Linda Young not to voice Freeza in the Dragon ball Kai dub?

[penguintruth]

See, I'll never understand this mentality. The people dubbing a show should be able to have some flexibility and actually decide for themselves what voice works best for the character instead of just copying and pasting from the original. Creative license, people

Creative license, yes, I'm for this, but if it strays so far from the original voice, it misses the point entirely, then it's a mistake. I'm not saying they have to copy the Japanese voice entirely (though if they can get that to work for English, great), but it should be used as a guide.

[JulieYBM]

Actually, it does mean that thought was placed into asking why the creators of the original version felt that their choice was the best best performance and performance-type for their product, that best fit their adaptation of the comic. Good dubs are generally agreed to remain faithful to the original version. FUNimation's Dragon Ball work is generally radically different.

See, I'll never understand this mentality. The people dubbing a show should be able to have some flexibility and actually decide for themselves what voice works best for the character instead of just copying and pasting from the original. Creative license, people

The issue isn't creative license, it's creating completely different characters with terrible casting.

[desirecampbell]

Actually, it does mean that thought was placed into asking why the creators of the original version felt that their choice was the best best performance and performance-type for their product, that best fit their adaptation of the comic. Good dubs are generally agreed to remain faithful to the original version. FUNimation's Dragon Ball work is generally radically different.

See, I'll never understand this mentality. The people dubbing a show should be able to have some flexibility and actually decide for themselves what voice works best for the character instead of just copying and pasting from the original. Creative license, people

The issue isn't creative license, it's creating completely different characters with terrible casting.

Creative license only works when the result is good.

[Xyex]

I dunno, after watching that scene where Freeza attacks the Namekian village, I've come to the conclusion that Linda Young really could've pulled off an accurate Freeza portrayal. She talked in a polite, nonchalant manner and it was awesome.

I agree with this, I think she could have pulled it off pretty well if she was handed an accurate script and given good direction. Then again according to Sabat she had a hard time following the direction he was attempting to give her so either that was an excuse or there was a relatively good reason to replace her.

Yeah, I'm leaning more toward excuse, myself. You check these things before you cast a person. And there's not nearly as much difference between dub Freeza and JP Freeza as many would like to claim, no where near enough to make it difficult to read the lines at the right speed. They're just trying to avoid looking like asses by going "Alright, we saw a lot of people bitching that we didn't change Freeza, so now we are, and we're throwing Young out to the curb even though she's perfectly able to do the role and was already given the role and already started recording the role."

See, I'll never understand this mentality. The people dubbing a show should be able to have some flexibility and actually decide for themselves what voice works best for the character instead of just copying and pasting from the original. Creative license, people

Creative license, yes, I'm for this, but if it strays so far from the original voice, it misses the point entirely, then it's a mistake. I'm not saying they have to copy the Japanese voice entirely (though if they can get that to work for English, great), but it should be used as a guide.

The original voice is whatever you hear in your head when you read the manga, because the original voice is just words on paper. All the JP version has is the interpretation of a few people from Japan, none of whom were even Toriyama. At least Nozawa hasn't that much backing her for Kid Goku.

[penguintruth]

The original voice is whatever you hear in your head when you read the manga, because the original voice is just words on paper. All the JP version has is the interpretation of a few people from Japan, none of whom were even Toriyama. At least Nozawa hasn't that much backing her for Kid Goku.

They're not casting for the manga, they're casting for the TV series. You can't say, "Well, the original voice is whatever they think up when they read the manga" because the TV series has to be treated as a seperate entity when you cast a dub for that show.

The manga is entirely irrelevant when you cast an English dub for the TV series. It may be relevant to casting for the Japanese cast, but that's the original cast.

[JulieYBM]

This isn't a dub of the manga, though. This is a dub of the anime, which is seperate from the manga.

[Xyex]

They're not casting for the manga, they're casting for the TV series. You can't say, "Well, the original voice is whatever they think up when they read the manga" because the TV series has to be treated as a seperate entity when you cast a dub for that show.

The manga is entirely irrelevant when you cast an English dub for the TV series. It may be relevant to casting for the Japanese cast, but that's the original cast.

This isn't a dub of the manga, though. This is a dub of the anime, which is seperate from the manga.

To put it quite simply.... No.

What applies to the one applies to the other. Or... should Goku look and act exactly like Sun Wukong because JttW came first? It's a rather loose example, but it's still applicable. It's an adaptation of Dragonball. Period. To make any further distinctions is just an excuse to complain.

[Kaboom]

There's a limit to what one can get away with in the name of "creative license."

Imagine that someone in a foreign country really took a liking to my GT: Revised fanfiction. However, his friends can't read or understand English like he does, so he got my permission to translate it into his native language for them. Obviously a lot of the jokes and colloquialisms I use in writing it would be lost on a non-English speaker, or even just on someone outside of the USA and its culture. So obviously, these sorts of things would most likely be substituted with appropriate material from his language and culture. That's perfectly reasonable and is to even be expected.

But then imagine if he took it even further, and he started rewriting MORE than was necessary. Changing what a character is saying and when. Substituting key story- and character-related dialogue in exchange for unrelated jabber or lame jokes. Chopping things up however he sees fit and only BARELY getting across the intended message or events for each scene in the process. The characters' thoughts and motivations are unrecognizable compared to the way I originally wrote them.

Would anyone find that okay? Would my English readers be happy to learn about that? Would I be happy about that? No, of course not! I know that I, as the author, would be greatly displeased, because the story as I wrote it is no longer being preserved. What was supposed to be a mere translation of DragonBall GT: Revised, as I wrote and intended it, has been broken apart and turned into a mockery of the care and planning I put into it.

That's just an example, using some low-key fan fiction that has maybe a total of a dozen regular readers. But even on that scale, I doubt anyone would find such an instance fair or desirable. So why then, is it "okay" for the FUNimation dub of DragonBall Z to do, or have done, that sort of thing on such a higher scale? They changed the music, they changed the dialogue, they changed the voices and characterization... they changed a LOT of things. Not because it was needed, but just arbitrarily, or even worse, because they thought it was their job to "improve" the product or make it more "marketable." Yet people dismiss this and use excuses like "it's just as good" or "well I like it so its okay" or "it's just a different take?"

No, that's not how it works. That's not how it's supposed to work, anyway. A dub's job is to present the same material, with the same message and details... in a different language. That's it. "Creative license" is a concept that allows for slight changes when they're actually needed.

My version of Pan from GTR is characterized as a tomboy who's bold and brave, but has some confidence issues due to her distinct lack of girlyness. I wouldn't want her, in translation, to be cheapened by being taken from that sort of character and turned into a full-blown hateful, extreme-feminist bitch who hates everything male and beats up boys her age for no good reason.

The dub is guilty of the same thing, but even worse, by taking Freeza's slight tone of androgyny and using it as grounds to have him sound like somebody's sickly grandmother doing a bad impersonation of Donald Duck. Now they've finally realized that mistake and are correcting it. By no means should they be criticized or faulted for that. Rather, they should be praised and appreciated.



Now please. I don't want to have to lock this thread for the same type of meaningless, argumentative blabber that caused the downfall of Questrider's the other night. But if I have to, I will, and just reopen it or make a new one when we actually get to HEAR the new Freeza.

EDIT: Actually, I will do so now, because I already know what the responses to this are going to be.