The humble beginnings of the Original Funimation Cast.

[TheGreatness25]

I'm just curious about the music. Honestly, the Faulconer score doesn't bother me at all. I think that a lot of it is pretty good. The in-between cartoony noises like most of Goten and Trunks's stuff is not my favorite, but there are some gems in there. The Trunks, Earth, Vegeta, Super Saiyan 3, and Ginyu themes stick out to me and I really like them. Now if only they were done with better instruments.

Basically, if the voice actors were told to try to recreate their predecessors' voices, what was the take on the music? I just remember it was such a radical shift that it was kind of jarring on "Z-Day." Definitely could've been a smoother transition if they kept the old music.

Plus, I think that Sean Schemmel was much closer to Ian James Corlett's Goku than Peter Kelmais's. I'm curious if that was a conscious decision since Ian James Corlett was their first choice, after all.

[Metalwario64]

Plus, I think that Sean Schemmel was much closer to Ian James Corlett's Goku than Peter Kelmais's. I'm curious if that was a conscious decision since Ian James Corlett was their first choice, after all.

At first, I thought they got Corlett back, but after a few episodes I could tell it wasn't him.

[TheGreatness25]

At first, I thought they got Corlett back, but after a few episodes I could tell it wasn't him.

lol Yeah! I could tell that all of the voice actors were different, even in my tender age of 11, but there were times that Schemmel sounded like Corlett. I also thought that they retained the voice actor for Tenshinhan. Don't ask me why lol

[TheBlackPaladin]

I'm just curious about the music...Basically, if the voice actors were told to try to recreate their predecessors' voices, what was the take on the music? I just remember it was such a radical shift that it was kind of jarring on "Z-Day." Definitely could've been a smoother transition if they kept the old music.

Plus, I think that Sean Schemmel was much closer to Ian James Corlett's Goku than Peter Kelmais's. I'm curious if that was a conscious decision since Ian James Corlett was their first choice, after all.

It's hard to gauge how the people at FUNimation felt about the replacement scores on a creative level. On the one hand, Schemmel has said that he never cared for Faulconer's score (even noting that he didn't like it despite going to the same music school as him). On the other hand, FUNimation CEO Gen Fukunaga said in an interview that he wasn't happy with the score in the Ocean dub and felt that Faulconer's score was an improvement. In the end, though, he said in a later interview that the primary reason for replacing the score was a financial one. Royalty fees for music are literally charged on a per-second-of-usage basis, and so they purposefully created replacement scores for the primary purpose of opening up another revenue stream. Ever wondered why the music never stopped? Well, that's the biggest reason why. It also meant they didn't have to pay royalty fees for Kikuchi's music. From an artistic perspective, I don't think it made much sense, but from the financial perspective of a company that didn't have a ton of money at the time, I think that made all the sense in the world.

As for the Corlett/Kelamis thing...honestly, I didn't know until 2006ish that Goku had more than one Ocean voice. The idea behind bringing in Kelamis was to find someone whose voice was similar if not identical to Corlett's. 11-year-old me didn't hear the difference, to be honest. While my reaction was the intended one, I learned years later that it wasn't the common one, and that most other fans could almost immediately notice a difference. I honestly didn't. For that matter, part of the reason Kelamis got the job was because apparently, the reverse situation had occurred on other shows, in which Corlett was brought in to replace Kelamis due to their voice similarity.

[TheGreatness25]

Damn, you guys are so informative lol

It would also be interesting to know if the writers were the same through that transition.

Kind of interesting that Vollmer got Vale in to be cast as her son. And then Vale was retained for Kai and she wasn't seeing as she got him in there.

[TheBlackPaladin]

DIt would also be interesting to know if the writers were the same through that transition.

Also kind of hard to gauge. On the one hand, new writers definitely did begin working on adapting the dub scripts, and Chris Sabat said in an interview a fears ago that, when they first started out, pretty much everybody didn't really know what they were doing and had to learn as they went along--writing included. They may have been getting some assistance from their Canadian comrades, though, because Terry Klassen's name continued to show up in the credits as a writer even after "Season 3" began. It's unknown if that means Klassen was still adapting the scripts, or if they just credited him because they carried over something that he originated from a previous script into the new ones.

[TheGreatness25]

Wasn't Barry Watson's name credited as well? I seem to recall his name popping up.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Wasn't Barry Watson's name credited as well? I seem to recall his name popping up.

