Opinions of 4Kids Voice-Acting

I'm of the opposite opinion; Taylor's Ash was at its peak from 1-3, and I felt he lost a lot of his signature energy as time went on. After she improved. Natochenny's Ash kinda brought some of that back, I'd say.
 
Ash's voice is deeper in the Hoenn eps than it is in the Orange or Johto era.



Misty became dull when the writers apparently gave up on her. Once Johto rolled along it became obvious the writers stopped caring about Misty as a character, they basically treated her as if she was a female Tracey.

If anything I would have had Brock leave the show as well, his character has really fallen over the years.
 
In particular, Eric Stuart deserves a nice thurabs up for sheer range. I mean, he played around half the characters in the Pokemon dub.

PUSA even uses clips of his voice for Squirtle.
 
I'll take your word for it, although I can't tell, especially since it's easy to lose track of that stuff.


That was a sad thing. Misty was cool and deserved better than that. At least they gave her a few good episodes.


He did leave, although I wonder why. Then came back, then was just as marginalized as Misty, but was kept on and Misty gotten rid of instead, only permanently.
 
That is probably because there was no where else to progress her character. Misty really went through no character development over the entire span of Johto, she only got to star in a handful of fillers about water Pokemon. For the most part, it only felt like she was there to fill out the token female role.



I never expected Misty to return to Pokemon, so its no surprise.
 
Well honestly I think 4kiRAB only real effed up dub is One Piece. By this point I think they got a huge ego and stopped caring about quality versus quanity. Pokemon's dub was almost perfect since day one, Yu-gi-oh's dub was overreacted but after seeing the Japanese version I felt (especially when it came to Yugi/Atem's voice) that they actually stuck pretty close to the Japanese version, and when I do read the manga Wayne Grason's Joey is what I hear coming out of Jounichi. The point is with Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, Shaman King, Tokyo Mew Mew, and Do Re Mi I felt their dubs were appropriate and actually hit the proper age demographic. BUT to me One Piece and Sonic X were just crap jobs. Now Sonic X fared slightly better because I felt the voice casting was okay but the direction was really half-arsed. One Piece was just a tragedy and truly an INSULT to anything they dubbed before, it was one of the signs that 4kiRAB truly was a money grubbing company and, unlike Funimation, just bought anime because it was "cool". I feel that 4kiRAB is a company that had potential and good voice actors, the problem is they got a big head and felt they could define children's anime in America and One Piece and Sonic X were a result of that.

O-chan
 
I disagree--she wasn't given a lot of development, but she did have a lot of personality. The writers didn't know what to do with her most of the time, but when she did get some screen time, it was memorable.
 
Yeah cause now most of his characters end up sounding like sonic anyway And also until I saw the original Japanese version of One Piece I really thought it was a good Dub Please don't hurt me
 
I'm rewatching season one right now and Ash's voice was pretty high from then until around late Orange Island or early Johto. I personally loved it when Veronica made his voice deeper once they got to Hoenn since it did reflect his maturity. Plus, I just think that voice was overall better than what she used before for Ash.



I definitely see where you're coming from. Sarah made Ash sound like a girl for a few episodes in Battle Frontier. I haven't bought the box sets yet, but I remerabered how bad that voice was when CN played the season recently. I'm not sure if it improved mid Battle Frontier. I felt like she still had off days even after that. For me, it was more like late Battle Frontier when it got better and she's continued to improve since DP started. I totally agree with you about giving Sarah credit where its due. I still believe that Veronica Taylor has a much better feel for Ash's emotions and his character and I so much prefer what she did with his voice, but Sarah is by no means a horrible voice actress. Considering she's been voicing him for over two years now and made as much improvement as she has, that's pretty impressive.



I definitely remeraber Misty's voice being more calm during Johto. I'm not sure if that really made her more boring to me though. I haven't watched Johto in years, except for the Master Quest season sets I have. I might see something more of what you're saying if I rewatched the first two Johto seasons too. I honestly don't remeraber Johto being as bad as most everyone else in the fanbase does. They definitely needed to do more with Misty, Brock and Ash's team, but I don't remeraber the Johto arc being that bad other than what I mentioned.
 
I really like 4KiRAB voice acting. I loved the various accents used in their various dubs and loved the humor used in the scripts, particularly the Pokemon dub in the Johto/Hoenn seasons. Tean Rocket could make a generally boring episode really great to watch sometimes with Eric Stuart, Maddie Blaustien, and Racheal Lillis script delivery.
 
I don't think it's the term you're looking for, but they're freelance voice actors. They work for whatever company wants them, to a certain extent, depending on their contracts with them.
 
I agree with all those five reasons. Although, 5 might be a little bit of a challenge for me to change.

I also agree with what Collie said about Americanizing. I think most companies wouldn't like to edit, but the FCC makes them and I'm fine with them editing it. Having an English dubbed show is better than no show at all.
 
Again, I believe this thread is about the actors/actresses only, not the practices of 4KiRAB in general.

For a blast from the past, Matt Mittler's an actor I wish they'd used more. He was mostly in Pokemon's first season; among others, he voice the fire-type Eevee brother and the lead bully in The School of Hard Knocks. When TAJ took over, they also brought him back for a few later episodes of season 9, and I really liked hearing him as the golden Sudowoodo's trainer.
 
No. The correct term's already been posted--'freelancer.' Or independent contractor if you like.

Yes, in NYC, the opportunities are limited. But '4KiRAB voice actor' is not an appropriate term as it suggests exclusivity. Companies like 4KiRAB do not have exclusive contracts with voice actors. The pay is very low and benefits are nonexistent. Actors are free to work wherever they wish.
 
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