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The team behind next year's TF movie have announced what characters will be appearing for each faction:
Autobots: Optimus Prime, Bumble Bee, Jazz, Ratchet and Ironhide.
Decepticons: Megatron, Starscream, Brawl, Barricade, Bonecrusher, Scorponok, Frenzy, and Blackout.
Seems that the good guys will be pretty outnumbered!
Also, pics of the robot and vehicle modes (seemingly confirmed as accurate, though early renders) have started to appear.
This place is a good jumping off point for many of the pics (just scroll down, you will see the news items that relate to the movie), and there are also some here (though they require you to register before you can see them!) and finally a very large and clear image of one Transformer can be seen here.
If you can get past the hordes of fans indulging in the most colossal rant of all time ("IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THE CARTOON!") then there are some interesting pointers for the movie. Personally speaking I like the robot designs, they have a slightly more alien vibe than Transformers usually exhibit - usually they just look like humans in suits of armour. These designs manage to actually look like alien robots designed to fight a war.
FD
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The Autobot line-up is awesome. I've heard baseless speculation that, since Cullen is already doing Prime, that he may do Ironhide as well, but we'll see.
I'm somewhat less enthused about the Decepticon line-up. Sure, you gotta have Megs and Starscream. The rest of them, though... Meh. Scorponok seems kinda out-of-place.
I'm generally happy with what pics I've seen so far. I agree that it's actually somewhat refreshing that they aren't as humanoid-looking as the cartoon. They remind me of a happy medium between classic Transformers and the machines-designed-by-machines from the Matrix trilogy. I have to wonder how movie-realistic the toys are going to be, though. Seems like it'll take a Ph.D just to change from vehicle to robot mode...
Personally, I'm more curious about the rest of the voice cast.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
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quote:Hey does anyone have a net? I have to fish my childhood out of the toliet, it seems someone took a big crap all over it.
That is some intense emotional trauma being layed bare right there.
Registered: Nov 1999
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There is perhaps some irony that as I'm sitting here reading this, "Frontier psychiatrist" is playing on iTunes! I suppose "intense emotional trauma" is one way to put it - and that example is not the worst that is out there, believe me.
I agree about the Decepticon lineup, some fairly obvious names seem to have been skipped - most obvious of which is Soundwave. Okay, the movie makers are going for realistic transformations which means no 40-foot tall robot turning into a tape deck that a human could carry, but surely they could have found something...I'm thinking the big helicopter one could just as easily have been Soundwave. Ah well, we can only hope the movie does well and we get to see some more characters in the sequel.
I'm really liking the designs - the level of complexity there is quite amazing. From what I can see of the toy prototype pics currently doing the rounds, the toys do look as if they'll not lose too much of that so they might not be very kid-friendly Transformer toys. That said they've been selling the Masterpiece/Alternators/Binaltech lines for a while now with no complaints, and those are pretty complex too, so the toys should find a receptive audience.
Have they got Frank Welker for Megatron? Would be nice if they could get as many of the old voices as possible. It's not going to mean anything to the people just going along to see it as a movie, but would be a nice nod in the direction of people who remember the show they watched as kids. Mind you, that's if there are any hardcore G1 fans left after their collective anal prolapse over the fact that Optimus Prime has flame decals in truck mode.
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quote:Originally posted by FawnDoo: Have they got Frank Welker for Megatron? Would be nice if they could get as many of the old voices as possible. It's not going to mean anything to the people just going along to see it as a movie, but would be a nice nod in the direction of people who remember the show they watched as kids. Mind you, that's if there are any hardcore G1 fans left after their collective anal prolapse over the fact that Optimus Prime has flame decals in truck mode.
The last I heard, Welker was interested in the part and sent in an audition tape. Given the universal celebration of Cullen's return, I think it would be pretty stupid to not bring in Welker. Maybe they're just waiting to make the announcement until later so that they can keep the marketing momentum going until next summer.
I just hope that Starscream gets a good voice. Chris Latta, the original voice, has been dead for over a decade. Doug Parker did a dead-on impersonation of Latta's Starscream voice for the Beast Wars episode "Possession", so he's my first choice. Michael Dobson has been doing the voice for Armada/Energon/Cybertron, and he's pretty good too (not to mention he's apparantly an aquaintance of our own Mark Nguyen).
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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Not knowing those later voices, I think Mark Hamill would do a good job for Starscream. He does a good high-pitched maniacal voice.
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I think it's about time Welker had a leading roll in a major picture. The dude's been in the business forever and has a CV so long you could wrap it around the moon twice and still have enough left for the bow.
I suppose the bottom line will be exactly how they want to characterise their Megatron and if that fits in with Welkers performance.
quote:Michael Dobson has been doing the voice for Armada/Energon/Cybertron, and he's pretty good too (not to mention he's apparantly an aquaintance of our own Mark Nguyen).
Nothing apparent about it. I was talking with him this past weekend about just this, and it seems that they'd rather go with some nobody in LA than bring him in from Vancouver, despite the popularity of his voice & character. A shame, really, since it's pretty cool. Here's a clip of him and "Hot Shot" actor Kirby Morrow from the convention we were at this past weekend, imploring Bay to let him use his voice:
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Awesome video. What exactly is the big deal with getting him from Vancouver to LA, anyway? One would think that, compared to the budget of the entire movie, the extra costs of doing so would be less than miniscule.
Does he ever just randomly break into Starscream's voice? I know I would if I could. "What do you mean 'exact change only'? Don't you know who I am?"
quote:Does he ever just randomly break into Starscream's voice?
He does. I've interviewed him at least thrice, not to mention the hanging out at various events we both go to (me for my improv, him for his voice work). Michael Dobson, and many of the voice actors I know, have the uncanny ability to drop into voice, and more importantly into CHARACTER, at a moment's notice. Here's an old interview I conducted with him and Scott McNeil a couple years ago:
Mike has said that he created Starscream by mixing his own voice with Chris Latta's rendition, and adding a jet engine to it. He's also done Cobra Commander, so if anyone deserves to take the mantle, I think it's him. Doug did a fine job in Beast Wars, but I think he played the Screamer a little too manic. Starscream is a nutjob, but he's capable of a lot of eloquence when he speaks, and I find Mike to be more fitting for that (see Armada, where Starscream was actually quite the hopeless romantic at times). Mind you, I'm biased.
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: Doug did a fine job in Beast Wars, but I think he played the Screamer a little too manic.
I'll give you that. He certainly did put the 'scream' in 'Starscream', didn't he?
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: Starscream is a nutjob, but he's capable of a lot of eloquence when he speaks, and I find Mike to be more fitting for that (see Armada, where Starscream was actually quite the hopeless romantic at times).
Maybe I'm just not as much of a fan of Dobson's Starscream because I'm just not as much of a fan of the recent dubbed anime series. The scripts can be pretty awful at times, and even favorites of mine from Beast Wars (like David Kaye as Megs) seem to be struggling with the bad dialogue and hackneyed anime conventions. I will say that Starscream was one of the reasons why I think Armada got pretty decent towards the end. Then Energon came along and screwed everything up after only about five episodes.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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Indeed - and despite the animation being SO much cooler, the whole story just devolves pretty quickly. Cybertron / Galaxy Force was better, though.
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