The Energon Pub

So, is there any particular reason why they keep making Bumblebee unable to speak? In the first Bay movie, it kind of made sense (and then he speaks at the end of the movie... only to be mute again in the second one. WTF), but since then, they just keep doing it. Over and over and over again.

The latest offender being Fall of Cybertron. Hell, they could've just not used him at all (since he's in the game for all of two seconds) and saved themselves a bunch of time.

Is Bumblebee's voice actor just that expensive?

Probably just laziness. Bumblebee's voice actor then---> Bumblebee's voice actor now--->

Cartoons that follow a major blockbuster of the same series tend to ape the movie, even if they aren't meant to be direct sequels. Since Movie BB doesn't talk, Prime BB doesn't either.

Hasbro's also trying to make a new unified TF continuity (Prime, FoC, Rescue Bots, etc. are all in the same general continuity family). Due to the whole "aping the major blockbuster" thing, ALL Bumblebees are going to be mute, just as ALL Megatrons are going to fiddle with Dark Energon and have been former friends with their respective Optimuses.

It's for a sense of familiarity with new viewers, the majority of which would have come in through the movies. Same reason Optimus and Bumblebee keep their movie designs in Prime. Still, not only does Bumblebee speak in both WfC and Animated, he never shuts up.

i really hated how they kept him mute in the 2nd and 3rd movies and now that they are seeming keeping that way on purpose seems silly. what if kids who love bumblebee decide to follow in his footsteps and become mute as well? that may seem a bit far-fetched but i have read of it happening.

Maybe it was just to make him different somehow? like being more of an underdog than he already was because he cant speak?

romeostarkiller wrote:i really hated how they kept him mute in the 2nd and 3rd movies and now that they are seeming keeping that way on purpose seems silly. what if kids who love bumblebee decide to follow in his footsteps and become mute as well? that may seem a bit far-fetched but i have read of it happening.

Becoming mute (As if that's something you can just do) to imitate a robot from a movie? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

romeostarkiller wrote:Maybe it was just to make him different somehow? like being more of an underdog than he already was because he cant speak?

They never portrayed him as an underdog in the movies, in fact, they portrayed him as a much better fighter than in G1 when he could talk. It's the same in Prime, when he took out Skyquake, and managed to hold Starscream off despite not being able to access his weapons.

kwanzaabot wrote:So, is there any particular reason why they keep making Bumblebee unable to speak? In the first Bay movie, it kind of made sense (and then he speaks at the end of the movie... only to be mute again in the second one. WTF), but since then, they just keep doing it. Over and over and over again.

The latest offender being Fall of Cybertron. Hell, they could've just not used him at all (since he's in the game for all of two seconds) and saved themselves a bunch of time.

Is Bumblebee's voice actor just that expensive?

I believe they do that so kids who only have seen the movies know that that's Bumblebee, I believe that they were going to add Ironhide, but they didn't want to include him so the children wouldn't get confused.

Justanormalguy wrote:I believe they do that so kids who only have seen the movies know that that's Bumblebee, I believe that they were going to add Ironhide, but they didn't want to include him so the children wouldn't get confused.

I think that's probably right, but the sad thing is, kids aren't anywhere near as stupid as these TV executives think they are.
I mean, the cartoon is called Transformers, the character is named Bumblebee, and he looks like the movie Bumblebee. Most kids can put two and two together.

kwanzaabot wrote:

Justanormalguy wrote:I believe they do that so kids who only have seen the movies know that that's Bumblebee, I believe that they were going to add Ironhide, but they didn't want to include him so the children wouldn't get confused.

I think that's probably right, but the sad thing is, kids aren't anywhere near as stupid as these TV executives think they are.
I mean, the cartoon is called Transformers, the character is named Bumblebee, and he looks like the movie Bumblebee. Most kids can put two and two together.

Exactly, that's why they always cater stuff to kids, I mean they will get a new toy but it sucks, so the parents wasted their money and now they can't get it back because they opened the box.

My dad has seen all three Transformers movies, but nothing else of the series. When he saw me playing War for Cybertron, it took him a moment to to realize that that was Ratchet and Bumblebee on the screen. It's not about executives thinking kids are stupid, it's about no one immediately recognizing a character when that character has had a sudden change between appearances. Especially not newcomers to a franchise like Transformers, where everything changes.

...everything changes? Whoa, I just blew my own mind...

