Questions for people who grew up with the Westwood dub

[MasenkoHA]

Do you think the returning actors (Drummond, Mcneil, Kelamis) got worse than they were in the Saban/Funi days or just as good/better?


When you were watching the episodes on tv as a kid were you aware the US had its own version?

What did you think of some of the replacements like Kirby Marrow (technically the fourth Goku you guys got!) and Jillian ?

Was it odd getting the Funi in-house dub for about 55 episodes and then switching back to the Ocean cast? (That is correct right I think?)

Since I think most people have a bias for whichever DBZ dub they had the most exposure what do you think of your version compared to the in-house Funi dub (including the later sagas) and the Japanese version?

[Danfun64]

"the fourth Goku" so you're counting both Kid Goku and Adult Goku? Many people here list those separately for the English dubs.

[MasenkoHA]

No I'm counting Ian Corlett (dub episode 1-38) Peter Kelamis (episode 39-53 the first 3 movies and then episodes 108-159) Sean Schemmel (episodes 54-107) and then Kirby Marrow (remainder of the series). Since (unless I'm mistaken) countries that got the westwood dub got the same in-house Funi dub the US did up until dub episode 108 and that's when Ocean Group provided an alternative English dub to appease Canadian broadcast standards. Thus those fans would have grown up with 4 different voice actors for Adult Goku.

As opposed to the US where we got Ian, then Peter (since it all the same dub) then Sean for the remainder of the series and the Uncut redub. And I know a lot of US fans are under the impression that Sean is the only English Goku we ever had.

[Robo4900]

Do you think the returning actors (Drummond, Mcneil, Kelamis) got worse than they were in the Saban/Funi days or just as good/better?

Just as good.
There were some iffy lines -- it was clearly a rushed job -- but on the whole, they were as good as before.

When you were watching the episodes on tv as a kid were you aware the US had its own version?

Nope.
I remember the video games having different voices always bothered me, but I never really thought about it that hard as a kid.

What did you think of some of the replacements like Kirby Marrow (technically the fourth Goku you guys got!) and Jillian ?

Morrow was the lesser of the three, but he wasn't bad by any means. Jillian Michaels was okay as Gohan; definitely a downgrade from Henderson, but she did the job okay. Loved her as Goten, though.
Maggie Blue O'Hara was great as Bulma in my opinion; I prefer Lindbjerg, but not by much.
I think Klassen's Roshi is the only recast I just straight-up didn't like.
Dale Wilson returning as Kami was welcome; I preferred him over Ward Perry.
I don't think there were many more recasts. The ones I haven't mentioned are probably just the ones that weren't that big a deal for me.

Was it odd getting the Funi in-house dub for about 55 episodes and then switching back to the Ocean cast? (That is correct right I think?)

I don't remember. My brother actually stopped watching for a while when Funi came in, after the main plot of the Freeza arc was resolved, but started watching again with the Trunks saga, a little before Ocean came back. Dunno if he just hated the Garlic Jr. arc, or if he just couldn't manage the timeslot for a while, or if it was the Funi dub that did it, but who knows.

Since I think most people have a bias for whichever DBZ dub they had the most exposure what do you think of your version compared to the in-house Funi dub (including the later sagas) and the Japanese version?

For Westwood vs Funi, the music is different, which isn't a plus or a minus, though I prefer the Westwood approach of a more atmospheric score. This is entirely down to personal preference, though; both scores have their pluses and minuses, and it's up to the individual to decide which they prefer. Ultimately, I don't think it matters all that much, but I know a lot of people go crazy over Faulconer, and I personally have a massive soft spot for the Westwood tracks.

The voices in terms of the sound of the voices are as much a matter of opinion as the scores, but I consider the acting to be mountains better in Westwood. And since both use highly inaccurate scripts, the cuts that Funi's dub doesn't have aren't a bother for me; you're going to be watching a highly-inaccurate version of the show, so who cares if there's some occasional missing coverage shots and minor censorship cuts. Especially when you have some nonsense like this in both dubs.

