Legendary Voice Actor Talks Scooby-Doo, Megatron

In an interview for PeopleTV.com's "Hollywood's Greatest Untold Stories: Animation", legendary voice actor Frank Welker briefly discussed creating the voice of Fred in Scooby-Doo and Megatron for Transformers. Below is Welker's segment via EW.com. It not really anything "new" but always nice to see him discuss Transformers and his other work. Really, worth checking out his IMDB credits to see just how many voices to beloved characters he provided over his long career.

Peter Cullen, Frank Walker Talk Transformers

As part of the upcoming Blu-ray release of Transformers: The Last Knight (on 9/26), Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) and Frank Welker (Megatron) spoke with Collider about the characters that they have been voicing for touch over 30 years now. Click here to read the entire interview, a few highlights below.

Highlights:
- The pair first worked together in 1979 for Mighty Man and Yuff

- Welker on design change of Megatron from cartoon to movie: "But it is interesting to see the changes from the animated version, the G1 version, which was pretty basic, to now with all of the technology and incredible things that they’re doing with design and color and sound … it’s a really interesting—excuse the pun—but true transformation. I’ve enjoyed watching it. I’ve actually had to change my voice to match the size and the differences in the characters."

- Welker enjoyed the ad libbing that Michael Bay encouraged when voicing Megatron for the movie.

- Difference in filming between cartoon and movies is cartoons often had all the voice actors in a room that allowed them to "kind of play off each other. You can build...almost like a play" while the movies required them to work "...one-on-one with Michael Bay, the sound engineer, and a camera on your lips"

- Welker at one point threw his jaw out for 15 seconds doing wolf fight noises while Cullen remembers coughing up blood due to roars for 1986's King Kong.

Frank Welker To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Daytime Emmys

Congratulations to Frank Welker as he is being honored by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his decades long voice work. While Transformers fans consider him the definitive voice of Megatron, he list of work is very long. Below is the press release about the honor.

New York, NY – April 12, 2016 – The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) today announced that Frank Welker, legendary performer of the voices of Scooby-Doo and many others will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 43rd Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy® Awards on Friday, April 29th, 2016 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites in downtown Los Angeles.

“Every child in America has grown up listening to Frank Welker bring the adventures of Freddy Jones and Scooby-Doo to life,” said Bob Mauro, President, NATAS. “Frank is an audible magician. He has made an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of us all with his ability to bring these and so many other characters into our lives and make them real. It is with great pleasure that the National Academy bestows the prestigious Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement to him for his great body of work.”

Cullen, Welker Comment on Transformers 4 at TF The Ride Grand Opening

Today was the grand opening of Transformers: The Ride in Orlando, Florida. On hand for the event was the now 30 years strong voice of Optimus Prime Peter Cullen and legendary voice actor Frank Welker (Megatron, Devastator, more). While on the red carpet, Zap2It spoke with the actors about Transformers 4. Cullen commented on Optimus Prime's new look while Welker was unable to confirm if he would be voicing anyone in the fourth film. More pictures from the opening can be found here. Thanks to Wynton R. for the link.

[Peter Cullen] once again be voicing the Autobot leader in "Transformers 4," and shared his thoughts about Optimus Prime's new look.

Transformers: Prime 2.13 Triangulation Promo, Clips

Tomorrow the second season of Transformers: Prime hits the half way point with episode 13 called Triangulation where "Optimus Prime hunts for relics in Antarctica and finds himself caught between shifting alliances." Below is promo and clip from the episode. In addition the voice of Megatron, Frank Welker, answered four questions from fans on The Hub's Facebook page. That Q&A can be found after the videos. The previous two episodes, Tunnel Vision and Flying Mind, can be watched at Hub World.

Upcoming episodes:
05/19 Triage - During the third relic hunt Ratchet and Wheeljack get a one of a kind opportunity when Soundwave's deployer is disabled.
05/26 Toxicity - Bulkhead encounters life-threatening danger during the last relic hunt.

