Voice actors that you want to be replaced

[jjgp1112]

If memory serves in his Geekdom interview he said Blue Gender and Yu Yu Hakusho were the first dubs where the directors actually had the Japanese version on hand and they didn't really become familiar with Japanese Dragon Ball until the video games.

That always seemed…odd to me. Ian and Peter both referred to seeing the Japanese footage and hearing the voices with Peter commenting he could never make his voice go that high without becoming infertile.. Footage I imagined Ocean had to get from Funimation.


And Funimation had started releasing bilingual DVDs as early as October 2000.


Funimation definitely had the Japanese version. It appears they just randomly decided their in house actors didn’t need to see them for recording sessions…I guess? And even Chris Sabat was the voice director for like s4-6 he didn’t have access to them either?

I think he was specifically referring to referencing them in ADR sessions, yeah. So they had them, but just didn't use them while directing.

[JulieYBM]

If memory serves in his Geekdom interview he said Blue Gender and Yu Yu Hakusho were the first dubs where the directors actually had the Japanese version on hand and they didn't really become familiar with Japanese Dragon Ball until the video games.

That always seemed…odd to me. Ian and Peter both referred to seeing the Japanese footage and hearing the voices with Peter commenting he could never make his voice go that high without becoming infertile.. Footage I imagined Ocean had to get from Funimation.


And Funimation had started releasing bilingual DVDs as early as October 2000.


Funimation definitely had the Japanese version. It appears they just randomly decided their in house actors didn’t need to see them for recording sessions…I guess? And even Chris Sabat was the voice director for like s4-6 he didn’t have access to them either?

Peter Kelamis out here spreading misinformation about how testicles and voices work, I see. For shame, Peter.

Removing your testicles does not alter the pitch of your voice. You gotta train that shit after undergoing a testosterone-based puberty, because your vocal cords are thickened by testosterone. Surgery does exist to help with that, but it's kind of a pain and you still need to voice train.

Not that it matters for Kelamis now. He's senior citizen age, his voice is already deeper than it was in the 1990s and any range he had is shot straight to hell thanks fo thirty more years of exposure to testosterone.

[WittyUsername]

Ironically, I’d argue that Peter Kelamis’ voice as Rolf from Ed Edd n Eddy sounds vaguely Nozawa-esque.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

If memory serves in his Geekdom interview he said Blue Gender and Yu Yu Hakusho were the first dubs where the directors actually had the Japanese version on hand and they didn't really become familiar with Japanese Dragon Ball until the video games.

That always seemed…odd to me. Ian and Peter both referred to seeing the Japanese footage and hearing the voices with Peter commenting he could never make his voice go that high without becoming infertile.. Footage I imagined Ocean had to get from Funimation.


And Funimation had started releasing bilingual DVDs as early as October 2000.


Funimation definitely had the Japanese version. It appears they just randomly decided their in house actors didn’t need to see them for recording sessions…I guess? And even Chris Sabat was the voice director for like s4-6 he didn’t have access to them either?

Peter Kelamis out here spreading misinformation about how testicles and voices work, I see. For shame, Peter.

Removing your testicles does not alter the pitch of your voice. You gotta train that shit after undergoing a testosterone-based puberty, because your vocal cords are thickened by testosterone. Surgery does exist to help with that, but it's kind of a pain and you still need to voice train.

Not that it matters for Kelamis now. He's senior citizen age, his voice is already deeper than it was in the 1990s and any range he had is shot straight to hell thanks fo thirty more years of exposure to testosterone.

I think he was being sarcastic, but like you said it doesn't really matter now since he hasn't been the voice for the character for over 20 years.
Although Sean Schemmel also mentioned trying to mimic Nozawa's screams during a session and he mentioned that it was out of his range.

[Metalwario64]

That always seemed…odd to me. Ian and Peter both referred to seeing the Japanese footage and hearing the voices with Peter commenting he could never make his voice go that high without becoming infertile.. Footage I imagined Ocean had to get from Funimation.


And Funimation had started releasing bilingual DVDs as early as October 2000.


Funimation definitely had the Japanese version. It appears they just randomly decided their in house actors didn’t need to see them for recording sessions…I guess? And even Chris Sabat was the voice director for like s4-6 he didn’t have access to them either?

Peter Kelamis out here spreading misinformation about how testicles and voices work, I see. For shame, Peter.

Removing your testicles does not alter the pitch of your voice. You gotta train that shit after undergoing a testosterone-based puberty, because your vocal cords are thickened by testosterone. Surgery does exist to help with that, but it's kind of a pain and you still need to voice train.

Not that it matters for Kelamis now. He's senior citizen age, his voice is already deeper than it was in the 1990s and any range he had is shot straight to hell thanks fo thirty more years of exposure to testosterone.

I think he was being sarcastic, but like you said it doesn't really matter now since he hasn't been the voice for the character for over 20 years.
Although Sean Schemmel also mentioned trying to mimic Nozawa's screams during a session and he mentioned that it was out of his range.

