Well I'm happy your passion is paying your bills. Is it on your list to someday originate a Transformers character or performance? I can see how "sound alike" work could be high volume and high demand. I'm sorry if I took my frustrations over Peter impressions on you some way. Have you watched Cyberverse? Other than Bee's radio voice, which is annoying but sometimes actually funny, the Optimus voice just bogs it down so hard. I even like how they're writing him, and when Mr Tillman is on his game he's really good. (Episodes 4 and 13 are his best) but he's not on his game as often as you seem to be. A Peter Cullen soundboard would have been better.

 

I remember watching Jon’s Green Energy short when it first came out and loving how he did the voices for Soundwave and Shockwave in it. He absolutely nailed it in that short and it’s so awesome to see him use those voices again for the BB Movie.

 

Hey dude, I didn’t even know this thread existed. I watched Combiner Wars and knew it wasn’t Cullen but wasn’t bothered at all. You did a very good job. I’ll keep you in mind when I see Bumblebee!

 

No harm done. If I couldn’t take criticism/negative comments, I would’ve quit years and years ago. You have to have thick skin when you work in this industry & are in the public eye.  
It’s always been on my bucket list to voice either a new Transformer character or one that’s never been voiced before. If I had to pick a Prime to voice, it would be Powermaster Optimus. That version of the character is dope. I’ve seen bits and pieces of Cyberverse and haven’t loved it but I haven’t given it a full season. It’s definitely aimed at a younger audience than Prime but not as young as Rescue Bots which my kids all loved. I wasn’t impressed with Optimus or Megatron. Optimus sounded like every fan who’s come up to me at my table at conventions and said “Here’s my Optimus Prime voice.” Foushee was a viral hit back when he was 14 with such a big, deep voice but Optimus Prime is more than just a deep voice. Now that he’s an adult, doing a deep voice just isn’t as impressive as it was when he was barely a teenager. Being able to do that type of voice as a kid is rare and special. There’s a million deep-voiced people that can do that type Optimus voice. It reminded me of a impression of DRSMOOV’s Optimus voice from 13 years ago. Good for him though. That’s great he got the job. I’m not jealous or mad. I’m only disappointed that they moved all animated productions to the NY studio at Boulder & none of us in LA even got the chance and all my friends in Rescue Bots got canned and replaced. Most of them were able & willing to return to Rescue Bots despite the union/rate changes.

 

It’s cool. I’ve been working so much I haven’t been on the boards in a few years. Plus moving all the way across the country with a wife & 4 kids ate up a lot of time. It’s taken us over a year and a half to get moved in, settled and back to life as usual. So the thread is a little old and I apologize for raising up the zombie. I was just answering old posts when someone posted this old thread into the new Bumblebee thread and the voice acting of CW which led to the jobs on Bee became relevant again.

 

One of my fav videos. I actually sent that to one of my clients who works for Hasbro along with some of my other old parodies and he was impressed/got a good laugh.  

 

It's been a few years since I seen anything on DrSmoov's channel but I was under the impression that they got you to voice their Optimus Prime? If I remember right... which I often don't... that's how I originally found you on YouTube is because you had done the voice of Optimus in a parody video on another chanel and they had a link to your channel in the video description.

And yes I realize the irony of a theater actor having a terrible memory in a job that requires memory... and this is why I spend all my free time back stage constantly reviewing my lines... and also why I originally didn't set out to do theater but actually wanted to do film... or voice acting cause if I screw up we can just record another take. If I screw up in a live performance then I gotta improv a bit and hope the audience won't notice.

 

Probably the worst part about being directed, I wager. Told to do something a specific way despite what you would WANT to do.

 

Gotta make ‘em happy or be fired & replaced.

 

DS did his own voices. I collaborated with a lot of YTers back then doing TF voices for lots of videos who has also collabed with DS so chances are good it was just a collaboration and not his own personal videos.

 

They also think putting Cena in a movie is a good idea hahaha.

