Funimation Re-dubbing

[uzuni]

I'm asking specifically about the dub changes from the original DVD singles to the future releases (Orange Brick, Dragon Box, Blu-ray).

I understand that from episode 68 to 107 has been extensively re-dubbed.

How about the rest of the series? Are there any major changes after the Frieza saga onward?

[Forte224]

Well, for at least Vegeta, the re-dubbing continues until the end of the Garlic Jr. filler arc. The scenes where he's in space looking for Goku are still re-dubbed. I'm pretty sure Gohan and Kuririn and everyone else still retain the old dub during the Garlic Jr. arc. Another difference in the Freeza to Cell arcs is that Dale Kelly is no longer the narrator like he originally was. The Orange Bricks have Kyle Hebert all the way through. Aside from that, I think there are a few Faulconer tracks that have been placed differently, the only one I can think of is sometime near the beginning of Super Vegeta vs 2nd form Cell.

I believe that's it. It's been a long time since I looked into this though, so someone else may be able to help out more.

[VegettoEX]

FUNimation redubbing has happened in a couple different ways:

Certain actors were replaced even by the time they got to some of the single-disc DVD and VHS releases. Folks like Dale Kelly would have their narration replaced by Kyle Hebert between the original TV airings and the home release, depending on what version of the home release and when it eventually made its way out (see: some of the Cell stuff being the LAST single-disc DVD releases).

In 2001(?), FUNimation began (re)dubbing the original Dragon Ball television series. The first 13 episodes were handled with the same Ocean Studios-based cast as DBZ, so these were redubbed with the new/current cast and also done in an uncut version. The home video of these particular 13 episodes didn't come out until much later, but it was dubbed and aired back then. (For a while, the Australian two-disc release was the only way to get these 13 episodes in the new format.) Episodes 14-153 were freshly dubbed for the first time here.

Dragon Ball Z's 2005 "Ultimate Uncut Edition" was FUNimation going in with the then-current cast and re-doing the first ~67/68 episodes, replacing what was previously done in 1996-1998 with the Ocean Studios cast. This aired in its entirety on Cartoon Network, but only got nine volumes (27 episodes) on DVD before that release was cancelled in favor of...

2007-2009's orange bricks (the DBZ TV season sets on DVD), which contained that "Ultimate Uncut Edition" redub for the respective episodes. Easy enough there. From THAT point forward, there is selective redubbing by actor/character. For example, Sean Schemmel didn't redub any of his lines, while Chris Sabat redubbed the majority (all?) of his Vegeta lines through the end of the Freeza arc. I believe there's also some selective redubbing heading into the androids stuff, as well. But again, this is by character/actor, so it's not a "redub" in totality; you'll have 1999 Schemmel Goku talking to 2007 Sabat Vegeta. This is the basis for all subsequent home video releases and their English audio track; nothing is actually representative of what aired on Toonami as-is.

Obviously there's all of Kai starting in 2010 and onward, which is its own thing.

In 2010, we also got a redub of the first Dragon Ball movie ("Curse of the Blood Rubies"), using the new/current cast and as an uncut version, replacing the original one from the pre-Z syndication days.

I don't know if you'd call this stuff "redubbing" exactly, but in various subsequent home releases moving forward, things like vocal effects would get lost on characters like Boo(?). Minor BGM placement would sometimes get shifted around, too.

I say all of this mostly through fandom/cultural osmosis of running this site and not actively watching much of this dubbed material myself, so I encourage others to jump in and elaborate/correct where necessary!

[ABED]

Wasn't there some redubbing of Dende's voice for the single DVD's? I know about the Dale Kelly example, but wasn't there something similar abut Dende's actor?

[Mosaic]

If I remember correctly, Maron (Kuririn's ex) had all her lines redubbed for the Orange Brick sets.

[90sDBZ]

If I remember correctly, Maron (Kuririn's ex) had all her lines redubbed for the Orange Brick sets.

Her and also a couple of the spiceboys had new voice actors.

And characters like 19 and Super Buu originally had voice filters which weren't carried over for the Bricks and Blu-rays. Super Buu in particular sounded much better with it than without.

There were also previously recorded unused lines that appeared on the Bricks, such as Goku's entire speech to Kid Buu during the flashback before killing him, and Vegito's inner monologue before being absorbed. Curiously Goku's speech was always used in the Westwood dub.

And there were weird rearranging of lines like Goku saying "Hey mister" to Yajirobe which was the line he said to the driving instructor repeated. This was fixed on the Blu-ray. And the line were Future 18 says " time for bonus points" while blowing up people was also given to present day 18 when she's on the lookout watching the others right before she runs out to them. I'm not sure if this is is on the Blu-ray. Both cases are really weird and were clearly done just so the Bricks could keep boasting about "newly recorded dialogue". There was even a time they gave Gohan a line when he wasn't present yet while Goku fights 19.

Stuff like this makes me wish they'd include the unaltered dub on home releases.

[uzuni]

So it seems to me that following the Frieza Saga, Funimation’s original dub was better!