That's kinda interesting because in the 23rd Budokai when his knees were broken, and when ape Vegeta crushed him in the Ultimate uncut dub, he let out some super high pitched shrieks which made me wonder if he could do a Kelamis style movie 2 Kaioken if he tried.

[JulieYBM]

That always seemed…odd to me. Ian and Peter both referred to seeing the Japanese footage and hearing the voices with Peter commenting he could never make his voice go that high without becoming infertile.. Footage I imagined Ocean had to get from Funimation.


And Funimation had started releasing bilingual DVDs as early as October 2000.


Funimation definitely had the Japanese version. It appears they just randomly decided their in house actors didn’t need to see them for recording sessions…I guess? And even Chris Sabat was the voice director for like s4-6 he didn’t have access to them either?

Peter Kelamis out here spreading misinformation about how testicles and voices work, I see. For shame, Peter.

Removing your testicles does not alter the pitch of your voice. You gotta train that shit after undergoing a testosterone-based puberty, because your vocal cords are thickened by testosterone. Surgery does exist to help with that, but it's kind of a pain and you still need to voice train.

Not that it matters for Kelamis now. He's senior citizen age, his voice is already deeper than it was in the 1990s and any range he had is shot straight to hell thanks fo thirty more years of exposure to testosterone.

I think he was being sarcastic, but like you said it doesn't really matter now since he hasn't been the voice for the character for over 20 years.
Although Sean Schemmel also mentioned trying to mimic Nozawa's screams during a session and he mentioned that it was out of his range.

I mean, yeah, he could have been being sarcastic, but it's a big enough misconception in media that I figured I'd at least make a cheekily worded correction lol

[SylentEcho]

Sabat and Schemmel really need to let go of their roles, but especially Schemmel. Nothing he does seems to work or fit Goku just right.

Sabat's Vegeta and Yamcha are okay, but his Piccolo is completely wrong and lacks that sarcastic/smart-ass cadence of the original. Kaioh and Ox King also sound like absolute goofs.

Horikawa's Vegeta has so many moments, where he builds his voice up as he's talking, from calm, to high-pitched, angry etc in one sentence. Sabat isn't able to do this - his Vegeta is almost always at one tone, with deeper growls or just yelling.

Them replacing Nadolny as Gohan was the right call. In all 3 shows' dubs, that voice stuck out like a sore thumb.

The new Freeza (after Ayres) is also a good choice. He is able to somewhat pull off the sing-song, polite delivery of Ryusei Nakao, as opposed to Ayres who sounded great, but made Freeza come off as bratty/stern most of the time.

[Yellow Flower King]

Sabat and Schemmel really need to let go of their roles, but especially Schemmel. Nothing he does seems to work or fit Goku just right.

Sabat's Vegeta and Yamcha are okay, but his Piccolo is completely wrong and lacks that sarcastic/smart-ass cadence of the original. Kaioh and Ox King also sound like absolute goofs.

Horikawa's Vegeta has so many moments, where he builds his voice up as he's talking, from calm, to high-pitched, angry etc in one sentence. Sabat isn't able to do this - his Vegeta is almost always at one tone, with deeper growls or just yelling.

Them replacing Nadolny as Gohan was the right call. In all 3 shows' dubs, that voice stuck out like a sore thumb.

The new Freeza (after Ayres) is also a good choice. He is able to somewhat pull off the sing-song, polite delivery of Ryusei Nakao, as opposed to Ayres who sounded great, but made Freeza come off as bratty/stern most of the time.

I have to say this in Sabat's defense. Remember he's three characters by now Vegeta, Piccolo and Yamcha, if he shifted his voice, he would probably sound like one of the others.

[Yuli Ban]

I my experience "too cartoony" is not a common criticism of the Texas cast, for the Ocean cast? Yeah, I've heard that criticism a lot, but in my opinion the Ocean cast do those cartoony voices very well, so I don't think its a fair knock on them.

Different era I guess. Western cartoon voice acting in the 90s was still heavily informed by classic Hollywood and radio dramas and, thus, theater. "Over"acting or "cartoon voice acting" had been the norm for cartoons as the last holdout of classic Hollywood acting, to exaggerate the characters and action. This is the legacy of the Mel Blancs of the industry.
Seiyuus in Japan had, ever since the rise of adult-oriented animation in the 70s, adopted the idea of simply using your natural speaking voice with some embellishments for many characters, and the works they voiced often were made with that mindset

When anime started getting dubbed in large number, Western traditions were unprepared, but the seinen video rental anime tended to do better because they had to and were allowed to since they weren't subject to the FCC’s "educational and informational" (E/I) mandates or broadcast standards, thus they didn't have to sound "safe."

