How come Funi didn't dub Chala ?

[DragonBallFoodie]

I thought the English dubs for Mystical Adventure and Romantik Ageryo were very nice and well-done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROnd7d4axHo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QShoEPT-FE8


A good dub would have made "Cha-La Head Cha-La" sound epic.

[FoolsGil]

Head Cha-La didn't really tie into how Funimation wanted DBZ to be seen by American audiences. Same reason Funi went with the GT Rap instead of Dan Dan Kokoro. As for Dragonball, well its Dragonball, more comedy adventure than action, it would have been bad to go with some action packed guitar metal rock intro when in one episode Goku is telling Master Roshi to "Get off the Toilet"

[Danfun64]

...and yet Funi eventually changed it's mind and dubbed Dan Dan and the other GT tunes...and did a marvelous job in doing so.

[Cure Dragon 255]

And Makafushigi Adventure (To which I take offense that its a fitting theme for "Get Off The Toilet" FoolsGil) they dubbed that too. I think GT's songs were dubbed because the dub opening was SO GOD AWFUL. LOL. I think Funimation took too much time to dub Cha La Head Chala so they ran out of opportunities to do so.

[FoolsGil]

And Makafushigi Adventure (To which I take offense that its a fitting theme for "Get Off The Toilet" FoolsGil) they dubbed that too. I think GT's songs were dubbed because the dub opening was SO GOD AWFUL. LOL. I think Funimation took too much time to dub Cha La Head Chala so they ran out of opportunities to do so.

I wasn't talking bad about Makafushigi Adventure. I was just trying to say Funi chose not to go with Bruce Faulconer or Shorty the Man because the tone of Dragonball wouldn't have worked with an American OP.

[simtek34]

I would love to hear Vic sing Cha la and Jerry Jewl sing we gotta power with a new background track. But who would sing Zenkai Power and We are Angels?

[TeeHallums]

I would love to hear Vic sing Cha la and Jerry Jewl sing we gotta power with a new background track. But who would sing Zenkai Power and We are Angels?

As long as it isn't some instrumental version with a rock guitar in place of lyrics like the old days, I'd be fine with almost anyone.

[TheGreatness25]

I always did wonder this. I guess it's because the Z series' timing was strange? Let me explain my train of thought.

For all three series -- Dragon Ball, Z, and GT -- the music was much different. DBZ was done to be "actiony," GT had... some... weird... thing going on... and for Dragon Ball, they decided to keep the original score. Well, what's the original score without the intro and outro? So for Dragon Ball, they dubbed the intro and outro because the rest of the background music was left untouched. It's not like they could insert some random Faulconer track in the beginning and end; that would be jarring.

GT had a completely overhauled soundtrack. I mean, that thing suckeedddd. Under the "season set" umbrella, Funimation touted that they would have an option to hear the original Japanese background music for both Z and GT -- a very intriguing and long-awaited (so much so that maybe it was too little too late at that point) addition. When GT came out, they took it up a notch and dubbed the intro and four outros of the series, and it's a good thing too because those songs are freaking awesome.

Why did I bring up Z's timing? Firstly, DBZ came out before Dragon Ball, so whereas Dragon Ball kept the original score, DBZ was already saddled with its mucho hardcore soundtrack. Furthermore, the GT season sets got it right, but the Z ones came out earlier so I'm guessing that the idea just didn't come to Funimation yet.

I would have rather they did a full-length version of Rock the Dragon (like for Budokai 1) to be honest. Or in the very least, kept that song they had for the intro on the singles. But that thing that they have for the season sets is so bland. It sounds like when you watch a show on Netflix and the intro was copyrighted, so some random song is inserted in its place. The only thing worse that I've ever heard was the intro that they used for the Trunks and Burdock TV specials -- what the hell was that?

[simtek34]

The only thing worse that I've ever heard was the intro that they used for the Trunks and Burdock TV specials -- what the hell was that?

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEBEEEEBEEEEEEEEEEE DRAGON BALL ZEEEE. That song is just, ughhhhhh

[TheGreatness25]

The only thing worse that I've ever heard was the intro that they used for the Trunks and Burdock TV specials -- what the hell was that?

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEBEEEEBEEEEEEEEEEE DRAGON BALL ZEEEE. That song is just, ughhhhhh

What's funny is that from reading that, I pictured the song in my head and actually cringed. Not the internet way; I really did cringe.

