What are the best DBZ Movie 1-13 Fullscreen releases?

[SuperCyan2]

For movies 12-13 I think it's the German DVD which is full-framed but for 1-11 is it the Madman DVDs?

As for the Japanese audio, the Dragon Box: The Movies is still the one to go for.

[Robo4900]

For movies 12-13 I think it's the German DVD which is full-framed

No, actually. It's full-framed, but it's a really crap release overall. Picture's terrible. Blurry and such, and originally it was released cut, so any footage that was missing in that cut is pasted in from another source.
The best source for 12 depends on which of the two evils you consider lesser... If you'd prefer PAL blending, it's Madman. If you'd prefer poor compression, it's the Funimation one.
For movie 13, it's Madman; they used speedup to convert the footage to PAL, so there's no blending; you just play it back at 23.976p framerate, and it works great.

but for 1-11 is it the Madman DVDs?

Purely in terms of video...
1-3: Ultimate Uncut.
4 & 6: Big Green (Yes, really. Same situation as Madman's release of 13)
5: Madman or Funimation (Same situation as movie 12)
7-11: French DVD.

As for the Japanese audio, the Dragon Box: The Movies is still the one to go for.

Yep.
'Course, if you'd rather watch in widescreen, the DBoxes are the best release overall anyway. Well... Kind of, anyway.
Funimation's Blu-Rays are infamously bad, but their BD of movie 13 is actually pretty good. Still a bit too heavily degrained, but it's to the point where it's just a mild annoyance, rather than an outright point of ruination. It's possible a few of the earlier ones are okay too, but I only know #13 to be good.
Still, if you stick to the DBoxes, that would mean one consistent video transfer for all 17 movies, which is a big plus.

[SuperCyan2]

Thanks. I already have the R1 FUNimation Fullscreen movies (DB, DBZ) but gonna try to get the R4 Madman ones for the better picture quality.

It's a shame FUNi didn't use DVD9s or less compression back then as some of the movies look pretty bad all pixelated and stuff.

Still, if you stick to the DBoxes, that would mean one consistent video transfer for all 17 movies, which is a big plus.

Would not mind but I prefer to watch them in fullscreen aspect ratio.

[Robo4900]

Would not mind but I prefer to watch them in fullscreen aspect ratio.

Yeah, same. Always thought the widescreen was too tight, and the beautiful art in the fullscreen area deserves to be seen.

gonna try to get the R4 Madman ones for the better picture quality.

#13 is the only one that's a strict upgrade from Funi. The rest, I would consider an upgrade, but some are bothered by the blending issues(Though I've never noticed PAL blending ).

But, I must stress this, the French DVDs of 7-11 are possibly the best those films have ever looked. No English tracks, but you mentioned the German DVDs, so... Thought I'd point this out.

[Danfun64]

Why do you find Movie 4/6 Big Green better than Movie 5 Big Green?

[Robo4900]

Why do you find Movie 4/6 Big Green better than Movie 5 Big Green?

Well, movie 5 isn't bad, but it has English text, title cards, and such, while the Funi and Madman ones have the option to watch with the Japanese text left intact.
I suppose, if that doesn't bother you, Big Green movie 5 might be a good option.

[SuperCyan2]

#13 is the only one that's a strict upgrade from Funi. The rest, I would consider an upgrade, but some are bothered by the blending issues(Though I've never noticed PAL blending ).

Can you show some screenshots for comparison as to how much of an upgrade they are then?

But, I must stress this, the French DVDs of 7-11 are possibly the best those films have ever looked. No English tracks, but you mentioned the German DVDs, so... Thought I'd point this out.[/quote]
That does look good but it's only 7-11 and not the entire 1-13 so gonna give it a pass then. I would've made an exception if it were movies 12 & 13 or only 13 as Wrath of the Dragon is my absolute favorite.

I wish I had seen it as a kid when it was on cinemas.

[Robo4900]

That does look good but it's only 7-11 and not the entire 1-13 so gonna give it a pass then. I would've made an exception if it were movies 12 & 13 or only 13 as Wrath of the Dragon is my absolute favorite.

