Why does the ocean dub supposedly get worse after the first two seasons?

[DragonBallKing]

I hear this all the time but from watching clips of the ocean android saga on youtube I can't see a noticeable drop in acting quality.

[TheGreatness25]

I still like it, but there are a lot of lines that seem to be delivered pretty badly. From my understanding, budgeting problems plagued the Ocean dub and it was rushed. Also, I might be wrong, but they had directors change on the fly. It's not that the "quality" dropped, but line delivery was off sometimes. Also, from my experience, many people didn't like the music, so I guess the whole package rubbed people the wrong way and it plagued this dub. With that said, I really love it regardless.

[Robo4900]

Basically, the first two seasons were done with a pretty good director, and a full original score composed by Ron Wasserman, and it was the first version of Dragon Ball Z most people who became fans before 2007 saw.

They came back starting from the Trunks saga, and the directing was a little inconsistent, the score was mostly reused themes from Mega Man, and only viewers from the UK, Canada, and parts of Europe, who watched the show on TV before about 2007 saw it.

Additionally, the revived run never had the generally loved Ian Corlett in it(While the original had him for the first 36 episodes, and the TV version of Tree Of Might), instead starting with the return of the somewhat controversial and polarising Peter Kelamis, who was then replaced by the also somewhat controversial and polarising Kirby Morrow after 52 episodes.

Thing is, while I do agree with many that the latter Ocean dub initially wasn't quite up to snuff with their early work from the first two seasons, I've always thought they improved quite a lot over the course of the run. The Boo arc overall was at least on-level with their early work, though I've always thought it was better. Plus, by then, the time constraints were less intense, so more original pieces for the music score were able to be composed, and that combined with the Monster Rancher themes being added to their pool made the music a lot more varied, making the dub more enjoyable overall.
And honestly, while some themes do get a little tired earlier on in the Androids/Cell arc before they infused all the extra music later on, I've always much preferred the more chilled-out, atmospheric score the revived run had to the more intense score the first two seasons had.

And really, in my experience, all the negative press the Ocean dub gets, particularly for this revived run, comes from fans who've grown up on the Funimation dub, and simply lash out at Ocean's dub for being different. In general, people who grew up on the Ocean dub have a lot of positive things to say about it, and while I will openly admit at least some of this comes down to nostalgia, I think the Ocean dub stands in a similar place to Funimation's Z dub -- it's an inaccurate dub, but for what it is, it's quite enjoyable, and it holds a special place in the hearts of many who've seen it. 'Course it helps that they had the same scripts and video master.

Ultimately, if you liked the early Ocean dub, I think you'll like the later one too. If you're a die-hard Funimation fanboy, it'll probably be a little difficult to get into, but if you can keep an open mind, you may be surprised by just how good the Ocean dub is. For me, and I'm sure for many other fans, the Ocean crew are generally the definitive voices of these characters, and as I say, I honestly do prefer this later run of the Ocean dub, especially once you get into the Boo arc stuff.

[8000 Saiyan]

According to Scott McNeil, they went through seven or eight voice directors in the Cell Saga or something like that.

[Kakacarrottop]

I hear this all the time but from watching clips of the ocean android saga on youtube I can't see a noticeable drop in acting quality.

The change in music played a pretty big role imo. Whereas Ron Wasserman's music helped add to the intensity of the fights, the recycled Mega-Man music just sort of sat there in the background and never dared to be as dark and gritty, not unlike in any other typical Saturday morning cartoon.

[Robo4900]

The change in music played a pretty big role imo. Whereas Ron Wasserman's music helped add to the intensity of the fights, the recycled Mega-Man music just sort of sat there in the background and never dared to be as dark and gritty, not unlike in any other typical Saturday morning cartoon.

Honestly, I always preferred the more atmospheric nature of the Mega Man/Monster Rancher music. The Wasserman score was great at making the show feel intense and over the top, but I prefer the more chilled-out feel the Westwood score gives. Really fits with the fairly slow pace Dragon Ball Z had at the time, and it leaves a lot of space in the mix for every nuance of the voices to come across nicely. Granted, this made any not-so-great casting choices stick out more(Though I would argue the Kikuchi score does this to an even greater degree on the "Remastered" Funimation dub), but on the whole, I like the different tone the Westwood score afforded overall.

Really though, I think people in general are a bit too focused on comparing and criticising with stuff like this. The Saban and Westwood runs of the Ocean dub took slightly different approaches, and while there's positives and negatives to both, ultimately both were very enjoyable, and I'm glad we got both.

[TheGreatness25]

You know what might also contribute to the idea that the Ocean dub gets worse? The fact that lots of people who say so grew up with the Funimation dub and only saw clips of it on YouTube. In this scenario, it's not just that it takes a little bit of adjusting and retraining yourself on how they "should" sound, but also most of the clips have terrible sound quality just because they're taken from home VHS recordings. So yeah, a lot of those YouTube clips sound wonky just because it's not like Funimation which had various DVDs to pick and choose from.

[Kuwabara]

Basically, the first two seasons were done with a pretty good director, and a full original score composed by Ron Wasserman, and it was the first version of Dragon Ball Z most people who became fans before 2007 saw.

I thought the score for the first two seasons still recycled Power Rangers music here and there?

[Kakacarrottop]

Basically, the first two seasons were done with a pretty good director, and a full original score composed by Ron Wasserman, and it was the first version of Dragon Ball Z most people who became fans before 2007 saw.

I thought the score for the first two seasons still recycled Power Rangers music here and there?

I haven't seen every episode of MMPR, but this is incorrect. The first minute of this video is music from Wasserman's DBZ soundtrack, and the rest is from MMPR. I can't imagine that the darker DBZ music could have been something that was originally created for a light hearted show like Power Rangers. And while the goofy music towards the end of that video is somewhat reminiscent of DBZ, it was definitely never used at any point in the dub.

[Kuwabara]

I haven't seen every episode of MMPR, but this is incorrect.

The first minute of this video is music from Wasserman's DBZ soundtrack, and the rest is from MMPR.

First you say that's incorrect, then link to an audio example pointing to the contrary. Which is it? If that first minute of music in the video wasn't previously in MMPR as well, that thumbnail's a little misleading.

I swear I've seen members on this very forum post video examples of MMPR music reused in DBZ, I'll take a closer look when I'm not stuffing myself with hors d'oeuvres...

[Robo4900]

I thought the score for the first two seasons still recycled Power Rangers music here and there?

I think Wasserman has, in the past, said he was basically allowed to let loose when composing Dragon Ball, so maybe he did end up using some themes and ideas that he'd previously used(Or would later use) in Power Rangers. Still, for the most part, it was an original score.