New Voice Actors Discussion (READ FIRST POST BEFORE POSTING)

[fruitsmoothierevenge]

My pure opinion on the voice actors: Some of them tried. It sounded like some of them did not try. It really irked me that they're using voice actors that I've heard before, thus confusing my eardrums.

Yay! Original narrator! He sounded happy to be voicing it.

Ash... you can't really hold a candle to Veronica in any case, but the VA kept up her(?) consistancy, which was impressive. Not enough emotion yet at all.

May - Sounds a bit too old, and a bit too flat in spots. Once again, more emotion needed.

Misty - Not half bad. I was quite impressed. I believe that I've heard her in Mew Mew Power, can anyone verify? I think she plays Bridgette, the green one.

Max - Not bad either, but I like Amy's one better.

Brock - ::shudders:: No, no, no. There was no warmth in his voice like Eric does it. He was flat, too. (Never mind that he was too horny.)

Jessie - I think I'm just jealous that I couldn't do Jessie's voice for it. Actually, I didn't like it at all. The pitch was weird. SHE PRONOUCED "RATATTA" WRONG. That's enough to get no love.

James - Another absolutely not. The inflection wasn't bad, but the voice was horrid. Erghargh... grating.

Meowth - Not bad, but not controlled. I agree with whoever that said he was screaming... it was very forced.

Professor Oak - I think the VA was trying too hard to imitate the sound of the other Oak, thus throwing off the lines. If he would have loosened up, it might have worked. A bit flat as well.

Prof Young / Mirage Master - Decent. Even though I know I hadn't heard the voice before, the lines were rough in spots.

So, basically, this was the trippiest thing ever to watch. It was surreal. At some points I was like, this has got to be a fandub, I'm so confused. And they redid Wobbuffet's voice, as well! I was irked at that.
So, I guess I'm glad that the Japanese version is accessable to me...

 

[Dark Chromium Dragonite]

Whoever voiced Misty sounded almost identical to Rachel Lillis, which could be a form of flattery if interpreted in the right way. :O

On the Narrator...wow, a voice from my past. It's good to know he's back on the payroll, even if his contemporaries have long since departed.

On the subject of everyone else...uh, I think Laura Bailey from FUNimation is voicing Jesse. Kayzie Rogers, the voice for "Koby" on One Piece, is assuredly Ash's new VA (she was also the voice of Wobbuffet). James sounds off, but Meowth is close to the original.

The special gave me a "weird" vibe. They're overall pretty good, though ('cept Brock) so I guess Nintendo has won with battle...and the war. :/

 

[fruitsmoothierevenge]

Oh ho ho, I don't think they've won anything yet.

OMG, you're so right, it is Kayzie Rogers!! She was the voice of Doozle on Tama and Friends... I don't know Laura Bailey's voice well enough to hear it. They're going under different names, because they're not listed in the credits as such. I do recognize the name Billy Regan from the One Piece listings, though.

 

[FabuVinny]

So I've now seen the pre-opening section.

That's definately the original narrator, which is a good thing. And even Ash's voice sounds like I good get used to it.

May sounds a little like Cassidy as well. It's too old for a ten year old, but then May never looked like a ten year old anyway. ;-)

Max is his old voice with a hint of Ash's new voice. Brock doesn't sound much like Butch, but it is definately a deeper version of Eric Stuart's Brock.

 

[Discworld Vulpix]

Wow, I really didn't have as adverse a reaction to the voices as the rest of you.

I'm with Dr. Oak -- chances are they can't get the old VAs back, so let's work with what we have.

Given coaching, I think most of the voices will work out.

Ash may need to change, but it didn't make me cringe.

Brock, well, if there were ever a time to pick and choose your battles -- there it is. Brock sounds way off base. But PUSA can't not have noticed that. For all we know, the special was rushed too much and they couldn't find the right Brock. (also, for all we know they could be dubbing Season 9, voiding everything we try to do here).

I'd highly suggest if you're writing letters, be specific and concentrate on the voices that really bothered you and why. I'm just writing about Brock. That way, if they really are reading all this stuff, they'll know you're being reasonable and you hadn't made your decision before it aired.

 

[PPNSteve]

i have only one word for the new voices: eww!

 

[FabuVinny]

Eric Stuart at least needs to return. The rest of the voices are tolerable enough.

 

[Marill]

Eric Stuart at least needs to return. The rest of the voices are tolerable enough.

Surely the whole board (and Pokemon community) can agree with that - though I have not heard Brock's voice yet, James' grated on me.. I did find the new motto on YouTube and even though Stuart was using his usual ott James voice in it, I'd rather have it that way. Everytime James spoke on the Mirage clip, I turned the sound down 0_0 eew no, if he stays like that, that's another show I'm not watching.

- though I actually like Meowth and Jessie's voices *ducks*

 

[Chosen of Mana]

This has yet to be confirmed by me, but the new VA's are...

