Thoughts on Brian Drummond's Vegeta?

[Robo4900]

I mean people get defensive about things that are near and dear to them; it's not other-worldly confusing. That's why dub fans go to bat for what they like. If you treasure something, having someone come along and crap on it isn't pleasant, and that's understandable. But there's also something to be said about keeping an open mind. Look, I am a dub fan, but I'm open to the idea that it was pretty terrible. You kind of have to be to hold onto your sanity.

Sometimes it becomes like beating a dead horse and that's understandable. Like with Broly fans -- one person says Broly sucks, then another, then before you know it, you have 3 pages of a convo full of "Broly sucks." To a Broly fan, it's like, "All right, get off of it already." So I can see that being the case with this too.

Yeah, you're right.
Here's the thing, it's very easy to turn this into an interesting, constructive thing. Using the Broly example: I wasn't a huge fan of Broly. I thought the design was cool, and the idea of having someone with something wrong with their Super Saiyan form that turns them into some kind of horrific monster when they transform is really cool. Putting aside the failings of the second and third movies, the problem with Broly was basically the fact they tied his backstory into Goku. If they'd turned it into a revenge story against Vegeta, it probably would have been a much better film, and Broly would be held in much higher regard.

The thing is, the Westwood dub is crapped on by everyone everywhere. No matter where you go, if you mention it, basically anyone who knows what it is will start going on about how they hated various aspects of it, and it gets so goddamn tiring to deal with this crap. It was a cheesy, early 2000s cartoon that I -- and a load of others in the UK and Canada -- loved watching back in the day. No one's saying it's Shakespeare, but clearly a lot of people liked it, so maybe if you didn't like it, the problem is simply that it doesn't fit your personal tastes?
Naturally, no one wants to admit the possibility they're wrong, so it often escalates into some kind of flame war, which I generally just sit on the sidelines for thinking "Really? You're going this far about some cartoon show from 15 years ago? Grow up, dude!"
The people here on Kanzenshuu are more mature than that, but when someone starts taking pot shots at it, this is how it comes off. I'm sure you all mean well, and you guys all seem to be willing to dial it down in future, so I appreciate that, but just remember that it never reflects well on someone when they imply that someone is wrong for liking something.

Just for fun: Brian Drummond voicing Vegetto. Instead of doing the double voice, Brian Drummond tried to encompass a mix of his Vegeta voice and Kirby Morrow's Goku. Pretty impressive, despite being inaccurate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4rUysFkf3A

It's less accurate, but I really do dig Drummond's single-voice interpretation of it. And honestly, I hope they do that again for Kai if they eventually do the Boo arc.

[NitroEX]

To be fair, the criticisms are "constructive" but they're laced with insults. I am guilty of this too, but it's okay to express our thoughts and feelings. Speaking for myself personally, I am harsh with it because I know that it could be so much better and it's a complete shame that it wasn't.

I don't have a problem with people expressing thoughts and feelings, I'm fine with free speech but you can't vaguely insult something then hide behind the shield of "well it's constructive criticism". For it to actually be constructive, you'd need to spend more than a minute explaining why something is as bad as you say it is and how you think it could be better. There's no discussion to be had in describing things generally with blanket terms such as; it sounds "cheap", it "sucked" or describing things as "crappy". I'm not picking on you specifically by the way, it's just something I notice whenever this dub is brought up.

[TheGreatness25]

That's fine and I get your point. I would't call what I said about it to be "constructive" anyway because there's nothing that I can say to make it better or have them do a good job. At this point, it's all opinion.

[TheAldella]

It's less accurate, but I really do dig Drummond's single-voice interpretation of it. And honestly, I hope they do that again for Kai if they eventually do the Boo arc.

It may be less accurate, but it provided me with a lot of interesting hindsight, given Super's retcons.
If it's meant to be permanent, why would they give it two voices when they only gave Kibito Kai one?
The non-permanent fusions, like Gotenks and Gogeta make sense to have two voices since they're not as "in-sync", if you will.

[TheGreatness25]

I have to say that I thought tat the Ocean dub was very weak based on what little I saw of it on YouTube, but I'm actually getting into it. It's nostalgic for me -- the narrator's voice, Vegeta, etc., it all just brings me back to my childhood of before Funimation's in-house team took over. Like these are the voices I envisioned in my head when I'd read episode summaries and see clips from future episodes. There are a lot of things about the Westwood dub that I'm not a fan of (some voices like Trunks and other minor characters don't sound so good to me), and there are times where the lines sound completely out of place (the wrong emotion attached to them), but damn... The music is not consistently as bad as I thought it was based on small clips (in fact, I hardly notice the music at all), and I don't know if I can say that it's worse than Funimation's. Sorry, I just now have an opportunity to see a lot more of this version of the series, and I'm kind of liking it. It's just brand new to me.

