Frontier Enterprises

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Frontier Enterprises was a Tokyo- based company that dubbed Japanese films and media for their export to the English language on behalf of Toho International , Toei Animation, and Shochiku Company .

Together with New York's Titra Studios, Rome's Associated Recording Artists, and Hong Kong's Axis and Omni Productions, Frontier was one of the early pioneers of English-language dubbing.

history

Frontier Enterprises was founded in 1964 by the Cincinnati- born Korean War veteran William Ross (1923-2014). Ross entered the dubbing business in 1959 on the recommendation of Japanese actor So Yamamura . He showed such a talent that the Japanese dubbing director let him direct on the first day.

When the other Tokyo-based dubbing companies gave up, Ross decided to start Frontier Enterprises. Soon his company was working for all the major studios. To date, Frontier has dubbed more than 500 action and animated films and TV shows. Ross worked as a dialogue writer, dubbing director and voice actor, his wife translated the English scripts. Instead of hiring professional voice actors, Ross used native English speakers he could just find in Tokyo. Business people, students, musicians work for Frontier regardless of their acting experience.

Frontier is best known for some of the early Godzilla films as " Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster ", " Son of Godzilla " and " Destroy All Monsters " synchronized to have. For reasons that are unclear, American International Pictures produced their own dubs for these films, dubbed by Titra Studios in New York. The frontier dubs are usually referred to as "international dubs" as these have appeared frequently in the UK and other English-speaking European countries. In the 1970s, Toho moved to Axis International and Omni Productions in Hong Kong to produce the English versions of the Godzilla films.

Frontier began working primarily on Japanese animated films in the late 1970s and 1980s. Most of these films would be released on VHS by Celebrity Home Entertainment under their Just For Kids label in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Frontier began dubbing video games. In 2000 the company was closed.

Synchronized works

Television series

  • The Samurai (1962-1965)
  • Phantom Agents (1964-1966)

Movies

  • The Last War. 1961.
  • Attack Squadron! 1963.
  • Ebirah, Horror of the Deep. 1966.
  • Gappa: The Triphibian Monster. 1967.
  • The Killing Bottle. 1967.
  • King Kong Escapes. 1967.
  • Son of Godzilla. 1967.
  • Booted babe, busted boss. 1968.
  • Destroy All Monsters. 1968.
  • Battle of the Japan Sea. 1969.
  • The Bullet Train. 1975.
  • Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds. 1977.
  • Princess from the Moon. 1987.

Anime

series

  • Phantaman. 1967-1968.
  • Choppy & the Princess. 1967-1968.

Movies

  • The Little Prince & the Eight-Headed Dragon (1963)
  • Lupine the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (1978)
  • Cyborg 009: The Legend of the Super Galaxy (1980)
  • Voltus 5 (1980) (compilation film)
  • Space warrior Baldios. 1981.
  • Swan Lake. 1981.
  • Aladdin & the Wonderful Lamp (1982)
  • Arcadia of My Youth. 1982.
  • The Dagger of Kamui. 1985.
  • Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies (1986) (allegedly)

Video games

  • Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (1989)
  • Dynasty Warriors 2 (2000)
  • WinBack: Covert Operations (2000)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Steve Ryfle: Japan's Favorite Mon-star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G" . ECW Press 1998, ISBN 1-55022-348-8 , pp. 151-153. ( limited preview )