Frank Welker Talks Transformers Prime

In an interview with TV Web, the legendary voice actor Frank Welker talks about Transformers: Prime and voicing iconic villain Megatron. He talked about how things have changed over the last 25 years (more feedback and fan interaction), how he voices Megatron now vs then (get to explore wider vocal range), and basically he has not yet heard anything about Transformers 4 (usually doesn't here until end of production). The full interview is here.

Frank Welker Highest Grossing Movie Star Ever? (Updated)

Update: It seems UK's The Guardian became aware of Frank Welker's unofficial status as Hollywood's top earner. Also The Numbers site has a new chart that breaks down the totals but oddly most are half the size they use to be so not really sure what changed from the chart below to the new one. Still Welker remains top dog at $6.2 billion followed by Samuel L Jackson ($5.2B), Tom Hanks ($4.4B), John Ratzenberger ($3.9B) and Harrison Ford ($3.7B).

Flickering Myth discovered an interesting stat on The Numbers.com. Transformers' Frank Welker is the highest grossing movie star ever with a total gross of about $12.5 billion. This is based on the total movie worldwide box office gross of movie actors, regardless of the size of their role in a film. This large total is despite most of his voice work being for television with the Transformers movie franchise (as Megatron) accounting for about 40% of that total. The next four top actors are Samuel Jackson ($10.15B, thanks to Marvel movies), Warwick Davis ($9.7B, mostly due to Harry Potter), Tom Hanks ($9.16B due to his legendary film career), and John Ratzenberger ($8.3B, mostly due to all the Pixar love).

Mr. Welker's other movie voice credits include Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Dumbo, others), Caddyshack II (the Gopher), All Dogs Go To Heaven (Devil Dog), Gremlins 2 (Mohawk), A Bug's Life (Thumper), Toy Story 2 (Bullseye), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Max the Dog), and many more. If you have never read his credits you really should give them a pass at it is truly amazing just how many childhood favorite shows and characters he has lent his voice too over his 40+ years long career. He probably has had more of impact on people's childhood then most people are even aware and really is deserving of more credit than the Hollywood establishment gives him and other voice actors.

Michael Bay Press Preview Transcript

/Film has posted the entire 7200 word transcript form the interviews that Michael Bay participated in when he screened portions of the film for the entertainment press. He briefly spoke of Frank Welker so can call that official confirmation he returns as Soundwave and mentioned a new character called "Brains" that could be the Einstein character (with Mercedes-Benz E550 alt mode). Bay goes into a great level of detail about the complications of shooting in 3D, experience of filming in Chicago, working with actors, film editing, sound design and more. Below are segments from the transcript but if want to read the whole thing, click here. Thanks to Winston for the link.

Question: Does this have a feeling of closure, this chapter?
Michael: I think so. But it still can be rebooted. Not with Shia. He’s turning grumpy in his old age.

Question: Out of curiosity, shooting in 3D, what did it make you rethink about axis in motion and progression…
Michael: A lot. I mean you’ve got to watch the panning because it strobes too much. You’ve got a guy on the set who’s got a control where when the camera goes like this, he can turn the 3D almost off. He sits there and it’s like if the robot comes close, we tell him what’s going on in the shot and he can kinda try to do where you want the eye to kind of look. But I can’t always check over him because there’s a lot going on on the set. So anyway, that was my process for doing it. I was able to shot about 60% native 3D, and then you’ve got 15% of all digital shots that were 3D, and then the rest is converted close-up stuff.

Transformers Linkfest

The first teaser trailer is out and while there isn't much in the movie news department, I do have to tidbits. Also hit the links for reviews, news of upcoming toys and more.

Optimus Prime Signed by Peter Cullen
If you are in the Maryland area, Beyond Comics is holding a raffle ($1 each) for Optimus Prime Hybrid Style THS-02 signed by the voice himself, Peter Cullen. All the proceeds will be going to Toys for Tots. The raffle is through December 18th and while it requires a visit by the store to participate it doesn't mean you can't do your part for Toys for Tots by clicking here.

Frank Welker Interview
The voice of Megatron talks Transformers: Prime and different between doing Megs now and for Generation One.

