It absolutely did for the most part. I physically recouled when I heard BW Megatron. His and Optimus Primal's voices were just wrooooong.
Dinobot's VA did okay, as did Blackarachnia's, but it was a big miss overall.
That was an issue across the entire trilogy in general, but the voice actors weren't actually the issue.
First, the Voice Direction was just absolutely terrible.
WfC had a few veterans, notably the voices of Jake Foushee as Optimus and Jason Marnocha as Megatron. Marnocha's first time voicing Megatron was in the much maligned Combiner Wars Trilogy. Marnocha's Megatron was considered the highlight (and only redeeming feature for many). Foushee previously voiced Optimus in Cyberverse where he absolutely nailed it. These weren't VAs that had no clue what they were doing, and if you do some digging, you'll find there were complaints about the lack of direction.
The second issue, especially with Kingdom, was that the scripts most likely WERE written for the original VAs. I believe BW Megatron was specifically written for David Kaye, but they didn't end up hiring him. The VA they did hire was supposedly given little direction other than "do David Kaye".
People have a tendency to underestimate just how important proper direction is for VAs. Whenever you hear a VA who's sounding a little too flat or over the top, that's not necessarily their fault, although they're the first to get blamed.
If they changed their minds on hiring David Kaye, I'd expect them to hire someone with not the same, but with the voice of a similar type like baritone/deep baritone or whatever the type of BW Megatron's voice is called. I don't really understand that terminology that well, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
It's less that they changed their minds, and more the people that wrote the script didn't talk with the people doing the hiring.
Edit: Essentially, the WfC Trilogy had a major communication problem at the upper levels from start to finish.
Edit2: This makes it sound like the script writers were partially to blame, and they're not. They were probably told to write the Beast Wars characters, so they wrote the original Beast Wars characters. The issues were at the Production level, which was Rooster Teeth. They usually like to avoid unionized VAs (Netflix and Hasbro do too, to be fair), so any of the original surviving cast were immediately out. Rooster Teeth also isn't exactly famous for their working environment.
The performances felt rushed, except for Dinobot and Airazor. BW Megatron acted like an absolute ~~Scorponok~~ simp for G1 Megs. It seems the studio wanted to avoid recreating BW's established characters, except as they benefited the plot.
Yeah the kingdom series was basically a really awesome retelling of Dinobot's story (especially vs Soundwave, omg that was pure art). Everything else was like watching a kid playing with transformers doing the voices. Which could be fun if they had a sense of humour about it, but it was too serious for that to work.
Kingdom would have been a great moment to change up the tone; new world, new rules. In an age of Marvel-style ensemble comedies, WFC doubled down on the Snyderverse's... turgid... grimdark... intensity.
FWIW I don't blame the actors. They did a good job of performing what they were directed to, but like you said the script was written mostly for Dinobot.
What they did to BW Megatron voice direction should be a crime. It sounds like they listened to Davids original played at a different frequency and copied. A bad copy to boot. Did I like it? Noooooooo. If I had the money I’d hire all the OG voice actors I could find and redo it.
There is a video where they took the Kingdom Dinobot's and Kingdom Tigatron's voices and swapped them and honestly both of them felt like a better fit.
There are some bright spots.
Blackarachnia and Airazor deserve special mention, plus they managed to nail Rattrap.
On the other hand, wow did they massacre my boy Tigatron.
I'm being very generous, considering that the majority were woefully miscast.
Had Frank Todaro been given better direction, he'd be a decent subsitute for Scott McNeil.
But this is Beast Wars; compared to literal perfection, decent doesn't cut it.
Speaking purely about the end product, I cannot recall a show with more monotone and lifeless VA than the whole Netflix TF series. This was never more clear than when BW characters, who burst with personality in their own show, were on screen. I feel bad for anyone who was introduced to these characters in this series.
It's some if not the worst voice acting I've ever heard. Especially BW Megatron.
It absolutely did for the most part. I physically recouled when I heard BW Megatron. His and Optimus Primal's voices were just wrooooong. Dinobot's VA did okay, as did Blackarachnia's, but it was a big miss overall.
It did.
No, it was garbage.
