Glad to have confirmation, I too heard the August 28, 2000 date before but wasn't sure was it verified.
ThunderPX wrote: Sun Feb 18, 2024 8:37 amIt seems somewhat strange that we would start getting the Westwood dub for just three episodes before rerun hell set in
It may have been because the Westwood dub had just started being recorded around that time, or at least for the majority of the cast. There was lots of rumours throughout 2000 from sites of the time like Planetnamek about the Ocean cast somehow returning to the series, but Funimation were denying it probably because they were still sending Ocean their raw video, music tracks and scripts and in doing so NDAs had to be signed. The earliest official confirmation that the Ocean cast were returning to Dragon Ball Z came from
VegettoEX's old site on
May 19, 2000:
- 19 May 2000; 10:37 pm EST - I'm sure everyone's (by now) checked out Brian Drummond's e-mail, as first seen on The Brian Drummond Mini-Shrine. It appears
Mr. Drummond was called in to do some recordings for.. *gasp* .. DBZ!! So with that in mind, I asked myself, "Self.. if Drummond might be coming back,
how about Mr. Corlett? You have his e-mail address. Drop him a line!" So I did. And he got back to me this very evening (I sent the e-mail before I went to work.. this guy's good o_O). Guess what?
He was contacted, too. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing, but it's good to see that Mr. Corlett's not taking any shit from anyone, still. Check out the e-mail by
clicking here. As for future updates... eh... I'll get to them. Got an English project to finish up this weekend, I'm and working all day tomorrow and Sunday. I've got the mailbag done... that'll be up soon ^^
I guess I should mention at this juncture this timeframe throws into doubt the decades old rumour that the Westwood dub was created because fans outside the US were unhappy with the cast change during season 3 as by most fan recollections those episodes didn't premiere in the UK until late summer or early autumn 2000 and Dragon Ball Z hadn't even started in the Netherlands by this point. An argument could be made for Canada, because, as I recall Episode 54 aired there in early 2000 although YTV never reran episodes 108-167 with the Westwood episodes, which suggests it wasn't enough of a priority for them to bring the old cast back. I still think the most likely explanation for why the Westwood dub was created is because Funimation was charging a bomb in royalties for their own dub and international territories wanted a cheaper alternative, which is backed up by the fact that in the UK and Ireland CNX initially premiered the Fusion saga with the Funimation dub but after a few reruns switched back to Westwood.
At any rate news continued to spread about Ocean's return, as on October 14, 2000 Doc Harris
confirmed he was starting to record:
14 October 2000: Ocean Cast to return to the dub? Hmmm...wishful thinking, maybe.
Jon: By now I'd say that it's safe to say that everyone's seen the posts on "Planet Namek" regarding the impending return of the former cast. While there's probably no bigger fan of some of the former cast than I (Let's face it, they're a tough act to follow), keeping my somewhat skeptic distance was a good choice. Most members of the current cast had absolutley no idea about this. When informed by me though, they seemed none too pleased. To quote Sonny Strait, current voice of Krillin;
"Ok, I don't want to cast aspersions and say that someone's bullshittting the fans but I just talked to Chris and he said it was COMPLETE bullshit."
He goes on to state that FUNimation will be scheduling another set of auditions for the Buu saga, and that doing so would be a waste of money if they were to suddenly hire back the old cast. As many of you may recall, Brian Drummond pulled this kind of thing back around June-July this last summer, and absolutley nothing came from it. When I asked Chris Sabat and Gen Fukunaga what it was about (the previous incident in Jun-July), they basically told me that it was either a reunion or for a YTV promotion. Ian Corlett had also been offered for the same thing in June-July, but basically gave us the same tired speach about "Yes I was offered, but I've got a writing career now and blah blah blah." The difference in this case is that the former announcer for Dragonball Z's dub, Doc Harris, has also been quoted that he's returning to voice the show.
"Just thought you should know: the DBZ tracks are going to be done in Vancouver again, starting next week. I'll be back narrating, and most of the old cast will be reassembled for the series.
Spread the word!"
Unfortunately it appears that link is dead, but thanks to
Dark Vegeta-Sama its been archived. In fact, Ian James Corlett stated
the next day he was aware of the dubbing of Dragon Ball Z returning to Vancouver, although it's possible at that time Ocean/Westwood were still awaiting deals to be approved for AB Groupe to distribute their dub in Europe and for all the necessary materials to arrive in Canada.
Though, Saffron Henderson did confirm she'd recorded many episodes in
late 2000 because any time in 2001 would have conflicted with her wedding plans, so it's possible she recorded earlier than the rest of the cast.
For everyone's convenience, here was the interview, once more, courtesy of
Dark Vegeta-Sama, who archived it:
Q: What was it like when you and the rest of Ocean Group had heard FUNimation was moving to Texas, and the parts would be recast?
A: We were all disappointed, but we knew they were probably trying to save money and keep their project in a more convenient location, since that's where FUNimation is based. Dragon Ball Z started recording here in Vancouver again in 2000, and I enjoyed some more Gohan that year.
Q: A lot of talk went on saying you had to stopping voicing Gohan in the Cell Saga because of "stress-related causes", this wasn't the case, was it?
A: That's funny, I've heard that comment too. No, I didn't stop voicing Gohan because of stress or exhaustion or anything like that. The only thing that was stressful was the timing of my wedding! We'd planned it for months and months, before Dragon Ball Z even came back, and in order to work around my husband's availability (he's a baseball player), some immigration business (he's American) and to get our families together....... We couldn't change our wedding date when the producers decided they'd need me for a few days in January/Feb 2001. So we recorded as many episodes as possible by the end of 2000, and then they auditioned new talent for Gohan so they could continue with someone whose schedule they wouldn't need to work around.
The old UKDB site apparently had lots of interviews with the Ocean cast between 2000 and 2003 and documented everything we know about the Westwood dub. I documented
the few I could find on the Wayback Machine but I'd love to read more, especially from those early days of the Westwood dub where it was especially rushed.
ThunderPX wrote: Sun Feb 18, 2024 8:37 amThe next time the show went into rerun hell is after episode 150, iirc, so I may have been thinking of that instead.
Assuming you mean Episode 150 in edited numbering that makes a lot of since as it was the final episode of what was the Imperfect Cell saga in the UK when Trunks fight ends and the Cell games were announced. From what I've heard the Netherlands were also importing materials from Cartoon Network UK. As I recall the Cell Games began in the UK in September 2001, although for some reason Cartoon Network used Imperfect Cell art for the promo art in their magazines of the time. Maybe because they thought it looked cool and would be good for marketing purposes:
