Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 14; Still Unreleased

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Mon Sep 17, 2018 1:54 am

Danfun64 wrote:
Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:I look at that and look at AB Groupe, who seemingly just saw the series as another throwaway kids fad that wouldn't stick around, so much so that they didn't strike while the iron was hot and use Ocean for the movies or try to put out a home release of anything other than the movies, I have my doubts they'd care enough to hang on to the masters.
a throwaway kids fad that wouldn't stick around, eh? Does that explain why the French dub is one of the first European dubs of the series ever, or how dubs like the German dub and Big Green (let alone Westwood Z and Blue Water GT) were done near the end of the original French run...that is when they haven't come straight up after said run has finished?
None of that is relevant to my point. My point is that AB seemingly just wanted to get the series over with. They didn't have the foresight to know it would still be popular and their dubs would be sought after years down the road.

This thread exemplifies how well loved the Ocean cast are among the fanbase. Imagine if AB hired them back to dub the movies? Or if they released the Canadian dubs on home video? Not only would they have been making an attempt to compete with Funimation and Madman who were releasing DVDs and VHS at the time, but they could have had fans from outside the UK, Ireland and Holland importing their releases of those dubs, because, as we know the Westwood and Blue Water dubs didn't air anywhere else except Canada (who also only ever got Funimation's releases so there would have been incentive for them to import).

Hell, if those hypothetical home video releases of the Canadian dubs did well there would have even been a small chance AB could have released Ocean Kai because a precedent would have been set.

Why didn't they go back and redub the episodes that had no Canadian cast equivalent (i.e. Episodes 54-108 of the edited dub) as Funimation did with the first 2 seasons for consistency?

Bottom line is AB could have done so much more with this franchise for English speaking fans if they had of known people would still be talking about it well over a decade later, they didn't because they thought after the Canadian dubs' original run everyone would just grow out of it, and now were all left to wonder what could have been.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:34 pm

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:
Danfun64 wrote:
Dragon Ball Ireland wrote:I look at that and look at AB Groupe, who seemingly just saw the series as another throwaway kids fad that wouldn't stick around, so much so that they didn't strike while the iron was hot and use Ocean for the movies or try to put out a home release of anything other than the movies, I have my doubts they'd care enough to hang on to the masters.
a throwaway kids fad that wouldn't stick around, eh? Does that explain why the French dub is one of the first European dubs of the series ever, or how dubs like the German dub and Big Green (let alone Westwood Z and Blue Water GT) were done near the end of the original French run...that is when they haven't come straight up after said run has finished?
None of that is relevant to my point. My point is that AB seemingly just wanted to get the series over with. They didn't have the foresight to know it would still be popular and their dubs would be sought after years down the road.

This thread exemplifies how well loved the Ocean cast are among the fanbase. Imagine if AB hired them back to dub the movies? Or if they released the Canadian dubs on home video? Not only would they have been making an attempt to compete with Funimation and Madman who were releasing DVDs and VHS at the time, but they could have had fans from outside the UK, Ireland and Holland importing their releases of those dubs, because, as we know the Westwood and Blue Water dubs didn't air anywhere else except Canada (who also only ever got Funimation's releases so there would have been incentive for them to import).

Hell, if those hypothetical home video releases of the Canadian dubs did well there would have even been a small chance AB could have released Ocean Kai because a precedent would have been set.

Why didn't they go back and redub the episodes that had no Canadian cast equivalent (i.e. Episodes 54-108 of the edited dub) as Funimation did with the first 2 seasons for consistency?

Bottom line is AB could have done so much more with this franchise for English speaking fans if they had of known people would still be talking about it well over a decade later, they didn't because they thought after the Canadian dubs' original run everyone would just grow out of it, and now were all left to wonder what could have been.
If I recall correctly, there was a petition for Ocean to dub episodes 54-108, but like many petitions, it failed.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Robo4900 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 6:50 pm

8000 Saiyan wrote:If I recall correctly, there was a petition for Ocean to dub episodes 54-108, but like many petitions, it failed.
That was years later. Probably after AB had given up on it, and probably not long before Toei(Or whoever) hired Ocean to do a dub of Kai.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by MasenkoHA » Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:02 am

They really should have done those episodes.

