Uhm.. Am I missing something here? (Drummond VS Sabat)

[Darkprince410]

I personally would have preferred if Drummond had either started with a bit deeper of a pitch or, if he had done all of Z in one go, lowered it a bit later on in the series. I think that the "high" pitch he used for Vegeta early on fit well, since Vegeta appeared diminutive. He appeared significantly shorter than Goku and wasn't very muscular. Later on though, as the way Vegeta was drawn closed that height gap and increased his muscle mass considerably, that same high pitch from before didn't fit as well.

If he had started with a pitch more in line with what he used for Gundam Wing, where he voiced the character Milliardo Peacecraft, it would have sat rather well in the middle of Vegeta's physical appearance. It isn't too low pitched that it'd sound awkward with Vegeta's design in the Saiya-jin Saga/ Freeza Saga, and wouldn't be too high pitched for his design from the Cell and Buu Sagas.

[Fionordequester]

But Drummond actually DID lower the pitch of his voice slightly, even if only a little. And the delivery of some of his lines almost borders on Ryuk at times.

[Attitudefan]

The high pitch strains his voice. Obviously he'd go deeper; it is just like Homer Simpson's voice going a little higher. Same reason.

[Darkprince410]

But Drummond actually DID lower the pitch of his voice slightly, even if only a little. And the delivery of some of his lines almost borders on Ryuk at times.

I know he did lower the pitch slightly, but it was still higher than some of his other work, even when we're talking Buu Saga Vegeta he was voicing.

[Piccolo Daimao]

To be honest, while I recognize the few good qualities in Drummond's Vegeta (it does sound appropriately snarky), I've never liked his performance as much as some other people here seem to. I was just unable to take him seriously, and he just sounded like an over-the-top, Saturday morning cartoon, typical villain caricature. I mean, yeah, he was better than Sabat in the original 1999 FUNi dub (since that was clearly just an imitation), but later, Sabat improved, he got less gruff, separated himself a bit more from his Piccolo voice (although he still sounds too similar in some aspects, such as when he laughs), and actually sounds regal.

It's not about realism. It's about selling the character. IMO, the only thing that Drummond has over Sabat are his screams.

[TheMightyOzaru]

I dont see how Drummond is a good Vegeta at all =/. If we are trying to pertain to the original Japanese the guy does a pitiful job. While Chris doesnt match the Japanese voice either he still sounds realistic. Drummond not only generally sounds bad but he sounds completely unrealistic. I can get a prince vibe from Chris. All I get out of Drummond is... I dont even really know what I get from his voice, its just too unrealistic. If you like Drummond thats fine but I just cant stand him as a Vegeta. Ryo and Chris are far better IMO.

[dbzfan7]

I dont see how Drummond is a good Vegeta at all =/. If we are trying to pertain to the original Japanese the guy does a pitiful job. While Chris doesnt match the Japanese voice either he still sounds realistic. Drummond not only generally sounds bad but he sounds completely unrealistic. I can get a prince vibe from Chris. All I get out of Drummond is... I dont even really know what I get from his voice, its just too unrealistic. If you like Drummond thats fine but I just cant stand him as a Vegeta. Ryo and Chris are far better IMO.

The voice to me sounds like a saturday morning cartoon voice. Ironically it's exactly what Drummond did as a career since he did voice tons of saturday morning cartoons in my area.

[Metalwario64]

The voice to me sounds like a saturday morning cartoon voice. Ironically it's exactly what Drummond did as a career since he did voice tons of saturday morning cartoons in my area.

That wouldn't be ironic, I think you'd mean "Fitting, as it's exactly what Drummond did..."

Sorry, but that's a pet peeve of mine.

As for Drummond sounding full of himself and in love with his voice, I do agree with that, and until Kai (MAYBE the Ultimate Uncut dub, but I'm torn) he was probably superior, because Sabat's acting as Vegeta was flat and wooden, and the voice was overly raspy. In Kai there's not much rasp, and the acting is much more dynamic, though could stand a bit more emotion, especially in the yelling, though that's a double edged sword, because Drummond was usually too over the top with his yelling (which sounded cool, but hard to take seriously), so there is a bit of a middle ground that should be more respected in a Dragon Ball dub.

