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Bumblebee Movie voice actor Jon Bailey talks about his experience

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jON3.0 wrote:I am beyond thrilled to be the voices of Shockwave AND Soundwave in the Bumblebee movie. It’s been a childhood dream of mine to voice a Transformer(s) in an animated series and/or movie since I was 5 years old. You may already know that I voice Optimus Prime for various Hasbro things if Peter Cullen is busy, doesn’t want to do it, or for budget reasons. It was a great honor being Optimus for Combiner Wars. Shockwave has always been my favorite character and Soundwave is just barely second and to voice such an iconic moment in the film is insane!

My agent submitted my character demo (which features Prime from CW) to Paramount and they hired me to fill in as Optimus Prime for the Bumblebee movie which I was STOKED for! I knew up front that once everything was finalized, they would bring Cullen in. Working with Travis Knight was really cool. He told me if he could talk like Optimus the way I could, he would use that voice all the time. Before you record for a job like this, they always show the scene first. I’m watching the unfinished animation of the opening scene of the movie on this awesome mini-theater in sound stage at Paramount which is totally surreal and I’m seeing the Cybertronian seekers and Shockwave, Soundwave, Ironhide, Arcee and the other classic characters I’ve loved since 1984. Even as unfinished animation, I was totally blown away. I literally fanboyed on Travis Knight about how amazing it was and how it’s what I’ve always wanted to see in the Transformers movies (he’s a true Transformers fan by the way).

I recorded 4 sessions at Paramount, most of them to voice Prime. In the waiting room for different sessions, David Sobolov, Steve Blum, Grey Griffin and I talked shop while I’m trying to keep my cool. Here I am, sitting at the GROWNUP table. Before the fourth session, I received an audition for all the characters in Bumblebee and I had my heart set on booking it. We were asked to pick 4 or 5 but I did them all. I ended up auditioning 3 different times but never found out why. Never heard back from the auditions so I assumed I didn’t book anything, but at least I gave them my best shot.

When I booked the last session, I was only booked to fill in for Optimus again, but I was told I would record scratch (temp voiceover) for other characters, so I figured I still had one more shot. That was the same day Steve Blum was there. Someone came out to ask us which characters we’d booked before and of course Steve is like “Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes...” so I’m thinking I don’t have a chance since I’ve only ever actually BOOKED Optimus. I was only given 2 or 3 characters to record. When I got into the session, I was determined to at least try to do the others because some of them were my favorites. After I asked Mr. Knight if he wouldn’t mind if I tried the other characters, he was kind enough to allow me to record them. After I recorded a few, he said “Dude! You’re blowing my mind here! You sound just like them!” Greatest compliment ever. They had a montage of clips from the G1 cartoon queued up before we recorded each one to make sure they were as accurate to the cartoon as possible which is so cool to see up on a big screen with great sound. We had a fan chat about how Soundwave’s vocoder effect was originally done (he had me record two versions of the voice in two different pitches to better recreate that effect). I also told him about Corey Burton’s David Warner impression was how he came up with the original Shockwave voice. By the end of the job, I had recorded Ratchet, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Soundwave and Shockwave, with no idea whether or not anything would end up in the final movie, but I was confident that I had gave it my all.

A couple of months ago, my two youngest kids and I got to see an early version of the film and all the voices I had done, INCLUDING Optimus Prime, were in that version of the movie which blew my kids’ minds. It was definitely one of the most memorable moments of my entire life. We still didn’t know if that meant any of the voices I did were in the final film or not, but I took it as a good sign.

My agent finally gave me the great news at the end of October. I had joked with Travis Knight that if there were any other voices they needed at all, whatever they wanted, I had to get in the movie somehow and he chuckled, “Don’t worry, you will.” At the time, I took it as “one day it will happen.” It really did and I couldn’t be happier.

