Doraemon (1997-2005 English dub)

Doraemon is a popular Japanese children's anime and manga series that came out in 1969. It has three anime series, one for 1973, one for 1979, and the current one for 2005.

In 1997, an English dub has been produced by Alliance Atlantis, CBBC, Fox Kids Europe, and TMF (The Music Factory) for it's airing in Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the UK, the Middle East, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central America. It uses Canadian and British voice talent. The English dub aired on Fox Kids Europe (later Jetix Europe), CBBC, and TMF from 1997-2005. From 1998 until 2008, it aired on Kids WB! in the United States.

Voice Cast
Jillian Michaels as Doraemon (1997-2000)

Linda Ballantyne as Doraemon (2000-2004)

Laura Drummond as Doraemon (2005)

Gideon Emery as Ned Nobi (Nobita) (1997, test run)

Rob Rackstraw as Ned Nobi (Nobita) (1998-1999)

Michael E. Rodgers as Ned Nobi (Nobita) (1999-2001)

Unknown as Ned Nobi (Nobita) (2001-2005)

Rob Rackstraw as Zippy McCormick (Suneo) (1997-2005)

Michael E. Rodgers as Connor "Giant" Goodman (Gian) (1997, test run)

Neil Crone as Connor "Giant" Goodman (Gian) (1998-2005)

Jillian Michaels as Violet Flowerpot (Shizuka) (1997-2000)

Laura Drummond as Violet Flowerpot (Shizuka) (2000-2005)

Reception
This English dub of Doraemon has decent to positive reviews, but some people criticize the dub due to the edits.

Dubbing Edits and Changes
The dialogue is toned down to make it appropriate for children.

Dorayaki has been renamed to "Jelly Pancakes"

Shizuka's (Violet's) bath scenes were either cut or edited to add a tank top and underwear on her.

The characters' names (except for Doraemon's name) were changed to make it more understandable.

Scenes involving moderate violence and/or child abuse is deleted.

All scenes showing sex and nudity were either toned down or removed.

Cigarettes and cigars were changed to either candy canes (sweetie sticks in Europe) or lollipops.

The Japanese text was changed into English.

Trivia
There is a new theme song produced for the dub called "Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future". This song was performed by Michael E. Rodgers from 1997-2000 while it was performed by an unknown actor from 2001-2005.

Gideon Emery, who voiced Ned's father from 1997-2000 and Ned for only one season in 1997 as a test run, and Michael E. Rodgers, who voiced Ned from 1999-2005 and Giant in 1997 as a test run, would later on star in the video game Final Fantasy XII as separate characters.

Due to the success of the dub, the same cast and crew decided to dub 2005 anime, which started to air on Cartoon Network in the US in 2008 (where it still airs to this day) and Disney XD in the UK 2009 (it later moved to Nicktoons in early 2019 due to the closure of Disney XD UK in 2020), as well as ABC3 (later ABC Me) in Australia and Teletoon in Canada.

Linda Ballantyne and Michael E. Rodgers both star in the 2000 film Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

There is a film based on this English dub that was produced. The film is called Doraemon: 60 Minutes into the Future and it aired in summer 1999 on Disney Channel UK during its "Massive Movie Weekend". This film takes 60 minutes long and the plot goes from Doraemon meeting Ned to Doraemon leaving Ned and going back to the future. The 2014 film, Stand by Me, Doraemon, would later use a similar concept to this film. There are different voice actors in this film, but some of the voice cast from this dub stars in this film too.

The 1979 anime of Doraemon has aired on Fox Kids in France and Jetix in Israel in its original, unedited form. Nobita was named "Nobu" in both versions.

Unfortunately, due to him leaving during voice acting because of creative differences and a loss of interest to continue, Michael E. Rodgers stopped voicing Ned in late 2001 and a new, unknown voice actor took over the role of Ned and other additional roles that Michael voiced. The last episode that Michael's voice was heard was in the English dub of the episode "Doraemon's Day Off", but you can only hear his voice acting only until halfway into the episode. This was also the first episode that the unknown voice actor took over.