Astroboy 80s Series questions

[DrFrag]

(moved from the What DVD special extras would you like to see? thread)

Jay_Rath:

Nuts! And here I was hoping the DVD producers would fly me to Australia! You'll all have to come here, then.

I'll pull all my stuff out of storage and await all your expert questions. One funny story that immediately comes to mind was how we had to change the scripts. The translations from Japanese were rather literal -- hippo became "water horse," for example. We ran into that sort of thing often, and had to change them as we were recording the lines.

One thing I really regret is that our director and producer didn't seem to understand the idea of continuity. I was instructed to try several different approaches to Skunk in several different early episodes. I finally was allowed to do it the way I wanted to.

We did the pilot in the fall of 1980, actually, and did all the rest over the course of the summer of 1981. Conditions were horrible by the end -- we'd arrive at 10 a.m. and depart sometimes at midnight. Coughs, sore throats and colds were common in the last week.

Besides working on "Astro," I later was an assistant storyboard artist on the animated "Doug" series. I was also a longtime staffer on The Onion, a satirical weekly and website that you might be familiar with. I still do voice work on its radio show; in fact, I continue to do a fair amount of radio drama when I can. That's why I was tapped for "Astro" in the first place.

I've got to ask this because it gets asked a lot:

Why were the first two Japanese episodes edited and combined into one to make the English pilot?

[jeffbert]

Originally posted by DrFrag@Mar 1 2005, 11:46 AM
(moved from the What DVD special extras would you like to see? thread)

[b]Jay_Rath:

Nuts! And here I was hoping the DVD producers would fly me to Australia! You'll all have to come here, then.

I'll pull all my stuff out of storage and await all your expert questions. One funny story that immediately comes to mind was how we had to change the scripts. The translations from Japanese were rather literal -- hippo became "water horse," for example. We ran into that sort of thing often, and had to change them as we were recording the lines.

One thing I really regret is that our director and producer didn't seem to understand the idea of continuity. I was instructed to try several different approaches to Skunk in several different early episodes. I finally was allowed to do it the way I wanted to.

We did the pilot in the fall of 1980, actually, and did all the rest over the course of the summer of 1981. Conditions were horrible by the end -- we'd arrive at 10 a.m. and depart sometimes at midnight. Coughs, sore throats and colds were common in the last week.

Besides working on "Astro," I later was an assistant storyboard artist on the animated "Doug" series. I was also a longtime staffer on The Onion, a satirical weekly and website that you might be familiar with. I still do voice work on its radio show; in fact, I continue to do a fair amount of radio drama when I can. That's why I was tapped for "Astro" in the first place.

I've got to ask this because it gets asked a lot:

Why were the first two Japanese episodes edited and combined into one to make the English pilot? [/b]

I will add some specifics:

1. Why were were so many scenes deleted that the story lacked continuity?

a. with the original language version, Tobio's last request is that his papa makes the robot just like him, and that he should love the robot just as he loved his son.

b. Regarding Atlas, he was made from stolen plans for Atom. Hence, the psychic link between Atom and Atlas that causes their eyes to flash, and sometimes causes Atom to fall into a trancelike state. He goes 'sleepwalking' on one occasion, and passes out on another. Furthermore, with Atlas' human masters, Skunk and Giss, they were completely harsh toward him, insulting him and denying him any semblance of love. The only kindness he ever knew was from Livian. Her telling him to protect the weak ones was the only righteous advice he ever received while in his child form.

c. It showed Atlas pushing the icebergs into the ship's path.

Regarding (a), the English version skipped everything that occurred between Tobio's accident and the first scenes of Atom's creation. Thus, the viewer might be wondering what happened to the kid. Even if the editors thought that the death of a child was too intense for such a show, they could not help the questions kids would ask their parents about the child's sudden absence.

Regarding (B), the English version did a rather poor job here, because it gave no explanation for Atom's flashing eyes and sleepwalking. Atlas defeated Atom in the North sea, and would have destroyed him or left him on the bottom. The viewer is missing a reason for his sudden change of heart that causes him to take Atom from the ocean floor, and put him on the ship. He remembered Livian's kindness, and her words were therefore important to him. But the English viewers would not see Livian until later in the series. Furthermore, it likewise lacked any reason for Atlas' adult form making war against humanity. His dealings with humans were limited to those whom he robbed and his cruel masters. He knew nothing else about humans. They were either his tormentors or his victims.