Outside of some works (Heavy Metal, Gargoyles, Batman: The Animated Series, When the Wind Blows, any Ralph Bakshi movie), Western cartoons weren't generally meant for audiences that would be more critical to lapses in voice acting quality

But for television animation, anime that wasn't blatantly seinen (or the rare josei) Bowdlerised to be for little children, often younger children then the American cartoons on the same networks, hence the baffling era where Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon VHSes were targeted to 3-7 year olds while Powerpuff Girls and Ren and Stimpy were aimed at older kids
So voice acting was hammed up badly, and since Saban was the Power Rangers distributor, they decided to make Dragon Ball Z sound like "Power Rangers if they were the Super Friends"
The consequences of that bled into modern Dragon Ball in so many ways, but if there's anything to be said, the Ocean cast weren't amateurs.
A lot of people buy into the narrative that Drummond was the perfect Vegeta for the Saiyan and Namek arcs but Sabat was the perfect voice going forward after, and the switch happened at the perfect time

With all due respect that logic is extremely flimsy, and it only gets flimsier when you actually hear Drummond voice Vegeta in the Artificial Humans and Majin Buu arcs. If anything my opinion has shifted so much that I think his Saiyan arc work is his WEAKEST, and that work already clears everything Sabat ever did with Vegeta even accounting for the hammier Power Rangers-meets-Super Friends voice direction
Maybe it's hypocritical bias in my own direction after just shitting on others for it, but I can't easily imagine a better English Vegeta than Drummond, and it's a shame his post-Ginyu material is stuck on an Ocean cast continuation that never got popularized outside Canada

[MasenkoHA]

A lot of people buy into the narrative that Drummond was the perfect Vegeta for the Saiyan and Namek arcs but Sabat was the perfect voice going forward after, and the switch happened at the perfect time

They all conveniently forget that this is what Sabat Vegeta actually sounded like when he took over

https://youtu.be/EdGa-2BSFiI?si=Ct4U7mAnSUazgDQ_


Like, I’m gonna be generous and assume a lot of them misremembered and think his remastered performance is how he sounded back in the 1999. And even then nothing that happened in the middle of the Ginyu fight made Sabat’s Remastered era Vegeta voice more appropriate than Drummond’s Vegeta where he “needed to take over”

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

and it's a shame his post-Ginyu material is stuck on an Ocean cast continuation that never got popularized outside Canada

The later Ocean dub, i.e. Westwood also aired in Ireland, the UK, Netherlands, Finland and possibly Belgium, so a lot of us Europeans grew up with Brian Drummond's later work. I agree, I used to think Chris Sabat was better for good Vegeta, but going back to the Westwood dub the last few years I think Drummond did an even better job as his voice matured and he went with a more natural speaking tone for Vegeta. Sabat is good, but a little too deep and gruff. Later Drummond was closer to Ryo Horikawa as they were both very smooth. Shame we never got to hear Drummond's work in Kai, as that performance was supposedly closer to his Westwood work.

[rweasp]

I grew up with the Westwood dub being from the UK, but can't stand any of those performances despite enjoying a lot of the voices in the original Ocean dub. I rewatched quite a bit of it recently and...was it not good. It was a huge shock to me because I wasn't expecting it to be THAT bad and wooden compared to my memory of it. Sure, there's a few scenes here and there that sound decent, but that really isn't an achievement. Mediocrity with hints of decentness shouldn't be encouraged as a positive. While the original Funimation dub wasn't great, or even good at times, at least it was mostly consistent in its quality. I'm kind of glad that nostalgia didn't cloud my judgment here.

And just as an aside, Terry Klassen makes me want to rip my ears off.

[WittyUsername]

My understanding is that the Westwood era dub was largely a rush job.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

My understanding is that the Westwood era dub was largely a rush job.

It was at the start since Ocean had to catch up with Funimation. As only the first 3 episodes of the Westwood dub aired in the Netherlands in January 2001 we can probably assume those episodes were all that was complete at the time. Its possible some actors may have been fast tracked as Brian Drummond confirmed he did some recording as early as May 2000 and Saffron Henderson apparently recorded a load of episodes before her wedding. Suffice to say everything was recorded by December 2002 and aired only a few months after, so not as hectic a timeline as the internet makes it out to be.

The Funimation inhouse dub was really no better, I'd rather have experienced actors directed badly than amateurs all around. Not a knock on the Texas cast, they are great nowadays, but they will all tell you 1999-2003 is not a time in their careers they were proud of.

[Hellspawn28]

If memory serves in his Geekdom interview he said Blue Gender and Yu Yu Hakusho were the first dubs where the directors actually had the Japanese version on hand and they didn't really become familiar with Japanese Dragon Ball until the video games.

That always seemed…odd to me. Ian and Peter both referred to seeing the Japanese footage and hearing the voices with Peter commenting he could never make his voice go that high without becoming infertile.. Footage I imagined Ocean had to get from Funimation.


And Funimation had started releasing bilingual DVDs as early as October 2000.


Funimation definitely had the Japanese version. It appears they just randomly decided their in house actors didn’t need to see them for recording sessions…I guess? And even Chris Sabat was the voice director for like s4-6 he didn’t have access to them either?

They had different people working on stuff. The chances are that the voice actors didn't know what they sounded like until 2002 when they are dubbing Budokai 1. I also remember hearing Sabat and Searn mostly heard the Spanish dub from Mexico during their time on the show because they would get their stuff from them.