As a writer? I'm not sure, but he was definitely the dub's "head honcho" for quite a while, even during the dub of GT. Gradually, his presence in Dragon Ball-related material diminished as Chris Sabat started assuming more of Watson's duties....and, rather interestingly, the more creative control Sabat got, the more the dub seemed to improve.

You'll find that many of the more controversial elements of the DBZ dub were Watson's call. Having said that, I don't mean to portray him as a bad guy. The people who worked with him said he was very nice, and in spite of all the questionable decisions he made, he also made some great ones...let's not forget that, for example, casting Scott McNeil as Piccolo was his call.

[ABED]

Wasn't Barry Watson's name credited as well? I seem to recall his name popping up.

As a writer? I'm not sure, but he was definitely the dub's "head honcho" for quite a while, even during the dub of GT. Gradually, his presence in Dragon Ball-related material diminished as Chris Sabat started assuming more of Watson's duties....and, rather interestingly, the more creative control Sabat got, the more the dub seemed to improve.

You'll find that many of the more controversial elements of the DBZ dub were Watson's call. Having said that, I don't mean to portray him as a bad guy. The people who worked with him said he was very nice, and in spite of all the questionable decisions he made, he also made some great ones...let's not forget that, for example, casting Scott McNeil as Piccolo was his call.

Life would be so much easier if the people making bad creative choices were A-holes. Alas, life isn't that simple.

[TheGreatness25]

Of course that doesn't make him a bad person lol Who would hate someone for decisions they made on these sort of things?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Of course that doesn't make him a bad person lol Who would hate someone for decisions they made on these sort of things?

A lot of people, most unfortunately.

Before I say anything more, I should make a big preface consisting of a few points. Here we go...
*The people behind both of these sites have become much more mature over the years and have since admitted that they were unnecessarily harsh.
*All of us say stuff that we later regret.
*All of us look back at things we said and did when we were younger...with some degree of regret. I know I can certainly think of a few things I wrote on the internet, be it social media or forums, that I wish I could go back and slap my younger self for writing.
*The information on some of the production problems, not to mention the process of creating a dub, was not public knowledge until many years later.
*This was taking place at a time where fans in North America didn't have the option to purchase legal, high-quality releases of the original Japanese version. The only options they had were to watch FUNimation's re-versioned dub or to buy horrifically low-quality VHS fansub tapes from weird/("bootleg-ish") places.

......So, bare that in mind. With that preface out of the way, though, if you want to get a feel for how sub fans felt back during the early days of the dub, I recommend going to the websites DBZ Uncensored and DBZ Uncensored 2. Both serve as interesting "time capsules" of how sub fans felt at the time.

[precita]

lol Yeah! I could tell that all of the voice actors were different, even in my tender age of 11, but there were times that Schemmel sounded like Corlett. I also thought that they retained the voice actor for Tenshinhan. Don't ask me why lol

Tenshinhan sounds nearly identical in Ocean and FUNI. I think he sounds a lot more distinct now, but when he first started it was near identical.

[ABED]

lol Yeah! I could tell that all of the voice actors were different, even in my tender age of 11, but there were times that Schemmel sounded like Corlett. I also thought that they retained the voice actor for Tenshinhan. Don't ask me why lol

Tenshinhan sounds nearly identical in Ocean and FUNI. I think he sounds a lot more distinct now, but when he first started it was near identical.

I never felt that way. Even Chris Cason sounded much different from Matt Smith.

[TheBalishChannel]

Attack on Titan was done wonderfully (except Chris Sabat's part, which I immediately picked up by hearing it) and Black Lagoon is dubbed very well.

Black Lagoon was actually dubbed by Ocean Studios, not FUNimation, which explains why the acting quality is much better than even FUNimation's most recent efforts. FUNimation just owns the license to sell, manufacture, and distribute the show after Geneon, the original license holder, closed all distribution operations. I was introduced to Black Lagoon when it was airing on Toonami a couple years ago and I was blown away by how real the characters sounded, enough to keep me excited to catch the latest episode every weekend. In contrast, although I don't watch anime much at all besides Dragon Ball, from what I've seen of FUNimation's English dub of Attack on Titan, the acting quality found within is gratingly amateur; it becomes especially noticeable when you compare the English dub to the Japanese original, in which the latter clearly has a cast that is more involved which is apparent even if you don't understand the language.

