Dub Freeza and the effect of Linda Young

[ABED]

I would call her a bad actress. Her performance in YYH isn't awful, but it's still too forced.

[Cipher]

The result of FUNimation's early scripts and Freeza's first two English voices is that Freeza ... just doesn't have much of a defined personality outside of what the plot gives him: He hates Saiyans and he's evil. (Everyone is a comedian in early FUNimation.)

That the character still gained a following is the result of the strength of those plot-driven elements; it's hard to make Freeza completely not work.

That, and--with full acknowledgement that Ayres' is the superior English-language take and her performance is a bit stilted (early in her dubbing days plus bad scripts)--there is something memorable about Young's performance. She offered a voice that was distinctly Freeza, or at least some unfaithful version of him, whereas Ayres is doing (a very well-acted and appropriate) Haughty Cartoon Villain #79.

I guess what I'm saying is, neither really holds a candle to the weirdness of Nakao's voice, I'm glad we eventually got Ayres for those interested in a faithful English-language version, and I can totally see why Linda Young's performance gained a following for a number of reasons all unrelated to the terribleness of those scripts.

[ABED]

Ayres, while very good, is kind of doing Haughty Cartoon Villain #79.

I guess what I'm saying is, neither really holds a candle to the weirdness of Nakao's voice

I like Nakao more, but I don't agree with your assessment at all. His voice is distinct and sounds very close to Nakao without doing some hollow impression.

[Cipher]

I like Nakao more, but I don't agree with your assessment at all. His voice is distinct and sounds very close to Nakao without doing some hollow impression.

Well, I'm saying I think Nakao is distinct and unsettling in a way Ayres isn't, quite, though what Ayres does works really well. It's just a little more generic.

It's also natural, which is great. I wouldn't want anyone trying to force something like what Nakao does. What lets Nakao work in the first place is that he doesn't really have to reach for that voice (consequently he sounds the same in everything, but that's the kind of voice he does, and he does it well).

[ABED]

I like Nakao more, but I don't agree with your assessment at all. His voice is distinct and sounds very close to Nakao without doing some hollow impression.

Well, I'm saying I think Nakao is distinct and unsettling in a way Ayres isn't, quite, though what Ayres does works really well. It's just a little more generic.

I understood your point, but what other performance sounds like Ayres' Freeza?

[Cipher]

I understood your point, but what other performance sounds like Ayres' Freeza?

I can't think of one; I could just picture it being slapped on any kind of haughty, high-pitched villain and working. Both those elements seem fairly standard for villainous voices.

Maybe I'm wrong, though; I haven't watched action cartoons in a long time. I guess it strikes me as not-dissimilar from what, like, Frank Welker was doing with Galvatron back in the day? That sort of thing.

It's a good performance though! Don't want to derail this into a Chris Ayres conversation. My main thing is, I get why people latched onto Young. I wouldn't take it over any of the other major performances we associate with Freeza, but I get it.

I'll also offer up that my thoughts about Freeza when I was an early Toonami-watchin' dub-only fan were that he was just sort of bland -- which is where I feel those early scrips leave him. Neither the dialogue nor Young's voice really hint at what his shtick is in the original version, with his veneer of eerie politeness. The only things remotely memorable about that version of Freeza are Young's voice and the really obvious plot elements (hates Saiyans so much), for better or worse.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I would call her a bad actress. Her performance in YYH isn't awful, but it's still too forced.

Fair enough. We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one, I guess.

what other performance sounds like Ayres' Freeza?

Would it be cheating if I used another role of Chris Ayres'? I can't find any dub clips (or many clips period), but having just finished up watching a show called Phi-Brain recently, his character of Freecell there is basically his Freeza voice.

[ABED]

I would call her a bad actress. Her performance in YYH isn't awful, but it's still too forced.

Fair enough. We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one, I guess.

what other performance sounds like Ayres' Freeza?

