Chris Sabat On the Big Green Dub

[SaintEvolution]

I expected better from Rager. Even when Schemmel criticised the Ocean Kai dub, he never insulted the actors working on that dub.

He might not insult the actor's work but he's shown some resentment in his behaviour towards them. He once blocked Peter Kalmis on Twitter for no reason, scolded Kirby Morrow for using "voice of Goku" at a convention and more recently, got frustrated at a panel after bringing up the idea of Ian Corlett coming back to play Black Goku. The criticism of the Kai dub was also quite unprofessional in hindsight and totally unnecessary. He must've felt quite strongly about it to bother making a statement like that publicly.

I think it's safe to say he hasn't exactly made friends with any of the Canadian Goku actors, although he and Sabat seem to be on good terms with Scott McNeil for some reason.

Scott McNeil did a few works for Funimation actually, like Shiki in One Piece and Van Hohenheim in the first Fullmetal Alchemist series.


But talking on topic, I would really want to hear someday David Gasman, Paul Bandey and other AB Groupe actors talking in some Anime Panel about their dub, and what they think about all the feedback Big Green dub have on internet.

[TheGreatness25]

Wouldn't it be nice if they got Scott McNeil to voice Piccolo in Kai and onward? But no, Sabat's Piccolo had become "iconic" ... somehow. In today's world, I don't think that the Funimaton "in-house" actors are making any less than Ocean guys and you don't even have to be in the same state -- or country for that matter -- to record the voices. But oh well.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I expected better from Rager. Even when Schemmel criticised the Ocean Kai dub, he never insulted the actors working on that dub.

He might not insult the actor's work but he's shown some resentment in his behaviour towards them. He once blocked Peter Kalmis on Twitter for no reason, scolded Kirby Morrow for using "voice of Goku" at a convention and more recently, got frustrated at a panel after bringing up the idea of Ian Corlett coming back to play Black Goku. The criticism of the Kai dub was also quite unprofessional in hindsight and totally unnecessary. He must've felt quite strongly about it to bother making a statement like that publicly.

I think it's safe to say he hasn't exactly made friends with any of the Canadian Goku actors, although he and Sabat seem to be on good terms with Scott McNeil for some reason.

lol Who exactly does he think he is? Oh man, that's the douchiest thing I've ever heard. Yes, Sean, you're the one and only voice of Goku. Way to be a tool. Insecurities are a bitch.

For the record, I think Ian James Corlett can "Goku" circles around him. I would put Sean over Peter Kelamis, but Kirby Morrow wasn't even really bad -- he sounded fine. I might put him right up there with Sean.

I don't know what Mr. Schemmel is getting so hot over.

But yeah, they need to stop with that crap. Because as far as I'm concerned, Funimation aren't even the best English dub let alone greatest thing since sliced bread like they seem to think they are.

This is something that started bothering me going back to Kai. I can't say it's Funimation themselves, but the DB voice actors sure do looove trashing things. Yeah, they trashed Dragon Ball Evolution and it's all funny and whatnot, but there are obviously people that liked it. They're probably not fans of the series, but there's somebody out there that bought the release. But whatever. Then Kai rolls around and after years upon years of saying, "Wow, people really love our version of it! Thanks everyone! You're the best!" they turn around and just cover their old dub in explosive diarrhea with how bad they shat on it. And for me, it was always like, "Well you don't have to trash everything to promote your new stuff," because obviously there are a ton of fans who might feel like, "Wait a minute, you've spent all this time thanking me and telling me how great of a series this is and how I should support it... and now that you have a shinier new penny, you want to tell me that what I supported was garbage?" It's the same when criticizing other dubs.

You do realise this happened years ago? Funny people ALWAYS bring up these when trashing Schemmel but for some reason conveniently ignore the fact that recently Lex Lang said that Schemmel gave him kind words of encouragement when he was cast to play Goku for the Asian dub. But that obviously doesn't fit the Schemmel is a douche agenda...

[TheGreatness25]

You do realise this happened years ago? Funny people ALWAYS bring up these when trashing Schemmel but for some reason conveniently ignore the fact that recently Lex Lang said that Schemmel gave him kind words of encouragement when he was cast to play Goku for the Asian dub. But that obviously doesn't fit the Schemmel is a douche agenda...

