How come Funi didn't dub Chala ?

[Soppa Saia People]

First off is it Cha-la, ChaLa, Cha la or Cha-La-Head-Cha-La ? Anyway does anybody else find it werid that Funi dubbed Makafushigi Adventure and Dan Dan but never Cha la ? I mean it's not like their opening was iconic, when I "talk" to old school dub fans they never bring it up (just Rock the Dragon), so it wasn't like people would be pissed about it. So what gives ?

Spoiler:

Also why is Cha la the main theme for DB now ? Makafushigi adventure is much better and the original!

[Dbzfan94]

First off is it Cha-la, ChaLa, Cha la or Cha-La-Head-Cha-La ? Anyway does anybody else find it werid that Funi dubbed Makafushigi Adventure and Dan Dan but never Cha la ? I mean it's not like their opening was iconic, when I "talk" to old school dub fans they never bring it up (just Rock the Dragon), so it wasn't like people would be pissed about it. So what gives ?

Spoiler:

Also why is Cha la the main theme for DB now ? Makafushigi adventure is much better and the original!

Because GTs opening needed an actual rendition much more than Z did.
Also idk why you put talk in quotes like its a terrible crime talking to dub fans :p

[Kuririn Fan]

Makafushigi Adventure should be the Dragon Ball anthem.
Cha la is the main theme because DeeBeeZee!!!!

[Soppa Saia People]

Also idk why you put talk in quotes like its a terrible crime talking to dub fans :p

Because I'm not talking them, I'm typing to them.

[Dbzfan94]

Also idk why you put talk in quotes like its a terrible crime talking to dub fans :p

Because I'm not talking them, I'm typing to them.

Ah, ok. That makes more sense lol

[TheBlackPaladin]

First off is it Cha-la, ChaLa, Cha la or Cha-La-Head-Cha-La ? Anyway does anybody else find it werid that Funi dubbed Makafushigi Adventure and Dan Dan but never Cha la ? I mean it's not like their opening was iconic, when I "talk" to old school dub fans they never bring it up (just Rock the Dragon), so it wasn't like people would be pissed about it. So what gives ?

Spoiler:

Also why is Cha la the main theme for DB now ? Makafushigi adventure is much better and the original!

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.

[KameRule]

Also why is Cha la the main theme for DB now ? Makafushigi adventure is much better and the original!

Makafushigi, or at least remixes of it, were used throughout Dragon Ball Z, but it was utilised less as a theme for the franchise and more as a character theme for Gokuu. Cha-La, We Gotta Power and Boku-tachi could probably be considered interchangeable as "main themes" for the series, but now the main theme is Cha-La-Head-Cha-La because it is the most recognisable, as it was the most frequently used.

[Valerius Dover]

On a related note, something I've been wondering about the Music & Sound Effects track. How exactly were they able to replace the music but retain the sound effects? Isn't it just one voiceless track?

[TheBlackPaladin]

On a related note, something I've been wondering about the Music & Sound Effects track. How exactly were they able to replace the music but retain the sound effects? Isn't it just one voiceless track?

Depends. Sometimes the ME tapes* are one combined thing where you have to retain both, but sometimes dubbing companies get separated music and effects tapes (predictably referred to as "M tapes" and "E tapes"). That's probably what FUNimation received.

Also, on a slightly unrelated note...I don't know about DBZ, but I think there's a possibility they did receive ME tapes for GT that could have worked for song dubs. When FUNimation first announced their acquisition of GT, they did so with an ad that...well, the theme of it was essentially, "The GT you saw--probably through a crappy fansub VHS--is one thing, but have you seen what we're doing with it?" The intro for the ad included a short clip of GT's intro that FUNimation modified the video and audio quality of to make it look and sound like a crappy fansub VHS. The big reveal here, though, is that the first few seconds of the ad feature the instrumental track of GT's intro, "DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku." This implies that FUNimation got ME tapes of the GT songs and could have dubbed them using the original instrumental track.

However, they didn't. At first they just made a new intro entirely, but for the "green brick" DVD release in the mid/late 2000's, they dubbed the songs into English, but created a new instrumental track themselves that was designed to mimic the original one. So, why did they do that, rather than just use the original instrumental track? We don't know, but my guess is that the audio quality must have been a tad mis-matched with the audio quality of the voices...I don't know how bad the audio quality of their ME tapes were, but I suppose it's possible that the English singing voice, recorded in very nice audio quality, might have stood out too much against an instrumental track with an audio quality that wasn't quite as good.

It does make 'ya wonder, though...if they got ME tapes for GT that they could have used to dub the songs, did they get it for DBZ too?

*"Tape" by the way, is a term I only use because it was established as industry slang a long while back. There's no actual "tape" involved anymore. Nowadays they're digital tracks...but the same concepts apply.

[Iberian_Saiyan]

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. There are fan-dubs and the Philippines English CLHCL Opening but it's not just the same.. maybe Funimation will dub it someday.

I do confess that I love Funimation's Makafushi Adventure's cover.

[Lord Exor]

Because it's a horrendous piece of music.

[Bansho64]

Because it's a horrendous piece of music.

I'm not trying to mini-mod or anything but why exactly couldn't you contribute something with any thought put into it? It's like you just came to this thread just so you could hate.

[VegettoEX]

Because it's a horrendous piece of music.

I'm not trying to mini-mod or anything but why exactly couldn't you contribute something with any thought put into it? It's like you just came to this thread just so you could hate.

Agreed 100%. Opinions are great, but if you're not going to actually say anything of substance, keep your thoughts to yourself.

If I were a conspiratorial betting man, though, I'd say someone's just looking for an appropriate outlet to "get back" from another thread... but man, that would be really lame, so let's hope it's not that!

