I LOVE the 80's Canadian Astro!!!!

[jayrath]

[QUOTE=AprilSeven;104468][QUOTE=ASTROBUDDY;104464] One of the reasons the 1980s Astroboy was a hard sell in the U.S.A. was because it was thought to be too much of a downer because in almost every other episode someone dies! The Canadian dub removed most of that! I

Holy cow.

We had a dumb, stupid U.S. distributor. We knew it even while we were recording. How can you tell what all U.S. station owners thought, 30 years ago?

And no one died every other episode. What an ignorant remark. I'm sorry, but I come here to share, and very lately my whole cast is attacked.

Can you all not praise another cast, without tearing another cast down? If I ever get to see the Canadian show, I might praise them, too. Perhaps they did a superior job, and perhaps editing (contrary to Osamu Tezuka's wishes) also helped.

But why tear us down? We -- all of us -- in many, many countries worked on Astro right along. Yay, Canada! Yay, U.S.! And especially, yay Japan! ALL of us helped revive Astro, and I'm very pleased that the Canadian version has so many fans.

It's all good. Why pit us against each other?

I won't play the "them or us" game. Wow, did you learn nothing from the show? We are all on this planet, right now, together. I would love to meet our Canadian peers, and share notes, and gripe together about our shared difficulties in doing the dubs.

The money was lousy. I'm sure it was no better in Canada. And I'm very, very sure that we all did it because we loved it.

[Alittleacorn]

I like different versions of dubs for the series. The original 1980's one is always gonna have a wittle place in my heart, i just aways felt sad when chibi Astro got beaten up.

I like the Canadian one too, but my issue isn't with the voice acting but the censoring, that they felt they had to remove anything involving death even though it's a part of life (And nobody dies every episode please @_@).

Although if you want to be really really honest...I love the Japanese dub _ , I often do when it comes to animes. It's not about understanding what they're saying but something with the tone in the voices I like.

I've only seen the first two Jap episodes subbed, but when it came to that scene of Astro being kidnapped by Hamegg and Tenma calling out to him, it made me cry just like it did when I heard the original english dub.

That said, it's a shame you guys can't all met up. And I don't just mean the Canadian team, but every other dub too! =3

Btw Jayrath it's too bad you never picked for voice in the movie, I think you would've done a good Hamegg with your deep voice. You could've added a wicked seriousness to the role. I like 09 Hamegg's voice anyway, but I kept expecting him to break into a song singing 'Hakuna matata' although it would've done good for his introduction scene. XD

[ASTROBUDDY]

[QUOTE=ASTROBUDDY;104471][QUOTE=AprilSeven;104468][QUOTE=ASTROBUDDY;104464] One of the reasons the 1980s Astroboy was a hard sell in the U.S.A. was because it was thought to be too much of a downer because in almost every other episode someone dies! The Canadian dub removed most of that! I

Holy cow. We had a dumb, stupid U.S. distributor. We knew it even while we were recording. How can you tell what all U.S. station owners thought, 30 years ago? And no one died every other episode. What an ignorant remark. I'm sorry, but I come here to share, and very lately my whole cast is attacked. Can you all not praise another cast, without tearing another cast down? If I ever get to see the Canadian show, I might praise them, too. Perhaps they did a superior job, and perhaps editing (contrary to Osamu Tezuka's wishes) also helped. But why tear us down? We -- all of us -- in many, many countries worked on Astro right along. Yay, Canada! Yay, U.S.! And especially, yay Japan! ALL of us helped revive Astro, and I'm very pleased that the Canadian version has so many fans. It's all good. Why pit us against each other? I won't play the "them or us" game. Wow, did you learn nothing from the show? We are all on this planet, right now, together. I would love to meet our Canadian peers, and share notes, and gripe together about our shared difficulties in doing the dubs. The money was lousy. I'm sure it was no better in Canada. And I'm very, very sure that we all did it because we loved it.[/QUOTE]

OMG! I hope you don't you think I was tearing down your whole cast! I was merely reiterating a critique I read somewhere about the 80s Astroboy! And I do not believe the author was criticizing the performances of the cast, but the series as a whole! Believe it or not the series was not well received here in the U.S.

I remember contacting the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy channel) when they were airing the 80s Gigantor series and asked if there were any plans to air the 80s Astroboy and I was met with laughter and a resounding "NO"!

Your version is the official version and the one that most people are familiar with and while not widely seen in the U.S. it has many fans throughout the rest of the English speaking world!

I myself championed the "official dub" and had several episodes on tape even before the Madman and Manga Entertainment video releases! I was very upset when the Manga DVD version was released and they removed the credits for the English language cast! (If they are on the discs somewhere, someone please tell me where as I have not found them!) (I also had four episodes of the Canadian dub which I taped over when I was able to get copies of the same episodes in what I call the officlal dub!

As I stated in a post in another thread on this forum, my favorite version is the 1960s version, but I have grown to like all versions (with varying degrees) as they encompass the Multiverse of "Astro Boy"!

I

[Fauna]

(I also had four episodes of the Canadian dub which I taped over when I was able to get copies of the same episodes in what I call the official dub!)

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

But anyways, I think no matter what dub you prefer (if you can't love all three equally), you shouldn't tear down the other ones. On my uploads of the Canadian episodes, I get comments going "Thank you so much! The other dub is crap compared to this!" and it just makes me angry and disappointed.

