Marty Isenberg Interview
Check out the interview with Transformers Animated story editor Marty Isenberg over at Art & Story.
Marty at Art & Story
Marty at Art & Story
posted by Derrick J. Wyatt | 5:14 PM
54 Comments:
lol! that character of mr. isenberg is awesome!
Episode 30? I must keep my eyes peeled for Animated Marty Isenberg! Who knows what awesomeness will come from his potential cameo appearance. Speaking of which, how was East Gotham City Derrik Wyatt?
Can we expect Marty himself to voice TFA Marty?
Because his voice acting job at Botcon was top-notch.
LOL meet him at Comic Con, that looks just like him.
Hey why weren't you at Comic Con Derrick?
I went to Botcon last year, and I had so much fun that I decided to skip Comic-con.
Skip Comic Con?! BLASHMEPHY, lol.
I was sad, was really hoping to see Mr. Wyatt oh well.
ON THE BRIGHTER NOTE!
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hot_Shot_(Animated)
HOT SHOT ANIMATED!
What do you have to say about that Mr. Wyatt? :)
I'm so glad I have an internship so I can buy Transformers. If it was 10 years younger my parents would deprive me of transformers haha
Yep, there he is. Hotshot was designed by Irineo Maramba, loosely based on some head sketches I did, with some help from Eric Siebenaler.
I can't say Hotshot was a character from my personal wish list, but I think he's made certain people pretty happy.
Well Derrick, that's really interesting.
Do you think you could tell us which characters were more your work and which characters were mostly done by Maramba?
Let's see, of the Rodimus and Strika teams Irineo did Hotshot, Brawn, Cyclonus and Oil Slick, and I did the rest.
From that list, I can only assume that you designed Spittor, and you're my hero because of that.
I'm personally waiting to see Spittor in action. Sadly, I never owned his toy, but looking back at him I really liked his TM2 design, one of the ugliest Cybertronians ever and awesome because of it.
Since we seem to be talking about people working on Animated: You guys have any more voice actors in S3? I'm not asking for any names, just a simple yes or no answer and maybe a rough estimate if you feel generous.
Yep, we have more guest actors, and one former guest is practically a regular this season.
Let me guess- Weird Al
I think assuming it's Weird Al is a bit much, I mean, other then him the Guest VA's from seasons one and two I can remember were: Kevin Michael Richardson, John Moschitta, Townsend Coleman(SPOOOOOON!!!), Phil LaMarr, Susan Blu, Lance Henriksen, Fred Willard, Kath Soucie, Brian Posehn, Alexander Polinsky, and Peter Stormare. I mean, for all we know, Swindle could become a regular character at this point, and I doubt Mr. Wyatt is going to tell us who it is anyways. It'd spoil the surprise, like Dubai airing the second season in like a week.
I'm gonna guess that it's Sentinel's VA who practically becomes a regular.
Well for my vote it would be Townsend Coleman voicing Sentinel its not my personel choice just makes the most sense to me
Thanks, as ever, for all the awesome tidbits, Mr Wyatt! :) I love hearing all this kind of behind-the-scenes stuff, and I've always thought it a shame that we rarely get to see it with TV animation, even on DVD. This kind of direct interaction more than compensates, though.
On that note, I had a couple of questions regarding the new character reveals:
a) We've now seen Animated Hot Shot and Red Alert, two characters who were reportedly in the original outline for the show, but were subsequently replaced by Bumblebee and Ratchet, respectively. Do the current Hot Shot and Red Alert bear much similarity to those original concepts? Are they a taste of "what might have been"? Or did those original character ideas never get past the planning phase?
b) Who actually decides which characters DO make it onto the show? You suggested, for example, that Hot Shot wasn't your call, Marty Isenberg mentioned that Hasbro nixed the idea of Sixshot, and as noted, we know that Bumblebee's inclusion was their initiative as well; on the other hand, I can't imagine that the likes of Highbrow were anything other than your idea. How does this all get decided, and whose call is it at the end of the day?
Cheers for your time. :)
Hey,those are some good questions.
a) Hotshot is more of a tribute to his UT self (or selves). Red Alert is actually a bit of what might have been. Her design is based in part on TFA development art that my friend Eric Canete had done. That's why she's female.
b) There are some upcoming interviews that go deeper in to this process than I will here. The current TFCC magazine has an interview with Eric and me where we discuss it. Anyway, we on the animation side try to work together with the 'Bros to come up with a roster of characters that both teams are happy with. Bumblebee's inclusion in the show was actually a result of Matt Youngberg and me pleading for him in the first meeting we had with the higher-ups.
Well, I kinda like Red Alert being female, it mixes things up a little. I personally would have liked to have been at one of those meetings, just to hear some of the characters Hasbro wanted in that you guys didn't, or vice-versa. Is it generally harder to get characters who weren't popular in terms of toy sales(or were only in that franchise's toyline) in the show? Or is Hasbro pretty cool about letting some relatively unknown/unpopular characters get their chance in the spot light?