As for Westwood vs Japanese, no contest, Japanese wins. Japanese is how the show should be watched. But, it's different. Westwood is that show I used to watch with my brother 15 years ago, and for me, several of the voices there(Particularly Piccolo and Vegeta) are just how those voices should sound to me, so I love watching it. But no, the Japanese version wins, definitely; it's just better. That's how the show should be seen, and unfortunately, both of the dubs are held back by several big issues(Replacement scores, crap scripts, and in Funi's case terrible acting).
Both are good, and I enjoy them for different reasons, but ultimately the sub is Logan, while the dub is Guardians Of The Galaxy.

[90sDBZ]

I actually found the switch to the Westwood dub incredibly jarring. For the longest time CN UK had been re-running Raditz-Trunks. I loved the Saban dub of the early episodes, but actually loved the inhouse Funimation dub even more because of the Faulconer score and because I felt most of the voices fit really well despite the acting not always being top notch. Schemmel in particular sounded more natural than Kelamis who was hit and miss. Anyway I had fully accepted the US cast and would have been more than happy to keep them.

Then we finally got the Android saga and I immediately felt something was off. The music sounded weird, like it had just randomly been thrown in there (years later I would find out it was from Megaman). I noticed the old voices were back but they weren't nearly as good as before for the most part. Drummond and McNeil went from amazing to meh, while Kelamis and Klassen had become terrible. The new voice for Trunks was monotone which really took away from the characters appeal, which was dissapointing after seeing him introduced with Eric Vale's awesome take.

All in all I felt that DBZ had gone from feeling unique to a generic saturday morning cartoon, largely thanks to the terribly repetitive and depressing Megaman score.

I became aware that the US had continued getting the better version around October 2002, which was when the new channel CNX launched and we got the entire Fusion saga shown in Funimation's dub. I was both overjoyed and surprised to see it return and was equally disappointed when they switched back to Ocean again a month or 2 later. Ironically the Westwood dub improved a lot around that time, but seeing both dubs side by side like that made it clear the US were still getting the superior version.

To this day I still stand by the opinion that Funimation's dub was overall much better despite its iffy start. The Saban dub and the Pioneer movies were the pinnacle of Ocean's work on the franchise, and mostly everything after that was a shadow of what came before (unless Ocean Kai can change that).

[Marugoto]

Was it odd getting the Funi in-house dub for about 55 episodes and then switching back to the Ocean cast? (That is correct right I think?)

I never noticed it to be honest. It didn't take me long to figure out that English DBZ was a highly altered product. So I wasn't really paying attention to the voice acting. It was almost a decade later when I finally became aware of all of this.

[SuperCyan2]

Well, I didn't grow up with the Ocean Dub but I sure do love Z Episodes 1-53 and the Z Movies 1-3 dub however, everything else like Cell arc - Majin Boo arc? Pass. I think they only really did that "Ocean Dub 2.0" to get their paycheck because that's even worse than FUNimation's own old dub. I'll say, I grew fond to the Mega Man score they used on it.

Can someone tell me where can I buy the Mega Man OST used on the DBZ episodes?

[Xell]

I just didn't understand the logic of having all these different dubs. I could tolerate going from the Ocean Dub to Funimation, but then it went back to the original Ocean actors sounding a hell of a lot less passionate than they were in their original incarnation. It just struck me as bizarre. I remember talking to my friend at the time and asking him whether he'd noticed it and he didn't know what I was talking about.. I guess some kids genuinely didn't notice the voice changes?

Then after discovering the magic of poorly encoded DBZ dubbed .rm episodes on various websites back in the day and hearing the Funimation voice actors in the Cell saga, I just couldn't even fathom what the deal was and as to why we had this different dub to the United States. It all seemed impractical..

Here's something else which I couldn't get my head around: Around the time of CNX, we got Funimation episodes for the Fusion Saga, yet they refused to play the Funimation opening of the episodes and replaced it with the drab, repetitive "DRAGON DRAGON BALL.. DRAGON BALL ZZZZ" opening we had been getting this whole time. This used to bother me a hell of a lot.. I don't know why but I would pray for that 'badass' Funimation opening every single day (and on one occasion they actually did forget to switch out the opening and ended up playing the Funi intro. Imagine my excitement seeing that DBZ logo and rockin guitar licks with We Gotta Power intro footage).. A lot of stuff used to bug me about the management of Dragonball in the UK.. I think I was one of those kids who cared about consistency. That being said, I really grew to love Kirby Marrow as Goku.

