Dragon Ball is one of several English dubs of ドラゴンボール. It was dubbed by Funimation and BLT Productions at Dick & Roger's Sound Studio in Vancouver, featuring various freelance Canadian voice actors from Ocean Group who would later produce an English dub for Dragon Ball Z.
Broadcast[]
Funimation acquired certain rights to the wildly popular Japanese television series Dragon Ball and its sequel Dragon Ball Z in 1995. At the time, Funimation was a relatively new company (founded the year before) and did not have the financial wherewithal to produce a dub entirely on their own, and instead collaborated with other production companies.
They immediately began work on an English dub for Dragon Ball and completed the first 13 episodes of the series in the same year, and the series was shown in syndication. This dub had some censorship, although not to the extent of the later Saban/Funimation-produced Ocean dub. Seagull Entertainment handled distribution for the show.[1] They also dubbed and edited the first Dragon Ball movie for home video release. The network ratings for Dragon Ball were very poor due to Seagull Entertainment being unable to get the show a good time slot, so Funimation cancelled work on Dragon Ball and opted to focus on the more action-oriented Dragon Ball Z instead in hope of better ratings. They concluded that Dragon Ball was "not a good fit for the US market."[1]
Eventually, in 2001, after the deal expired, Funimation tried again with a new English dub, utilizing their own pool of actors within or near the Dallas–Fort Worth area in Texas, where the company was situated.
This dub was released on VHS in 1996 by KidMark (a division of VidMark, a subsidiary of Trimark Entertainment), and was later released in a DVD boxset in 2000. Just as Trimark's license was planned to expire in 2004, it was acquired by Lionsgate, and so the license for the episodes and feature of Dragon Ball were transferred to them and extended further. As a result, Funimation was unable to release their in-house English dub of the first 13 episodes of Dragon Ball until the first season box set release in 2009 (as Lionsgate's rights to those episodes had expired by then).
Cast[]
| Character | Actor | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Goku
|
Saffron Henderson | |
|
Bulma
|
Lalainia Lindbjerg | |
|
Yamcha
|
Ted Cole | |
|
Puar
|
Kathy Morse | |
|
Oolong
|
Alec Willows | |
|
Emperor Pilaf
|
Don Brown | |
|
Mai
|
Teryl Rothery | |
|
Shao
|
Doug Parker | |
|
Master Roshi
|
Michael Donovan (episode 3) | |
| Ian James Corlett (episodes 7-8) | |||
|
Shenron
|
Doug Parker | |
|
Gohan
|
Michael Donovan | |
| Pterodactyl who abducts Bulma | Ian James Corlett | ||
|
Turtle
|
Doug Parker | |
| Bear thief | Michael Donovan | ||
| Pocawatha | Lalainia Lindbjerg | ||
| Pocawatha's father | Ian James Corlett | ||
| Old lady Paozu | Kathy Morse | ||
|
Ox-King
|
Dave "Squatch" Ward | |
|
Chichi
|
Andrea Libman | |
| Baby Gamera | Unknown | ||
| Monster Carrot | Ian James Corlett | ||
| Rabbit Gang | Don Brown | ||
| Dave "Squatch" Ward | |||
Narrator
|
Jim Conrad | ||
Additional voices
|
Don Brown | ||
| Ted Cole | |||
| Ian James Corlett | |||
| Michael Donovan | |||
| Saffron Henderson | |||
| Lalainia Lindbjerg | |||
| Kathy Morse | |||
| Doug Parker | |||
| Teryl Rothery | |||
| Alec Willows | |||
| Dave "Squatch" Ward | |||
Music[]
| Song | Singer(s) | ||
| Dave Steele |
Crew[]
| Technical staff | |||
Produced by
|
Funimation Productions, Inc. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Executive Producers
|
Gen Fukunaga | ||
| Cindy Brennan Fukunaga | |||
Producers
|
Daniel Cocanougher | ||
| Barry Watson | |||
Story Editors
|
Cliff MacGillivray | ||
| Christopher Neel | |||
Writers
|
Christopher Neel | ||
| Terry Klassen | |||
| Barry Watson | |||
| Ian Corlett | |||
Audio
|
Dick & Rogers Sound Studio Vancouver, B.C. | ||
Voice Director
|
Michael Donovan | ||
| Doug Parker | |||
English Reversioning
|
Josanne B. Lovick Productions Inc. | ||
Post Production
|
Gastown Post | ||
| Funimation Productions, Inc. | |||
Music
|
Peter Berring | ||
| Griffiths, Gibson & Ramsay Productions | |||
Theme song lyrics written by
|
Brian Griffith (uncredited) | ||
Title Design
|
Barry Backus | ||
Version Editors
|
Byron Watson | ||
| Patrick Carroll | |||
| Daniel Cocanougher | |||
Animation Design
|
Brian Farmer | ||
Animation Paint Editing
|
Brian Farmer | ||
| Byron Watson | |||
Episodes[]
| № | BLT title | Original title | Premiere |
|---|---|---|---|
| THE SAGA OF GOKU | |||
| 1 | The Secret of the Dragon Balls | ブルマと孫悟空 | 1995-09-09 |
| 2 | The Emperor's Quest | あらららー!タマがない! | 1995-09-16 |
| 3 | The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi | 亀仙人のキント雲 | 1995-09-23 |
| 4 | Oolong the Terrible | 人さらい妖怪ウーロン | 1995-09-30 |
| 5 | Yamcha the Desert Bandit | つよくて悪い砂漠のヤムチャ | 1995-10-07 |
| 6 | Keep an Eye on the Dragon Balls | 真夜中の訪問者たち | 1995-10-14 |
| 7 | The Ox-King on Fire Mountain | フライパン山の牛魔王 | 1995-10-21 |
| 8 | The Kamehameah Wave | 亀仙人のカメハメ波 | 1995-10-28 |
| 9 | Boss Rabbit's Magic Touch | うさぎオヤブンの得意技 | 1995-11-04 |
| 10 | The Dragon Balls are Stolen | D.B.（ドラゴンボール）うばわれる!! | 1995-11-11 |
| 11 | The Penalty Is Pinball | ついに龍あらわる! | 1995-11-18 |
| 12 | A Wish to the Eternal Dragon | 神龍への願い | 1995-11-25 |
| 13 | The Legend of Goku | 悟空の大変身 | 1995-12-02 |