Peter Cullen Interview
Another interview, this time with the voice of Optimus Prime as he also talks about the cartoon and desire to maintain a consistency with the character through the years and various incarnations along with joy of working with Welker again. Of note is it turns out he has been working on Dark of the Moon for about a year. Thanks to rumah for the links.

I’ve been recording now for about a year with Michael Bay, and I’ve had some wonderful experiences. I went down to an airport hangar in Long Beach and worked with some of the on-camera actors and that was a wonderful experience to be a part of the movie on the technical side, because normally I’m just pinned into a small room in front of a microphone by myself.

Transformers: Prime and Hasbro Panels at SDCC

The San Diego Comic-Con kicked off its first full day today and Transformers held two of its official panels. One was to show off its toy plans and talk War for Cybertron and the other was to finally give a peak into their plans and designs for the new Transformers: Prime CGI cartoon. As the image on the left shows (more images here), Hasbro isn't pulling any punches in promoting the Hub network and the new cartoon.

The Hasbro panel didn't really cover any new ground, choosing to discuss War for Cybertron, the upcoming DLC and talking about the next wave of Transformers toys with the Hunt for Decepticons, Power Core Combiners and Generations lines whose information has already been released over the last several months. A summary can be found here. The slideshow of toy images from the panel can be found here. A gallery of Transformers toys on display at the con can be found here and here.

The Transformers: Prime panels were probably the more interesting of the two with the participation of Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Peter Cullen. Below are two videos, one shows off a brief video of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker at work and the second video is the test scene that gives you an idea of the CGI being developed for the series. The main reveals is the series is based on a 350 page lore book that Hasbro has. It’s not entirely clear but I got the impression from reading various summaries that the series is set in the War for Cybertron continuity and events are inspired by the movies but not exactly taking place during or after the movies. The basic idea is Transformers are in disguise on Earth more or less in the present day, ready in case the Decepticons attack. There is a human cast, but none related to the movies. The summary of the panel and a gallery of images that show off the Transformers and human cast can be found here.

Frank Welker Profile

Newsarama has written a profile on legendary "voice acting god" Frank Welker as part of the release of the cartoons on home video. Welker will also soon be seen on the big screen in flesh and blood playing the father of Matt Damon's character in the Informant. The actor has more than 600 credits to his name, often providing voices to some of the most famous icons in cartoons besides Megatron and Soundwave. He is also less known as pretty much "voicing" a substantial number of animal noises used in films. His roles include Scooby Doo, Fred Jones, Barney Rubble, Garfield, Curious George, and so many more. Below is sections of the profile, with the full article here.

“There’s many a time you have to audition hundreds of actors,” the former director [Eric Radomski] of “Batman: The Animated Series", "Spawn", "Xioalin Showdown” and “Scooby Doo: Get A Clue!” once quipped, “only to prove the only actor for the role is Frank Welker.”

“That is incredibly flattering and I love hearing it,” Welker said. “In a way it is a bit scary too. I hate missing opportunities to work with different directors. One thing that seems to surprise the studios is finding out later my willingness to audition. Under the right circumstances I actually enjoy it very much. If I can audition to picture on a sound stage it works so well for everybody. I can see what is needed and audition under fire in real time, meet the director and see if we both connect, and the studio can see and hear what they need to make their decision. But [that quote] makes me feel great.”

“[Megatron] would have to be at the top,” Welker admits. “Number one, is he is different than any of the other voices I have had the privilege of providing. Also, the fact that he has remained a fan favorite and caused a bit of controversy along the way qualifies him for my personal hall of fame. I think he and Soundwave have set themselves apart from the other robots in terms of sound identification and that makes me a proud papa.”

Welker is Officially Cast in Transformers 2

Ugo Movie Blog is reporting that legendary voice actor Frank Welker has been officially cast in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Soundwave. The news is from an interview with Roberto Orci as he was promoting Star Trek. Soundwave is a character Welker originated for all three seasons of the 1980s cartoons or G1 cartoon as sometimes referred to that ran from about 1984-1987.

