The humble beginnings of the Original Funimation Cast.

[DemonRin]

I can't find a source actually, just that every website that has a profile on her mentions the Whiffles the Bunny thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monika_Antonelli
http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Monika-Antonelli/

The most credible website I can find that mentions Whiffles is the University of North Texas official .edu website:
http://www.unt.edu/northtexan/archives/ ... onnect.htm

This one actually mentions that Whiffles wasn't a cartoon, it was a puppet!!

Wow I'd like to learn more about this. This suddenly got really interesting lol.

[B]

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

This is sad to hear if true. I know Sabat's more or less given the green light to do what he wants, and he's not shy that he loves Vegeta, but he's just not as convincing or strong in that role. This is me being purely selfish, but that would have been an awful move; you currently have a great Piccolo and a competent Vegeta. It would've been such a downgrade to find a might-be-good Piccolo and have Vegeta maintain the status quo of "not embarrassing."

(did somebody tie his hands on Yamcha too, because I would've been fine with him giving that one up)

[DemonRin]

I think the Kai dub was an odd mishmash of "Fix some of our old Mistakes" and "Give dub fans the voices they remember".

I think they tried to please too many people at once, so I wouldn't be surprised if Yamcha was just a "No sense changing it" kinda idea.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Its YAMCHA, who cares!

...lawl. But seriously, Toei did give him a lot of love by casting Tohru Furuya in the role, having him sing a cool song about how awesomely lame he is and some filler scenes...only to finally cave in and give the public what they wanted and that is endless jokes at his expense. I dont think Funimation is to blame for not giving him much love, especially out of the OG Dragon Ball anime.

[ABED]

Yamcha is one of Sabata's better roles as it's essentially his normal voice. Once he dropped the surfer thing, it was a vast improvement.

[WittyUsername]

I'm not really sure if Kai really left that much of a long lasting impact on Dragon Ball in the U.S. I know that it had some pretty strong ratings for Nicktoons, but it's run was ultimately pretty short lived. Sure, it was nice to get a dub that was more accurate to the original version with more experienced actors, but in hindsight, it sort of just came and went. I'm not sure if it even necessarily was responsible for introducing that many new kids to the series, considering what a niche network that Nicktoons is.

What about it's airings on the CW? That's a channel you don't even need cable to watch, and it stayed on there longer than Nicktoons. And now that it's on Toonami... No other shows on that block can beat it.

I completely forgot about the CW airings for Kai. You may have a point there. As for the Toonami airings, keep in mind, that's an Uncut dub that airs late at night, that's meant to be geared towards the older fans.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Both The CW and Toonami reached over 1 million viewers with Toonami in Particular surpassing 2 million viewers. I guess that must count for SOMETHING. LOL.

[Hellspawn28]

What funimation did with Dragonball Z was pretty amazing. Dubs were notorious for being giant piles of shit back then, I know all the purists here will raise their pretentious eyebrows in anger but Funimation absolutely nailed it especially in the later seasons.

You had good dubs back in the 90's. Streamline and Animaze. Animaze give us good dubs of Outlaw Star, Bastard!!, Street Fighter II: The Movie (uncut), Ninja Scroll and Macross Plus. Even Central Park Media's dub of Slayers at the time is not that bad. Yeah most dubs from Manga UK, CPM and Funimation at the time did suck, but not all dubs were notorious during the 90's.

[NitroEX]

You missed the point. Film is forever. An understudy can stand in if an actor gets sick because the audience will only see that night's performance. It's much different if you are recording a voice. That recording exists forever, so why would you give up the role if you aren't seriously ill? And what about when he gets better, does he take back the role?

Ok I see your point but I was thinking within the context of voice acting, not theatre. When I used the word (probably wrongly) I pictured an arrangement similar to how Peter Kelamis was on call to replace Ian Corlett as Goku. Both actors auditioned for the part originally but one was kept as a backup for any future problems. I suppose an actor could reprise their role later on if he got better although I personally would find it a bit strange to flip back and forth within the same series.

No, but I could see Sabat winning the roles now. I'd rather Sabat remain proud of his work and not give them up if he honestly believes he's good in those roles. Sabat strikes me as a guy that can call a spade a spade.

Thing is, an actor's belief really should have no place in determining whether or not they're the best person for the job, it should be up to the director... which he is, but obviously he's not impartial. I would be far more accepting of Sabat's reprisals if he had been required to go through a casting process himself. Not necessarily because I didn't like his acting in Kai, but because there's very little logic in maintaining a status quo that was born out of necessity. Funimation have lots of talent who I'm sure would love to at least audition for Piccolo. Even if Sabat didn't get it he would still have Vegeta, which I'm sure he'd be happier focusing on. Hell, it would probably improve his Vegeta performance because he wouldn't be worrying about slipping into his Piccolo anymore.

The thing is Vegeta and Piccolo were never miscast, they were voiced by a green VA. Freeza was completely mischaracterized and miscast. Freeza absolutely needed a new actor.

While this is true I still think casting the same guy in two main roles isn't ideal and is something that wouldn't happen today (or more importantly, during the casting of Kai) unless the actor was exceptionally talented at masking their voice, which I still don't think Sabat does that well. Finding an alternative casting choice for at least one of the two would have been preferable for any sane, unbiased director in my opinion.

Frieza is a (incredibly miscast and the most egregious case of the old dub's follies) villain that appeared in one portion of the series, while Piccolo and Vegeta are among the main characters that have appeared over and over again across countless Dragon Ball properties. it's not very comparable.

