Funimation's Cast Improvement

[ehh123]

Hi, I'm new to the forums. In fact, you might call me a "casual" Dragon Ball fan. I avoided Dragon Ball Z when it first aired (my entry to anime was Pokemon) and didn't know there was more to it than screaming and fight scenes until later. I did read the first few "3 in 1" volumes of the Dragon Ball manga years ago at my local library and found them amusing. I've only watched parts of the anime (Z, Kai and Super). In fact, my biggest exposure is Dragon Ball Z Abridged and MistareFusion's Dragon Ball Dissection on youtube. I really love to get into the production side of animation, both Japanese and Western. Anyway, now that the introduction is out of the way, let's actually talk about the topic at hand.

When Funimation switched from Ocean's experienced Vancouver voice cast to an in-house production made up of newbies, the results were... not pretty. That being said, they did improve over time, mostly because they started doing their own takes on the characters instead of imitating the Ocean cast. Chris Sabat as Vegeta is a great example.

My question is when did you become comfortable with each individual actor or the cast as a whole?

[Dbzfan94]

I started with the dub (around the Buu Saga) so I loved them from the beginning.
Though they really did get off to a rough start.

[Bansho64]

For me, it was Kai. I got into the series with it and it's the one I like the most when it comes to what the in-house cast has done. I did see a couple of Z clips online around that same time. I remember thinking some of that crap was corny as heck. Especially some of them Goku lines. I did like some of it though. It was DB. But I still preferred Kai.

To me, they sound comfortable, they fit the characters (Well......most of em at least ), they got good dialogue (amazing if you wanna compare the Z dub IMO), etc. The list goes on.

[MasenkoHA]

Fortunately I didnt really start paying attention until the Android saga by then they were at acceptable levels


Looking back at s3 though oh my god.

[ABED]

I think they improved a lot by the time they did Dragon Ball. Vollmer is one of my least favorite season 3 actors but she benefitted a lot by subduing her valley girl delivery. Sabat also improved a lot when he gave a more naturalistic performance for Yamcha. Schemmel was welcome right off the bat after having endured Kelamis.

[8000 Saiyan]

To me, Kai was really when they started to improve.

[90sDBZ]

Well despite the actors being less experienced it didn't take me long to get used to the inhouse cast. I'd say Schemmel was decent by the time Goku went Super Saiyan, by which point he'd stopped trying to sound like Peter Kelamis. It was nowhere near the level it is today, but for the most part it didn't sound as forced as it did initially. To me Sean's voice was always a natural fit for Goku, even before his acting was up to scratch. I've always felt Linda Young was an improvement over Pauline Newstone simply for sounding closer to a male voice. If anything Young's voice started out being more masculine in Season 3, but became more feminine in her later work as Frieza like during GT and the 2005 redub.

While I can still listen to Sabat's Drummond impression, I'd say he improved considerably midway through the Cell saga when he began to make the performance his own more. I never really had a problem with his Piccolo, but he did sound noticeably less gravely in the 2005 redub.

Stephanie Nadolny as Gohan was always pretty good imo. I think by the time of the 2005 redub she'd gotten better overall, but sounded a bit awkward as Raditz-era Gohan. The scene were Krillin gets impaled in the redub was one of her best moments.

Sonny Strait was always pretty good as Krillin. Not quite as good as Terry Klassen's early performance, but still much better than his later one. Overall he benefited from deepening his voice more.

For the most part I found the Funimation cast to be suitable with the actual voices from the get-go despite the acting not always being great. In the cases of Goku, Frieza, Captain Ginyu, and Nail I even found them to be more fitting than their Ocean counterparts. Kelamis as Goku had his strengths, but overall Sean was more well rounded and better with regular speech.

[DHM211]

"Acting" wise they started improving around season 7 of Z. "Script" wise they were improved by Kai.

[MasenkoHA]

Funi cast doesnt write the script

[DHM211]

Funi cast doesnt write the script

I know but I'm stating thats when the script improved.

[8000 Saiyan]

Well despite the actors being less experienced it didn't take me long to get used to the inhouse cast. I'd say Schemmel was decent by the time Goku went Super Saiyan, by which point he'd stopped trying to sound like Peter Kelamis. It was nowhere near the level it is today, but for the most part it didn't sound as forced as it did initially. To me Sean's voice was always a natural fit for Goku, even before his acting was up to scratch. I've always felt Linda Young was an improvement over Pauline Newstone simply for sounding closer to a male voice. If anything Young's voice started out being more masculine in Season 3, but became more feminine in her later work as Frieza like during GT and the 2005 redub.

While I can still listen to Sabat's Drummond impression, I'd say he improved considerably midway through the Cell saga when he began to make the performance his own more. I never really had a problem with his Piccolo, but he did sound noticeably less gravely in the 2005 redub.

Stephanie Nadolny as Gohan was always pretty good imo. I think by the time of the 2005 redub she'd gotten better overall, but sounded a bit awkward as Raditz-era Gohan. The scene were Krillin gets impaled in the redub was one of her best moments.

Sonny Strait was always pretty good as Krillin. Not quite as good as Terry Klassen's early performance, but still much better than his later one. Overall he benefited from deepening his voice more.

