Would you say Linda Young got better or worse over time?

[Robo4900]

I mean, let's be real, if an actor is miscast in a role, there's not much they can do. Young did improve her acting, and the direction she was given improved, but a miscasting is still a miscasting. She's a great fit for Baba, but as Freeza, she just wasn't the right choice, unfortunately.

[Ringworm128]

Yes, of course she improved. But sometimes her voice sounded a tad over crass. In my opinion her best performance was in Burst Limit.

I've always held the opinion that she is extremely underrated as Freeza and could do great with the right script and direction. And while I do ultimately prefer Chris Ayers' as Freeza I can't help but think "what if?" every time I see a piece of modern Dragonball with Freeza in it. Everyone else gave a great performance in the English dub for Kai, and that laugh in Episode 1 was a good start; so I can't help but feel that if she had been given a script similar to the video games her performance would have turned out great.

[Ssjcell]

I am a fan of Linda young , I think that she is great as frieza , and I think she was iconic as genkai.

[Scott]

I am a fan of Linda young , I think that she is great as frieza , and I think she was iconic as genkai.

I think the same way you do. I couldn't think of a more fitting person to voice Genkai, they really got the cast spot on for Yu Yu Hakusho.

[Sin]

I am a fan of Linda young , I think that she is great as frieza , and I think she was iconic as genkai.

I think the same way you do. I couldn't think of a more fitting person to voice Genkai, they really got the cast spot on for Yu Yu Hakusho.

She was a good fit for Genkai, and I didn't think her acting was anything distracting so it couldn't have been that bad (not watched YYH in a number of years).

I actually prefer her portrayal of Freeza to Ayres, but at the same time I don't think her acting was great. I felt having her play Freeza complemented his androgynous appearance, and there was something more menacing and alien about that, think of HIM from Powerpuff Girls. I feel like Ayres portrays the character more faithfully and as an adult I can appreciate now that his acting is far better than Young, however I have always had a soft spot for the gender ambiguous Freeza of my childhood when it comes to the English dub.

[ABED]

Even if you think it's good, "iconic" is a step too far.

Young's portrayal wasn't androgynous. It wasn't the Ziggy Stardust of DBZ performances. It was an older woman playing a character who is supposed to be an uppercrust gentleman/psychopath, but instead comes across as an over the top vaguely sexual telling really bad jokes and TRYING to sound creepy, but comes off as little more than a bad Saturday morning cartoon villain.

[Sin]

Even if you think it's good, "iconic" is a step too far.

Young's portrayal wasn't androgynous. It wasn't the Ziggy Stardust of DBZ performances. It was an older woman playing a character who is supposed to be an uppercrust gentleman/psychopath, but instead comes across as an over the top vaguely sexual telling really bad jokes and TRYING to sound creepy, but comes off as little more than a bad Saturday morning cartoon villain.

What isn't great about that?

And I was referring to the fact that Freeza's design is androgynous, so having an obvious woman's voice complemented that. If we are talking about faithfulness to the character obviously Young's portrayal is awful, but I do think a lot of the negativity towards her is down to a poor script and the dub's general poor treatment, she was never going to portray the character any different than how the people paying her wage told her to. I agree it definitely isn't iconic though, more infamous.

[TheGreatness25]

Even if you think it's good, "iconic" is a step too far.

Young's portrayal wasn't androgynous. It wasn't the Ziggy Stardust of DBZ performances. It was an older woman playing a character who is supposed to be an uppercrust gentleman/psychopath, but instead comes across as an over the top vaguely sexual telling really bad jokes and TRYING to sound creepy, but comes off as little more than a bad Saturday morning cartoon villain.

What isn't great about that?

And I was referring to the fact that Freeza's design is androgynous, so having an obvious woman's voice complemented that. If we are talking about faithfulness to the character obviously Young's portrayal is awful, but I do think a lot of the negativity towards her is down to a poor script and the dub's general poor treatment, she was never going to portray the character any different than how the people paying her wage told her to. I agree it definitely isn't iconic though, more infamous.

I agree. Had Chris Ayres been hired to play Freeza from the onset, he, too, would do the "Pop goes the weasel hur hur hur" stuff as she did and probably deliver lines the way she did because that's the direction they were going in. Clearly that's the direction they were going in if nobody corrected her especially by the time they got to the Boo arc or GT. So that's why my earlier point was that we really don't know how things could have been with different directing and a different script, but her voice itself was fine (more particularly later on when she got the hang of it).

[ABED]

Iconic isn't a synonym for "great". Iconic in this context requires the performance to be widely known and recognized as great.

Having a woman's voice doesn't mean Freeza sounds androgynous, he sounds like an older woman.

