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

[Gonstead]

Blue Water had nothing to do with the Android Saga or anything Z, but they did do DB and GT.

Who did the second half (roughly) of Z then? I thought it was Blue Water.

Ocean Group contracted under Westwood Media.

[Ringworm128]

I know that I too have yet to hear any good from Blue Water. I tried watching Deltora's Quest, and my god was it painful. o_o

I actually didn't find the Ocean/BL dub of DQ to be that bad. IMO it was certainly better then what they did with the Cell and Buu arcs and GT.

[Kirbopher]

I think Brendan is mistaken, because he's probably talking about Zoe Slusar performing little Goku in the Blue Water dubs for Dragonball and Dragonball GT, because no, the person voicing Goku in this Canadian dub for Kai is NOT anyone from Mega Man Powered Up.

Additionally, and this is just a theory, but my assumption as to why some of the voicework is being farmed out to Blue Water in the first place is because it might be cheaper compared to recording exclusively at Ocean. However, maybe they might be using this as an opportunity for "merging" the casts of the three shows between Ocean and Blue Water? Like for instance, maybe people like Scott and Brian are recording the -core- characters at Ocean, while some of the more minor characters like Yamcha, Tenshinhan etc. are being recorded by their Blue Water equivalents in Edmonton? Again, ALL OF THAT is just a theory, but it might be a cost-effective and possibly...confusing (?) way of producing the dub. I have no idea.

[NitroEX]

I'de like to think that if there are any Blue Water actors in this they'll surely up their game if they're working alongside pros like McNeil and Drummond. Also If they've got a good director I'de imagine that would help too.

I'm mostly worried if this new Goku can pull off powerful and distinctive sounding screams during fights. I think anyone can get the naivety of Goku right but how he sounds during fights and power ups can really let a good performance down to me. Schemmel has the screaming down nicely but he's had years of practice to get it right whereas this new guy hasn't.

[Solidus]

I think Brendan is mistaken, because he's probably talking about Zoe Slusar performing little Goku in the Blue Water dubs for Dragonball and Dragonball GT, because no, the person voicing Goku in this Canadian dub for Kai is NOT anyone from Mega Man Powered Up.

Additionally, and this is just a theory, but my assumption as to why some of the voicework is being farmed out to Blue Water in the first place is because it might be cheaper compared to recording exclusively at Ocean. However, maybe they might be using this as an opportunity for "merging" the casts of the three shows between Ocean and Blue Water? Like for instance, maybe people like Scott and Brian are recording the -core- characters at Ocean, while some of the more minor characters like Yamcha, Tenshinhan etc. are being recorded by their Blue Water equivalents in Edmonton? Again, ALL OF THAT is just a theory, but it might be a cost-effective and possibly...confusing (?) way of producing the dub. I have no idea.

Thanks for the information Kirbopher. I take it that the voice actor for Son Goku will probably come from the Ocean Productions pool of actors then. As for using Blue Water actors to bring down the cost of production, I think that is a possibility. It could also be to look more extensively for actors with more appropriate voices for the various roles. This clearly isn't a cheaply done dub though as they have given Ocean a lot of time to work on the dub and possiblt to get it right and they seem to want a faithful dub what with Kirby Morrow being dropped. I don't think this is going to turn into another AB Group situation.

[linkdude20002001]

Who did the second half (roughly) of Z then? I thought it was Blue Water.

That was done at Airwaves Sound Design and Ocean Studios (which are both in Vancouver, British Columbia...while Blue Water Studios is in Calgary, Alberta).

Ocean Group contracted under Westwood Media.

Ocean Productions (formerly Ocean Group) is the company responsible for anything done at Ocean Studios or Blue Water Studios (at least, as far as I know, other companies can't use these studios).

I actually didn't find the Ocean/BL dub of DQ to be that bad. IMO it was certainly better then what they did with the Cell and Buu arcs and GT.