The "in love with his own voice" aspect, I think also carries on to Sabat's Kai performance if I understand correctly. Especially around Cell, where his voice is very smooth. His delivery there I think sounds so arrogant and self loving, especially the delivery when saying: "What's wrong with you boy? True Saiyans especially love a great challenge", while proceeding to assuredly saying "There's no way your would attack you own father, ha ha ha! Go ahead, give it your best shot", while going off into laughing with such confidence.

I think that easily outperforms Drummond's performance as Vegeta.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I've never quite understood why people want an English voice to sound exactly like the Japanese voice. My thought is that an actor can use any voice they want so long as it fits the character. In fact, I believe it was Peter Kelamis who said in an interview...

"The level and emotion of the original performance is attempted to be re-created but not the voice. If I tried to re-create the original voice I think I would run the risk of hitting a note so high that I may not be able to have children in future life."

[Kendamu]

I've never quite understood why people want an English voice to sound exactly like the Japanese voice. My thought is that an actor can use any voice they want so long as it fits the character. In fact, I believe it was Peter Kelamis who said in an interview...

"The level and emotion of the original performance is attempted to be re-created but not the voice. If I tried to re-create the original voice I think I would run the risk of hitting a note so high that I may not be able to have children in future life."

In the case of Peter Kelamis' character, trying to exactly emulate Masako Nozawa's distinctive high voice would be suicide on the throat and just sounds weird when imagining that voice speaking English. However, character voices such as Ryo Horikawa's Vegeta are natural and smooth enough that its actually very easy to imagine him speaking perfect English (no offense meant to Ryo Horikawa's English skills).

That doesn't mean that the voices need to be exact, but if the opportunity presents itself for Kaio-sama to sound more like the narrator from the US version of Kai than, as Chris Psaros put it, "a piss-gargling retard," then I think the former would fit the spirit of the character a whole lot better.

When it comes to Brian Drummond, I do admit that his original Vegeta voice doesn't seem good for Vegeta's less psychotic moments. However, as someone stated before, his voice as Zechs in Gundam Wing would work and I think that his more psychotic voice would work for Vegeta's angrier moments. Same as how, in Japanese, Vegeta sounds like the smoothest, coolest guy ever when talking but has a very rough yelling voice.

[penguintruth]

I'll take psychotic and hammy (Drummond) over gravelly and forced (Sabat). If anything Sabat's Vegeta sounds more like a typical "villain voice" than Drummond's. Drummond's has more presence to it. With a little molding, I bet his Kai Vegeta (if he returns) could outclass Sabat's improved version easily.

Neither are as good as Horikawa's (at least, not in his prime... guy's been smoking too many cigarettes over the years), of course, but this whole Sabat worship is unbelievable. The man only reached respectability in the past few years, while Drummond's been burning it up in roles since before Sabat was a janitor at Funimation they pushed into a recording booth as part of a drunk bet with better dub studios (or so I imagine).

[El Diabeetus]

Now that I went and listened to Zechs voice, I could see that work for Vegeta. It's about as deep as his Ryuk voice without the 'demonic rasp' for a lack of a better term. The funny thing is if Drummond did use a voice like Zechs for Vegeta it'd be exactly like Sabat's pitch-wise, not tone wise, haha. I like both Vegeta's for what they are, although, it would be interesting to see Horikawa do some Vegeta lines in English since we all know he speaks English well.

[OutlawTorn]

And if there's anything I take out of the real life examples, it's that some people really DO have voices that you would not expect them to have, some of them really WEIRD as seen in the 3rd and 4th videos...

Chyna (Wrestling Diva): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_bSWpuYzfg
Theodore Roosevelt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYn5FJnvrZk
Kevin Grevioux (Raze in the Underworld movies): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc1QvI_llE0
Let's Player Elentor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29cDSMpfotk

I'm not really sure what's weird with the voices, to be honest. Chyna sounds like a woman, as she should as I am unaware of muscle mass actually doing anything to vocal chords. Roosevelt, likewise, sounds like a man. I do thank-you for not using the same tired examples of Mike Tyson and Michael Jackson.

