ASTRO BOY IN NORTH AMERICA!

[DrFrag]

This is a great start. *opens a can of Google-fu*

According to Wikipedia, Steven Bednarski was a voice actor for Astroboy (uncredited) in the 1985 Cinelume version. He is now a historian at the University of Waterloo. I've sent him an email, maybe he can help us out with this.

Daniel Bertolino has a French page on Wikipedia which I'll need to run through a translator to understand. The other names will need some deeper digging.

As for my knowledge of the show (and it is considerable), first let me ask--I seem to recall a Dr. Frag who was involved with the "Ministry of Science" website, are you that same Dr. Frag?

Yes, that's me. My free hosting got shut down some time ago.

[ASTROBUDDY]

Well, Thank you Dr. Frag! Your website was one of the best, if not the best website for Astro Boy information! One question, Where did you get the infromation that the dubbing for the 1982 official version of Astroboy took place in Wisconsin! In another thread you mentioned the University of Wisconsin, did Battaglia & Lewis hire college kids to do the dubbing? And what else do you know about the dubbing of "Astroboy"? I hope the information I gave you helps you to find good copies of the "Legend of Astroboy" as the copies I have of two episodes are really fair to poor! Go,go,go!

[DrFrag]

I Googled cast member names and found Patricia Kugler Whitely performing theatre in Madison. I sent an email to the theatre and she confirmed she did the voice of Astroboy. I also found Jay Rath living in the same area so I emailed him. He gave me lots of information including the dubbing location. Soon after, he signed up on the forums and posted even more information. His profiles are here and here if you want to read through his posts.

I'm not sure where the cast was hired from. Jay probably mentions it in one of his posts. I think most of them were pretty young (like 18-22?) but a couple of them were older voice talent.

I got a warm reply this morning from Steven Bednarski. He confirmed he did the voice of Astroboy. I guess he would have been about 12 at the time. He also talked about the production and how it affected his career. I won't post the whole thing here without his permission, but hopefully he'll be along to say hi.

[Fauna]

I hope the information I gave you helps you to find good copies of the "Legend of Astroboy" as the copies I have of two episodes are really fair to poor!

You have a copy of the Canadian dub? ಠ_ಠ Is there any way you could have it on the internet? I have a childhood to rejuvinate.

@Dr. Frag: YES! Aw geez, it's all coming back now; Astro sounded like (and was voiced by) a young boy in the Canadian dub! From what I remember, it worked well.

[ASTROBUDDY]

Wow! This is fantastic! Now along with the names of Mary Lou Foster who voiced Astro Boy in the 1963 series pilot episodes; followed by Billie Lou Watt who voiced both Astro Boy and Astrogirl in the 1963 series; Patricia Kugler Whitely, voice of "Astro" in the 1980s official dub and Candi Milo--voice of "Astro" (2004); we can add Steven Bednarski, the only male to voice "Astro" in an English production of TetsuWan Atom's anime adventures! (Along with Mari Shimizu, the original Atom, Kazue Tagami (who stood in for Mari for ten episodes of the original series) and Makoto Tsumura the current voice of Atom since 2003.) I joined these forums mostly to inform people that all three official Astro Boy series had been aired in the U.S. including the 1980 series, which many people believed had not aired in the U.S., but now I have found out so much about "Astro Boy" that I did not know before and it feels GREAT! Everything really is go ASTRO BOY!

[ASTROBUDDY]

Here is some more info re: The Legend of Astroboy (as I call it)! Don't know if this is posted somewhere else in this forum, but I thought I would post it here and hopefully bring back some fond memories! I am not a Canadian, so I only got to see this in a fourth generation bootleg dupe! The prologue narrator spoke the following words: "Futuropolis, the 21st Century! In the secrecy of his laboratory, Professor Balfus creates the world's most powerful robot! A robot in the form of a child! As he brings his masterpiece to life, little does Professor Balfus realize that he is witnessing the birth of more than a robot! He is witnessing the birth of a legend! The Legend of ASTROBOY!" Thus was the opening of the Cinelume redub of the English version of "Shin TetsuWan Atom"! While the official dub was more faithful to Tezuka's "Shin TetsuWan Atom", the Cinelume version had more humour and the voice of the lead actor was not as whiny as that of the lead actor of the official dub! (At least in my opinion!) [So Everything Is Go Astroboy!]