Would it be cheating if I used another role of Chris Ayres'? I can't find any dub clips (or many clips period), but having just finished up watching a show called Phi-Brain recently, his character of Freecell there is basically his Freeza voice.

Not cheating as much as not qualifying. He has a distinctive sound.

When I hear generic, I think bland and unmemorable. Kirby Morrow is bland, Ayres is distinctive. I can pick the guy's voice out of a crowd, so to speak.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one, I guess.

It's even worse when she tries to sound tough or like she's 20.

[Thanos]

The result of FUNimation's early scripts and Freeza's first two English voices is that Freeza ... just doesn't have much of a defined personality outside of what the plot gives him: He hates Saiyans and he's evil.

Well put. On that note I have to say, having been primarily exposed to the English dub for the first several years of my fandom (with a bit of watching Japanese clips online before certain things were translated, as well as video games), I never really "got" Freeza as a character beyond the evilness and hatred of Saiyans until I got a chance to watch the series subtitled. Until then, I was almost perplexed, ignorantly, as to the character's popularity.

Interestingly though, I was never really bothered by Young's portrayal until I fully felt that I had grasped the character as player by Nakao--what were clearly meant as smug, aristocratic and arrogant lines had been replaced by... puns by an otherwise vacuously-portrayed character. I think a lot of the early dub's success with him had to do with the underlying universal themes and his ruthlessness overall. But not until Kai and Ayres came along did dub people finally see the whole puzzle come together, now allowing dub fans and fans of the original alike to appreciate the gleeful psychopathy of a character who, up until that point for dub fans, had been decidedly void of that charm... instead of cackling evilly, simply basking in his own arrogance, he was written as just laughing at his own bad jokes. Seriously, what were they thinking?

[Bansho64]

Funimation's original Freeza was absolutely atrocious. The redubbed remastered version was still horrible. I attribute that to the lines, the voice, and the acting. All three played a role in the failure to portray a beloved character. I'll still never be able to unhear "Yeehow that's it buckaroo, ride em cowboy!" Ugh

[Polyphase Avatron]

I don't think Linda Young was that bad TBH. Certainly worse than Nakao and Ayres but passable.

[B]

. The same goes for whatever Kaiou says in the dub for BoG.

Is Schemmel's Kaiou really so bad? It's a totally different kind of voice than the original, but if he reads accurate lines with the right feeling isn't it just as good?

This is the sentiment I was trying to get across for both performances... minus the "just as good." I was speaking to the idea that Young's Freeza and Schemmel's Kaiou are "painful" to listen to, when I feel that isn't the case most of the time. They don't annoy me. It's annoying that they are not accurate portrayals of those characters, because I am a knowledgeable fan, but the literal sound/pitches/what-have-you of those voices do not bother me; not dissimilar in that the sound of Nozawa's voice does not bother me despite complaints thrown her way.

[Vijay]

I hate Frieza regardless if he had good or bad VA

But removing personal preferences aside, Linda Young's "50 year old chain-smoker" performance would make even Toriyama hate Frieza imo

The very source of parody. Memes. Backlash for dubs forever being compared inferiorly to sub manifested from this & Linda Young single handedly deserves all the applause

Ofc. Bad writing. Butchered script were at fault as well. But there needs to be certain level of talent to be able to pull off a character (in fact, ANY character) by respecting its source material & gravitas.

I would've preferred Speedy Dubs worst VA's take on Frieza rather than Young's

[MaxZ]

Young's Frieza is my favourite by far. The voice is so creepy and malevolent sounding, it's just perfect to me.

I know it's not likely, but I do hope they bring her back in the Funimation dub of Super

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Young's Freeza is one of the many things wrong with FUNI's Dragon Ball. I don't know about her other performances in other shows but she was absolutely the worst choice for Freeza. As someone said if you like Young's Freeza you don't like Freeza.