Well, I haven't seen much of that, I suppose. However, either way my love of Dragon Ball probably makes me able to watch things regardless of quality. Hahaha. Though, at least with Dragon Ball, I know they weren't as bad as Nadolny (FUNi-Goku) or Vollmer (FUNi-Bulma). I watched the Son Gokuh arc of all three English dubs ('95 FUNi, 2001 FUNi, and Westwood), and the first one had GREAT acting...the second had some GREAT acting, some "okay" acting, and some unbearable acting...and the third had just "okay" acting all around. And then of course there was Harmony Gold, which I think was by far the best.

[TheBlackPaladin]

And then of course there was Harmony Gold, which I think was by far the best.

Overall, I think it's probably a good thing that the Harmony Gold dub didn't take off, because of all the weird changes they were making. However, having finally seen the Harmony Gold dub, I gotta admit, I too really liked the acting from a lot of the cast members. Barbara Goodson sounds like she would have made a great Goku.

[Metalwario64]

I just haven't run into any good Blue Water dubs. Most of the ones I've encountered I've found cringeworthy. Zeta Gundam's spit all over my favorite mecha show.

Man, I just started watching Zeta yesterday, and when this one chick died and this guy screamed in agony over it, and proceeded to cry under his breath, the dub just had him not so loudly yelling "NOOO", followed by dead silence.

I laughed.

[linkdude20002001]

Overall, I think it's probably a good thing that the Harmony Gold dub didn't take off, because of all the weird changes they were making. However, having finally seen the Harmony Gold dub, I gotta admit, I too really liked the acting from a lot of the cast members. Barbara Goodson sounds like she would have made a great Goku.

The changes were mostly just name changes, right?. It's not like Funimation didn't change names too. And of the ones they kept, many were mispronounced. I honestly would have preferred them to finish the whole series. That certainly would be interesting to see. And I can't help but wonder if they would have had a subtitled release at some point too. Do they do that??

[TheBlackPaladin]

Overall, I think it's probably a good thing that the Harmony Gold dub didn't take off, because of all the weird changes they were making. However, having finally seen the Harmony Gold dub, I gotta admit, I too really liked the acting from a lot of the cast members. Barbara Goodson sounds like she would have made a great Goku.

The changes were mostly just name changes, right?. It's not like Funimation didn't change names too. And of the ones they kept, many were mispronounced. I honestly would have preferred them to finish the whole series. That certainly would be interesting to see. And I can't help but wonder if they would have had a subtitled release at some point too. Do they do that??

Unfortunately, it wasn't just name changes. There were some relatively significant script changes here and there, scenes that were entirely cut, and their dubs of the movies merged a few of them together. The merging of unrelated stuff into one show is something that Harmony Gold is famous for, because that's essentially what "Robotech," their biggest hit, was. Granted, "Robotech" completely rewrote the story and scripts, and merged entirely different shows that had nothing to do with each other, which is (thankfully) not how they handled "Dragon Ball." However, this approach would still have made an eventual uncut, bilingual DVD release very difficult to pull off, because it would have been a very difficult task to go back and re-dub all the scenes they cut and arrange them in the proper order. In all likelihood, too difficult to justify the expenses. If they could ever do that, they would probably have to do something like what France did for their DVD release--include the uncut Japanese audio track, and an edited English audio track that switches to the Japanese audio with English subtitles every time an originally-censored scene came up.

As far as a subtitled-only release...I'm not familiar with Harmony Gold doing that, but I could be wrong. Back in pre-DVD days, it was unusual for anime to be released subtitled because the general consensus was that the audience who would buy it would not be big enough for a subtitled release to turn a profit. Really, the DVD format is probably the best thing to ever happen to the anime industry. It allows for a simultaneous release of two audio tracks, which also made releasing uncut material easier. This way, licensing companies could release two versions of the show for the price of one, which eased a lot of the economic fears about subtitle-only releases.

[Solidus]

So, how do you think the script is going to be handled? Will they just use the Funimation script with slight alterations like back in the Westwood days? Ocean gave Funimation their video edits so there is some collaboration on the production of both dubs already. I kinda hope that they make a script from the ground up that is even more faithful than Funimation's one but if it ends up being the same I'll be satisfied with it as Funi's script is fairly good.