[superrayman3]

Funimation's Dragon Ball and GT openings sound like they were made by Funimation themselves just to be able to dub them properly so it leaves one wonder why they didn't do the same for Z too.

I've wondered this as well and I'm actually surprised that to the best of my knowledge nobody at any anime convention has ever tried to ask FUNimation directly about this (then again I also wonder why nobody has asked them point blank about the cancellation of the UUE's or why they never issued any form of apology to the loyal customers who bought that incomplete release and were essentially screwed out of their money), who knows maybe one day we'll find out why FUNi dubbed the DB/GT openings but never dubbed Cha-La-Head-Cha-La.

[TheBlackPaladin]

This question has actually already been asked before, so here's a link to the thread. However, in that thread, here were my proposed explanations (and I briefly touch upon a possible explanation of why they made new instrumentals:

We've never gotten an official explanation. There are two possible ones that I can think of.

1) They literally couldn't.
Audio mixes--whether we're talking about dialogue, music, and sound effects, or songs--are not something in which the voices can simply be "taken out of." The way dubs--of either songs or dialogue--work is that the dubbing company will receive two sets of audio materials: the original audio mix, and the audio before the original voice tracks were mixed in, called the ME tapes, meaning "Music and Effects"...as the name implies, the only audio you'll hear on ME tapes are music and sound effects, no voices. The original audio is given to the dubbing company for three reasons. Firstly, to put on home video releases for customers who want to listen to it. Secondly, if there is something that is too difficult for a dubbing actor to dub, like screams, the dubbing company may want the option of just using the original Japanese actor's performance in specific scenes (the French dub of DBZ did this a lot). Finally, the biggest reason is to help guide the dub actors and dub singers when they get in the booth with how they should deliver their lines (or lyrics). Using the original audio as a reference, the engineer and director will then have the dub actor record their lines, and those re-recorded lines are then mixed in with the ME tape audio, creating the final dub audio mix.

Toei, unfortunately, was notorious back in the day for sending dubbing companies really crappy ME tapes (and video too, for that matter, but I digress). They were bad for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it was because the audio quality was bad, or sometimes it was because they simply didn't have everything that was in the original audio. In order to dub a song, an instrumental version of the song is required. Many times, the ME tapes either didn't have instrumental versions of the songs on them, or sometimes, they didn't even have the songs at all. There are a lot of DBZ dubs out there where insert songs from the original Japanese version are not heard at all, not even the instrumentals. So, it's entirely possible that FUNimation received ME tapes that either didn't have Chala Head Chala on it, or did, but with Hironobu Kageyama's voice still there, making a dub of the song impossible.

Neither their Dragon Ball nor their GT song dubs use the original instrumental tracks. FUNimation made synthesized covers for those. It's quite possible that this is because the ME tapes they received didn't have instrumental versions of the songs, so they just had to re-create them from the ground up. So, if that's what FUNimation got for DBZ, they would have had to re-create the instrumental track for Chala Head Chala from the ground up as well. However, that leads me to the next possibility...

2) They just didn't want to dub it.
A 4Kids exec revealed that, when you're purchasing the dubbing and distribution rights to an anime, you can get those rights at a discount if you don't ask for the original music. So, maybe Toei gave FUNimation crappy ME tapes, but it's also possible that FUNimation didn't request ME tapes with an instrumental version of Chala Head Chala. In addition to being a very low-budget company at the time, they clearly made a decision way, way back that they were going to "re-version" the show, so getting an instrumental version was probably just not a high priority for them.

So, the logical follow-up question: why did they bother dubbing Dragon Ball and GT songs?

Well, again, no official explanation. However, it appears that with Dragon Ball, they were experimenting with the idea of a slightly more faithful dub. When DBZ still got higher ratings, they must have assumed that a changed musical score was part of DBZ's success formula over here. Flash-forward a few years later, though, and they dubbed the songs, suggesting that they no longer look at things the same way, perhaps thinking of GT as a "niche" series. However, people who are nostalgic for DBZ's old dub continue to be the main customers for DBZ home video releases, so perhaps they felt uneasy about messing with it for that very reason.

All that to say, there are no official explanations. We can only deduce based on what happened, and this was my best attempt at it.