 

You know there's a difference between criticism and being a jerk right? Criticism is constructive, it actually helps an actor to improve their craft. What you just said isn't in any way constructive and just makes you sound like a jealous jerk who has to put others down just to make yourself feel better. Either put up something constructive or I'd like to hear you do a better Optimus Prime voice.

It's doubtful he would have ever been hired if his Prime were dreadful... Though they cast David Kaye in Animated and that sounds nothing like Optimus Prime but they were going for a younger sort of Optimus in that series and it kinda made sense for what they were going for I just like Garry Chalk better when he pretty much did the same thing for Optimus Primal. I'm glad David Kaye wasn't cast as Primal cause he did audition for it but if Animated is how he would of played it I don't like it. Optimus needs to have that deep commanding voice and Animated just never pulled that off.

That's how you do constructive critism by the way because I described exactly why I don't like David Kaye as Optimus Prime rather than just randomly insulting him.

 

Voice actors have the added benefit of being able to blend into society in public without worrying about paparazzis bugging us every where we go. Still happens to me but not so often I don’t go out in public. I don’t mind as long as I’m not out with my family. I don’t enjoy my family being interrupted because someone wants a selfie (which generally isn’t as bad as when they want to chit-chat for an hour cuz then I feel guilty for having to explain that I’m out with my family and I can’t chat at the moment). So I can confirm that voice actors do get recognized & obviously the bigger voice actors get noticed more than lesser voice actors do but depending on where, voice actors aren’t completely unknown. When it comes to names in credits though, I totally agree. No one has been talking about the other voice actors in Bee that they weren’t previously familiar with. There’s about 4-5 names some fans may know but I’d wager the general audience only knew Angela Bassett.

 

That kinda reminded me that when they did Beauty and the Beast the actor who played the Beast mentioned that because he was basically wearing a mask for most the show he was able to slip out while everyone else in the cast got swammed by kids in the audience after the show. I worked with him on a different show and didn't even realize he was the beast till he mentioned that.

The show also actually had two Bells cause Julie, the main actress was pregnant with her first child. Her husband actually was also in the show as Gaston. What's really funny is they taped the play and showed it to their daughter who some how instantly recognized that Gaston was her daddy but only saw Julie as the character not as her mommy.

To be fair Julie is also very good at using make up to completely change her look. She also played Miss. Hanagan in Annie and was completely unrecognizable when she went into that character.

I can't really remember what I was doing during Beauty and the Beast but I know I was working at the other theater. Annie I know ran along side Sweeney Todd cause I wanted to work Annie but the director requested me on Sweeney Todd. It was impossible to do both as the runs over lapped each other. I was only able to see the show after my run ended.

I think Belle was a closer to how she normally looks except she also had make up on her back to cover a tattoo that would of shown in the yellow dress. The tattoo goes all the way across her shoulders and that dress doesn't cover that area so flesh colored make up.

 

Oh speaking of not recognizing voice actors...

I once worked a version of A Christmas Carol where our Fred was played by Ted D'Agustino. I had no idea at the time but later found out he voiced Nightmare in Soul Caliber 2. So I worked along side one of my favorite video game characters and didn't even know it till a year later. I had the game for Game Cube before I met him and after got the X-Box version...

Fighting against Nightmare after becomming friends with Ted is really weird. Also now it bothers me that Ted isn't in every game only Soul Caliber 2. Why the heck is there an entirely different voice cast in every game?

 

Hey Jon what do you think of Corey Burton and Frank Welker?

 

Love them both! Frank is The Godfather of Cartoon Voices & Burton is in a very small group of voice actors who have done both animation & movie trailers. There’s Cullen, Cummings, Kaye, Burton, Fennoy, Kane & Weaver. Only 7 that I’m aware of.

 

I guess you are doing well for yourself!  

I've known a chunk of your work (and probably like work I don't even know is yours) for a long time, but I still tend to think first and foremost of your Honest Trailer end segments when I hear your name to be honest. (Slight pun intended). Heck, I think a bunch of years ago I was even among your first 1-2K subscribers on YouTube.

 

It's an honor to have you with us. You'll always have our support.

 

Jon, congrats on your recent car commercial.