The humble beginnings of the Original Funimation Cast.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I heard all sorts of crazy stories about the start of the Season 3 cast. Like they were people literally out of the street and brought in to act on the show. I want to know a lot more about this. This sounds really interesting.

[precita]

Chris Sabat said he used to make prank calls to Malls or something. Sean Schemmel was basically jobless and nearly homeless when he took the job.

In fact Sean Schemmel said during the Cell arc when Goku was sick with the heart virus he couldn't pay his rent because Goku had no lines to say in the anime for a large chunk of episodes.

[TheBlackPaladin]

The term "off the street" is not exactly accurate. Rather, it arose as a phrase meant to insult the lack of significant acting experience that many of them had prior to their roles in DBZ.

It was also meant to distinguish them from the Ocean cast. Whether one likes the performances of the Ocean cast or not, they were all union actors with a lot of experience and training. The one slight exception to this is Brian Drummond, the Ocean voice for Vegeta, because Vegeta was his first ever anime dubbing role. However, I emphasized the word "slight" because, while it was his first anime dubbing role, it was not at all his first voice acting role. He had pre-lay voice acting experience, having done some stuff for a G.I. Joe cartoon prior to DBZ (and I believe some other stuff as well), and in addition, he graduated from a very prestigious acting school in Canada called Studio 58, and their curriculum is so stressful and intense that the vast majority of students who enroll end up dropping out......but not Drummond. He was one of two students who managed to graduate the program. Also, just to add icing on the cake, he had already done a ton of theater. So, while Vegeta was his first anime role, it was not even close to his first acting job.

...It was pretty much the exact opposite scenario for the cast of FUNimation's in-house dub. It was a non-union dub done in Dallas, which was pretty unheard of at the time, as most dubs for anime shows with the name power of DBZ were recorded in either LA or New York, often as a union dub. Chris Sabat actually said that, when they were first looking for actors in Dallas, they called local talent agencies to ask for actors with dubbing experience, and the agents didn't even know what FUNimation was talking about, saying, "Umm....well, we have like, commercial voice actors....will that work, or....?" My how that changed...now Dallas has become the anime dubbing capital of North America, and they always do non-union dubs unless--possibly--they acquired the rights to a series that's a sequel to another series that previously had a union dub, in which case they will sometimes do a union dub then in order to get the original cast back.

Anyway. Since they didn't have luck with talent agents, they just put out ads in the local newspapers. Since this was before the union really started to lose power, and because Dallas wasn't a major acting city, they really had a tough time finding actors. The vast majority--not all--but the vast majority of people who showed up at the auditions had little to no acting experience. Sean Schemmel (Goku), for example, said that his acting experience prior to DBZ consisted of a puppet show that he did one time, along with a few sporadic classes that he took in college. Chris Sabat (Vegeta) was training to become an opera singer. Sonny Strait (Kuririn) was writing and drawing comic books, although he had done a large amount of theater and auditioned thinking that DBZ would be a fun "side job" that would only last a year or two.

Without naming specific names, the general consensus--even among the actors involved--is that the acting in "Season 3" was pretty bad. I don't know exactly what FUNimation's priorities were, but from reading interviews with the actors, it seems as though FUNimation's top priority at first when casting was to cast based on how similar people could sound to the original Ocean cast. Sean Schemmel said that, for the audition, they also required that every actor bring a demo tape showcasing the different characters and voices the actors could do, but Schemmel said he's pretty sure they didn't listen to it and just wanted to see if the auditioning actors actually had a demo tape. So, it sounds like their standards were not up to par with what most anime dub casting standards were at the time.

I forget exactly how many actors FUNimation auditioned, but apparently, they auditioned a lot of people. To give you an idea, Sabat said that a lot of the first-round auditions were pretty bad, with one particularly horrible one standing out to him. When auditioning for characters in anime or pre-lay, auditioning actors come in look at (or, in the case of home studio auditions, are emailed) a "bio sheet" of the characters they'll be auditioning for. These bio sheets typically contain a picture of the character, a paragraph-long description of what their character is like (including relevant story facts), and dialogue from several different scenes (to test the actor and see if they can provide an emotional range for the many different scenes they'll be doing). Sabat said that for this one audition, the person came in and didn't seem to get that the biographical descriptions were there to help inform auditioning actors about their delivery of the dialogue......and so this person never read the actual dialogue, instead going from character to character and reading their biographical descriptions in his own voice. He even continued to read Bulma's biography after Sabat interrupted him and said, "Actually, I don't--I don't think you want to read for that, Bulma's a girl."