Between Stephanie not knowing what a 5-year old boy sounds like and Sean Schemmel refusing to rerecord his badly acted lines from 1999 those episodes are unwatchable in the Z english dub

Hell I wish the Saban/Funi/Ocean agreement had made it to the end of the Freeza saga

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:44 am

I have some nostalgia for those season 3 episodes as it was my introduction to Dragon Ball Z, but I find them hard to go back to after getting used to Kai as there's no comparison between 1999 and 2010 Schemmel, and Young's Freeza can't hold a candle to Ayres.

Would have been interesting to see Ocean do those episodes however it could have worked out, but I'll be nice if we get to see the Ocean Kai version of it.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:31 pm

MasenkoHA wrote:They really should have done those episodes.

Between Stephanie not knowing what a 5-year old boy sounds like and Sean Schemmel refusing to rerecord his badly acted lines from 1999 those episodes are unwatchable in the Z english dub

Hell I wish the Saban/Funi/Ocean agreement had made it to the end of the Freeza saga
I have to admit that while I hate the fact that Funimation abandoned Ocean, at least they managed to improve with Kai, but even then I'm not attached to the Funimation cast that much.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 90sDBZ » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:12 pm

MasenkoHA wrote:They really should have done those episodes.

Between Stephanie not knowing what a 5-year old boy sounds like and Sean Schemmel refusing to rerecord his badly acted lines from 1999 those episodes are unwatchable in the Z english dub

Hell I wish the Saban/Funi/Ocean agreement had made it to the end of the Freeza saga
If we're talking Westwood dub level of quality for episodes 54-107 then I'd hardly call it an improvement over Funimation's version. Quite the opposite actually. I was actually grateful they never went back and dubbed those episodes considering how bad their Android-Buu dub was.

Now a hypothetical continuation of the initial Saban dub on the other hand would be a different story. Back then the performances weren't rushed and there wasn't dreadful Megaman music.

Hopefully Ocean Kai is much closer to the quality of the Saban/Pioneer dubs than the Westwood dub.

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by MasenkoHA » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:52 pm

90sDBZ wrote:
MasenkoHA wrote:They really should have done those episodes.

Between Stephanie not knowing what a 5-year old boy sounds like and Sean Schemmel refusing to rerecord his badly acted lines from 1999 those episodes are unwatchable in the Z english dub

Hell I wish the Saban/Funi/Ocean agreement had made it to the end of the Freeza saga
If we're talking Westwood dub level of quality for episodes 54-107 then I'd hardly call it an improvement over Funimation's version. Quite the opposite actually. I was actually grateful they never went back and dubbed those episodes considering how bad their Android-Buu dub was.

Now a hypothetical continuation of the initial Saban dub on the other hand would be a different story. Back then the performances weren't rushed and there wasn't dreadful Megaman music.

Hopefully Ocean Kai is much closer to the quality of the Saban/Pioneer dubs than the Westwood dub.

Well I meant specifically the way the first 53 episodes were dubbed (which is why I included Saban instead of Wesrwood$. The Ocean cast at their peak, Wasserman score, etc

Actually ideal situation? Pioneer took over from Saban so we would have had the episodes with the original Japanese music and closer scripts plus the Ocean cast

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:56 pm

If they were given better direction than they got in the Android saga then I wouldn't have minded them doing 54-107. Just because they rushed through the Android Saga, it doesn't mean they couldn't have done better.
Last edited by 8000 Saiyan on Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by Arian » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:58 pm

MasenkoHA wrote:They really should have done those episodes.

Between Stephanie not knowing what a 5-year old boy sounds like and Sean Schemmel refusing to rerecord his badly acted lines from 1999 those episodes are unwatchable in the Z english dub

Hell I wish the Saban/Funi/Ocean agreement had made it to the end of the Freeza saga
I don't think his ego was the issue that time, because he did re-record the second half of episode 67 as well as miscellaneous dialogue here and there that FUNimation felt like having re-done.