[TheBlackPaladin]

If the Westwood dub was any indication, they're just gonna use FUNimation's script verbatim, with a few minor changes in phrasing and verbiage here and there. On the other hand, the Blue Water dubs of DB and DBGT made new scripts from scratch (despite the usage of several terms unique to FUNimation's dub, such as "Shenron" instead of "Shen Long," and "(Hercule)" instead of "Mr. Satan"). My guess is that they're gonna do what they did in the Westwood dub.

[KingofWisdom]

I'm hoping for something at least as accurate as FUNi's, with the possibility of Japanese attack names and some sort of consistent use of the Son family name.

[eledoremassis02]

the fact that the first 53 episodes are what CSC Media just acquired is interesting because the 1st FUNi dub (a.k.a ocean dub) stopped at 53 :O

[Gonstead]

the fact that the first 53 episodes are what CSC Media just acquired is interesting because the 1st FUNi dub (a.k.a ocean dub) stopped at 53 :O

What a concept it would be if this was simply a continuation of that dub, haha.

[VegettoEX]

Company is told they have a great offer available to them: an edited, down, mostly-filler-less version of DBZ. Two seasons ready to go with 53 episodes. Music already "modernized" and replaced. Esteemed voice cast included.

Company purchases rights without question.

Company receives master tapes.

Company realizes their mistake.

Toei laughs.

[elcrunkus]

Company is told they have a great offer available to them: an edited, down, mostly-filler-less version of DBZ. Two seasons ready to go with 53 episodes. Music already "modernized" and replaced. Esteemed voice cast included.

Company purchases rights without question.

Company receives master tapes.

Company realizes their mistake.

Toei laughs.

Do you know how far into the dub they are in terms of dubbing? Do you know of confirmed cast members?

[VegettoEX]

I don't know anything about this beyond what we've posted as sourced news on the website. You're confusing me with someone who actively follows the production of English dubs .

[TheBlackPaladin]

I think Brendan is mistaken, because he's probably talking about Zoe Slusar performing little Goku in the Blue Water dubs for Dragonball and Dragonball GT, because no, the person voicing Goku in this Canadian dub for Kai is NOT anyone from Mega Man Powered Up.

Additionally, and this is just a theory, but my assumption as to why some of the voicework is being farmed out to Blue Water in the first place is because it might be cheaper compared to recording exclusively at Ocean. However, maybe they might be using this as an opportunity for "merging" the casts of the three shows between Ocean and Blue Water? Like for instance, maybe people like Scott and Brian are recording the -core- characters at Ocean, while some of the more minor characters like Yamcha, Tenshinhan etc. are being recorded by their Blue Water equivalents in Edmonton? Again, ALL OF THAT is just a theory, but it might be a cost-effective and possibly...confusing (?) way of producing the dub. I have no idea.

Hmmmm......so the new Goku is not anyone from that Megaman game after all....and we were told the choice for Goku's voice actor would be a new one who has not voiced Goku before, a surprising pick that none of us would immediately guess, and someone described as "the perfect man for the job."

...........I wonder.......maybe Brad Swaile? He fits that criteria. He hasn't voiced Goku before, would be a surprising pick since he already voiced Gohan in the Westwood dub, and while "perfection" is subjective, he has a very youthful voice that I think could easily fit Goku's child-like energy. It's also possible that they cast him as Goku without fear of running into the "he already plays Gohan" problem because production of this dub clearly began before the Kai-Buu international continuation was announced.

JUST AIR THIS DUB ALREADY!!!

[matt0044]

...........I wonder.......maybe Brad Swaile? He fits that criteria. He hasn't voiced Goku before, would be a surprising pick since he already voiced Gohan in the Westwood dub, and while "perfection" is subjective, he has a very youthful voice that I think could easily fit Goku's child-like energy. It's also possible that they cast him as Goku without fear of running into the "he already plays Gohan" problem because production of this dub clearly began before the Kai-Buu international continuation was announced.

Maybe but I have trouble seeing the voice of Amuro Ray and Light Yagami as Goku.