Agreed. I always thought Sean's king kai sounded weird to me the way he had that burbling, piggish sound to his character. Granted it was an immitation of the Ocean's weird version but its hard to take the character seriously as a grand legendary teacher if hes always a goof. I also thought Sean's King Kai was too high-pitched as well in comparison. Though in simple comparison I prefer Don Brown's pitch and tone more so. That at least sounds more faithful.KaiserNeko wrote: Lastly: Should have recast King Kai, but I get why they didn't. I get it: A lot of fans of his dub voice think he's funny. But that voice ruined some scenes in the Freeza saga of Kai for me; the tension is high and the drama is at a fever pitch, and then suddenly the sounds of Sean Schemmel (an actor who, by the way, who's talents I very much respect; so this next part is in no way a shot at him) blathering out with what sounds like an entire bag of erasers in his mouth made me want to just stand up and walk away. This is another example of missing the point with a character: He's not supposed to just be comic relief. He's a mentor character with plenty of jokes behind him. While Mike McFarland managed (in DragonBall at least) to bring his Roshi down to Earth in the heavier moments, you cannot do that with a voice like Sean's King Kai.
Thats the thing I noticed as well, Stephanie knows how to capture the SSJ2 side of Gohan much better than any other variation because she knows how to do that aggressive, brutish, stoic, sadistic type character he became. And for the most part her yells were stronger and consistent in pitch throughout each shout (something Coleen was painfully poor at with her very forced and shrill screams) thus why Stephanie was much better in my take as GT Kid Goku if not the perfect fit because GT Goku is supposed to be rougher and more angry when fighting Bebi. Its just that she never ever seemed able to make herself sound shy and mouse-like as Gohan was before the ROST training arc. She never made gohan reserved and polite when he neded to most at base form. Thats where Coleen picked up the slack in a complete reverse. She does the shiness and innocence fine but cant at all sound intimidating when angry. My only gripe with Colleen was that she sounded too feminine in her undertone at times.KaiserNeko wrote: I take similar issues with Stephanie Nadolny. While I can still enjoy her Goku for the most part, her Gohan was nigh-impossible to take seriously at any point. A soft-spoken, shy child with this raspy, garbly voice? Fact is, I'm okay with voices sounded different from their Japanese counterparts to a certain extent. But they need to be true to the original character, and Nadolny has never even once made me feel that way with Gohan. Goku, on the other hand, she has a much better time with, partially because she plays him much different and drops a lot of the rasp. Also, Son Goku as a child isn't shy, polite, reserved like Gohan; as such, Nadolny's voice is able to play to Goku's strengths much easier.
That I know is Funimation's fault, her and #17 were directed to sound more like the stereotypical western robot type stoic computer voices rather than naive human teenagers. Though I never found McCoy very good for #18 as she suffered the same ironic problem as Stephanie. Where she sounds too butch for the character who is supposed to be sharp, yet dainty while steadfast and adamanted.KaiserNeko wrote:I like Colleen Clinkenbeard better as Android 18. Meredith McCoy's performance wasn't subtle, it was wooden and poor. She grew as an actress over time, but Android was never supposed to sound so old or so monotone. As we see, while the characters are cool and collected, they're still very much human; young humans at that. Colleen's interpretation is much closer and much better acted. This also is due to the fact that Colleen Clinkenbeard is one of the best in the industry right now.
The problem there is that Freeza was miscast completely from the Ocean's version which Linda was trying to be. Which they thought he was a female character entirely rather than a male character with an articulated speaker, with an effeminite yet stern personality. What I would have used to compare that idea closer to would have been Steve Blum's Oorochimaru which I think is the better example of what an effeminite, deceptive man should sound like, just without the whispery hiss.gohann wrote:Chris Ayres is a good actor, but I find Linda Young nails certain aspects of his personality better, especially his arrogance. She didn't even sound that much like an old lady -- you can tell an old lady is voicing Freeza, but it doesn't define her performance. She didn't get the "fancy" side of him down like her predecessor (Pauline Newstone) did, but she did manage to put on a creepy, gender-neutral voice for the character. For the reasons I listed and more, she sounds threatening. I do agree that a good script would have helped.
