What is Digg?36 Comments
- Briandt75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14My girlfriend works at a bar in Hollywood called Le Petite Chateau. Apparently Mr. Cullen comes in and has a couple of drinks or dinner every now and again. One of those times he told her he was the voice of Optimus Prime and knowing what a fan I am, she had him call our house and leave a ridiculously awesome message in the voice of Optimus Prime telling me to "Take care of your sexy girlfriend" and rambling on for like 2 minutes....Totally hilarious and what a nice guy.
- hellalazy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13i loved the movie as a kid
"yooouve got the touch...... youuuuve got the powah!!!!"
and those readind this were probably singing along DONT DENY IT - pidge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fCkE2s4y90
Optimus had the coolest voice. Sometimes its best to not find out who does the voice. I always had this idea that it was some tough looking dude similar to Prime. - Canthros, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7It's not entirely accurate. Although Cullen is Prime for those of who were exposed to the Transformers in the 80's, Optimus Prime has been voiced by Gary Chalk more, and more recently (2002 to present, in the current television shows), than by Mr. Cullen. And, although he didn't spend as much time in the role, Neil Kaplan voiced the Optimus Prime character in 2001-2002's Transformers: Robots in Disguise cartoon. For comparison, I don't think Cullen's done the character for television since 1987.
Anyway, yay for Optimus Prime!
... Yeah, I feel like I'm a huge dork, too. - runningapathy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Autobots! Transform and Roll out!'
& my favorite: "Heroes never die... I, Optimus Prime, will never be conquered."
I just had to say it... - Xpiatio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Was/Is there an actual audio clip of him doing the voice? In the article? Elsewhere?
- krakelohm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Dude... thats one of those things I hope you saved...
- drlha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Except, without the GEICO commercial.
Also its Don LaFontaine, not Pat. Haha. - JorgeGT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This is Digg. We have people in the heart of WHATEVER. There are always someone who says: "yup, I knew him, and...", "Oh, I live so close...", "I was in that government program..." It's incredible! Looks like we can conquer the world! He, what I have just...?
...
...
/Apocalyptic off voice: "And DiggNet became self-aware..." - flipside3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've always wondered what kind of effect it had on us fans that they killed off our hero when we were children. I've always gotten a thrill when I hear Peter Cullen's voice... even on my kid's Winnie the Pooh DVDs. One of the biggest disappointments for me with subsequent Transformers shows (namely Beast Wars) was the lack of his voice.
- Namco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Awesome article. Always loved Peter Cullen's voice in ever project I've heard it. Good to know his name. Kinda like finding out that Pat LaFontaine is the movie trailer voiceover guy.
- kortina, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3His matter-of-fact-ness here is priceless:
"I had no idea what it was all about. Then I read the character breakdown, and it was pretty straightforward. One of them was to be the lead of the Autobots, and his character was described as a leader..." - Namco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, but "Don" (thanks drlha), is the real deal, not some imitation :)
- djace, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Both of those, despite reigniting the interest of Transformers in today's youth, were horrible shows. They cut out most of the cast, and added elements of trends such as Pokemon, just to try and capture the attention of the children. While I'm not saying thats not the way to go, it is a far cry from the original Transformers, the Transformers that created the fan base. And it's those fans, the adults who grew up on the show (I'll admit, I cried when Prime died) who mustered the force to say "We want Cullen!"
- DamienChaos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For me, it was a simple matter of the Transformers being first to market. I had quite a few Transformers before I even knew what GoBots were. When I was introduced to GoBots, I thought the toys looked like cheap knock-offs. Plus, "Transformers" sounds a hell of a lot cooler than "GoBots"!
- pidge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow. I just did research on Frank Welker. He's also done alot of voices. I wonder why the Transformers was so popular yet the GoBots failed. I was too young to remember why I liked the Transformers much more.
- NapoleonGold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@Briandt75
OMG that is soooooo ridiculously cool, I am totally jealous.
Do you still have it?? Can you post it?? That would be so totally pimp.
I know I sound like a teen girl seeing the beatles but that was my bread and butter growing up.
Anyway I can't believe that they MIGHT NOT have use his voice. Thank you JoJo they did. - TimDub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dude! you MUST post that!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There are actually about three or four voice-over artists who do the trailers who all have the same low, raspy voice.
- etruscan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Transformer toys were licensed by Hasbro, Gobots by Tonka. Hasbro was a much larger company, and quickly bought up Tonka. Afterwards, they created a line of Transformers called "GoBots".
I think the marketing power was just with Hasbro from the start. - mandarin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Anyone cried when he died in the movie?
- mandarin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I gotta hear that one!
- DamienChaos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cullen's voice may be more "Prime" than any other aspect of the character. Sure, I wish the new movie was going to use a red-and-blue cab-over semi for the part, but as long as it has Cullen's voice...it's Prime. Now, I'll just keep my fingers crossed that the Frank Welker rumors are true as well.
I seriously cannot believe he never received any fan mail. Somebody find that man's (or his agent's) mailing address! - Sacrifice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Canthros
While that may true, it doesn't take into account the number of kids who watched each version of the show. Cartoons were huge in the 70s and 80s. With the rise of DVDs and game consoles, the number of kids watching cable TV has been on a major decline for over a decade.
http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=1751 - Canthros, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@sacrifice, djace: Never said otherwise! Just pointing out that Cullen *hasn't* been Prime in almost twenty years--the article says precisely the opposite.
(And while RiD was almost mind-numbingly stupid, it was at least self-aware. What I've seen of Armada, Energon, and Cybertron has bordered on unwatchable, but this is not really the actors' faults.) - mandarin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1By the way I thought Leonard Nimoy was great as Galvatron in the movie. He also took over the guy who played Unicron's voice when the guy died while making the movie.
- dslartoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wish there was a "megadigg" option. Cullen is da man and I am DE-lighted to find out he'll be providing Optimus's voice for the movie. That may help redeem it some (I mean, Bumblebee as a CAMARO for chrissake?).
- b.m.a.n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1thats what I was hoping it was..
- daeyeth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1he sounds like a very humble guy, I like that. cool stuff
- TimDub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ djace & mandarin: it's OK; we all cried when Prime died.
i'm stoked that Cullen will voice Prime, but i would have settled for Chalk; i've been used to him being Prime since Beast Wars. - nunquam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I never saw a fan letter. I don't know who got them. That's why I was so surprised so many years later to find out that he was so popular. I didn't know."
Man that sucks. The people running the show sound like jerks, no letters and no death warning.
Primes voice was cool but my favourite was always Soundwave. I've been searching on and off for ages with no luck, does anyone know a program to reproduce the effect they used with the Soundwaves voice? - mrmcgoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"That's just prime" about him doing the voice. that show had some of the best voices.
- pidge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Also, don't forget he did the voices of Ironhide. Sad that both died in Transformers: The Movie back in the 80's.
- 1773nium, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0In the article....dont think so. Elsewhere....havent you ever seen transformers?
I'm sure you can find one on the interwebs somewhere. - kris33, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2Damn. I was hoping for some news on the Optimus OLED Keyboard. :) :(
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is