Corey Burton; the G1 (and the recent Transformers: Animated) voice of Shockwave, answered some fan questions at his Official Forum.
When asked…
“…with regards to the live action Michael Bay movies, were you ever contacted about reprising? I can’t imagine anyone else being shockwave except you; sadly he doesn’t appear (and they even got frank welker back but not as megatron and they forgot to make his soundwave voice awesome).”
Mr. Burton’s answer was…
“I was given the opportunity to audition for Jazz (a totally incomprehensible request for me to even attempt), and “Brawl” (you might recall I was Brawn in the early series), but it was just a one line “cameo” bit that didn’t seem worth jumping through all the audition hoops, just for a 2-second bit of scale rate “incidental” VO work.
It is rumored that David Warner himself has been under consideration for the next live-action/CGI movie production, as Shockwave – which I feel is entirely appropriate, given Mr. Bay’s propensity for casting Screen Personalities over multi-voiced off-camera “cartoon” character voice actors – and Mr. Warner’s outstanding history of consistently vivid and “savory” character performances (a much under-appreciated and impressively versatile master craftsman in the fine art of Acting, across the entire spectrum of audio/visual performance media). I wish them nothing but the very best for the wildly successful franchise; and have practically no interest in that kind of mega-budget movie enterprise involvement. I’m much too busy as it is, and thoroughly rewarded already many times over for the work I’ve done under the Transformers brand.”
David Warner has often played villains, in films such as Tron (1982) and television series such as Batman: The Animated Series playing Ra’s al Ghul, the anti-mutant scientist Herbert Landon in Spider-Man: The Animated Series as well as rogue agent Alpha in the animated Men in Black series.
Do you think that Mr. Warner will be a better Shockwave for Transformers: Dark of the Moon?
Incepticon
Fair enough, but I personally never warmed up to this version of the voice. Just reminded me too much of Tony Todd's The Fallen. Plus the synthesized version was THE one & only thing I had hoped for and expected for a movie-verse Soundwave since I expected everything else about him (bot mode, alt mode, colors, etc) to change. But what's done is done, so I won't harp on it
Sprocket
John has unfortunately (but understandably) been forever overshadowed by his record-breaking voice. He's actually quite a capable performer, although the only piece he didn't simply speed-talk through I can think of was in the Adventure Time short "The Enchiridion!" as Keyper. He's actually quite good for his brief appearance.
Ironhide4
well conventional va s weren't used for jazz, ratchet, brawl, bonecrusher, blackout, jetfire, bumblebee, mudflap, frenzy and the fallen. So it's a pretty big dig at most of the actors not just Weaving as Megatron.
Hugo Weaving for me was the best megatron ever imo, he sounded powerful, evil, intelligent and believeable as the villain. Welker( all due respect to a fine voice actor) just couldn't pull that beastly voice that weaving could. All anyone has to do is listen to the two movies game tie in megatron, it sounds awful. I imagine most of shockwaves dialogue was cut as welkers shockwave voice sounded tired but pleasantly russian. Weaving was the best choice for megatron and he has embodied evil characters at the top, agent smith and now the red skull and of course Megatron, the mans credentials can't be denied. He did a wonderful job and I would love to see him return as megatron some day.
Autovolt 127
Now i wish Arnold Schartzenagger had voice him.
rizuan76
Truly spot on dude!
Wu Jen
Shockwave had tons of lines, what are you smoking son?
"jsdalkfjaj;ljflkajposehjfoiuhaspoiubvjnokdz;kf;lkjdfojsofj"
and
"kjieoiuroiuwepoiubhnvijhbkjdnajnspifjoisdjvlkn[u0im403iuenmcojd;lkk;dkfsa"
And least we forget his memorable and inspiring…..
"fdsakljf;lkjld;sfjlkjfpoiejhjn09w[ijee Oppppptttttiiiiimmmmmusssssss fjkjf;lkasj;flkjiehjfpoi;oivjdlkjlkfj;laksjf;lkdjfs;lkj"
Sol Fury
Dr Claw Soundwave worked for this Soundwave, though. Especially the utterly creepy delivery of the line
.
Bass X0
I'm not that bothered that Corey Burton wasn't Shockwave this time. He didn't get many lines. Two, maybe three at most.
I was originally thinking he would get a large role in the movie and would talk a lot which is why I wanted the familar Shockwave voice.
leadsled
Yah but , who could even tell it was welker?
Incepticon
Well at least they gave it to Welker rather than some other chump. But seeing as how they completely killed the potential of what could have been Welker's triumphant return as Soundwave by leaving his voice in Dr. Claw mode, Burton's work would have clearly been squandered as well given the whole 1-2 lines Shockwave says.
leadsled
Wikipeadia listed this as a credit under Cory Burton , now that I've seen the movie I can understand why he didn't care ….. sad
optimusprime42
ok i guess
Wheeljack_Prime
Maybe, because otherwise the remark makes very little sense. The only robot casting that can be considered even approaching celebrity stunt-casting is Megatron.
Awesomus Prime
Hey, how's it going?
shroobmaster
Fit his personality, indeed, but my hunger for mayhem and gossip can't help but hope that it's sour grapes!
Oooh how I love me some drama! It's BLOOD that rrrrushes to my toenails!
Voiceroy
Well, I kind of went overkill already including as many examples as I did. And I could've kept cranking out examples too, but it would have turned into a
However, it was an easy topic for me — much of that was kind of copied/pasted from one of my old posts on my VA blog.
I haven't heard Suvari's performance, and from your description I'm glad I haven't. Even as much as the Kingdom Hearts series interests me because I'm a Disney fan, I don't have the patience to play RPGs. They suck away your life juices.
But surely she can't suck as badly as Alyssa Milano did in the Ghostbusters video game. Gah. It's just an assault on the ears.
And back to topic, I respect Corey's decision to not be involved in DOTM. And I understand why he wouldn't want to be involved in the live-action movie. He's a reclusive kinda guy, although very friendly and personable if you do have a chance to meet him in person. But as he put it, having "no interest in that kind of mega-budget movie enterprise involvement" fits with his personality.
Lunar Archivist
Sir, I am offended and disgusted by your list. How could you possibly have excluded Mena Suvari's piss-poor performance as Aerith Gainsborough in Kingdom Hearts II? It made my ears bleed and was a step down, way down, from Mandy Moore's voice acting in the original game.
Behind The Voice Actors – Voice Compare: Final Fantasy – Aeris / Aerith Gainsborough
And speaking of Kingdom Hearts II…
…considering that Corey Burton took over David Warner's role as Sark in it, this seems oddly fitting and symmetrical.
optimusprime42
hello sally
Awesomus Prime
Well, shut my mouth and call me Sally!
Miggytron