TheBlackPaladin wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 12:36 am
Y'know.......since I'm beyond confident that we'll never see this dub, I'll just throw this out there as a suggestion. For all the talk about reaching out to Ocean, Canadian TV networks, and others....
..........might it be worthwhile to just...ask FUNimation to release it themselves?
I know there can sometimes be bitter divides among fandom over which of the two casts were better-suited for DBZ, and YouTube has no shortage of dub comparison videos, but at the same time, that's mostly where the "FUNimation VS Ocean battle" lives: on the internet among fans. In real life, they don't hate one another as many fans seem to assume they do. Sure, there have been some tense interactions here and there, but for the most part the Ocean and FUNimation casts have treated each other with nothing but respect. I mean, heck, it was Chris Sabat himself who approached Brian Drummond about playing Clone Vegeta for the
Super dub. It was also FUNimation's idea to release the "Rock the Dragon" box set of the original Ocean dub, and as has been well-documented, Ocean worked in tandem with FUNimation on the video edits for the TV broadcast of FUNimation's
Kai dub.
Make no mistake, I'm under no illusion that that's likely to work. It's almost guaranteed not to work. However, at this point we're firmly entrenched in "what have we got to lose?"-territory, and for all the reasons this may not work, a bad relationship between FUNimation and Ocean is not one of them. They seem to have a fairly decent relationship.
Call me a pessimist but I think that's overly optimistic.
The companies did have a working relationship post Saban but as far as I can tell there's no evidence of that continuing after Kai 1.0 as Boo Kai had no trace of their involvement and the choice to recast and redub Escaflowne adds to the theory that their working relationship has since dissolved. From my perspective, it seems like Funi has essentially replaced their services with Bang Zoom at this point (who are in many ways their direct competitors) and although that's mostly speculation, there's at least some observable evidence for it with that relationship building over time vs a diminishing one with Ocean.
Also, the idea that "the Ocean and FUNimation casts have treated each other with nothing but respect" seems exaggerated from my perspective. We've had contradicting anecdotes come out in recent years from Ocean alumni like Peter Kelamis, Kirby Morrow and Jason Gray-Stanford in regards to Funimation actors like Schemmel and Justin Cook making life difficult for them in regards to anime conventions which... was clearly petty behaviour, and not something you do if you have nothing but respect for them. And it could also point to evidence of that culture being seen as acceptable behind closed doors at Funimation (I seem to remember Chris Rager being vocal about other dubs on social media, albeit not Ocean's). But sure, on the other hand, you can instead look at Sabat as a shining example of a Funi actor who has shown respect to the Canadian cast, and I commend him for that, but at the same time, how do we know he isn't just doing those things out of his own self-interest? Giving up Copy Vegeta was no skin off his back, and the move earned him (and the show) good PR and a potential rating boost. It was a smart business move to drum up attention more than anything personal. As far as I can tell Sabat is a smart businessman and an opportunist. After all, the man once admitted in a newspaper that he was responsible for convincing Funi to move recording from Vancouver to Texas in the first place, which lead to him acting & directing for Funi and even setting up his own recording studio and making lots of money from DBZ games among other things. And while on that subject, he's gotten TFS actors to do cameos on at least one game, theoretically he could do the same for an Ocean actor but I somehow don't see that ever happening.
Until Sabat decides to champion the cause of getting us Westwood, Ocean Kai and other English dubs available publicly on streaming or home release then I'll remain a healthy sceptic. He's always had influence at Funimation and has a better chance than any of us do of making that a reality, but I already know he will likely never try to do that because it doesn't benefit him.
As for the Rock the Dragon box set, I don't see that as much of a celebration of the past. Moreso just a calculated business move on Funi's part to have one last chance to exploit the Saban dub on DVD before DVD became old news. Pioneer were the company previously distributing the stuff before them, and Funi presumably wanted more profit from a fully internal release of their own material this time, and they certainly weren't going to spend money "remastering" the edited visuals for HD formats, so it made sense. And unlike the later Ocean dubs (Westwood, Blue Water and Ocean Kai) they legally owned the Saban dub and could sell it with virtually no cost on their part. They didn't even spring for cast interviews, commentary tracks, trailers and promos... Nothing extra was done for it except for a cheap booklet. Compare that to their season set and anniversary releases which go to great lengths to stroke their own egos with interviews and video packages designed to congratulate themselves over Z's success in the US, it's a night and day difference.
Oh, and the uncut Pioneer dub tracks are nowhere to be found on their main releases of the first three films. Does that seem like something they would do if they genuinely wanted to promote their classic cast? I could go on but I won't bother as I think it's fairly obvious that it's all cynically business driven with them, and they probably have no care for the Canadian versions. But it's safe to assume they are very aware of those other dubs already.