I personally find that FUNimation's more recent projects are, in a lot of ways, worse than their older work. While it's true that Chris Sabat's Vegeta hasn't reached quite the same level of "forced cartoon voice" that was present in his early Captain Ginyu through Trunks Saga performances, his recent attempts at emulating Ryō Horikawa's screams and overall inflection are at times cringe-inducing. Not only that, but most of the time he ends up making certain power-up scenes sound very underwhelming as he puts more focus on trying to hold onto a voice rather than just belting out a yell like he used to. I remember back when the theatrical trailer for Battle of Gods first came out, some old fans on Twitter noticed how different Vegeta sounded, particularly when he shouted, "YOU BASTARD!" enough to assume that his role was replaced. Chris Sabat ended up chalking it all up to his old age on Twitter, which is complete B.S. and he knows it better than anyone.

Sean Schemmel's Goku today is the ultimate example of a forced-interpretation of a character. I guess somewhere down the line he gave into the hardcore fan's wishes by trying to make his Goku sound more akin to Masako Nozawa's performance by dialing up the stupid and child-like aspects of Goku's character to a level that I find to be simply unbearable to listen to. His goofy "EH-HEH-HEH!" chuckles are so artificial and mundane, why the voice director hasn't put a stop to it is anyone's guess... actually no it isn't; Chris Sabat also serves as the voice director for of FUNimation's projects, which is bizarre seeing as he got the job out of sheer luck without having any previous acting credentials.

The funny thing is that Sean Schemmel and Chris Sabat have recently spoken out against their original attempt at dubbing Dragon Ball Z, saying that they were simply following the orders of the "higher-ups" at FUNimation, which at the time would've been Barry Watson and Daniel Cocanougher. They say that they disagreed with how the show was being handled even as early as 1999, but alas couldn't do anything about it. This is a lie, however. Back when the Dragon Ball Z website had a chatroom, sometimes the actors would come in as "celebrity guest stars" and talk to the fans. I believe DBZUncensored or some other early Dragon Ball Z fansite had documented that Sean Schemmel himself took credit for coming up with King Kai's line in "89 - Frieza Defeated!!" in which he says "AWW YEAH! OKAY! GIVE IT TO HIM GOKU! OH BOY, UH-HUH! MAKE HIM REAAALLLY FEEL IT! YEAH, YEAH, YEAAAHHH!" The site emphasized the fact that Sean was, apparently, very proud of his work. Additionally, Chris Sabat took credit for the whole, "cat loves food" thing, as well as completely butchering Killa's character by telling Dameon Clarke to go ahead with the guttural and inaudible farce of a voice that they'd come up with while brainstorming in the booth. In the Westwood dub however, Killa's lines could be easily understood without the use of subtitles, which shows that FUNimation's abomination was simply the result of a group of guys dicking around during a recording session rather than treating the property professionally.

I've seen countless people on these forums say in the past that both Sean and Chris were always champions for trying to put out a faithful interpretation of the show, and while that may be true for Dragon Ball Z Kai, the exact opposite is true for Dragon Ball Z. Putting the blame solely on the higher ups at FUNimation at the time is simply wrong.

For the record, my favorite interpretation of Dragon Ball Z is the one that originally aired on Toonami. It was meant to be an "Americanized" version of the show, designed to cater to Western audiences. Despite all of it's issues, it is frustrating to see how much Chris Sabat and many others are now wanting to distance themselves as much as they possibly can from their original attempts to the point of resorting to lying. The people who hold Dragon Ball Z Kai's dub quality in such high regard are wrong as well. Dragon Ball Z Kai is a mess; if they wanted to be faithful to the original Japanese version, it would've been within their best interests to have went all out by recasting characters like King Kai, and use the Japanese attack names for the entirety of the series as opposed to just some of the earlier episodes. Now, because they didn't, the product serves only to alienate both fans of the original English dub and fans of the original Japanese version. Not to mention the fact that they accidentally left lines from both the NickToons and 4Kids edited versions of the show in some scenes on the uncut DVDs/Blu-rays. The quality of acting is also at times worse in many areas, as I mentioned earlier before. Whether it's Eric Vale adding way to much rasp to his Trunks voice, Colleen Clinkenbeard's overly-feminine/cutesy speech and shrill yells/screams as Gohan, or Chris Sabat's Piccolo voice slipping into Vegeta's and vice-versa due to his more subdued approach at voicing the characters, these problems weren't present in their initial attempt at dubbing the series.

