The Energon Pub

This topic protains to characters who have been played by multiple voice actors and asks the question "Which one is your favorite?"

For example in the role of Megatron, Cory Burton, the current Megatron is my favorite. (For a long time it was David Kaye but Cory just knocked David off his throne.)

This doesn't really say anything about what you think of the actuall character, just their voice. BW Megatron is still my fav.

For Transformers, Gary Chalk or Peter Cullen as Prime and David Kaye or Frank Welker as Megatron are my favorites. No particular reason why: just like them best.

Generally... Mary Elizabeth McGlynn for her work on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. McGlynn's also sang on the soundtracks for the Silent Hill video games. (Not sure she did anything for the original game, but her vocals have been in every game since, and some of that material has also made its way into the movie.)

I never could get used to Welkers voice as Megatron. And he voiced a host of characters that I definately do not like.

My favorite would be Scott McNeil. He did the voices of Beast Wars Rattrap. Dinobot. Terrorsaur, and Waspinator. While Beast Wars is not my favorite series, I thought McNeil did an excellent job. Him doing the voice of Robot Terrorsaur was my favorite because of the difficulty in casting that character. He went down a notch when I heard he did the voice of Armada Jetfire just because I do not care at all for Jetfire.

My second choice is David Kaye as Armada Megatron, I like the laugh he gave to Megs. I did not care for him in Beast Wars. I did like the work he did in Ranma 1/2 and some other stuff he has done. I could not tell it was him in InuYasha till I listened really hard.

Peter Cullen slurrs his words and did the voice of Eyeore so that makes him a fluffy puff marshmellow. He is at the bottom of the list with Frank Welker.

I love reading their IMDB resumes.

EnergonCube wrote:I never could get used to Welkers voice as Megatron. And he voiced a host of characters that I definately do not like.

My favorite would be Scott McNeil. He did the voices of Beast Wars Rattrap. Dinobot. Terrorsaur, and Rhinox. While Beast Wars is not my favorite series, I thought McNeil did an excellent job. Him doing the voice of Robot Terrorsaur was my favorite because of the difficulty in casting that character. He went down a notch when I heard he did the voice of Armada Jetfire just because I do not care at all for Jetfire.

My second choice is David Kaye as Armada Megatron, I like the laugh he gave to Megs. I did not care for him in Beast Wars. I did like the work he did in Ranma 1/2 and some other stuff he has done. I could not tell it was him in InuYasha till I listened really hard.

Peter Cullen slurrs his words and did the voice of Eyeore so that makes him a fluffy puff marshmellow. He is at the bottom of the list with Frank Welker.

I love reading their IMDB resumes.

Peter Cullen and Frank Welker are the ORIGINALS, so how is it you cannot get used to Frank Welker? He may have voiced other characters you hate, but guess what, every SINGLE voice Frank does is ENTIERLY seperate from the other. 90 percent of TransFormers fans depict Welker AND Cullen to not only be the orignals but also the VERY BEST. Cullen may slur with EYORE, but NEVER PRIME. Why do you feel that he slurs his words? I actually went and listened to Prime in the series and the last movie just to be sure before I posted this and yep, I can understand every single word he says. He's got a deep powerful voice that only Gary Chalk has come CLOSE to doing right. David Kaye is a GREAT Megatron, but NOT a good Prime as he is in the Animated series. I wish he'd stick to villains.

But it basically makes me wonder how old you are and why you can be so disrespectful to those that CAUSED TransFormers to BE what it is today. If it weren't for Welker and Cullen taking their original jobs SO seriously, we'd never had gotten TransFormers off the ground. TF owes everything to those two men and you need to show some respect for those that paved the way. Your post only proves your punky youthfulness and misunderstanding for how things really are and the fact you like all the new-fangled stuff that is true puff and fluff verses the gritty dark and fearless original series... man that's just disturbing.

When you say we would not have gotten transformers off the ground. Were you involved in the project?