Flash-forward a few years, and now things are quite different. I don't live near FUNimation, but I have friends on Facebook who do, and I've been told that while FUNimation still hosts open-call auditions once a year, it's now a three-year waiting list, and that FUNimation has significantly higher standards now in terms of audition/acting quality. Sabat has said several times that, back in the super-early days, they would just grab whoever was in the next room for bit parts, and now they have a database of hundreds of actual, trained actors they can pick from.

So, not literally "off the street." That came about more as an insulting phrase, like, "They went from trained actors [with Ocean] to people they just picked off the street!" I think all DBZ fans would have appreciated a dub that was consistently good, but in a way, it's been quite amazing to see just how much these actors have improved. I mean, heck, Sean Schemmel went from being a trumpet player with almost no acting experience to living in Los Angeles and appearing in Scooby-Doo episodes, among other things.

[precita]

Having read that, its really weird how close a lot of the FUNI voices really did sound to the Ocean cast. Sean Schemmel's Goku really does have a similar sound and tone to Ocean's Goku's. Chris Sabat's Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Jeice, Burter, Nail, Guru, etc. all sounded similar.

And then there's Freeza. They got a totally different person to pull the same feminine voice Ocean's Freeza had and as a kid I had no idea Freeza was recasted.

[TheBlackPaladin]

The one exception would be Sonny Strait as Kuririn. Strait said in an interview that when he got the call telling him he got the part, he was told that it came down to two people, him and another actor. Apparently, the other actor sounded more like Terry Klassen (Kuririn's Ocean voice), but Strait came across to them as the better actor. 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.

As a kid, I definitely noticed that there some re-casts had occurred. The only voice that didn't strike me as being changed was Gohan's. Stephanie Nadolny eventually changed her Gohan voice a little bit, but man, in those early days, I think she sounded almost exactly like Saffron Henderson (Gohan's Ocean voice).

[TheGreatness25]

At least Sean Schemmel is/was a musician, so he has vocal control training. Not too sure about the others. It sounds like FUNimation thought anyone can come voice a cartoon. If I were the voice actor, I wouldn't be so proud of that fact, by the way. I wouldn't talk about how it's just something that I stumbled upon one day. I wonder how many of them got vocal or acting training after they got the gig, just to try to be more professional. It would be funny to think that Chris Sabat, someone who probably has a role in every FUNimation dub, is no more trained today (besides experience) than he was in 1999.

[Gyt Kaliba]

It sounds like FUNimation thought anyone can come voice a cartoon. If I were the voice actor, I wouldn't be so proud of that fact, by the way. I wouldn't talk about how it's just something that I stumbled upon one day. I wonder how many of them got vocal or acting training after they got the gig, just to try to be more professional. It would be funny to think that Chris Sabat, someone who probably has a role in every FUNimation dub, is no more trained today (besides experience) than he was in 1999.

Sometimes experience is the best way to learn, though obviously it's no replacement for actual training. Even Steve Blum, who's widely considered on of the best voice actors around - heck, he barely even does anime any more sadly, mainly doing domestic animation, video games, and ad work nowadays - basically got pulled in off the streets too. He didn't even realize he was an actor or that he was actually acting until after he'd done Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop. The lead. In Cowboy Bebop. One of the most beloved anime series out there, even among non-anime fans. And he didn't even know that what he was doing at the time was acting. Try and wrap your brain around that one, cuz I know it's always blowing mine.

[TheGreatness25]

I feel like Steve Blum is just very good at what he does. I don't feel like his voice is forced or that he's doing cartoony voices. Plus, surely he must have gotten some sort of training after being in the 'biz for a bit. Even if not, he sounds pretty natural. There's not one role where I hear Chris Sabat and think that he's not doing some cartoony voice. It all seems forced. Even Sean Schemmel, I feel like he's forcing the Goku voice, which is crazy because it's basically his voice with a different pitch. The acting just doesn't come off as natural and it's hard to get invested in a scene where you hear a voice that you know someone is tearing up their vocal cords doing.