Jordan Hoffman: Who’s voicing Soundwave in Transformers?
Roberto Orci: Welker.

Jordan Hoffman: That’s official?
Roberto Orci: I think so.

Jordan Hoffman: Uh oh.
Roberto Orci: Might be something I just told you for the first time, but I think so.

Fantastic news for die hard Transformer fans who have been trying to get our favorite voices cast in the movie.

Frank Welker Interview

TFW2005 has posted a two part interview with Frank Welker, the one true voice of Megatron and future voice of Soundwave for the movie. The interview was done before Bay's annoucement of his intention to cast Welker as Soundwave and covers Welker's work over the decades including Transformers, how he prepares, advice for future voice person's and some memories he has. Sadly nothing specific about the movie and nor his G1 years other then he enjoyed the work. Below are some highlights and links to the full interview.

Part 1
Part 2

Highlights:
What was your reaction, when you heard about the out-pouring of support from the fans for you to reprise your role as Megatron in the recent movie?
Well, I was absolutely blown away. I really had no idea how big the Transformers were, let alone the size of the fan base. Their passion and knowledge of all things TF is pretty awesome. For me, knowing the fans felt my G1 Megatron was original and important to them and should have been included in the feature production was humbling. That loyalty has pretty much increased my hat size about two fold. Of course I realize it is "Megs" ultimately...not me.

How did you feel about the role of Megatron in the recent transformers movie going to Hugo Weaving?
Hey, if it can't be me or an immediate member of my family playing the role of Megaton, Hugo Weaving is not too shabby. He is a superb actor who always brings interesting interpretations to his work. His agent Smith from the Matrix series was an example, he used a very slight robotic twitch and underplayed it so nicely...top notch. The clips I saw of his Megatron seemed to work just fine, but it was pretty heavily processed and made the voice sound typical of what you might expect of a 40 foot mechanical villain. I think it would have been more interesting to hear less process and more Hugo.

Have you been approached at all for any further work with the franchise, either with the movie(Soundwave?) or another incarnation, such as Transformers: Animated?
Well it is a little too early to be specific but I will say yes and no. No, I have not been approached by the movie folks but yes I am still involved in the franchise...more on that later.

What differences do you find in voicing animals, as opposed to "speaking" characters?
I think people have more of a preconceived idea of what a human voice's should sound like but when you do animals there is more freedom of artistic movement. You are creating sound the listener hasn't pigeon holed ....directors are more apt to leave me alone with my etch-o-sketch and I like that.
(Welker is the "god" of animal noise work for Hollywood. If an animal makes a noise in a movie, Welker is probably the voice behind it.)

Where do you draw your inspirations from in creating a voice? What inspired you to come up with Megatron's voice?
I find that I respond more visually than verbally and looking at a drawing or seeing pictures of the characters evokes an automatic reaction which suggests a voice or attitude. If there is a description and history it helps form a point of view that adds to the overall voice. I think I enjoy looping to picture...looping is the process where you record in a studio with the film or project on the screen and you voice over to what you are looking at...because you see the action on the screen and you just go for it. The character is there and it helps the director as well since he just has to show you the scene, it is a very liberating and creative process. When I auditioned for the Transformers show, there was a sign at the door that said “pick three”. There were piles of drawings of the characters on this table so I just picked up a bunch of the Autobots and Decepticons and had at it. I was drawn to the evil characters since a lot of my work had been mixed with way too many good guys. When I saw Megatron he stood out and I liked the fact that he was the leader of the Decepticons. I tried to make his voice different from what I thought the other actors might do in hopes it would stand out. In the case of Megatron it was the first voice that came to me and the powers to be said "Hello Megatron."

As it turned out I got seven of the original parts...Autobots and Decepticons. I think Wally Burr the director was so busy doing other shows plus working this one he didn't realize he cast me in all those parts...hey, I was lucky!!

