Well, thanks for all the replies, everyone!

Nice to see so much going on in here in my absence, w00t.

Since I'm trying to catch up a bit this is mostly gonna be a multiquote post with replies, but it's also the start of a new page so I thought I'd go ahead and add another bit of Cybertronian-but-English dialogue I hear all the time but don't really see mentioned much. When the last two Dreads are caught in the "Mexican Stand-Off" with Ironhide and Sideswipe, they seem to have a little discussion about how exactly to deal with it...

"GIVE UP?"



"CAN'T GO HOME!"
​

Which makes sense well enough for the scene, actually.

Yeah, Cybertron's not completely destroyed yet so they could technically still go there, but since they hadn't yet completed their mission to join up with Sentinel and return with the Pillars and bring Cybertron right next door for repairs...why would they bother?

Not to mention the fact that Megatron's got a BIT of a temper and tends to be pretty rough on the help. I sure know I wouldn't want to report back to him empty-handed after surrendering!

Something tells me they were better off taking their chances with Ironhide and Sideswipe, lol.

Thanks! While mistakes occasionally happen even with the official subtitles for the home release of major movies, I think it's pretty clear that line was intentional, which I explain in brief below.

Yet when you use a blender's spinning blade assembly to puree food you're "drinking" it, so I think it's safe to say that either or both may apply in this case. Whatever.

Either way, I think it's a mistake to discount "Driller-bot is thirsty" as simply having been misheard. It's not as if we're just talking about some random word here or there that makes no sense and has no context.

It's a complete sentence that is directly pertinent to the action onscreen and even includes the creature's name!

I mean...that's a LOT of coincidences, lol.

Thanks for the "Chugway" screencap, though! I'd heard the name reference a bunch before but never knew wtf people were talking about till now. Too funny!

But comparing the closed captioning of a T.V. show to the official subtitles for a major motion picture isn't really fair. There are many different techniques and technologies involved in both processes...but major movies are generally subtitled with access to the script, the writers, the director, and even full transcriptions of the dialogue plus quality control, whereas T.V. shows are usually captioned with far less access to the production staff, time, resources, and review.

Which is why officially major movie subtitles for home release are typically dead-on while so many T.V. shows have pretty abysmal captioning with tons of mistakes slipping through.

Incidentally, it's actually a pretty neat subject to investigate if anyone's interested in learning more about it. It's often WAY more involved than someone just sitting there and typing whatever they hear, and the development and integration of the closed captioning/subtitling industry across the globe over the decades is pretty interesting, too.

But anyway, back on-topic!

I liked what you were saying in your Cybertronian Language thread about possibly hearing the language of the Primes in TF:AoE. As I mentioned here in the 1st post, it's interesting how different Prime sounds when he says, "The legend exists" compared to how Cybertronian usually sounds elsewhere in the movies, but somehow it never occurred to me that he might have been speaking the language of the Primes instead! Which, of course makes perfect sense. Thanks for mentioning it!

As a sidenote on that same subject, it raises the question of whether or not we hear Lockdown speaking the language of the Primes as well. When he's ordering his "dogs" around it sure sounds a LOT like whatever language Prime is speaking. Hmm.

Anyway, it's cool to hear that Frenzy's broken English was subtitled in Russian, too.

Thanks again!

 

"Tasmanial," lol. But, yeah, that's just Optimus vocalizing through his tumbling, he's not actually speaking there.

Yeah, I've always been pretty sure I was hearing that, too.

Interesting! I don't remember spotting that before...but, yeah, I can kinda hear that right before Prime punches his eye out.

To be fair, it had to be pretty annoying for him to be in stasis and forced to hear everyone calling him "N.B.E.-1" for over a century, lol.

Making up for lost time!

It's been a while since I've watched TF:RotF with the subtitles on, but I don't remember any of the Cybertronian dialogue being transcribed in it, sorry.

But I definitely remember Rampage speaking English for a second there when he's trying to get the Matrix! He's mostly just kinda growling the whole time but when he gets RIGHT in Sam's face he definitely says "SAM WITWICKY."

XD

Yeah, I've been trying to figure out what if anything is buried in the dialogue of those scenes for a LONG time...never really been able to settle on anything, though.

Well, not necessarily. The guy who voiced Barricade wasn't on hand for TF:DotM so they used Welker for Barricade's voice since he was there for Soundwave anyway. Sure, it COULD have been initially recorded as Soundwave's dialogue before they decided to include Barricade...but then again DiMaggio voiced Leadfoot in TF:DotM and he was still around as Crosshairs for TF:AoE, yet Leadfoot sounds completely different too, so who knows.

Haha, I'm not too sure about those...but they're funny at least, lol.

Like I said above, I've never been able to settle on anything for Barricade's fight with 'Bee, but when Shockwave shoots Prime I'm pretty sure it's something like, "No!" and "Prime!" with something indecipherable in between. I'd LOVE for it be something like "pissed off" in there, lol. I'm just not hearing that, unfortunately.

Yeah, I love that scene of Barricade barking out orders and trying to get the Decepticons with him to get their shit together!