I'm not trying to knock the FUNimaton voice cast because there's a ton of nostalgia up in there for me and I love the dub, as ridiculously silly as it is, but I don't think that I'd ever say that I ever thought that the dub team is good. A lot of the actors who work there are great. 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. Those are like Cowboy Bebop, where you actually feel like those voices should be coming from those characters. But you can't compare them to a Chris Sabat or Sean Schemmel role.

Again, no disrespect. I'm a fan of their work on DB (again, there's a lot of nostalgia in it and this in no way means that I think their work is superior to the Japanese audio) and I'm glad that they get work. I'm glad that they were able to go from humble nothings to being pretty famous in their profession. But still, I would never think that they're a perfect cast for any character. Comparing them to other anime (like the ones I mentioned, like Cowboy Bebop, like Inuyasha, etc.) or video games that come out now (before they generally had awful voice acting), or even U.S. made cartoons (anything DC or marvel that's been animated, for example), I can see that they have a lot less experience than others. Maybe they're just not naturals at the game. In any event, I'm glad that they made a good living off of it, though.

[ABED]

It would be funny to think that Chris Sabat, someone who probably has a role in every FUNimation dub, is no more trained today (besides experience) than he was in 1999.

Experience is a far better teacher than some classroom. Course and teachers can help give you tools, but I've found that experience to be overwhelmingly better.

[TheGreatness25]

Sure, but through all of his years of experience, Chris Sabat just doesn't seem to be that good. Again, I love the guy, but let's face it: anyone can make a deep, raspy voice. Even the voice actor playing Vegeta on Team Four Star sounds way more natural than Sabat does, and he's doing an impersonation of Sabat's voice! That's crazy.

I can make a deep, raspy voice. Why not give me 4 roles on one of the hottest animes to come out? Then after a few years, let me direct everyone else. I don't see the difference between Sabat and me doing it... or you doing it... or any random person on the street doing it.

[ABED]

Sure, but through all of his years of experience, Chris Sabat just doesn't seem to be that good. Again, I love the guy, but let's face it: anyone can make a deep, raspy voice. Even the voice actor playing Vegeta on Team Four Star sounds way more natural than Sabat does, and he's doing an impersonation of Sabat's voice! That's crazy.

I can make a deep, raspy voice. Why not give me 4 roles on one of the hottest animes to come out? Then after a few years, let me direct everyone else. I don't see the difference between Sabat and me doing it... or you doing it... or any random person on the street doing it.

Not anyone can make a good deep raspy voice and no, no one on Team Four star sounds natural. It's a parody and not a very good one. So you and I differ on that assessment. He's grown a lot. His Yamcha, Vegeta, and Piccolo have improved a lot. His Piccolo isn't even raspy anymore. One of the reasons his deep voices are better than just Joe Schmoe is because his voice is very deep.

[TheGreatness25]

While he has gotten a lot better, he started off terribly. So if I get Joe Shmoe to come and he does a terrible job, but I give him 15 years to perfect it, I'm pretty sure he'll get a lot better in those 15 years too.

And I know that Team Four Star is a parody, but Vegeta (for example) doesn't sound so strained when he speaks. I'm not one of those people that quote Team Four Star or think that they should redub the whole thing or anything, but they do have some talented people working on it. The Vegeta and Trunks voices, for example, I think are better than the FUNimation's. They definitely sound much more natural.

[ABED]

While he has gotten a lot better, he started off terribly. So if I get Joe Shmoe to come and he does a terrible job, but I give him 15 years to perfect it, I'm pretty sure he'll get a lot better in those 15 years too.

And I know that Team Four Star is a parody, but Vegeta (for example) doesn't sound so strained when he speaks. I'm not one of those people that quote Team Four Star or think that they should redub the whole thing or anything, but they do have some talented people working on it. The Vegeta and Trunks voices, for example, I think are better than the FUNimation's. They definitely sound much more natural.

TFS isn't DB, it's a parody and I think everything they do sounds strained. Nothing sounds remotely natural.

