The Energon Pub

Fristly, I must say that I'm not a Peter Cullen's hater. I have absolutely nothing against him personally, An I have great respect for his role in making Transformers so popular. He is a great voice actor, and it is hard to deny that. But still, I'm think that there is too much of him since 2007. Bayformers, War for Cybertron, Transformers Prime... It is like Hasbro trying to put him anywhere just because it is "that voice." I would simply loved to heard Optimus speaking with new voice next time... Peter already proved he could voiced many characters, so why this time he couldn't voice someother character instead?

I think jon3.0 is in your camp as well! I'm just kidding, obviously. But even though Cullen's voice IS Optimus Prime, I do agree that he's probably getting oversaturated a little bit.

No, I am not saying I am tired of him at all, but too much of a good thing often becomes a tired/overused/boring thing.

It's a bit odd how the other big-name bots are always recast when a new take on TFs is started yet Optimus Prime isn't. I can't say I'm tired of Peter Cullen always being the voice, but I really wouldn't mind seeing someone else take the role.

I think Lance Henriksen would be nice Optimus Prime. When I played Modern Warfare 2, I can't get fid off this fealing that General Shepherd voice fits Optimus Prime perfectly. It would also nice to heard Optimus voice a little more "epic all the time."

No, I am not saying I am tired of him at all, but too much of a good thing often becomes a tired/overused/boring thing.

Exactly.

Also, for me Cullen is so had to replace because he's voice is both warm and powerfull at the same time. This could be hard to replace.

For me, funny thing is, I like Cullen's performances in the WFC and FOC video games, but find his performances in TF: Prime and the movies to be a bit too much. I don't get it. He sounds exactly the same in both, but his game performances sound better to me.

TurboMMaster wrote:Fristly, I must say that I'm not a Peter Cullen's hater. I have absolutely nothing against him personally, An I have great respect for his role in making Transformers so popular. He is a great voice actor, and it is hard to deny that. But still, I'm think that there is too much of him since 2007. Bayformers, War for Cybertron, Transformers Prime... It is like Hasbro trying to put him anywhere just because it is "that voice." I would simply loved to heard Optimus speaking with new voice next time... Peter already proved he could voiced many characters, so why this time he couldn't voice someother character instead?

You're a minority.

As for Saberblade noticing the OT acting in Prime, it's most probably the "state of mind" Mr. Cullen is ordered by the director to project.

IMO Cullen defines the OP character, and any other actors would be forever in his shadow.
Besides, I don't think that 3 movies, 2 video games and 1 animated series in a 6 year period could be seen as overexposed.

MightyMagnus78 wrote:Besides, I don't think that 3 movies, 2 video games and 1 animated series in a 6 year period could be seen as overexposed.

Well, people considered Unicron being in everything from 2003-2006 as his being "overexposed", and that was only for four years.

fenrir72 wrote:

TurboMMaster wrote:Fristly, I must say that I'm not a Peter Cullen's hater. I have absolutely nothing against him personally, An I have great respect for his role in making Transformers so popular. He is a great voice actor, and it is hard to deny that. But still, I'm think that there is too much of him since 2007. Bayformers, War for Cybertron, Transformers Prime... It is like Hasbro trying to put him anywhere just because it is "that voice." I would simply loved to heard Optimus speaking with new voice next time... Peter already proved he could voiced many characters, so why this time he couldn't voice someother character instead?

You're a minority.

As for Saberblade noticing the OT acting in Prime, it's most probably the "state of mind" Mr. Cullen is ordered by the director to project.

Agreed on both points.

How is my noting the differences on Cullen performances OT? In the games, I'm fine with him, but in the show and movies, I'm "kinda tired of" him (just as the topic title says).

