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English Dubbers Who Had to Find Their Voice

He had James screaming/overreacting all his lines by the time we got into Johto and Hoenn.

I don't know why it changed. I guess it was an attempt to make James funnier or something?
 
I'd say most of the VAs in both dubs adapted fairly quickly. Maddie Blaustein knew what she was doing as Meowth right off the bat. Kayzie Rogers' version of Jessie was pretty good, even when she first started (she was TPCi's closest definition of a 'sound-alike,' anyway :|).

Sarah Natochenny took... years to get comfortable in her role. The pitch she used for Ash changed and varied from episode to episode—really annoying. I haven't watched much of BW but from what I can tell, she's finally settled in. About damn time, too.
 
Gliscor'd said:
He had James screaming/overreacting all his lines by the time we got into Johto and Hoenn.

I don't know why it changed. I guess it was an attempt to make James funnier or something?
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James is probably the best example of the change anyway, but it seemed that way with all the characters he provided voices for imo, and not just on Pokemon either. Compare some of Brock's comic relief scenes in Kanto (Vulpix episode being a great example) to those in Houen, and there's a pretty noticeable difference.
 
I wonder why Michelle Knotz did so good at voicing the characters. Almost every female character she did sounds very similar to their 4kids incarnations. Her Nurse Joy was a bit stiff in her first two appearances, but her Joy became pretty good too.

Her Jessie and May were always very good, as was her Misty. Kind of odd though she only gets to voice May for like 50 episodes, and she never voices Misty again after Mastermind because said character no longer appears in the anime anymore at all.

I think Michelle Knotz did do some extra Misty voice work on that Pokemon Learning League website that PUSA had up back in 2006/2007 or so. But that's about it for good obviously.
 
Dogasu said:
When it comes to the 4Kids dub, I found that I actually preferred a lot of the actors early on in the series as opposed to their performances in later seasons. I think Veronica Taylor sounded great in the early episodes but got too high by the time Ash got to Johto, and by the time Hoenn came around, I couldn't really stand Eric Stuart's performances as Brock and James. For me, at least, the 4Kids voice actors sounded the best in the early seasons and gradually got worse as time went on.
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Completely agree. Is there anything behind how much Eric Stuart's performances changed? I half-remember there being a story behind that..?
 
Well, the Yu-Gi-Oh! dub premiered on American TV in late 2001, which is also around the time I feel like Mr. Stuart's performances in Pokemon started to take downward turn. Maybe he was overworked and couldn't keep his voices straight? I remember a few instances where his Brock sounded a lot like his Kaiba, for example.
 
Brock and Kaiba USUALLY sound alike. And both of them sound like Stuart's singing voice.

Yeah I know, it's all in the delivery, but the difference is very much like Kevin Conroy and how he changes his delivery based on if he's being Batman or Bruce Wayne. It's still very VERY clearly the exact same voice.
 
Rachel Lilis also changed Misty's voice subtly in Johto. She made her voice far more calm and "low" sounding, if I were to describe it.

Also did anyone think Misty sounded a bit different during her AG cameo's? I think Lilis having not done Misty in so long (she was only voicing Jessie in AG), had to get back in tone with the character.

Funny how Lilis got to play Misty one last time right before the dub switch. Again, not that it mattered much given we now know how the series played out since then with only 1 more appearance afterward.
 
Lillis' Jessie started to sound different around Johto, too. It sounded a lot less menacing?

I'm just going to assume that Stuart changed his James voice because he, the voice director, or someone thought it was funny or worked better or something. Didn't he say in an interview he wanted his James to sound like Snagglepuss? I guess he changed his mind after awhile. I don't know why he made his Brock shout every line, but it's annoying as hell.
 
Bikini Miltank said:
I don't think he ever got Oak right, but Oak appears so infrequently that he probably doesn't get much practice.
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I don't think I've ever heard an old man cartoon character who's not actually voiced by an old man sound natural. Either they sound like extreme parodies (which is fine if it's a straight comedy cartoon, and absolutely terrible if it's not) or they sound like young men trying and failing at sounding old.

Surely these dub studios dub enough cartoons that have old men in them that it would be worth hiring an old man or two to do these roles?
 
It took the 4Kids dub actors about 16 episodes to find their voices, tops. It took Blaustein about 10 episodes to find her voice, IMO. Ash sounded just terrible in early Kanto, and more like a 20 year old man than a kid, but around Orange Islands, Taylor really found her voice for the role, and it meshed beautifully with his character, IMO.

I don't get the "girly" comments about Taylor's Ash later on: I'd much rather he sound like an actual kid, than a lady trying to force this awful kid voice onto him like she did at the beginning. *GASP*

To me, she kept getting better and better at the role. By Johto, her voice was just amazing for the character, and I can't believe how iconic she was to me in the role. Fit him like a glove, IMHO.

Eric Stuart's Brock was always good. I have never had a single complaint about him in all 8 seasons he worked on the dub. "OH NOES HE SOUNDED LIKE KAIBA OMG." And your point is...what, exactly? It sounded just as good as it ever did. Probably one of my favorite voices in the Pokémon dub. In fact, I'd argue he was getting BETTER than the comparably lifeless and generic performance he put out at the very beginning of Kanto.

The only voice in the 4Kids dub that got any worse as time went on was Eric Stuart's James, and that was only in AG. From Kanto up until Johto, he was perfect in the role. And between Stuart's AG "James is Gay" voice, Ted Lewis' bland "Don't hurt me I'm Tracey and I am not trying" voice, or Jimmy Zoppi's "I have a bad head cold" James, I'd gladly take back Stuart's James in a heartbeat (yeah, even the voice that he devolved into in AG). It's still more tolerable than Lewis or Zoppi's awful and generic renditions.

The TPCi cast, on the other hand...never, ever really found suitable voices for their characters if you ask me, as a WHOLE. Individually they've all managed to do so at certain POINTS, but then some have managed to lose it.

Well, I think Bill Rogers found his voice in BF, and then lost it entirely in DP, devolving into this awful gruff and deep voice that doesn't suit Brock at all. Michele Knotz found her voice for May in M09, and like Rogers, lost it entirely when May cameoed again, devolving into this...THING...it is now.

The only VAs that really got any better in the TPCi dub as time went on to me are Sarah Natochenny and Michele Knotz, and only as Ash and Jessie, respectively. The rest have either (a) stayed the same or (b) only managed to get worse as time has passed. However, I will say Bill Rogers is tolerable again as Brock after seeing the BW flashback. A big improvement from his...DP voice. X_X

Actually, I thought Natochenny was obnoxious and forced in the role until BW. This is where, after 5 (FIVE) seasons (ridiculous), she found a decent voice for Ash that suits him. Knotz did the same in BW, and dropped the high-pitched yells and squealing.

Sadly, Jimmy Zoppi continues to get worse and worse at Meowth (and is flat-out unbearable in the role-- I can't stand him in BW for some reason, yet I was fine with him in BF/DP), he stays the same as James and Professor Oak, while Michele Knotz did a terrible job as Misty in her recent cameo.

So basically, it took the 4Kids cast a few episodes to find their voices, whereas the TPCi cast as a whole has yet to find their voices together, yet have managed to do so individually at certain points and then lost it.
 
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