Ehh nope. First of all, I was reacting to what was out there. It doesn't matter if it was there years ago or days ago; that is a glimpse into someone's character and personality. And while I'm a firm believer that people change, that is highly improbable for someone who is a grown adult.

Second of all, oh whoop-dee-doo, Sean said something nice to Lex Lang; I guess that makes up for all of the petty, stupid crap that he did in regard to the other English-speaking Goku voice actors. He also said nice things about Masako Nozawa. But that doesn't change the fact that he seems to think that he is the English Goku. Yeah, I bet he has nice words of encouragement for everyone... who's not stepping into his domain. It's very telling of someone's character when they feel the need to act that way to someone who is going into the same territory, but isn't even a threat. So what about Kirby Morrow? So what about Ian James Corlett? So what about Peter Kelamis? They're not trying to take Sean's job. They're not even trying to take over his market (U.S., New Zealand, Australia). But just because they're another English-speaking Goku he has to act like that? It's utterly hysterical.

And again, I want to say that it is very unprofessional to criticize other people's work like that. Regardless of your personal feelings, when you're on the stage, you can't just let your opinions fly. I know that we all would like to think that we're so independent and can say what we want -- and we can -- but in the very least think of the fans who actually enjoy those other interpretations. To someone who enjoyed the Big Green dub, or to someone who enjoyed any of the other actors who portrayed Goku (for the majority better than Schemmel), they could always go, "Fuck you, ally to good nightmare to you."

Do the Funimation actors think that they're the only version of Dragon Ball that's any good? Because that's the message that they are conveying. "Oh what's that? There's another dub out there? Oh they speak English? Ahh well they suck!" Well I could argue that Funimation sucks and just because they dominate the market does not speak about talent.

But in the very least, Schemmel and Sabat always came off as cool, humble people and I'd love to believe that about them, but then there are instances of things like this that just make me roll my eyes and shake my head. If I were in their position (hey, you never know), I would never do that to the fans. If someone brought it up, I'd respond with, "Oh yeah! I know that one!" and then speak the stupid line they would subsequently ask me to speak. I mean I wouldn't because I'm not looking to get into voice acting, but if I were in that position, that's what I would do. And then I wouldn't have people like myself on the internet questioning my ego and pettiness.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I am sorry I can't take you seriously with the comment "that it is highly improbable for a grown adult to change".. that is too ridiculous and a silly notion. I am grown adult and I change a lot year on year as I experience life, and I doubt in 10 years time when I am 33 I will be exactly the same as I am now...

[TheGreatness25]

You can't take me seriously because I said that it's improbable for a grown adult to change his behavior? And I can't take you seriously for trying to negate all of Sean Schemmel's nasty behavior toward other English-speaking Goku actors by bringing up that he had "words of encouragement" for an Asian voice actor about to play Goku. I mean, that's the way the world spins. I am sorry that out of everything that I said, the only thing you were able to latch onto was when I said that I doubt that Sean Schemmel has changed his behavior since all of these pathetic things that he did in regard to the other English-speaking Goku voice actors.

Trying to excuse someone's behavior with "Well people change," is silly to me. I'm sorry. I guess I shouldn't ever be upset with anyone because... well, people change.

[90sDBZ]

With regards to Schemmel it's worth remembering that there was a time when he, along with the rest of the early Funimation cast, were unfairly given a pretty hard time by some individuals online for replacing and having to impersonate a cast who they'd grown attached to. It's only natural that it's sort of a negative subject for them even now. And Nozawa has also admitted to being really protective of the role herself, which could potentially mean anything for all we know.

As far as Sabat taking credit for "Over 9000!", that's just not true. He's acknowledged for years that he wasn't the one who made that line famous, and has even joked about it being a misconception.

The Big Green dub is something that's been universally laughed at since it first came out on VHS back in the early 2000s, and has even been parodied by TFS. Sabat making a lighthearted joke about the awkward sounding "Let that child alone!" line at the request of a fan really isn't going to harm it. As a matter of fact both Schemmel and Sabat have regularly made jokes about their own dub at conventions, and have even gone as far as to heavily criticise it.