TurboMMaster wrote:Fristly, I must say that I'm not a Peter Cullen's hater. I have absolutely nothing against him personally, An I have great respect for his role in making Transformers so popular. He is a great voice actor, and it is hard to deny that. But still, I'm think that there is too much of him since 2007. Bayformers, War for Cybertron, Transformers Prime... It is like Hasbro trying to put him anywhere just because it is "that voice." I would simply loved to heard Optimus speaking with new voice next time... Peter already proved he could voiced many characters, so why this time he couldn't voice someother character instead?

Then watch the Unicron trilogy or Animated!

SentinelA wrote:

TurboMMaster wrote:Fristly, I must say that I'm not a Peter Cullen's hater. I have absolutely nothing against him personally, An I have great respect for his role in making Transformers so popular. He is a great voice actor, and it is hard to deny that. But still, I'm think that there is too much of him since 2007. Bayformers, War for Cybertron, Transformers Prime... It is like Hasbro trying to put him anywhere just because it is "that voice." I would simply loved to heard Optimus speaking with new voice next time... Peter already proved he could voiced many characters, so why this time he couldn't voice someother character instead?

Then watch the Unicron trilogy or Animated!

Garry Chalk is a subpar Optimus in the Unicron Trilogy.

David Kaye's still good as Animated Optimus, though.


Sad that no one ever remembers Neil Kaplan or give props to his Optimus Prime performance.

I always thought Frank Welker did an awesome Megatron so it's fitting that Cullen does Prime. Maybe I'm just nostalgic.

Sabrblade wrote:For me, funny thing is, I like Cullen's performances in the WFC and FOC video games, but find his performances in TF: Prime and the movies to be a bit too much. I don't get it. He sounds exactly the same in both, but his game performances sound better to me.

Not quite. In the '07 movie, they did something to his voice. Made it deeper, more booming, something. It eased up in ROTF and sounds like it usually does (now) in DOTM. Like it was a progression of him lightening up a bit.

The shows and video games sound alike, but the movies definitely have a difference to them.

Good or bad, it's Peter Cullen and that's a win in my book. However, I do think he should be a bit more lighthearted in his performances. I'd think the Autobots finding their humanity, much like Data, would be a good thing. I think it would make for a good story. Well...if handled right.

Sabrblade wrote:Garry Chalk is a subpar Optimus in the Unicron Trilogy.

David Kaye's still good as Animated Optimus, though.


Sad that no one ever remembers Neil Kaplan or give props to his Optimus Prime performance.

Kaye and Kaplan were excellent. Especially Kaye. A young Optimus should sound like that.

^ Formatting goof labels me as the author of a post that wasn't mine.

Sabrblade wrote:Garry Chalk is a subpar Optimus in the Unicron Trilogy.

I can't agree, for ma Gary is one of the Iconic Transformers voice actors as well. And even in Energon and Cybertron despite pure translation, he got he's job well done. He isn't the guy to blame.

skynet1O1 wrote:I always thought Frank Welker did an awesome Megatron so it's fitting that Cullen does Prime. Maybe I'm just nostalgic.

Actually, I thik it would be both epic and funny if Hasbro once decide to screw with fans and switch Cullen/Welker roles. That could be something worthy of watching

Sabrblade wrote:How is my noting the differences on Cullen performances OT? In the games, I'm fine with him, but in the show and movies, I'm "kinda tired of" him (just as the topic title says).

Maybe because in Transformers Prime we had something aroud 60 episodes with Optimus( There is few without him)? Also he seems to be a little to serious for me. I really want see Prime's Optimus laughing out loud or beign annoyed by something.

Peter Cullen is amazing. He has defined Optimus Prime to several generations of fans. The only problem I have is that I feel like no one is really directing Peter Cullen or that the writers are over-writing him because they know they've got Peter Cullen. There's a disconnect somewhere. Every thing that he says comes across as the most epic statement ever. Everything seems like it's overly dramatic and over the top. I just want someone to give Optimus some more casual lines and direct Peter to use something other than his "one shall stand, one shall fall" tone. It's in there somewhere ... I just watched some old school G1 the other day with my daughter (we're on a Dinobots stint at the moment) and he has plenty of "normal" and "not-over-the-top" lines in the old school cartoon.

