Overrated and Underrated voice actors

[MasenkoHA]

Most underrated: Pauline Newstone as Freeza. People tend to just lump her in with Linda Young, but I actually really like her performance. It has the same pseudo-royal condescending tone as Chris Ayres, but with a lizard-like rasp that fits right in with the over-the-top performances of the Ocean cast. It’s a shame she didn’t get to do more in the role.

I always felt Newstone's Frieza and Brian Drummond as Vegeta were prime examples of the Vancouver cast in a nutshell. Fantastic performances in and of themselves just micast or misdirections of what the characters are supposed to be.

Drummond voiced Vegeta as a smarmy Saturday Morning Cartoon villain and Newstone voiced Frieza as an androgynous lizard like alien warlord. Neither are what the characters should sound like, still better than their immediate successors take which is trying to emulate those but with none of the acting talent to pull it off.

There's definitely performances from the Ocean dub that are just terrible (Don Brown's Roshi and Kelamis Goku are the big ones for me) but like 99 percent of them, at least pre-Westwood were very good.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Most underrated: Pauline Newstone as Freeza. People tend to just lump her in with Linda Young, but I actually really like her performance. It has the same pseudo-royal condescending tone as Chris Ayres, but with a lizard-like rasp that fits right in with the over-the-top performances of the Ocean cast. It’s a shame she didn’t get to do more in the role.

I always felt Newstone's Frieza and Brian Drummond as Vegeta were prime examples of the Vancouver cast in a nutshell. Fantastic performances in and of themselves just micast or misdirections of what the characters are supposed to be.

Drummond voiced Vegeta as a smarmy Saturday Morning Cartoon villain and Newstone voiced Frieza as an androgynous lizard like alien warlord. Neither are what the characters should sound like, still better than their immediate successors take which is trying to emulate those but with none of the acting talent to pull it off.

There's definitely performances from the Ocean dub that are just terrible (Don Brown's Roshi and Kelamis Goku are the big ones for me) but like 99 percent of them, at least pre-Westwood were very good.

Yes, and while Newstone may have been miscast/not fitting as the character in of itself she at least fit the interpretation they had written. That is compared to Young's Freeza who went from a poor Newstone impression to a chain smoking grandma (or plastered Rita Repulsa as you've mentioned before) type of voice which sounded all wrong and unfitting.

[TheGreatness25]

I would put Kirby Morrow at the top of the underrated list. I really wish that his stint as Goku was done in a serious way. Even though his Goku was way too raspy and deep when he'd make the Goku voice at cons and stuff, his performance in the actual series was really good.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I wonder if people would have warmed up to Kirby Morrow's Goku if GT was dubbed in Vancouver, as was originally planned. Obviously Goku was a kid for most of GT and aside from the beginning of the first and end of the last episode we never saw him as an adult unless he was a Super Saiyan 4, but even Nozawa goes deep when Goku is in that form. I think Kirby Morrow could have had an interesting take on Super Saiyan 4. Jeremiah Yurk was basically diet Kirby Morrow anyway.

[Civic]

Overrated:

Colleen Clinkenbeard - her Gohan just doesn't sound like a believable boy to me. It sounds closer to a deep-voiced girl. And her yelling/screaming is lacking... something. Impact, I guess? I just relistened to the SSJ2 Gohan scream and I laughed.

I don't see much love for her 18 portrayal - not that it's bad, per se, but Meredith McCoy's version is much better. Her 18 is a very forgettable, average woman.

Underrated:

Stephanie Nadolny - much better Gohan, actually sounds like a boy, and the screams hit much harder. The playful laugh she gives Gohan really sells his easy going, kind nature to me. The "chain-smoker voice" remark is about as stupid as the "Grandma Goku" one that English dub fans say about Masako.

[MasenkoHA]

. The "chain-smoker voice" remark is about as stupid as the "Grandma Goku" one that English dub fans say about Masako.

Except one of those is a pretty accurate

https://youtu.be/SNxK1yHT21Y
https://youtu.be/pfaH_1COq-0

Like, to her credit, she was being directed by Barry Watson or Chris Sabat to sound like "Clint Eastwood" because late 90s/early 2000s Funimation was particularly fucking stupid and she dropped it for Gohan from like Cooler's Revenge onward so good for her on that.

[Civic]

I completely disagree. I don't hear a 'chain-smoker' voice there at all. I hear raspy and rough, but 'chain-smoker' is overblown.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Overrated:

Colleen Clinkenbeard - her Gohan just doesn't sound like a believable boy to me. It sounds closer to a deep-voiced girl. And her yelling/screaming is lacking... something. Impact, I guess? I just relistened to the SSJ2 Gohan scream and I laughed.

