Review S25 EP49: Ride, Lapras, Ride!

[RetroPokeFan]

This week's latest dub episode has aired on Cartoon Network in Canada.
Please keep all spoilers in spoiler tags.

Voice Characterization -

Sarah Natochenny
Michele Knotz
James Carter Cathcart
Rodger Parsons

Additional Voices -

Edward Bosco
Lisa Ortiz
H.D. Quinn (Tyler Bunch)
Bill Rogers
Erica Schroeder
Marc Thompson
Mick Wingert

 

[snowmint]

Im praying they don't dub over Lapras.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Im praying they don't dub over Lapras.

It's not. They've kept it's Japanese VA and it sounds as if Bayleef has also returned back to Mika Kanai.

They must have dubbed it due to being part of a huge crowd for it's past JN appearences.

 

[BigDocFan]

Strangely they did dub over Heracross

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Strangely they did dub over Heracross

Heracross isn't dubbed either.

 

[BulbaTCG]

Heracross, Kingler and Wailord all retained their Japanese voices. Bayleef sounds like it used a mix of a dubbed voice and it's original Japanese voice. Not sure if Torterra has a new voice, its old voice or stock clips.

 

[PokeMasterLA]

I’ve noticed that most of the Pokemon that were voiced by JCC still sound like he voiced them (with the exception of Rattata in the previous episode).

I’m assuming that they’re using stock audio when possible in order to avoid recasting his roles.

I think Banette and Swellow will most likely be recasted in the upcoming episodes. Unless they’re able to use archive audio from back in the AG days.

For Carnivine I can see them using stock audio. I know JCC has mentioned in previous interviews that it is one of his favorite Pokemon.

 

[Poke Trey]

OK, definitely convinced Mick Wingert is going to be a regular, even in the next series. It's been a while since I've seen the Orange Islands season but, it was so cool to see Lapras again and just being another fun episode with TR and Ash and crew.

 

[PokeMasterLA]

Just finished watching the episode and after paying close attention, I can safely make the assumption that Torterra was definitely recasted.

 

[snowmint]

How much Japanese music was kept?!

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Script changes/alterations (There are quite a few in this one, actually, if the fansubs are accurate that is):

(1) So Ash in Japanese apparently questions/asks if it's the same Lapras from the Orange Islands, but Ash in the dub already knows it is that one?

(2) Misty says in the dub it's in a big hurry, but in Japanese says, do you think it looks panicked?

(3) Ash's "Right, got it!" is changed to "Let's do it."

- The Japanese OP blows the dub's out of the water, the Remix 4Kids did themselves in Season 4 was also better than this one IMHO...but that's not a surprise, though I guess this isn't the disaster that was the XY one, in JN here, same old same old on the lullaby jingle like dub title card -

(4) Meowth's "Let's pull up a chair and see" is originally "Let's try getting a bit closer" here.

(5) Ash's "It'll be fine, we'll help you out" is originally "Don't worry, you can leave it to me" as well.

(6) Ash says "Never felt better" in the dub, originally he says, "Oh, I'm fine."

Addition: Brock adds in some dub only dialogue about how it won't be easy...? Easy to what? Should've added remove Wailmer to that or something? Awkward.

(7) Ash's "You TOTALLY saved me" was originally "You were a huge help" to Heracross.

- Good that Bayleef is back to keeping its Japanese voice, bad that JN is the only time in the entire English dub it was ever dubbed over regardless: too little, too late, for me.

(8) Misty's "I'm counting on you" to Bayleef in the dub was originally, "Nice having you here" to her.

- Side Note: Did Ash say the word "Okay" in the dub, multiple times? Is this the first time since AG145 he hasn't dropped the o repeatedly? Good! I hated that for over a decade, it was always "KAY" from BF on in the dub. -

Marshtomp sounds TERRIBLE, Kayzie Rogers was better in this role in BF's dub tbh.

They changed the part where they all groaned in Japanese as "Wha...?" together to "Ugh" instead (Brock is the only one audible in the dub on this, too), nothing big, but not as funny.

(9) James' "Like a Venomoth drawn to a lamp" is just originally "Like a whatsit to a flame" instead.

