Transformers: the Movie (1986)

[DexyMan]

I picked up The Transformers SE DVD, yes I am desperate for official releases of Welles movies...

Anyway in the commentary they talk about how they heard the famous peas outtakes where Orson rips into a producer and were very nervous about him coming in to the studio. To their surprise they said that he was very friendly and they actually asked him how he felt about the peas outtakes going around the scene. Orson said that he liked it because people were intimidated by him before he even showed up. They also said he was very weak and he wheezed throughout his performance which is why they used a synthesizer on his voice. I was happy to hear what they said about him because this is what he said about the movie according to McBride's book:

He told Barbara Leaming "voice dripping with contempt":
I play the voice of a toy Some terrible robot toys from Japan that change from one thing to another... all bad outerspace stuff. I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed...I tear myself apart on the screen."

Anyway, always nice to hear positive things about Orson!

[Cyberstrike]

I think that while Mr. Wells was probably thinking more about
the size of his pay check than anything else, I would think that TF: TM is just as inspirational to legions of Transformers fans as Citizen Kane was to others.

Simply put if it wasn't for TF: TM I wouldn't known or much less really would have been interested or cared in Orson Wells' life and career, and I wouldn't be posting this on this site

As the voice of Unicron, Orson Wells helped to create a character that depending on what version of the Transformers myths, who gravitate towards Unicron has been a space monkey's WMD, an evil god (basically the Transformers version of the devil), to weapon factory and more.

His first appearance in TF: TM was a such a powerful force on the screen that when he was announced that the character
would make a return towards the end of the God-awful Transformers: Armada TV series, that there are many fans who hated that series that have said that it was Unicron's appearances was some what redeemed that mess.

In his final role he helped to fire up the imaginations of hundreds of thousands fans who have grown up to be storytellers in various other medias.


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[Wellesnet]

I don't know how they did it, but someone has restored Welles's original voice to his line readings for this one scene as Unicron, the killer planet in the 1984 "Transformers" movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DPW44-I3n4

[Roger Ryan]

It's pretty easy to use programs like Adobe Audition to alter voice pitch...but more time-consuming to integrate the altered voice track with the rest of the existing, non-pitch corrected audio on the soundtrack. The video editor did a good job of that. Since the film producers lowered the pitch of Welles' voice track (as well as adding some other effects) to give it a more menacing sound, raising the pitch a certain percentage brought back Welles' more familiar timbre.

[Wellesnet]

"You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. Some terrible robot toys from Japan that changed from one thing to another. The Japanese have funded a full-length animated cartoon about the doings of these toys, which is all bad outer-space stuff. I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy Whoever-it-is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen."
-Orson Welles

[Wellesnet]

30th anniversary DVD edition coming:
http://www.wellesnet.com/transformers-t ... o-release/

[Cyberstrike]

Online movie critic Bob Chipman has a series of videos called Really That Good where he tries to explain the value of good that are generally not explained (I highly recommend the whole show) and another weekly series called In Bob We Trust that is more about current pop culture.

Well his last episode of Really That Good is about The Transformers: The Movie and he breaks down the film in a more detailed way than I ever could and while he does talk about briefly Welles in it you should check it out to see why the film is cult classic to my generation. It's about 50 minutes.



Then he follows up with an episode of In Bob We Trust where he explains why Welles last movie may not be the embarrassment that a lot people think it is.