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Producer Don Murphy decided, after listening to feedback from Transformers fans, to use the voices from the "Transformers" (1984) (and its spin-off The Transformers: The Movie (1986)). Veteran voice actors Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who provided the voices for the iconic Transformer leaders Optimus Prime (Cullen) and Megatron (Welker), were auditioned personally by director Michael Bay, who feared that their aged voices would be noticeable. Cullen was confirmed to reprise his role, but Welker's voice had aged too much and besides didn't suit Megatron's new alien look, and so Hugo Weaving took the role of Megatron. However, Welker reprises his role as Megatron in Transformers: The Game (2007) (VG).
The fact that Bumblebee speaks through his radio is a nod to the Junkions in the animated movie, who learned to speak by, and spoke entirely in the style of, television Broadcasts and commercials.
When Sam is talking to Mikaela in the car he says "you're more than meets the eye," a nod to the toy line's slogan "more than meets the eye."
In terms of characterization all the Autobots in this film are based on their Generation One incarnations. However, their alternate modes have undergone modern interpretations and overhauls for a realistic portrayal in the live-action film; in particular, all their modes, except for Optimus Prime's Peterbilt truck and Barricade's Saleen S281E Ford Mustang, are now owned by General Motors as part of a tie-in deal.
The character of Arcee was included in the script, but poor fan reaction caused her to be cut out and replaced with Ironhide.
Megatron's classic alternate mode was a Walther P38 pistol, but Hasbro the owners, and official distributors of the toyline stated that they would not produce a gun of any kind for their characters (it's also illegal to make replica toy guns in several jurisdictions).
The Decepticon Soundwave was originally in the script, but was replaced with Blackout (who had originally been named Vortex, and later Incinerator). He is to appear in the film's sequel
According to Lorenzo di Bonaventura, working out the transformations was done with the help of a mathematical equation, which explained where each of the parts of the robot went when it become a vehicle.
When Bumblebee introduces himself to Sam and Mikaela, speaking through the radio, he plays the sound bite, "Across the immense gulf of space"; the voice is that of Orson Welles from his infamous 1939 radio broadcast "The War of the Worlds." Wells provided the voice of the planet devouring transformer named Unicron in _Transformers: The Movie, The (1986)_ which was Welles' final film performance.
The Transformers have been given a new design that reflects their alien origin. According to 'Lorenzo Di Bonaventura' , during the design process, Optimus Prime was designed in CGI in his classic boxy look (as seen in the 1984 series), but he looked "fake and silly." So now, heavily stressed in their looks are advanced kinematics, realistic engineering and thousands of body parts (which all move during transformations and produce a better impression of mass). The Transformers were created with a mix of groundbreaking computer-generated imagery (by Industrial Light and Magic) and ten close-up props (by KNB Effects). The props built include Optimus Prime's head, Bumblebee's robot mode, Megatron's legs and Blackout's feet.