25 years since the Westwood dub premiered

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Time sure flies, and today I thought I'd mark another anniversary in the history of Dragon Ball.

January 23, 2001 was the day that the Westwood dub premiered. Rumours began to spread about this dub in the months that followed before its premier in other European territories and Canada.

It's been discussed to death that this dub was a rushed production, but I still love it. Call it nostalgia, but I do think the product as a whole has its charm and can be enjoyed on its own merits despite not being an accurate dub.

I've rewatched this dub 3 times in the last 5 years and I still think given the circumstances most of the performances, especially once you get through the Android arc are decent, with some, mostly from Scott McNeil and Brian Drummond being great.

I'll also always have a fondness for the music, despite most being lifted from other shows like the Ruby Spears Megaman cartoon and Monster Rancher the same way a lot of fans will always have nostalgia for the Faulconer score. We also have to remember Funimation was providing Ocean materials until the last 4 episodes so they likely never had the option to use the Shunsuke Kikuchi score.

I am so happy that none of this dub is lost, thanks largely to the plethora of VHS and DVD recordings fans have made and shared over the years on places like the old Cartoon World forums. Its crazy condidering the population of the USA to think theres still missing NEPs from the Toonami US cut of the Funimation Z dub mostly in the Great Saiyaman arc, but all of Westwood's NEPs have been found and preserved.

The term "Westwood dub" itself is also maybe a bit of a misnomer. I've heard Westwood Media referred to as a production company, the place where some of the recording took place according to Saffron Henderson and Kirby Morrow, although fans have disputed the term saying Dragon Ball Z was not recorded at Westwood and the actors got details mixed up. Nonetheless the term "Westwood dub" will likely forever remain in the collective fandom consciousness as the title has been used to refer to this dub for decades now.

I personally emailed Rob Bakewell, who was the Talent Co-Ordinator at Westwood Media at the time, and he said they were primarily a recording studio but Dragon Ball Z was not recorded there. Original Dragon Ball and GT were going to be recorded at Westwood back when the original plan was for them to be dubbed in Vancouver, so maybe the confusion came from actors being cast in GT, as we know some like Michael Dobson were cast as several characters. I also emailed Jeremy John Butler who was an audio engineer for both Westwood and Ocean and he recalled Westwood prepping scripts for Dragon Ball Z (which may be where the "production company" idea came from) but sound effects and the recording work was done at Ocean.

Of course we know 80% of the dub was recorded at Airwave Sound Design so where the other 20% was done remains a mystery. Any recording done at Ocean would probably have been minimal since Karl Willems didn't recall working on Dragon Ball after Saban/Pioneer but before Kai when asked in Anime Time Machine livestreams.

Anyone else watch this dub when it aired? Remember the premier and how much of a shock it was that the Ocean cast returned?

[90sDBZ]

I've always had mixed feelings on the Westwood dub, but felt it got much better towards its end.

I'll always remember it airing on Cartoon Network UK for the first time, because there had been a really long wait for new episodes after Trunks meeting Goku. I'd become obsessed with the show during the Goku vs Frieza fight, and had watched reruns of the Saiyan-Trunks Sagas several times before promos for the Android Saga finally dropped.

By the time it finally aired I'd gotten to hear both the Texas and Vancouver casts plenty. I'd really liked Ocean's voices in the earlier episodes along with the Ron Wasserman score. I also liked Funimation's voices, Sean Schemmel's Goku in particular, and had fallen in love with the Team Faulconer score. So basically up to that point I liked both casts and both scores.

I was really excited to finally watch the Android Saga. I immediately noticed the music had changed again, and honestly wasn't a fan of the new score. It felt kind of bland and repetitive, and lacked the distinct character themes of Team Faulconer's score. The Army Theme was pretty good, but was overused.

I honestly think I'd have liked to the Westwood dub a lot more if they'd got Ron Wasserman back to score it. But the music did drastically improve around the Fusion Saga when they started using Monster Rancher music, in addition to the Megaman music they'd previously used.

The voices were kind of a mixed bag for me too, largely due to the rushed schedule no doubt. Brian Drummond was still really good as Vegeta, as were Scott McNeil's Piccolo and Saffron Henderson's Gohan.