Could you cite some other notable examples?
Well, Soundwave was a very bad impression of Barry White but again I wanted something different and it was another weird sounding voice. I think now I was not going with visual as much as trying to create a voice that was different from what I had already done and from the rest of my fellow actors. I didn't realize until the middle of the season that Scotty, our engineer, had processed the shorts off that voice and added large amounts of that "vocal harmonizer thingy bobby"...that's tech speak for "lots of sound stuff." So anyway, it really was fun to do but I could have done Snooky Lanson and it still would have sounded the same. The younger folks will need to look Snooky up on Wikipedia.

What are some of your fondest memories working on the original Transformers series?
I know it is cliche, but as I mentioned above, it was a hoot working with Mike Bell who loved to pick on Peter Cullen. Peter is such a good guy and has the best laugh in town. We all tried to get his number and he was pretty easy. Of course he could dish it out too and was very funny with great stories of the Great White North. He does a French Canadian that puts me away. It was an odd cast of characters literally...and that kept it fun.

You've played a lot of villains over the years, what was your favorite "evil" role?
Probably would be Megatron because he has been the longest running and most widely known. He is fun to do because there are no limits...he can be over the top and still work, or low and subtle and make wee ones have nightmares. And note, around this voice there is controversy, that is a good sign. I think it is important that you don't sound like people expect you to, always good, unless you are running for public office!

Welker Tapped As Soundwave

Every now and then Michael Bay likes to drop in on his forums and cause some havoc by answering a question is such a way as to lead to more questions. Not this time though. Bay has indicated he is going to please many die-hard Transfans.

I think I'm going to pursue Frank on Soundwave.

Michael

If "persue" becomes a contract for the movie, that means that finally Frank Welker will get to reprise a Transformer role in the movie. Welker is the legendary voice behind Megatron, Soundwave, Frenzy, Ravage, Ratbat and more. His overall voice career is extensive and probably includes some of your favorite childhood characters in other cartoons and movies. Hopefully once Welker has signed on the dotted line, Bay will provide an update. Thanks to Ty for the link.

Cullen and Welker Sign On For Transformers Game

Gamespot.com is reporting that the Peter Cullen and Frank Welker have agreed to reprises the voices of Optimus Prime and Megatron for the upcoming Transformers: The Video Game coming out for the movie. Game photos are at end of the post.

Gamespot also interviewed Peter Cullen and Frank Welker about the roles. In addition there is a brief audio file with Welker where he talks about and uses the Megatron voice. The interviews cover how Cullen got the role of Optimus back in the 80s and what they like about each of the characters they voiced. No movie information is revealed but worth reading for any Transfan.

Full Article
Peter Cullen Interview
Frank Welker Interview
Welker/Megatron Audio

This announcement does beg the question...is Hugo Weaving doing any voice work for the video game and if not, why? Any case, this is one of the cool things about using the original voices when possible and not focusing on "stars" for the voices. A star tends to complicate everything usually due to ego and money reason (probably in that order). By getting experienced and willing voice talent, you get things like from Cullen voicing the video game, to the "Make Prime Speak" contest, Agent X voicework and so forth. I don't really imagine Hugo Weaving doing a "Make Megatron Speak" contest for instance or a podcast. So hats off to them for humoring us Transfans and seeming to enjoy the work rather then giving the impression of resenting it like many stars over the years. Thanks to Kevin for the link.

Transformers 2.5 Hours Long, Welker Confirmed In Another Role?

According to an interview with Shia LaBeouf from Collider.com while promoting his movie Disturbia, Transformers might be a 2 and half hour long movie with 20 set pieces or action sequences if the Spider-Man analogy is an indication. Also just as important is this is the first movie insider confirmation that Frank Welker may still voice one of the Transformers in the movie, even if its not Megatron.

From the interview:

On the running time and the amount of action he said:
It's going to be long. He's going to give you a lot. You've got 20 set pieces. You like at Spider-Man and it had five big action sequences — five set pieces. We have 20, and you've got to get storyline in, you've got to get the narrative in — so a lot of explanation. You can’t just have robots fighting for no reason. You've got to explain it. The movies going to run, I think, about two and a half.