If you want to know what I meant by Cullen sluring his words I do not mind explaining. He and Sean Connery seem to have the same speech pattern at their current age. Go to the Hasbro web site and listed to his Botcon interview that is on their Monkeybar tv. He sounds like he has bubblegum in his mouth when he says "Transform and rollout". It is an observation and my opinion. Just because he is first does not mean he is best. If you look at his resume, he does voices for fluffy characters. Cullens voice tone is not something that I think is better than Chalk.

Openly flaming people on this forum is prohibited. Your attack is noted.

My attack is noted? What attack? When did I flame? Please do point this out. I simply stated that you are young and have no respect for the original people who made Transformers what it is today.
That was not a flame, but an observation that you and the youth today cannot seem to appreciate the origins of your own favorite things and have no clue how diversified Welker and Cullen actually are. To do a rough and tumble PRIME and then turn around and do cutesy voices is called depth of range and both Welker and Cullen exhibit this to no end. Did the gremlins sound like they had bubblegum in their mouths? Because both Frank and Peter did the noises and sounds that all the gremlins made when they weren't talking.

And Sean Connery talks perfectly fine. I've never misunderstood him. Marlon Brando however, yes it was very hard to understand him however. Thank God he didn't really do cartoon work.

I never flamed you. So get over it. You're only mad because I said you are unappreciative, and so you've called my post an attack. Well you'r mistaken.

AncientSpark wrote:David Kaye is a GREAT Megatron, but NOT a good Prime as he is in the Animated series. I wish he'd stick to villains.

Total and irrevokable truth! I could not state it better! Thank you!

I'd probably feel the same way about Kaye's prime if I didn't hear him explain about it at Botcon last year. Basically he just pretty much assumed he would be doing the typical villain work and then they made him audition for Prime because they wanted to go in a totally different direction with the voice. I don't like a voice like that coming from Optimus Prime but I respect all the hard work Kaye has put into trying to make it work. If you've met him in real life you'd know that the Prime voice is very different from his normal speaking voice, which is hard to do because Prime's voice in animated is "over the top" like for example Beast Wars Megatron.

As for Welker and Cullen sounding the same all the time and/or slurring words, I never saw it that way. They've both done so many voices that you can find slight similarities in some of them, but for instance Welker has over 500 voice acting credits going back to the 1960's. It's fun to watch old Transformers episodes where Optimus Prime is talking to Ironhide because they sound night and day different but it's the same guy. Of course, on GI Joe in one particular episode Cullen must have been a little off because he's playing Airborne and calling out "TOMMY! TOMMY!" in such a fashion that you almost wait for him to turn into a big red truck as he is running.

But really, I have reverence for so many of these voice actors because they have done so much for Transformers and many of them never got the mainstream credit or fame a regular actor would have.

OK, I'm bad for this, I'm the type of guy who loves a band but doesn't take the time to learn the members names, so I'm gonna say.

David Kaye, Frank Welker, Gary Chalk, Peter Cullens(yeah, Chalk won).

Then I'm going with the RatTrap guy, the Waspinator Guy, G1 BumbleBees guy cause he was Spider-Man too, the SilverBolt guy, and that Venus Chick who did the real Black Arachnia.

I know there's more, but thats a good starter...

Getting a little off topic here.

This topic protains to characters who have been played by multiple voice actors

Rattrap only has one voice actor, how'd he get in here?

Allso AncientSpark you were flamming EnergonCube. Everything he said was entirely his opinion. You don't have to agree with it but you could be a little nicer in your dissagreement.

I might allso add I don't like Frank Welker as Megatron either. I never did. And original does not automatically mean "the best" I don't like Frank as Megatron because the voice he gave to Megs sounds like he has larangitise. It's a really low raspy voice and it's a voice that ANYONE can do.

Don't get me wrong though, I don't think Frank is a bad voice actor, actully quite the oppisite. I love most of Frank's characters just Megatron and Wheelie I absolutly hate. It's not Frank himself I don't like, it's just the voices he gave to thoughs 2 characters.