(10) Jessie's "Why you cheeky little....!" is originally just "What nerve!"

(11) Meowth's "Your slightest wish is our command" is originally just "be of help?"

(12) Brock has a total rewrite here. Originally he makes a sort of idiom reference in Japanese that is, "We don't have a choice. Right now, we can't look a gift Meowth in the mouth," but in the dub, completely changed to, "Guess so. I would even ask for help from their boss." What does Giovanni have to do with this? Weird.

(13) You knew Cathcart couldn't go an episode without an alliteration, right? This is the TPCi dub. "Human powered" was not "pedal powered" originally, hahahaha...

(14) Jessie has a total rewrite here. "Like a yellow sparkler" was not the line originally at all, it was "Oh, Pika-pika?"

- Ugh, Ash went back to saying "KAY" again, Sarah just can't help herself... -

(15) Awkward phrasing from Brock. He just asks in Japanese, "What are you going to do?" but in the dub, "What's your plan of attack" here. Same meaning, but weird way of saying it in English.

- TR's lines are all references to their OG dub motto in English, nothing wrong there, moving on -

(16) Misty is insulting to Ash at the end in the dub, calling him "A clueless person" and that's a re-write, she says "He doesn't even know" originally without the snark.

(17) Ash says "Eh, it's fine." in a sweet, kind way to Misty's thought on why they couldn't have just recalled Wailmer to a Pokeball in the first place, originally, in the dub "Who cares?" in a snobby kind of way.

Trivia: Ed Goldfarb kept a piece that was kept all of one times in AG dubbed prior to this episode (only under 4Kids in those 4 Seasons: in Season 6, in Advanced, the episode with Max & Mightyena) in
"2002-2005(AG)-M13A チャンピオンロード
Japanese (Romanized): Champion Road
Japanese (Trans): Champion Road"
so that caught me by surprise, I guess? Cool that's the one piece he kept? Good grief, just 1 thought, pitiful.

@snowmint 1/14, 7.1% kept, oof.

The script writing was pretty off in this one, pretty much all the main protagonist cast's dub voices were better in the original English run is all I'll say there to not delve further there (Brock's laugh, Brock's yells, Ash's laugh, as well as Misty's yelling, notably so to pinpoint the worst of what I heard in this one) on the VA, and the music was...just there.

James sounds like he did in DP's dub (not as good as Ted Lewis or Eric Stuart's even at his worst, but better than JCC's take from XY onward to me) and I think I've given it enough time to change from that, but I guess it's not Callagy? Is it Bosco, then, like Meowth possibly? We'll see. Who is Wingert here?

Meowth is...something, I guess, um...hmm...difficult to rank, he's had enough time as well. Certainly not Blaustein, or Price, he's about even with JCC. Some of the deliveries are just terribly deep/forced, others not nearly as bad as JCC's from BW onward to JN though, but overall it's a wash IMO. There are moments he sounds far better, other moments he sounds even worse, thus far.

 

[snowmint]

Alot of those lines mean the same thing.... 4kids did the same thing at times.... Why would you want the characters to not have some kind of personality/flair.

 

[BigDocFan]

I like how the dub has Ash recognize the Lapras as his

 

[Poke Trey]

I like how the dub has Ash recognize the Lapras as his

Male Lapras? Has this been mentioned before?

 

[PokeFanForever1]

Script changes/alterations (There are quite a few in this one, actually, if the fansubs are accurate that is):

(1) So Ash in Japanese apparently questions/asks if it's the same Lapras from the Orange Islands, but Ash in the dub already knows it is that one?

(2) Misty says in the dub it's in a big hurry, but in Japanese says, do you think it looks panicked?

(3) Ash's "Right, got it!" is changed to "Let's do it."

- The Japanese OP blows the dub's out of the water, the Remix 4Kids did themselves in Season 4 was also better than this one IMHO...but that's not a surprise, though I guess this isn't the disaster that was the XY one, in JN here, same old same old on the lullaby jingle like dub title card -

(4) Meowth's "Let's pull up a chair and see" is originally "Let's try getting a bit closer" here.

(5) Ash's "It'll be fine, we'll help you out" is originally "Don't worry, you can leave it to me" as well.