[TheGreatness25]

With regards to Schemmel it's worth remembering that there was a time when he, along with the rest of the early Funimation cast, were unfairly given a pretty hard time by some individuals online for replacing and having to impersonate a cast who they'd grown attached to. It's only natural that it's sort of a negative subject for them even now. And Nozawa has also admitted to being really protective of the role herself, which could potentially mean anything for all we know.

As far as Sabat taking credit for "Over 9000!", that's just not true. He's acknowledged for years that he wasn't the one who made that line famous, and has even joked about it being a misconception.

The Big Green dub is something that's been universally laughed at since it first came out on VHS back in the early 2000s, and has even been parodied by TFS. Sabat making a lighthearted joke about the awkward sounding "Let that child alone!" line at the request of a fan really isn't going to harm it. As a matter of fact both Schemmel and Sabat have regularly made jokes about their own dub at conventions, and have even gone as far as to heavily criticise it.

Yeah, I get it. Especially that last part. But I also used that exact argument before. They criticized their work... after Kai was being made. Before that, they were the bomb.com, but now that they have a "shinier new penny" (as I called it previously), they went back and basically bad-mouthed it. I'm sure that there's someone out there that has a bad taste in their mouth due to the fair-weather nature of their flip flopping going from trying to convince everyone that their dub is so great and needs to be bought, to bad-mouthing it just because they can.

And yeah, it's not a big deal with the Big Green dub, I get it... but it still comes off unprofessional. You're on stage because you're not another fan; you're on stage because you professionally represent this product. So how can you be so insensitive as to just say whatever you want? Again, surely someone out there loves this thing. And even if not, when you're on stage, you're supposed to be better than just a fan. The way it works is the fans are in the seats and the professional is on stage. So when you're there, you need to act professional. I've heard them joking about Dragon Ball Evolution. Okay... It wasn't great, but you're an ambassador for the product, you can't just say whatever the hell comes to your head. But whatever. It still rubs me the wrong way.

[8000 Saiyan]

I expected better from Rager. Even when Schemmel criticised the Ocean Kai dub, he never insulted the actors working on that dub.

He might not insult the actor's work but he's shown some resentment in his behaviour towards them. He once blocked Peter Kalmis on Twitter for no reason, scolded Kirby Morrow for using "voice of Goku" at a convention and more recently, got frustrated at a panel after bringing up the idea of Ian Corlett coming back to play Black Goku. The criticism of the Kai dub was also quite unprofessional in hindsight and totally unnecessary. He must've felt quite strongly about it to bother making a statement like that publicly.

I think it's safe to say he hasn't exactly made friends with any of the Canadian Goku actors, although he and Sabat seem to be on good terms with Scott McNeil for some reason.

Scott McNeil did a few works for Funimation actually, like Shiki in One Piece and Van Hohenheim in the first Fullmetal Alchemist series.


But talking on topic, I would really want to hear someday David Gasman, Paul Bandey and other AB Groupe actors talking in some Anime Panel about their dub, and what they think about all the feedback Big Green dub have on internet.

They likely haven't heard about the feedback that their dub gets. Oh, wait, I forgot. Sharon Mann already knows about it due to a member from Behind the Voice Actors.

[Dbzfan94]

I don't know what it is, but there's something that really irks me when I see Chris Sabat and Sean Schemmel shitting on other dubs or releases. Something about glass houses and throwing stones, I don't know. I guess that with my own feelings aside, there is somebody out there who enjoys all of these different versions of the series and crapping on it is like... who the hell are you? Are you a big Dragon Ball authority? Your own dub has been shat on for years.

I don't know, I guess that I wish they'd be a little more neutral as a way to be sensitive to fans' feelings instead of throwing their opinion around so carelessly. Instead of being all, "Oh yeah brilliant," just say, "Yeah I know it" and say the freaking line.

Why can't people joke around? They brought it up to Sabat, it's not like Sabat when "lol this dub is shit" outta complete nowhere. It's pretty hypocritical to call foul when someone critiques the Big Green dub. the FUNi dub gets shit on relentlessly on here, but that gets a pass? Why?

