Ocean dub narrator Doc Harris passes away

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Announced yesterday but it has been just brought to my attention.

Doc Harris was the best narrator in my opinion, and the memories of his work on both Saban and Westwood Z dubs will be with me forever.

Thankfully he lived a long life and had a very successful career beyond just voice acting.

[GokuTheMaster389]

Damnit all... Part of the title was cut off, but I knew it could only mean one thing...

By far my favourite and most memorable narrator out of all. May he rest in peace.

[90sDBZ]

RIP Doc Harris.

He was consistently very good as the narrator, in both the Saban and Westwood dubs.

The Westwood dub got off to a rough start, with certain performances feeling rushed, but Doc Harris still turned in a solid performance throughout.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The Westwood dub got off to a rough start, with certain performances feeling rushed, but Doc Harris still turned in a solid performance throughout.

Yeah, from what we heard over the years it seems a select few cast members recorded their lines in 2000,(like Saffron Henderson who was fasttracked to ensure it didn't clash with her wedding) but many might not have started until 2001.

Doc Harris said recording begun in mid October of that year:

Doc Harris wrote:

"Just thought you should know: the DBZ tracks are going to be done in Vancouver again, starting next week. I'll be back narrating, and most of the old cast will be reassembled for the series.

Spread the word!"

Don Brown apparently told the webmasters of the old UKDB site he recorded the last four episodes in December 2002, meaning the Westwood dub was over two years in production. Only the first 3 episodes aired in the Netherlands in January 2001 however, so I can assume further episodes were not ready until April when the dub began in the UK and Ireland.

Now that I think about it Doc Harris was also the narrator for the Pioneer movie dubs.

Shame no one (to my knowledge) got to ask if he reprised his role for Kai, because if he did then Doc Harris would have done all the Vancouver Ocean material.

Would be great to hear some more from him if he did do any more recording. Hopefully some day.

[jjgp1112]

And fittingly, the anime Twitter aggregators didn't bother to properly present this information and now people assume it's what's actually Kyle Hebert . The thirst for clicks keeps him from even getting his proper respects.

[MasenkoHA]

And fittingly, the anime Twitter aggregators didn't bother to properly present this information and now people assume it's what's actually Kyle Hebert . The thirst for clicks keeps him from even getting his proper respects.

I saw someone on Twitter literally use a NEP clip with Dale Kelly....like...come on now

[GhostEmperorX]

That there are those out there who have no idea what they're talking about, even in a serious situation like this, paints a very bleak picture of things, to say the least.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Ian Corlett paid tribute to Doc Harris on his Instagram and the memories they had together:

"Doc was a HUGE force in my early career. More than just a DH, he lived and breathed music. He also had a keen eye for movies.

I first met him when I was working at the music store and sold him some audio/recording gear. Seizing upon ANY slim opportunity to get my foot in the door, I struck up a relationship with him. In short order he graciously included me in his world. I would do comedy call-in bits with him, and ultimately song parodies and topical music bits.

I remember being struck by the stark difference between his on-air language his REALLY salty off-air linguistic style."

[90sDBZ]

I've seen a couple of Facebook posts on this that don't specify him as the Ocean dub Narrator. They just refer to him as "The Narrator from DBZ", which has caused a lot of confusion to say the least.

Both posts got hundreds of replies with fond memories and condolences, but most seem under the impression it's either Kyle Hebert or Dale Kelly.

It's actually kind of crazy to think that a whole bunch of people think it's one of the other Narrators, and that many of them never even heard Doc Harris. It just goes to show how complicated the history of DB's English dubs really is.

[WittyUsername]

And fittingly, the anime Twitter aggregators didn't bother to properly present this information and now people assume it's what's actually Kyle Hebert . The thirst for clicks keeps him from even getting his proper respects.

If I recall, something similar happened when Brice Armstrong passed away.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It just goes to show how complicated the history of DB's English dubs really is.

Even a lot of hardcore fans don't know the half of it. I made a point of telling Geekdom101 that the Creative Corp Product dub from the Philippines predates Funimation's dub of Dragon Ball Z, so the Vancouver cast are not even the original English cast, if we want to clarify the most accurate, succinct thing we can say is they are the original North American cast.

And yeah, I too have seen a lot of social media posts just vaguely saying "DBZ narrator has passed away". Probably going to be an awkward time for Kyle Herbert, and maybe Dale Kelly to a lesser extent, over the next while with fans saying they thought he was dead.

