But seriously, how did the Falcouner soundtrack even make it to air?

[dario03]

I get your point and agree for the most part, but MMPR was never an adaptation of Super Sentai. It took the footage and used it to craft its own storylines, which were very American. The music fit the tone and feel of that show, which were very much American. I don't think American kids would've had a problem with Super Sentai music, but given how different both shows were, a different score isn't out of place.

The most important note to take here is that kids don't sit down and analyze if the show is American made or Japanese made or if the BGM fits.

Exactly, so why make a replacement score in the first place?

Money would be my guess.

[Forte224]

Explain? How did it make them money? They had to pay Faulconer Productions to do it

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I wouldn't say the majority do, but I have no doubt there are plenty of Toonami era DBZ fans who remember the Faulconer score. I've had no problem remembering the Westwood dub score over the years because I enjoyed it back then and still do now. No reason Faulconer fans can't be the same if something about the score being in DBZ, for better or for worse, resonates with them.

[dario03]

Explain? How did it make them money? They had to pay Faulconer Productions to do it

Well I said guess because I don't know, but I've heard that it was cheaper than licensing the JPN OST for TV and/or let them charge royalties when aired.
If not that, then they must of thought it would work better and get them more viewers. Whether or not it did who knows. My point is I would imagine they did it for money, since that's what they were in it for.

[Forte224]

Explain? How did it make them money? They had to pay Faulconer Productions to do it

Well I said guess because I don't know, but I've heard that it was cheaper than licensing the JPN OST for TV and/or let them charge royalties when aired.
If not that, then they must of thought it would work better and get them more viewers. Whether or not it did who knows. My point is I would imagine they did it for money, since that's what they were in it for.

Ok well, I guess I was more asking Bardo why though, since he was the one defending it. It's pretty for sure Funi did it because they didn't trust kids to appreciate the Japanese OST which is something they've ceased doing these days. Even the blu rays have English+Kikuchi as the default option.

[Gaffer Tape]

Explain? How did it make them money? They had to pay Faulconer Productions to do it

It drives me crazy that I can no longer find the quote where they say this, but they did claim that, with a soundtrack they own, they (FUNimation) would make money every time it was aired. Because, remember, even if they were paying Faulconer to make music for them, at the end of the day, they would own the resulting product. With the original score, they're just licensing the permission to air it in their territories.

[Forte224]

Explain? How did it make them money? They had to pay Faulconer Productions to do it

It drives me crazy that I can no longer find the quote where they say this, but they did claim that, with a soundtrack they own, they (FUNimation) would make money every time it was aired. Because, remember, even if they were paying Faulconer to make music for them, at the end of the day, they would own the resulting product. With the original score, they're just licensing the permission to air it in their territories.

That's pretty interesting. Please post or PM me if you end up finding that anytime in the future again.

[dario03]

Explain? How did it make them money? They had to pay Faulconer Productions to do it

Well I said guess because I don't know, but I've heard that it was cheaper than licensing the JPN OST for TV and/or let them charge royalties when aired.
If not that, then they must of thought it would work better and get them more viewers. Whether or not it did who knows. My point is I would imagine they did it for money, since that's what they were in it for.

Ok well, I guess I was more asking Bardo why though, since he was the one defending it. It's pretty for sure Funi did it because they didn't trust kids to appreciate the Japanese OST which is something they've ceased doing these days. Even the blu rays have English+Kikuchi as the default option.

Well if it was just thinking more people would watch with a replacement score then yeah. But If at that time they could make or think they could make more money with the replacement score due to cost or royalties then they might have just not cared about whether the kids would appreciate the JPN OST or not. And I thought the music change had in part to do with issues between Funi and Falcouner. Also didn't the post Funi Ocean dub change the score as well?

[Forte224]

Well I said guess because I don't know, but I've heard that it was cheaper than licensing the JPN OST for TV and/or let them charge royalties when aired.
If not that, then they must of thought it would work better and get them more viewers. Whether or not it did who knows. My point is I would imagine they did it for money, since that's what they were in it for.

Ok well, I guess I was more asking Bardo why though, since he was the one defending it. It's pretty for sure Funi did it because they didn't trust kids to appreciate the Japanese OST which is something they've ceased doing these days. Even the blu rays have English+Kikuchi as the default option.

If at that time they could make or think they could make more money with the replacement score then they might have just not cared about whether the kids would appreciate the JPN OST or not. And I thought the music change had in part to do with issues between Funi and Falcouner. Also didn't the post Funi Ocean dub change the score as well?