(6) Ash says "Never felt better" in the dub, originally he says, "Oh, I'm fine."

Addition: Brock adds in some dub only dialogue about how it won't be easy...? Easy to what? Should've added remove Wailmer to that or something? Awkward.

(7) Ash's "You TOTALLY saved me" was originally "You were a huge help" to Heracross.

- Good that Bayleef is back to keeping its Japanese voice, bad that JN is the only time in the entire English dub it was ever dubbed over regardless: too little, too late, for me.

(8) Misty's "I'm counting on you" to Bayleef in the dub was originally, "Nice having you here" to her.

- Side Note: Did Ash say the word "Okay" in the dub, multiple times? Is this the first time since AG145 he hasn't dropped the o repeatedly? Good! I hated that for over a decade, it was always "KAY" from BF on in the dub. -

Marshtomp sounds TERRIBLE, Kayzie Rogers was better in this role in BF's dub tbh.

They changed the part where they all groaned in Japanese as "Wha...?" together to "Ugh" instead (Brock is the only one audible in the dub on this, too), nothing big, but not as funny.

(9) James' "Like a Venomoth drawn to a lamp" is just originally "Like a whatsit to a flame" instead.

(10) Jessie's "Why you cheeky little....!" is originally just "What nerve!"

(11) Meowth's "Your slightest wish is our command" is originally just "be of help?"

(12) Brock has a total rewrite here. Originally he makes a sort of idiom reference in Japanese that is, "We don't have a choice. Right now, we can't look a gift Meowth in the mouth," but in the dub, completely changed to, "Guess so. I would even ask for help from their boss." What does Giovanni have to do with this? Weird.

(13) You knew Cathcart couldn't go an episode without an alliteration, right? This is the TPCi dub. "Human powered" was not "pedal powered" originally, hahahaha...

(14) Jessie has a total rewrite here. "Like a yellow sparkler" was not the line originally at all, it was "Oh, Pika-pika?"

- Ugh, Ash went back to saying "KAY" again, Sarah just can't help herself... -

(15) Awkward phrasing from Brock. He just asks in Japanese, "What are you going to do?" but in the dub, "What's your plan of attack" here. Same meaning, but weird way of saying it in English.

- TR's lines are all references to their OG dub motto in English, nothing wrong there, moving on -

(16) Misty is insulting to Ash at the end in the dub, calling him "A clueless person" and that's a re-write, she says "He doesn't even know" originally without the snark.

(17) Ash says "Eh, it's fine." in a sweet, kind way to Misty's thought on why they couldn't have just recalled Wailmer to a Pokeball in the first place, originally, in the dub "Who cares?" in a snobby kind of way.

Trivia: Ed Goldfarb kept a piece that was kept all of one times in AG dubbed prior to this episode (only under 4Kids in those 4 Seasons: in Season 6, in Advanced, the episode with Max & Mightyena) in
"2002-2005(AG)-M13A チャンピオンロード
Japanese (Romanized): Champion Road
Japanese (Trans): Champion Road"
so that caught me by surprise, I guess? Cool that's the one piece he kept? Good grief, just 1 thought, pitiful.

@snowmint 1/14, 7.1% kept, oof.

The script writing was pretty off in this one, pretty much all the main protagonist cast's dub voices were better in the original English run is all I'll say there to not delve further there (Brock's laugh, Brock's yells, Ash's laugh, as well as Misty's yelling, notably so to pinpoint the worst of what I heard in this one) on the VA, and the music was...just there.

James sounds like he did in DP's dub (not as good as Ted Lewis or Eric Stuart's even at his worst, but better than JCC's take from XY onward to me) and I think I've given it enough time to change from that, but I guess it's not Callagy? Is it Bosco, then, like Meowth possibly? We'll see. Who is Wingert here?

Meowth is...something, I guess, um...hmm...difficult to rank, he's had enough time as well. Certainly not Blaustein, or Price, he's about even with JCC. Some of the deliveries are just terribly deep/forced, others not nearly as bad as JCC's from BW onward to JN though, but overall it's a wash IMO. There are moments he sounds far better, other moments he sounds even worse, thus far.