In more recent years I've come to really appreciate Peter Kelamis as Goku, but as a kid I wasn't a fan, and was actually happy when Kirby Morrow took over. To me Kirby sounded more in line with Ian and Sean's heroic portrayals, while Peter's Goku sounded more goofy.

Terry Klassen's Krillin was a downgrade from his earlier performance. His voice became too high pitched and constantly whiny, while it had previously been a lower pitch and felt more emotionally layered.

I also felt the new Trunks voice was a downgrade from Eric Vale, and lacked his youthful energy. And the Androids sounded a bit too monotone for my liking, although this might've been a creative choice. I actually kind of liked Dale Wilson as Cell, particularly Perfect Cell, who felt appropriately calm and collected a lot of the time.

Brad Swaile was a great choice for Teen Gohan, and did a solid job, although I still feel Kyle Hebert handles the more serious scenes better, like when he squares off with Super Buu. Speaking of Super Buu Brian Dobson did a good job.

I think a big part of me not warming to the Westwood dub was my huge attachment to the Funimation dub and Faulconer score at the time. Back then I had no internet access, and there was no home release, so I had no way to continue watching Funimation's dub beyond the Trunks Saga.

These days Funimation's dub is readily available through multiple home releases, and I've watched it in its entirety multiple times.

I'm at the point now were I'd actually welcome a re-release of the Westwood dub, as I haven't seen it in years and do have some nostalgia for it. It made up the majority of the UK broadcast back in the day, was enjoyed by fans in multiple countries, and deserves a re-release of some kind along with Blue Water's dubs and Ocean Kai.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I honestly think I'd have liked to the Westwood dub a lot more if they'd got Ron Wasserman back to score it. But the music did drastically improve around the Fusion Saga when they started using Monster Rancher music, in addition to the Megaman music they'd previously used.

The Ron Wasserman score would have never been on the table for the Westwood dub. Ocean owned several companies, which included a music publishing company, so they had royalty-free use of a lot of tracks that were composed for them to use on their shows. Tom Keenlyside owned Anitunes and thusly Ocean could use his songs on any number of their shows (which we saw as they used them on not just Dragon Ball Z, Megaman and Monster Rancher but also Hamtaro, LBX, Deltora Quest, Scan2Go, etc). This was not the case with Wasserman's score, as if Ocean used it they would have had to pay royalties to Saban or Funimation.

I agree on your assessment of all the voice actors' too. I'd also add Matt Smith improved somewhat during the Boo arc even over his work in the Saban dub, which is also a credit to the increased production values towards the end of the Westwood dub's run.

And the Androids sounded a bit too monotone for my liking, although this might've been a creative choice.

Yeah, I always thought the more robotic voices worked well for the Androids. Dale Wilson was also very underrated as Cell. I know people think the Cell Games aren't much good in Westwood but Wilson had a great villain voice, and as you say the calm demeanour worked for a character that was all about perfection and being the ultimate fighting machine.

It's a shame we may never see the Ocean dub of Kai, as I imagine with 4 years of production over 98 episodes, the voice actors having even more experience we would have likely seen the best the Vancouver cast and Tom Keenlyside, John Mitchell and David Iris had to offer with that dub.

[eledoremassis02]

As someone who was stuck with the FUNimation dub, I dropped it around the Majin Vegeta and Goku fight (mostly because it was a huge let down compared to their Saiyan saga counterpart). I can across Ocean dub (probably around 2004) when I noticed different Canadian voice actor names on IMDB and had no way of finding anything about it for until a few years later.

I took a large bread from Dragon Ball up until the level sets started up and it got me re-interested so I started watching the show in Japanese. At that point the FUNimation dub started showing its age for me and to this day I can't even watch it for nostalgia. Then around this time episodes of the ocean dub started coming out and overall I felt it was almost back to form sans Trunks and I was really pleased. Peter Kelamis (who is one of my favorite goku and was rock solid in the films) was a bit hit or miss but I welcomed a naturally child-like goku that even today I feel Schemmel struggles with. I never had an issue with Kirby Morrow and don't consider him a bad Goku. I feel he was similar to Schemmel is his tonal struggles with the character (at that time) but I never got the downright hate. Brad Swaile is my favorite english Teen Gohan. They also got the original Ocean Narrator back who outclassed FUNimation anyday.