TurboMMaster wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Garry Chalk is a subpar Optimus in the Unicron Trilogy.

I can't agree, for ma Gary is one of the Iconic Transformers voice actors as well. And even in Energon and Cybertron despite pure translation, he got he's job well done. He isn't the guy to blame.

Comparing Garry Chalk's performance in the Unicron Trilogy to his performance in the Beast Era and in other non-Transformers cartoons, he really didn't shine above "meh" in the Unicron Trilogy. His UT Optimus was bland and static, showing little emotion outside of stock situations and speaking generic, predictable dialogue.

I know he himself isn't to blame for it (save for one episode where he most certainly was at fault for a very BAD performance) since the dubbers wanted him to play his role down and wouldn't let him bring his own flavor to it, but the end result is still the same.

He is a really great actor and can pull off some very excellent performances, but when even he himself has expressed disdain towards his UT Optimus role, that really isn't a good sign.

TurboMMaster wrote:

skynet1O1 wrote:I always thought Frank Welker did an awesome Megatron so it's fitting that Cullen does Prime. Maybe I'm just nostalgic.

Actually, I thik it would be both epic and funny if Hasbro once decide to screw with fans and switch Cullen/Welker roles. That could be something worthy of watching

Funny you should mention that since, at last year's (2012's) BotCon, there was a Peter Cullen panel in which a fan asked Peter to give his best impression of Frank Welker's Megatron voice (in a hypothetical situation that would require him to stand in for the absent Frank). Needless to say, Peter's Megatron voice was priceless.

TurboMMaster wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:How is my noting the differences on Cullen performances OT? In the games, I'm fine with him, but in the show and movies, I'm "kinda tired of" him (just as the topic title says).

Maybe because in Transformers Prime we had something aroud 60 episodes with Optimus( There is few without him)? Also he seems to be a little to serious for me. I really want see Prime's Optimus laughing out loud or beign annoyed by something.

But I was asking how stating my thoughts on the matter was "off topic", as fenrir72 claimed.

Sabrblade wrote:^ Formatting goof labels me as the author of a post that wasn't mine.

You are correct. Thank you for pointing that out. Fixing it now.

All the posts have been fixed. You are welcome to use the PM feature to point out an error, btw.

Seibertron wrote:Peter Cullen is amazing. He has defined Optimus Prime to several generations of fans. The only problem I have is that I feel like no one is really directing Peter Cullen or that the writers are over-writing him because they know they've got Peter Cullen. There's a disconnect somewhere. Every thing that he says comes across as the most epic statement ever. Everything seems like it's overly dramatic and over the top. I just want someone to give Optimus some more casual lines and direct Peter to use something other than his "one shall stand, one shall fall" tone. It's in there somewhere ... I just watched some old school G1 the other day with my daughter (we're on a Dinobots stint at the moment) and he has plenty of "normal" and "not-over-the-top" lines in the old school cartoon.

Related to this, his performance in WFC/FOC that I'm fine with seems to fit with the "normal" and "not-over-the-top" performance mentioned above.

Seibertron wrote:Peter Cullen is amazing. He has defined Optimus Prime to several generations of fans. The only problem I have is that I feel like no one is really directing Peter Cullen or that the writers are over-writing him because they know they've got Peter Cullen. There's a disconnect somewhere. Every thing that he says comes across as the most epic statement ever. Everything seems like it's overly dramatic and over the top. I just want someone to give Optimus some more casual lines and direct Peter to use something other than his "one shall stand, one shall fall" tone. It's in there somewhere ... I just watched some old school G1 the other day with my daughter (we're on a Dinobots stint at the moment) and he has plenty of "normal" and "not-over-the-top" lines in the old school cartoon.

So many excellent points. See, this is what confuses me about the movie critics (well, the fan half of the critics, I should say) and their inconsistencies.

