Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 15; Still Unreleased

[TheBlackPaladin]

Shame that Scott won't be there, because there's something I was wondering about his Piccolo performance.

Scott being there would have made things infinitly better! God that would be amazing.

What are you wondering about his performance?

Well, considering that many people complain about him sound too demonic when he's a "good guy", I wonder if he toned down the demonic part of Piccolo in the Android and Cell sagas of Kai.

Well, technically we know what his "new" Vegeta voice sounds like, because he has used it for saying Vegeta's lines at conventions. Others have described it as a mix of his Westwood Vegeta voice and his Zechs Marquise voice, and I think that's actually a good description. Still, it'll be nice to hear it in context and in high-quality audio.

[MistaL]

Scott being there would have made things infinitly better! God that would be amazing.

What are you wondering about his performance?

Well, considering that many people complain about him sound too demonic when he's a "good guy", I wonder if he toned down the demonic part of Piccolo in the Android and Cell sagas of Kai.

Well, technically we know what his "new" Vegeta voice sounds like, because he has used it for saying Vegeta's lines at conventions. Others have described it as a mix of his Westwood Vegeta voice and his Zechs Marquise voice, and I think that's actually a good description. Still, it'll be nice to hear it in context and in high-quality audio.

He's talking about Scott McNeil as Piccolo, dude.

[TheBlackPaladin]

He's talking about Scott McNeil as Piccolo, dude.

.......................................

....It's Monday.

[SX10]

MistaL - I will definitely ask about original character and attack names

8000 Saiyan - good question for McNeil. I loved his work in the Saban/ Pioneer days, but felt his work as Piccolo during the cell arc lacked that nuance, to me it was similar to his Wolverine. It sounds more distinctive in the footage we have of him from cons, would love to ask him if I could meet him. Imagine he would have the best info to give on this dub.

TheBlackPaladin - Mondays suck but yes, would be great to hear Drummond's Vegeta in context and maybe I can address the Zechs Marquise remix when I see him.

I want to know if there were any noticeable directorial differences between Kai and Z, and also if Drummond approached the character differently in terms of motivation and inflection or took cues from the Japanese version, given his knowledge of the character now as compared to the 90's.

Can maybe even get the name of the director this way.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I'd suggest maybe asking Drummond if he was asked to say "Over 8,000" or "Over 9,000" for old times sake, although, not sure if that should be left as a surprise for when (and most importantly) if we see this dub.

[SX10]

I'd suggest maybe asking Drummond if he was asked to say "Over 8,000" or "Over 9,000" for old times sake, although, not sure if that should be left as a surprise for when (and most importantly) if we see this dub.

That's a good question. I think I do want that to be a surprise. No matter their choice they can't lose with that one.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Watches as they ruin it by saying "ITS OFF THE CHARTS" or whatever

[SX10]

Watches as they ruin it by saying "ITS OFF THE CHARTS" or whatever

you're joking right, but I've had full on nightmares of finally sitting down to watch this dub, and everything about it has been scarily wrong. I woke up more than once with this fear and I can actually taste the disappointment.

[8000 Saiyan]

MistaL - I will definitely ask about original character and attack names

8000 Saiyan - good question for McNeil. I loved his work in the Saban/ Pioneer days, but felt his work as Piccolo during the cell arc lacked that nuance, to me it was similar to his Wolverine. It sounds more distinctive in the footage we have of him from cons, would love to ask him if I could meet him. Imagine he would have the best info to give on this dub.

TheBlackPaladin - Mondays suck but yes, would be great to hear Drummond's Vegeta in context and maybe I can address the Zechs Marquise remix when I see him.

I want to know if there were any noticeable directorial differences between Kai and Z, and also if Drummond approached the character differently in terms of motivation and inflection or took cues from the Japanese version, given his knowledge of the character now as compared to the 90's.

Can maybe even get the name of the director this way.

If Drummond sounds like a mix of his Zechs and his Westwood Vegeta voice, then that's like the ideal English Vegeta voice for me. Sabat sounds a lot better nowadays, but I still think he sounds a bit forced as Vegeta. He's a much better actor when he's not doing a character voice.

Honestly, there's nothing about Sabat's Vegeta, Yamcha or even Piccolo that makes me think he's perfect and irreplaceable for those characters.

It's probably Karl Willems who directed the dub.

you're joking right, but I've had full on nightmares of finally sitting down to watch this dub, and everything about it has been scarily wrong. I woke up more than once with this fear and I can actually taste the disappointment.

Yeah, I've had fears that the dub could be bad, but if Willems is directing it, then we're in good hands.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Watches as they ruin it by saying "ITS OFF THE CHARTS" or whatever

you're joking right, but I've had full on nightmares of finally sitting down to watch this dub, and everything about it has been scarily wrong. I woke up more than once with this fear and I can actually taste the disappointment.

Dude. I just meant that one joke. I know this dub will be awesome. My boy Karl Willems is doing it after all.

[SX10]

Watches as they ruin it by saying "ITS OFF THE CHARTS" or whatever

you're joking right, but I've had full on nightmares of finally sitting down to watch this dub, and everything about it has been scarily wrong. I woke up more than once with this fear and I can actually taste the disappointment.