For the most part I found the Funimation cast to be suitable with the actual voices from the get-go despite the acting not always being great. In the cases of Goku, Frieza, Captain Ginyu, and Nail I even found them to be more fitting than their Ocean counterparts. Kelamis as Goku had his strengths, but overall Sean was more well rounded and better with regular speech.

Didn't Sean just use his Goku voice for Nail in Season 3? His Kai voice was a lot more fitting.

[ABED]

Funi cast doesnt write the script

Many of the cast members did.

I've always felt Linda Young was an improvement over Pauline Newstone simply for sounding closer to a male voice.

It didn't sound remotely male and even if it did, she was so bad in that role. Newstone was a better and more seasoned VA and while her take on Freeza might have left something to be desired from the writing aspect, she has a creepy lizardy quality to it that I liked.

[90sDBZ]

Didn't Sean just use his Goku voice for Nail in Season 3? His Kai voice was a lot more fitting.

It was basically just a huskier version of his Goku yeah. But I still found it much more fitting than Nail's Ocean voice which I felt was a miscast. And I agree Sean's Nail is much better and more distinct in Kai.

[MasenkoHA]

I've always felt Linda Young was an improvement over Pauline Newstone simply for sounding closer to a male voice.

It didn't sound remotely male and even if it did, she was so bad in that role. Newstone was a better and more seasoned VA and while her take on Freeza might have left something to be desired from the writing aspect, she has a creepy lizardy quality to it that I liked.[/quote]


I actually thought Pauline's voice sounded oddly fitting for Frieza's first form.


Pretend you never listen to the Japanese version and just saw a picture of Freeza in his first form. Yep that's what that thing would sound like.

Now she would have been horribly miscast for the second form but...

with Pauline's Freeza its more like "umm is that thing a man or a woman?" with Linda "yeah that's a woman"

[90sDBZ]

It didn't sound remotely male and even if it did, she was so bad in that role. Newstone was a better and more seasoned VA and while her take on Freeza might have left something to be desired from the writing aspect, she has a creepy lizardy quality to it that I liked.


I actually thought Pauline's voice sounded oddly fitting for Frieza's first form.


Pretend you never listen to the Japanese version and just saw a picture of Freeza in his first form. Yep that's what that thing would sound like.

Now she would have been horribly miscast for the second form but...

with Pauline's Freeza its more like "umm is that thing a man or a woman?" with Linda "yeah that's a woman"

I've always felt like it's the other way around with Newstone's Frieza sounding very female and Linda Young's being more ambiguous. Young definitely sounded masculine in Frieza's 2nd Form. To be totally honest I don't hate Newstone's portrayal. I agree that the lizard like quality kind of works. I've just always felt that Young's performance gets more criticism simply because it's more widely known and covered a longer and more important part of the story. To me Young's Frieza sounds more evil and cruel, and I also feel like any criticism that can be applied to her can be applied to Newstone to an even greater extent.

[ABED]

I'm not a fan of Young's work at all. She's tolerable as Baba, but even her much lauded performance as Genkai in Yu Yu Hakusho is bad. When I hear Newstone, I hear a good actress that was miscast.

[TheGreatness25]

Believe it or not, I never cared. I didn't care then because I was so into the series and was more into the actual show than the voices. Yes, the voices were pretty bad, but they got better over time. I think that by the time the first Budokai game came out, they kind of got the hang of everything and I remember Budokai being the first time where I really appreciated Nadolny's Gohan.

The thing is that I really don't care. It's all nostalgia. Good or bad, that's what it was and that's what I loved. I can overlook all of that stuff because at the end of the day, I got my cake and ate it too -- I got the dub and Japanese version through DVDs and even Blu-rays.

Yeah, go back and watch their earlier work and it's brutal. But that's what it was. It was that whole "Well it's pretty cool but it's nowhere near as great as the Japanese version!" even before anyone even saw the Japanese version. For me, it holds a nice place in my memories. And personally, I don't care about redubs and whatnot; I'll take the good, the bad, and the ugly. To this day, I enjoy popping in that first "Ginyu Saga" disc and listening to that cringe-worthy performance by Sabat as Vegeta. And you know what? I'm okay with it. I'm not expecting some classic masterpiece; I know exactly what I'm getting.

[precita]

The FUNi dub cast now is amazing. I can't get over how good Sean Schemmel is and Chris Sabat is now.

Going back to the old dub is rough, but as said, I have nostalgia for it so I can make it through it. But I understand how both new fans or Japanese fans would still dislike it.

[simtek34]

For me, it was Kai. I got into the series with it and it's the one I like the most when it comes to what the in-house cast has done. I did see a couple of Z clips online around that same time. I remember thinking some of that crap was corny as heck. Especially some of them Goku lines. I did like some of it though. It was DB. But I still preferred Kai.

To me, they sound comfortable, they fit the characters (Well......most of em at least ), they got good dialogue (amazing if you wanna compare the Z dub IMO), etc. The list goes on.

Same for me, DBZ Kai. So we are the few people who came in through Kai, and like Colleen's Kid Goku I guess?
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=28638&start=2260#p1270219

[floofychan333]

I've always been comfortable with the FUNimation cast, though I will say it's improved drastically over the years. They've actually started making real translations and the writers no longer recoil at adding the odd Japanese word.