One voice I cannot stand at all is Master Roshi. I will never understand why they didn't have Don Brown do the voice again as he was by far a much better match and as much as i love Scott McNeil. His Dr. Briefs ain't it and way too over the top and "cartoony". Android 16 was also one of the few occasions that I preferred FUNimations take. Mr. Satan gets the job done but kind of sounds like a bobble head version of FUNimation who seems like he knocked it out of the park (I havent seen those episodes just clips from FUNimation).

Now that I have had years to sit with it and watch it every now and then, the struggles with allot of the performances are becoming more audible but (atleast for me) still beat the first FUNi dub simply because I have always felt Ocean nailed the tonal balance of Z whereas FUNimation was focused on making it way more dramatic and epic.

Edit: I also want to add, the way they didn't Fusions was an interesting take I actually don't hate, mostly because they pulled it off. Massive props to Brian Drummund for sounding like the both of them, I don't think that would of worked as well if Peter Kelamis stuck around.

[90sDBZ]

Edit: I also want to add, the way they didn't Fusions was an interesting take I actually don't hate, mostly because they pulled it off. Massive props to Brian Drummund for sounding like the both of them, I don't think that would of worked as well if Peter Kelamis stuck around.

I agree Brian Drummond's Vegito actually sounded really good. I'm a fan of the dual voice approach from Funimation and the Japanese, but Drummond really made the single voice feel like a combination of his Vegeta and Kirby's Goku. It obviously helps that he was one of Ocean's better actors to begin with.

Also the scene were Vegito turns SS1 was really well done, as Drummond's awesome Vegeta-like screaming carried over to Vegito.

[MasenkoHA]

And the Androids sounded a bit too monotone for my liking, although this might've been a creative choice.

Yeah, I always thought the more robotic voices worked well for the Androids. Dale Wilson was also very underrated as Cell. I know people think the Cell Games aren't much good in Westwood but Wilson had a great villain voice, and as you say the calm demeanour worked for a character that was all about perfection and being the ultimate fighting machine.

The robotic voices were basically what Chuck Huber and Meredith Mccoy were doing for 17 and 18 as well.


The scripts the Funimation and Ocean dub were using laid it on thick that 17 and 18 were robots, which had to make the writers feel dumb by the time of the Buu saga. But, it was a logical direction for all 4 voice actors to take, based on what they were given.

[90sDBZ]

The robotic voices were basically what Chuck Huber and Meredith Mccoy were doing for 17 and 18 as well.

They started off sounding pretty robotic, though I will say Meredith McCoy seemed to get good fairly fast. She definitely sounded emotional during the scene were Cell uses 17's voice to try and trick her.

It's been years since I've seen the Westwood version, but I do remember a number of scenes were 18 sounded completely void of emotion despite the situation seemingly calling for it. The scene were she tries to convince 16 not to fight Cell comes to mind.

Now that I think of it, Funimation's dub had a few examples of newly cast actors taking a few episodes to find the right voice. Android 16 sounded off at first, before the actor eventually settled on the current voice. Laura Bailey also had a forced deep voice for Kid Trunks for a couple of episodes. I think even Damian Clarke's Perfect Cell voice took a couple of episodes to get right.

Something interesting in the Westwood dub was Goku's SS3 voice. The first time he transformed, Kirby Morrow deepened his voice similar to Schemmel and Nozawa, but later just stuck to his basic Goku voice in SS3.

[MasenkoHA]

The robotic voices were basically what Chuck Huber and Meredith Mccoy were doing for 17 and 18 as well.

They started off sounding pretty robotic, though I will say Meredith McCoy seemed to get good fairly fast. She definitely sounded emotional during the scene were Cell uses 17's voice to try and trick her.

It's been years since I've seen the Westwood version, but I do remember a number of scenes were 18 sounded completely void of emotion despite the situation seemingly calling for it. The scene were she tries to convince 16 not to fight Cell comes to mind.