[Robo4900]

2007-2009's orange bricks (the DBZ TV season sets on DVD), which contained that "Ultimate Uncut Edition" redub for the respective episodes. Easy enough there. From THAT point forward, there is selective redubbing by actor/character. For example, Sean Schemmel didn't redub any of his lines, while Chris Sabat redubbed the majority (all?) of his Vegeta lines through the end of the Freeza arc. I believe there's also some selective redubbing heading into the androids stuff, as well. But again, this is by character/actor, so it's not a "redub" in totality; you'll have 1999 Schemmel Goku talking to 2007 Sabat Vegeta. This is the basis for all subsequent home video releases and their English audio track; nothing is actually representative of what aired on Toonami as-is.

I believe most of Vegeta's lines were redubbed all the way up until about the end of the Cell arc. After that, I believe it's all -- or almost all -- original stuff.
All of Butta's lines were also redubbed, however only a handful of Jheese's lines were. I believe a lot of Kuririn and Gohan's lines early on were redubbed, but had mostly gone original by the end of the Cell arc.

A handful characters were redubbed with different actors; Ginyu was redubbed by Brice Armstrong, which was likely done partially to keep consistency with the Ultimate Uncut dub from 2005, but mostly because Dale Kelly and Funimation had fallen out by then.

I don't know if you'd call this stuff "redubbing" exactly, but in various subsequent home releases moving forward, things like vocal effects would get lost on characters like Boo(?). Minor BGM placement would sometimes get shifted around, too.

That was mixing errors. Any/all vocal effects like the pitch shiftings on Super Boo and Yakon were dropped, some music was moved around, and hell, even a handful of voice lines were missing until that was fixed later on when the audio was slightly remixed for the BDs(Though the missing vocal effects and music changes weren't fixed). I don't think any of these mistakes on the OB mix were intentional.

I say all of this mostly through fandom/cultural osmosis of running this site and not actively watching much of this dubbed material myself, so I encourage others to jump in and elaborate/correct where necessary!

You got it all basically right, though I would also note that all Funimation's "Redubbing" efforts have based their scripts on whatever dubbing effort preceeded them. So, DB 1-13 would have been based on the 1995 BLT DB scripts(I would guess 14-26 were too, since they originally were going to produce a 26-episode season order, and thus may have had at least preliminary scripts ready for all 26), Z 1-67 would have been based on the 1996-1997 Saban Z scripts, and even the 2010 DB movie 1 redub was based on the 1995 script. This all, funnily enough, makes Funi's dubs of DB 1-13 and the first movie the least-accurate dub(s) of that material, since they didn't really correct anything about the old script, they just adapted them to fit Funi's circa 2001 or circa 2010 scriptwriting style, so the older, censored dubs -- even the Harmony Gold dub, with all its name changes, or even Big Green, with its hilariously-badly-written but still technically rather accurate scripts -- were actually more accurate. This arguably extends to the Z 1-67 scripts, though since Saban's dub was so heavily cut up, and because Funimation did replace some of the infamous dubbing errors("Brilliant scientist!" "You'll be sorry when my arm grows back!"), albeit with another lot of invented nonsense, this becomes hazy.

It's also worth noting that during the Ultimate Uncut era, Funimation redubbed Z movies 1-3. 1 and 2 used the Pioneer dub's scripts, but with Funimation's typical brand of circa 2005 "Punching up" of scripts on top, while 3 had the same approach taken, but based off of the 1997 Saban TV dub of the film.

If I remember correctly, Maron (Kuririn's ex) had all her lines redubbed for the Orange Brick sets.

Her and also a couple of the spiceboys had new voice actors.

And characters like 19 and Super Buu originally had voice filters which weren't carried over for the Bricks and Blu-rays. Super Buu in particular sounded much better with it than without.

There were also previously recorded unused lines that appeared on the Bricks, such as Goku's entire speech to Kid Buu during the flashback before killing him, and Vegito's inner monologue before being absorbed. Curiously Goku's speech was always used in the Westwood dub.

And there were weird rearranging of lines like Goku saying "Hey mister" to Yajirobe which was the line he said to the driving instructor repeated. This was fixed on the Blu-ray. And the line were Future 18 says " time for bonus points" while blowing up people was also given to present day 18 when she's on the lookout watching the others right before she runs out to them. I'm not sure if this is is on the Blu-ray. Both cases are really weird and were clearly done just so the Bricks could keep boasting about "newly recorded dialogue". There was even a time they gave Gohan a line when he wasn't present yet while Goku fights 19.

Stuff like this makes me wish they'd include the unaltered dub on home releases.

I've always been of the opinion that the Faulconer score track should be the untouched original dub, since anyone who wants that soundtrack is likely the type who wants to hear the original dub as it was back in '99, and really, not having the original dub as an option is a real bugger, since for all its faults, it was far more consistent, and didn't have all these weird mixing errors and other nonsense introduced on the OBs.

[90sDBZ]

So it seems to me that following the Frieza Saga, Funimation’s original dub was better!

