Westwood Dubs (usually referred to as the Ocean Group Dub) were the dubs designed for the Dragon Ball anime series. It was voice recorded at various Vancouver studios in association with Cartoon Network UK, YTV Canada, AB Group and Ocean Sound Corp.
The Ocean dub was the very first English dub track produced for Dragon Ball Z. The Ocean Group, a production/distribution company located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was contracted by FUNimation Entertainment to dub the first 53 episodes of the series. These episodes, which were recorded by InterPacific Productions Inc at Ocean Studios, comprised the first two seasons of the series.
Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT voices were recorded at Blue Water Studios in Calgary, Alberta by Chinook Animation (which is not an Ocean Group company) as opposed to the Vancouver cast.
History
FUNimation Entertainment (an American company specializing in the production, marketing, and distribution of anime and other entertainment properties) acquired certain rights to the wildly popular Japanese television series Dragon Ball and its sequel, Dragon Ball Z, in 1995. They immediately began work on an English dub for Dragon Ball and completed the first 13 episodes of the series by 1995. The network ratings for Dragon Ball were poor, however, and so FUNimation opted for the more action-oriented Dragon Ball Z, instead. It is worth noting that, at the time, FUNimation was a relatively new company (having been founded in 1994) and did not have the financial wherewithal to produce a dub entirely on their own. Therefore, they collaborated with other production and entertainment companies to meet their ends; namely BLT productions, for Dragon Ball, and then Pioneer Entertainment and The Ocean Group, for Dragon Ball Z. Another point worth mentioning is the fact that FUNimation drew from the same Vancouver voice over talent pool for both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Therefore, the same voice actors appeared in both shows, albeit, some in different roles. That aside, Dragon Ball was put on indefinite hold and work on the first English dub track of Dragon Ball Z commenced in 1996, with Ocean dubbing the first 53 episodes (first two seasons).
During its formative years, the show had difficulty finding its target market/audience; principally, due to poor marketing with the show airing at awkward timeslots. As a result, financing for the series worsened to the point where Saban Entertainment (a distributor of the series and its major financer) and FUNimation (the series' producer) parted ways. However, not long after, the series' target audience was eventually found when the first two seasons aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block during the summer of 1998. Ratings were positive and the series had found new life, thus, warranting its continued dubbing. By this point, FUNimation decided to continue dubbing the project in Texas with non-union actors. From episode 54 onward (the beginning of season 3), FUNimation began using their in-house talent, based in Ft. Worth, Texas, to dub the rest of the series. Until these new episodes were recorded and produced, re-runs of the Ocean dubbed Saiyan and Namek sagas ran indefinitely for months.
When season 3 of the series finally hit the airwaves, in September of 1999, an uproar was heard from the international audiences. They were displeased with the new actors introduced to the series citing, in particular, the heavy American accents applied to the characters. They voiced their displeasure to FUNimation who, despite these complaints, continued to dub the series in Texas.
International Head of Program Production of Cartoon Network Europe (CNE) and the VP Program and Production of YTV Canada both wanted an alternate English dub of Dragon Ball Z. CNE sought to appease the international audience whereas YTV felt as if FUNimation was giving them second-billing with respect to newly produced episodes (having been receiving them late). They contracted the Ocean Group to begin work on an "international" dub of Dragon Ball Z. Dubbing of this version commenced in 2000, starting at episode 123 (108), and ended in 2002, finishing at episode 291 (276); thus, completing the series. Episodes 123-291 (108-276) of the international dub were voice-recorded at various Vancouver studios with Ocean Studios providing the post production.
Once production of Dragon Ball Z was complete, work on the series' sequel, Dragon Ball GT, commenced. Due to cash kickback demands and other unprofessional conduct by certain labor executives, the production of the series' voices was moved over to Chinook Animation in Calgary, Alberta.
The United States (CN:USA) and Canada (YTV) received the Ocean Dub from episodes 1-67 (1-53). From episode 68 onward, both received the FUNimation dub. Canada, however, began receiving the Ocean dub from episode 103 onward due to demands by the Canadian network for specific QC levels. The United Kingdom (CN:UK then CNX), and The Netherlands (Yorin) received the Ocean dub from episodes 1-67, the FUNimation dub for eps 68-103, and then the Ocean dub, once again, for up to 277.
The first 53 episodes of the Ocean dub were released on VHS and DVD (distributed by Pioneer Entertainment in the late 1990s & early 2000s). Pioneer decided to discontinue their sub-license to distribute these episodes in August of 2003, therefore, VHS/DVD sets featuring the Ocean dub of episodes 1-53 are now out of print. These sets have since been replaced by FUNimation's "Digitally Remastered" and/or "Dragonbox" re-dubbings of Seasons 1 and 2. These re-dubs feature FUNimation's in-house actors as well as the 14 episodes worth of content missing in the initial Ocean dubbing of the Saiyan and Namek sagas. Unfortunately, the Ocean dub of episodes 108-276 have not, and will likely never be, released for English language DVD viewing. Its worth noting that FUNimation Entertainment does not own the North American rights to 108-276 of the Ocean Dub.
FUNimation/Pioneer contracted the Ocean Group to dub the first three movies of Dragon Ball Z in 1997-1998. These three movies are often considered to be the most faithful English adaptations of Dragon Ball Z as they contain: the original Japanese background music, sound effects, no censoring, no editing, and quality voice acting. They have all been released to VHS and DVD.