On the whole they've been great. I don't think there were any characters we really wanted to do that they vetoed. The only things that ever got nixed were characters that it would be too impractical to do from either an animation or a toy point of view, or characters that just didn't fit the stories we were telling.
Mr Derrick, greetings from the brazilians TFA fans! We've been so impressed w/ the fidelity the toys are getting to the show that we are wondering if the design team develops the characters aiming first the "praticability" of them as a toy. Thanks for keeping us updated w/ this blog.
Hi. I'm a guest but want to ask some questions.
1. Will we ever see the real headmasters. You don't have to make them headmasters, they can just be autobots.
2. Any chance for some rare transformers like hualer, star saber, nightbird,nightbeat, minerva(I think i misspelled that) or leo prime?
3. Any chance for metroplex?
Im sure your aware we have been getting alot of spoiler info concerning characters who apparently will make appearances in season 3 which is awesome and all but one thing has started to bother me, beyond the members of Strykas team their seems to be an apparent lack of Decepticons names being thrown about. Im not sayibg that every "spoiler" will pan out but based on these spoilers there are like 15 new Autobots making appearances in season 3 with only like 6 Decepticons.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "real" Headmasters. If you mean the Headmaster characters, then yes. One has already been confirmed in the current issue of the TFCC magazine. But, at least for the foreseeable future, the Henry Masterson Headmaster will remain the only transforming head.
There is always a chance we will see one or more of the characters you mentioned.
It is true. There are far more Autobots seen than Decepticons. And there is a simple reason for that. You should be able to figure it out if you give it some thought.
Let me guess!
It's because the Decepticons are all scattered around the galaxy unlike the perfect Autobot machine where each and all cogs do their work!
Also because Autobot toys sell better.
Mr. Wyatt,
I just wanted to say thank you to you and the rest of the character development team for including so many female characters in Transformers Animated compared to previous series. It's nice to see that professional TF writers know that girls watch the show too.
Also, I have to complement you on the quality of the stories so far -- the best since Beast Wars, Season 1. In fact, your characterization of Animated Blackarachnia inspired me to write a comparison essay between her and G1's Elita One for my rhetorical analysis class at university. (I'm still waiting for my grade).
I'm studying to become a professional fiction writer and/or editor when I graduate. Any advice on getting into cartoon writing/editing?
Violetlight
novads9@hotmail.com
There is an even more straight forward answer to the fewer Decepticons question. Although them being scattered is part of it.
I don't really know how one goes about becoming a writer. I know Marty touches a bit on that and the process of writing in his interview. I will wish you good luck in your endeavor. the world always needs more good writers!
I always like the 'cons a bit more then the Autobots/Maximals...don't know why. I guess it's just fun seeing what they are going to do next, I mean, we got to see Beast Wars Megatron nearly kill Optimus Prime so the Decepticons could win and ultimately not allow the Maximals to exist(but leave little standing in Unicron's path...quite a missed detail there Megatron, yeeeesssss....) and then he took over Cybertron and imprisoned everyone's sparks so no-one would oppose him. Though, Animated Megatron probably is on the same level of suspense on what he's going to do next, after all, I've yet to hear him or any Decepticon in his presence even whisper the word "retreat".
If Autobots outnumber Decepticons, well...I'm pretty sure they did in G1 also. By a sizable margin.
Uhh... the Decepticons are so strong a rather large cast of Decepts would be unfair against the heroes?
Hmm.. is there less Decepticons because they're generally bigger and stronger? Or because they're the side that was defeated in the Great War?
(Different Guest Poster)
Die Maus, we've seen Red Alert? News to me. Anybody got a link?
And I'd throw it out there that you don't need more than a few more Decepticons because they're so much more powerful individually than the Autobots! Plus, if we can count on the return of the Seeker clones, there's really already a lot of them. Unless the new 'cons are going to have some "target practice"
Power level doesn't really have anything to do with it. Maybe the question isn't really why are there so few Decepticons, maybe it should be why would we need to see so many Autobots?
The Decepticons and Predicons have always been my favorites too. I'm much more selective when it comes to the bad guys we use.
Pretty cool interview at TFW Derrick, hope to see more interviews later down the road, and happy to know that Blurr's speed effects gonna be changed, I must admit the Nanosec-running effect wasn't exactly my favorite special effect around, still, the lack of information on Lugnut and Blitzwing so far saddens me, at least we know Blitzwing is pretty much alive.
Anyway, just wanted to know your personal opinion, so far, who's your favorite episode of TFA?
I mean favorite episode EXCLUDING "S.U.V.".
Re the "many Autobots" issue; is it simply because this season we're going to be spending more time on Cybertron, the home of the Autobots? That would seem to make sense...