Imagine how I felt when we got GT.. Completely different voice cast once again. I was a triggered child.

[SuperCyan2]

I just didn't understand the logic of having all these different dubs.

One dub for each country, that's the idea. English-speaking countries have pretty much all gotten the same dub by FUNimation unfortunately but if they were to follow how non-English speaking countries do, then each of those countries would have made a dub for each one (Canada, America, England, Australia) and technically they did.

• America has the FUNimation dub.
• Canada has the Ocean Dub (god damn the Ocean Dub Kai is taking way too long! xD).
• England had the Big Green dub (DB Movies 1-3, DBZ Movies 1-9, DBZ TV Specials 1-2, DBGT TV Special) and a mix of FUNi and Ocean Dub on Cartoon Network / Toonami.
• Australia imported the FUNimation dub.

Take Spain for example, they didn't have a single dub for the entire country but several. Castillan (Traditional Spanish), Catalan, Galician and Euskeran so it covered each region that spoke a different language (might as well just become independent countries) but despite this, it's still essential that folks can comprehend Castillian as it's the main language in the country. America doesn't have this issue but now it kinda makes sense why FUNimation in the past included the Mexican-Spanish dub on the UUE DVDs (and Fullscreen Movie 5).

[ErikB]

Do you think the returning actors (Drummond, Mcneil, Kelamis) got worse than they were in the Saban/Funi days or just as good/better?

Yes. I was a bit too young to articulate it, but now I can say I noticed far less nuance to some of the returning voices. Drummond's especially. The earlier Ocean dub had him voice Vegeta with an admirably multi-faceted performance; the Westwood dub sounded more like Drummond was just told to make Vegeta sound one way all the time, regardless of emotion, tone, etc. I felt (and still feel) the same way about Krillin. Ocean Krillin sounds like a human being with a slightly goofy voice, Westwood Krillin sounds like a deliberate, one-note caricature of the former.

When you were watching the episodes on tv as a kid were you aware the US had its own version?

Yes. Not long after YTV switched to the Westwood dub was when I first looked into downloading anime episodes from random fansites. There was a site that I grabbed almost all of the Funimation dub of the Buu episodes from back then.

What did you think of some of the replacements like Kirby Marrow (technically the fourth Goku you guys got!) and Jillian ?

Honestly, Kirby Morrow and Jillian Michaels were the specific actors that made me immediately hate the Westwood dub the first time I heard it as a bratty little 9 or 10-year-old fanboy. But really the problem was more with the direction than the actors themselves. I can still vividly remember my brother and I busting out laughing at Morrow's delivery of one of Goku's more serious lines. Meanwhile Michaels was such a drastic departure from Nadolny and, again, the performance was hard not to cringe at. It bugged the hell out of me at the time because I was at peak Gohan fanboyism, and I hated how much less "cool" he sounded in the Westwood dub. Looking back on it now, I'd be less harsh, but I still don't like either of them as those respective characters. Michaels made for a good Goten though.

On a more positive note, Saffron Henderson is still my favourite English voice for Gohan ever, and I wish I could live in a reality where she was always young Gohan in every dub.

Terry Klassen's Master Roshi was..well...it just sounded like Krillin doing an intentionally bad impression of an old man.

Was it odd getting the Funi in-house dub for about 55 episodes and then switching back to the Ocean cast? (That is correct right I think?)

I've been told Toonami UK's switching of dubs is a much more convoluted situation (including the same episodes being rerun with the other dub), but here in Canada, YTV aired the Funimation in-house dub until episode 183: "Android Explosion," then they switched to the Westwood dub and stuck with it for the remainder of the series. It most certainly was odd. We had Funimation for quite a long run, it was more than enough for me to adjust and ultimately prefer that cast by a wide margin. The switch quickly set off my adolescent nerdrage.

Since I think most people have a bias for whichever DBZ dub they had the most exposure what do you think of your version compared to the in-house Funi dub (including the later sagas) and the Japanese version?

