So I watched an episode of the Westwood dub

[MasenkoHA]

Specifically Goku’s Assassins. Brian Drummond’s Vegeta and Scott Mcneil’s Piccolo were as great as ever and I was surprise how easy it was too readjust to Drummond’s Vegeta. Maggie Blue O’Hara who I think resumed the role from Lalaina sounded pretty good but anything is preferrable over Vollmer. Gohan only got like 2 lines that episode so hard to say but Henderson seemed a bit off to me. Like she was subtly trying to sound more like Nadolny but ugh why? Though I didn’t hear enough to make a fair judgment. Klassen’s Krillin was meh but I was never fond of it to begin with (but I liked it better than Sonny Strait doing Jimbo from South Park) but if any returning voice
actor took a decline in performance from the Saban era.... it would be Klassen. Goku does nothing but scream in agony that episode so it was hard to get a gage on Kelamis’s performance.

As for the new voices. I get what they’re doing with Dr.Gero (uh Gyro?) but its a pretty bad performance. 17 and 18 in the Ocean dub are pretty good and 17 sounds close to the Funi va. I like 18’s Ocean voice almost as much as Meridith Mccoy and better than Colleen Clinkenbeard. 16’s voice is so badly miscast though. Why did they tell Scott Mcneil to do a monster voice?

Oh and Trunks voice is really bad. Eric Vale is also pretty bad (I hate to be THAT guy but Kaiserneko’s Trunks is my favorite English Trunk even for a parody its one of the few voices I think would work in a serious setting) but seriously the hell is with Ocean Trunk’s voice and performance? Made me think of really bad Hong Kong dubs

As far as music and censorship. Personally I never got why kids shows had an aversion to the word kill. But “destroy” is better than send to the next dimension or hurt or defeat. So I’m fine with the Androids saying they’re going to destroy Goku. The music is better than I thought. Obviously if you compare it directly to the Kikuchi score it sounds like cheap garbage but on its own its inoffensive somewhat bland Saturday morning cartoon music that doesn’t distract from the show (which the Faulconer score totally did in my opinion)

[8000 Saiyan]

It's sad how the Westwood dub was so rushed. If it had been better directed and had some better castings for certain characters, then it would have been a better product than Funimation's dub despite script problems.

If they had casted David Kaye as Cell, then he would have blown Clarke out of the water.

Oh, and they should have went with Kikuchi instead of that overused Mega Man music.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The music is better than I thought. Obviously if you compare it directly to the Kikuchi score it sounds like cheap garbage but on its own its inoffensive somewhat bland Saturday morning cartoon music that doesn’t distract from the show (which the Faulconer score totally did in my opinion)

This is why I've always preferred Keenlyside and Mitchell's score to Faulconer Productions. While it can't hold a candle to the custom made well produced Kikuchi score, Dragon Ball is, at its heart, a gag manga so by extension a fun saturday morning cartoon type score is a better fit than a score which tries too hard to appeal to edgy youths. Obviously the placement has problems and it wasn't intended for the show but I'd say the end result was enough of a happy accident for me.

[90sDBZ]

The Westwood dub didn't even come remotely close to the level of the Saban/Pioneer dubs for most of its run. But it did get much better towards the tail end, specifically the Fusion and Kid Buu sagas where it felt nowhere near as rushed and they began using music from Monster Rancher which worked much better than the Megaman OST. The jump in quality at that point is actually quite amazing but should have happened much much sooner.

[ABED]

Kirby Morrow's performance as Goku is incredibly bland. I've heard his performance numerous times over the years, and I still can't remember what his voice sounds like.

[8000 Saiyan]

I dunno, while it's not an overly distinct voice, I do know what Morrow sounds like.

[ABED]

Bland voice and a bland performance. Neither of which are good for a voice actor.

[MasenkoHA]

Doesn’t help he replaced Peter Kelamis. Like him or hate him Kelamis has a very distinctive way of doing Goku.

[8000 Saiyan]

Bland voice and a bland performance. Neither of which are good for a voice actor.

Whatever, that's your own opinion.

[ABED]

Bland voice and a bland performance. Neither of which are good for a voice actor.

Whatever, that's your own opinion.

What stands out with his performance?

[Attitudefan]

Doesn’t help he replaced Peter Kelamis. Like him or hate him Kelamis has a very distinctive way of doing Goku.

Yeah the biggest problem with Morrow taking over Goku was he was following Kelamis' Goku. Kelamis has such a distinct voice (I really like it, he is my favourite Goku) and Morrow just sounds like a very radio-friendly, smooth, and cool which is really jarring when in context when seeing his first episode near the end of a series like this. I am sure there were better voice matches out there for Kelamis but somehow Morrow got it.

Klassen took over Roshi which I never understood. Corlette and Doc Brown I believe had Roshi before and I don't understand why they put Klassen in that role. It is truly awful.

[ABED]

I'd still take Morrow over Kelamis any day of the week.

[JohnnyCashKami]

This felt like a stab in the back after the ever so brilliant Ocean Dub production, the Westwood dub is sadly mediocre in my opinion but I really dig the Mega Man score they used. I wish I could purchase that Mega Man soundtrack used on Westwood's dub as I'd love to listen to the BGMs.

[Attitudefan]

I'd still take Morrow over Kelamis any day of the week.

Morrow isn't bad but totally miscasted as Goku. Now I am curious to why would you prefer Morrow?

[NitroEX]

Gohan only got like 2 lines that episode so hard to say but Henderson seemed a bit off to me. Like she was subtly trying to sound more like Nadolny but ugh why? Though I didn’t hear enough to make a fair judgment.