Oh, and Anonymous: We've seen Red Alert in the new issue of the Transformers Collectors' Club magazine, but she's also been glimpsed in the comic that accompanies the Jetstorm/Jetfire two-pack that's now out in Australia. I don't want to post links in case Derrick disapproves, but I'm sure the pics from the comic can be found at TFW2005 or similar fansites...
Hmmm so why would we need to see so many Autobots??
Something Im really hoping gets touched on a little more in season 3 is the nature of Autobot society and thigs like why was there a war if the Decepticons are like a seperate sub species as has been implied were they opressed?
I know it probably wont end up being that way being a kids show and all but the idea that Autobots are very "greater good' focused while the Decepticons are simply more about the individual intrigues me.
Are G1 characters the main focus for the majority of the show or will Beast Era and Unicron Triology characters start appearing more frequently as well
I also was thinking would Botanica ever be on the show or would her alt mode being a plant prevent her appearance because more than likely most kids wouldn't want to play with a transforming plant and transformer appearances and toy sales kind of go hand in hand
Hello there. I was just wondering if someone could ask the writer about his input on the episode "A Fistfull of Energon". I'm not sure but the episode was showing throughout the episode that the autobots shouldn't rely on mods or upgrades etc. Wasn't that the original intent? But near the end of the episode its those same mods and upgrades that enabled Prowl to save half the city, by sending the clones to the sky.
So I think in some ways it became a contradiction. :D
But any way thanks for the great episodes. Its been really good to be able to watch the show. Its been a favorite.
Hope to see season 3 soon.
I don't really know what my favorite episode would be. Maybe I should sit down and rewatch them all.
Well, someone hit the nail right on the head of the more 'Bots then 'Cons issue. Good thinking.
We have done quite a few of my G1 favorites now, so I think it would be nice to expand the cast with more TFA original, Japanese, and Beast era characters. Maybe a few more season 3 and 4 G1-ers. I wouldn't say never to doing more Unicron Trilogy characters, but I would say don't hold your breath for them.
You would probably want to ask Marty that question directly. Maybe at a con sometime.
Ok, so I'm really late to the party here, but I would think the reason there'd need to be so many Autobots is because of the Decepticon's strength.
Nope. That's not the reason. Someone else got it though.
Mr. Wyatt, Violetlight back. I just wanted to let you, and Marty, know that I got my mark back for my rhetorical anaysis essay on Transformers.
I got 74%, which is pretty good for a university essay, especially in subject areas as subjective as English and Writing. A copy is located at this link, just in case you or anyone else would like to read it:
http://violetlight83.deviantart.com/art/More-than-Meets-the-Eye-107693825
Thank you again!
Violetlight
is Cyclonus a G1 or Armada homage?
Is there a possibility of decepticons from season 1 and 2 returning for season 3?
Cyclonus is not an Armada homage. Gracious me, no.
Yes, Decepticons from the first two seasons will return.
Greetings from Mexico! I’m bumblebot, I think the reason there’s more autobots than decepticons its actually quite logic. If someone thinks of it, maybe it the great wars were the one who eliminated most of decepticons.
The new characters is SUPER, Hotshot and Rodimus is totally wonderful! Great job!
I hope Those new characters is here to stay and that we will see them OFTEN, not just in one episde. It´s not a reason to make new characters if they all stay in the shaddow. Do not destroy this, please.it´s finally two new characters that 9 of 10 probably loves.
The new characters is SUPER, Hotshot and Rodimus is totally wonderful! Great job!
I hope Those new characters is here to stay and that we will see them OFTEN, not just in one episde. It´s not a reason to make new characters if they all stay in the shaddow. Do not destroy this, please.it´s finally two new characters that 9 of 10 probably loves.
I was so stoked for episode "Three's A Crowd”, i was hopening that it would contain the follow-up with Rodimus team, but it wasn´t.
I must say "bless you". Do you have any idea how happy you make many people when Hot shot has his debute? More of him please. I liked his style, you are good at that you doing, that´s for sure!
Mr Wyatt? I have a question. Is Season3 the last season for Transformers Animated? There are a lot of Decepticons. that haven't been dealt with. Example: Soundwave got away and so did Swindle, Female Starscream, and Lockdown. And what happened to dirt boss and Mixmaster? Thanks!
I think it would be a shame if they finishing the show, it´s really good. And it´s annoying that we don´t know where swindle was going?, and waspinator,where did he go? to another planet?And i think i´m talking for the rest of us"it´s irritating to just see rodimus team one time, its way to short....
I am very Interested about why the show was cancelled. Why is everyone so secret about saying something?
I'm not convinced TFA is over.If it was cancelled:
someone official would have reiterated or say it by now.
Come one, if the show it´s GONE,ended, cancelled, just say it, instead of keep silence?
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