Review S25 EP05: The Good, The Bad, and The Lucky!

Cast:

Sarah Natochenny - Ash Ketchum
Zeno Robinson - Goh
James Carter Cathcart - James, Meowth, Butch, Raticate, Sandshrew (?)
Michele Knotz - Jessie
Rodger Parsons - Narrator
Casey Mongillo - Cinderace

Additional Voices -

Emily Cramer
Laurie Hymes - Pelipper
Lauren Landa
Emlyn McFarland - Cassidy
Bill Rogers
Erica Schroeder - Wobbuffet
Billy Bob Thompson
Marc Thompson - Mamoswine

Emlyn McFarland returns to voice Cassidy, after last voicing her in 2008 with DP065 "Sleight of Sand". Cathcart also reprises Butch after the same amount of time, though he does a slightly different take on Butch's "Harvey Fierstein" voice, adding a bit of gruff and "Joisey" accent to it. I kinda like it. Aside from that, very well-acted, I'd say!

Oh, also Raticate. I believe Cathcart was their Raticate from their debut in Season 1. The dub also uses the same motto from Season 1's "The Breeding Center Secret".

RetroPokeFan said:

To protect the world from future spoilers,

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To infect the world with future spoilers!

Anyway, I'm interested to know if the English version of the B&C motto in this episode is the same from EP057 or the slightly different one from Pokémon Chronicles (which said "Here's our mission, so you better listen!")?

Edit

BulbaTCG said:

The dub also uses the same motto from Season 1's "The Breeding Center Secret".

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Thanks for sharing.

Interesting that they didn't use Megan hollingshead again and went with the voice actress that portrayed Cassidy the last time in the dub.

snowmint said:

Interesting that they didn't use Megan hollingshead again and went with the voice actress that portrayed Cassidy the last time in the dub.

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Consistency makes the most sense, I say.

Super excited to watch this episode, curious to hear how Cassidy and Dutch sound after all this time

Butch!

Oh boy, Butch sounds so different, more like Namba than Butch

Just finished watching the episode. It was interesting hearing Emily Williams and Carter Cathcart reprising their roles as Cassidy and Botch. Cassidy sounds pretty much the same as Emily Williams voiced her back in late AG and DP.

But Botch on the other hand, it seems Carter Cathcart decided to do his own take instead. He sounded much different than to how he previously voiced it. Which I guess it naturally makes sense since he hasn't had the chance to voice him in almost 15 years, and he's much older now too.

BigDocFan said:

Oh boy, Butch sounds so different, more like Namba than Butch

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Yeah, I've managed to watch a clip and I too thought that Cathcart's Butch now sounds very similar to how he did Dr. Namba

RetroPokeFan said:

Prepare for trouble, Episode 5 of Ultimate Journeys is here.
And make it double, because it's aired on Teletoon in Canada.

To protect the world from future spoilers,
to unite all said spoilers in secret tags.

To denounce the evils of truth and love,
to extend our reach to the stairs above!

Cassidy... and Butch....

Wait, Cassidy and Butch?



Voice Characterizations -

Sarah Natochenny
Zeno Robinson
James Carter Cathcart
Michele Knotz
Rodger Parsons
Casey Mongillo

Additional Voices -

Emily Cramer
Laurie Hymes
Lauren Landa
Emlyn McFarland
Bill Rogers
Erica Schroeder
Billy Bob Thompson
Marc Thompson

Click to expand...

I'm actually kinda happy they got back Emlyn McFarland, since I think her work on Pokemon is pretty underrated.

HylianBelmont said:

I'm actually kinda happy they got back Emlyn McFarland, since I think her work on Pokemon is pretty underrated.

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She was good as Zoey and Officer Jenny, I'll give her that but wasn't that keen on her as Cassidy, she sounds better in this episode I will admit

Honestly, this episode was pretty boring. Not much really happened in it, it's the Team Rocket trio splitting up again and then reuniting at the end of the episode, it just drags out for too long imo.

I'm surprised the writers picked up on the fact that the motto is supposed to be a flashback to EP057 and used the correct dialogue, since if you weren't familiar with that episode it would look pretty generic. Though I'm confused why they had Cassidy's last line be "Team Rocket's circling all day and night"...what are they circling? Excluding the word "earth" makes it super awkward. I'm sure it's supposed to be a lip flap issue, but it doesn't even line up well.

Speaking of awkward...wooooof that voice acting. I've come to expect any Team Rocket-centric episode dubbed by TPCI to be painful, but this is some next-level nonsense. The trio is their usual hot mess, but Cassidy and Butch were a new kind of terrible. I'm not surprised they reused the same voice actors from Butch and Cassidy's DP appearance, but they sound just awful here. Cassidy in particular sounds like she's just reading off cue cards. The clunky, awkward, unnatural dialogue and the cheesy background music certainly don't help. Compare it to the 4Kids version of the same motto sequence and its so jarring. I'm no 4Kids fanatic or anything, but I'd take their version of this duo any day.

TPCI's dub has always had the feeling that they just take the first take of whatever the actors put out, but this was especially jarring.

I loved this episode, and for me the highlight was definitely Emlyn McFarland reprising Cassidy. She admittedly isn't my favourite VA for her (that would be Andi Whaley), but I did like hearing her voice in the anime again after such a long time. And this is definitely the best she's ever sounded as her, IMO.

Butch sounding like Professor Namba in the flashback was... certainly a thing I suppose, haha. But that said, I'm glad JCC went back to the lower, gruffer voice once Jessie and Meowth met him... Not because I think it's a great voice for the character either, mind you. But I can at least "tolerate" it more than Namba's voice on him, lol.

But yes: I'm a sucker for any TRio-centered episode. So I was happy to see them end up in such weird and wonderful places before finally getting back home. JCC and Michele Knotz's VO was pretty entertaining here as well, I'd say.