Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 14; Still Unreleased

[ShadowDude112]

Hey folks, so I got some bad news.

I spoke with a couple folks who worked on the alternate Canadian dub for DBZ Kai. For their privacy, I won't be stating names. All I'll say is, it's some people who haven't been brought up in this thread at all; this was entirely new information.

The only new, and relevant, thing I found out...is that this dub isn't coming out. That may seem hard to believe, considering the money spent to produce it, but it was created for a very specific purpose and that purpose has more of less passed. It's a shame, as I know from 6 years of discussion and 180 pages of this thread ongoing, mostly because of little snippets of information that've leaked out, a lot of people wanted to see it. Unfortunately, while the whole thing is basically 'done', it looks like it's gonna stay in the vault forever. Sorry to disappoint.

Cool. So now we can lock this thread and be done with this forever since nothing will ever come of it.

[Cure Dragon 255]

You know what would be truly hilarious? If the Kai dub was cancelled in favor of an Ocean Super Dub... that ends up never coming and stringing us along like a bunch of fools for the second time. Yes, I enjoy Gallows Humor LOL.

[NitroEX]

If Kirbopher can clarify things a little more, I'm interested to know if the people he got this information from were actors or people working behind the scenes (producers, directors, editors, that sort of thing).

After hearing this bit of sad news I went to social media to try and ask some of the actors if it was true or not and the one response I did get seems to conflict with what Kirbopher is saying. The actor who responded to me in a private message (who I will leave unnamed) tells me that "I am told that it is coming out and I am not allowed to tell when or if there is confirmation". They then mention that they are under a nondisclosure agreement with ocean group and thus cannot say any more than that.

Now I've followed this dub long enough to know that the actors themselves aren't necessarily the best source for accurate information on this dub however this is why I'm interested in the role of the person who broke the bad news to Kirbopher. If it was another actor then obviously there's misinformation going around somewhere because it would mean there are conflicting statements being made by actors in the production, however, if the information came from someone higher up the chain then I'd be more inclined to believe this dub is indeed dead and buried.

I'm am leaning towards this as well. This is why I think the likes of Schemmel had a chance to even hear what this sounded like and we had that partnership between Ocean and FUNi for the TV edits of Kai.

I'm not sure why FUNimation would pay for a dub that that they're not really that involved with, though. The alternative pronunciations we've heard about ("Naw-mek" instead of "Nam-ik") suggest that FUNimation wasn't the head honcho with the Ocean dub.

Having said that, I think you're right that, if Schemmel got a chance to hear it, it was likely because of their partnership with Ocean for the Nicktoons edits ("Ocean Studios" was indeed credited for the edits in the credits of the Nicktoons-edited FUNimation dub). FUNimation may not have paid for the whole dub, but my theory has been that perhaps they did pay specifically for the edits. I've theorized that they did this in exchange for being allowed to use that same edited footage for the Nicktoons airing. It would have been a mutually beneficial thing: the Ocean dub was going to be a TV-only dub, so in allowing for FUNimation to pay for the edits, Ocean would actually be receiving money for edits that they needed to do anyway, and FUNimation could then have edited footage ready to go for Nicktoons. It's possible that that would include edited audio, as well...and anybody at FUNimation might have been able to hear it once Ocean sent the edited footage back to FUNimation, which would explain how Schemmel heard it.

Yeah, FUnimation likely weren't the ones behind the Canadian Kai dub. Aside from the clues you mention such as pronunciation differences there's also the fact that Funi seem to have an aversion to outsourcing dubbing work to Ocean in the first place, it's only when they're absolutely forced to use them (such as with anime like Black Lagoon) that we ever see this happen. The fact that they went in-house for the Escaflowne redub despite being crowdfunded speaks volumes about that in my opinion.

Anyway, that aside, I do think there was some collusion going on between Ocean and Funimation when it comes to the footage. Aside from Ocean being credited for editing in the Nicktoons dub it appears that this partnership may go back even further to the broadcasts of the Funi DBZ dub. My guess is that they've always had a deal in place to use Funimation's footage in exchange for editing services or something along those lines.

I'm still really shocked over this. The first thing that keeps coming up in my mind is the financial aspect. Somebody paid for all those people involved with that 98-episode dub (actors, writers, engineers, editors, musicians), and their work won't even be seen or heard. From a financial perspective, this dub may hold the world record for the most colossal waste of money in the history of dubbing. With all do respect to the producers, whose idea was it to pay for all that before a TV deal had even been secured for this TV-only dub?

