I know it was in the movies but is that what started it or does it stem from some other fiction. I HATE that part of TF Prime, that and the fact that he is a Musclecar not Camero. Bumblebee always before the movies talked quite a bit, and part of his character was that he was the little scappy guy in the fight. The little engine that could so to speak, not the big strong muscle car. But I'm off point, if not the live action movies then where does Bumblebee being mute come from?

 

It came from the movies. I'm pretty certain it was simply a writing trick so Bumblebebee couldn't tell Sam all about Transformers right away and spoil the mystery until Optimus arrived to do it in that big group Autobot Arrival scene later in the movie.
So it's just a writing trick that has now been taken too far.

 

It started with the films. Something about making him seem like ET. Also, the power of the car doesn't effect the power of the Transformer.

 

Right but it doesn't fit the character of "little scappy guy" that say a small hatchback alt mode would've.

 

Different continuity, Different Alt mode. Camaros are also liscensed so they cant really use it's likeness unless they pay for the liscensing which would cost money. Probably more than what is in the budget. Also, Camaros can be considered muscle cars.

Different Continuity, Different Personality. Simiralities are a given but really over time things change. Bumblebee has changed from A "scrappy doo" kid to a teenager warrior. I also hate scrappy doo.

 

Hopefully his voicebox is repaired. Ratchet is KING !!!

 

If anything the idea of mute fighter in Hasbro media comes from snake eyes. Bumblebee should stay mute, in some ways this trait can actually be relate-able or empowering to physically disabled people.


and in prime we get a different spin on it from Soundwave. A mute fighter, but also a lurking enigma.


The whole speaking though other methods made him work to movie audiences in much the same way that Wall-E does. The uncanny valley where machines seem charming for taking on human traits while clearly being robotic, and the other end of the spectrumwhere robots resemble human close enough their perceived as disturbing. Bumblebee is safely on the more comfortable side of that diagram. I think the prime model is easier to read structurally than the movies, so you can get a better sense of the fierce, calm, or discouraged bumblebee when the model expresses this.

-Facial expression. Such as when the iris's spin and contract. Or When his eyebrows move.
-body language, moving in a stance to defend friends in trouble, stomping and mashing his fists and feet when things are going badly.
-The comedic translations of from other characters relateing to his noise talk.


I can understand the reasoning that after operation bumblebee part 2. That ratchet may be confident enough to try repairing the voice box again and succeed. But it sounds like being a part of transformer biology it may have a time table for when it could have been restored. Missing that window of time is part of why ratchet thought he could have done more for bumblebee.

I'd rather ratchets good vibes from this episode down the line go into making the Autobots a fully functioning space bridge. One step at a time. Ratchets grasp of the the ground bridge extremes put them Into orbit, onto a moving train, another dimension, and into the center of the Earth. I'd like to see more episodes that revolve around ratchet tinkering with space bridge tech and learning from each problem. Perhaps even records of millenia old decepticon scientists that actually got slagged in the exact same tests ratchet got team prime through. It would be an ok season long subplot.

 

While he is certainly stronger than his G1 and Animated counterparts, Prime Bee is still quite the little scrapper. He lacks the pure combat ability of Arcee and Bulkhead, but makes up for it with a lot of misdirection (such as playing possum in his fights against Breakdown and Airachnid), creativity and speed.

 

A fairly smart idea for the first film so that Sam doesn't know all the big information until he meets Prime.

Just feels like it's good idea that got ran into the ground after it had severed it's purpose. Makes Ratchet look like a bad medic that he can't repair the problem. At least with Transformers Prime they have tried the well Ratchet needs a special part that they don't have access to.

A big shame because Transformers Prime has been doing a fairly good job of not making Bumblebee into some sort of unstoppable super robot like the movies. He's actually getting that scrappy little guy feel to him again. But if they had a voice for Bumblebee they could really sell that point with the right voice actor.

Doesn't really help that Bumblebee beeping seems so dull and lifeless compared to R2D2 or Wall-e. Sometimes he feels like a bad rip off of those characters than a fresh new idea for Transformers.

 

When I first saw Transformers: Prime, I thought that it was really stupid that Bumblebee couldn't speak. But I've really grown accustomed to his way of communicating in Prime. I'm ok with it. I think it would be really weird now to have him all of a sudden start speaking normally.

 

At first I really didn't like it in Prime. (I had enough of it in the movies!) But, it was kind of cool to see them talk about it in Prime. I believe it was the episode where megaton is in Bee's head? Raf talks about how it can understand Bee and how Bee listens to him and stuff. IMO made better sense than the "it got damage" like in the movie.

 

I think it probably started with Star Wars and Bay probably thought "Hey! Let's make Bumblebee sound like R2D2, fans just love nods." So besides Animated and WFC of post movie 1, Bee's been bleeping and annoying ever since.

 

I'l miss you talking Bee.

 

Fall of Cybertron is my last hope for Bee.

 

This is basiclly like a homage to the films as a whole seeing how Prime takes it's cues from the films as well as other incarnations.

 

Personally I don't mind the storytelling (pardon the pun) vehicle of BB not being able to speak, as he emotes in other ways and it keeps his characterization in step with the movies. However, the thing about it that does annoy me are the ear piercing squeaks, pops, and cheap dimestore sound effects they use in place of a voice. Think of how iconic the vocal performances are for those who lend sound to Knockout, OP, Megatron, and Ratchet for instance, and then enter BB and his utterly annoying vocal sounds. Moreover, the excellent and nuanced aforementioned vocal performances even further underline how horrible BB sounds in comparison.

To say it's like Artoo-Detoo through a really cheap syntheziser is insulting to Ben Burtt and the excellent work he did through the SW saga, but low rent Artoo it is. It's horrible and if the sound syntheziser approach to BB must continue I hope that they change this over time. It's just way too over-the-top, horrible to listen to, and could use some really intense changes in the future.

 

Bumblebee being mute most likely, if not actually, came from the early idea by Steven to not have any of the robots speak. However Hasbro contested that, yet Bumblebee managed to remain silent.

 

he's R2D2 reincarnated?

I'm used to it now. I agree with GM licensing issue and so they went with a "muscle-car-esque" Camaro/ Mustang hybrid.

similar to Pixar's Cars movies...while some cars are official license in that Property many of them are splices of different ideas/ cars.

Optimus, for example, is not a Peterbilt but is vaguely reminiscent of the Optimus from the Bey films. (remember the Optimus from the G1 series was a cab-over.)

 

I still dislike it but there is nothing I can do about it.

 

I really hope that Bumblebee being mute doesn't become a staple of all TF franchises that have him from now on. I was fine with it in the movies, but I'd prefer other versions of him to be able to talk.

 

If we really have to trace it, it all came from the very first draft of TF2007's script, where all the TFs were mute [I kid you not], but Mr.Bay and Orci/Kurtzman noticed that it wouldn't be cool, so they added dialogue, but for some reason decided to keep Bee with the mute trait, possibly to make him more unique.