Toon Zone points to a brief snippet on voice actor Frank Welker's personal Web site that seems to hint at a brand new Transformers television series, based on the original cartoon / half-hour toy commercial. The quote is from last December, and given the crazy nature of this bizness called television, who knows if such a series is still a reality or not, but I'd certainly be interested to see how it compares to the original. I figure once the movie is released they'd probably also release the new cartoon while everyone is still in the grips of Transformermania.

Welker was the voice of Megatron, Soundwave and Galvatron on the original Transformers cartoon. He's also the voice of Fred on Scooby-Doo and has done countless other voices, as well.

The Transformers were right up there with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and GI Joe as part of my action cartoon diet as a child, so I was excited to find this interview with Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime. Apparently, he's also doing the voice of Optimus Prime in Michael Bay's upcoming adaptation of the cartoon series, something that slipped past my radar because I have no interest in the movie, considering I despise anything with Bay's name attached to it. But that's another rant for another blog. Cullen has also provided voices for a number of other cartoons, including The Smurfs, GI Joe, Winne the Pooh, Scooby-Doo, Rescue Rangers, DuckTales, and a little forgotten gem from my youth, The Secret World of Og. The most interesting part of the interview was that Cullen had no idea how popular the Transformers or his character were until long after the series ended.

[via Toon Zone]

If you didn't get your fill of voice actor Billy West when Joel interviewed him awhile ago, you can listen to an audio interview with the voice actor on the Paul Harris Show by clicking here. West, who, as many of you know, did the voices of a bunch of the characters on Futurama, plus the voice of both Ren and Stimpy during part of that show's run, not to mention a ton of other characters both classic and new. West talks about how he comes up with voices for the characters, and tells a funny story about watching The Diary of Anne Frank because one of the actors, Lou Jacobi, was part of his inspiration for the voice of Zoidberg on Futurama. He also talks about how voice actors often get treated like second class citizens in Hollywoodland. A very funny interview, definitely worth checking out.

[via Mark Evanier]

Maurice LaMarche is a voice actor who has done more cartoons than you can shake a stick at. Just to reference a few, he played Dizzy Devil on Tiny Toons, The Brain on Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, and most recently did the voice of Kif and Calculon (among others) on Futurama. The Canadian-born LaMarche started out doing stand-up comedy and eventually moved to voice acting. Quick Stop Entertainment has a really long interview with the man, so if you're into voice acting, and every single thing Maurice has ever done in his life, you should check it out. Also, if you want to read about someone from Canada bashing the country he came from, it's good for that as well.

[via Mark Evanier]