I would hope it'll still get a release someday even if it's just to justify the money that was spent.

I've wondered about this too and it reminded me of something I read in an interview about one of my favourite cancelled shows, 'Megas XLR'. When asked if that show could ever come back in the form of a crowdfunded, kickstarter type of thing the creator mentioned in an interview that "Megas was written off as a tax loss and as such can not be exploited, at least domestically, in any way, or the network will get into some sort of tax/legal trouble." Now I'm no legal expert but part of me feels like this Kai dub could have also suffered a similar fate. I hope it isn't the case though.

Cool. So now we can lock this thread and be done with this forever since nothing will ever come of it.

Nice try. There's plenty of discussion that can still come of this, especially if the dub is indeed dead and actors can (eventually) reveal more information such as casting choices. If you want this discussion to go away and have nothing to contribute then you have the option to ignore it.

[eledoremassis02]

If this is true thats sad because I think their reason for making the dub still exists. There is still a fanbase who can't wait to see it. But who really knows whats up. I still find it very strange the Boo Kai and Super are not even released over here with the FUNimation cast which makes me think something is up. FUNi has been pretty quick on these things and not even an announcement
to Super?

[Attitudefan]

Nitro you brought up some excellent points. It could explain why Ocean was able to use Funimation scripts and footage back when they were dubbing DBZ the first time around. Perhaps contractually, there has always been some deal with Ocean regarding rights of DBZ which not only had included voice work, but use and editing of footage as well. Perhaps the reason Ocean Kai could even exist was due to these deals regarding the Dragon Ball franchise in North America that stem back from the 90s. It would be crazy if that was the case. It may even explain, to a large degree, why Canada hasn't seen any DB material, and there was that situation in the UK regarding the dubs. If not, perhaps it was a new deal for sure that was made back in 2010 under similar contractual circumstances.

But legal issues can be complicated and lead to weird situations as we are seeing right now. It's interesting no other anime seem to have these sort of deals in place...

[8000 Saiyan]

If they intended Ocean Kai to be a TV-only dub, then they probably should have secured a deal with either YTV or Teletoon before they started production of the dub.

[Godgoku95]

Wait so is the dub cancelled or not, i'm confused

[TheBlackPaladin]

Wait so is the dub cancelled or not, i'm confused

Well, before I go any further, let me just clarify that by "cancelled" we're talking about whether the dub will be seen or not. This dub is indeed a real thing and has been completed (at least before the Buu arc), but it may have been "cancelled" in the sense that Ocean couldn't secure a TV deal...and a TV deal is necessary when your dub is going to be a TV-only dub like this one was. As 8000 Saiyan said so perfectly...

If they intended Ocean Kai to be a TV-only dub, then they probably should have secured a deal with either YTV or Teletoon before they started production of the dub.

This. So much this. I'm quite shocked that they went ahead with paying for a 98-episode dub before actually being sure if they could even get it out there or not.

So, with that out of the way, the gist of how things stand right now is that we don't know for a fact if it's cancelled or not, but we're almost completely sure it is, because Kirbopher--who has inside connections and has been, by far, one of the most reliable sources we've had about dub-related news--said it is. He said he heard this from a reliable source, and given Kirbopher's track record, we believe him. While it's true that some of the actors made statements to the contrary, there are two reasons this is not particularly comforting:

1) My guess is that these statements were made before the decision to cancel the dub was made.
2) Actors are not a reliable source of information on release dates, because with extremely rare exceptions, they're never given that information. That's info that only producers would know. Actors don't have any official responsibilities beyond just acting in their roles...they don't know about the writing, translation, editing, music, release dates...that's all info that they're not officially responsible for. They're only responsible for what they're paid to do, which in this case would be acting. They come in, they act their parts, the director says, "OK, thanks, see you next week!"...and that's that for them.

So, while we can't put it at 100% that we'll never see this dub, it sounds like we can put it at 99.99%.

[8000 Saiyan]

I still don't understand the need of having Blue Water VA's for minor characters when they have McNeil voicing Dr. Briefs.

[Arian]

Believe it or not, all hope is not lost here. We all have to band together and get Teletoon to see that we want this show on the airwaves.

Go to this link, https://www.teletoon.com/en/info/contact

Go to "I want to make a suggestion" and request "Dragon Ball Kai produced by Ocean Studios."



You can be elaborate or keep it short and sweet. Just get the message across. If enough of us email them, they may consider it.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I still don't understand the need of having Blue Water VA's for minor characters when they have McNeil voicing Dr. Briefs.