Freeza isn't a main character but as a villain he has a lot more prominence than you're giving him credit for, I mean the fact Ressurection F was even made is indicative of that nevermind all the cameos across various movies and filler scenes. Also, some characters only need a few appearances to become a mainstay in people's minds, just look at Broly. Freeza's voice wasn't as liked by fans as Sabat's were, I'll give you that but to be fair, Sabat's Piccolo got plenty of criticism prior to Kai as well, at least among people who were familiar with Furukawa and Scott McNeil's take.

A the end of the day, Sabat's performances as Piccolo and Vegeta were excellent, so it really shouldn't even matter. Sabat's given up the majority of the other roles he's had throughout the original dub and it's absolutely not unreasonable that he'd continue playing his two most prominent roles that he's very good at. Especially considering he was willing to drop Piccolo anyway. I don't get why you're harping on the guy's character for a casting decision that went well anyway.

The quality of his Kai performances isn't my issue. Yes, he did drop a few minor roles (which turned out to be for the better) but again, this was never my issue with his direction, plenty of voice directors cast themselves as minor roles. Casting himself as two leads without even trying to audition somebody new is what I find questionable. This isn't 1999 anymore, the option to use other actors was clearly available to them but as far as I can tell it wasn't even considered aside from McNeil who was never a realistic option to begin with.

You can choose to take Sabat's word on wanting to give up Piccolo but I'm not entirely convinced by that. I prefer to judge people by their actions rather than their word alone and as far as I can see there wasn't any effort made to ensure he was still the best choice for both Piccolo and Vegeta. His resulting performance might be great and, even with auditions, he may have still turned out to be the best possible choice but, it wouldn't have hurt to at least confirm that belief beforehand. The only ones who would've stood to gain from more recasts would be fans of the product, we would have won in the end whether Sabat, Schemmel or anybody else reprised all their roles or not, it would have ensured the best possible performances got through and erased any ideas about favouritism or the director possibly overindulging.

Would fans have initially hated the change? Yes I think they would but Kai was a clean slate and we've already seen that recasts can be well received by fans.

[Tian]

Does anyone know about how Mike McFarland and Ceyli Delgadillo were cast on the show?

[HybridSaiyan]

Never saw a problem with the Original Funi Dub. I'll continue watching it with BF until I die probably. Some lines were rather cheesy but wasn't this show aired on Cartoon Network and Toonami? Had to have some cheese in their lines to make us as kids laugh? lol. Besides, I think the screaming was done better in the original when you compare it to Kai.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Slayers dub (1995 dub)>Cowboy Bebop dub (1999 dub)>>>>>>>>>>most dubs of 2000>>>giant piles of shit>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>FUNimation's adaptation of Dragon Ball Z.

I may be banned for this - it is worth it.

Bebop was a 2001 dub, champ.

It was produced & released to VHS in 1999; it only took two years to find TV airing.

[Dbzfan94]

Never saw a problem with the Original Funi Dub. I'll continue watching it with BF until I die probably. Some lines were rather cheesy but wasn't this show aired on Cartoon Network and Toonami? Had to have some cheese in their lines to make us as kids laugh? lol. Besides, I think the screaming was done better in the original when you compare it to Kai.

For the Cell-Buu Saga? Definitely. But for Saiyan-Android Saga I say Kai all the way except for Clinkenbeard's Gohan which I can never get used to even really like at all

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

Well Stephanie Nadolny, starting in 2000, got arrested and jailed multiple times for DUI. How's that for a humble beginning?

[Bansho64]

Speaking of the Funi cast, do you any you think they've gotten to the levels of legends like Jim Cummings or Jeremy Irons? Where would you put them on your scale?

[Dbzfan94]

Well Stephanie Nadolny, starting in 2000, got arrested and jailed multiple times for DUI. How's that for a humble beginning?

Any source for that? Also the extra snark isn't necessary

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

Well Stephanie Nadolny, starting in 2000, got arrested and jailed multiple times for DUI. How's that for a humble beginning?

Any source for that? Also the extra snark isn't necessary

I wasn't being snarky but if you look up her mugshots, police records and "Stephanie Nadolny arrested" on Google, you can see that it's true.

[Bansho64]

Any source for that? Also the extra snark isn't necessary

I wasn't being snarky but if you look up her mugshots, police records and "Stephanie Nadolny arrested" on Google, you can see that it's true.

It was in a recent video by SuperJayain as well. Here it is for future reference. Not sure what specific time placement it's at but it's definitely in there.

[Dbzfan94]

Any source for that? Also the extra snark isn't necessary

I wasn't being snarky but if you look up her mugshots, police records and "Stephanie Nadolny arrested" on Google, you can see that it's true.

It was in a recent video by SuperJayain as well. Here it is for future reference. Not sure what specific time placement it's at but it's definitely in there.

That type of sub fan is what is partly wrong with the community, but in all honesty a lot of dub fans aren't much better

[WittyUsername]

Any source for that? Also the extra snark isn't necessary

I wasn't being snarky but if you look up her mugshots, police records and "Stephanie Nadolny arrested" on Google, you can see that it's true.

It was in a recent video by SuperJayain as well. Here it is for future reference. Not sure what specific time placement it's at but it's definitely in there.

This is irrelevant to Nadolny's personal life, but that guy kind of sounds like an elitist prick if I had to be honest. Making condescending generalizations and calling people "retards" doesn't reflect very well on most people, and I say this as someone who agrees that the Faulconer score never had any legitimate reason to exist, even if I do enjoy listening to some of the tracks for what they are.

On another note, doesn't showing that mugshot of Nadolny, and implying that was the reason she was replaced kind of strike anyone else as uncalled for?