What about the old dub did you like?

[matt0044]

That is, for those who prefer the Japanese version (and maybe Kai's English dub).

[B]

At their absolute worst, these actors were still tolerable:

Sonny Strait as Kuririn
Chuck Huber as 17
Meredith McCoy as 18
Justin Cook as Evil Buu (no one absorbed)
Eric Vale as the Tenkaichi Budokai Announcer

The Faulconer themes produced for Perfect Cell and Majin Buu are pretty neato.

[CaBrPi]

At their absolute worst, these actors were still tolerable:

Sonny Strait as Kuririn
Chuck Huber as 17
Meredith McCoy as 18
Justin Cook as Evil Buu (no one absorbed)
Eric Vale as the Tenkaichi Budokai Announcer

I totally agree with this. I'd also like to add Huber as Pilaf as well. And Kent Williams as Dr. Gero.

That said, the best part of the old dub was most definitely the promos that aired on Toonami, narrated by Peter Cullen. Just. Man.

[penguintruth]

Makes a great endurance test/torture.

[AgitoZ]

Chris Rager has always been enjoyable.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Nostalgia, few great voices in there too but I'm far too lazy to list them. Most of the new Buu-arc characters were well cast, I seem to recall particularly enjoying Babidi's voice. Faulconer had a couple of neat tunes as well, even if they did sound like royalty-free pieces at times.

Oh, and these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jCwEAqJkgY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzyfR5CkVFQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdeCKbvri9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqYXx-2I9mI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5WLj_dxSWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqrv1gf3NXU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP7cgx_LC80

Y'know what...most of those are probably nostalgia. Too bad I can't find the credits with the Namekians playing golf.

[ABED]

There were always a number of talented people, but I like the passion that the actors had for the material, whereas much of the ocean cast viewed it as another job. I have nothing against that, but I like when artists enjoy their work as much as I do.

[theoriginalbilis]

Are we talking about the dub with the Ocean cast? Or the FUNimation cast?

English dub with Ocean cast: decent replacement score, most of the voice cast did a good job (even though the script sucked.) Their dub of the original three DBZ movies are still excellent to this day. That's how the whole damn show should've been dubbed.

English dub with original FUNimation cast: Some of the voice actors did a good job on their characters (Krillin, Mr. Satan, Cell, Babidi, 17 & 18, and Teen Gohan) even with the script being all over the place in terms of accuracy and quality. The editing was far less severe; many episodes aired on TV uncut. There's a few decent pieces from the Faulconer Productions score... but only a few.

The FUNimation crew really improved on both translation and performance over the last decade or so thanks to constant dubbing on DBZ video games, the original DB and GT, and especially on Kai. I do want to check out the new Ocean work on Kai if the damn dub ever comes out...

[matt0044]

Are we talking about the dub with the Ocean cast? Or the FUNimation cast?

Whichever you'd like.

[Ketchup_Revenge]

Chris Rager has always been enjoyable.

Totally agree. I actually prefer him over the original seiyuu.

Brian Drummond was a great Vegeta in the Ocean Dub. His lines sucked though.
I thoroughly despise all English Gokus because they ALWAYS make him sound too educated. But in all honesty, the script writer is to blame on that one.

[DBZ Mick]

It got me into the series... um... I liked some of Faluconer's score, some voices as mentioned like Cell...

[landoku]

The music. Funimation's music score was better than the music from the toei version. It fit better with the fights and even the relaxed or goofy Scenes. Over all just much better.

[El Diabeetus]

- Most of the voices, although most of the ones I didn't like were recast in Kai.
- Some of the 'Falcouner' themes - Ginyu Transformation, Super/Kid Buu themes, Vegeta's Theme
- Newer DVD's gave me the option to watch it with the Kikuchi score, it's an interesting experience.
- Occasional Nostalgia.

Other than those few things, I can't really give it much credit for anything other than originally getting me into DBZ. It's awful at this point. It'll always have a place in my childhood, but I've moved on to the Japanese version / English Kai as my preferred viewing method.

[KaaN10]

Bruce Faulconer soundtrack.