I had pretty equal exposure to both dubs, but I definitely had a bias for Funimation at the time. And I'd still take it over the Westwood dub. I haven't watched Japanese Z in its entirety, but almost by default I'd have to say it's the best version in my mind. While I prefer Funimation's Z dub to the Westwood dub, it's not good; it's just marginally, arguably better. Both dubs are shoddy products overall.

[Robo4900]

I've been told Toonami UK's switching of dubs is a much more convoluted situation (including the same episodes being rerun with the other dub)

No, that's just a common misunderstanding spread by people trading stories of vague memories, and conflating certain things.

Z episodes 54-107 aired with the Funi dub. Everything else was Ocean(Or BW, for DB and GT), except for the very first airing(And only the first airing) of the first 2 or 3 episodes of the Fusion saga.

[MasenkoHA]

On a more positive note, Saffron Henderson is still my favourite English voice for Gohan ever, and I wish I could live in a reality where she was always young Gohan in every dub.

She was by far my favorite English Gohan too. Granted she doesn't exactly have much competition compared to Nadolny's smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day Gohan and Clinkenbeard's I'm just a pwecious wide eye adorbz anime kid What little I've heard of Jillian Michaels in clips wasn't bad per say just way too feminine to be an older version of Henderson's character. She actually kind of sounded like Laura' Bailey's Trunks to me?

[SuperCyan2]

She was by far my favorite English Gohan too. Granted she doesn't exactly have much competition compared to Nadolny's smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day Gohan and Clinkenbeard's I'm just a pwecious wide eye adorbz anime kid What little I've heard of Jillian Michaels in clips wasn't bad per say just way too feminine to be an older version of Henderson's character. She actually kind of sounded like Laura' Bailey's Trunks to me?

These dubs could have just hired an actual boy to voice Gohan and that'd have been settled. I think it was the German dub (?) which did that and worked out wonderfully. Now, yes, some will probably mention Masako Nozawa who's a woman and is the voice of the Son family but to her defense she has mastered voicing male character and has a perfect balance so she's a professional at voice-acting.

I'm glad FUNimation didn't redub DB Movies 2-4 or they would have used Clinkenbeard which would have been a travesty.

[90sDBZ]

I've been told Toonami UK's switching of dubs is a much more convoluted situation (including the same episodes being rerun with the other dub)

No, that's just a common misunderstanding spread by people trading stories of vague memories, and conflating certain things.

Z episodes 54-107 aired with the Funi dub. Everything else was Ocean(Or BW, for DB and GT), except for the very first airing(And only the first airing) of the first 2 or 3 episodes of the Fusion saga.

We've been over this this before. I can tell you for a fact the entire Fusion saga aired in Funimation's dub at least twice and not just the first 2 episodes like you keep saying. I don't know why you keep insisting this was the case if you weren't there watching it at the time. I followed CNX from day 1 and watched all the way to the episode were they fight Buu inside his head in Funimation's dub, twice as a matter of fact, and anyone else who followed the UK debut of the Fusion saga will tell you the same thing. It seems to me you're getting your "facts" from some misinformed site.

[MasenkoHA]

She was by far my favorite English Gohan too. Granted she doesn't exactly have much competition compared to Nadolny's smoking 10 packs of cigarettes a day Gohan and Clinkenbeard's I'm just a pwecious wide eye adorbz anime kid What little I've heard of Jillian Michaels in clips wasn't bad per say just way too feminine to be an older version of Henderson's character. She actually kind of sounded like Laura' Bailey's Trunks to me?

These dubs could have just hired an actual boy to voice Gohan and that'd have been settled. I think it was the German dub (?) which did that and worked out wonderfully. .

They really couldn’t have. There’s labor laws and what not and long hours when dubbing an anime tv series. Unless you mean hire an adult male to voice Gohan which wouldn’t have been better.

There are woman who can do boy voices just fine. Colleen just isnt one of them.

[SuperCyan2]

They really couldn’t have. There’s labor laws and what not and long hours when dubbing an anime tv series. Unless you mean hire an adult male to voice Gohan which wouldn’t have been better.

There are woman who can do boy voices just fine. Colleen just isnt one of them.

Well, I suppose that depends more per country and its laws.