Now that I think of it, Funimation's dub had a few examples of newly cast actors taking a few episodes to find the right voice. Android 16 sounded off at first, before the actor eventually settled on the current voice. Laura Bailey also had a forced deep voice for Kid Trunks for a couple of episodes. I think even Damian Clarke's Perfect Cell voice took a couple of episodes to get right.

I think McCoy went more naturalistic pretty quickly but definitely in those very early episodes her and Huber were going all in the “they’re machines” mentality.


It’s been forever but didn’t the Ocean voice for 16 do some weird monster voice he eventually dropped?

[90sDBZ]

It’s been forever but didn’t the Ocean voice for 16 do some weird monster voice he eventually dropped?

Scott McNeil actually voiced him, although it was hard to tell it was him as it sounded nothing like Piccolo. It's hard to describe, but it was a quietly spoken deep voice that had sort of an awkwardness to it, and was sometimes a little hard to make out. Very different from Funimation's version for sure.

McNeil also voiced Fat Buu, and sounded unrecognisable in that role too. I'd consider it a pretty good performance.

Terry Klassen was probably the Chris Sabat of the Westwood dub, in that he voiced lots of characters who sounded similar. His Babidi just sounded like evil Krillin, and his Roshi and West Kai voices were also pretty much the same.

[PowerPhantom245]

Is Westwood dub essentially Ocean/Pioneer dub 2.0, where some of the voice cast from that era came back?

[MasenkoHA]

Is Westwood dub essentially Ocean/Pioneer dub 2.0, where some of the voice cast from that era came back?

Ocean. Pioneer had zero involvement with this era. Most of the voice cast came back. I believe Bulma got her original Vancouver actress back from the Curse of the Movie dub (Maggie O Hara). . Goku and Gohan would eventually get new actors by the Cell Games. And Terry Klassen (Krillin) took over as Roshi replacing Don Brown who had replaced Ian Corlett when he left. Otherwise the exact same cast from where they last worked on the show for Funimation

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Most of the voice cast came back. I believe Bulma got her original Vancouver actress back from the Curse of the Movie dub (Maggie O Hara). . Goku and Gohan would eventually get new actors by the Cell Games. And Terry Klassen (Krillin) took over as Roshi replacing Don Brown who had replaced Ian Corlett when he left.

Dale Wilson also reprised his role as Kami (Ward Perry played him in the Pioneer movies), so yeah, the Westwood dub works better as a continuation of Saban than Pioneer even though its still a separate production independent of Funimation.

[PowerPhantom245]

Is Westwood dub essentially Ocean/Pioneer dub 2.0, where some of the voice cast from that era came back?

Ocean. Pioneer had zero involvement with this era. Most of the voice cast came back. I believe Bulma got her original Vancouver actress back from the Curse of the Movie dub (Maggie O Hara). . Goku and Gohan would eventually get new actors by the Cell Games. And Terry Klassen (Krillin) took over as Roshi replacing Don Brown who had replaced Ian Corlett when he left. Otherwise the exact same cast from where they last worked on the show for Funimation

Thanks for the info.
It's kind of shame that this dubs tends to be forgotten, since it's not available as official release; I don't think it's available on streaming (does ANY streaming platforms has Non-Funimation English dub anywhere in the world?).
Thank goodness that dub was preserved by fan, who recorded back when it aired.

[Yellow Flower King]

I hope Canadian dubs of anime come back from their near extinction.

[MasenkoHA]

Most of the voice cast came back. I believe Bulma got her original Vancouver actress back from the Curse of the Movie dub (Maggie O Hara). . Goku and Gohan would eventually get new actors by the Cell Games. And Terry Klassen (Krillin) took over as Roshi replacing Don Brown who had replaced Ian Corlett when he left.

Dale Wilson also reprised his role as Kami (Ward Perry played him in the Pioneer movies), so yeah, the Westwood dub works better as a continuation of Saban than Pioneer even though its still a separate production independent of Funimation.