I wish someone would come to me and offer me the lead role of a hugely popular cartoon without me having to show any previous experience in the voice-acting industry.

[B]

If the chatroom thing is true, I'm at least glad most parties involved are capable of enough shame to want to separate themselves from such garbage.

And Dragon Ball Kai, ironically enough, served the purpose of introducing new kids to the franchise, something it seemingly failed to do in Japan. Somebody awhile back made the bold statement that they "grew up with the old Nicktoons broadcast in 2010." I've heard random kids talking about it on the street here and there. It's kind of insane. Sure, holdovers from the old dub suck for those in the know, but a new audience isn't going to care about "destructo disc" or be indoctrined to like Stephanie Nadolny. To say there was zero value in that dub is ridiculous. It's been repeated ad nauseam; the West needed Kai to a far greater length than Japan did.

[ABED]

Balish, we are hearing two completely different things. I hear nothing but improvement from the FUNi cast. Kai was what DBZ always should have been, and your big paragraph about the few instances where the actors got to have some say doesn't prove anything other than there were a few instances where they had an influence on the script. And of course Sabat would, he's a director. I don't hate the Killa thing, nor do I love it, but you've proven nothing as he is such an insignificant character and that's why they were able to make such a change. The entire product could not be the result of guys dicking around in a booth. It's impossible given the scripts have to match the mouth flaps. Yeah, there are a few instances here and there that you can point to, but the actors didn't have much say in the overall direction.

Kai is not nearly the mess you make it out to be. There are still some roles that could've been switched and they could've been more consistent with attack names (even though translation isn't a science), but overall it's a very good dub that's accurate to characterization and dialog. Your post comes off as a defensive fan of a godawful dub. You are knocking the cast and director for being inexperience, but that problem existed during the dub you clearly prefer.

Clinkenbeard's overly-feminine/cutesy speech and shrill yells/screams as Gohan, or Chris Sabat's Piccolo voice slipping into Vegeta's and vice-versa due to his more subdued approach at voicing the characters, these problems weren't present in their initial attempt at dubbing the series.

Nadolny falls into the same traps as Clinkenbeard, but she's a worse actress and her screams are far more shrill. Sabat's Piccolo voice is distinct from his Vegeta. I've never once thought they sounded alike. Yes, I can tell it's the same actor, but that's not the same thing. I'm glad he's more subdued, it's improved his acting by leaps and bounds. Even if you don't think those "problems" were there in the initial dub, it had WAY worse problems as FUNi's cast didn't have humble beginnings as much as a very GREEN beginning.

I wish someone would come to me and offer me the lead role of a hugely popular cartoon without me having to show any previous experience in the voice-acting industry.

They weren't offered, they tried out. And the mere fact that they went for it says a lot since most don't even make that step.

I guess somewhere down the line he gave into the hardcore fan's wishes by trying to make his Goku sound more akin to Masako Nozawa's performance by dialing up the stupid and child-like aspects of Goku's character to a level that I find to be simply unbearable to listen to. His goofy "EH-HEH-HEH!" chuckles are so artificial and mundane

He's not emulating her, he's getting the character right and those chuckles are there in the previous dub. What about the previous dub did you prefer? It's baffling considering how inexperienced they all were.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I personally find that FUNimation's more recent projects are, in a lot of ways, worse than their older work. While it's true that Chris Sabat's Vegeta hasn't reached quite the same level of "forced cartoon voice" that was present in his early Captain Ginyu through Trunks Saga performances, his recent attempts at emulating Ryō Horikawa's screams and overall inflection are at times cringe-inducing. Not only that, but most of the time he ends up making certain power-up scenes sound very underwhelming as he puts more focus on trying to hold onto a voice rather than just belting out a yell like he used to. I remember back when the theatrical trailer for Battle of Gods first came out, some old fans on Twitter noticed how different Vegeta sounded, particularly when he shouted, "YOU BASTARD!" enough to assume that his role was replaced. Chris Sabat ended up chalking it all up to his old age on Twitter, which is complete B.S. and he knows it better than anyone.

I don't find Vegeta's power ups in Kai underwhelming. I'm not a voice actor myself, but I've listened to enough interviews for them to know that screaming requires breath control. It's a tactic that was used in Kai whereas in the original Z dub some of the actors were trying too hard, Sabat being the prime example in this case. He used to have to copy Drummond, but now he uses his regal voice, which sets him apart from Drummond, and as a result his performances are less forced and more natural. It's also worth noting Sabat tweaks his Vegeta role from time to time (he even did it pre-Kai for the orange bricks), which inevitably leads to variations in his performance, but this is something I respect.