[Dbzfan94]

Oh well. I guess it's just me where I feel like they have no real right to make fun of anything Dragon Ball-related. Sometimes I feel like they think that they're the end-all-be-all Dragon Ball dub team. I think that even to this day, Chris Sabat doesn't realize that when people ask him to say "It's over 9,000" that it's because of Drummond's performance, not his own. Oh well.

Now your bias is showing. Chris Sabat has gone out to say multiple times how much he hates repeating over 9000 for fans and it wasn't even him that made the meme famous.

[8000 Saiyan]

With regards to Schemmel it's worth remembering that there was a time when he, along with the rest of the early Funimation cast, were unfairly given a pretty hard time by some individuals online for replacing and having to impersonate a cast who they'd grown attached to. It's only natural that it's sort of a negative subject for them even now. And Nozawa has also admitted to being really protective of the role herself, which could potentially mean anything for all we know.

As far as Sabat taking credit for "Over 9000!", that's just not true. He's acknowledged for years that he wasn't the one who made that line famous, and has even joked about it being a misconception.

The Big Green dub is something that's been universally laughed at since it first came out on VHS back in the early 2000s, and has even been parodied by TFS. Sabat making a lighthearted joke about the awkward sounding "Let that child alone!" line at the request of a fan really isn't going to harm it. As a matter of fact both Schemmel and Sabat have regularly made jokes about their own dub at conventions, and have even gone as far as to heavily criticise it.

Yeah, I get it. Especially that last part. But I also used that exact argument before. They criticized their work... after Kai was being made. Before that, they were the bomb.com, but now that they have a "shinier new penny" (as I called it previously), they went back and basically bad-mouthed it. I'm sure that there's someone out there that has a bad taste in their mouth due to the fair-weather nature of their flip flopping going from trying to convince everyone that their dub is so great and needs to be bought, to bad-mouthing it just because they can.

And yeah, it's not a big deal with the Big Green dub, I get it... but it still comes off unprofessional. You're on stage because you're not another fan; you're on stage because you professionally represent this product. So how can you be so insensitive as to just say whatever you want? Again, surely someone out there loves this thing. And even if not, when you're on stage, you're supposed to be better than just a fan. The way it works is the fans are in the seats and the professional is on stage. So when you're there, you need to act professional. I've heard them joking about Dragon Ball Evolution. Okay... It wasn't great, but you're an ambassador for the product, you can't just say whatever the hell comes to your head. But whatever. It still rubs me the wrong way.

What's wrong with joking about anything Dragon Ball-related?

[VegettoEX]

Now your bias is showing.

Can we all please collectively stop with the word "bias"? At least the right noun-vs-verb form of the word is used here, but it's still not an appropriate usage of the word.

Throwing my own two-cents in on the mix:

Everyone is a real-life human being and we all have our moments and should be cut some amount of slack, regardless of who we are and what platform we hold, and context (timeframe, audience, tone, etc.) should be taken into consideration. That being said: when your moments as a collective whole over a long period of time add up to and tell a complete, consistent story about the type of person you are and the types of commentary you make, that's likely an accurate reflection of reality.

[Robo4900]

My view of Sabat and Schemmel paints a very different picture than most of this thread seems to be painting, and honestly, I'm disgusted by how much a lot of people here are crapping on Sabat and Schemmel. (Plus Rager)

The thing about the Big Green and Malaysian dubs is that they are bad dubs, and the entertainment value in them is humour derived from how crazy they are. Saying that position is wrong is like criticising Doug Walker for him mocking The Room.

Sabat and Schemmel both strike me as people who either speak honestly, or don't speak at all. Chris Sabat seems to feel much more open about speaking his mind, and thus often ends up slagging off things like GT, Evolution, and Funimation's early dubbing work. Schemmel strikes me as playing things a lot more safe, choosing to mostly just not say anything when he would have something bad to say about something.