It's likely a cost thing. The union status of this dub is not particularly clear, but the general consensus is that Vancouver dubbing projects pay their actors more than Calgary dubbing projects do.

Believe it or not, all hope is not lost here. We all have to band together and get Teletoon to see that we want this show on the airwaves.

Go to this link, https://www.teletoon.com/en/info/contact

Go to "I want to make a suggesstion" and request "Dragon Ball Kai."

You can be elaborate or keep it short and sweet. Just get the message across. If enough of us email them, they may consider it.

Eh, couldn't hurt. I don't suspect it'll work, but what do we have to lose at this point, right? The only thing I'd add is to specifically request the Ocean dub, otherwise they might use the FUNimation dub, and that would truly be the final nail the coffin for any chance of seeing the Ocean Kai dub.

[8000 Saiyan]

I have sent them an e-mail.

[SX10]

I sent an e-mail too!

[Godgoku95]

i sent an email a few hours ago already

[Kirbopher]

Here's what else I've got to share, guys.

The fact is, NOBODY, that includes any of you guys, me, or any of the people involved with this production that either have spoken publicly or privately about it, know 100% for certain how or why these things happen. At most, we have educated guesses. I've weighed in once in a while on this thread over the years sharing what I've learned, combined with my knowledge of the industry. It is still 'technically' theoretically, but I'm inclined to believe my most recent source.

As an example, another show that a friend of mine worked on was for an entire season's worth of episodes; at least 26. They recorded the entire show's dub as the main character. The studio that dubbed it finished the whole season for whoever the client was that commissioned it, and then that client's next step was to try and get it on TV, alongside a toyline and probably other merchandise (a Beyblade/Cardfight-type of show, basically). This 26 episode season was recorded at least 2 full years ago; the finished mixes are sitting on a harddrive probably belonging to the client, who, in the end, never got a broadcasting deal for it. This is why other shows like this, such as Powerpuff Girls Z, Marvel Disk Wars and Inazuma Eleven, get weird random dubs from various unexpected places (depending) and then air in like an English-speaking territory out of nowhere and it never sees the light of day in North America. This other show my friend worked on, met the fate of just never seeing the light of day ANYWHERE. I think I (or someone else) even pointed out way back when Trevor Devall was still doing his podcast, that Inuyasha: The Final Act was recorded YEARS before it eventually, AGES later, aired on Neon Alley, THEN came out on DVD, and THEN finally aired on [as]. Basically, this type of stuff happens a lot more than you might expect, yes, even though a lot of money can be spend on an entire production like that.

The other thing is, and it aggravates me that the internet as a whole still doesn't seem to understand this: voice actors are the LAST people on the food chain when it comes to knowing the details of this stuff. It is often as black-and-white as, they come in, they do their lines, they go home. Even the ones who go the extra mile to ask about what's going on with it are never going to get the full story, because it's technically 'none of their business' to know that stuff in the first place. They do the work they're paid for, and that's it. That said, based on my own personal research and the people I've talked to about it, it sounds like after all this time, the final step of actually AIRING the show on TV anywhere in Canada never went through. So my THEORY, is that despite having the entire series ready to go, that since FUNimation's dub already aired in a lot of other non-US English-speaking territories already (Canada not included), whatever company that owns the broadcasting rights to it in Canada probably couldn't work out a deal with a network to air the show (which is probably far more complicated than anyone on this forum, myself included, can even grasp) and thus, it has no place to air, thus, it's not getting any sort of release.

Now, ALL of that said, I would absolutely 100% LOVE to be wrong. If the other actors who've talked about it "definitely coming out" have some other information they either can't or won't share, out of professionalism, then I seriously hope it comes to pass in the end. I really do want to see it. But call me a pessimist, I'm inclined to agree with the last couple folks I talked to, who seemed pretty sure it's staying in a vault never to be aired anywhere, and certainly not to be given a physical release.

[Geekdom101]

Legit heartbreaking.

[sangofe]

But call me a pessimist, I'm inclined to agree with the last couple folks I talked to, who seemed pretty sure it's staying in a vault never to be aired anywhere, and certainly not to be given a physical release.

What about a digital release?

[Godgoku95]

To me it's like losing a relative.

[Kirbopher]

But call me a pessimist, I'm inclined to agree with the last couple folks I talked to, who seemed pretty sure it's staying in a vault never to be aired anywhere, and certainly not to be given a physical release.

What about a digital release?

Highly doubt it.

[8000 Saiyan]

So, what should we do with this thread? Close it, or talk about possible recastings?