In a fictional world, delivery doesn't have to sound naturalistic, and it didn't take Sabat 15 years to sound good. I wish FUNi hadn't hired a green cast, but many of them got good pretty fast, even if their scripts were terrible. I'll give you Trunks. Vale's talented and I think his acting was pretty good from early on, but he gave Trunks more rasp over the years which hasn't helped.

[TheGreatness25]

Agree to disagree, man, but dude, that Trunks voice! What the hell is that? When I was playing Xenoverse, every time I heard his voice through my controller, I wanted to throw it out the window. That voice is awful! Ironically enough, I do think that his original portrayal of Trunks was great. Maybe not that first line that he delivers ("Ah, so you must be Frieza..."), but after that, he's pretty fine. Now it's just whiny and annoying.

[ABED]

Agree to disagree, man, but dude, that Trunks voice! What the hell is that? When I was playing Xenoverse, every time I heard his voice through my controller, I wanted to throw it out the window. That voice is awful! Ironically enough, I do think that his original portrayal of Trunks was great. Maybe not that first line that he delivers ("Ah, so you must be Frieza..."), but after that, he's pretty fine. Now it's just whiny and annoying.

Whiny wouldn't be the adjective I'd choose. Raspy works fine. He's too raspy. If he dropped that but pitched his natural voice up a little, he'd be fine.

[TheGreatness25]

That rasp is terrible. Funny enough, I actually liked Piccolo with the rasp. When he got more stoic in the Boo arc, I felt like Piccolo lost his unique trait. Despite the terrible script ("Yes! Yes! Yes! I can do it! I can win! I feel great! I - CAN - DO - THIS!"), I actually felt like Piccolo was fine in "Season 3." It wasn't great, but I like it more than the later iteration.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Please stop derailing the topic guys, This is to learn more about the beginnings of the Funimation cast,not Team Four Star and Funimation quality competitions.

ALSO Speaking of Eric Vale, can anyone tell me the story about how he got cast? Because I heard it was when he delivered a pizza to Tiffany Vollmer LOL.

[precita]

ALSO Speaking of Eric Vale, can anyone tell me the story about how he got cast? Because I heard it was when he delivered a pizza to Tiffany Vollmer LOL.

LOL, I wonder if that's true.

[Lunaar]

How about that Dale Kelly, though? Oh man, that narrator. "ONE HOT POTATO" anyone? I know he didn't write the lines, but good gracious - the outrageous "NEXT TIME ON DRRRAGUNBALLLLLZEEEEEEE" shtick originated with Doc Harris' performance, but I don't remember it sticking quite like Mr. Kelly's did. That shit used to be ammo on the playground for kids that made fun of stuff I liked. *cough* As we all know, Kyle Hebert stepped in by the Boo arc and eventually went back and rerecorded the entirety of DBZ as of the Ultimate Uncut/Orange Brick sets, with a few lines changed/removed if I recall.

Kelly's narration is my top contender for "most cringe-worthy difference" of FUNi's '99 beginnings. It really just... slaughtered any hope of taking anything seriously. In hindsight, the worst part is that I just plain didn't care as a child. Grew up with both dub and original audio as a wee lad and never really thought twice about the monster-truck man summarizing a life or death struggle on an alien planet. Thoughts?

Thank god for Kai's Doc Morgan. At the risk of topic derailment, can you imagine if Kaio had been recast with Morgan? There's no connection between the narrator and that character besides the original Japanese casting, but... a man can dream.

EDIT: I wish nothing but the best for any actors mentioned that lent their voices to so, so many soulless "NEXT TIME!"s. Mad respect for earning a prestigious role in one of the greatest shows of our time... even if their casting was a huge tonal misstep that helped reinforce a general consensus of how the property is overall presented in this region of the world. No big deal.

[B]

Eric Vale wasn't delivering a pizza to Tiffany Vollmer; Tiffany Vollmer called him and told him to try out for Trunks when he was at a point in his life delivering pizzas. Vale outlines this story in detail on his YouTube page.

Uhm, I don't even what to say about the complaints towards Sabat. The irritation of residing Watson-era practices and slavish nostalgia aside, he's clearly delivering his best performances ever, and in the case of Piccolo, possibly the best performance in the dub period. For all of the supposed acting training Schemmel might have had, he's still botching Goku all day e'rryday.