I actually quite like that the dub altered it so Ash knows it's the Lapras from the Orange Islands, that's neat and honestly a lot of these script differences are either just the same thing worded slightly differently or changing it due to untranslatable puns which is understandable. "Can't look a gift Meowth in the mouth" which i'm pretty sure is supposed to be a pun based on the idiom "look a gift horse in the Mouth", Meowth's JP name is Nyarth and it's said as Nyasu so it can kinda sound like horse - this does not work in english, to say the least.

Also I have to disagree with you when it comes to the OP, it's great and I love that it's a slower, more emotional version of the original Pokemon theme. It's very fitting! And I prefer it to the JP OP too despite it only being 30 seconds, due to the clips used.
And Ed isn't the one who chooses which music to keep or not. but it is cool that Hoenn Victory Road was kept as that has only been kept TWICE before and only short instances - once in AG and once in DP, the instance used here is the longest that's been kept which is great

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

I actually quite like that the dub altered it so Ash knows it's the Lapras from the Orange Islands, that's neat and honestly a lot of these script differences are either just the same thing worded slightly differently or changing it due to untranslatable puns which is understandable. "Can't look a gift Meowth in the mouth" which i'm pretty sure is supposed to be a pun based on the idiom "look a gift horse in the Mouth", Meowth's JP name is Nyarth and it's said as Nyasu so it can kinda sound like horse - this does not work in english, to say the least.

Also I have to disagree with you when it comes to the OP, it's great and I love that it's a slower, more emotional version of the original Pokemon theme. It's very fitting! And I prefer it to the JP OP too despite it only being 30 seconds, due to the clips used.
And Ed isn't the one who chooses which music to keep or not. but it is cool that Hoenn Victory Road was kept as that has only been kept TWICE before and only short instances - once in AG and once in DP, the instance used here is the longest that's been kept which is great

Each to their own, just found a lot of the script writing/dialogue to be awkward in this particular episode in English: some of them are that, but others certainly weren't. That's right, but they didn't need to change it to something about a random Sakaki/Giovanni reference in Brock's case, either to me.

Strongly disagree on the OP, personally, felt like they slapped it together at the last second and the faces of a lot of the Gens of the Anime's characters were just covered up and not shown unlike in Japanese- I know what they're trying to do (appeal to nostalgia), but for me, it doesn't work since who created that dub OP is no longer dubbing the Series, it's half the length of that theme, and it has no variation in lyrics to me at all. I've felt pretty negatively about the majority of the dub OPs since TPCi took over, though, not specific to this one- 4Kids seemed to at least exert intense effort on these in comparison, IMO (I think the last one I liked was way back in Season 12, last one I loved was Season 8's meanwhile).

Fair enough, that is indeed Akhil Gopal's choice. I guess? It was kept twice before as you said (I recall the DP one), regardless. It's a shame that's the only piece kept, though.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Just finished watching the episode and after paying close attention, I can safely make the assumption that Torterra was definitely recasted.

I can't be certain, but I think that's Mick Wingert voicing Torterra. I rewatched Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness not that long ago and it kinda sounds like him to me.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Alot of those lines mean the same thing.... 4kids did the same thing at times.... Why would you want the characters to not have some kind of personality/flair.

A lot of them are written in a weird, jaded hip sort of way, even when similar (they insist on replicating the weirdest thing from 4Kids these days, not what was entertaining about the scripts back then IMO- stuff like "It pays to have protection," "Did I have a premature start," "I'm a flaming Moltres," "I'll just use my trusty frying pan as a drying pan," "Get yourself a new life," etc, 4Kids' more clever diverging lines got a genuine chuckle out of me with the adult humor references-- but these don't from TPCi per se).

Re: personality, I think they have plenty in Japanese as is tbh. They're not cyborgs there, either.

Mick Wingert is probably indeed new Torterra (OG dub VA was James Cathcart in DP) and possibly new Professor Oak, who is on his 7th dub VA now if so in total, and 3rd in the main Series to finish in English (he's doing a JCC Oak impersonation basically, that debuted in the Mastermind/BF dub- the OG dub was Stan Hart/Stuart Zagnit), respectively.

EDIT 07/02/23: So Mick Wingert is nu-Meowth, interesting, I know him from filling in as Shrek for Mike Myers in the past.