[ABED]

To me the faulconer soundtrack is like 1997 CGI in a film from the 70s. It might look good on its own, but it doesn't fit a film made 20 years prior. I don't think it's faulconer, but I do like that guitar instrumental that plays over the intro to DBZ movies and season sets. It's good on its own, but it's not Dragon Ball.

I've always liked Schemmel, even from the beginning. I only felt like he lacked a good script and direction.

I'm surprised no one has listed it already, but Brice Armstrong as anything, especially the Dragon Ball narrator. I wish he was a narrator for everything. He just has an awesome voice. Are we speaking strictly about DBZ or Dragon Ball in general?

[Hades]

the "fusion speech" was spot on, and one of the few times dub scripting surpassed the original. It just captures goku's frustration with Vegeta's obsession with Saiyan pride.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, first and foremost, it got me into all things "Dragon Ball"-related!

Otherwise....I generally believe that FUNimation made, for the most part, excellent casting decisions with actors who turned in great performances as long as they didn't have an Ocean counterpart to worry about emulating (and I would argue that the actors who did have to worry about emulating their Ocean counterpart started turning in incredibly better performances when they stopped trying to mimic their Ocean counterparts and just went with their own interpretations).

I also appreciate how the dub improved in time. Yes, it's hard to call the old dub a "good" dub now that the Kai dub is around, but I'm afraid I must completely disagree with people who say that the old dub was bad from start to finish. The whole dub didn't just stay at "Season 3" levels of quality. It got much better, which told me that FUNimation cared about the product...as opposed to other companies who made bad dubs that just stayed bad. Or got worse.

[ABED]

I agree, a few of the actors turned in good performances pretty early
Sonny Strait - he was okay from the beginning but he's really good by the end of the Garlic Jr. arc. His performance in "Krillin's Proposal" is heartbreaking.
Sean Schemmel - He was pretty good by the tail end of the fight against Freeza.
Chris Sabat - It took him a while to make Vegeta his own, but I think he was pretty good by the start of the Buu arc and has only gotten better. His piccolo got great once he dropped the gravel, but his performance was more or less acceptable by the Android episodes. His Yamcha got good once he dropped the surfer accent, and was excellent during the Dragon Ball dub.
John Burgmeier - his performance during the first few Trunks episodes is rough, but he got the hang of it quickly.

[Cursed Lemon]

I still hold Scott McNeil's Piccolo to be one of the greatest American dubjobs I've ever heard. I'm also a Drummond-Vegeta fanboy, but I'm sure that's me and a million other people.

I really like Ian James Corlett as Goku, but unlike the Sabat-Vegeta arguments of maturation over the course of the series, I feel that Goku is the one that undergoes a more visible character shift. Corlett did a wonderful job as a young, more light-hearted Goku, but can you imagine his voice in the scene where Goku threatens Kaioshin? I don't know if I can. It's just a shame about Corlett's supposed professional issues (can anyone substantiate that?).

I'm pretty much indifferent to the rest of the cast between the Ocean and Funi dubs. I've never watched Kai, so I can't comment there. I do remember it being an incredibly jarring experience when the new Frieza episodes first came out (I don't know much about that initial dub job). I sat down with my brother to watch them, and we both looked at each other like, "...wut?"

[ABED]

I still hold Scott McNeil's Piccolo to be one of the greatest American dubjobs I've ever heard. I'm also a Drummond-Vegeta fanboy, but I'm sure that's me and a million other people.

I really like Ian James Corlett as Goku, but unlike the Sabat-Vegeta arguments of maturation over the course of the series, I feel that Goku is the one that undergoes a more visible character shift. Corlett did a wonderful job as a young, more light-hearted Goku, but can you imagine his voice in the scene where Goku threatens Kaioshin? I don't know if I can. It's just a shame about Corlett's supposed professional issues (can anyone substantiate that?).

I'm pretty much indifferent to the rest of the cast between the Ocean and Funi dubs. I've never watched Kai, so I can't comment there. I do remember it being an incredibly jarring experience when the new Freeza episodes first came out (I don't know much about that initial dub job). I sat down with my brother to watch them, and we both looked at each other like, "...wut?"

Corlette has done interviews where he gives his reasons for leaving http://dbzu.3gkai.com/opinions/icorlett.html.