I honest to God agree on Freeza. I won't blame Linda Young, she's just doing what she's directed, but--and I mean this in the least insulting way--when she leaves this world I hope a different route is taken with the voice. Like...a man's voice. >_>
Wasn't Schemmel--for Kaiô--trying to do some odd mimic of the Ocean counterpart? Now, I'm not saying that's much of an excuse but I'm sure the lack of direction and script--or even takes on a line contribute. Or the production team--in all of their aloofness--believes whatever style of 'acting' they use for the DB franchise works. I mean, it's sort of hard to break a habit after nigh ten years. Rôshi, while yes obviously a younger man trying to sound like an older man, is probably the best they had to work with at the time. The Ocean dub used younger men trying to do goofy old man voices--at least from what I remember of Corlett--and this may just be my biased 'conditioning' to McFarland but I sense he places a lot of effort into the performance.
See, I think--and this applies to any Anime fan--people tend to compare the English voice to original. Now, admittedly I was nine when I first heard the FUNi dub--I didn't even notice a much change of a from the Ocean cast--so of course I'm conditioned to the bloody stars and back as I am sure fans of the Japanese version are.
Actually, from my count Sabat plays thirty roles.
Anyhow, like I said conditioning. I've noticed plenty of difference between power up sequences between both languages (like if there's a cut away from the character powering up in question then there no screaming/roaring in the original) but y'know friend, one man's trash is another's treasure. You may hate Star Trek and find it absolutely disgusting but that won't stop millions from loving it. I--and a lot of others--are so conditioned to it we, if you will, 'enjoy it'. I sure as heck enjoy the Japanese version on the days I feel like watching it and if FUNimation ever chose to styistically change their ways to match up with the original more so you'd have no complaints from me. But aren't we talking about you?
Exactly which year are we talking about though, because his Vegeta and Picccolo voices seem to change depending on the year or video game (like for Sparking METEOR he speaks in a voice closer to his own but in a calmer persona)? I know he was pretty bad in 1999-early 2001-ish but eh.
As for Nadolny, from what I've heard she sounds very 'unique'. I remember hearing her on YYH and I was like "Wait...is that a female Gohan?" Her performance isn't the best in the world and it tends to depend on whatever line she's delivering. Truthfully, I wish Kara Edwards voiced Son Gokû but meh, I don't actually think she's had any acting training and I do admit I felt her performance was a little 'phoned-in' for the early Z stuff. But I've not really watched the series in ages.
Hell, even the fucking background extras are turned into complete raving jokes, because no one is EVER allowed to simply play any scene straight 9 times out of 10. Every situation, every subtle beat, everything’s gotta have the volume turned up to 1000. It’s simply flat-out impossible to successfully tell any sort of dramatic story when there aren’t ANY sort of normal, conversational scenes allowed to just play out naturally, and literally almost every single performer is specifically directed to act like a slpasticky bonehead.
This is actually explained by Sabat on the One Piece episode one audio commentary. Because of FUNimation's small talent pool at the time the actors all had to do background characters but to avoid them all sounding alike they had to "stay in this very small range" or what have you so I'd say that's why the background characters sucked, but I honestly don't remember for as I said, I haven't watched a bulk of the series in ages. *Stares at his broken VCR and fifty plus tapes*
Generally speaking, just about every single character isn’t played like a grounded human being at all. Just about everyone across the board (with the rarest of exceptions, most notably 17 and 18 ) is played with some sort of stupid, over the top, cartoonish stereotype or gimmicky aspect to their voice that utterly annihilates any sort of credibility to their performance, renders every emotional beat hollow and plastic, and is just unbearable and unpleasant to listen to as sounds in and of themselves.
Heck even Sabat admits he hates being unable to focus on the performance because he has to focus on keeping his voice in a certain range.
Truthfully, for me it depends on the year as I think their standards have improved a lot for the video games, but that's just me. But then again, you mention you dislike the 'hardcore-ness' of the dub. At least their just trying to have fun (don't Hullk out on me!)
Just compare FUNimation DBZ voices to almost ANY even moderately well-regarded anime dub out there. Death Note, Yu Yu Hakusho, Lupin, Kenshin, Bebop… whatever. Compare the style of voice acting you hear in those to DBZ, particularly in quiet, conversational scenes. No matter how small or brief the part, with some exceptions (depending on the nature of the character in question), by and large most or at least a very great deal of the voices you hear are allowed to simply just be. These are genuine performances, with genuine emotions allowed to shine through, and it’s generally how real people talk, or at least a very reasonable approximation.
I figure one day they'll finally say "Alright guys, DBZ redub #33, this time let's do it like One Piece, FMA, and Samurai 7!"
It’s the exact polar opposite of the Japanese cast, whose performances are (apart from again, whacked out gag characters like Pilaf) straight as a fucking arrow, which is generally what a great deal of anime (that isn’t something 100% madcap spoofy like Excel Saga) calls for.
That's what happens when you can afford actors from the start.[/quote][/code]