One thing that illustrates this difference is Sabat and Schemmel's senses of humour; while Sabat will get a laugh by mocking how bad the Malaysian and Big Green dubs are, Schemmel will get a laugh by talking about the idea of Chris Sabat being nicknamed Big Green, and giving out cucumbers and bagels to people. I think that's part of why those two bounce off each-other in panels so well; the two of them cover both major types of humour between them -- Chris makes fun of how bad some things are, which is satire, and Schemmel says bizarre things, which is the absurd.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, they strike me as cool people who have said some regrettable things in the past. And while it seems they have flip-flopped on their views on their dubbing work, the way I see it, Schemmel has rather consistently stayed in the camp of him liking all his work as Goku, but simply preferring his more recent stuff, while Sabat tends to be in the camp of whenever they make a big improvement over their previous efforts(Switching to uncut dubbing in 1999, doing the Ultimate Uncut redub of 1-67, doing Kai, etc.), he slags off their previous work as a way of pointing out what they're doing better.

I don't have anything negative to say about the Funimation actors; they're good people who work hard, and they're both nice and honest to the fans. What more could you ask for?

[8000 Saiyan]

My view of Sabat and Schemmel paints a very different picture than most of this thread seems to be painting, and honestly, I'm disgusted by how much a lot of people here are crapping on Sabat and Schemmel. (Plus Rager)

The thing about the Big Green and Malaysian dubs is that they are bad dubs, and the entertainment value in them is humour derived from how crazy they are. Saying that position is wrong is like criticising Doug Walker for him mocking The Room.

Sabat and Schemmel both strike me as people who either speak honestly, or don't speak at all. Chris Sabat seems to feel much more open about speaking his mind, and thus often ends up slagging off things like GT, Evolution, and Funimation's early dubbing work. Schemmel strikes me as playing things a lot more safe, choosing to mostly just not say anything when he would have something bad to say about something.

One thing that illustrates this difference is Sabat and Schemmel's senses of humour; while Sabat will get a laugh by mocking how bad the Malaysian and Big Green dubs are, Schemmel will get a laugh by talking about the idea of Chris Sabat being nicknamed Big Green, and giving out cucumbers and bagels to people. I think that's part of why those two bounce off each-other in panels so well; the two of them cover both major types of humour between them -- Chris makes fun of how bad some things are, which is satire, and Schemmel says bizarre things, which is the absurd.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, they strike me as cool people who have said some regrettable things in the past. And while it seems they have flip-flopped on their views on their dubbing work, the way I see it, Schemmel has rather consistently stayed in the camp of him liking all his work as Goku, but simply preferring his more recent stuff, while Sabat tends to be in the camp of whenever they make a big improvement over their previous efforts(Switching to uncut dubbing in 1999, doing the Ultimate Uncut redub of 1-67, doing Kai, etc.), he slags off their previous work as a way of pointing out what they're doing better.

I don't have anything negative to say about the Funimation actors; they're good people who work hard, and they're both nice and honest to the fans. What more could you ask for?

I'm thankful that these dubs exist. Whenever I'm not in the best of moods, I decide to see clips of them. So bad they're good.

[TheGreatness25]

All I said was that it rubs me the wrong way when they criticize other work and then I gave examples of what else they've made fun of. And then when it was brought up how Sean Schemmel has acted toward the Ocean dub, it's not right at all, honestly. It's really telling of their personality when they consistently act a certain way toward anything that isn't theirs. The fact that this discussion was started by their view on the Big Green dub isn't my point and maybe it's my fault for digressing, but it irks me when they do it to other works. By the way, it's obvious that Sean Schemmel has zero clue about what the Big Green dub is, he's just joining in on the laugh.

[XanatosVanBadass]

Yeah, I get it. Especially that last part. But I also used that exact argument before. They criticized their work... after Kai was being made. Before that, they were the bomb.com, but now that they have a "shinier new penny" (as I called it previously), they went back and basically bad-mouthed it. I'm sure that there's someone out there that has a bad taste in their mouth due to the fair-weather nature of their flip flopping going from trying to convince everyone that their dub is so great and needs to be bought, to bad-mouthing it just because they can.

And yeah, it's not a big deal with the Big Green dub, I get it... but it still comes off unprofessional. You're on stage because you're not another fan; you're on stage because you professionally represent this product. So how can you be so insensitive as to just say whatever you want? Again, surely someone out there loves this thing. And even if not, when you're on stage, you're supposed to be better than just a fan. The way it works is the fans are in the seats and the professional is on stage. So when you're there, you need to act professional. I've heard them joking about Dragon Ball Evolution. Okay... It wasn't great, but you're an ambassador for the product, you can't just say whatever the hell comes to your head. But whatever. It still rubs me the wrong way.

Er... you do realize it's bad business to bad mouth a product you're still actively promoting right? Which they were before the days of Kai. What, did you honestly expect them to risk damaging sales by shitting on what was (at the time) the only readily available duh they had? That's just bad business. You stand by heir product. The reason they turned on their old work is because now they're promoting a new dub which needs to be promoted differently. Granted, I'm not accusing them of being liars about how they feel about the old Z dub. I'm just saying they'res usually a marketing reason for things like this.

[TheGreatness25]

Er... you do realize it's bad business to bad mouth a product you're still actively promoting right? Which they were before the days of Kai. What, did you honestly expect them to risk damaging sales by shitting on what was (at the time) the only readily available duh they had? That's just bad business. You stand by heir product. The reason they turned on their old work is because now they're promoting a new dub which needs to be promoted differently. Granted, I'm not accusing them of being liars about how they feel about the old Z dub. I'm just saying they'res usually a marketing reason for things like this.

I understand about that. But it does say something about someone's credibility. Do they really believe that this is the end-all-be-all since their opinion on their own work changes with the wind? That's my point. They seem to go about promoting something new by crapping on the old and to me, that's unnecessary.

[Ripper 30]

I think FUNimation DB Voice Actors should not forget that the only reason, they got the roles was due to a cost saving measure by FUNi. Instead of contracting REAL actors like Drummond and Corlett, they opted to use amateurs in-house. The licensing of DB was always with FUNi, but they contracted Ocean Studios to dub it originally. The only reason Schemmel and Sabat have their jobs is as a cost saving measure enacted by Funi.
It's not like FUNimation Dubs of Dragon Ball series are Best because they clearly aren't even their Kai and Super Dubs aren't Perfect and doesn't even Compare to Dubs of Deathnote, Naruto, Bleach or Code Geass in terms of overall Accuracy and Voice work. Also, I personally prefer Peter Kelamis Goku over Sean's, in my opinion even Lawrence Simpson knows more about Goku the Character than Sean. I wish if Viz was also given License for Dubbing Dragon Ball to that we would have a faithful Dub side by side. But FUNimation's Voice Actors need to know that they should not think of them as the only voices of Characters.

[8000 Saiyan]

I think FUNimation DB Voice Actors should not forget that the only reason, they got the roles was due to a cost saving measure by FUNi. Instead of contracting REAL actors like Drummond and Corlett, they opted to use amateurs in-house. The licensing of DB was always with FUNi, but they contracted Ocean Studios to dub it originally. The only reason Schemmel and Sabat have their jobs is as a cost saving measure enacted by Funi.
It's not like FUNimation Dubs of Dragon Ball series are Best because they clearly aren't even their Kai and Super Dubs aren't Perfect and doesn't even Compare to Dubs of Deathnote, Naruto, Bleach or Code Geass in terms of overall Accuracy and Voice work. Also, I personally prefer Peter Kelamis Goku over Sean's, in my opinion even Lawrence Simpson knows more about Goku the Character than Sean. I wish if Viz was also given License for Dubbing Dragon Ball to that we would have a faithful Dub side by side. But FUNimation's Voice Actors need to know that they should not think of them as the only voices of Characters.

I can't imagine how many people would be pissed off if FUNimation lost their license to Viz. Sure, I'd like to see someone else dubbing Dragon Ball (I'd go with either Bang Zoom or Ocean for a redub of DB and Z), but Funimation has improved immensely since Kai and the recent movies. Fans would feel betrayed if these people were replaced.

And I strongly disagree about Schemmel not understanding Goku as a character. He had terrible scripts, but with the more accurate ones, he now understands Goku perfectly. When I first watched the Kai episode where Goku tells Frieza he's a Super Saiyan, that's when Schemmel became my favorite English Goku.