He's been pretty hit-or-miss so far, sometimes he's in between channeling Nathan Price, then other times doing a JCC impersonation. I have no idea why TPCi likes Meowth with a deep, gruff voice, 4Kids had the right idea TBH in his case by the AG Series especially in this specific case. Inuyama Inuko's Nyasu is higher-pitched, even if scratchy, and Maddie Blaustein was the best of the four English dub VAs Meowth received IMHO at channeling the spirit of the original seiyu here, but also putting a twist on it with the Brooklyn accent both JCC and Wingert would emulate afterward.

So far on Meowth my order is: Maddie Blaustein > Nathan Price/Matthew Sussmann > JCC = Mick Wingert (Tied because JCC's initial performance wasn't bad, even if it was just a Blaustein impersonation, but he degraded very badly by BW in the role to me and it just got worse over time by JN, while Mick Wingert is even deeper and more forced/strained than JCC at his worst but at his best, Nathan Price-like other times)

 

[PokeFanForever1]

A lot of them are written in a weird, jaded hip sort of way, even when similar (they insist on replicating the weirdest thing from 4Kids these days, not what was entertaining about the scripts back then IMO- stuff like "It pays to have protection," "Did I have a premature start," "I'm a flaming Moltres," "I'll just use my trusty frying pan as a drying pan," "Get yourself a new life," etc, 4Kids' more clever diverging lines got a genuine chuckle out of me with the adult humor references-- but these don't from TPCi per se).

Re: personality, I think they have plenty in Japanese as is tbh. They're not cyborgs there, either.

Mick Wingert is probably indeed new Torterra (OG dub VA was James Cathcart in DP) and possibly new Professor Oak, who is on his 7th dub VA now if so in total, and 3rd in the main Series to finish in English (he's doing a JCC Oak impersonation basically, that debuted in the Mastermind/BF dub- the OG dub was Stan Hart/Stuart Zagnit), respectively.

EDIT 07/02/23: So Mick Wingert is nu-Meowth, interesting, I know him from filling in as Shrek for Mike Myers in the past.

He's been pretty hit-or-miss so far, sometimes he's in between channeling Nathan Price, then other times doing a JCC impersonation. I have no idea why TPCi likes Meowth with a deep, gruff voice, 4Kids had the right idea TBH in his case by the AG Series especially in this specific case. Inuyama Inuko's Nyasu is higher-pitched, even if scratchy, and Maddie Blaustein was the best of the four English dub VAs Meowth received IMHO at channeling the spirit of the original seiyu here, but also putting a twist on it with the Brooklyn accent both JCC and Wingert would emulate afterward.

So far on Meowth my order is: Maddie Blaustein > Nathan Price/Matthew Sussmann > JCC = Mick Wingert (Tied because JCC's initial performance wasn't bad, even if it was just a Blaustein impersonation, but he degraded very badly by BW in the role to me and it just got worse over time by JN, while Mick Wingert is even deeper and more forced/strained than JCC at his worst but at his best, Nathan Price-like other times)

I've actually always liked JCC's Meowth voice, you can tell he loved voicing that cat! Obviously Maddie Blaustein is the best but for me JCC would be a close second (her and JCC were also apparently friends irl too!)
for me it's Blaustein > JCC > Nathan Price > Whoever the new VA is.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

I've actually always liked JCC's Meowth voice, you can tell he loved voicing that cat! Obviously Maddie Blaustein is the best but for me JCC would be a close second (her and JCC were also apparently friends irl too!)
for me it's Blaustein > JCC > Nathan Price > Whoever the new VA is.

Fair enough! I think it's actually Kayzie Rogers who she was friends with, to clarify (TPCi era Max, Amy Birnbaum's successor from the 4Kids Era; Wobbuffet from OS Johto-XY, 4Kids Johto- TPCi DP Totodile & Cyndaquil, Axew, etc.)!

(I do wish JCC the best of luck on his recovery from cancer, even if I have had my strong disagreements with him in the past as you know: James Carter | CaringBridge. This is very sad, he doesn't deserve this- no matter how one feels on his work, it's just a show at the end of the day).