I've never been able to hear anything in there but DAMN I would love know what he's saying there someday.

Bah!

 

Will you be revisiting the scenes in ROTF? If I recall correctly, there's no subtitles for the scenes I'm curious about.

Another great scene in Cybertronian language was when Starscream orders Longhaul, Ravage and the proto forms to track down Sam and Mikaela.

 

Yeah, that's a great one! Probably one of my favorite Michael Bay signature "keyhole" shots. Maaaan, I would LOVE to see that converted to 3D someday.

However, aside from proper nouns audibly popping up in the middle of Cybertronian dialogue, I'm pretty sure "Driller-bot is thirsty" is the only example that's ever been officially subtitled. But TF:RotF is actually one of my favorites in the series so I'll happily doublecheck!

I just haven't watched it much in the past two years since I've been travelling a lot, living on the road, and because my travel-copy of the DVD got scratched. I finally found my replacement copy back home a couple weeks ago, though...so I'm all set now!

But I might wait a bit longer first since I'm trying to catch up with all the threads for TF:AoE I've been meaning to post for the past year, and I want keep my head focused mostly on that specific movie until I finish writing a few more. The next few I have in mind are actually pretty involved and I want to make sure I write them well, so sorry but it's kinda tricky to bounce back and forth between movies while trying to concentrate specifically on one!

I might need to score some adderall somewhere for all this, lol.

 

Totally agree.  

 

OMG, I've been traveling on the road since my last post here and I actually brought my TF DVDs along with my notebooks full of notes for my upcoming threads, but my gf doesn't drive so I've been too busy driving or resting up to drive to get back to all this much lately, sadly.

But someone offered me some adderall the other night and I almost took it with this thread and all my others in mind...except I had a 15 hour drive back home that night so no dice, lol.

Next time!

 

Bumblebee also speaks english, although it's a little more clear than the Decepticons. For example after Bumblebee saw Galvatron's transformation thing in TF 4, he clearly said "What was that?"

 

In the forest battle when Optimus jumps on Grindor, is sounds as if Grindor says "No not me!" Before his face is ripped in half by Optimus.

 

I think it was more like "Get of me!".

 

I always hear "No not me!"

 

When Barricades smacks BB it sounds like "This one's for my mom!"

 

I don't really think any of the Cybertronian stuff is meant to be English, it just turns into one of those "the brains hears what is wants to" scenarios. Obviously, yeah, Shockwave says "Optimus" in the beginning of DotM, and Rampage mutters "Sam Witwicky" when he approaches him in the desert. But as someone else said, I don't think "Driller-bot is thirsty" was meant to be that. Like, the building's not made of iced coffee...

It is interesting, though, some of the stuff people take away. Someone once said it sounds like Bonecrusher says "Bloody hell" before Prime decapitates him.

I was always pretty sure Bumblebee calls Sam an "asshole" before crawling back into the garage in the beginning of RotF, but if that's the case, the censors sure didn't catch it in the recent FX broadcast.

Personally, I just enjoy the Cybertronian dialogue on a general sound effects level most of the time. One of my favorites is the sound the protoform that abducts Sam's parents lets out.

 

Rather have them just speaking english, only reverting to Cybertronian for insults or traditional sayings to each other/Autobots.

EDIT: More so then what was in the movies..

 

I want to hear the universal greeting.

 

Are you referring to the garbled nonsense he spews before Optimus decapitates him? I always heard "BLOODY HELL!"

 

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. Keep 'em coming!

 

I've never really been able to settle on either. It sounds to me like he's possibly saying "No, not me!" "Get off me," or, alternately, "Off of me!"

Kinda frustrating but OMFG any excuse to watch that scene over and over and over again is always MORE than welcome, lol.

XD

Yeah, for sure! I don't generally consider that "hidden" dialogue like most of the stuff we've been talking about in this thread, though. He's just actually speaking English and the best he can with his damaged vocal processor and that's simply how it comes out.

Well, I've made my stance on those points clear already...but thanks for joining in!

All viewpoints are always welcome here.

Yeah, I can definitely hear that just as well as the possibility that he says "I hate you!" Hmm. Maybe even better!

I heard someone else hear say that before, too.

It is without question however that he's saying "Whatever!" just as he does in TF:AoE, I believe. Again, it's just that his vocal processor is damaged so it comes out kinda slurred and more along the lines of "Wha-evah!"

Never really been sure how exactly people have misheard that, but the fact that it's not only transcribed as "Whatever!" by the official subtitles AND remained uncensored by Fox pretty much settles it, I'd say.

 

Bee clearly calls Sam an "asshole" after the kitchen-bot fight.

I always heard "I don't know" instead of "Can't go home" from Crowbar.

 

For the Barricade scene with mom.

I always heard.

"This one is for the ark!"

 

I wonder if they actually mean anything intentionally or they just throw it in?

 

It's all just gibberish.

The only one that made sense was Optimus speaking ACTUAL Cybertronian in AOE where he says something that was translated to "The legend exists."

As far as my ears could hear...

"Vostomimas etoma gwa."