Ash = Erica Schroeder
Misty = Kelly Davis
May = Michelle Newman
Max = Mona Marshall
Brock = Jamie Peacock
Professor Oak = Jimmy Zoppi
James = Billy Regan
Meowth = Rodger Parsons
Jessie = Diane Stillwell
Dr. Yung/Mirage Master = Sean Schemmel

 

[Pokemon X]

Were some of those VA names even in the end credits? I was looking hard but all I saw was a bunch of Bills and Ps.

 

[Luna Tiger]

This has yet to be confirmed by me, but the new VA's are...

Ash = Erica Schroeder
Misty = Kelly Davis
May = Michelle Newman
Max = Mona Marshall
Brock = Jamie Peacock
Professor Oak = Jimmy Zoppi
James = Billy Regan
Meowth = Rodger Parsons
Jessie = Diane Stillwell
Dr. Yung/Mirage Master = Sean Schemmel

*eye tick* Max was not Mona Marshall (nothing even close to her). And Yung was more Ted Lewis than Sean Schemmel.

 

[Barb]

I only saw part of the special, but Brock's voice shocked me. It was awful. Ash's voice did too, but to a lesser extent. Misty's and May's voices were fine, as was Max's.

I think Misty already summed my feelings up: It's okay but there are some I don't like.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

Okay, like I was expecting, I really hate and despise these new voices......


Ash - It seemed to me like they were 'trying' to copy first season Ash voice, but just failed miserably. First of all, the new VA for him doesn't do those getting-hurt-or-falling reactions very well. The acting was just very bad. In my opinion, Ash's new voice sounds NOTHING like his old voice. And the voice acting of the new VA doesn't compare at all to the acting of Veronica Taylor. No matter how hard they try they will never live up to that legacy.

Misty - A pretty good voice. It was actually okay, and even seemed to match her original voice well.

May - I agree with everyone else. May defintitely sounds like she's much older. I mean, she sounds like she's 20 or something. That voice just doesn't match her old one at all.

Max - His voice sounded okay. In a way, it sounded a bit like Ash's new voice (the one I commented on first). And then, of course it did match up to Max's voice, but just a bit.

Brock - OMG! He sounded so bad and awful! To me, Brock's new voice was just as bad or maybe even worse than Ash's new voice. Not only did he sound like a chainsmoker (as many people have previously stated), but the new voice actor just completely failed at imitating his voice.

Professor Oak - Eww! He sounded 80 or 90 years old. And he is definitely not that old yet. So no, again, the VA failed at getting the voice right (although, I agree that they did get the emotion down, at least).

Jessie - Her voice sounded decent I think. But, it's still not nearly as good as Rachel Lillis' voice was.

James - OMG! His voice seemed okay, at first, but later into the special it gets worse and worse. It seemed to me like the VA either tried to hard to match the Stuart voice or he didn't try hard enough.

Meowth - His voice sounded decent and okay. But, I didn't like the fact that he didn't have the accent anymore.

Dr. Yung - He was the best voice in all of this, since, of course they had no prior voice to worry about matching. And personally, he had a good voice for an evil character of the day.


Oh yeah, and about the narrator, well, at least we have one old voice from the (early) Pokemon anime that we all know and love. ^^

Let's hope that maybe soon we can have all the old voices back. I mean, right watch this special, it just made me wanna watch Pokemon, the way it 'should be'. It made me want to just get out one of my tapes I made that has a bunch of episodes on it, and watch it.

Because really, the voices are so bad that I can't stand them. And I really don't think they could actually get better. I mean, unlike the current VAs, these new ones will probably use the same voice or around the same voice for their characters.


EDIT: Did anyone besides me notice that some of the characters actually pronounced Pokemon wrong? They didn't say it like they always do with the old VAs (Po-kee-Mon). Instead, they pronounced it like this: Pok-uh-mon. And to be honest, I hate it when people say Pokemon that way, cause it just doesn't sound right.

 

[Nomekop Oen]

Well gee, that's funny. SM only got half a make-over, since half the cast was still intact anyway. And didn't the Vancouver!DBZ dub actually make it past the Freeza arc and on?

Not to mention, really, if FUNimation wanted the original actors, they wouldn't have had to go far to get them all, considering they...yanno...pretty much all work in the same place? Hell, they got Scott McNeil to voice Hohenheim years later, and he was kinda/sorta/no, really in DBZ the first time around. Isn't that like them saying, "We /could/ have gone back to Vancouver to dub it...but we were just too lazy!"

When a series switches hands, the new owners' got legal rights. If they want the VAs to tag along or not is their right. Also, why would they use the old ones? Given that their salaries are possibly steeper than those unheard of hitting a rough patch? So much cheaper. 8D

So....your point?

The point is that we went through an endless cycle of reruns and waited around 1 or 2 years until they finally announced each series was coming back.So we knew what was coming,a lot can change in that amount of time.If someone expected the exact same dub even after all that crap,then he/she is a moron.