I don't see much love for her 18 portrayal - not that it's bad, per se, but Meredith McCoy's version is much better. Her 18 is a very forgettable, average woman.

Underrated:

Stephanie Nadolny - much better Gohan, actually sounds like a boy, and the screams hit much harder. The playful laugh she gives Gohan really sells his easy going, kind nature to me. The "chain-smoker voice" remark is about as stupid as the "Grandma Goku" one that English dub fans say about Masako.

Ironically I have seen the exact otherwise, her delivery has been praised, ESPECIALLY her screams as Cell absorbs her.

[YoungDefender]

For me. and I am probably going to eat a ton of flak for this, but Sabat's original Vegeta (yes, the Drummond impersonation) gets way too much hate for what it is.

I like this Vegeta both ironically (I mean just listen to it) but also unironically. It does actually suit the kind of character Vegeta was at that time and particularly the kinds of situations he was getting himself into during the Ginyu/Frieza saga. Sabat delivered the cocky and brash lines as memorably as he did the panicked, almost wacky, nervous breakdown moments which, let's face it was pretty much most of what Vegeta was doing during those episodes. It may be on a technical/professional level a not stellar performance but it just oozes with charm, memorability and quotability to the point where the technical shortcomings get a complete pass in my book.

I can see how some people can find it irredeemable on it's face, so maybe it is an acquired taste but I never found it to be that out to lunch with the Vegeta character and maybe if it wasn't in a position where it naturally has to be compared to Drummond's stellar work that came just before it would garner less animosity overall. Maybe, maybe not.

To be clear I think his best Vegeta starts around the Android saga which mostly carried on until the end of the Buu saga. It still had a bit of the Drummond edge left as legacy heritage I guess you could say while blending into someone unique and divorced from the original impersonation.

His later work in UUE, Kai and so on gets progressively worse in my view as it just smooths out all the hard edges that I had come to associate so closely with the Vegeta character.

Now let the arrow fly.

On the overrated side, and maybe this will catch me even more flak still but Chris Ayres as Frieza to me is the first thing that comes to mind as overrated, mostly by virtue of how lauded it is.

Don't get me wrong, he was a terrific talent and while I can appreciate what his take on the character was going for, to me it's just too busy, forced and contrived and takes me out of the experience even when I am trying to like it. Couple the pseudo-Shakespearean delivery with the very wordy script and it was just too distracting. It felt like I was in the ADR engineer's chair watching a performance being recorded very deliberately rather than actually believing this was Frieza. Took me out of the universe suddenly and often honestly.

Linda Young on the other hand.. yes a completely different take on the character and all that, sure but her performances just felt so effortless and natural. She spoke as Frieza, whereas to me it felt Ayres was constantly trying to sell me on his Frieza. Again, not saying it was a bad performance per se, on a technical level it is a very good one but just a bit too manufactured and overrefined in my view. I do like some of his deliveries though.

[Cure Dragon 255]

For me. and I am probably going to eat a ton of flak for this, but Sabat's original Vegeta (yes, the Drummond impersonation) gets way too much hate for what it is.

I like this Vegeta both ironically (I mean just listen to it) but also unironically. It does actually suit the kind of character Vegeta was at that time and particularly the kinds of situations he was getting himself into during the Ginyu/Frieza saga. Sabat delivered the cocky and brash lines as memorably as he did the panicked, almost wacky, nervous breakdown moments which, let's face it was pretty much most of what Vegeta was doing during those episodes. It may be on a technical/professional level a not stellar performance but it just oozes with charm, memorability and quotability to the point where the technical shortcomings get a complete pass in my book.

I can see how some people can find it irredeemable on it's face, so maybe it is an acquired taste but I never found it to be that out to lunch with the Vegeta character and maybe if it wasn't in a position where it naturally has to be compared to Drummond's stellar work that came just before it would garner less animosity overall. Maybe, maybe not.

To be clear I think his best Vegeta starts around the Android saga which mostly carried on until the end of the Buu saga. It still had a bit of the Drummond edge left as legacy heritage I guess you could say while blending into someone unique and divorced from the original impersonation.

His later work in UUE, Kai and so on gets progressively worse in my view as it just smooths out all the hard edges that I had come to associate so closely with the Vegeta character.

Now let the arrow fly.

On the overrated side, and maybe this will catch me even more flak still but Chris Ayres as Frieza to me is the first thing that comes to mind as overrated, mostly by virtue of how lauded it is.