Dude. I just meant that one joke. I know this dub will be awesome. My boy Karl Willems is doing it after all.

I hope he is! This has gotta be amazing. I was thinking about this the other day and the one thing I really don't want to hear in the dub is wall-to-wall music, I notice that stuff more now than ever before and it's too much. I don't think it will, but that would grate on me if it did.

[Robo4900]

Watches as they ruin it by saying "ITS OFF THE CHARTS" or whatever

I actually wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility that the scene is phrased wildly differently from how we usually hear it. The reason the "OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAND" had to be done like that was because the way the flaps move is weird for that line. In particular, it's worth noting that in Japanese, the last sound of the sentence is a vowel, so Vegeta leaves his mouth open when he's done talking. "Thousand" doesn't end with a vowel, you can't end that sentence with your mouth open, so either you have to yell it out and hold it, or you do it in that really clunky weird way Funimation did it in their two uncut goes at it...

One alternative way I thought of is that, given the fact the Simmons subtitles tend to say "Battle power" more than "Power level", you could do something like "Vegeta, what did you say about his power reading?" "He's at 8000 battle power!!" Still pretty clunky I realise, but I'm not a professional dub script writer; perhaps the guys working on this got something like that working that isn't clunky, and actually works in the scene without resorting to sounding dumb like the uncut Funi dubs or forcing a weird over-the-top read like the original. It would deprive us of further "NINE THOUSAND"(Or more likely "EIGHT THOUSAND") meme godness, but it may be seen as the superior choice for the flow of the scene. (Though, "It's off the charts" wouldn't solve this problem, since it wouldn't have him end the sentence with his mouth open)

For the record, my preferred way would be if it's the classic, oldschool delivery, but with the correct number("IT'S OVER EIGHT THOUUUSAAAAAAAANNNNDNDDDNDDD!!!!!!"), but if they decide to try a new thing with it, I'd be totally up for that too. The memes are fun, but ultimately an accurate, proper representation of the show we love comes first.

you're joking right, but I've had full on nightmares of finally sitting down to watch this dub, and everything about it has been scarily wrong. I woke up more than once with this fear and I can actually taste the disappointment.

Dude. I just meant that one joke. I know this dub will be awesome. My boy Karl Willems is doing it after all.

I hope he is! This has gotta be amazing. I was thinking about this the other day and the one thing I really don't want to hear in the dub is wall-to-wall music, I notice that stuff more now than ever before and it's too much. I don't think it will, but that would grate on me if it did.

I don't know if it will be Karl Willems, but let's not act like he's the only Ocean director who'd do justice to Kai; there's a ton of amazing talent in Vancouver, and while both the acting and the directing sides have their sort of "Top dogs" so to speak, I think whoever they'll have got for Kai will be one of the greats. So even if it isn't Willems, they'll have got somone who can do a truly great job, I'm sure.

As for the misc. fears about it being scarily wrong, given what we know about how seriously they've taken the casting(Mercilessly re-auditioning and being willing to recast every role), and even stuff as small as the pronunciations(It would have been super-easy to just continue mispronouncing Namek), I think at the very least what we'll be getting here is a solid TV dub on the same level as Funi's NickToons dub. And if that is all we get, then y'know what? That's fine by me. Hearing the Ocean voices in an accurate but lightly censored for TV dub is enough to turn Kai from a mild curiosity into an absolute must-watch for me. And even putting aside that personal want of mine, getting a decent TV version of Kai on-air in Canada will be great; think of all the kids who'll get an introduction to Dragon Ball this way. If they're put into it with a take that puts this much effort in to just doing a TV dub, with veteran actors like we know are going to be in it, I think these kids are in good hands.

I think I do know how this dub is going to turn out, and feel free to quote me on this...

The dub will be as good as a TV dub of Kai could be, the cast will all be excellent, the replacement score will be perfectly serviceable with some really great standout tracks here and there, but the internet will hate it because it's not Funimation, and people -- especially those on YouTube -- will unfavourably compare it to Funi's uncut dub(In much the same manner as people still compare the NickToons Kai dub to uncut Z to try to trash Kai unfairly because apparently Dragon Ball fans suddenly started caring about censorship in 2010), and similarly unfavourably compare the score to Yamamoto's(Though people will stay oddly quiet about how it compares to Kikuchi's). Meanwhile, the people who are giving it a fair shot(AKA: Those who aren't some idiot on YouTube or something) will maintain it's a great watch, at least as good as Funi's TV cut, and it will be popular enough in Canada for TFC to be picked up in some form by Wow.

And that's been my simultaneous burst of overwhelming optimism and unrelenting cynicism for this page.
Which reminds me, we've talked about moving to a new thread at some point, I suggest doing that if/when we have an official airdate, that way we can call the new thread "Ocean's Dragon Ball Kai: Airing [airdate]".