Pokemon,last time I checked,is still in production,is still very profitable,and one of the highest rated shows for the last 9 years or so.I don't expect a show like that to go through such a drastic change,regardless if it's switching hands.If it ain't broke,don't fix it.That's pretty much the reason why the series itself hasn't changed much over the years.Why screw around with the show by adding something like plot if it's successful year after year? Pokemon USA may find the original VAs a little pricey,but replacing them was not necessary.They didn't need to screw around with the english dub.



So no,the DBZ/Sailor Moon and Pokemon situations are not similar.So I see no point in bringing up either DBZ or Sailor Moon.



And I'm pretty sure Funimation's studios are in Texas.So what if Scott McNeil did some work on FMA?(on what I assume is FMA...) Funi does have a bit more cash to throw around after DBZ.They're able to do lots of stuff with money in their pocket.They even have their own films division now.

 

[pikapal]

The voices that I thought were right on Misty, Max, and Jessie.

Oak and Joy were ok I could live with those.

Ash had a "Pie Tin" sounding voice.

May sounded too old and sounded like a voice I heard before maybe a character on Megaman Axcess.

Meowth sounded like somebody trying to immiate the old Heathcilff voice.

James did sound a little too naisly for my tastes.

Jenny's voice was pretty bad too.

I agree with the rest of you Brock's voice was the worst of all.

 

[Cybersai]

Has anyone here been sending more e-mails/letters to Pokemon USA? I've done it quite a bit, and I really think you guys should sooner rather than later.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

Yes, Scott85, a while back (before the special aired), I sent them 2 letters.

One of the letters, I typed myself, and the other one was the pre-made letter which PPN made.


And of course, I plan to send in a bunch more letters, now that I've actually heard how bad the new voices sound.



Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, while most people have compared Brock's new voice to that of a chainsmoker's, no one has really come up with a comparison for Ash's voice.

Here's what I think Ash's voice is like.


When I first heard it, he sounded a 'bit' like the first season Ash (in the first 20 episodes or so), because he had a much lower voice back then. Although, to be honest I didn't like that voice very much, cause it barely fit him. Anyway, later into the special, he sounded a lot like Mikey from "The Battling Eevee Brothers" episode. And he sounded like that for most of the special, actually. And then, finally, there were some parts where Ash sounded like Richie. I can't point out which ones though, but I know he sounded like that for a while.

So, to put it more simply, Ash's voice is: the weirdest possible voice combination ever.

I mean, it sounded like the VA was trying to take 3 different voices - Early first season Ash, Mikey, and Richie - and make them into one voice.


Anyway though, come to think of it, I'm not sure what I'm more sad about, the fact that these awful voices may indeed be the voices we hear for season 9, or the fact that this horrible event took place in a 10th Anniversary Special for Pokemon.

Both things are very sad, really.

 

[Archaic]

...Sean Schemmel? a.k.a Goku?

I was with him only a week ago when he came down for the Supanova Pop Culture Expo. Hell, I was his own personal Gopher for half a day. He never even hinted anything to me about that, even knowing that I'm a Pokémon fan (it's not the first time I've been his Gopher, and he remembers me). I don't think it's him. But once I'm able to download this, I suppose I'll know soon enough.


EDIT:
By the way, a small point that was brought to my attention in a chat. We know they were hired as sound-a-likes....but we don't know which *version* of the characters voices they were required to emulate, do we? I'd be interested to know how Brock and James in particular compare to their versions from their first apperances, rather than their latest apperances. I'd imagine we might find a lot of the "off" characters would be closer to those. In which case....give them 10 episodes or so at least before really getting upset about them, I think.

 

[The Big Al]

Those who changed over time

Ash = first appearances (sounds more boyish)
James = latest (or even more overdone and sounds like Robin Leach at times)
Jessie = First appearance
Joy = the one from "Hypno's Nap Time"
Jenny = first appearance
Meowth = latest only a little deeper

 

[Eifie]

I saw this episode today and I wanted to stop the pain. All of it. It was beyond belief. It was just plain horrible. The plot was pretty good, though it reminded me a bit too much of Yu-gi-oh. A way bit too much. And speaking of yu-gi-oh, I am so upset that Eric Stuart is out of the job of Brock...After all, he made brock what he is!!! That is why we love him! he is a jr. Miroku!! oh man, that just sounds scary. But it is the truth. Brock was my favorite. not just because the VA for him was also the VA for James, but because he did one of my other favorite characters as well, seto Kaiba...still really freaky. But I am not here to talk about My Dear Seto!!! I am here to join with the many pokemon friends that we all have over the internet!! And here is another thing...the episode today was just for a test, to see how much we (the fans) enjoyed the new VA's...I can say without a doubt that they were horrible... except for Misty and The evil professor. lets let them know what we think!!!