I'd say so. For me the lack of Super Buu's voice filter is a pretty big negative when it comes to the Orange Bricks/Blu-ray version. This video shows a direct comparison;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZbwwQr6ZQ4

Another thing is echo sound effects that were removed;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiWunX4Nk7I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdEVVeIld6E

I believe most of Vegeta's lines were redubbed all the way up until about the end of the Cell arc. After that, I believe it's all -- or almost all -- original stuff.
All of Butta's lines were also redubbed, however only a handful of Jheese's lines were. I believe a lot of Kuririn and Gohan's lines early on were redubbed, but had mostly gone original by the end of the Cell arc.

Vegeta was only redubbed until the end of Garlic Jr. Once he touches down on earth again and threatens Yamcha you hear the Brian Drummond impression again which gradually evolves into his more unique voice over the course of the Cell saga.

Gohan was redubbed until the episode were Krillin gets impaled by Frieza while Krillin was until some point in the Garlic Jr saga (maybe the beginning?). I know for sure that the scene were Krillin manages to get the better of Garlic Jr by kicking him to the ground and then blasting him is the original performance.

[Metalwario64]

I think Strait stopped redubbing Krillin in episode 94, which always bothered me because just two more episodes and the performance would have had a clean break, considering Krillin is dead for the next 11 episodes.

Also, as for other differences, I think it was theorized that FUNimation didn't use the final masters because they remixed the audio and didn't have access to the final elements, so some early music choices (didn't Scott Morgan say something like about that), and some lines that were recorded back in the day (like Gohan's "way to go Dad" when he wasn't there, and Vegeta's "I'll never fight again" in the Cell arc, along with his "Now I'll show you the true power of a Saiyan warrior" during the Final Flash sequence) made it seem like they were using older elements without regarding how they were utilized in the old dub, which resulted in missing effects and non-final music choices. I think that's also the cause for the "hey mister" line, because maybe the final line wasn't in the set of recordings they were using? Maybe the same with the 18 line?

[ABED]

And did they ever redub Tenshinhan prior to the season sets? Before settling on Burgmeier and after Chris Cason, I swear there was at least one other Tenshinhan VA. Maybe it's just the Mandela (or Mengele) Effect.

[Codarik]

It's been a while but I remember checking the Blu-Rays as they were released to see if any of the dialogue abnormalities got fixed. IIRC all but Goku's missing "Me" in his Instant Kamehameha against Cell was fixed. Also in a season 3 episode, Tien was mute for one of his lines. Not sure what caused that or if it has been fixed in a reprint. Also I never seen anyone mention this before, but in the original Gohan says "Gotcha" when he grabs Super Buu by the antenna, that line got removed in the remaster.

[90sDBZ]

And did they ever redub Tenshinhan prior to the season sets? Before settling on Burgmeier and after Chris Cason, I swear there was at least one other Tenshinhan VA. Maybe it's just the Mandela (or Mengele) Effect.

There was indeed another one between Cason and Burgmeier and he can still be heard on the last couple of Frieza singles. I have no idea who it was though and he sounded pretty different to the others.

[Valerius Dover]

Yes, Tien was redubbed in Season 3.

The music changes are mostly a result of being taken from the original masters before slight alterations were made for the TV broadcast. Can't remember the thread, but I believe Scott Morgan himself confirmed as much. The only exception seems to be Episode 70, in which the entire score for the episode had apparently been lost, so Funi filled it with other Frieza arc tracks instead.

[Mosaic]

Have any dub induced plot holes been re-recorded? Like saying Dr. Gero was the leader of the Red Ribbon Army?

[ABED]

Have any dub induced plot holes been re-recorded? Like saying Dr. Gero was the leader of the Red Ribbon Army?

I don't know about that. I do know the lines like "wait until it grows back" and Goku's father being a brilliant scientist were corrected.

[90sDBZ]

Have any dub induced plot holes been re-recorded? Like saying Dr. Gero was the leader of the Red Ribbon Army?

Post Season 2? Pretty much none that I'm aware of. Stuff like Tao being a General for the RRA who controlled it and wanted to rule the world, Goku and Tien fighting to a draw, Goku marrying Chi Chi before the 23rd Tournament, and the gap between Tournaments being 5 years instead of 3 were all left unchanged. It's all a massive contradiction if you watch the DB dub first or even after.

I was always in favor of the old Z dub being left unaltered, but if they absolutely had to "fix it" then those lines should absolutely have been changed to not contradict the DB dub.

[uzuni]

I'd like to thank you all for your exhaustively detailed responses. They certainly haven't gone unnoticed.

A last question that I have is, was any of DB or DBGT redubbed? Or do the singles and the season sets for each use the same recordings?

[Valerius Dover]

^Nothing was redubbed in either DB or DBGT, however some alternate takes of dialog were apparently used in GT, including a few instances of "Hercule" being used in place of "Mr. Satan".

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

Does anyone know why Sean didn't redub his lines for season 3? With the others redubbing their lines, season 3 dub was bit more bearable. The early parts was cringy when you can tell the quality of the redub of Sabat compared to early dub of Shemmel.