Ocean Studios' "Dragon Ball Kai" Dub Turns 16; Still Unreleased

[NinjaGoku]

So... uh... any progress on the Ocean Kai yet?

The topic title is a misleading.

[ErikB]

So, can anybody confirm if the FUNimation aired on non-Pay TV in these countries?

I believe the CW would qualify as non-pay TV in Canada as I was able to view the channel (and, by extension, the Toonzai broadcast of Kai) at my parents' place on aerial TV, as opposed to only through their satellite service.

The CW isn't a Canadian channel.

I know that. What I referring to is the fact that you don't need to pay for a certain channel package to view it in Canada. I assumed that's what we were getting at with "non-pay TV".

[Attitudefan]

Drummond's higher pitch for Vegeta just sounds so much better, especially for Saiyan arc Vegeta and Namek arc Vegeta. I really hope he continues the high pitch during those arcs and deepens the voice as the show progresses. Even Drummond notes that Vegeta looks bigger later on in the Cell arc, thus dropping the pitch a bit top match the visuals a bit. It also goes with Vegeta's change in personality. I wish Sabat did something similar, using a higher pitch with Saiyan arc Vegeta and his deeper voice later.

Still, he sounds as good as ever.

Just hoping on the higher pitch in Kai to be used during Vegeta as an antagonist, with the same pitch used in the Saban days. He can still go that high in his older age and it still sounds as good as it was in 1996.

[sangofe]

Just hoping on the higher pitch in Kai to be used during Vegeta as an antagonist, with the same pitch used in the Saban days. He can still go that high in his older age and it still sounds as good as it was in 1996.

Didn't he say in the interview that it's not the case?

[Attitudefan]

Just hoping on the higher pitch in Kai to be used during Vegeta as an antagonist, with the same pitch used in the Saban days. He can still go that high in his older age and it still sounds as good as it was in 1996.

Didn't he say in the interview that it's not the case?

Sadly, it seems so.

[Ajay]

I asked Drummond if he knew when it might be coming.

More vague responses:



Fun.

[UltimateHammerBro]

Given that he has actually acknowledged it in his tweet, I'd say that he's not being vague, but rather than he honestly doesn't know it.

[Ajay]

Given that he has actually acknowledged it in his tweet, I'd say that he's not being vague, but rather than he honestly doesn't know it.

Vague was the wrong word. I pretty much meant it was entirely useless.

[Blade]

It just adds to the pantheon of evidence that exists that someone has paid money for this thing, voice actors have recorded lines and have been paid to do so.

I think now, a better line of inquiry would be to find out exactly who the people are who've stumped up the capitol for this, and why, apparently, are they happy to take the financial hit by sitting on, and not releasing the material?

[jelleline89]

Finally, something that is the closest thing to news worthy we have had in a while.

The chances of any VAs learning about the dub release before s is slim to none. They just go in to record and collect their paycheck. Most likely they will find out relatively the same time everyone else does, if that should ever come to pass.

[Attitudefan]

Given that he has actually acknowledged it in his tweet, I'd say that he's not being vague, but rather than he honestly doesn't know it.

Vague was the wrong word. I pretty much meant it was entirely useless.

You should ask him whether or not it'll come out, but who we, the fans, should contact to inquire about the dub. Privately of course, since fans would probably flame and exploit that information.

[sangofe]

Given that he has actually acknowledged it in his tweet, I'd say that he's not being vague, but rather than he honestly doesn't know it.

Vague was the wrong word. I pretty much meant it was entirely useless.

You should ask him whether or not it'll come out, but who we, the fans, should contact to inquire about the dub. Privately of course, since fans would probably flame and exploit that information.

Wait, why don't you ask him? Don't you go to the same gym?

[TheBlackPaladin]

I'm not even sure the actors would know. Scott McNeil once said he didn't know who was behind the Westwood dub. And really, that's not surprising. Actors are the last people to go to if you want answers to production questions. It's not their job to know producers and release schedules...they just come in and act, and that's the entirety of their responsibilities. If they ever do learn any of that stuff, it's by way of coincidence.

Here are the only two leads I can think of:

1) For the Westwood dub and both of the Blue Water dubs (of DB and GT), a guy by the name of Ken Morrison was credited as executive producer. No clue if he's still at the helm for the Ocean dub of Kai, but quite frankly, I think that'd be a good interview even if he wasn't. The Westwood dub is just so damn mysterious (in terms of its behind-the-scenes situation and production).

2) The voice actor for Nappa in the Ocean dub listed that as a role he also played in Kai, and credited "IPP Productions" as the company.