Well, using Nathan Johnson in episodes 1-53 was due to issues with Faulconer but that wouldn't prevent them from putting Faulconer as the default audio track on the blu rays from 54 onwards. They own that audio so they could have put it first if they wanted.

Post Funi Ocean reused some music from some Mega Man show if I recall correctly, but I'm not positive it was from Mega Man. I know for sure it didn't have its own exclusive score though.

[dario03]

Ok well, I guess I was more asking Bardo why though, since he was the one defending it. It's pretty for sure Funi did it because they didn't trust kids to appreciate the Japanese OST which is something they've ceased doing these days. Even the blu rays have English+Kikuchi as the default option.

If at that time they could make or think they could make more money with the replacement score then they might have just not cared about whether the kids would appreciate the JPN OST or not. And I thought the music change had in part to do with issues between Funi and Falcouner. Also didn't the post Funi Ocean dub change the score as well?

Well, using Nathan Johnson in episodes 1-53 was due to issues with Faulconer but that wouldn't prevent them from putting Faulconer as the default audio track on the blu rays from 54 onwards. They own that audio so they could have put it first if they wanted.

Post Funi Ocean reused some music from some Mega Man show if I recall correctly, but I'm not positive it was from Mega Man. I know for sure it didn't have its own exclusive score though.

The Mega Man thing is something I've heard many times (which threw me off when I read the OP of this thread since he compared the Funi music to 16bit games).

But I was bringing them up because they also didn't use the JPN OST. Which again, I would think was to do with money.
Or possibly to do with broadcast laws wanting shows to have certain percentages of in country made material. That's another thing I've heard, but no clue if actually true. and I think that part was from the DBwiki with no source so....

[Forte224]

I'm guessing it's a mixture of a lot of things, with the main reasons being not trusting kids to appreciate the Japanese score, and also being able to save money using their own based on what you said which makes sense. It's a time I'm glad we're past, though.

[ABED]

http://web.archive.org/web/200304231614 ... nisez.html

Gen Fukunaga, on why DBZ's music was replaced:
The replacing of the music, was a FUNimation decision. With our own soundtrack, we could charge royalties for every second it's heard.

[dario03]

I'm guessing it's a mixture of a lot of things, with the main reasons being not trusting kids to appreciate the Japanese score, and also being able to save money using their own based on what you said which makes sense. It's a time I'm glad we're past, though.

Is there anything to base the Funi not trusting kids to like the JPN OST part though?

If the quote above from Gen Fukunaga is true then it looks like it was purely monetary based on royalties.

[Forte224]

I'm guessing it's a mixture of a lot of things, with the main reasons being not trusting kids to appreciate the Japanese score, and also being able to save money using their own based on what you said which makes sense. It's a time I'm glad we're past, though.

Is there anything to base the Funi not trusting kids to like the JPN OST part though?

If the quote above from Gen Fukunaga is true then it looks like it was purely monetary based on royalties.

I guess nothing I can quote but the replacement score doesn't appear to want to emulate the Japanese one in any way shape or form.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

If at that time they could make or think they could make more money with the replacement score then they might have just not cared about whether the kids would appreciate the JPN OST or not. And I thought the music change had in part to do with issues between Funi and Falcouner. Also didn't the post Funi Ocean dub change the score as well?

Well, using Nathan Johnson in episodes 1-53 was due to issues with Faulconer but that wouldn't prevent them from putting Faulconer as the default audio track on the blu rays from 54 onwards. They own that audio so they could have put it first if they wanted.

Post Funi Ocean reused some music from some Mega Man show if I recall correctly, but I'm not positive it was from Mega Man. I know for sure it didn't have its own exclusive score though.

The Mega Man thing is something I've heard many times (which threw me off when I read the OP of this thread since he compared the Funi music to 16bit games).

But I was bringing them up because they also didn't use the JPN OST. Which again, I would think was to do with money.
Or possibly to do with broadcast laws wanting shows to have certain percentages of in country made material. That's another thing I've heard, but no clue if actually true. and I think that part was from the DBwiki with no source so....

They did use music from Megaman, the latter part of the Buu arc had some original tracks composed for it though. That dub wasn't made to meet Canadian content requirements as it aired in the UK first but part of the reason was because YTV got frustrated with Funimation not sending them dubbed episodes in time and AB was there to solve their problem by creating another dub.

