Should Chris Ayres redub Freeza in DBZ?

[precita]

Now that Freeza has a new voice actor in Kai and Super, its really jarring watching the Freeza saga dub of FUNI and hearing the old Freeza voice.

I understand FUNI would never take the time to redub all of DBZ again, but they did have Chris Sabat record new lines for his Vegeta for the "Season 3" dub that was put on DVD over the old 1999 recordings. Do you think if they ever re-release the series on DVD again, that they would have Chris Ayres redub all of Freeza's lines?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Now that Freeza has a new voice actor in Kai and Super, its really jarring watching the Freeza saga dub of FUNI and hearing the old Freeza voice.

I understand FUNI would never take the time to redub all of DBZ again, but they did have Chris Sabat record new lines for his Vegeta for the "Season 3" dub that was put on DVD over the old 1999 recordings. Do you think if they ever re-release the series on DVD again, that they would have Chris Ayres redub all of Freeza's lines?

As utterly awesome as that would be, it's not going to happen. Besides the time factor, there are three other factors:

1) Most of the people who still watch the DBZ dub want it kept as-is because that's the version they like. FUNimation's DBZ dub, while sub-par in many respects, still has a very loyal following. A following that was outraged at the replaced voices in Kai and onward, for that matter. At this point, the only people who legitimately love the DBZ dub are people who want to re-experience what they saw when they first watched the show on Toonami. They're not interested in a loyal re-dub, they want what they know and love. Taking away "the voices of our childhood" would alienate the target audience for the original DBZ dub. Really, Kai was the ultimate win-win situation when it came to the dub...FUNimation got to keep the dub that continues to make them money, while simultaneously creating a dub that, while technically not a re-dub, is a dub of a show that's so damn similar to another one, that it could be considered a pseudo-re-dub. Fans who want what they grew up with get to keep the DBZ dub, and fans who want a dub loyal to the original version have Kai.

2) The re-writing that would be required. Chris Ayres is brilliant as Freeza, but his brilliant performance was aided by the fact that he was also working with J. Michael Tatum's brilliant script adaptations. Currently, no such script adaptations exist for DBZ, which would mean that Ayres would either be brought in to read the dialogue Linda Young originally had (which is not compatible with his performance), or the dialogue would need to be re-written. This in turn would create another problem because it would necessitate further re-dubbing of other characters. Some of Freeza's dialogue is in direct response to how other characters word their responses. So that would mean bringing in Chris Sabat (doable), Sonny Strait (doable), Sean Schemmel (still doable, but more difficult since he doesn't live in Texas anymore), and Stephanie Nadolny (who doesn't appear to be on good terms with FUNimation anymore), among others. Either that or they bring in Colleen Clinkenbeard for Gohan, but, well...see problem #1.

3) By far the biggest one...the money. I'm not accusing FUNimation of being cheap here. In fact, I'm sympathizing with them. To dub an anime is simply not a cheap thing to do, especially if it's done well. Bringing in Ayres means hiring him for his acting, Sabat for his directing, and an engineer for the recording...of many, many episodes. Not to mention hiring a writer for the re-written dialogue, if it came to that. As well as the re-dubbing of other characters. It's a pretty expensive operation, all things considered. One that would likely not be received well because, again, see problem #1.

Any minute I can hear of Ayres as Freeza is a treat. However, this treat is something that I doubt we'll ever have.

[Gian2408]

Honestly, I love Chris Ayres's Freeza and he is most definitely the better Freeza in my opinion but honestly to have him to back and re-dub Z would disrespect Freeza's original voice actor, Linda Young. She did a good job and she deserves some respect

[ABED]

Honestly, I love Chris Ayres's Freeza and he is most definitely the better Freeza in my opinion but honestly to have him to back and re-dub Z would disrespect Freeza's original voice actor, Linda Young. She did a good job and she deserves some respect

I have no reason to disrespect her as a person, but she didn't do a good job and was completely miscast.

[Gyt Kaliba]

which would mean that Ayres would either be brought in to read the dialogue Linda Young originally had (which is not compatible with his performance)

I still think that would make an absolutely amazing bit at a panel though, having Ayres read some of the old dub dialogue in his Freeza voice, and attempt to make it work.

[ekrolo2]

I'd kill to hear Ayers say "Pop goes the weasel!"

[ABED]

I don't know if he could make it work, but it would be infinitely better than Young's performance.

[theoriginalbilis]

Should they? Sure.

Will they? Nah.

Be happy we're living in the age of the faithful dub. The old DBZ dub does have it's place in history; however, it should be remembered as a footnote and not as a milestone.

[Man-Child]

I agree with the others. Ayers should totally act out Young's dialogue from the old days, if only for a joke.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I guess I wouldn't mind hearing Chris Ayres attempt the original dub dialogue at a joke panel at a con. It would be rather funny to hear Ayres-Freeza say, "All right, big guy, whatever turns you on..."