Justanormalguy wrote:

kwanzaabot wrote:So, is there any particular reason why they keep making Bumblebee unable to speak? In the first Bay movie, it kind of made sense (and then he speaks at the end of the movie... only to be mute again in the second one. WTF), but since then, they just keep doing it. Over and over and over again.

The latest offender being Fall of Cybertron. Hell, they could've just not used him at all (since he's in the game for all of two seconds) and saved themselves a bunch of time.

Is Bumblebee's voice actor just that expensive?

I believe they do that so kids who only have seen the movies know that that's Bumblebee, I believe that they were going to add Ironhide, but they didn't want to include him so the children wouldn't get confused.

Yep. Bulkhead was originally named Ironhide until they found that the character they were writing suited Bulk more. Then they gave the excuse that Ironhide died in DOTM and didn't want to confuse the kiddies. They can't make up their minds.

PrymeStriker wrote:Yep. Bulkhead was originally named Ironhide until they found that the character they were writing suited Bulk more. Then they gave the excuse that Ironhide died in DOTM and didn't want to confuse the kiddies. They can't make up their minds.

They can have multiple reasons, you know. "Ended up more like Bulkhead" and "Might confuse new viewers" do not have to be mutually exclusive.

And we need to talk about something because everyone in here is so very biased. At this point, we've all gotten use to the idea of this franchise having numerous continuities (Which is often brought up in the fiction itself) and the idea of characters changing voice, appearance, and personality between lines. But do you think someone who just got into the line from the movies might find it a little bit massively confusing? I know for a fact that's what happens because I've seen it first hand numerous times. They don't think kids are idiots, they know people will get confused.

romeostarkiller wrote:Maybe it was just to make him different somehow? like being more of an underdog than he already was because he cant speak?

The one and only reason, as Orci and Kurtzman said in the ROTF DVD commentary, is that they liked the idea of Bee speaking through the radio. Basically, it's just a creative conceit on the part of the screenwriters. Which might be partly the reason Soundwave is also mute in the Prime series, seeing as they're producers of the show.

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:

romeostarkiller wrote:Maybe it was just to make him different somehow? like being more of an underdog than he already was because he cant speak?

The one and only reason, as Orci and Kurtzman said in the ROTF DVD commentary, is that they liked the idea of Bee speaking through the radio. Basically, it's just a creative conceit on the part of the screenwriters. Which might be partly the reason Soundwave is also mute in the Prime series, seeing as they're producers of the show.

In Soundwave's case, it's probably more along the lines that being silent makes him much creepier. And when he does speak, he's through distorted clips of something someone else said, like in Predator.

Shadowman wrote:

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:

romeostarkiller wrote:Maybe it was just to make him different somehow? like being more of an underdog than he already was because he cant speak?

The one and only reason, as Orci and Kurtzman said in the ROTF DVD commentary, is that they liked the idea of Bee speaking through the radio. Basically, it's just a creative conceit on the part of the screenwriters. Which might be partly the reason Soundwave is also mute in the Prime series, seeing as they're producers of the show.

In Soundwave's case, it's probably more along the lines that being silent makes him much creepier. And when he does speak, he's through distorted clips of something someone else said, like in Predator.

Good point. Personally, I think the whole mute thing works better for Soundwave than Bee. Like you mentioned, it does make he creepier, replaying clips of others. Goes very well with the faceless head design, too.

With Bee, I liked him better as the chatterbox in WFC and Animated.

Shadowman wrote:

PrymeStriker wrote:Yep. Bulkhead was originally named Ironhide until they found that the character they were writing suited Bulk more. Then they gave the excuse that Ironhide died in DOTM and didn't want to confuse the kiddies. They can't make up their minds.

They can have multiple reasons, you know. "Ended up more like Bulkhead" and "Might confuse new viewers" do not have to be mutually exclusive.

And we need to talk about something because everyone in here is so very biased. At this point, we've all gotten use to the idea of this franchise having numerous continuities (Which is often brought up in the fiction itself) and the idea of characters changing voice, appearance, and personality between lines. But do you think someone who just got into the line from the movies might find it a little bit massively confusing? I know for a fact that's what happens because I've seen it first hand numerous times. They don't think kids are idiots, they know people will get confused.

My 13-year-old neighbor saw my FoC Shockwave on my shelf and instantly spotted him. Then he said: "Why does he have wings? Why isn't he big and bulky? Where's the drilly thing? This Shockwave sucks."

