Garry Chalk In Full Remission! Appreciation Thread for the Big Bot himself

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Not sure how often many of you check it, but I just added this to the front page!

Movies and TV - Garry Chalk Has Gone Into Full Remission!

Garry Chalk took to his Facebook to give us an update on how his battle with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is going, and the news? It's good! Here's the message from the man himself, via Chalk Talk on Twitter: Chalk Talk adds that Garry was the first candidate in Canada to receive an...

www.allspark.com

And I wasn't really sure what the best way to bring it up in the forum to inform people of it was, so I settled on this.

I may add more later, but in brief, I'm a big fan of his work going back to before I even knew who he was. I believe my first exposure to him was on The New Adventures of He-Man, as none other than He-Man himself, and I remember my first thought upon hearing him: "He-Man sure sounds different." (Yeah, I was a dumb kid, I guess.)

And of course, he'd do voices on numerous other cartoons, including some of my favorites like Captain N: The Game Master (King Hippo), Mega Man (Guts Man), and Mega Man: Fully Charged (the studliest Dr. Light known to man, Mega or otherwise).

Of course, I'd probably come to know him best from his role in Beast Wars, as none other than Optimus Primal himself, and I remember my first thought upon hearing him: "Optimus Prime sure sounds different." (Yeah, I was a dumb teenager, too.)

Anyway, posting this here so people can sound off in celebration of The Man, The Myth, The Munky (and the Trukk!).

 

[lastmaximal]

(Please forgive the title edit; I tweaked it a little so the pleasant circumstances of the call for appreciation were more foregrounded.)

Thank you very much for making this thread. I am very glad to have a positive occasion/reason to fondly remember an icon; it's been a rough few months for that. Any chance to appreciate who we do, while they're still around, is good.

I first encountered Garry as Optimus Primal (this was also at an age when I would bother looking up names), and that casting choice was absolutely brilliant. For someone whose only background was G1 coming into this totally-new-feeling program, the close-enough-to-Cullen voice was a good call on a basic level, and this lone thread of familiarity helped ease me into the show. Recent G1 rewatches actually have me missing G1-era Cullen's less oratorical, more casual Optimus Prime, and comparing it to Garry's wry, approachable Optimus Primal.

Indeed, as I watched more and more episodes, I came to appreciate the characterfulness of his voice on its own. And since then I've found that this is just his speaking voice, which is a lovely voice! That entire cast was a strong lineup of great, flexible, memorable voices and performances. I wish the brand would tap him, and them, more. It's been twenty years (gah) since he was heavily present in mainstream TF media.

In more recent years did notice his and David Kaye's annual holiday greetings, and just really appreciated the gesture. As a fan in general I'm just parasocial enough to hope that the people I'm a fan of get along with each other and are having as good a time at the job as I am as an audience member, and part of the latter is outward expression in positive outreach. So something so small and even corny is more sweet and funny for it.

Cancer can go hug itself. I'm always glad to see someone beat it. I'm glad he gets to keep doing what he loves and I hope he stays happy and healthy for a long time yet.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

For 15 months I saw what a battle with stage 4 cancer looks like. Anyone who can do this is an absolute hero. I'm talking antiquity grade superman.

I don't mean "hero" lightly. Every survivor gives doctors a little more confidence with the next patient. It's going to build until cancer is just another thing we know how to beat.

 

[Sciflyer]

What an incredible bit of good news. Congratulations to Mr. Chalk, and cheers to many more healthy years ahead!

 

[The Predaking]

Congrats indeed! Glad to see the Boss Monkey is doing well!

 

[Sabrblade]

I think the first role of his I came across was as Grounder on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. 'Course, I was too young to know the character's name back then, so to me he was just "the green robot guy with the deep voice and no legs".

I never knew it was Garry Chalk until years later because that was one of his rare voice roles that didn't actually sound like him, since for most of his voice roles he either uses just his normal natural voice or some variation of it that still sounds like him. Grounder, however, sounds nothing like Garry, so it's impressive how well he altered his voice to sound unrecognizable in that role since he rarely ever gets to do so different a voice like that.

 

[Daith]

I first came across the news on TFW's FB post, and damn I want to punch whoever made that post. Saw the nice professional picture they had and skimmed the the first sentence of the blurb see "has .... his battle with cancer:" Seeing the photo as it was had me feeling the worst before seeing it was the best news realizing it said won not lost.

 

[spikeriley]

Now that is some good news for once. Cancer has been the bane of humanity, claiming many people, be they celebrities or normal citizens. I am glad Gaary beat it.

 

[LordGigaIce]

This is awesome to see. Here's to Gary being with us for many more years to come.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I first came across the news on TFW's FB post, and damn I want to punch whoever made that post. Saw the nice professional picture they had and skimmed the the first sentence of the blurb see "has .... his battle with cancer:" Seeing the photo as it was had me feeling the worst before seeing it was the best news realizing it said won not lost.

I saw some reactions to that, and was just like "Oh man, I am so glad I picked a different picture..."

 

[lastmaximal]

At least they had the sense not to run with a grayscaled one. Yikes.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I know we're a lot slower than they are, and we could definitely step it up, but this is the tradeoff. That really should have been caught before posting.

I've had dumb stress dreams about hitting the Post button and realizing I've somehow typed "PigBadToyStore". I check the post preview so many times before submitting anything.