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

[sangofe]

@sangofe: From what I've heard of the French Kai dub, I've liked everyone except Freeza (I checked out the 'Terror Beyond the Horrors of Hell' scene).

@Kirbopher: I'm glad to hear Dale Wilson is most likely not Cell and that Zarbon is going to be in a similar vain as Tatum's!

Really, you don't like the French Freeza? He's my favorite. I don't like the new Cell and Kuririn. The old ones were awesome, though.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Will Ian Cox have a deep vocal, soft or high-ish (sorta emulating Kelamis/Masako) pitch for Goku? What does he sound for other characters that he voiced?

No way of knowing what voice he'll use until we hear him. However...

Here's what he sounds like in real life....

And here's what he sounds like as his most iconic character thus far, Inuyasha (from the anime series of the same name).

I think any voice can work with Goku as long as they capture the essence of the character, but it seems like they went for a higher-pitched voice this time around. Kirby Morrow, who was the last person to play Goku in the Ocean dub, re-auditioned for the part and said that he didn't get it because the producers thought he sounded "too cool."

Also, just as a general note to those of you who talk to any of the Vancouver actors about this stuff, I can say with confidence that none of them are gonna be able to give you a release date or business-related info onto when this dub is coming out or why it exists at all. They're actors; they almost never have those kind of answers - at no fault of their own, they're just doing their job and that's it.

This. Actors are rarely privy to production-related matters because that's not their responsibility. They come in, act their parts, and then leave. If they do ever learn anything production-related, it's by fortunate coincidence.

[Kid Buu]

From what I've seen Cox doesn't have too much range. I know Ranma and Inuyasha are intentionally meant to sound similar, but even Quicksilver from X-Men: Evolution sounded the same. However he is very good at being emote, and has an awesome personality in real life, so I'm curious.

[El Diabeetus]

@sangofe: From what I've heard of the French Kai dub, I've liked everyone except Freeza (I checked out the 'Terror Beyond the Horrors of Hell' scene).

@Kirbopher: I'm glad to hear Dale Wilson is most likely not Cell and that Zarbon is going to be in a similar vain as Tatum's!

Really, you don't like the French Freeza? He's my favorite. I don't like the new Cell and Kuririn. The old ones were awesome, though.

Might just be that scene, haven't heard Freeza in French outside of that. So it may not be a fair judgment until I see more of him in French.

[NitroEX]

Can you remind me what's the big deal with the Ocean Kai dub, what's important about an Ocean dub being on its way?

I'de say it's a mixture of things. Basically there's the nostalgia factor of having some of the original English voices returning to their roles after more than a decade and getting a second chance to voice the characters (Scott McNeil & Brian Drummond are notable examples). Then there are also those interested in how the new replacements will sound such as Goku and Freeza. For all we know they could be better than what we have now.

Also keep in mind the previous Ocean dub of Z suffered from a rushed schedule, inconsistent directors and had actors leave midway (notably Goku who was recast 3 times). There was also the issue of it being incomplete with the later half of the Namek sagas being left undubbed. With Ocean kai I assume they won't be handicapped like they were in the past and if they're other recent dubs are anything to go by (Death Note & Black Lagoon) then we should expect some quality acting from them.

The Ocean dubs of the first 3 DBZ films are considered by many to be some of the best dubbing for Dragonball and that was back in the 90s so I imagine they have the potential to do an amazing job.

Richard Ian Cox...this guy played Android 17 in the Westwood dub, right ?

Ted Cole was 17 and Yamcha.

[TheBlackPaladin]

NitroEX NAILED that answer. Pretty much from start to finish, it's a perfect summary of why some fans are excited about the Ocean dub of Kai. In particular, I'm extremely interested in seeing the portion of the dub that corresponds to the 50 or so episodes of DBZ that the Ocean cast never got to dub (beginning with shortly after Goku arrives on Namek and ending at the episode where Trunks tells Goku about the future).