Sean Schemmel's Goku today is the ultimate example of a forced-interpretation of a character. I guess somewhere down the line he gave into the hardcore fan's wishes by trying to make his Goku sound more akin to Masako Nozawa's performance by dialing up the stupid and child-like aspects of Goku's character to a level that I find to be simply unbearable to listen to. His goofy "EH-HEH-HEH!" chuckles are so artificial and mundane, why the voice director hasn't put a stop to it is anyone's guess... actually no it isn't; Chris Sabat also serves as the voice director for of FUNimation's projects, which is bizarre seeing as he got the job out of sheer luck without having any previous acting credentials.

I don't think Schemmel today sounds forced at all. His Goku voice is simply a variation of his natural voice, but with a different pitch. His performances have become more Nozawa-like for sure, but he's done a good job at capturing the child-like aspects of Goku's character without straying too far from his original performances.

The funny thing is that Sean Schemmel and Chris Sabat have recently spoken out against their original attempt at dubbing Dragon Ball Z, saying that they were simply following the orders of the "higher-ups" at FUNimation, which at the time would've been Barry Watson and Daniel Cocanougher. They say that they disagreed with how the show was being handled even as early as 1999, but alas couldn't do anything about it. This is a lie, however. Back when the Dragon Ball Z website had a chatroom, sometimes the actors would come in as "celebrity guest stars" and talk to the fans. I believe DBZUncensored or some other early Dragon Ball Z fansite had documented that Sean Schemmel himself took credit for coming up with King Kai's line in "89 - Frieza Defeated!!" in which he says "AWW YEAH! OKAY! GIVE IT TO HIM GOKU! OH BOY, UH-HUH! MAKE HIM REAAALLLY FEEL IT! YEAH, YEAH, YEAAAHHH!" The site emphasized the fact that Sean was, apparently, very proud of his work. Additionally, Chris Sabat took credit for the whole, "cat loves food" thing, as well as completely butchering Killa's character by telling Dameon Clarke to go ahead with the guttural and inaudible farce of a voice that they'd come up with while brainstorming in the booth. In the Westwood dub however, Killa's lines could be easily understood without the use of subtitles, which shows that FUNimation's abomination was simply the result of a group of guys dicking around during a recording session rather than treating the property professionally.

I've seen countless people on these forums say in the past that both Sean and Chris were always champions for trying to put out a faithful interpretation of the show, and while that may be true for Dragon Ball Z Kai, the exact opposite is true for Dragon Ball Z. Putting the blame solely on the higher ups at FUNimation at the time is simply wrong.

I'm not aware of DBZUncensored or other fansites that documented Schemmel, and/ or Sabat for taking credit for their older performances, but they could easily have been taking PR orders from Watson and Cocanougher, because even if Schemmel and Sabat disagreed with how the series was being treated back then they wouldn't have been allowed to speak against it. It's also worth noting that both Schemmel and Sabat were exposed to the Japanese version of the show and the manga at a later stage, and as a result they are only considering how their previous dubbing compares to their current work in retrospect.

For the record, my favorite interpretation of Dragon Ball Z is the one that originally aired on Toonami. It was meant to be an "Americanized" version of the show, designed to cater to Western audiences. Despite all of it's issues, it is frustrating to see how much Chris Sabat and many others are now wanting to distance themselves as much as they possibly can from their original attempts to the point of resorting to lying. The people who hold Dragon Ball Z Kai's dub quality in such high regard are wrong as well. Dragon Ball Z Kai is a mess; if they wanted to be faithful to the original Japanese version, it would've been within their best interests to have went all out by recasting characters like King Kai, and use the Japanese attack names for the entirety of the series as opposed to just some of the earlier episodes. Now, because they didn't, the product serves only to alienate both fans of the original English dub and fans of the original Japanese version.

I disagree, Kai is a very faithful and well-acted adaptation of the original story. Roles have been kept, and names have remained the same, but that's been done because Funimation wanted to appeal to fans of the original and the Japanese versions of Z. Yes, you will never please everyone, but they did the median job in terms of accurate characterization, faithful dialogue and serving fans of the original dub. I don't fault them for keeping the original actors and performances of some characters. Sure Schemmel's King Kai isn't as good as Yojo Yanami's, but its serviceable, unlike other roles which had to be recast (Linda Young as Frieza for example).