But that's only because he started Transformers with DOTM. He hasn't really seen ROTF or Movie 1, or anything else, really.

Kids can get confused, I understand, but they just further "confuse" them when we have a living Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, and Arcee when they were all killed in the movies.

Because he doesn't have anything nice to say.

I have a story to add.
A few years ago I wore Bumblebee (G1 version) t-shirt to a local high school baseball. All of the local teenagers basically recognize in as Transformers shirt and more specifically they recognized Bumblebee. All of them were born after the G1 cartoon, so they only television exposure to Bumblebee would have to the movie (or maybe Animated). Heck, noone even wondered why there was a Volkswagon beetle on the shirt. So the youth of small town America knows Bumblebee. Then again, most version of Bumblebee are yellow.

hmmm...
I've thought of this as well..., my idea is going to sound off the wall...

I think Hasbro does this so kids out there who are not considered "perfect" by society, are mute or handicap in any way can relate to bumblebee and be like "he's mute and he kicks ass at the same time", remember that Hasbro does support childrens hospitals, and I'm sure a lot of kids out there can relate... and remember back in the G1 cartoon days they had that one kid in a wheelchair!

just my idea

Grimlock Shakur wrote:hmmm...
I've thought of this as well..., my idea is going to sound off the wall...

I think Hasbro does this so kids out there who are not considered "perfect" by society, are mute or handicap in any way can relate to bumblebee and be like "he's mute and he kicks ass at the same time", remember that Hasbro does support childrens hospitals, and I'm sure a lot of kids out there can relate... and remember back in the G1 cartoon days they had that one kid in a wheelchair!

just my idea

Orci and Kurtzman, the first two to write Bumblebee as mute, wrote him that way because they liked the idea of a character speaking through the radio. Hasbro did it again in Prime, because, as I explained, people who aren't long-time TF fans can be easily confused regarding sudden and massive change in character design and personality.

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:Which might be partly the reason Soundwave is also mute in the Prime series, seeing as they're producers of the show.

They also said he can speak, but chooses not to.

PrymeStriker wrote:Yep. Bulkhead was originally named Ironhide until they found that the character they were writing suited Bulk more. Then they gave the excuse that Ironhide died in DOTM and didn't want to confuse the kiddies. They can't make up their minds.

The first reason was an attempt to avoid spoilering DOTM, which hadn't yet come out when it was said. Afterward, they admitted that the second reason what the actual reason.

kwanzaabot wrote:The latest offender being Fall of Cybertron.

The reason Bumblebee doesn't speak in FOC is because it, and WFC, are prequels to Prime. And given that he doesn't speak there, they had to make the two things marry by having him lose his voice at some point.

Shadowman wrote:Orci and Kurtzman, the first two to write Bumblebee as mute, wrote him that way because they liked the idea of a character speaking through the radio. Hasbro did it again in Prime, because, as I explained, people who aren't long-time TF fans can be easily confused regarding sudden and massive change in character design and personality.

And yet, in the middle of all this, came Animated, where they had a talking Bumblebee.

Darth Bombshell wrote:

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:Which might be partly the reason Soundwave is also mute in the Prime series, seeing as they're producers of the show.

They also said he can speak, but chooses not to.

I vaguely remember it being written somewhere that he deleted his vocal software to make room for data processing and storage.

Can't confirm if it's canon or just fanboy musings.

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:I vaguely remember it being written somewhere that he deleted his vocal software to make room for data processing and storage.

Can't confirm if it's canon or just fanboy musings.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Soundwave_%28Prime%29

Duane Capizzi said Soundwave can speak, but just chooses not to. The decision was to contrast Soundwave with the overly talkative Starscream, and at BotCon 2011, the staff compared Soundwave to Boba Fett. Instead, he records what he overhears and replays it with a mechanical echo that is very similar to the echo of his G1 counterpart.

Guess it must have been some thread on a TF discussion site, where that vocal-software deletion idea came from.

Personally, I actually prefer the fan-made idea better. Soundwave seems just like the kind of bot obsesses over data and processing speed to the point of willingly deleting his vocal program.

The canon concept is fine, but it's just a matter of personal preference.

They wanted to Bumblebee to move from a supporting role (G1) to a more central role (Movies and TF Prime).
Another question bother me.
Why is he named "Bumblebee"?
Are there bumblebees on Cybertron?