[Blade]

I'm not even sure the actors would know. Scott McNeil once said he didn't know who was behind the Westwood dub. And really, that's not surprising. Actors are the last people to go to if you want answers to production questions. It's not their job to know producers and release schedules...they just come in and act, and that's the entirety of their responsibilities. If they ever do learn any of that stuff, it's by way of coincidence.

Here are the only two leads I can think of:

1) For the Westwood dub and both of the Blue Water dubs (of DB and GT), a guy by the name of Ken Morrison was credited as executive producer. No clue if he's still at the helm for the Ocean dub of Kai, but quite frankly, I think that'd be a good interview even if he wasn't. The Westwood dub is just so damn mysterious (in terms of its behind-the-scenes situation and production).

2) The voice actor for Nappa in the Ocean dub listed that as a role he also played in Kai, and credited "IPP Productions" as the company.

They've obviously been paid by someone, they at least will know who that was, unless, of course, they took shady cash-in-hand payments in paper bags from anonymous meeting points in darkened street alleys from mysterious black cars with tinted windows.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Ken Morrison is another Ocean staff regular alongside Karl Willems (who probably directed this dub), Diana Gage and Dennis Hrehoriac. I don't think you'll get a response from them. They seem to like being low key.

[Attitudefan]

Wait, why don't you ask him? Don't you go to the same gym?

My gym closed for renovations and after it reopened I haven't seen him since. I could probably ask him on twitter or something like where he goes now, but since he switched gyms, I have not seen him in awhile. Sadly.

[TheBlackPaladin]

...unless, of course, they took shady cash-in-hand payments in paper bags from anonymous meeting points in darkened street alleys from mysterious black cars with tinted windows.

..........Wait, so......that's not.....how you're supposed to get paid?....Well then who was that person I.......uh oh....

Just kidding.

Anyway, they may or may not know (I'm debating how detailed I should be with this so I don't bore anybody, and ultimately I've decided on a medium-length explanation). I'm a union voice actor, and in order to for a job to count as a union job, something called a signatory has to be involved. Essentially, the signatory is the entity in charge of making sure union rules are followed and that actors are paid union rates. It can be an organization, it can be a person, it can be anybody. Ideally, the client themselves is the signatory, but that's not always the case. Sometimes the producers will ask for another organization to supervise the production and act as the signatory. As far as the union is concerned, even if technically speaking the producer is really the employer for all intents and purposes, on paper the signatory is the employer. I recorded my first anime dubbing job at a company/studio that any anime fan would instantly recognize, but they weren't the signatory, some company that I had never heard of was...and it was their name that appeared on my paycheck, not the studio's name.

Union regulations over in the US are such that some signatories can set up secondary signatories for jobs where more complicated rules apply. Non-broadcast jobs need to have one signatory, broadcast jobs need to have two. However, many secondary signatories are just fronts for the first signatory that don't technically exist (something that would require a longer, much more boring explanation). In any event, one may have a hard time finding these secondary signatories in the phone book since they sometimes only exist on paper. So if that's what's appearing on the paychecks that went out to the voice actors for the Ocean dub of Kai, it wouldn't help much. Beyond that, I'm sure signatories wouldn't breach any confidentiality agreements and talk to fans about current productions.

This is all, however, going off two assumptions:
1) That the Ocean dub of Kai is a union dub. Not sure if it is or isn't, but the Ocean dub of DBZ was.
2) That the actors union in Canada, ACTRA, has similar rules to SAG-AFTRA, the US union.

So they may know. If they don't, however, this is a possible explanation for why. Or, another possible explanation is that the client paid their agents, who then wrote checks to the actors themselves for the amount they're owed after an agent takes out their commission (one of my agents does that). So if they're cashing checks with their agent's name on it, that wouldn't help narrowing down who's producing this either.

[Singh is King]

I asked Drummond if he knew when it might be coming.

More vague responses:



Fun.

I heard Brian Drummond actually praised Chris Sabat's Vegeta for sounding more "princely," which I find pretty cool of Brian to say.

I honestly want to see Brian's modern day Vegeta myself.

[ShadowDude112]

Oh boy! Replacement music? Completely different and weird theme song? Only some of the original cast returning? Sign me up!

No, seriously. Why are we excited for this. This is everything we shouldn't want. This isn't 1996 anymore. We should be beyond this. I think it's better for everyone that this never sees the light of day.

[sangofe]

Oh boy! Replacement music? Completely different and weird theme song? Only some of the original cast returning? Sign me up!

No, seriously. Why are we excited for this. This is everything we shouldn't want. This isn't 1996 anymore. We should be beyond this. I think it's better for everyone that this never sees the light of day.

The replacement music might, or might not happen, and well, Kai's got a pretty messy situation when it comes to music, so why not?