[ASTROBUDDY]

Hi, Fauna! Okay I did keep two episodes (actually one and one/third episode) of the Canadian dub just to have them in my collection (and you know what happened to them! wink! wink!) But it's true! It's like we have to learn to like all versions of Astro Boy! Each has a value all its own! Like AprilSeven says "the best fit..."!

I

[jeffbert]

Can you all not praise another cast, without tearing another cast down? If I ever get to see the Canadian show, I might praise them, too. Perhaps they did a superior job, and perhaps editing (contrary to Osamu Tezuka's wishes) also helped.

But why tear us down? We -- all of us -- in many, many countries worked on Astro right along. Yay, Canada! Yay, U.S.! And especially, yay Japan! ALL of us helped revive Astro, and I'm very pleased that the Canadian version has so many fans.

It's all good. Why pit us against each other?

While I think some of the 1980s episodes were dubbed without sufficient rehearsal, because it seemed that the actors were merely reading the scripts, rather than putting emotion into their voices, that would hardly be the fault of the voice actors. I believe you said something about rushing through production on several episodes, that would account for the lack of emotion.

I would not pit one against another, but regard each as having its own strengths and weaknesses. While I remember the theme song from the 1963 version from childhood, everything else about it seemed new to me. Yes, there is an element of nostalgia in it, and it does have more episodes than all the others combined, but I find enjoyment in all the versions.

The 1980s version did bring a few stories to the English speaking world that were absent from the 104 English dubbed subset of the 193 in the B&W series. Greatest Robot, Robio & Robiet immediately come to mind. Plus Face in the Rock is one that was not even drawn until about the time the B&W series ended. Oh, Death Balloon is another one from the Shonen manga; Robot who Lied, another one from the ASTROBOY CLUB, & of course, the Blue Knight, though some might argue that Atlas was hardly a version of this story.

Skunk was barely seen in the B&W English dub, & he 1st came to our attention though the 1980s series. So, anyone who puts down this series simply has not even looked for its good points.

[Dragonrider1227]

I totally agree. Canadian Astro has the perfect English voice

[jayrath]

While I think some of the 1980s episodes were dubbed without sufficient rehearsal, because it seemed that the actors were merely reading the scripts, rather than putting emotion into their voices, that would hardly be the fault of the voice actors. I believe you said something about rushing through production on several episodes, that would account for the lack of emotion.

I wish people who weren't there wouldn't "know" what happened. We spent at least eight hours on every half-hour show. How much longer would have pleased you? And, again, that's the very least amount of time.

If anything -- though I haven't seen it -- from what I gather here, the Canadian cast was not so locked into matching lip movements. I'll admit that that was a straightjacket; anytime a scene lapsed into a voice-over, we felt relief.

But take your pick: you want free-er performances or good matches with what's on-screen? Our director (and producers, and engineers, and Nippon TV, and Tezuka) chose the latter.

I don't get what is meant by "emotion" here. What, you want everyone yelling or pleading? I'm sorry we didn't sufficiently entertain you. Another observer might (or might not) say that we were more nuanced, that we bear repeated viewing, and that the Canadian cast was melodramatic. But I haven't seen it and I can't tell. I'm sure they worked as hard as we did, and deserve tremendous credit. I refuse to judge them, though so many want us to be compared.

It's all good.

I know that I took very, very careful care with all my own performances, and practiced all my voices extensively, at home and in the car. (Being caught by other drivers doing that at stoplights was embarrassing!)

Ugh! Maybe I should post a new thread on how to do voice-acting. Perhaps that will help everyone better understand.

[Strange Wings]

I just watched a few excerpts of the english canadian version on Youtube (I believe it was Fauna's channel). The boy actor who did Astro's voice did an excellent job indeed, as AprilSeven already mentioned, it's just the voice you would expect from a boy robot.
That said, I can't prefer one version before the other. Personally I'm totally happy with the american dub, I'm not able to percept any lack of emotion in the voice acting. I guess it's quite an individual thing anyway, peoples' tastes are just different.

I also noticed about the english-canadian dub to be the exact translation of the french-canadian one. Now it'd be interesting to learn which of both to have been created first - did the english dub serve as a pattern for the french one or was it the other way around?
I believe the french dub was done around 1985/'86, meaning the english-canadian dub appeared either before or after this time.
The episodes' cuts of scenes seem to be the same too, along with the Geronimo report.

[jeffbert]

[QUOTE=jeffbert;104593]
While I think some of the 1980s episodes were dubbed without sufficient rehearsal, because it seemed that the actors were merely reading the scripts, rather than putting emotion into their voices, that would hardly be the fault of the voice actors. I believe you said something about rushing through production on several episodes, that would account for the lack of emotion.

I wish people who weren't there wouldn't "know" what happened. We spent at least eight hours on every half-hour show. How much longer would have pleased you? And, again, that's the very least amount of time.
[/QUOTE]
I am sorry if you thought I was attacking you, Jay; I really meant it as a defense. I never said I KNEW what happened in the dubbing process, only that it seemed to me that some voices were void of emotion and that I thought you said something about being rushed on one or more episodes. I will check the thread, to be sure.

To change topic, in the B&W series, there are various mouth shapes that require certain sounds. But, as I recall, most modern cartoons usually only make the mouths' openings larger or smaller, with few labials if any. I would suppose that the latter would make dubbing in foreign languages more difficult than the former.