I mean, if you want the best quality, you're gonna have to have inconsistent sources anyway, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Again... The best sources are Ultimate Uncut for 1-3, Big Green for 4 and 6(Perhaps 5 too if you don't mind English text), Madman/Funi for 5 and 12, French for 7-11, then Madman for 13... Since those are the best sources, if you want an optimal viewing experience, you're gonna have a lot of sources of varying quality.
And, of course, if you prefer watching dubbed, you'd probably be better off going for the Pioneer verison of movies 1-3... It's quite a mess. So, I suggest embracing that.

Still, to each their own. I'm sure whatever route you take, you'll enjoy the movies all the same.

I wish I had seen it as a kid when it was on cinemas.

I'm not sure they would have showed in cinemas where you live, depending on where you live.
Which country would you have lived in at the time? (Remember to account for the dub release dates for your country, rather than the original Japanese release dates)

[SuperCyan2]

I mean, if you want the best quality, you're gonna have to have inconsistent sources anyway, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Again... The best sources are Ultimate Uncut for 1-3, Big Green for 4 and 6(Perhaps 5 too if you don't mind English text), Madman/Funi for 5 and 12, French for 7-11, then Madman for 13... Since those are the best sources, if you want an optimal viewing experience, you're gonna have a lot of sources of varying quality.
And, of course, if you prefer watching dubbed, you'd probably be better off going for the Pioneer verison of movies 1-3... It's quite a mess. So, I suggest embracing that.

Still, to each their own. I'm sure whatever route you take, you'll enjoy the movies all the same.

Movie 1 @ UUE (got it)
Movie 2 @ UUE (got it)
Movie 3 @ UUE (got it)
Movie 4 @ Big Green (got it.. digitally)
Movie 5 @ Madman (nope)
Movie 6 @ Big Green (got it.. digitally)
Movie 7 @ French Rel. (nope)
Movie 8 @ French Rel. (nope)
Movie 9 @ French Rel. (nope)
Movie 10 @ French Rel. (nope)
Movie 11 @ French Rel. (nope)
Movie 12 @ Madman (nope)
Movie 13 @ Madman (nope)

Aw jeez, that's quite something.

I'm still planning on going with the Madman 1-13 DVDs but for the best 4x3 AR releases this is actually it. Personally, I don't care about the English dub (unless it's the Ocean Dub) as I prefer the Japanese audio so having JPN audio + Eng subs on R1/R4 DVDs is a great bonus although I'd try to sync the Dragon Box audio instead.

Robo, are the Madman DVDs that inferior to the French ones? I don't mind the PAL issues that it has as long as the picture looks better and isn't badly compressed like Funi's DVDs were.

I'm not sure they would have showed in cinemas where you live, depending on where you live.
Which country would you have lived in at the time? (Remember to account for the dub release dates for your country, rather than the original Japanese release dates)

I remember that in Portugal they promoted the 13th movie a lot but simply as "The Movie" or something. Never got to watch it on the theaters though I remember the posters and everything.

[Robo4900]

I'm still planning on going with the Madman 1-13 DVDs but for the best 4x3 AR releases this is actually it. Personally, I don't care about the English dub (unless it's the Ocean Dub) as I prefer the Japanese audio so having JPN audio + Eng subs on R1/R4 DVDs is a great bonus although I'd try to sync the Dragon Box audio instead.

Good news: Pioneer's releases of movies 1-3 are Ocean-dubbed. That's why I mentioned it, actually. Ocean dubbed movies 1-3 in 1998 under Pioneer. Their scripts for movies 1 and 2 would later be used by Funimation, but Funimation added a ton of extra waffle to the lines, and in general Americanised it, and I believe they added some censorship too. On top of this, the acting was about on-par for Funimation in 2005, while Ocean was giving some of their best performances you'll see; it was directed by Karl Willems, who you may know as the one who directed Ocean's dub of Death Note.
Movie 3, Funimation used the Saban script with some new material written to fill in the missing scene. Ocean's dub of movie 3 from the 1998 Pioneer DVD uses an entirely different script, which is highly accurate.
The Ocean dubs of movies 1-3 are considered the definitive dubs of those movies, and many consider them to be among the best dubbing work Dragon Ball has ever received. So, I would recommend those rather highly for their dub track.
Ultimate Uncut uses Funimation's dub. The visuals on movie 1 are quite a bit better than the Pioneer DVD, but 2 and 3 are about on-par, maybe with slightly better encoding.