Don't get me wrong, he was a terrific talent and while I can appreciate what his take on the character was going for, to me it's just too busy, forced and contrived and takes me out of the experience even when I am trying to like it. Couple the pseudo-Shakespearean delivery with the very wordy script and it was just too distracting. It felt like I was in the ADR engineer's chair watching a performance being recorded very deliberately rather than actually believing this was Frieza. Took me out of the universe suddenly and often honestly.

Linda Young on the other hand.. yes a completely different take on the character and all that, sure but her performances just felt so effortless and natural. She spoke as Frieza, whereas to me it felt Ayres was constantly trying to sell me on his Frieza. Again, not saying it was a bad performance per se, on a technical level it is a very good one but just a bit too manufactured and overrefined in my view. I do like some of his deliveries though.

I dont want to be mean but this is a terrible take. The only reason Linda Young's Freeza comes across as effortless is because she literally didnt put any effort. I know the scripts for Kai are needlessly wordy and verbose but its pretty telling as soon as actual effort was required she immediately got recast.

Also you seem to really dislike putting any sort of talent and effort into things. And until Super Vegeta was never meant to be "Almost wacky".

[YoungDefender]

I dont want to be mean but this is a terrible take. The only reason Linda Young's Freeza comes across as effortless is because she literally didnt put any effort. I know the scripts for Kai are needlessly wordy and verbose but its pretty telling as soon as actual effort was required she immediately got recast.

Also you seem to really dislike putting any sort of talent and effort into things. And until Super Vegeta was never meant to be "Almost wacky".

I can appreciate the disagreement on taste but the hyperbole maybe isn't warranted. "Literally not putting any effort" or "you seem to dislike putting any sort of talent and effort into thing" doesn't sound like the post I wrote to me at least but maybe there is some objective truth to personal taste that you have knowledge of that I have yet to stumble upon, who knows.

To me this is Dragon Ball, not the something intended for viewing at the Royal Opera House. If it doesn't come across as "almost wacky" to you at least some of the time then not sure what the tell you other than this is a cartoon.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I dont want to be mean but this is a terrible take. The only reason Linda Young's Freeza comes across as effortless is because she literally didnt put any effort. I know the scripts for Kai are needlessly wordy and verbose but its pretty telling as soon as actual effort was required she immediately got recast.

Also you seem to really dislike putting any sort of talent and effort into things. And until Super Vegeta was never meant to be "Almost wacky".

I can appreciate the disagreement on taste by the hyperbole maybe isn't warranted. "Literally not putting any effort" or "you seem to dislike putting any sort of talent and effort into thing" doesn't sound like the post I wrote to me at least but maybe there is some objective truth to personal taste that you have knowledge of that I have yet to stumble upon, who knows.

To me this is Dragon Ball, not the something intended for viewing at the Royal Opera House. If it doesn't come across as "almost wacky" to you at least some of the time then not sure what the tell you other than this is a cartoon.

That's true. I still dont think Early Sabat is the sort of wacky of the original Dragon Ball but your overall point is indeed sound.

[YoungDefender]

That's true. I still dont think Early Sabat is the sort of wacky of the original Dragon Ball but your overall point is indeed sound.

Yeah, I mean fair enough. I know this is a super duper minority opinion and that most people think his early Vegeta is just jarring trash. I think I agreed with them when I was a kid and episode 54 finally aired for the first time and I was very confused and alarmed as to what happened with my favorite character's voice.

Then it grew on me over the years for the camp factor, I just can't stop loving some of those lines like "Unbelievable! Absolute madness aaaggh!". Nothing that unique and memorable can be all that bad in my view.

[Quantum-Kakarrotto]

Alright, lets see...

Overrated

- Chris Sabat: I think he has a lot of talent and has done a lot of great anime voice work, but I do personally feel like his voice work in DB has been a real mixed bag for me, especially his Piccolo and Vegeta voice work he's done. He gets so much praise mostly because he's the voice my generation grew up with for DB but honestly, I don't see the appeal anymore. I think it's because I've found actors who can portray these characters better than he does now with other English dubs.

-Colleen Clinkenbeard: Specifically her Gohan/Goku voice, to me personally it just sounds way too much like the same voice she uses for Luffy and I don't really think it sounds that natural a lot of the time unlike with VA's like Saffron Henderson. I think she does better in other roles in DB like 18 or Mai.

Underrated

- Kirby Morrow(R.I.P.): The late great Kirby Morrow, I really enjoyed his work as Goku and I really do believe he's been overlooked for his time as the character. Kirby Morrow just felt really natural in the role for me with that boyish charm he's able to bring to the role making it feel similar to the youthfulness Nozawa brings to Goku and how Toriyama writes him. I really wish we got more of his Goku as I think if he were given more time in the role he would have been even more spectacular.