"He's too wooden."
"He's too dark."
"He's too serious."

Then he says something like "Ooops, my bad!" and everyone's all like:

"He's supposed to be serious!"
"That line was ridiculous!"
"That scene was so stupid!"

Apparently they forget...this is the same character that once said to Megatron "Fat chance, Fat Head!"

^ I realize it was G1 Optimus using the Fat Head line and not the movieverse Optimus. I know they're different universes, different Primes, but the fact of the matter is that we all know who he is and who he's supposed to be. They can't have their cake and eat it, too.

Transformers might have a little more consistency if the fans did. We give our input, sometimes the powers that be listen, sometimes we get what we asked for and we're all like "LOL WTF?" and I sit here and think "Well...you asked for it."

Autobot032 wrote:So many excellent points. See, this is what confuses me about the movie critics (well, the fan half of the critics, I should say) and their inconsistencies.

"He's too wooden."
"He's too dark."
"He's too serious."

Then he says something like "Ooops, my bad!" and everyone's all like:

"He's supposed to be serious!"
"That line was ridiculous!"
"That scene was so stupid!"

I think with this case it's cuz of the "Oops, my bad" line being so far on the spectrum from the serious lines. Imagine a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being super-silly and 10 being uber-serious. Movie Optimus's regular lines would fall somewhere closer to 20, while the "Oops" line would be closer to 1. If his regular dialogue was somewhere lower on the scale, around 5 or so, the "Oops" line might not feel as jarring. Conversely, had the "Oops, my bad" instead been something like "Oh dear", that might have still conveyed the intended attempt at humor while still keeping it closer to his ordinary lines.

Autobot032 wrote:Apparently they forget...this is the same character that once said to Megatron "Fat chance, Fat Head!"

^ I realize it was G1 Optimus using the Fat Head line and not the movieverse Optimus. I know they're different universes, different Primes, but the fact of the matter is that we all know who he is and who he's supposed to be. They can't have their cake and eat it, too.

Well, as Ryan pointed out, G1 Optimus saying that stuff sounds fine since, using the aforementioned scale example, his lines mostly stayed with the 6-8 range, allow for some sillier lines in the 2-4 range to be worked in and not feel too out of place. G1 Optimus was more relaxed, more loose in his behavior, whereas the Movie and Prime Optimuses are portrayed as being a lot more stoic and severe. For either to say "Fat chance, Fat Head!" would seem headscratching since they didn't evoke the same feeling of friendliness and normalness that G1 Optimus has.

Seibertron wrote:Peter Cullen is amazing. He has defined Optimus Prime to several generations of fans. The only problem I have is that I feel like no one is really directing Peter Cullen or that the writers are over-writing him because they know they've got Peter Cullen. There's a disconnect somewhere. Every thing that he says comes across as the most epic statement ever. Everything seems like it's overly dramatic and over the top. I just want someone to give Optimus some more casual lines and direct Peter to use something other than his "one shall stand, one shall fall" tone. It's in there somewhere ... I just watched some old school G1 the other day with my daughter (we're on a Dinobots stint at the moment) and he has plenty of "normal" and "not-over-the-top" lines in the old school cartoon.

Very well said. You're probably right. If you are going to have Don LaFontaine say "in a world" you probably will have it say in the same epic fashion every time and there may be times where it doesn't quite fit.

I'm not sure how I could go a full decade with Gary Chalk doing almost every Optimus in the fiction and only go 6 years with Peter after a 20-year-long break and be tired of the latter.

PrymeStriker wrote:I'm not sure how I could go a full decade with Gary Chalk doing almost every Optimus in the fiction and only go 6 years with Peter after a 20-year-long break and be tired of the latter.

Well, Gary just did what he did, just like Peter in the 80's. After that, fandom hailed Peter back as the savior and now he has his own nostalgia-ridden shoes to fill... Maybe?