Colleen Clinkenbeard's English Dub Reception

[nato25]

Dub fans I'm curious to get a read on everyone's thoughts regarding clinkenbeards performance/reception in the dub.

This actress clearly has talent, but I don't think it's a hot take to say her replacement of the voices for kid goku, gohan and 18 were met with negative reception. If rumours are to be believed, she willl lose the role to nadolny for daima and has been replaced as 18 since battle of gods. Even the new sparking zero gt dub trailer has comments hating on the voice.

I think a big part of it is that both those characters had established unique voices previously that fit the personality of goku and 18 really well and nostalgia plays a huge part in this franchise. Her gohan role seems to easily be the most accepted.

Personally I still can't vibe with this performance for kid goku whenever it comes up in flashbacks or the games. But please share your thoughts.

[90sDBZ]

Her Gohan grew on me quite a bit over time, although I think I still slightly prefer Nadolny.

I've only really heard her Goku in videogames, and in brief flashbacks in Kai/Super. I can't really fault the performance.

What makes me prefer Nadolny, is just that she better captures the more happy/goofy side of Goku. The same with Gohan to an extent. Colleen is really good at the big dramatic scenes, but doesn't quite have the same warmth as Nadolny. Although to be fair she never had the benefit of voicing Goku for an entire series.

[gokaiblue]

She's definitely had mixed reception has Goku and Gohan, but I think people have gotten used to her Gohan more than her Goku mainly due to her being able to voice Gohan in a more complete sense than she has been able to Goku. Clinkenbeard has only voiced Goku in one movie, some flashbacks, and video games, while she's voiced Gohan in all of Kai and several video games. She's been able to grow more with Gohan than she has Goku.

[WittyUsername]

I’m fine with her Gohan. It was admittedly jarring for me at first because I was so used to Nadolny, but I think her voice is a solid fit for the character.

Never cared for her as #18. I always thought it sort of sounded generically feminine, and I don’t think she works as well off Chuck Huber and Sonny Strait as Meredith McCoy does.

Finally, her Goku is something I could honestly do without. There isn’t a whole lot to go off of, but it just doesn’t have that Goku edge to it, and sounds too overly cutesy to me.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I've only ever had exposure to Colleen's Goku mostly in the FUNi re dub of DB movie 1 (Curse of the Blood Rubies/Legend of Shen Long) from 2010, a few short flashbacks to OG DB here and there and maybe a couple of video games. Honestly, the fact that she's had so very little material with child Goku since being cast back then is why i don't have much to say about it as compared to her more expansive amount of time as young Gohan in the entire dub run of DBZ Kai 1.0 and the games where she's voiced him as well. I think she does better as Gohan than Goku, based mostly on her having had much more material to work with voicing the former than the latter.

Simply put, Colleen has never had a chance to voice kid Goku for a prolonged amount of time over the course of a series where we could really gauge how she could do in the role.

[OmegaRockman]

I personally think she's a huge improvement for Gohan and Goku and easily my favorite English voice for both of them (Henderson is a close second). I also really like her 18, but McCoy is about as good so I don't mind her taking the role back there. With Clinkenbeard's Goku, I'm gonna echo the thoughts that the main reason people haven't been receptive towards it is because she's had only one movie, flashbacks, and some video games to cut her teeth on.

And as an aside, I think just about EVERYONE has sounds awkward in the games. Take the castings we first heard via games for example; nobody liked Jason Douglas when he first appeared in Battle of Z nor James Masters when he first appeared in XenoVerse 2, but as soon as they popped up in the anime proper, everybody fell in love (and rightfully so). The main cast also sounds off in the games to me, and I think it comes down to the developers not giving the dub production crew a whole lot to work with during recording; just the raw Japanese voice files and very rarely any video of cutscenes, which isn't even enough to get the lip sync right. That awkwardness is a big reason why I play the games pretty much exclusively in Japanese despite really loving the dubs for the anime these days. (Well, there's also the fact I never wanna take that feature for granted when we didn't always have the option to switch the voices, but that's beside the point.)

Getting back to Clinkenbeard's Goku, I think all the same can be said about her video game performances. As for the anime itself, I think she's pretty fantastic in Movie 1. I have no doubt in my mind that she'd do great in an OG DB redub/Kai recut, and I think she'd also do great in Daima, which is why I hope the talk of Nadolny is doing it is just a rumor (though I'm inclined to believe it might be true). I've made my thoughts on Nadolny's Goku and Gohan well-known around these parts, so I won't get into that.

