Some facts and information on the Ocean dub of Kai

[Subzero Ice]

Now that the Ocean Productions dub of Dragon Ball Kai is close to getting released (or so I was informed) I decided to finally start interacting with the community.

A quick refresher. Back in earlyish 2010 I came across Sean Schemmel talking about how good the Funimation dub of Kai apparently was going to be on facebook. I pointed out that the the Ocean dub would be better. To my shock he actually knew about the Ocean dub and we proceeded with a conversation which went into certain specifics of the Ocean dub. That started the first information being 'trickled' out and sent shockwaves to the fanbase. I was a silent observer to the reaction and understood the absolute excitement of fans as it was probably the biggest news since Kai's announcement. We had to delete our comments for obvious reasons and since I didn't want to inadvertently give out information which some people have been taking pains to keep a secret (and I didn't feel like breaking anyone's trust), I kept out of the community (but over the years seeing those the doubt really tempted me to correct some people and say the dub IS in production but anyway that would not have been a good idea.) I did, however leave a post on Scott McNeil's facebook page undeleted where I expressed my eagerness at his return to voice Piccolo some months before he mentioned it himself (and I was glad he did as that crushed most of the doubts on whether the dub was being made) That post is still there now and since it is not prominently visible, I left it.

Anyway, some information on the Ocean dub. It's been in production since 2010 and by that I am also talking about the pre-production stages, setting overall strategy, direction for the dub, etc. There has been some recastings and some returnings. Scott McNeil was one of the first to return (that I heard) and they do indeed have a new Goku. Now this character they took more trouble to cast than they needed to, however they were hoping to get the essence of the character as it is in the Japanese version. From what I have heard of his performance (described, not the actual audio) he is doing an 'excellent job.' We may have the best dub Goku ever in this new Ocean dub. We'll see. They have some Calgary actors on the cast (assuming they were kept), but the bulk of it should be the Vancouver cast. Frieza has been described as 'maniacally awesome' and overall I am expecting really good performances from the Ocean cast because from what I have heard about it, The Ocean dub of DBZ Kai is spectacular.

CSC Media did not have any plans to broadcast Kai this month, don't know why Toei's website claimed so. My guess is it may have been a mistake by one of their admins who doesn't keep as up to date with the series as we do.

However, there are plans to broadcast Kai next month, so it shouldn't be long now before the greatness of the Ocean dub is finally revealed to the eager, patient and at times impatient fans. (Assuming of course that CSC Media has the Ocean dub, and it is far more likely they have it than not.)

The wait is worth it. Well worth it.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Please don't take this the wrong way.....but how do you know this and why would you be privy to that info?

[El Diabeetus]

I'm looking forward to see how they handled Goku, Freeza will be hard to live up to. Chris Ayres ended up being the best voice in the whole FUNimation dub and FUNimation are not ameteurs as they were back in '99. Hopefuly Lee Tockar will surprise me! I'm looking forward to Vegeta and Piccolo too, Scott McNeil and Brian Drummond were easily the best voices of the original dub, it'll be nice to see them get a fair, legitimate shot at the cahracters, just like their FUNimation counterparts (well counterpart since Sabat still voices both of them, haha.)

[penguintruth]

Didn't Schemmel claim that they were using replacement music and added sound effects?

[El Diabeetus]

Indeed, he did. I remember that back when the discussion took place on Facebook.

[VegettoEX]

Don't feel this needs its own thread, considering the existing thread is wildly active and right here on the first page.