I might allso add, David Kaye did the same voice for Megatron every time he played that part. The only real difference between BW/M Megs and A/E/C Megs/Galvy is you never hear A/E/C Megatron/Galvatron doing his signature "Yeeeessssssss"

David in BW really ONLY did Megatron and Nobal/Savage and both sounded great. The yes thing did annoy me though and I'm glad he droped it in A/E/C. What other voiced he did in A/E/C I'm not sure but in Animated he's now Optimus Prime, Grimlock, and Lugnut. I do much prefer him as A/E/C Megatron/Galvatron.

TO ENERGON CUBE

I am sorry if I offended you. I am. I just get upset when people appear to put down the first of anything where that thing would not even exist if it wasn't for the thing in question. So please see my point at least that I felt you were gushing over all the new-fangled characters and voices but you totally dismissed the very first ones that made it all happen. Now you are allowed to not like or even hate them, so I should have left that well-enough alone. I just want you to understand my angst with this because it's like if Star Wars never got John Williams to score it, would it ever be the same? and maybe no Harrison Ford or Mark Hamil... It's the ensemble group of people together that make a venue like TransFormers stick the first time around... without these people pouring their hearts into it, there would never be any continuations to GIVE you the voices and characters you DO love from this 25 year old franchise.

Eric Idle......Eric Idle......Eric Idle

Pottermus_Prime wrote:Eric Idle......Eric Idle......Eric Idle

Yes and I was thinking Robert Stack as Ultra Magnus.

To answer Sabre's question on how Rattrap got in there, well, I think it was my fault there. Scott McNeil did the voice of Jetfire who was Skyfire in G1.(That is why I mentioned Scott) I don't know why they changed the name from Skyfire but it was supposed to be the same character. McNeil did a better Jetfire but was better known for his work in Beast Wars. Scott is still my favorite.

EnergonCube wrote:

Pottermus_Prime wrote:Eric Idle......Eric Idle......Eric Idle

Yes and I was thinking Robert Stack as Ultra Magnus.

To answer Sabre's question on how Rattrap got in there, well, I think it was my fault there. Scott McNeil did the voice of Jetfire who was Skyfire in G1.(That is why I mentioned Scott) I don't know why they changed the name from Skyfire but it was supposed to be the same character. McNeil did a better Jetfire but was better known for his work in Beast Wars. Scott is still my favorite.

I'm not sure on the exact reason as I've heard different versions of what the reason was but what I do know is this.

The G1 Character you know as Skyfire was actully called Jetfire on the toy and in the comics. The A/E/C character took his name from the comic version of the character not the toon version. This is allso why Classics Jetfire has two heads because the helmet is ment to represent his comic book counterpart while the actual face is made to represent the cartoon version.

There was allso a Skyfire in Energon with a head resembiling the G1 Catroon Skyfire's appearance. He was one of the Omnibots.

It's the actull reason why the character had a different name and appearance in the G1 Toon and G1 Comics that I'm not sure of.

yeah, idle, stack and judd nelson all had much better voices than the ones used in season 3 (not that theres nothing wrong with the season 3 voices, i just prefer the movie ones.)

Pottermus_Prime wrote:yeah, idle, stack and judd nelson all had much better voices than the ones used in season 3 (not that theres nothing wrong with the season 3 voices, i just prefer the movie ones.)

Guys in the series did a preddy damn good job of immitating the movie voices. I'd never know they were different voice actors if I hadn't looked up the names. Neither is better than the other.

While we're on that subject, I much prefer Frank's Galvatron than Megatron and we can think Lenord for that one. Frank probly would have kept doing the same voice for Galvatron that he did for Megatron if mr. Nimoy hadn't steped in before him.

Saber Prime wrote:

Pottermus_Prime wrote:yeah, idle, stack and judd nelson all had much better voices than the ones used in season 3 (not that theres nothing wrong with the season 3 voices, i just prefer the movie ones.)

Guys in the series did a preddy damn good job of immitating the movie voices. I'd never know they were different voice actors if I hadn't looked up the names. Neither is better than the other.