I'm still holding my breath, though, because of the potential music issue. Sean Schemmel said the music would be replaced (although it's not exactly like that would be a new thing with Kai), and while we won't know for sure until the dub airs, there have been small pieces of evidence to suggest that what he was saying is true. The music company that handled the music for the Westwood dub listed Kai as one of the projects they're working on, and a while back a Kanzenshuuer did some digging around and found that the guy who sang the theme song for the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball posted an alternative theme song for Kai on his home page (which Kei then took the liberty of syncing to the opening's footage to see how it might look/sound).

So, it might not be my "dream dub" per say...but I'm still hopeful that we can at least hear the original voices again, most likely with better performances this time around. I say "better" not because their past performances were bad, but because the information revealed so far suggests that, music issues aside, a lot of effort is being put into making sure that this dub is a good one.

[dbboxkaifan]

For all we know the dub music could be better than the Kikuchi-Kai although surpassing that crappy replacement score is nothing to write home about.

[Attitudefan]

Ho ho ho, and the plot thickens. Thread revival perhaps?


Anyways, I am a little disappointed that old actors for Goku are not returning since I would have loved to see Kelamis get a serious take on the character for the whole series other than three 1 hour films (which he aced 100% and more).

But basically, it is what Nitro said. People want to see the original English cast (though not so original anymore since the amount of recasts including the MAIN PROTAGONIST) have another shot at a, hopefully, faithful dub. Most consider that Ocean's take on DBZ had better casting, better acting, when doing uncut material they succeeded at being a proper alternative to the Japanese subs in accuracy of script, voice sound-a-likes, and pronunciation for the most part. People like myself want to hear Brian Drummond as Vegeta and throughout that character's development into a good guy. Plus, we want to see a dub proper by Ocean with one actor as Goku! Plus, speaking for myself, see Ocean without Kirby Morrow as Goku.

But even despite the censors, maybe due to nostalgia (I rewatched all of the first 53-54 episodes with the Ocean cast), the general consensus is that the actors nailed the roles they were given and fit much better over FUNi's cast, especially with Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, and Vegeta.

[TheBlackPaladin]

For all we know the dub music could be better than the Kikuchi-Kai although surpassing that crappy replacement score is nothing to write home about.

Weeelllll.....you say that now, but...be careful what you wish for. If they're going to be re-using the score found in the Westwood dub, then I'll take the Kikuchi-Kai score in a heartbeat. Heck, I even prefer the Faulconer score over the Westwood dub's score...at least the Faulconer score was specifically composed for DBZ. The Westwood dub is notorious for using recycled music from previous, unrelated shows (like Megaman and Monster Rancher), with the score often not fitting the mood at all (I know the Kikuchi-Kai score can have that problem, but trust me, the Westwood dub's score had this problem far, far worse). Not to mention that it was wall-to-wall music, no moments of silence whatsoever.

[UltimateHammerBro]

The Westwood dub score had its problems, but I want to believe that if some tracks are reused in Kai, more specific tracks will be composed, the placement will be better and there'll be more silence.
This time, I don't mind a replacement score. After all, the only alternative would be the Kikuchi placement.

Plus, the Army / Awakening Theme would become 100 times more awesome if it isn't overused.

[xXInfinite026Xx]

Interesting turn of events if I shall say.

But to add even more irony to the recent knowledge that Richard Ian Cox is the new Ocean Goku, Richard had also technically played the part of Ian James Corlett himself in the Canadian cartoon Being Ian. Essentially Being Ian was created and based on the early life of Ian James Corlett and it's also one of Richard's unique performances outside of his usual snarky Ranma/InuYasha voice he's well known for. Personally I think it's a pretty good testament of his high-pitched range.

Here's a small clip of him as Ian.

Of course, since he's playing a prepubescent kid in the show, it's only a small frame of reference for his range as opposed to what he might sound like as Goku. However the irony of it all is what makes this recent news so funny. Maybe he was destined for the role after all by following in Ian James Corlett's footsteps?

[Kirbopher]

LMAO the Being Ian thing is a hilarious coincidence I didn't think about before. "Ian" from that show isn't exactly the best example of what he could do for Goku, but I'm confident it's gonna be good.

Also, whoever said that bit about Zarbon sounding more like the Tatum version; actually, yes. No more British accent, it's something more like how he sounds now.

[UltimateHammerBro]

So "Being Ian" was the only reason why Richard's role was ironic or was there another one?