And then I asked him why all of Michael Bay’s movies look like all the money was spent on screen and I got an extremely honest response:
Because he’s not putting all the actors in huge trailers, and we’re not staying in four class resorts and craft service isn’t shrimp cocktail. It’s a movie set and all the money is going into the film. You feel it on set. You know none of us got paid millions of dollars to be in that movie. That’s one of the lowest paying jobs I’ve been in, in my career. And that’s the way it goes. You do that movie not because of the paycheck, I know that everybody thinks “oh you’re in Transformers because of the paycheck.” And I’m sure eventually it will lead to a paycheck – when you have a Japanese following and a following you never had – but the initial being in the movie was never a paycheck. None of us got paid above $70,000 dollars. We were all there to blow shit up.

As a fan of Transformers you’re reaction to Hugo Weaving getting cast as the voice of Megatron?
Look as long as you make sure (Frank) Welker is in and you make sure that (Peter) Cullen is Optimus. If anyone else is Optimus the movie is terrible. It has to be Cullen. Now Welker is older, much older than Cullen and his voice has changed. I’ve heard him in sessions. He’d be great as another robot but to play Megatron you need somebody powerful and Hugo Weaving is powerful.

The rumor of Frank Welker remaining involved in the Transformers production started pretty much the same day of the Hugo Weaving announcement but this is the first time I have read someone directly involved with the movie speaking about it. With plenty of roles available and Frank's ability its a toss up on what role he will have but for giggles I am guessing Starscream.

As for the 2.5 hour length, I am thinking that's the rough cut length of the film. Its not that I wouldn't want to see the movie that long, but studio economics 101 is to go for a two hour or shorter film length as that means at least one more play time each day. One more play time mean more tickets sold, so more money made. That use to not matter but no business decisions are often made just on the first weekend take, not even the long haul results so getting huge numbers up front is usually paramount. Of course this is a Bay/Spielberg movie so the usual rules can get tossed at any time.

Frank Welker Not In Transformers Movie

Its seems that its just recently been discovered by various websites that Frank Welker has briefly posted on the Transformers movie in regards to his casting as Megatron. The post is from 12/8/06 but no one noticed until now it seems.

The post from his official site:

Are you going to do any voices in the upcoming live-action TRANSFORMERS movie?

I am not really sure what's happening with the "Transformer" movie other than my talented friend Peter Cullen has been cast. Presently, I have not been offered any roles. They are doing a new series based on our old shows which neither Peter nor I were cast. I think Corey Burton is playing the new Megatron. He is a wonderful voice talent and a great guy, so it's nice to be replaced by folks you like at any rate.

Happy Holidays!

Frank (12/8/2006 9:49:54 PM PST)

One month after that was a rumor from IESB.net that claimed Frank Welker might be days away from signing for the roll. Obviously anything from the horse's mouth so to speak is the more reliable source but a lot could have changed in the month and half since that post. Also notice the phrase of "offered any roles" which is much different then auditioned for roles or discussed roles. In other words, the possibility is still open to him being cast.

Considering the relatively small role Megatron plays in the movie, I don't see why not, but if spending $150 million to make a film and probably another $25 million plus to promote it, then I am sure there is pressure to get some A-list stars into the movie in some capacity while not costing a ton of money which voice work would fit the bill nicely. Either way, the movie opens soon, the advertising campaign has to gear up so an announcement has to come in the next few months one way or the other.

Frank Welker Will Be Megatron?

IESB.net is reporting that multiple studio sources are reporting that Frank Welker, the original voice of Megatron, man of crapload of voices, could be days away from signing the contract that will have him reprise his role as the voice of Megatron. Frank would join fellow Transformers G1 alumni Peter Cullen creating the voice matchup that fans and the movie producers have been pushing for.

But before you get your hopes up, other sources also where indicating that Hugo Weaving, from Lord of the Rings and Matrix films, was also being considered to voice the iconic villain. Considering the $150 million dollar budget of the film and a cast of unknowns, Hugo could add a little star wattage to the film to help in its promotion to those who don't know what Transformers are.

No date on when final casting will be announced but here is hoping it will be soon to put the speculation out of its misery.