While we're on that subject, I much prefer Frank's Galvatron than Megatron and we can think Lenord for that one. Frank probly would have kept doing the same voice for Galvatron that he did for Megatron if mr. Nimoy hadn't steped in before him.

i disagree, yes they did a good job but you can tell the difference, and i seem to recall reading somwhere that frank based galvies voice on what he would imagine a psychopath would sound like, so i dont believe he would have sounded just like megs. As he has said himself, they are 2 different characters, so require 2 different voices

Frank Welker, Don Messick, David Kaye, Gregg Berger and Neil Ross.

Welker's the new Man of 1000 voices, and the fact that a good 40 or so of these voices are Transformers characters alone (Not noting extras or aliens) is a true credit to his talent.

Don Messick was one of the biggest and most infulential voices in the voice acting business, as well as voicing some of the more interesting characters, like Gears and Scavenger.

David Kaye's got a regal savage in his Megatron's voice, which seems to suit the characters that he voiced (A Bond Villian, and a a powerful Military leader who luest for more), and his Animated Prime proves he's capable of working on both ends of the spectrum.

On you'd never expect to turn up is Greggg Berger. He's up there because he got the more interesting characters, like Outback and Sky/Jetfire, and did them very well, with the latter's moral conflict well acted.

Neil Ross is another one you wouldn't expect, but he provided a lot of voices in The Rebirth, and alongside Kaye, has proven he can do many voices for differing architypes.

Or that's my take on things anyway.

David kaye is awesome. BW Megatron is sooo coool, and he will always be Megatron to me. HE also does the lovable Clank in the ratchet and clank game series i so love, and his voice talents are unrivaled. Scott Mcneill, who is wazzpinator, probably insane like me, and once wore a foam Megatron outfit to an interview like I wanted to design.
Many more actors have lent their talents to this art, many that come to mind are from beast wars, too many to name.

The picture is appreciated Thanks for posting.

Hey I just realised, the gauntlet is on his leg!
And Megs don't look too happy at his body being abused..

Oh damn, double post.

Phil Lamarr.
All kinds of cool people were voiced by him.
Static Shock. Green Lantern. I think he's done a few for Family guy. Futurama. He's been on MadTV... and he was shot in the face in Pulp Fiction! And of course, he's gonna be the voice of Jazz!!!!! XD
and Tom Kenny.
countless shows. He's like the Frank Welker of my generation. He's voiced Spongebob AND Starscream. and a hell of a lot of others.
and I guess a lot of actors from TF: Animated. okay, all of them. including the guest voices like Brian Posehn.
Also, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker.
Optimus Prime and Soundwave(would put Megatron... but I don't like Frank's voice as much as Corey's)
Frank has done a whole lot of stuff! and he still does. from leader of the Decepticons to a mystery solving dog.
And I remember as a kid watching lots of commercials. and a lot of the ones I remember had his voice in them. and that was before I knew who he was. And of course, he's Optimus Prime!

In terms of "Best Voice For a Character With Multiple Voices":

Corey Burton has made me an Animated Megatron fangirl. What an awesome, awesome "bad guy" voice. Badass and charismatically slimy at the same time.

In terms of "Voice Actors Who Voiced More Than One Transformer Character":

Frank Welker for doing a huge chunk of the Cons and several of the Autobots while still having them all sound different. I liked him best as Rumble and Frenzy, though. :>

Michael Chain for Hoist, Powerglide, and Red Alert.

John Stephenson for Alpha Trion, Devcon, Kup, and Thundercracker.

In terms of "General Voice Acting":

Charlie Adler's voiced several characters I've liked in various media: Harold in Fallout 1 & 2, Ignus in Planescape: Torment, Buster Bunny in Tiny Toons Adventures, Ickis in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, G1 Silverbolt, and Movie Starscream.

Paul Eiding's voice is part of why I like Perceptor, and he's good as Grandpa Max on Ben 10 and Colonel Campbell in the Metal Gear Solid games, too.

i miss scatman crothers. i like peter cullen and orson welles.