[xXInfinite026Xx]

So "Being Ian" was the only reason why Richard's role was ironic or was there another one?

The only other example was already pointed out by KaiserNeko; Kappei Yamaguchi's role as Goku in the Japanese dub of DB Evolution since Richard Ian Cox provided the English dub of Yamaguchi's most famous roles. Aside from that, nothing else noteworthy pops into mind.

LMAO the Being Ian thing is a hilarious coincidence I didn't think about before. "Ian" from that show isn't exactly the best example of what he could do for Goku, but I'm confident it's gonna be good.

Yeah it's definitely not what I expect his Goku to sound like, which is why I mentioned that it's only a testament to his range and nothing more. But I really am curious how he recorded his lines now. Damn this cursed dub, will we ever get a chance to see it? It's been 4 freaking years since we first heard about it!

[90sDBZ]

For all we know the dub music could be better than the Kikuchi-Kai although surpassing that crappy replacement score is nothing to write home about.

Weeelllll.....you say that now, but...be careful what you wish for. If they're going to be re-using the score found in the Westwood dub, then I'll take the Kikuchi-Kai score in a heartbeat. Heck, I even prefer the Faulconer score over the Westwood dub's score...at least the Faulconer score was specifically composed for DBZ. The Westwood dub is notorious for using recycled music from previous, unrelated shows (like Megaman and Monster Rancher), with the score often not fitting the mood at all (I know the Kikuchi-Kai score can have that problem, but trust me, the Westwood dub's score had this problem far, far worse). Not to mention that it was wall-to-wall music, no moments of silence whatsoever.

Agreed. I'm not the biggest fan of Kikuchi, and his score in Kai is repetitive, but if it were a choice between that and the old Westwood score then I'd take Kikuchi any day. I remember when the Westwood dub first aired and immediately took a dislike to the music. I didn't find out until years later that it was actually from Megaman, but it was painfully obvious right away that zero thought had been put into the placement. The worst thing about it was how limited it was. I actually felt the Kikuchi placement in Kai got more varied as the series progressed, while the Westwood score stayed awful for a massive portion of the series spanning the Androids-Fat Buu sagas before finally introducing some new music in the Fusion saga.

[ConfusedPhantom]

Richard Ian Cox is Goku, huh? Nice. I hope we actually get to hear it one day.

[UltimateHammerBro]

Agreed. I'm not the biggest fan of Kikuchi, and his score in Kai is repetitive, but if it were a choice between that and the old Westwood score then I'd take Kikuchi any day. I remember when the Westwood dub first aired and immediately took a dislike to the music. I didn't find out until years later that it was actually from Megaman, but it was painfully obvious right away that zero thought had been put into the placement. The worst thing about it was how limited it was. I actually felt the Kikuchi placement in Kai got more varied as the series progressed, while the Westwood score stayed awful for a massive portion of the series spanning the Androids-Fat Buu sagas before finally introducing some new music in the Fusion saga.

I personally think that if the original Westwood dub tracks (and new ones, of course) are used, they'll have a better placement, with more silence and effort put into it.

[ShinGaijin]

I personally think that if the original Westwood dub tracks (and new ones, of course) are used, they'll have a better placement, with more silence and effort put into it.

I'd be nice.I'd be nice to hear those tracks properly, professionally placed, with a clean, proper sound.I recently watch Goku SSJ3 VS Pure Boo (a few of them in stereo ! YIPEE KI YAY ! *DANCING*), wow! A lot of tracks fits to the show very well.

Plus, the Army / Awakening Theme would become 100 times more awesome if it isn't overused.

Cannot agree more ha ha I LOVE it too, it's probably the best piece of music that DBZ had from Mitchell & Keenlyside.

[UltimateHammerBro]

Plus, the Army / Awakening Theme would become 100 times more awesome if it isn't overused.

Cannot agree more ha ha I LOVE it too, it's probably the best piece of music that DBZ had from Mitchell & Keenlyside.

For a really long time, that theme was my ringtone. No one knows what the Ocean dub is around here, so everyone asked me where that kickass music was from.

[Valerius Dover]

^That piece happens to be from Mega Man.