It also doesn't help that the last time the Saban dub aired was nearly 20 years ago (with the exception of Australia where it was rerun around 2010) as we now have generations of fans who have never heard the Ocean cast at all or might not even be aware there was a pre-inhouse dub for the first 2 seasons of Dragon Ball Z.

[Majin Buu]

It also doesn't help that the last time the Saban dub aired was nearly 20 years ago (with the exception of Australia where it was rerun around 2010) as we now have generations of fans who have never heard the Ocean cast at all or might not even be aware there was a pre-inhouse dub for the first 2 seasons of Dragon Ball Z.

To add to this, Funimation's involvement with the Ocean dub is becoming less and less of a stated thing whenever I see the Ocean dub mentioned outside of this forum. For the past few years now it's felt like Funimation's involvement with that dub is being collectively downplayed.

So it's not surprising to hear that there's newer fans out there that have no knowledge of the Ocean dub's existence, let alone that it was Funimation's first attempt at dubbing Dragon Ball.

[Super Sayian Prime]

My condolences to his friends and family.

The conversation regarding his passing and the other narrators has been frustrating to observe. Some of the attempts I've seen to clear up confusion come across as downplaying Doc's involvement. The man did over 200 episodes that were seen across a bunch of countries. Yet there are comments suggesting Ocean's dub was some weird niche alt-production no one saw. It's not like that was the only accessible English version of the first 67 episodes for nearly a decade or something. It's not like the Texas cast attempted to voice match the Vancouver ones either. Wait a minute ...

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

The conversation regarding his passing and the other narrators has been frustrating to observe. Some of the attempts I've seen to clear up confusion come across as downplaying Doc's involvement. The man did over 200 episodes that were seen across a bunch of countries. Yet there are comments suggesting Ocean's dub was some weird niche alt-production no one saw. It's not like that was the only accessible English version of the first 67 episodes for nearly a decade or something. It's not like the Texas cast attempted to voice match the Vancouver ones either. Wait a minute ...

I guess an argument could be made that Dragon Ball with the Ocean cast is niche nowadays, but back in the late 90s and early 2000s? Hell no, for almost a decade those first 53 episodes of Dragon Ball Z were the standard, which was broadcast in the vast majority of territories that aired the series in English.

The Westwood dub of Dragon Ball Z episodes 108-276 has historically been referred to as "the alternate English dub", but for its time it was every bit as mainstream as Funimation's dub. The UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium and Finland all got that dub, as did Canada from the Cell Games onwards. So the Westwood dub nearly aired in as many countries as Funimation's inhouse dub did. I could imagine Ocean were trying to get the Westwood dub on TV in as many places as they could and saw AB Groupe as the ideal distribution partner because of their dominance in Europe, and if it could have been broadcast even further they would have seized that opportunity too.

It's a shame uncut versions of the Canadian dubs were never produced though, as that really hurt the Westwood and Blue Water dubs chances of DVD releases during the big physical media boom. Funimation by contrast rode the wave of the golden age of optical discs and over time more people became exposed to their dub who might have missed the Toonami broadcasts. Ocean's dubs fell into obscurity over time with less and less avenues for them to remain in circulation legally.

[Dark Vegeta-Sama]

Ian Corlett paid tribute to Doc Harris on his Instagram and the memories they had together:

"Doc was a HUGE force in my early career. More than just a DH, he lived and breathed music. He also had a keen eye for movies.

I first met him when I was working at the music store and sold him some audio/recording gear. Seizing upon ANY slim opportunity to get my foot in the door, I struck up a relationship with him. In short order he graciously included me in his world. I would do comedy call-in bits with him, and ultimately song parodies and topical music bits.

I remember being struck by the stark difference between his on-air language his REALLY salty off-air linguistic style."

That's a very nice tribute by Ian Corlett. Thank you for sharing that.

R.I.P. Doc Harris. I'll agree that he was the best of the English narrators.

It also doesn't help that the last time the Saban dub aired was nearly 20 years ago (with the exception of Australia where it was rerun around 2010) as we now have generations of fans who have never heard the Ocean cast at all or might not even be aware there was a pre-inhouse dub for the first 2 seasons of Dragon Ball Z.

To add to this, Funimation's involvement with the Ocean dub is becoming less and less of a stated thing whenever I see the Ocean dub mentioned outside of this forum. For the past few years now it's felt like Funimation's involvement with that dub is being collectively downplayed.

So it's not surprising to hear that there's newer fans out there that have no knowledge of the Ocean dub's existence, let alone that it was Funimation's first attempt at dubbing Dragon Ball.

Leave it to FUNimation to distance themselves from their own product, even though it is unquestionably the product that made them.