[Bajosexto]

It's very rare that I hear that a child will drop a show because of the music. From what I can tell, kids barely notice it. Most everyone I grew up with in school who watched DBZ barely remember the music when I ask them about it. I didn't even remember it until about a decade ago when I decided to really get into the whole series. Even if they do notice it, it's rarely ever a deciding factor. My kid cousins barely notice it and even point out certain tracks from the old score they liked. (The theme song being one of them, of course.)

Dragonball prospered everywhere else around the world and was a hit with kids without changing the music. And it continues to do so. Point is, changing the music was absolutely not necessary for it to be a hit with us kids and Dragonball would have done just fine in the west with the original score. I have no doubts about this.

Dragon Ball DID do just fine in "the west" (Latin America) with the original score. The "west" isn't just the US. I don't get why people write west instead of English speaking countries.

I agree with the rest of your points though. There was no need to replace the original score. I do think kids notice the music but it isn't the main reason they watch a show. I really don't remember the soundtracks from a lot of cartoons I grew up with. However when I really liked the show I did pay attention to the music. Like with DBZ, SpongeBob and Naruto. It was something that I really enjoyed from those shows. My point is that some kids might notice the music and some may not. But if the show is good, kids will watch.

[Boo Machine]

Dragon Ball DID do just fine in "the west" (Latin America) with the original score. The "west" isn't just the US. I don't get why people write west instead of English speaking countries.

Oops! Sorry. You're absolutely right. Some of us here in the US live in our own little bubble and we forget that America isn't basically half the planet. I'll be sure to be more specific next time.

[Super Sonic]

Was thinking had the older dub had insert songs, might they have been liked? Know quite a few Sailor Moon fans who weren't happy with the old dub, did really like the insert songs like "Carry On", "Power of Love", "Oh Starry Night", etc. So maybe had they done something of that nature, there would've been guys liking them?

[Fionordequester]

Was thinking had the older dub had insert songs, might they have been liked? Know quite a few Sailor Moon fans who weren't happy with the old dub, did really like the insert songs like "Carry On", "Power of Love", "Oh Starry Night", etc. So maybe had they done something of that nature, there would've been guys liking them?

Well...the movies kind of had insert songs; in that they randomly "inserted" a whole bunch of songs from bands like "Disturbed" into the fight scenes. It...didn't work out all that well, IMO, due to haphazard music placement, but...well, you can see for yourself I guess?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqNNc8qtmNQ&t=1m9s

Course, there was also that OTHER song done by Andy Baylor, and sung by Dave Kelley (the very first guy to voice Captain Ginyu). That one was used as the movie theme for "Father of Goku" and "History of Trunks". The shortened version of it was pretty cool; but the full version, well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IWQUmoZZkA

Yeah, my personal bet is that if FUNi HAD used insert songs, they wouldn't have done a terribly good job of it unless they had Team Faulconer exerting most of the creative control.

[Bardo117]

http://web.archive.org/web/200304231614 ... nisez.html

Gen Fukunaga, on why DBZ's music was replaced:
The replacing of the music, was a FUNimation decision. With our own soundtrack, we could charge royalties for every second it's heard.

It's incredibly funny reading how uninformed he was about the capabilities of the DVD....

Gen Fukunaga, on putting the Japanese episodes on DVD:
Well, I mean, the niche breaks into many, smaller niches. The niche that wants the pure, unaltered show is so small that there would be virtually no market for completely Japanese tapes. There's no way that retailers on a mass basis would take something like that. So, we had to come up with a sort of happy medium where we at least get the visuals in there, but we just leave the music from the cut alone. Plans at least for now, but not solidified, are that the DVD version will have a pure Japanese, subtitled version.

Like I hate to point out the obvious, genius, but you can release the unaltered cuts in English and Japanese on the same disk lol


If these quotes are accurate, what a funny interview

"Composer Bruce Faulconer, on the music:
They wanted music that would better communicate to a Western audience the drama of this saga.

Bruce Faulconer, on what music best represents each character: Goku is like this rock guy. Trunks is from the future so he's techno. Cell starts off being this little thing almost like a slug and he grows, absorbs people and gets stronger - his music started out imperfect like grunge sounds and later he became perfect and his music got cleaner."


"Sean Schemmel, on Goku's Japanese VA:
I love Japanese people, but they're trying to speak to their culture. For crying out loud, Gokuu's voice is done by a woman in the Japanese version. Do you picture a muscle bound, monkey-like fighting badass as having a high pitched womanly voice? I mean, I don't really think so. By that I mean that it's ridiculous to American culture. Now to the Japanese culture, they totally love it."