[Cure Dragon 255]

Listen I have a question, what do you think of the Latin American version of that scene? He says "Es mas de 8000" without screaming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiQSWoXFzoI

[Arian]

We've talked about moving to a new thread at some point, I suggest doing that if/when we have an official airdate, that way we can call the new thread "Ocean's Dragon Ball Kai: Airing [airdate]".

I don't think we have to move to a new thread, just rename this one like they did for the FUNi TFC thread.

[Robo4900]

We've talked about moving to a new thread at some point, I suggest doing that if/when we have an official airdate, that way we can call the new thread "Ocean's Dragon Ball Kai: Airing [airdate]".

I don't think we have to move to a new thread, just rename this one like they did for the FUNi TFC thread.

This thread is massive, unwieldy, and clogged up with nonsense. We need a new thread when this thing is about to air.

Listen I have a question, what do you think of the Latin American version of that scene? He says "Es mas de 8000" without screaming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiQSWoXFzoI

Works pretty neatly, I guess. Again, the line ends with a vowel, so he can naturally end it without holding it and yelling it for ages. My only real complaint is with the crappy footage.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

We've talked about moving to a new thread at some point, I suggest doing that if/when we have an official airdate, that way we can call the new thread "Ocean's Dragon Ball Kai: Airing [airdate]".

I don't think we have to move to a new thread, just rename this one like they did for the FUNi TFC thread.

This thread is massive, unwieldy, and clogged up with nonsense. We need a new thread when this thing is about to air.

Or we could create a new thread called "Dragon Ball Kai" Ocean Studios Dub Official Discussion Thread. When and if an airdate is announced a few pages to talk about excited we all are will suffice, but when the episodes air, then we will have lots to talk about.

[Arian]

This thread is massive, unwieldy, and clogged up with nonsense. We need a new thread when this thing is about to air.

I disagree, I believe that it's imperative to have all of this information in one place, but ultimately it's the admins' decision anyway.

[8000 Saiyan]

Considering that Willems directed the first three movies, I'd imagine Ocean would want someone familiar with the franchise to direct the Ocean Kai dub.

James Corrigall could also do a great job, judging from his work on Black Lagoon, NANA and Kurozuka.

[Robo4900]

Or we could create a new thread called "Dragon Ball Kai" Ocean Studios Dub Official Discussion Thread. When and if an airdate is announced a few pages to talk about excited we all are will suffice, but when the episodes air, then we will have lots to talk about.

Sure, that works.

This thread is massive, unwieldy, and clogged up with nonsense. We need a new thread when this thing is about to air.

I disagree, I believe that it's imperative to have all of this information in one place, but ultimately it's the admins' decision anyway.

Having the info in one place is one thing, but having a massively over-long thread probably half of which is nonsense in addition to the actual important information makes it unwieldy for anyone to wade through. Starting a new thread makes it more accessible to newcomers, those who haven't kept up to date with this in ages, and gives us a sort of "Fresh start", which I think we're in much need of.

I do understand your concern about information potentially getting lost, though, but I think renaming this thread and probably having it stretch for many hundreds upon hundreds further pages of discussion during the show's actual release would make that worse. I think the way to address the problem is actually to open a new thread when we have an airdate, and have the OP contain a spoiler tag somewhere in their post containing all info we know as of the day the thread opens, that way we have all the relevant info for anyone who wants to know it, without forcing them to drudge through 292 pages of discussion to actually find it.

Plus, Ocean Kai discussion is no stranger to starting a new thread when new info finally comes up after a while. Given how overlong and bloated this thread is, I think we're already overdue for a new thread, it's just that now we have a definitive reason to start one coming up.

Considering that Willems directed the first three movies, I'd imagine Ocean would want someone familiar with the franchise to direct the Ocean Kai dub.

James Corrigall could also do a great job, judging from his work on Black Lagoon, NANA and Kurozuka.

I'm sure Willems would be the first choice; he's considered by many to be Ocean's best director, all the voice actors love him, he'd be great. But, if he wasn't available, it's not like the end product would be bad -- any bad directors would not be working for Ocean, or at the very least wouldn't be put on a project like Dragon Ball -- I'm sure all the actors will put in great performances and whoever the director is, they'll be great, whether it's Willems or not.

I do wonder if there's more than one director, though. Given the huge cast of Dragon Ball, and the fact it was recorded from at least two locations(Vancouver and Calgary), I wonder if they had a second director who worked on the minor Calgary voices, or something like that...

[8000 Saiyan]

I'm sure Willems would be the first choice; he's considered by many to be Ocean's best director, all the voice actors love him, he'd be great. But, if he wasn't available, it's not like the end product would be bad -- any bad directors would not be working for Ocean, or at the very least wouldn't be put on a project like Dragon Ball -- I'm sure all the actors will put in great performances and whoever the director is, they'll be great, whether it's Willems or not.

I do wonder if there's more than one director, though. Given the huge cast of Dragon Ball, and the fact it was recorded from at least two locations(Vancouver and Calgary), I wonder if they had a second director who worked on the minor Calgary voices, or something like that...

I'm not sure.

I think it's possible that whoever directed the Vancouver VA's might have also flown to Calgary to direct the Calgary VA's.