My goal has never been to voice Optimus Prime one day, even though it was Peter Cullen’s Optimus Prime voice that inspired me to become a voice actor. My goal was always to work with Peter Cullen on a Transformers project and I finally crossed that off my list, even though I never thought it could possibly happen. It was an incredible experience and the movie is really great. It’s got the G1 look & action I’ve always wanted to see with the charm, humor & heart of Iron Giant. My name is up there on the big screen between 2 of my favorite voice actor heroes, Steve Blum & Grey Griffin. I am eternally grateful to my agent, Paramount, the other actors & Travis Knight for their kindness and the opportunity to make a lifelong dream become reality.

Early Reactions and Impressions for 2018 Live Action Transformers Bumblebee Film

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Kyleor wrote:Just got home from an early access showing. If you hated or dislike the Bayverse movies, you should at the very least like Bumblebee, it's 9001% better than *any* of the Bayverse. The story is completely coherent and well told from beginning to end. The human characters are actually all likable too.

Deadput wrote:Yup I can say right now that the Bee film was excellent, definitely the best live action film so far

It wasn't just a good Transformers film, it was a good film in general and I will say that all of you guys must at least see this film once even if it's on Dvd/rent or something.

I've never really liked Bee that much prior, never hated him but he wasn't a favorite, this film changes that the character is so good in this film and probably one of his best portrayals yet.

The Humans were more then just tolerable they were good characters as well, and by god the Decepticons were awesome, they weren't particularly deep but they had clear personalities and weren't really annoying.


That Cybertron scene? By Primus I just want to watch that over and over, it was beautiful.

Kary wrote:It's about 5 mins at the beginning, and it's a lot more polished than what we see in the trailers. Some folks criticized the Cybertron scenes for looking like WFC, but they looked really awesome in the final version.

Tony_Bacala wrote:Just got back. Really great flick. Tons of nostalgia points, well done story on it's own. Good action, but not crazy. Things were slower, less shaky, I could actually see the bots and cons for more than 2 seconds at a time. Good characterization for the cons. Backstory on Cybertron and it's talk throughout movie is pretty much WFC / FOC / Siege, which is more depth than we've had up to now.

There are connection points to the Bayverse, but so many things that contradict what happened before that it falls more in reboot territory. Just not 100% clear cut, creative writing could send it either way. That is the only thing that half bothers me, no clear cut reboot line.

That however, is minimal. I'd pay 15 bucks to just see the 7 minutes of Cybertron stuff again.

Transformers Bumblebee Movie Limited Edition Jerseys Now Available

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Transformers Bumblebee Movie Decepticon Triple Changer Feature

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New Images of Transformers Studio Series 2019 Wave 1 Figures

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In Package Shots of Transformers Studio Series Optimus, Bonecrusher, Jetfire and DOTM Megatron.

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Soundwave Speaks, more footage, China Release Date and Sponsor, and more! Bumblebee News Roundup

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Entenmann's Little Bites Offering $5 Off Transformers Bumblebee Movie Tickets

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Actor Voicing Bumblebee in Upcoming Live Action Film Revealed #jointhebuzz

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"Since we were approaching this as an origin story, we felt that it was appropriate that you got to hear his voice," di Bonaventura said of the character who thus far has only been able to communicate using existing media. "That’s the simple logic that we employed. The longer term implication of that is different. But the short-term implication of that is, since we really are resetting the mythology, essentially, of who Bumblebee is. And so, that seemed to us to be the appropriate, to get the chance to hear what he sounds like."

"Dylan has that great quality in his voice of youthful exuberance, and also sort of trustworthiness," the producer explained. "I think those are the two qualities that we wanted Bumblebee to have."
"Thankfully, we’ve showed it to a few audiences, and people seem to think that it’d be right and an appropriate voice," he said. "You never know, obviously that can be a sensitive thing for people. But it turns out, they imagine his voice that way."

New Official Images of Transformers Studio Series Movie 1 Optimus Prime and Bonecrusher

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