Seems a bit of a weird criticism to make. She's doing her own Gohan voice but adjusted to be older sounding - as Gohan is older in the Westwood dub. This reminds me of people saying Bang Zoom Goku was imitating Schemmel when he clearly wasn't?

Oh and Trunks voice is really bad. Eric Vale is also pretty bad (I hate to be THAT guy but Kaiserneko’s Trunks is my favorite English Trunk even for a parody its one of the few voices I think would work in a serious setting) but seriously the hell is with Ocean Trunk’s voice and performance? Made me think of really bad Hong Kong dubs

I really don't understand this criticism. Abell's Trunks is far from terrible, there are only a handful of scenes I could point to where I felt he was off (some of the Android saga & Imperfect Cell saga yells) but for the most part he's a fitting voice that continues to improve.

TFS Trunks honestly sounds off to me. His delivery either ends up sounding whiny or like he's trying to sound like a stereotypical male pop singer. Whether it's intended for comedic effect or not, it's too camp for a sombre and serious character like Trunks.

Klassen took over Roshi which I never understood. Corlette and Doc Brown I believe had Roshi before and I don't understand why they put Klassen in that role. It is truly awful.

Personally, I thought Klassen was a better fit for Roshi, the preceding two were rather bland old man voices whilst Klassen made an attempt to be a funny/wacky sounding (for the lack of a better word) "drunk" old man voice that just had a lot more character to it. It wasn't consistent with what came before but a change I liked nonetheless, it made me laugh on many occasion.

This felt like a stab in the back after the ever so brilliant Ocean Dub production, the Westwood dub is sadly mediocre in my opinion

And the Funi dub at the time wasn't? (Nevermind the Big Green...) This feels like an exaggeration to me.

I agree that the Saban era dub was a tighter production but the perceived jump in quality isn't that large in my view. Keep in mind that it's easy to hold the earlier dubs in higher regard if you only grew up with those episodes and not the latter. If you discovered the Westwood/Blue water stuff as an adult it's really no surprise you hate the sound of it.

[Tian]

As far as music and censorship. Personally I never got why kids shows had an aversion to the word kill. But “destroy” is better than send to the next dimension or hurt or defeat.

I always found censorship in the U.S a bit ironic. It's like locally produced cartoons can say die or kill but anime dubs like this one have to replace those words with lame euphemisms. I don't really get it.

[8000 Saiyan]

I fail to see how Klassen is better than Corlett and Kelamis as Roshi. The three of them, along with the other Roshis (yes, including McFarland) are all awful. They lack the gravitas Roshi needs for the serious scenes and putting on stereotypical and cartoony old man voices don't give him that gravitas.

I can't help but imagine cringing Klassen doing the badass moments of Roshi.

[90sDBZ]

Even though I'm not a fan of this dub I never really hated Kirby Morrow as Goku. He did a serviceable job but wasn't the best at portraying Goku's childish nature or his anger. He worked well for the pre Cell Games filler when Goku was all calm and chilled out and he was good at the heroic speeches from the dub.

I liked Peter Kelamis during the Saban/Pioneer days but his Goku really requires good direction to work which it just didn't have in the Westwood dub. For me it goes Saban/Pioneer Kelamis>Kirby Morrow>Westwood Kelamis. Saying that Ian James Corlett beats them both.

[ABED]

I'd still take Morrow over Kelamis any day of the week.

Morrow isn't bad but totally miscasted as Goku. Now I am curious to why would you prefer Morrow?

It's not so much pro-Morrow as it is anti-Kelamis.

And would people please stop bringing up TFS "actors"?

I always found censorship in the U.S a bit ironic. It's like locally produced cartoons can say die or kill but anime dubs like this one have to replace those words with lame euphemisms. I don't really get it.

That seems less a US thing and more of an ultra-conservative company like Saban thing.

[TheGreatness25]

I feel like my general take-away from having watched roughly half of the Weseood dub (so far) is that I prefer almost every returning voice from the Saban era over Funimation's, but generally prefer Funimation over the post-Saban voices. It's a weird, possibly nostalgia-driven viewpoint, but that's how I feel.

I also feel like Trunks was not great. And characters that came along like Boo and Babidi sounded terribly. I didn't like the new Roshi performance at all either. Then, the are voices that I dislike a lot less, but prefer Funimation over like Cell, Dr. GYRO, etc.

To me, I really loved Vegeta, Piccolo, young Gohan (no, I don't think that Henderson sounded like she was trying to imitate Nadolny to me), Kaio (whew, I just think Funimation's Kaio is terrible with a capital T, E, double-R, I, B, L, and E), Bulma, and Chichi. Even though it took me over a decade to finally see a nice, sizable sample of the Ocean dub tackling the rest of the story, it brought me back hard. For the most part (save for the changes and the different music), it's what I imagined it would sound like going beyond Goku's arrival on Namek. And yes, as a kid, I actually did think about it and imagined what it would sound like until Z-Day touched down.

As for the music, I like it. For the longest time, I hated the intro. It's easy to hate, honestly. But watching like 10 back-to-back episodes, it kind of grew on me. It's not some masterpiece, but I don't mind it at all now. I dig the soundtrack.

The hardest thing about watching the Westwood dub is that while many, many improvements have been made to the video quality over the years (by using Dragon Box footage), the audio remains subpar, as the only source was recorded from TV airings. But, I like it all the same.

I look at the Westwood dub very positively for that it is and for how I like to experience the series. I love variety and don't care about the changes -- in fact, the more change, the more ways I get to enjoy the same material. If I want to watch DB the way it's "meant" to be seen, I'll watch the Japanese version, as I absolutely love it. But if I want to experience it again and again, I like watching its different incarnations (Funimation, Westwood, and even the Latin American dubs).

I do find it a little hard to sit through the Blue Water dub, though. But, I feel like I need to go through it at least once.