Regarding ©, the English version depicts the ship's captain as incompetent. Any competent captain would surely have steered the ship far from the icebergs. But, the viewer does not know that Atlas had caused the icebergs to float into the ships path.

I could probably find a few other things, but will stop here.

[Jay_Rath]

I was speaking more of continuity of voices for recurring characters.

We produced the pilot in 1980 as a one-hour episode; I don't know why it was edited down to a single half hour. That happened in Japan. We met the Japanese execs just once. They were very pleasant, but it's not as if they worked closely with us, or vice versa. I think we all would have wanted to. We had no idea of the series' arcs, and had to discover their progress show by show, just as viewers later did. A little guidance or knowledge of future episodes would have been helpful, but we got the scripts almost as soon as they were translated.

We originally did cover all of Atlas' genesis; I remember that fairly well, and I'm sure it's confusing to viewers who are unaware. (Trust me, I was ticked; there were a lot of Skunk scenes right away.)

Similarly, we sometimes didn't receive all the scenes; some were held back from us by Nippon TV because they were feared to be too violent -- for American television, at least. We dubbed what we were given and warily assumed that somehow a "fix" would be made on the other end. And once in awhile a scene came through that the American producer or director thought were too much. For specific episodes, I'll have to get the scripts out of storage and check; I think our production team did that only twice.

One scene that was cut, which I really wish hadn't been, was a live-action tag at the end of one show with Osamu Tezuka. I have no idea what he was saying, but it was deemed that Tezuka would be unknown to audiences, and that the scene was too far outside the show's format.

The cast's editorial control extended only to sometimes rewording lines for length or meaning. And I and another cast member wrote fresh lyrics for the opening and closing themes. (We recorded the direct translations as well, and Nippon TV chose ours instead. It's the full cast you hear singing.)

[DrFrag]

That's so interesting. We all thought the episode 1 footage was never dubbed in the first place. Even Madman Entertainment only had a subtitled version to release.
I remember in a later episode there was a flashback to some cut footage from episode 1 where Skunk says "You can't become a big time gangster if you act like that!". I guess the whole lot is hidden away somewhere.
We never got to hear the young Atlas speak. Do you remember who did his voice?

One scene that was cut, which I really wish hadn't been, was a live-action tag at the end of one show with Osamu Tezuka. I have no idea what he was saying, but it was deemed that Tezuka would be unknown to audiences, and that the scene was too far outside the show's format.

Madman included this deleted scene on the extras DVD. I have the translation here:

Tezuka:

Hello, everyone.
Any of you might have been wondering why Astro is wearing boots. Let's ask him to take them off.
Well, look at them! Atom's legs are just like a girls. That's right, believe it or not, his legs ARE girl's!!
(Wha-a-a-at!?)
Well this is a top secret only Dr. Elephant knows...
There is a story behind how Astro came to have girl's legs...
A very sad, profound story....

It seems every reference to Japan was edited from the series, both visual and audio. Was that decision made by the Japanese?

[Jay_Rath]

I don't remember who did little Atlas, but it may have been Debbie Holmes. I do remember that she worked on the pilot, for which the cast was much smaller.

Every time we did a new script, I recorded who did what, so I'll soon be able to answer all those questions.

Incidentally, we had another cast member, whom I don't think ever appears in the credits. She came in mostly for the third season, and her name is Celia Klehr.

Yes, my impression was that it was to be sort of secret that this was a Japanese series -- that was Nippon TV's decision, to delete all references to Japan. At the time there was not the appreciation of Japanese animation that we have today. And this may have been based on the earlier experience of marketing the black and white series in the U.S.

[DrFrag]

Originally posted by Jay_Rath@Mar 2 2005, 09:10 PM
Incidentally, we had another cast member, whom I don't think ever appears in the credits. She came in mostly for the third season, and her name is Celia Klehr.

How was it broken down into "seasons" for the voice acting? I only ever saw the show as a straight run of 51 episodes.