[Deathbringer]

it's already confusing enough with their different home releases, getting all the actors together for yet another version of the dub for DBZ would be chaos, especially when Funimation are too busy with Majin Boo Kai and Super, not to mention all the other anime they dub. I think I'm satisfied enough with having the great acting in the Kai dub and the 2 new movies alongside the future dub of Super (whenever that comes out) to the point where I have no problems with Funimation leaving Z behind for good now. Maybe when we stop receiving new DB content one day Funi can go back and do a definitive dub of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z but right now there are bigger fish to fry.

edit: oh i just realised you only meant Freeza I thought you meant the whole thing just to get to hear great things like chris ayers freeza

[Gyt Kaliba]

Other than the idea of hearing Ayres deliver some of the cheesy dialogue of old, I think the other thing I'm really wishing we could hear his take on is some of the filler stuff, particularly Freeza's reactions while watching Goku's fight with Kid Boo, or even him and Cell's team up in GT.

[90sDBZ]

Honestly, Ayres does an awesome job in Kai, but him redubbing Linda Young's Z work would just be totally out of place and inconsistent with the rest of the dub. Not to mention fans of Kai still wouldn't like that dub, and fans of Z would be bothered by the change.

Many fans, including myself, found the partial redubbing of Season 3 (such as Vegeta, Krillin, the Narrator etc..) to be unnecessary and feel somewhat out of place. Another big problem with them doing the partial redub was the consistency, in that they stopped at the Trunks saga. So you essentially go from Sabat's more developed Vegeta, to his Drummond impression, and eventually back again. I actually went to the trouble of hunting down the old singles of Season 3 just to hear all of the original Funimation performances again.

[Hellspawn28]

Kai was pretty much Funimation's second chance on redubbing DBZ. So there is no point.

[precita]

Many fans, including myself, found the partial redubbing of Season 3 (such as Vegeta, Krillin, the Narrator etc..) to be unnecessary and feel somewhat out of place. Another big problem with them doing the partial redub was the consistency, in that they stopped at the Trunks saga. So you essentially go from Sabat's more developed Vegeta, to his Drummond impression, and eventually back again. I actually went to the trouble of hunting down the old singles of Season 3 just to hear all of the original Funimation performances again.

I've never seen the Season 3 redub, did they alter any lines or was it just new voices?

I only wish Chris Ayres was discovered around the time the redub of the Freeza saga happened....

[ABED]

Many fans, including myself, found the partial redubbing of Season 3 (such as Vegeta, Krillin, the Narrator etc..) to be unnecessary and feel somewhat out of place. Another big problem with them doing the partial redub was the consistency, in that they stopped at the Trunks saga. So you essentially go from Sabat's more developed Vegeta, to his Drummond impression, and eventually back again. I actually went to the trouble of hunting down the old singles of Season 3 just to hear all of the original Funimation performances again.

I've never seen the Season 3 redub, did they alter any lines or was it just new voices?

I only wish Chris Ayres was discovered around the time the redub of the Freeza saga happened....

There are occasionally different lines.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Many fans, including myself, found the partial redubbing of Season 3 (such as Vegeta, Krillin, the Narrator etc..) to be unnecessary and feel somewhat out of place. Another big problem with them doing the partial redub was the consistency, in that they stopped at the Trunks saga. So you essentially go from Sabat's more developed Vegeta, to his Drummond impression, and eventually back again. I actually went to the trouble of hunting down the old singles of Season 3 just to hear all of the original Funimation performances again.

I've never seen the Season 3 redub, did they alter any lines or was it just new voices?

I only wish Chris Ayres was discovered around the time the redub of the Freeza saga happened....

There are occasionally different lines.

Yes, but "occasionally" is quite the proper word in this instance. By the time "Season 3" was re-dubbed, the lines were the same for the most part. The changes, while appreciated, were very minor in the grand scheme of things. One quick example...

Freeza, fighting Nail (original dub dialogue): Any last wishes before you go the way of the dodo?
Freeza, fighting Nail (re-dub dialogue): Any last wishes before I kill you?

Stuff like that. For the most part, the re-dubbing didn't extend to re-writing, and was instead for the sake of voice consistency, either because voice actors moved on (Dale Kelly's recordings for the narrator and for Ginyu were re-dubbed by Kyle Hebert and Brice Armstrong, respectively), or because some voice actors began using voices for their characters that were different from when they first started (with Chris Sabat's Vegeta being the most notable example). One could argue that that effort was in vain, though, since--as was mentioned earlier--they stopped doing that as soon as Trunks showed up.

[Akumaito Beam]

In my ideal dream world I'd love a Kai redub of Z as an optional audio track. It's super unrealistic but a lot of crazy shit has happened in the last few years so...

[Metalwario64]

Honestly, with Kai, I'm beyond the mindset of trying to "fix" the old dubs. In fact, I'd rather they stopped using their "revised" dub and use the cheesy as hell original Season 3 dub and on. We have Kai for a good dub (as long as we get the Boo arc at least), and honestly that's good enough for me.

[ABED]

The patchwork dub of Z is awful and off putting. Even if Sabat's work had improved a lot over the years, it was weird hearing 07 Vegeta interact with 99 Goku.