- Travis

[VegettoEX]

I've only seen one direct reference to Pauline Newstone by name and one other passing reference to "first two English voices" so far in this thread. You 100% cannot have a conversation about Linda Young's performance without starting with Pauline Newstone, the actress who played Freeza in FUNimation's original season two dub of DBZ. That performance set the tone. It was literally the precedent for what came after. Nevermind the raw tone of voice, but everything that got amped up to 11 in terms of jokes in "season three" started here in the second season with Newstone's voice and the script provided to her.

Young's Freeza is different from others in FUNimation's in-house cast because, while she went on to play the character in video games for quite a few years, she didn't explore the character more throughout the remainder of the series during its original, contemporary dubbing (as well as going on to GT and the first TV series, minus those small appearances where applicable there). That character was stuck as that performance for that period of time, and nothing else. Freeza came, and Freeza went, as-is.

In terms of personal opinion here: and that's not to say that compared to -- let's say Schemmel as Goku -- she would have had a chance to "find" and understand the character. I don't think it was possible for a variety of reasons. As we heard from Sabat during the Kai re-casting, she just couldn't keep up with where they were heading. So again, that version of that character was "stuck".

And let's be clear: if I ever said anything gross about "lulz dun cast womenz as my Freezer!" in the past, I don't think I meant it and holy shit can I take that back? I'm really hoping I never said anything like that, and I'm presuming that no-one these days is saying anything like that. It's not about what's in the pants, it's about everything else. Clearly, as Number 1 Advocate Incarnate for Masako Nozawa, I'm seriously not saying this is a woman-voice issue.

So I'm kinda meandering all over the place, but it's important to put Newstone in context long before you get to Young, and to put most of the blame on Barry Watson like the perfect scapegoat he is for overseeing the casting and selection process.

I think I had more to say, but it's either been covered by other folks or my short-term memory really is that terrible.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Beaten to the punch on your second point: Newstone/Young Freeza was a deliberate creative deviancy in the same way Schmmel's Goku, Strait's Krillin, or McCoy's #18 were. Their's just so happened to be one that could not mesh very well with the source material; we have Burst Limit, we know Young can do serviceable readings of the originsl dialouge. But that was not what she was cast to do, as Sabat's confession regarding Kai sadly highlights.

I think it a bit much to say Freeza had no schtick, though; an uneven stew of condescention and cruelty is an image, heck, "Look at the lovely fireworks" strikes me as more Young than Nakao, its just a diluted one.

[ABED]

Newstone may have set the precident, but other than the writing, she had a very creepy quality to her voice and performance. Who knows what it would've been liked had she been given a more accurate script?

[MCDaveG]

As I was a kid and altough, I loved lot of American culture stuff (comics, music, movies, hamburgers...), there was also this cliché and preconception about US kids' shows as I grew older (and I think it is mostly true):
It's this har har, so cool, cheesy dialogs, beatdown, laser guns, cheesy synthesizer music with weirdly sampled guitar.
And it shocked me, as I saw the US version of Dragon Ball, how screwed it was actually in this image. Altough, laser guns are only Viz manga exclusive.

Linda Young was the epitome of this US kids' coolness freakshow. It's a lady probably in her prime, imitating screechy villanious voice and giving lines like: ''I will make a shishkebab from youuu!''
What I didn't got at all was, why is Freeza, the space emperor voiced by a woman? Because of his androgynous appearance and lipstick? Is he a woman in US version.
All of this with this 80's/90's cheesy synthesizer music with weirdly sampled guitars like in Power Rangers.

PS: My wife subscribed to Netflix and I was like, hey! There are all series of Power Rangers, we both watched it as kids! Wooooow, what a shitride. Only good thing about it was the Japanese footage from Super Sentai.
I had this horrible experience with Megaman series as well.

[Hellspawn28]

I didn't like Linda Young as Freeza at all. Over the years, I never like her voice for the character. I personally like Kevin Seymour (RIP) as Freeza over her and his voice as Freeza was ahead of its time.