It was really just a situation where Gen and the other FUNi executives felt like Goku and Piccolo's 1999 voices held up. But somehow Gohan, Krillin, and Frieza's voices didn't. Really makes sense.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by MistaL » Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:03 pm

Arian wrote:
MasenkoHA wrote:They really should have done those episodes.

Between Stephanie not knowing what a 5-year old boy sounds like and Sean Schemmel refusing to rerecord his badly acted lines from 1999 those episodes are unwatchable in the Z english dub

Hell I wish the Saban/Funi/Ocean agreement had made it to the end of the Freeza saga
I don't think his ego was the issue that time, because he did re-record the second half of episode 67 as well as miscellaneous dialogue here and there that FUNimation felt like having re-done.

It was really just a situation where Gen and the other FUNi executives felt like Goku and Piccolo's 1999 voices held up. But somehow Gohan, Krillin, and Frieza's voices didn't. Really makes sense.
I heard somewhere that it was more of a scheduling issue, since Schemmel was working primarily in New York starting around that time.

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:16 pm

MasenkoHA wrote:Well I meant specifically the way the first 53 episodes were dubbed (which is why I included Saban instead of Wesrwood$. The Ocean cast at their peak, Wasserman score, etc

Actually ideal situation? Pioneer took over from Saban so we would have had the episodes with the original Japanese music and closer scripts plus the Ocean cast
If they had cast some more fitting VA's in specific roles, then yes, I would have loved that.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by SX10 » Thu Sep 20, 2018 2:02 am

The only things I love about season 3 are:

- Ginyu Force Theme & SSJ Transformation theme
- Watching the Captain Ginyu & Freeza fight finally happen

That's about it. I knew it had all changed when I was younger but found it very confusing. It made the show much less enjoyable (that and the relentless, mind numbing, filler).

To this day, the fact that Ocean did the heavy lifting and build up to those golden moments, only to lose out just as things were getting awesome, will forever be one of the most frustrating experiences I've had as a fan of any fictional work ever :lol:

Huuurrrryyyy uuuuupppp Kai!
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Sat Sep 22, 2018 6:52 pm

Yeah, that is true. It really wasn't the best choice to get a bunch of amateurs (who eventually improved as actors despite their overuse in anime dubs) to dub over an anime show that was filled with a lot of experienced voice actors. It feels like a slap to the face.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by C. Smith » Sun Sep 23, 2018 2:43 am

SX10 wrote:Huuurrrryyyy uuuuupppp Kai!
Don't forget "Hurry up Wow's upcoming channel" since that will be that channel that is going to carry Ocean dub Kai

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by SX10 » Sun Sep 23, 2018 6:03 am

C. Smith wrote:
SX10 wrote:Huuurrrryyyy uuuuupppp Kai!
Don't forget "Hurry up Wow's upcoming channel" since that will be that channel that is going to carry Ocean dub Kai

You're right :lol:

Hurry uuuuppp Wow's upcoming channel!

(I really, REALLY hope that those negotiations have gone well!)
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by C. Smith » Sun Sep 23, 2018 1:15 pm

SX10 wrote:(I really, REALLY hope that those negotiations have gone well!)
Everyone's hoping so. The talks from those emails suggest that Toei was honestly trying to get Ocean Kai onto Canadian television but for whatever reason none of the children's networks (mainly YTV) were interested in it. Now that there's someone who is willing to air it, though there's other justifications, such as Wow's lack of first party programming. I can bet that Wow's new channel (at least at the early years) will consist of classic programming from other companies (primarily DHX), maybe that one new show from Rainmaker/Mainframe called The Anybodies, and perhaps some anime (mainly from Aniplex USA and Viz).