I mean, the dub assumes its viewers watched The 53 episodes of the Funi/Saban/Ocean dub and the succeeding 55 Funi in-house episodes. The latter, people tend to gloss over and then get confused why there’s no Ocean dub for those episodes. But for broadcast purposes it’s all “one continuity “


Which is actually kind of insane. Four Gokus, three young Gohans, three Bulmas, four Roshis, and three Kamis. Then going from Wasserman’s Power Rangers with a slight edge score to Cakemix Studios synthesized electronic faux metal score to the goofy recycled Megaman/Monster Rancher Saturday Cartoon Music.

[90sDBZ]

I mean, the dub assumes its viewers watched The 53 episodes of the Funi/Saban/Ocean dub and the succeeding 55 Funi in-house episodes. The latter, people tend to gloss over and then get confused why there’s no Ocean dub for those episodes. But for broadcast purposes it’s all “one continuity “

This is a good point. The Saban, inhouse, and Westwood dubs were essentially all part of the same run, for all intents and purposes. The same can be said for the Blue Water DB and GT dubs. Lots of the same dub names and pronunciations were carried over between them all.

The Big Green movie dubs are were I have to draw the line though. Even though they also aired on Toonami UK, they just felt too far disconnected from the other dubs. Piccolo being called Big Green, Roshi being "The old one", Krillin being "Clearin", Saiyans being "Super Warriors" etc..

Some of the other dubs may have been inaccurate, but they all made an effort to maintain continuity with what came before. Ian Corlett, Peter Kelamis, Sean Schemmel, Kirby Morrow, Jeremiah Yurk, and Jeffrey Watson may have all sounded different to one another, but you could just about buy they were all playing the same character. Big Green Goku felt like a different person entirely.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I hope Canadian dubs of anime come back from their near extinction.

Ditto, Canadian anime dubs were great.

The Big Green movie dubs are were I have to draw the line though. Even though they also aired on Toonami UK, they just felt too far disconnected from the other dubs. Piccolo being called Big Green, Roshi being "The old one", Krillin being "Clearin", Saiyans being "Super Warriors" etc..

Some of the other dubs may have been inaccurate, but they all made an effort to maintain continuity with what came before. Ian Corlett, Peter Kelamis, Sean Schemmel, Kirby Morrow, Jeremiah Yurk, and Jeffrey Watson may have all sounded different to one another, but you could just about buy they were all playing the same character. Big Green Goku felt like a different person entirely.

Don't think maintaining continuity was on the cards for the Big Green dubs. They were just a quick cash-in on the franchises popularity in Europe. David Gasman said he wish he had been given more context for Goku and Dragon Ball in general because if he was his performance could have been better.

We know the inhouse cast were asked to imitate the Ocean cast, and when the latter came back for the Westwood dub the voices they needed to do were already set in stone. The Blue Water cast were likely told to sound like the Ocean cast too. Jeremiah Yurk sounds like an elder version of Kirby Morrow's Goku, and Jeffrey Watson had an appropriately youthful tone that flows well into Ian James Corlett's performance as well as feeling like an older version of what Zoe Slusar did. The Big Green cast by contrast had nothing to work off.

The Westwood dub using Funimation's scripts also helped it feel consistent with what came before. The Big Green dubs just translated the French dub scripts to English as-is, which was a bad idea because the English dubs had no relation to the French dub up to that point.

I still have some nostalgia for the Big Green dub of Z movie 2 though, as my mam bought me it for Christmas and it was the first Dragon Ball DVD I ever owned.

[90sDBZ]

I still have some nostalgia for the Big Green dub of Z movie 2 though, as my mam bought me it for Christmas and it was the first Dragon Ball DVD I ever owned.

I remember getting Big Green movie 4 on VHS for Christmas 2003, and being disappointed with the voices as I had no prior knowledge of that dubs existence.

I also got movie 2 on VHS the year after, and knew what to expect that time at least. I never did get movie 3 for some reason.

When Toonami aired the first promo for the movies in Spring 2005, it didn't have voice clips, so I held out hope for either the Funimation or Ocean dub. Once the promo for Dead Zone aired my hopes were dashed, although I still watched them all and got some enjoyment out of them. I remember Toonami messed up with movie 2, and aired the first part of the movie twice, so they didn't have time to air the last part of the movie.

One cool thing about those VHS/DVD releases is they had that Toonami promo with Brian Drummond's voiceover.