I was also just really excited to see Clinkenbeard take on a whole show as Goku to really see what she can do with the role. Now it looks like that won't happen, and even if they were to make a Kai recut/reanimate OG DB, I have a feeling they wouldn't have Clinkenbeard do that either when they're friendly with Nadolny again. My only hope is that they let Clinkenbeard keep Gohan and that modern voice direction pulls a decent performance out of Nadolny. And if nothing else, the ADR scripts should be mostly fine. But as someone who's been super into DB dubs in the modern era, I have a feeling that the Japanese track will be my go-to for Daima.

Still, Clinkenbeard playing Goku in the GT trailer for Sparking Zero keeps rattling around in my brain. I mean, this trailer came out on the SAME DAY as the Crunchyroll simulcast announcement, which just feels odd to me. I guess I could just chalk it up to SZ having completed the casting process and contracts and begun recording so much longer ago, but I dunno. It would just be strange to have two different voices for Kid Goku in concurrent products when they've finally standardized the Broly voices in the games. Especially when forthcoming DLC is going to include Daima Goku. So is Clinkenbeard going to play Kid Goku in the base game while Nadolny does the DLC, or will Clinkenbeard do all of it, making it inconsistent with the show? It just doesn't seem right in either scenario, but stranger things have happened with this property. I guess part of me is holding out hope lol.

[GhostEmperorX]

Just... not my thing in general, especially as it concerns 18.
Also one of the reasons why I vastly prefer most other EN voice casts (across all animation) to Funimation's by far (except maybe the people ADV used to have).

[SaiyamanMS]

Honestly, I think that Clinkenbeard is a great actress and her Gohan is better than Nadolny’s. Especially in the earlier arcs, where I feel that Nadolny’s Gohan sounds older than he should. That said, Nadolny is a better Goku in my opinion, Clinkenbeard’s Goku really doesn’t click with me at all.

As for Android 18, McCoy is my preferred choice, but Clinkenbeard is perfectly fine in the role too.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Having become addicted to One Piece after it dragging for ages (I'm in the middle of Water 7 now and loving it, damn I'm becoming a victim of the "it gets good" after absurd number of episodes mindset) and watching the English dub I'm a massive fan of Colleen Clinkenbeard.

I know Stephanie Nadolny has her supporters, and I'm glad her performance appeals to people, but it's just not for me. With the recent scuttlebutt Nadolny may be returning for the Daima dub, I'll say I'm slightly disappointed about this potential news, as I was hoping we'd finally get more of Clinkenbeard as Goku, but I'm willing to give Nadolny a chance. It's been a long time since we've heard her Goku, so she may improve as much of the Funimation cast did when they recorded Kai.

The biggest criticism I hear of Clinkenbeard, other than her Goku being forgettable is that her Gohan sounds too much like Luffy, but when actors record as many shows as they do that is bound to happen. You can compare most voice actor's performance on one show with their work on another and find similarities and Clinkenbeard is no different. Its just a standard young boy voice, it's very emotional but it works for Gohan because he has a strong heart and Luffy because of his positive demeanour (he says "I'm gonna be king of the pirates" at the end of every NEP). Personally it's still the Funimation voice I think of with regards to the warmth of an innocent child.

[Thanos]

Clinkenbeard is clearly a very talented voice actor, so her delivery is pretty much on point. However I can’t help but feel like I’m just hearing a woman try to imitate a boy’s voice when I hear her. I know that’s literally what it is, but plenty of other women who do voices are able to “disappear” into the role. Nadolny was never that good as an actor, but her voice was quite good at making you forget you were hearing a woman voice a boy.

[MasenkoHA]

In 18's case it seems like she was always intended as a temporary replacement until Meridith McCoy was available again, like Bryan Massey was for Brad Jackson as Oolong. I don't think Funimation thought she was too terrible to keep playing 18, just that the role was Mccoy's first as long as her schedule allowed it.

I think most of the problems people have with Colleen Clinkenbeard as Gohan and Goku can be chalked up to nostalgia. It's too different to what people are used to from Stephanie Nadolny. She's not my favorite English young Goku (Barbara Goodson) or Gohan (Saffron Henderson) but she's fine.

[Dbzfan94]

Her Gohan grew on me a lot. I liked her Kid Goku in the Blood Rubies redub and what I’ve heard of her GT Goku in Sparking Zero, but I still really prefer Nadolny. Especially for Goku.

As for 18, I didn’t really like that. Her Mai was good but a little samey to other voices like Hawkeye and Erza.

[WittyUsername]

In 18's case it seems like she was always intended as a temporary replacement until Meridith McCoy was available again, like Bryan Massey was for Brad Jackson as Oolong. I don't think Funimation thought she was too terrible to keep playing 18, just that the role was Mccoy's first as long as her schedule allowed it.

