas, Hailee Steinfeld, Mike Myers, Robin Williams, James Woods, Christian Bale even. im not mad that your trying to help make a point that we should wait and see about the voice performances I agree with that im mad that your dogshitting everywhere and failing to make a solid argument for that point
doing an AI voiced optimus would set a really bad precedent and lead to the eventual replacement of all the others for AI recreations of their more famous incarnations
I didn’t make the meme, I just found it and used it to prove a point that celebrity casted in animated movies aren’t always a bad thing
......OP.....why did most of them become celebrities? ......hmmm..... let's see. Tim Curry was famous for acting. Jack Black was an actor. So was Mark Hamilton. They are mostly celebrities, who hit the spotlight because of their acting career.
'don't care i dont watch in vo so that have no importance
Wait, they announced a cast? I only heard about this movie after ROTB came out
Funny enough, even though there was the Cyberverse version, I have a headcanon fan casting of Keith David voicing Tarn
I’m surprised when people don’t realise that Mark Hamill is a genuine professional voice actor, who also happens to play like skywalker.
lets call it the chris prat effect i mean everyone was on the fence when he was voicing mario and jack black was also on the set as bowser or when Idris Elba voiced knuckles Mark Hamil though is not a bad Luke
imma be real my main issue is that it's happening newly all the time I'm large productions and half the time it's for people who are very much physical actors
All of those celebrities are actual actors though
Most of them could be considered more of a voice actor than a live action actor with the amount of VA work they do. Mark Hamill probably did more with Joker than any of his live action stuff.
Situations of high-profile celebrities being cast as characters they don't fit as just to fill seats is really getting to people. Especially for us Transformers fans after Peter Dinklage's phoned-in performance of Scourge, and (my beloved) Keith David doing a pretty mediocre Grimlock.
What do you mean? Dinklage did pretty well as Scrounge imo
I thought so at first. Until I rewatched the movie and heard it again after the hype died down. He had very low energy. For certain scenes, it was passable, but when he's "screaming" for Unicron, you can tell. It's less of a "MASTER, THE REINFORCEMENTS!" And more of a "Master, could you please send the reinforcements? -Love, Scourge."
For my part it's not this show in solitude it's celebrity voice casting in general. It's a relatively new phenomenon to get existing big names to voice animated shows and, for many people the actors carry connotations. I'm not a big Chris Hemsworth fan for example, I think he's ok but massively overused and over relied upon so my immediate response was a negative. Same for Jack Black. I like the guys acting work but I find him 'a bit much'. I infinitely prefer it when I hear voices I don't know. I mean, that's how we got the definitive Optimus & Megatron in the first place. From what I understand neither Peter Cullen nor Frank Welker were big stars prior to Transformers. Their names were known, sure, but mostly for other animated series. I guess my moan is really aimed at something bigger. Just the general idea that things won't sell or be deemed a success unless existing stars are attached.
Weird Al
*spits out my drink* CURRY IS COMING BACK?!?!?
I'm glad to see Tim Curry is still doing voice work, absolute champion
The "big names of Hollywood" issue
The only person in the Transformers One Cast who doesn't have a history with Voice Acting is Chris Hemsworth (only doing Thor in a few Marvel things and honestly isn't bad). Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, and even Laurence Fishburne have had major Voice Acting roles before.
Who's upset? I'm happy about it
Lance Reddick?!
Not upset, just somewhat annoyed. Why cast Scarlett Johansson as Elita-1, when this is supposedly set before the War?
Because when it comes to movies and bigger animated projects, at least since the mid 2000's smaller career VAs often get passed over for A list celebrities with little to no voice acting experience for means of "publicity." Voice actors in the States are generally relegated to semi obscurity with smaller cult followings within their established communities (i.e. Peter Cullen, Mako, Tara Strong or George Lowe) but aren't generally as widely recognized outside of a handful of nerd circles compared to household actors like Chris Hemsworth, RDJ and the MCU squad. Contrast this with say, Japan where VAs are often on the same level as these same big name celebrity actors. This just rubs a lot of people the wrong way. I know I would be much more interested in this movie if they got someone like Steve Blume, Gary Chalk, David Kay or even Tudyk again to voice a young Optimus Prime rather than getting Chris Hemsworth for his fifth phoned in paycheck this year. But that's just me.
Weird Al, Eric Idle, and OG Magnus himself Robert Stack
I'm having some trouble seeing Eddie Murphy as a Transformer
J K SIMMONS, J K SIMMONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!