I think Drummond's Vegeta is great and I think that it sounded "weird" to me in the later episodes because I didn't see everything leading up to it. But honestly, if that's the Vegeta voice that he's had through the entire series, it's not as jarring to hear it in the Boo arc. I always liked Drummond's performance and he knows how to turn on the evil, but also knows how to tone it back a bit. It makes him slithery and evil enough to knock Majin Vegeta out of the park, but then he can have regular speaking lines that are more grounded. I like it; I'm a fan. Again, it's a shame what could have been and it makes me feel sad that Funimation didn't just keep the Ocean cast. I mean were they really more expensive? Did AB really break the bank to get them? Whatever. How could Funimation afford them when they're a company with nothing going for it, but then drop them once DBZ took off like wildfire? It's just sad because if for no other reason, it tarnished the Ocean dub's legacy and turned it into the "secondary dub" when the truth is that they had the potential to be even greater than the Funimation cast.

Anyway, about Vegetto -- I give Drummond a ton of credit for trying to encompass Goku and Vegeta's voice into one. That's skillful. And it actually does sound like a combo of Goku and Vegeta. Still, with that said, it's totally inaccurate, but it's a fascination. As I said, the Ocean/Westwood dub adds yet another layer of nostalgia goodness to the existing series. I love me some Briand Drummond Vegeta. I like to split myself a bit when watching the different versions. When I'm watching the Japanese version, I kind of shut off the dub and vice versa. When watching the Westwood dub by itself, I kind of shut off Chris Sabat's Vegeta and it brings me back to that original Vegeta voice whose lines I probably memorized verbatim. It's a good time for me.

[8000 Saiyan]

I have to say that I thought tat the Ocean dub was very weak based on what little I saw of it on YouTube, but I'm actually getting into it. It's nostalgic for me -- the narrator's voice, Vegeta, etc., it all just brings me back to my childhood of before Funimation's in-house team took over. Like these are the voices I envisioned in my head when I'd read episode summaries and see clips from future episodes. There are a lot of things about the Westwood dub that I'm not a fan of (some voices like Trunks and other minor characters don't sound so good to me), and there are times where the lines sound completely out of place (the wrong emotion attached to them), but damn... The music is not consistently as bad as I thought it was based on small clips (in fact, I hardly notice the music at all), and I don't know if I can say that it's worse than Funimation's. Sorry, I just now have an opportunity to see a lot more of this version of the series, and I'm kind of liking it. It's just brand new to me.

I think Drummond's Vegeta is great and I think that it sounded "weird" to me in the later episodes because I didn't see everything leading up to it. But honestly, if that's the Vegeta voice that he's had through the entire series, it's not as jarring to hear it in the Boo arc. I always liked Drummond's performance and he knows how to turn on the evil, but also knows how to tone it back a bit. It makes him slithery and evil enough to knock Majin Vegeta out of the park, but then he can have regular speaking lines that are more grounded. I like it; I'm a fan. Again, it's a shame what could have been and it makes me feel sad that Funimation didn't just keep the Ocean cast. I mean were they really more expensive? Did AB really break the bank to get them? Whatever. How could Funimation afford them when they're a company with nothing going for it, but then drop them once DBZ took off like wildfire? It's just sad because if for no other reason, it tarnished the Ocean dub's legacy and turned it into the "secondary dub" when the truth is that they had the potential to be even greater than the Funimation cast.

Anyway, about Vegetto -- I give Drummond a ton of credit for trying to encompass Goku and Vegeta's voice into one. That's skillful. And it actually does sound like a combo of Goku and Vegeta. Still, with that said, it's totally inaccurate, but it's a fascination. As I said, the Ocean/Westwood dub adds yet another layer of nostalgia goodness to the existing series. I love me some Briand Drummond Vegeta. I like to split myself a bit when watching the different versions. When I'm watching the Japanese version, I kind of shut off the dub and vice versa. When watching the Westwood dub by itself, I kind of shut off Chris Sabat's Vegeta and it brings me back to that original Vegeta voice whose lines I probably memorized verbatim. It's a good time for me.

Yes, the Ocean actors were very expensive. Pity.

I actually like Drummond's Vegetto voice as well. It shows that Drummond has range.