The Energon Pub

Well, we have about 20 some years of cartoon material, and in those cartoons are many great voice actors with rich acting histories, and some not so much, but this topic boils down to one question: who is your favotite voice actor?

I'll get this puppy started. Ahem:

David Kaye. The perfect comedic Megatron in Beast Wars and a wonderful Optimus in Animated. His Grimlock is perfect as well. This man has talent.


Agree, disagree, whatever.

I have two, actually.

1. David Kaye. Just about the greatest Megatron ever. That is saying a lot, since my childhood Megatron was Frank Welker, and Kaye just downright outshines him on a few levels.

2. Scott McNeil. Just an all-around schizophrenic( ) who can play a bunch of characters in the same sequence and pull it off in one (okay, maybe two) takes.

I have multiple favorites in the Transformers category:

1. Gary Chalk did an all-around decent Optimus during Beast Wars, but I felt that he really shined in the final episode. His speech about how "no more good friends would be sacrificed to your [Megatron's] insane ambition" really let me know that Optimus has had it up to his ridiculously tall shoulder armor with Megatron's slag. This is further emphasized with Optimus's retort to Megatron's snide remark about the "usual destiny and honor speech." Optimus responds to this with a simple "Speech this" before slugging Megatron in the face. Shame that Optimus wasn't the one to put him down, but oh well.

2. David Sobolov (Depth Charge) also did a good job, especially in his character's final moments, when he forced the raw Energon through Rampage's spark. You could hear the visceral hatred DC had for Rampage.

3. Corey Burton's Megatron is also an excellent depiction. Rather than go with a raging maniac like Frank Welker did, or a bipedal beast like Hugo Weaving did, Corey opted for a low, controlled Megatron who is nonetheless one tough son of a gun. He's the only Megatron to actually waste Starscream right away, rather than get repeatedly knifed in the back.


For non-Transformer roles, I tend to favor Crispin Freeman's Alucard, who sounds more and more terrifying with each dub he does.

Is it wrong to say myself?

But seriously I love David Kaye his Megatron is amazing.(and it's damn fun to do and hear me do just ask Pyrostrata) I'm also fond of Michael Bell, Billy West, Joe Di maggio, and Dan Castellaneta.

1. David Kaye - I was having a conversation about this earlier with my brother and I too think he outshines Frank Welker as Megs. I agree with everyone's statements about him

2. Frank Welker - Even though he was using a machine to get his Soundwave voice he was still one of the most memorable VA's of G1.

3. Peter Cullen - Nuff said.

4. Chris Latta - Voiced Starscream AND Cobra Commander? What more can I say about him, as a kid they were my favorite characters from both shows. The fact that they had the same voice was a bonus.

5. Scott Mcneil - I love him in every show I hear him in. They totally have a chance to get him in Animated and they should.

Honorable mentions: John Moschitta Jr. (Blurr G1 & Ani), Scatman Crothers (Jazz G1), Gregg Berger (Grimlock G1), Fred Willard (Swindle Ani), Bumper Robinson (Blitzwing, Bumblebee, Powell, etc Ani)

The first 5 are in no real order.

A few additional thoughts from me:

Frank Welker: The Original Megatron, hard to beat. His crazy self has been everywhere for the past few decades. Look it up!

Scott McNeil: Though he hasn't done too much recently that I can think of, he really did shine in Beast Wars. Outstanding.

Corey Burton: Where David Kaye is the perfect comedic Megatron, Mr. Burton is the perfect serious Megatron and therefore, the ultimate villain. And Shockwave is great too.

Tom Kenny: He's everywhere too these days. Gotta give him props for his talent. I can usually pick out a Tom Kenny voice from the crowd of other characters. Yes, he was Spongebob but his Starscream is so....perfect.


All these guys are great. Continue on.

gah

well its nearly impossible to nail down just one to name "my favorite"


Peter Cullen, David Kaye, Corey Burton, and Scott McNeil have to be my ultimate favs though.

Cullen cuz he IS optimus prime. David Kaye because BW Megatron is the man. He's got great diversity as well plus i just love his voice. Corey Burton because Animated Megatron is TEH AWESOME [well so is shockwave. And the man did the Ziro the Hutt voice... IF that aint diversity i dunno what is lol], and Scott McNeil because of his versatility. Dinobot, silverbolt, and Rattrap dont sound ANYTHING alike and that, to me, is fantastic. big props.

Well I would say Brian Drummond and Michael Dobson have the best voices, considering mainly Shockblast in Energon, Blurr in Armada, and Starscream throughout the Unicron Trilogy. On personality, Gary Chalk rocks!

Dingocrikey wrote:Well I would say Brian Drummond and Michael Dobson have the best voices, considering mainly Shockblast in Energon, Blurr in Armada, and Starscream throughout the Unicron Trilogy. On personality, Gary Chalk rocks!

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Also forgot to add Bumper Robinson he's great too.

Peter Cullen: As said earlier, 'nuff said!

Frank Welker: He's appeared in nearly every cartoon on Earth. While his Megatron role isn't recognised as the best done for the character, he's done some fantastic voice-acts for Soundwave (with a little help), Trailbreaker, and especially Mirage, and many other characters.

Scatman Crothers: Possibly the best voice actor for Jazz yet.

Michael Bell: For his role as Scrapper- just as many Decepticons at the time had mere robotic voices. This one had a slight British/European accent.

Neil Ross: For his roles as Hook (another European accent, this time clean), Bonecrusher (the shouting construction foreman), and of course, Springer.

Bud Davis: He's the big-bot actor, for his roles as Predaking and Metroplex.

Ed Gilbert: Played the role of a military loudmouth well as Blitzwing.

Jack Angel: Possibly the most versatile voice actor at that time. Shouting out loud as Ramjet, speaking in a brooding, monotonous voice as Omega Supreme, then another digitally-enhanced role as Astrotrain, and of course, Ultra Magnus.

Corey Burton: He's handled diverse roles such as Spike and Shockwave quite well.

The voice actors for the Combaticons: All of them did a good job, though the actor for Vortex didn't pull off the 'sadistic interrogator' job convincingly.

Stephen Keener: Another big-bot actor, one line for Fortress Maximus was compelling. A pity this didn't get too many chances, after the show was called off once too soon.

Geoff Bennett: Pulls off the role of Animated Ultra Magnus quite neatly.

Phil LaMarr: It was difficult to recognise Phil from MADTV when I heard Jazz speak, but he fits in neatly.

Hugo Weaving: Expecting a Smith-like voice, I got something like the original Megatron's voice.

The Cartoon Network India actors for Optimus Prime, Dr. Sumdac and Sari: The only decent voice actors in this dub.

David Kaye, Peter Cullen, Frank Welker and Scott McNeil.