Linda Young always sounds like she's performing. She's over the top cheesy. Ayres and Nakao are flamboyant and in an awesome way that fits the character. I don't like the performance and never found it fitting. She got moderately better, but that's not saying much.

[Sin]

Iconic isn't a synonym for "great". Iconic in this context requires the performance to be widely known and recognized as great.

Having a woman's voice doesn't mean Freeza sounds androgynous, he sounds like an older woman.

Linda Young always sounds like she's performing. She's over the top cheesy. Ayres and Nakao are flamboyant and in an awesome way that fits the character. I don't like the performance and never found it fitting. She got moderately better, but that's not saying much.

I must not have come across properly in my last post or you have misread it. I said it isn't iconic, and I made a playful joke when I rhetorically asked what isn't great about her portrayal being similar to a Saturday cartoon villain.

I also never said the character sounds androgynous, I said the design is androgynous. Also yes, Ayres is more faithful to the part and a better counterpart to Nakao's portrayal, and it's fine to think that (or the opposite) - but we are discussing whether she got better over time, regardless of how she was being paid to play the part.

[ABED]

Iconic isn't a synonym for "great". Iconic in this context requires the performance to be widely known and recognized as great.

Having a woman's voice doesn't mean Freeza sounds androgynous, he sounds like an older woman.

Linda Young always sounds like she's performing. She's over the top cheesy. Ayres and Nakao are flamboyant and in an awesome way that fits the character. I don't like the performance and never found it fitting. She got moderately better, but that's not saying much.

I must not have come across properly in my last post or you have misread it. I said it isn't iconic, and I made a playful joke when I rhetorically asked what isn't great about her portrayal being similar to a Saturday cartoon villain.

I also never said the character sounds androgynous, I said the design is androgynous. Also yes, Ayres is more faithful to the part and a better counterpart to Nakao's portrayal, and it's fine to think that (or the opposite) - but we are discussing whether she got better over time, regardless of how she was being paid to play the part.

I did directly address the question. I said she got better, but not by much and I don't think she ever had the ability to sound great even with a better script. I've never rated her high as an actress. Ayres has the ability to make chicken soup out of chicken scratch, whereas Young doesn't.

Freeza isn't a saturday morning cartoon villain, and shouldn't be portrayed as such.

[jjgp1112]

I was a big fan of her performance as fourth form Frieza in the 2 episodes she redubbed for him on the season 3 set

[DBZAOTA482]

She improved but only slightly. Can't helped though as she was just a bad cast for Freeza in general like Tiffany Volmer for Bulma.

[Dbzfan94]

I was a big fan of her performance as fourth form Frieza in the 2 episodes she redubbed for him on the season 3 set

What episodes were those? I'm still unsure what they kept for Young and what they redubbed in the Freeza Saga.

[coola]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPIikqNJyMA With all respect, it is good thing she was replaced, as we see in Burst Limit, she barely improved over years, even with better line, she stil made Freeza sound like grandma

[jjgp1112]

I was a big fan of her performance as fourth form Frieza in the 2 episodes she redubbed for him on the season 3 set

What episodes were those? I'm still unsure what they kept for Young and what they redubbed in the Freeza Saga.

It's all over the place. She definitely redubbed everything up until his third form, and then the first 2 episodes after he transformed into his 4th form. From episode 84 on its her wretched original performance.

[coola]

I was a big fan of her performance as fourth form Frieza in the 2 episodes she redubbed for him on the season 3 set

What episodes were those? I'm still unsure what they kept for Young and what they redubbed in the Freeza Saga.

It's all over the place. She definitely redubbed everything up until his third form, and then the first 2 episodes after he transformed into his 4th form. From episode 84 on its her wretched original performance.

That's reason i stick to original Singles if i want to watch dub, so i won't have to deal with such Frankenstein monster, i don't get it, what is point of redub only part of lines?

[Attitudefan]

What episodes were those? I'm still unsure what they kept for Young and what they redubbed in the Freeza Saga.

It's all over the place. She definitely redubbed everything up until his third form, and then the first 2 episodes after he transformed into his 4th form. From episode 84 on its her wretched original performance.

That's reason i stick to original Singles if i want to watch dub, so i won't have to deal with such Frankenstein monster, i don't get it, what is point of redub only part of lines?

It's especially weird when you hear grunts from the original dub and then they talk and it may even be a different actor (Ginyu's dub in the remastered version is jarring, as Dale Kelly's screams are all still intact).

I actually like Young's portrayal of Freeza in Budokai 2 for the PS2. Maybe nostalgia blinds me, but the performances in that game were actually pretty good especially considering it was dubbed during their original run.