Hope this helps!

[Soppa Saia People]

This question has actually already been asked before, so here's a link to the thread. However, in that thread, here were my proposed explanations (and I briefly touch upon a possible explanation of why they made new instrumentals:

We've never gotten an official explanation. There are two possible ones that I can think of.

1) They literally couldn't.
Audio mixes--whether we're talking about dialogue, music, and sound effects, or songs--are not something in which the voices can simply be "taken out of." The way dubs--of either songs or dialogue--work is that the dubbing company will receive two sets of audio materials: the original audio mix, and the audio before the original voice tracks were mixed in, called the ME tapes, meaning "Music and Effects"...as the name implies, the only audio you'll hear on ME tapes are music and sound effects, no voices. The original audio is given to the dubbing company for three reasons. Firstly, to put on home video releases for customers who want to listen to it. Secondly, if there is something that is too difficult for a dubbing actor to dub, like screams, the dubbing company may want the option of just using the original Japanese actor's performance in specific scenes (the French dub of DBZ did this a lot). Finally, the biggest reason is to help guide the dub actors and dub singers when they get in the booth with how they should deliver their lines (or lyrics). Using the original audio as a reference, the engineer and director will then have the dub actor record their lines, and those re-recorded lines are then mixed in with the ME tape audio, creating the final dub audio mix.

Toei, unfortunately, was notorious back in the day for sending dubbing companies really crappy ME tapes (and video too, for that matter, but I digress). They were bad for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it was because the audio quality was bad, or sometimes it was because they simply didn't have everything that was in the original audio. In order to dub a song, an instrumental version of the song is required. Many times, the ME tapes either didn't have instrumental versions of the songs on them, or sometimes, they didn't even have the songs at all. There are a lot of DBZ dubs out there where insert songs from the original Japanese version are not heard at all, not even the instrumentals. So, it's entirely possible that FUNimation received ME tapes that either didn't have Chala Head Chala on it, or did, but with Hironobu Kageyama's voice still there, making a dub of the song impossible.

Neither their Dragon Ball nor their GT song dubs use the original instrumental tracks. FUNimation made synthesized covers for those. It's quite possible that this is because the ME tapes they received didn't have instrumental versions of the songs, so they just had to re-create them from the ground up. So, if that's what FUNimation got for DBZ, they would have had to re-create the instrumental track for Chala Head Chala from the ground up as well. However, that leads me to the next possibility...

2) They just didn't want to dub it.
A 4Kids exec revealed that, when you're purchasing the dubbing and distribution rights to an anime, you can get those rights at a discount if you don't ask for the original music. So, maybe Toei gave FUNimation crappy ME tapes, but it's also possible that FUNimation didn't request ME tapes with an instrumental version of Chala Head Chala. In addition to being a very low-budget company at the time, they clearly made a decision way, way back that they were going to "re-version" the show, so getting an instrumental version was probably just not a high priority for them.

So, the logical follow-up question: why did they bother dubbing Dragon Ball and GT songs?

Well, again, no official explanation. However, it appears that with Dragon Ball, they were experimenting with the idea of a slightly more faithful dub. When DBZ still got higher ratings, they must have assumed that a changed musical score was part of DBZ's success formula over here. Flash-forward a few years later, though, and they dubbed the songs, suggesting that they no longer look at things the same way, perhaps thinking of GT as a "niche" series. However, people who are nostalgic for DBZ's old dub continue to be the main customers for DBZ home video releases, so perhaps they felt uneasy about messing with it for that very reason.

All that to say, there are no official explanations. We can only deduce based on what happened, and this was my best attempt at it.

Hope this helps!

Uh, this is the same thread as the one you linked. You've already said this in this thread.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Uh, this is the same thread as the one you linked. You've already said this is this thread.

Uh.........well, I uh....erm.......meant...to do that. Yeah, that's it, I meant to do that. Totally!



Yeah, brain fart. Sorry!

[Nejishiki]

To your credit, this topic was bumped from August of last year or so. I wouldn't remember something like that either.

[Soppa Saia People]

To your credit, this topic was bumped from August of last year or so. I wouldn't remember something like that either.

This thread got bumped like 3 times. I made it in March, got bumped in the Summer, got bumped again in December. It's odd.