Not to mention the fact that they accidentally left lines from both the NickToons and 4Kids edited versions of the show in some scenes on the uncut DVDs/Blu-rays. The quality of acting is also at times worse in many areas, as I mentioned earlier before. Whether it's Eric Vale adding way to much rasp to his Trunks voice, Colleen Clinkenbeard's overly-feminine/cutesy speech and shrill yells/screams as Gohan, or Chris Sabat's Piccolo voice slipping into Vegeta's and vice-versa due to his more subdued approach at voicing the characters, these problems weren't present in their initial attempt at dubbing the series.

There was no need for Funimation to change all the dialogue on the uncut DVDs/Blu-rays. Even the TV edits of Kai follow the general tone of the original Z, and get the intended point across. I don't think any of the original Funi Z performances compare to Kai. Clinkenbeard is a better actress than Nadolny and gives better performances as Gohan. And Sabat's Piccolo has improved significantly, it doesn't slip back into his Vegeta voice, they are similar but they're not the same, Vegeta was only different in the original dub because, as I stated before Sabat was trying to imitate Drummond, but now he has is own interpretation of the character.

I wish someone would come to me and offer me the lead role of a hugely popular cartoon without me having to show any previous experience in the voice-acting industry.

Sometimes we can't just wish for things, and they happen to us when we least expect them to. People get lucky, people are in the right place at the right time. Good things happen to people, but you can't always control it.

[NitroEX]

Despite what you think of Sabat's acting as Piccolo and Vegeta, when you boil it down it's still a pretty ludicrous casting choice in this day and age. With the Z dub Funimation didn't have the budget to afford a large varied cast so using Sabat all the time was somewhat understandable but now that they're the biggest anime company in North America it's harder to defend a casting choice like that especially when they've got so many talented people willing to work for them.

The other thing is, since Sabat is also the director it just makes the whole thing look ten times worse because you know he's going to have a lot of influence on casting choices, I'm pretty sure he's even mentioned replacing other actors that weren't up to par. Speaking of which, the general consensus on Kai's replacements does seems to be favourable and most reasonable fans tend to agree that the new Funimation voices are better than their Z predecessors, why then is it so hard for people to imagine a new Piccolo and/or Vegeta voice being just as praised and (god forbid!) considered better than Sabat's take?

As much as he wants to be, Sabat is no Frank Welker, in other words he doesn't have that much range in him to successfully pull off two distinct characters consistently. At this point there's really not much distinguishing Piccolo and Vegeta aside from a slight accent change and for many people (myself included) that simply isnt a good enough representation, it just doesn't do them justice. If this was some exceptionally talented voice actor I may think differently but it's not, it's Christopher Sabat, a guy who was hired because he could do some imitations and because he was cheap, he might have improved but I would argue he was never the best man for the job.

At the end of the day I don't think he's in the right position to be an impartial judge when it comes to Piccolo and Vegeta, even if someone came along who was a better fit I seriously doubt he would step down.

Sure Schemmel's King Kai isn't as good as Yojo Yanami's, but its serviceable, unlike other roles which had to be recast (Linda Young as Frieza for example).

I don't see how Schemmel's King Kai is serviceable, it's a terrible obnoxious voice that leaves you unable to take the character seriously. If Linda Young needed to be changed then so does King Kai... and Recoome for that matter.

Then-producer Barry Watson said that he felt, if Kuririn was supposed to be the strongest human on earth, that his voice should be tougher-sounding anyway. So, Strait just went his own way with the voice.

This was one of the main aspects of Funimation's in-house Z dub that I despised. Whether it was Krillin, Piccolo, Vegeta, Gohan, Kid Trunks or even Android 18, you could just tell they were putting on an overly macho voice in an effort to sound tough. I'm inclined to believe it was all Watson's fault but this was strangely never a problem during the Saban/Ocean partnership that he was also involved with. I suppose with Ocean out of the picture there was no one left to reign in his dumb decisions.

[jjgp1112]

For the record, Chris Sabat wanted to give up the role of Piccolo in the Kai dub, but it didn't work out.

[ABED]

Sabat's Piccolo and Vegeta are plenty different and they're good, so I don't agree with your assessment at all Nitro.