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by SX10 » Sun Sep 23, 2018 1:33 pm

C. Smith wrote:
SX10 wrote:(I really, REALLY hope that those negotiations have gone well!)
Everyone's hoping so. The talks from those emails suggest that Toei was honestly trying to get Ocean Kai onto Canadian television but for whatever reason none of the children's networks (mainly YTV) were interested in it. Now that there's someone who is willing to air it, though there's other justifications, such as Wow's lack of first party programming. I can bet that Wow's new channel (at least at the early years) will consist of classic programming from other companies (primarily DHX), maybe that one new show from Rainmaker/Mainframe called The Anybodies, and perhaps some anime (mainly from Aniplex USA and Viz).
Sadly correct that no one was looking to take it on, perhaps a couple of years too late as from what I am seeing Canadian broadcasters just don't seem to be interested in anime that isn't centered around a game or toys or something.

Marni seemed very eager to acquire all kinds of anime. Maybe there'll be a bigger drive to produce more first party content then.

The thing is, nothing is really a fad or in vogue until it is. It just takes one channel, or one product to take a chance. Who knows? Maybe it could lead to an anime renaissance over there.
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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by C. Smith » Sun Sep 23, 2018 3:00 pm

SX10 wrote:Sadly correct that no one was looking to take it on, perhaps a couple of years too late as from what I am seeing Canadian broadcasters just don't seem to be interested in anime that isn't centered around a game or toys or something.
The late-2000s anime crash left North American TV largley bereft of non-toyetic anime. YTV could have gotten Gurren Lagann but Bandai struck a deal with Starz for having it distributed on TV, hence it airing on Super Channel instead. They could have gotten Gundam 00 (as it was approved by the CRTC) but they felt it was too much (for the same reasons why they didn't air that on episode of GITS:SAC season 1). Code Geass was just off-limits. So all Bionix had left was just Naruto (which was nearing its end) and Bleach, and by February 2010, they discontinued it and decided to give up on anime.
SX10 wrote:Marni seemed very eager to acquire all kinds of anime. Maybe there'll be a bigger drive to produce more first party content then.
Well, it's up to Rainmaker/Mainframe and Frederator. Rainmaker/Mainframe is busy with Spy Kids: Mission Critical, Barbie, ReBoot TGC, and Bob the Builder 2015, but I think they can make another show. Here's hoping they make a series aimed at a older audiences, something like Rooster Teeth's RWBY and gen:LOCK (I'd like to see them do an animeqsue show). Frederator's workload is much lighter now that Adventure Time and Fairly Odd Parents have wrapped up so I think they can devote their time and budget into making their own shows.
As for the anime, Funimation and Sentai hold the lion's share of dubbed content but they have their own streaming services (Funimation and HIDIVE) and they're available in Canada, making it difficult for Wow to get titles from them. VIZ and Aniplex are easier to deal with as not all of their dubbed content is available in Canada. Aside from those, maybe Wow can get the dub of World Trigger and even become the new licensee for Digimon (Ocean dub Digimon anyone?)
SX10 wrote:The thing is, nothing is really a fad or in vogue until it is. It just takes one channel, or one product to take a chance. Who knows? Maybe it could lead to an anime renaissance over there.
It could also lead to a Vancouver dub renaissance as the presence of anime on Canadian television was what made companies give their dubs to Vancouver in the first place. Vancouver dubs are expensive (usually around 2.5 times the cost of LA dubs) but the fact that they would give the show a much bigger chance at airing on Canadian TV (as it would make it Canadian Content) made giving the dubs to Vancouver worth the expense. Once the TV well dried up, that's when Vancouver dubs also dried up, as companies no longer felt motivated to give dubs to Vancouver (you can guess why Viz abandoned Vancouver).
Now, there's Netflix's plan to make more Canadian Content shows to make their service more appealing to Canadians (Canadian dubs do count as CanCon, and Netflix is stepping up in the anime ring, so doing Vancouver dubs would kill two birds with one stone), and the changing media landscape as more and more people migrate to streaming services like Netflix will eventually cause the CRTC to apply the CanCon laws onto much of the streaming services.

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Re: Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" dub seems to be coming...

Post by SX10 » Sun Sep 23, 2018 3:54 pm

That's fascinating, you really know your stuff! Well as you've probably read we're also hoping Wow's airing might also push them to seek an Ocean dub of Final Chapters (which if they help out with funding, then how could Toei resist?).
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