Are Vancouver dubs going to go extinct?

[larkchronicles]

Originally Posted by thomwim

I'm more concerned about Montreal. A lot of voice acting was done there in the 80s and 90s.

But then all the scandals killed Cinar.

"Arthur" (which is still airing) has turned into a Toronto/Montreal co-production.

Yeah, that's what I thought when I learnt that Cameron Ansell had voiced the character at one point.

[IMB]

Originally Posted by thomwim

I'm more concerned about Montreal. A lot of voice acting was done there in the 80s and 90s.

But then all the scandals killed Cinar.

"Arthur" (which is still airing) has turned into a Toronto/Montreal co-production.

Not that the 2010s were amazing for any of the Canadian talent pools, but you might be right that Montreal was the worst off. Vancouver saw MLP and Ninjago, the two longest running shows ever recorded there. Toronto had the back of Total Drama and a bevvy of preschool cartoons that'll probably spark voice comparison arguments in the years to come. Even Calgary got some feathers in its cap, as Buddyfight became the first same day Canadian anime dub and Vanguard continues to be the longest running Canadian anime dub.

As you noted, this was the first post-Cinar decade and no one in Quebec has taken their place. Arthur has been jointly recorded in Toronto for years now. Worse off, the show has reportedly received its final renewal. The last Cinar remnant is gone. The 2010s saw a lot of low profile films, the odd Teletoon show and very obscure cartoons that barely get any English release.

I'm hopeful the 2020s will be good to them. I'm not sure they'll ever get a show as enduring or beloved as Arthur again, but how often does anyone land a show that runs for a quarter century? I doubt they'll disappear. Montreal is Canada's video game capital. Ubisoft employs a small town in that city and unlike other AAA companies with a presence in Canada, they're usually not afraid of casting locals in important roles. As a byproduct of that gaming growth, the city's animation sector is growing fast. A lot of it is the same kind of stuff that's being done elsewhere: service work on shows/movies that are owned by foreign companies, but you've got to crawl before you can run.

The two Canadian studios listed as Netflix preferred partners are both Montreal-based, so maybe they'll land something notable again through that. So far, that's only materialized itself in a few live-action dubs but we're in the early days. I was surprised to see that those dubs received a tax credit. Hopefully that'll open the door to opportunities that the Montreal pool usually doesn't get. I want to see the reactions if a bunch of Arthur VAs got to voice leads in a hard scifi anime on Netflix.

[drakh]

Originally Posted by IMB

I doubt they'll disappear. Montreal is Canada's video game capital. Ubisoft employs a small town in that city and unlike other AAA companies with a presence in Canada, they're usually not afraid of casting locals in important roles.

Yeah, it's nice that they take advantage of what they've got instead of just sending everything to LA. Certainly worked out well for Eidos Montreal when everyone meme crazy for Elias Toufexis performance in Deus Ex.

Having quick and easy access to the cast is probably helpful for dealing with last minute changes and patches also.

Originally Posted by IMB

The two Canadian studios listed as Netflix preferred partners are both Montreal-based, so maybe they'll land something notable again through that.

My understanding is that Netflix prefers vendors like VSI because they can provide dubs for a lot of the major languages in the markets they serve in one go, not just English. We saw the same when the big movie studios started swooping in and taking the big prestigious anime movie licenses in the 2000s. Pissed me off since since suddenly you had the most notable works in the medium being off limits to the most experienced dub producers.

[IMB]

Originally Posted by drakh

My understanding is that Netflix prefers vendors like VSI because they can provide dubs for a lot of the major languages in the markets they serve in one go, not just English. We saw the same when the big movie studios started swooping in and taking the big prestigious anime movie licenses in the 2000s. Pissed me off since since suddenly you had the most notable works in the medium being off limits to the most experienced dub producers.

They do seem to love their one stop shops, but they still work with monolingual studios, too. The live-action projects sent to Difuze were for English-only, even though that company is more experienced in French-language productions.

[Norozco18]

Originally Posted by IMB

They do seem to love their one stop shops, but they still work with monolingual studios, too. The live-action projects sent to Difuze were for English-only, even though that company is more experienced in French-language productions.

Yeah, but not only that, apparently both La Belle Equipe & Cinelume were also involved in the Live-action projects sent by Netflix, & these companies have even more experience in, not just French-language productions, but in Foreign-language productions as well.

[Simon Hill VO]

I've not read for a dub in a while... I've heard it from many others in the local talent pool and I agree with them... things are kind of flatlining in Vancouver.

[Autovolt]

Originally Posted by Simon Hill VO

I've not read for a dub in a while... I've heard it from many others in the local talent pool and I agree with them... things are kind of flatlining in Vancouver.

Thanks for stopping by Simon.

That sucks to hear that, I hope things change for the better in the near future.

[drakh]

Originally Posted by Autovolt

That sucks to hear that, I hope things change for the better in the near future.

One can hope, but it's not looking great... Most of the demand for dubbing is tied up with vendors who are already having their needs covered by inhouse or preferred producers. Anybody know if Crynchyroll has expressed interest in producing more dubs again, now that their partnership with Funimation has ended?

[IMB]

Originally Posted by drakh

One can hope, but it's not looking great... Most of the demand for dubbing is tied up with vendors who are already having their needs covered by inhouse or preferred producers. Anybody know if Crynchyroll has expressed interest in producing more dubs again, now that their partnership with Funimation has ended?

They've been producing a lot of dubs post-Funimation divorce, but they've all been in SoCal, mostly going to Bang Zoom. It might actually trip them up in the future, because a lot of the shows they're dubbing are doing crossovers where the Japanese versions have no cast overlap, but Bang Zoom being Bang Zoom, the English versions have lots of shared actors ...

Discotek is expanding into dubbing things, but outside of Lupin, it's all gone to Sound Cadence in Texas. I saw this weird Tweet from Mike Toole where they thought about getting Ocean to do the Harlock movies, but bailed on that before even asking them for a quote. He's very pro-union, yet the only reason Ocean is considered "so expensive" is because the Vancouver studio is unionized ...

[drakh]

Originally Posted by IMB

They've been producing a lot of dubs post-Funimation divorce, but they've all been in SoCal, mostly going to Bang Zoom. It might actually trip them up in the future, because a lot of the shows they're dubbing are doing crossovers where the Japanese versions have no cast overlap, but Bang Zoom being Bang Zoom, the English versions have lots of shared actors ...

Ah, I guess I haven't paid that much attention to them since most of the time their "new dubs" were actually acquisitions from other companies (and blocked for those of us outside North America.) But there goes that hope. Well, one can hope they'll want more stuff dubbed than BZ can handle, but there's probably more than enough other LA producers who can step in if necessary.

It's a very different market from the 90s (when there was little competition) and the 00s when demand was crazy due to the DVD and TV anime boom.

Discotek is expanding into dubbing things, but outside of Lupin, it's all gone to Sound Cadence in Texas. I saw this weird Tweet from Mike Toole where they thought about getting Ocean to do the Harlock movies, but bailed on that before even asking them for a quote. He's very pro-union, yet the only reason Ocean is considered "so expensive" is because the Vancouver studio is unionized ...

Sigh.