Final numbers aren't in, but the 40th Anniversary screenings are estimated to have pulled in about $4.1 million over its limited run.
Transformers the Movie 40th Anniversary Tour
- Thread starter LordGigaIce
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I dunno man. Yeah, it sucks that Hasbro didn't call you back to reprise the role, but at the same time, Dan hasn't been Bumblebee nearly as often as Cullen was Optimus. Regardless, I don't think brigading your fans and spoiling the plans of the company you want to get hired by is gonna look good on the job application.
While I respect the drive to get his bag, too much about his behaviour bugs (ha) me.
First, as you said, he's not nearly as synonymous with Bumblebee as Cullen was with Optimus or Welker is with Megatron. Actors don't own roles, and he hasn't been this role in a long while.
Secondly, assuming the news that Awakening was meant to lead into a new series is true, then whoever was voicing Bumblebee in Awakening is probably in line for that job. So... trying to rile up fans to take a job away from someone else is a bad look. At least when fans campaigned to have Cullen cast as Optimus in '07 they weren't taking a job away from someone else.
Finally... I don't know what to tell Dan. If he's still working then he presumably has an agent, and it's his agent's job to keep an ear to the ground for this stuff. Dan needs to talk to him about why he didn't try to land him this job when it first came up.
Robosen Bumblebee wasn't that long ago.
friend of mine posted this on bluesky about this:
regardless of the provenance of whatever Dan's source for a show is, it really is sad seeing jive like this
they did this to Peter too before the fans shouted it down! No care for actual legacy or the people behind the voices as long as they can make a buck getting a cheaper guy to do a copy
This started with Jon Bailey getting hired for Combiner Wars and continues in the background of tf up till now and it really sucks
If you want an old voice and the old actor is still game, just make them a damn offer
(to be clear the show may not exist, but he's clearly upset about not being involved with the actual short and that's the same situation)
link to their posts
regardless of the provenance of whatever Dan's source for a show is, it really is sad seeing jive like this
they did this to Peter too before the fans shouted it down! No care for actual legacy or the people behind the voices as long as they can make a buck getting a cheaper guy to do a copy
This started with Jon Bailey getting hired for Combiner Wars and continues in the background of tf up till now and it really sucks
If you want an old voice and the old actor is still game, just make them a damn offer
(to be clear the show may not exist, but he's clearly upset about not being involved with the actual short and that's the same situation)
link to their posts
I'm sure all twelve people who could afford it were delighted.Robosen Bumblebee wasn't that long ago.
I don't think the guy who voiced Bumblebee in this short was trying at all to do an impression of Dan's Bumblebee.
Bailey got a shot at Optimus and he stopped getting calls because he sucked.
Gilvezan is hardly as well known as Bumblebee as Cullen was for Optimus, and even then it's not like Cullen had a monopoly on Optimus as a role.
I like Dan. He's a great guy by all accounts... but throwing a fit over not being cast in this and trying to weaponize fans to get another actor fired from an alleged project is a petty, stupid look for the guy.
Yeah, that came across entirely off, to me. I appreciate him and I understand how difficult -- and all-important -- it is to get that bag THESE days, good lord, but... This is not the move.
I think at least SOME of this issue with Gilvezan comes back to how Fathom and Hasbro marketed the extra content BEFORE Cullen’s passing, where it was explicitly tied to the 86 film. From that perspective…I actually do agree with him. If the point of the short was some sort of coda to the animated film, I don’t see a pressing reason (besides $$$) NOT to use G1 actors that are still available to reprise their characters if possible.
That said, he’s seemingly confirming what a LOT of us already suspect, where Awakening is a teaser/preview/tie in to some future media project from Hasbro. And given Hasbro’s…budgetary considerations…I’m shocked they bothered to use Cullen and Welker in any capacity at all. The reality is that the “use G1 actors when possible” ship sailed over a decade ago, so I fail to see what he intends to accomplish from that perspective.
That said, he’s seemingly confirming what a LOT of us already suspect, where Awakening is a teaser/preview/tie in to some future media project from Hasbro. And given Hasbro’s…budgetary considerations…I’m shocked they bothered to use Cullen and Welker in any capacity at all. The reality is that the “use G1 actors when possible” ship sailed over a decade ago, so I fail to see what he intends to accomplish from that perspective.
that is assuming the sources are correct
Assuming that they are, I can't help but wonder if this short and whatever it leads into is another reason Jon Bailey's Transformers Blokees cartoon seemingly got cancelled (in addition to him likely never actually getting Hasbro's licensed permission to make it, as he apparently only went through Blokees' license and permission instead without actually going through Hasbro to get clearance on using their IP). If this short was a prelude to a series about a character going through vision quests and other locales through the afterlife (as Optimus does in this short), then the Blokees cartoon likely would have been too close to that concept to exist as its own separate thing.
That got canned?
Jon Bailey was making a Transformers cartoon?
Also, his Prime always sounded fine to me. He's no Peter Cullen, but who is? But among all the others who've done it, he seemed fine to me.
Also, his Prime always sounded fine to me. He's no Peter Cullen, but who is? But among all the others who've done it, he seemed fine to me.
I still think Christopher Judge would make for a solid Optimus Prime. Heck, the Netflix series guy even, at times, sounded REALLY similar
Every social media post about it got suddenly deleted within two weeks after it was announced at BotCon, leading many to suspect Hasbro stepped in and put the kibosh on it.
You made a reply about the announcement.
Jake Foushee? He was also Cyberverse Optimus, and Optimus in Rescue Bots Academy (after the first two episodes, in which he was voiced by a different actor).
I just don't want any more Peter Cullen impersonations, which all of these lesser ones -- I don't blame people at all for lumping them together or mistaking them for one another -- have been.
If it's a deep, rich voice that has the needed acting range, good. If it happens to evoke Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime, that's a bonus and not the gig. The better ones in recent memory have all been that -- a good voice first, an approximation of this take second, if at all.
If it's a deep, rich voice that has the needed acting range, good. If it happens to evoke Peter Cullen's Optimus Prime, that's a bonus and not the gig. The better ones in recent memory have all been that -- a good voice first, an approximation of this take second, if at all.