- Kaiji Tang: The biggest surprise from the Bang Zoom Dub of DBS was Kaiji Tang as Vegeta. I honestly really love his performance as the Prince of Saiyans, especially when he found his own footing and made the role his own after he stopped trying to sound like Sabat. I wish we could get more of him as Vegeta because I would have loved to hear his take on a lot of great Vegeta moments.

- Caitlynne Medrek: My favorite English dub voice for Pan coming all the way from the GT blue water dub. She's natural sounding, a great voice actress and I wish she could dub more of Pan in other media from Video Games and in DBS: Superhero.

- Wendee Lee: From Harmony Gold to Bangzoom, she did NOT lose her touch as Bulma at all! I wish more people spoke about her performance from either dub.

[GhostEmperorX]

On the overrated side, and maybe this will catch me even more flak still but Chris Ayres as Frieza to me is the first thing that comes to mind as overrated, mostly by virtue of how lauded it is.

When he was the closest thing to Nakao on the ENG side (which is really the best one can accomplish for the character while also being a man), that pretty much merits all the praise there is. The Shakespearean delivery is also quite equivalent to Freeza's normally polite manner of speaking in the original JP version.

[Shaddy]

I like Sabat well enough, but he's got something weird about his inflection that sounds more strained the more he acts on DB, as both Piccolo and Vegeta. It's not age, since he still sounds fine in One Piece (I think Zoro is actually his best performance in any show, tbh). I dunno what it is, it's been happening with Eric Vale too, who sounded particularly raspy in the Future Trunks arc (but again, still okay in One Piece???). Anyway, the point of this is that Brian Drummond is a better Vegeta. People say he embodies the more "sinister" Vegeta, but I think he just literally has more range. Everything I've seen him in, I'm never able to recognize his voice before I look it up. Kudos to him, honestly. I think a lot of the Ocean cast gets overlooked due to Funi being the one that still does new stuff, but honestly they were (and many of them remain) better actors.

Ryusei Nakao's Freeza is not underrated at all, but I'm putting this sentence here because I love him. I could listen to his voice forever. Ayres (RIP) and Mills are also good actors, and it's a shame that it took 20 years for anyone to even partially match him, but uh, no, Nakao only for me, forever.

The sex-creep-of-it-all aside, put me in with the people who never understood the hype for Mignogna as Broly. I think the character was just big and imposing and people who saw it as kids just naturally assumed that meant the voice was badass too. I'm honestly at that point where I think Mignogna was phoning it in even for many parts of Fullmetal Alchemist, despite that being his career-defining role.

[MasenkoHA]

. I dunno what it is, it's been happening with Eric Vale too, who sounded particularly raspy in the Future Trunks arc (but again, still okay in One Piece???).

Vale's Trunks, like Schemmel's Kaio, is one of those voices that somehow managed to get progressively worse to the point of unbearable by Super. His World Tournament Announcer voice is fine, I'm sure he's fine in the 30 other projects Funimation cast him in, but his Future Trunks remains intolerable

[ABED]

. I dunno what it is, it's been happening with Eric Vale too, who sounded particularly raspy in the Future Trunks arc (but again, still okay in One Piece???).

Vale's Trunks, like Schemmel's Kaio, is one of those voices that somehow managed to get progressively worse to the point of unbearable by Super. His World Tournament Announcer voice is fine, I'm sure he's fine in the 30 other projects Funimation cast him in, but his Future Trunks remains intolerable

The rasp really hurt his performance. Ironically, his voice was fine when he first started playing Trunks in 2000, but his performance was stilted and awkward. It got better over the years, but then it got counteracted by the rasp. I guess they wanted to echo his father. If only he could've combined his original voice with his talent and experience, Trunks would've had a good dub voice but too late now.

[YoungDefender]

When he was the closest thing to Nakao on the ENG side (which is really the best one can accomplish for the character while also being a man), that pretty much merits all the praise there is. The Shakespearean delivery is also quite equivalent to Freeza's normally polite manner of speaking in the original JP version.

Closest thing but still a bit far off the mark I think. Ryūsei Nakao is just on another level, just a straight up cool villain voice, channeling that evil samurai/noble lord energy and it's probably my second favorite. Only reason he doesn't have the throne for me is that I just can't stop seeing Linda as Frieza and that probably won't ever change.

Just to restate I do not think Ayres is bad or particularly unfitting, just overrated.