[Robo4900]

We've been over this this before. I can tell you for a fact the entire Fusion saga aired in Funimation's dub at least twice and not just the first 2 episodes like you keep saying. I don't know why you keep insisting this was the case if you weren't there watching it at the time. I followed CNX from day 1 and watched all the way to the episode were they fight Buu inside his head in Funimation's dub, twice as a matter of fact, and anyone else who followed the UK debut of the Fusion saga will tell you the same thing. It seems to me you're getting your "facts" from some misinformed site.

Okay, fair enough, I got the small detail of the precise number of episodes wrong about something I don't remember, which people online consistently provide conflicting information on. Shoot me.
In my defence, this was 16 years ago. I didn't start watching until reruns from about 2003-2006.

But yes, I got that one detail wrong. And perhaps it did air twice, most people are pretty vague about that. But, most people do say that it went back to Ocean for the re-airings after that.

So, here's what I said, revised to reflect this correction:

Z episodes 54-107 aired with the Funi dub. Everything else was Ocean(Or BW, for DB and GT), except for the very first airings of the Fusion saga.

There are woman who can do boy voices just fine. Colleen just isnt one of them.

I disagree. Colleen did a pretty great job; her voice was a little grating at times, and I think someone better could have been found, since her voice doesn't really mature in the Cell arc to the degree it probably should, but she can act, and her voice sounds fitting enough to get the job done.
Meanwhile, to quote another Kanzenshuuer, Nadolny "Couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.", and although you could make a case for her voice as Goku, and the late Cell arc Gohan, she really doesn't fit as 4-year-old Gohan, and ultimately, even if the sound of her voice was perfect, the sound is only about 30% of it; 70% is the acting itself, and Nadolny simply wasn't very good.

[90sDBZ]

We've been over this this before. I can tell you for a fact the entire Fusion saga aired in Funimation's dub at least twice and not just the first 2 episodes like you keep saying. I don't know why you keep insisting this was the case if you weren't there watching it at the time. I followed CNX from day 1 and watched all the way to the episode were they fight Buu inside his head in Funimation's dub, twice as a matter of fact, and anyone else who followed the UK debut of the Fusion saga will tell you the same thing. It seems to me you're getting your "facts" from some misinformed site.

Okay, fair enough, I got the small detail of the precise number of episodes wrong about something I don't remember, which people online consistently provide conflicting information on. Shoot me.
In my defence, this was 16 years ago. I didn't start watching until reruns from about 2003-2006.

But yes, I got that one detail wrong. And perhaps it did air twice, most people are pretty vague about that. But, most people do say that it went back to Ocean for the re-airings after that.

So, here's what I said, revised to reflect this correction:

Z episodes 54-107 aired with the Funi dub. Everything else was Ocean(Or BW, for DB and GT), except for the very first airings of the Fusion saga.

Yeah I guess it is pretty easy to lose track of the small details when it comes to a franchise with as complicated a history as Dragonball in English speaking countries.
And you did get most of it right to be fair.

And I can agree with your point about things being blurred by different people's accounts. As time goes by people naturally forget the finer details of how things happened back in the day, and we end up with a kind of Mandela Effect situation.

[MasenkoHA]

I just didn't understand the logic of having all these different dubs

At least with Canada it was due to Broadcasting act that required that broadcasters in Canada air a certain percentage of content that had been at least partially written, produced, presented, or contributed by Canadians. This is I think partially why the English dub was outsourced to a Canadian studio in the first place and why a lot of cartoons were recorded in Canada (like X-men TAS) or filmed in Canada with Canadian actors for live action shows.

. I could tolerate going from the Ocean Dub to Funimation, but then it went back to the original Ocean actors sounding a hell of a lot less passionate than they were in their original incarnation. It just struck me as bizarre. I remember talking to my friend at the time and asking him whether he'd noticed it and he didn't know what I was talking about.. I guess some kids genuinely didn't notice the voice changes?

I mean here in America I think the vast majority of us didn't notice the voices suddenly switching to poor imitations of the first cast and then when we got older many of us just assumed Chris Sabat, Sean Schemmel etc were ALWAYS the dub voices not helping when Funimation went back and redubbed the first two seasons.

"DRAGON DRAGON BALL.. DRAGON BALL ZZZZ" opening we had been getting this whole time.

Lol that opening was so bad. Imagine going from Rock the Dragon to....that thing.