Though it may be a stereotypical view, I don't see anything weird or unfitting about Kevin Grevious' voice. You have men like James Earl Jones and Michael Clarke Duncan with rich, bass filled voices. Other voice actors, Jamieson Price and Skip Stellrecht, for instance, have similarly deep voices. There's also Peter Cullen who has a wonderfully deep voice.

For the final video, what exactly is weird about the voice? It just sounds like somebody with a deep voice talking softly. If it's the accent, I used to work with someone with a similar accent and the world is certainly full of many different accents. You're likely to hear about a dozen distinctive accents within the United States and Canada alone.

[Ringworm128]

Let's also not forget that, while Masako Nozawa is a great actress, it's not particularly realistic for a grown man to have what is clearly a woman's voice...and yet the people saying that Sabat or Drummond don't sound realistic don't have a problem with "realism" in that performance.

That reminds me of another thing I don't understand. People will give Sabat crap for having so many roles in the old Funi dub with things like "you can tell it's him." And then go "Wow, Masako Nozawa is so awesome doing all those voices."

[Attitudefan]

Let's also not forget that, while Masako Nozawa is a great actress, it's not particularly realistic for a grown man to have what is clearly a woman's voice...and yet the people saying that Sabat or Drummond don't sound realistic don't have a problem with "realism" in that performance.

That reminds me of another thing I don't understand. People will give Sabat crap for having so many roles in the old Funi dub with things like "you can tell it's him." And then go "Wow, Masako Nozawa is so awesome doing all those voices."

I think Nozawa gets shit on by most fans around the world, but the American dub itself is hated more.

[VegettoEX]

That reminds me of another thing I don't understand. People will give Sabat crap for having so many roles in the old Funi dub with things like "you can tell it's him." And then go "Wow, Masako Nozawa is so awesome doing all those voices."

At the time Chris Sabat was doing all those roles (as you said, "the old Funi dub"), he was not versatile enough. It clearly got through to the production staff, because he no longer plays every single one of those roles in Kai, and his voices for characters he DOES still play are far more distinct and well-acted.

Nozawa, however, was already a veteran that was able to on-the-spot in the studio flip between characters with distinct tones and accents.

So yeah. Completely warranted.

[Puto]

Also, the characters Nozawa plays are related, giving a logical reason for them to sound similar. There's no relationship between Vegeta, Piccolo and Reacoom.

[Mewzard]

Also, the characters Nozawa plays are related, giving a logical reason for them to sound similar. There's no relationship between Vegeta, Piccolo and Reacoom.

>_> Reacoom sounds rather different from the other two. And while Piccolo and Vegeta have gotten a little bit closer since Sabat toned both of them back from their extremes to something closer...they don't sound all that similar.

On Nozawa's end, I don't object to her doing multiple voices...but I really don't think she should have been voicing either Bardock or Turles. She only did because they look like Goku, despite being entirely different characters. Her voice just doesn't work with them.

I even asked a friend who is a huge fan of the Japanese version, and generally mocks the Funi Dub (to my annoyance), yet he says Nozawa's Son family voices/Turles sound practically the same.

Now, I think there is some distinction...but yeah, Sabat's been tapping his range quite well. Nozawa can do a decent range of voices, but the choices for DBZ are rather close.

[LiamKav]

Well, to be honest, the voice itself is what puts it below Mr. Sabat for me. It reminds me of Frank Welker's Megatron circa 1984, which is a voice that I do not enjoy. Really, there's nothing wrong with it, but it feels too stereotypical for me.

It's interesting that either Welker or the voice director's agree with you, as the voice he uses for Megatron in Transformers: Prime is much more nuanced and toned down. So much so that it's not obvious that it's the same actor.

(Of course, Frank Welker is an amazing voice actor, and I don't think it's really slating Sabat too much to say that he's not on Welker's level.)

[Super Sonic]

With that, there's also the issue of age as Mr. Welker was in his late 30s when he started as Megatron, and is now about 65.

On-topic though, I kinda wonder if Drummond would've been able to up his Vegeta's evilness had he'd been allowed to outright talk of killing folks like Sabat was.