I believe Chris Sabat confirmed that being the case a while back.

[ABED]

I don't get the sense that she has gotten a negative reception. Most of the negativity comes down to comparisons to the previous voice being the one people were used to. She was a vast improvement over Nadolny in every conceivable way. As 18, I wouldn't say she's bad. She's good and she comes off as cold when necessary. She gives a good performance but McCoy, aside from being a good actress, has a more distinct voice.

[jjgp1112]

Her Gohan's grown on me to the point where the Gohan voice in my head flip flops between her and Nadolny and sometimes becomes a mishmash of both. Definitely prefer Nadolny for Goku; her acting wasn't great but the voice was the perfect fit for someone like Goku, and sometimes the stilted delivery actually works in the character's favor.

I seem to be in the minority of really liking her performance as 18, though. I prefer McCoy but I wouldn't have complained if she stuck with the role.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

I got introduced to Dragon Ball proper through the Kai dub, so I didn't have anything to compare it to. It couldn't bother me for being different, but I always found it kinda grating. Eventually I discovered Nadolny's Gohan through YouTube clips, older games, and so on which also didn't work for me. Personally I don't think that either voice is ideal for Goku and Gohan. I think that Melissa Fauhn (Edward in Cowboy Bebop) would be the perfect voice for kid Goku and Gohan if she were to make it more boyish, but that's never going to happen.
As for Daima I don't believe the rumors for a second. We're 14 years removed from her time on the dub, and she appeared on a podcast where she said that Sabat never liked her much. So I doubt that she was suddenly brought back when her replacement is right there, and wasn't asked to do any recordings for Sparking Zero. There would be a precedent for cross brand promotion with both the game and show releasing the same day.

[WittyUsername]

On the subject of Chris Sabat’s alleged grievances with Nadolny, I always kinda felt bad for her in that regard. By all accounts, Chris Sabat seems to have his own little clique at FUNimation, and for one reason or another, Nadolny was never part of it. We still don’t even have a concrete explanation for why she was let go.

We know Tiffany Vollmer left FUNimation altogether and moved to a different state, and that Linda Young apparently wasn’t able to keep up with the more fast-paced dialogue they gave Freeza, but in the case of Nadolny, all we have to this day is speculation. Some people think it’s because of her DUIs, but I honestly have trouble believing that’s the reason, especially since it went under the radar for the longest time. Meanwhile, Nadolny speculates it’s because of a vindictive ex who may have been involved with FUNimation, while Chuck Huber, in an attempt to clear Vic Mignogna’s name, went into conspiracy territory by claiming it was because of a casting couch situation.

[MasenkoHA]

On the subject of Chris Sabat’s alleged grievances with Nadolny, I always kinda felt bad for her in that regard. By all accounts, Chris Sabat seems to have his own little clique at FUNimation, and for one reason or another, Nadolny was never part of it. We still don’t even have a concrete explanation for why she was let go.

Oddly enough I think the simplest explanation is the most likely. Nadolny wasn't part of the Funi clique so they were more objective about her performance and recast her with a better actor.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Geekdom101 asked Stephanie Nadolny about this in their interview. Basically when Kai came around Nadolny was unaware of it as she was busy planning her marriage, raising kids, performing with her band and believed she was on good terms with everyone at Funimation. It was only in February 2011 that Nadolny heard fans online were upset about her being recast, and it affected her because she was never given an explanation for why she wasn't asked to return as kid Gohan.

There have been rumours Nadolny was dating Chris Sabat and when things didn't work out he was badmouthing her within Funimation and the company sided with him, but I don't think that's true as Chris Sabat had a young family at the time too. Sounds like a conflation of the story about Nadolny's vindictive ex with the "casting couch" allegations to me.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

We know Tiffany Vollmer left FUNimation altogether and moved to a different state, and that Linda Young apparently wasn’t able to keep up with the more fast-paced dialogue they gave Freeza, but in the case of Nadolny, all we have to this day is speculation. Some people think it’s because of her DUIs, but I honestly have trouble believing that’s the reason, especially since it went under the radar for the longest time. Meanwhile, Nadolny speculates it’s because of a vindictive ex who may have been involved with FUNimation, while Chuck Huber, in an attempt to clear Vic Mignogna’s name, went into conspiracy territory by claiming it was because of a casting couch situation.

The fact that they actually planned to keep using Linda Young for Kai is baffling. Also Chuck Huber is a flat Earther so I think we can safely throw all of his opinions out the window where they belong.