Editing and Censoring
The Ocean/FUNimation collaboration of the first 53 episodes (the first two seasons of the series) was heavily censored and edited. In fact, the original Japanese airing of the first two seasons was comprised of 67 episodes, therefore, 14 episodes worth of content was cut from the (initial) English release. Any references to death, scenes of excessive violence, or other content deemed offensive by Cartoon US was completely censored or edited out (though in the first four episodes, the word "kill" is used, and both "kill" and "die" are used by Bulma in episode 30. Also, characters like Raditz, Goku, Dodoria, etc. are still killed, though the term "sent to another dimension" is used often to describe it). For instance, whenever Nappa destroys a building or city, he complains about it being evacuated, when Nappa destroys one of the planes, one of the drivers says "He destroyed the cargo carrier", and another time, Tien says "Look! I can see their parachutes! They're ok..." Or during the scene when Frieza and his henchmen are interrogating one of the Namek elders, Dende and his younger Namekien friend attempt to run away causing Dodoria to immediately jump infront of Dende and say "your friend might have escaped, but not you!", when originally in the uncut version, Dodoria shot an energy blast at the younger namekian killing him instantly right before jumping infront of Dende. Of course, this was by network demand, it had nothing to do with the Ocean dub like many fans believe.
Dragon Ball Z Kai
On Episode 26 of radio show and podcast "Voice Print with Trevor Devall", Kirby Morrow (Westwood Studios' Goku from episodes 144-276) revealed that a Canadian dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai was in the works. He did not mention the name of the company behind the production, however, he stated that casting had already begun with him having already been ruled out for the role of Goku. In his words, he was deemed to sound "too cool" for the character indicating that, perhaps, a more conscious effort was being put forward in maintaining the authenticity of the series. According to Morrow, the television version of the FUNimation dub for Dragon Ball Z Kai was only slated to be distributed in America, therefore, the new dub being produced in Canada was being created to serve the Canadian and European markets (in a fashion similar to the Westwood dub of Dragon Ball Z episodes 108-276). On Episode 28 of the same show, Paul Dobson (Zarbon in the 1996 FUNimation/Ocean collaboration) confirmed that Ocean Studios was, in fact, the company behind the Canadian production of Dragon Ball Z Kai. Dobson also stated that "there's been word of re-casting [and] there's been word of holding onto members of the cast as the way that they were." FUNimation actor/director, Christopher Sabat, and actor, Sean Schemmel, had previously hinted at a Canadian re-versioning of the series.
Miscellaneous facts
- Several actors from the episode 1-53 dub returned for the 108-276 dub. However, by the end of the series, many had left. The most notable were Peter Kelamis, who played Goku, and Saffron Henderson, who played young Gohan.
- When the Ocean Group returned to dub the series, they began at episode 108 and not where they initially left off, at episode 53. It is not known exactly why they skipped over episodes 54-107, however, it is likely they began at episode 108 as that is where FUNimation was with their dub in 2000. A fan petition, created in 2003, was made in an effort to get the Ocean cast to dub episodes #54-107. There are currently just over 1364 signatures in support of it.
- Ian James Corlett stopped voicing Goku after the Saiyan Saga (his final episode was #37). This was because there was a dispute over non-professional conduct during and after some recordings, and not, as some have said, because he wasn't being compensated by Inter Pacific Productions Inc. for the character's several, now trademark, yells.
- Peter Kelamis stopped voicing Goku during the Cell Saga (his final episode was #143) in order to focus on his career as a comedian. Kirby Morrow was Kelamis' replacement and the final voice of Goku for the Ocean dub. He began work on episode #144 and stayed through to the end of the series (episode #276).
- Saffron Henderson, who voiced young Gohan from the very beginning, had to leave the series due to her wedding conflicting with her alotted work schedule for the series. Her final episode was #150.
- Production values for the 108-276 dub seemed to increase significantly in the Fusion and Kid Buu sagas. Casting by Inter Pacific Productions Inc. was far better, the quality of voice work from the actors improved, audio effects to assist the actors were incorporated to a greater extent, and new musical tracks began to appear in greater numbers. It is assumed that a more relaxed production schedule for these sagas was responsible for this jump in quality, but in reality it was the increased hands-on creative of Ocean and its Network partners that made significant improvements.
- Interestingly enough, the 108-276 Ocean version still has the closed captions for the FUNimation dub whenever dialogue is changed. For instance, in Kibito Kai's flashback where Buu nearly kills Bibidi, in the FUNimation version, Bibidi says "I'm the one who created you, you stupid idiot!" But in the Ocean version he says "I'm the one who created you, you ungrateful fool!" However, the closed captions say "stupid idiot" instead of "ungrateful fool".
- In the 123-291 Ocean version (183-291 in Canada), the words "kill", "death", "die", or "dead" are never used at first (except for a time during the tournament when Krillin uses a figure of speech), being (sometimes ridiculously) replaced from their use in FUNimation with "hurt", "leave", "destroy", or "gone". However, in Episode 236, Gotenks is Born, Piccolo uses the word "kill" and Buu uses the word "die" and "dead" twice. From here, the fear of using these words has permanently vanished, though admittedly this may be because the word "Kill" appears in an episode title two episodes later.
- Interestingly, the original background music for Dragon Ball GT by Akihito Tokunaga was kept, the episodes were aired in their proper order, and the scripts were kept much closer to the original Japanese version. However, the international version kept the original Japanese theme song but used English subtitles. An English version of the GT theme song was sung while this dub aired on Toonami in the UK, however these were different lyrics to the original song as produced by Cartoon, and not a direct translation.
- The title cards were used in the Westwood dub for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z using the ones the FUNimation used, GT uses their English Translation of the Japanese titles as opposed to the FUNimation ones.
See also
- FUNimation Dub