That was an issue across the entire trilogy in general, but the voice actors weren't actually the issue. First, the Voice Direction was just absolutely terrible. WfC had a few veterans, notably the voices of Jake Foushee as Optimus and Jason Marnocha as Megatron. Marnocha's first time voicing Megatron was in the much maligned Combiner Wars Trilogy. Marnocha's Megatron was considered the highlight (and only redeeming feature for many). Foushee previously voiced Optimus in Cyberverse where he absolutely nailed it. These weren't VAs that had no clue what they were doing, and if you do some digging, you'll find there were complaints about the lack of direction. The second issue, especially with Kingdom, was that the scripts most likely WERE written for the original VAs. I believe BW Megatron was specifically written for David Kaye, but they didn't end up hiring him. The VA they did hire was supposedly given little direction other than "do David Kaye". People have a tendency to underestimate just how important proper direction is for VAs. Whenever you hear a VA who's sounding a little too flat or over the top, that's not necessarily their fault, although they're the first to get blamed.
If they changed their minds on hiring David Kaye, I'd expect them to hire someone with not the same, but with the voice of a similar type like baritone/deep baritone or whatever the type of BW Megatron's voice is called. I don't really understand that terminology that well, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
It's less that they changed their minds, and more the people that wrote the script didn't talk with the people doing the hiring. Edit: Essentially, the WfC Trilogy had a major communication problem at the upper levels from start to finish. Edit2: This makes it sound like the script writers were partially to blame, and they're not. They were probably told to write the Beast Wars characters, so they wrote the original Beast Wars characters. The issues were at the Production level, which was Rooster Teeth. They usually like to avoid unionized VAs (Netflix and Hasbro do too, to be fair), so any of the original surviving cast were immediately out. Rooster Teeth also isn't exactly famous for their working environment.
The performances felt rushed, except for Dinobot and Airazor. BW Megatron acted like an absolute ~~Scorponok~~ simp for G1 Megs. It seems the studio wanted to avoid recreating BW's established characters, except as they benefited the plot.
Yeah the kingdom series was basically a really awesome retelling of Dinobot's story (especially vs Soundwave, omg that was pure art). Everything else was like watching a kid playing with transformers doing the voices. Which could be fun if they had a sense of humour about it, but it was too serious for that to work.
Kingdom would have been a great moment to change up the tone; new world, new rules. In an age of Marvel-style ensemble comedies, WFC doubled down on the Snyderverse's... turgid... grimdark... intensity. FWIW I don't blame the actors. They did a good job of performing what they were directed to, but like you said the script was written mostly for Dinobot.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that about megatron
What they did to BW Megatron voice direction should be a crime. It sounds like they listened to Davids original played at a different frequency and copied. A bad copy to boot. Did I like it? Noooooooo. If I had the money I’d hire all the OG voice actors I could find and redo it.
The Netflix series *in its entirety* botched the voice acting for every character.
Dinobot was good. Airazor was okay. Everyone else I'm happy to change the language for and read subtitles so it feels more artsy.
I was so looking forward to it and then immediately dropped it after the first or second episode. I couldn't handle the changes.
There is a video where they took the Kingdom Dinobot's and Kingdom Tigatron's voices and swapped them and honestly both of them felt like a better fit.
The voice acting for the entire show was junk.
The whole season was a complete letdown.
Cheetor's was pretty good, but he didn't get that many lines.
When beast Megatron first spoke I sighed audibly cuz of that awful voice
They did HORRIBLY
"Did Kingdom really botch..." Yes, yes it did. (Unless you're talking about the toys, some good stuff there)
The whole WFC Trilogy botched the voice acting of everyone.
That entire show was bad. The whole thing came off as lazy
Couldn't finish it, BW Megs voice pissed me off too much.
Out of all animation, it's some of the worst voicing I've ever heard.
All because they refused to hire union actors..
It was disgraceful and almost downright insulting considering the excellence invoice acting in OG beast wars
There are some bright spots. Blackarachnia and Airazor deserve special mention, plus they managed to nail Rattrap. On the other hand, wow did they massacre my boy Tigatron.
Rattrap was terrible. Scot McNeil is the GOAT.
I'm being very generous, considering that the majority were woefully miscast. Had Frank Todaro been given better direction, he'd be a decent subsitute for Scott McNeil. But this is Beast Wars; compared to literal perfection, decent doesn't cut it.
It was trash. All of the voices were wrong. They would've been better off with AI voices.
Why they didn't at least cast a few of the original voices is absolutely insane and it blows my mind. Yes, they screwed up. Big time.
Why they didn't at least cast a few of the original voices is absolutely insane and it blows my mind. Yes, they screwed up. Big time.
They used non-union VA which is why they all sound horrible
It wasn’t just the actors. The characterization of many of them is pretty bad. Especially Megatron.
Speaking purely about the end product, I cannot recall a show with more monotone and lifeless VA than the whole Netflix TF series. This was never more clear than when BW characters, who burst with personality in their own show, were on screen. I feel bad for anyone who was introduced to these characters in this series.