I have a lot of questions about the whole general process, so I'll just lump them together.
How much technical stuff was done at your end for the dubbing? Were you given a copy of the show with the music and sound effects but no talking? And did you have to change the opening/closing credits yourselves? Was anything done by the University, or did they just provide the facilities?
(This kind of thing gives me fleeting fantasies of being a voice actor just so I can find out how it all comes together. )

Thanks

[Jay_Rath]

It wasn't broken down into seasons per se, but we were told when we advanced into the next year. We did keep track of where we were and how many more were coming. Not in a bad way -- we liked the work -- we just needed to schedule our time appropriately. And we did fall way behind.

We got the shows without the openings or closes (we did those just once, and last; we never even saw them until the end). The dialogue tracks were stripped out, but the music and sound effects were still there -- usually. Once in awhile a sound effect was recorded in Japan on the dialogue track, and so our engineers had to drop in a new effect here in the U.S. Dogs, birds -- things like that -- they sometimes were "missing."

The dubs were done at Wisconsin Public Television, which is funded by the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Educational Television Network. The TV network grew out of the Wisconsin Public Radio Network, which in the 1980s was one of the last operations still doing original radio drama in the U.S. (Radio drama is obviously very similar to cartoon voice work.) We did the series in two different radio studios with video monitors. The pilot was taped in a TV studio.

The producer, associate producer and director were drawn from those entities. The cast were all freelance. I had just come out of a comedy revue where I had to play lots of different characters with lots of different voices and accents -- that's why they asked me to do it. And I'd had a fair amount of radio drama experience.

Believe it or not, I was 18 at the time.

[DrFrag]

Originally posted by Jay_Rath@Mar 3 2005, 10:58 AM
Believe it or not, I was 18 at the time.

:wacko:
I see you've done screen acting, comedy writing, and you've authored several books on the paranormal. Did you consider the voice acting for Astroboy as your profession or career at the time, or were you just trying out different things? Did you do much more work in this vein?

Also, can you still do the voices? That would be a great party trick. B)

No matter how hard I try I can't seem to picture Skunk's voice on anyone but Skunk.
(I also watched Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss and tried to figure out which characters Richard Ganoung might have voiced, but I had no idea.)

[Atoman]

Hello, Jay Rath.

:wahah: Thank you for becoming a member of our site. Finally, an Astro celebrity among us, not just fans anymore. I have a great idea, but it's probably just a fantasy at best. Since all the people who grew up with the 80's Astro are adults now, why not re-package the 80's dubs by adding the edited stuff back in, complete with all the violence and Japanese references, like Astro bowing in Kimono in Uran the Tomboy, and all the cute Uran dance scences, and of course restore the pilot with Atlas boy, and maybe you and the rest of the cast(if possible) could touch up the dubs the way you want to, so you could do Skunk like you originaly planed.

Again, this is just a fantasy, and I don't even know if the uncut English masters still exist. If they do exist and could be restored, they could be shown late at night on the Cartoon Network for the adults who grew up with him, taking care of any censorship for kids problems, and they could also be released on dvd for collectors, similar to the Ausie tin box. Well, is my dream possible or just a dream?

The Japanese peopde at Tezuka Prod. should also know there is a new demand for Astro in the U.S. by adults. We're grown up now and want to see Astro properly done. Please. Kids aren't the only Astro fans here. I would buy any Astro dvd collectors set put out in the U.S.

[Jay_Rath]

Hmm. Those are some flattering questions. Well, my life and career choices just sort of happened. Yes, I still do voice work, but it's for radio. From time to time you can hear me on The Onion Radio News, which is syndicated in the U.S. and airs on The Howard Stern Show. I'd love to do more cartoon voice work.

At one time I did want very much to be a actor. And I am, but I do a lot of other things, too. I think that's probably true of most people who work in the arts; we teach, write -- do all sorts of things to have it all add up as an income.

Yes, Skunk's voice is fun, isn't it? It was such a fun, oily voice to do, especially with the maniacal laugh. This is quite a bit different from the Japanese original, but I thought that a seven-foot villain needed a threatening voice.

Yup, I can still do Skunk -- did him two weeks ago for a class I taught. The students didn't believe it was me until I did it.