[EXBadguy]

I always wonder why myself. Hell, the portuguese dubbed it, the Spanish dubbed it(which is my second favorite version of the song), but then this might be one of those songs that are better off not dubbing for English. It worked for Dragon Soul, but Cha la, nah.

[Ikazvyr]

Just correcting, the brazilian version got Cha-La Head Cha-La. The portuguese one had the french version adapted
I don't know why, but U.S. used to change anime openings (today this is less common), and DBZ was not an exception
Also, Ocean Dub opening is visually almost the same. Maybe there's something related to that

[El Diabeetus]

It doesn't matter unless Toei/FUNimation allow it. But, at Colossal Con I asked Vic Mignogna if he'd ever be interested in dubbing Cha-La-Head-Cha La / Chozetsu Dynamic, lead into the question by saying 'Since you dubbed Dragon Soul and Bit by bit'. He said 'For sure, it's just up to FUNimation' (paraphrased it, but that's what was said).

[Danfun64]

To be fair, Cha La Head Cha La has at least 4 official English versions (Age of Wonders, Padilla, Kageyama, FLOW), while Chozetsu Dynamic has an official English version from Yoshii. I'd really like an English version of Kuu Zen Zetsu Go (personally, I don't think there is even a good English fandub of that song...)

[Cure Dragon 255]

I wanted to make a thread just like this one! Thanks Topic Creator!

Its really weird. Cha La Head Cha La has never been covered by Funimation. And it seems like things are conspiring to keep it that way. I wonder if a full redub of Z could do the trick. Nah, that will never happen.

[Puto]

On a related note, something I've been wondering about the Music & Sound Effects track. How exactly were they able to replace the music but retain the sound effects? Isn't it just one voiceless track?

Depends. Sometimes the ME tapes* are one combined thing where you have to retain both, but sometimes dubbing companies get separated music and effects tapes (predictably referred to as "M tapes" and "E tapes"). That's probably what FUNimation received.

Also, on a slightly unrelated note...I don't know about DBZ, but I think there's a possibility they did receive ME tapes for GT that could have worked for song dubs. When FUNimation first announced their acquisition of GT, they did so with an ad that...well, the theme of it was essentially, "The GT you saw--probably through a crappy fansub VHS--is one thing, but have you seen what we're doing with it?" The intro for the ad included a short clip of GT's intro that FUNimation modified the video and audio quality of to make it look and sound like a crappy fansub VHS. The big reveal here, though, is that the first few seconds of the ad feature the instrumental track of GT's intro, "DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku." This implies that FUNimation got ME tapes of the GT songs and could have dubbed them using the original instrumental track.

However, they didn't. At first they just made a new intro entirely, but for the "green brick" DVD release in the mid/late 2000's, they dubbed the songs into English, but created a new instrumental track themselves that was designed to mimic the original one. So, why did they do that, rather than just use the original instrumental track? We don't know, but my guess is that the audio quality must have been a tad mis-matched with the audio quality of the voices...I don't know how bad the audio quality of their ME tapes were, but I suppose it's possible that the English singing voice, recorded in very nice audio quality, might have stood out too much against an instrumental track with an audio quality that wasn't quite as good.

It does make 'ya wonder, though...if they got ME tapes for GT that they could have used to dub the songs, did they get it for DBZ too?

*"Tape" by the way, is a term I only use because it was established as industry slang a long while back. There's no actual "tape" involved anymore. Nowadays they're digital tracks...but the same concepts apply.

If it helps, the few European countries that dubbed Head Cha-La with the original instrumental received it in very, VERY poor quality, so it might've been the same for FUNimation.

[gregoryluis09]

On a related note, something I've been wondering about the Music & Sound Effects track. How exactly were they able to replace the music but retain the sound effects? Isn't it just one voiceless track?

Depends. Sometimes the ME tapes* are one combined thing where you have to retain both, but sometimes dubbing companies get separated music and effects tapes (predictably referred to as "M tapes" and "E tapes"). That's probably what FUNimation received.

Also, on a slightly unrelated note...I don't know about DBZ, but I think there's a possibility they did receive ME tapes for GT that could have worked for song dubs. When FUNimation first announced their acquisition of GT, they did so with an ad that...well, the theme of it was essentially, "The GT you saw--probably through a crappy fansub VHS--is one thing, but have you seen what we're doing with it?" The intro for the ad included a short clip of GT's intro that FUNimation modified the video and audio quality of to make it look and sound like a crappy fansub VHS. The big reveal here, though, is that the first few seconds of the ad feature the instrumental track of GT's intro, "DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku." This implies that FUNimation got ME tapes of the GT songs and could have dubbed them using the original instrumental track.

However, they didn't. At first they just made a new intro entirely, but for the "green brick" DVD release in the mid/late 2000's, they dubbed the songs into English, but created a new instrumental track themselves that was designed to mimic the original one. So, why did they do that, rather than just use the original instrumental track? We don't know, but my guess is that the audio quality must have been a tad mis-matched with the audio quality of the voices...I don't know how bad the audio quality of their ME tapes were, but I suppose it's possible that the English singing voice, recorded in very nice audio quality, might have stood out too much against an instrumental track with an audio quality that wasn't quite as good.

It does make 'ya wonder, though...if they got ME tapes for GT that they could have used to dub the songs, did they get it for DBZ too?

*"Tape" by the way, is a term I only use because it was established as industry slang a long while back. There's no actual "tape" involved anymore. Nowadays they're digital tracks...but the same concepts apply.

If it helps, the few European countries that dubbed Head Cha-La with the original instrumental received it in very, VERY poor quality, so it might've been the same for FUNimation.

I don't think that's the case because the Brazilian and Latin American Spanish versions got the original instrumental in good quality. Maybe they just didn't wanted to do a version of the song.