Underrated

- Kirby Morrow(R.I.P.): The late great Kirby Morrow, I really enjoyed his work as Goku and I really do believe he's been overlooked for his time as the character. Kirby Morrow just felt really natural in the role for me with that boyish charm he's able to bring to the role making it feel similar to the youthfulness Nozawa brings to Goku and how Toriyama writes him. I really wish we got more of his Goku as I think if he were given more time in the role he would have been even more spectacular.

I agree, Morrow was probably my favorite Goku or at least right up there with pre-Kai Schemmel. It did sound more youthful but not excessively so. Coming off of Peter Kelamis (who was somehow getting worse as the series went on) Kirby was a sight for sore ears for sure.

You have inspired me to do a bit of a round 2 with the Westwood cast, as they are all sort of by definition underrated (with the exception of Brian Drummond and Scott McNeil).

Brad Swaile as adult Gohan. This just works for me the same way Kirby works for Goku, so youthful and full of energy. Kyle Hebert has grown on me over the years but he could never really do the goofy or light-hearted Gohan scenes the way Brad did. I think they are both good castings but Brad is definitely loverlooked for Gohan. I'd call it a draw with Brad having the better voice and Kyle having the better performance overall.

Laara Sadiq as Chi-Chi. So much range and does everything you want in a Chi-Chi. The stern stuff, the tender stuff, it's all there and the voice itself is just heavenly. Not much to say other than it's such a complete package voice for the character.

Dale Wilson as Cell. I know this performance isn't the most popular but it's actually a fitting voice and like Damien's performance changes distinctly between the three forms. I don't know if both actors were similarly directed or if the shared script helped coordinate their performances but they both have that same insect/snake-like first form voice, a big brute second form voice and the more elegant, mid-Atlantic voice for the perfect form. For me it's a toss up between Wilson and pre-kai Clarke. Clarke is probably a bit better overall by a hair but Wilson is right up there I feel. Wakamoto is obviously great too but the imagination the English voices put into the first and second forms really sells them for me.

[Cure Dragon 255]

When he was the closest thing to Nakao on the ENG side (which is really the best one can accomplish for the character while also being a man), that pretty much merits all the praise there is. The Shakespearean delivery is also quite equivalent to Freeza's normally polite manner of speaking in the original JP version.

Closest thing but still a bit far off the mark I think. Ryūsei Nakao is just on another level, just a straight up cool villain voice, channeling that evil samurai/noble lord energy and it's probably my second favorite. Only reason he doesn't have the throne for me is that I just can't stop seeing Linda as Frieza and that probably won't ever change.

Just to restate I do not think Ayres is bad or particularly unfitting, just overrated.

Underrated

- Kirby Morrow(R.I.P.): The late great Kirby Morrow, I really enjoyed his work as Goku and I really do believe he's been overlooked for his time as the character. Kirby Morrow just felt really natural in the role for me with that boyish charm he's able to bring to the role making it feel similar to the youthfulness Nozawa brings to Goku and how Toriyama writes him. I really wish we got more of his Goku as I think if he were given more time in the role he would have been even more spectacular.

I agree, Morrow was probably my favorite Goku or at least right up there with pre-Kai Schemmel. It did sound more youthful but not excessively so. Coming off of Peter Kelamis (who was somehow getting worse as the series went on) Kirby was a sight for sore ears for sure.

You have inspired me to do a bit of a round 2 with the Westwood cast, as they are all sort of by definition underrated (with the exception of Brian Drummond and Scott McNeil).

Brad Swaile as adult Gohan. This just works for me the same way Kirby works for Goku, so youthful and full of energy. Kyle Hebert has grown on me over the years but he could never really do the goofy or light-hearted Gohan scenes the way Brad did. I think they are both good castings but Brad is definitely loverlooked for Gohan. I'd call it a draw with Brad having the better voice and Kyle having the better performance overall.

Laara Sadiq as Chi-Chi. So much range and does everything you want in a Chi-Chi. The stern stuff, the tender stuff, it's all there and the voice itself is just heavenly. Not much to say other than it's such a complete package voice for the character.

Dale Wilson as Cell. I know this performance isn't the most popular but it's actually a fitting voice and like Damien's performance changes distinctly between the three forms. I don't know if both actors were similarly directed or if the shared scripted helped coordinate their performances but they both have that same insect/snake-like first form voice, a big brute second form voice and the more elegant, mid-Atlantic voice for the perfect form. For me it's a toss up between Wilson and pre-kai Clarke. Clarke is probably a bit better overall by a hair but Wilson is right up there I feel. Wakamoto is obviously great too but the imagination the English voices put into the first and second forms really sells them for me.

This post is great and it shows you do have a lot of taste and knowledge. Sorry if I was cold or rude.