Robo, are the Madman DVDs that inferior to the French ones? I don't mind the PAL issues that it has as long as the picture looks better and isn't badly compressed like Funi's DVDs were.

The Madman DVDs are vastly inferior to the French ones. As I mentioned, the French ones are the best those movies have ever looked; that's because it uses an entirely different transfer to any other release.

I remember that in Portugal they promoted the 13th movie a lot but simply as "The Movie" or something. Never got to watch it on the theaters though I remember the posters and everything.

Ah, I see. They almost certainly only showed movie 13, and it was almost certainly a cut version using an inferior video master.

[SuperCyan2]

Good news: Pioneer's releases of movies 1-3 are Ocean-dubbed. That's why I mentioned it, actually. Ocean dubbed movies 1-3 in 1998 under Pioneer. Their scripts for movies 1 and 2 would later be used by Funimation, but Funimation added a ton of extra waffle to the lines, and in general Americanised it, and I believe they added some censorship too. On top of this, the acting was about on-par for Funimation in 2005, while Ocean was giving some of their best performances you'll see; it was directed by Karl Willems, who you may know as the one who directed Ocean's dub of Death Note.

Movie 3, Funimation used the Saban script with some new material written to fill in the missing scene. Ocean's dub of movie 3 from the 1998 Pioneer DVD uses an entirely different script, which is highly accurate.

The Ocean dubs of movies 1-3 are considered the definitive dubs of those movies, and many consider them to be among the best dubbing work Dragon Ball has ever received. So, I would recommend those rather highly for their dub track.

Ultimate Uncut uses Funimation's dub. The visuals on movie 1 are quite a bit better than the Pioneer DVD, but 2 and 3 are about on-par, maybe with slightly better encoding.

I have the UUE and the Pioneer DVDs plus the RtD DVD set too. I noticed that the Japanese audio on Dead Zone UUE has a strange sound effect added when Gohan gets hit whereas the Pioneer DVD doesn't.

Ocean Dub did an amazing job with the dubbing of movies 1-3 and especially the Kaioh-ken scene with Peter Kelamis, that sounded nearly like Lord Nozawa!

The Madman DVDs are vastly inferior to the French ones. As I mentioned, the French ones are the best those movies have ever looked; that's because it uses an entirely different transfer to any other release.

Well, that's a shame. Guess I'll try to get the French DVDs then and the few Madman ones then.

Thank you so much for all the info about the optimum 4x3 AR releases.

[Robo4900]

I have the UUE and the Pioneer DVDs plus the RtD DVD set too. I noticed that the Japanese audio on Dead Zone UUE has a strange sound effect added when Gohan gets hit whereas the Pioneer DVD doesn't.

Ocean Dub did an amazing job with the dubbing of movies 1-3 and especially the Kaioh-ken scene with Peter Kelamis, that sounded nearly like Lord Nozawa!

Indeed. I've always appreciated Kelamis's approach to Goku; normally, imitations of other voices tend to be some of the weaker portrayals of any given actor, but Kelamis really did a great job as Goku. He was definitely his own spin on Goku, but with a rather Nozawa-esque quality.
Worth noting: The RTD set versions of the first 2 movies are cut. I presume you're ware #3 is the Saban version, so let's put that aside. RTD's movies 1 and 2 have some lines partially muted to edit out words like "Hell". I think only about a minute of content is cut from #1 in total, but it is still cut. The OP/ED are also different, of course, being replaced with Rock The Dragon.

Well, that's a shame. Guess I'll try to get the French DVDs then and the few Madman ones then.

Thank you so much for all the info about the optimum 4x3 AR releases.

Cheers. Happy to help.

[MadSpecialist]

But, I must stress this, the French DVDs of 7-11 are possibly the best those films have ever looked. No English tracks, but you mentioned the German DVDs, so... Thought I'd point this out.

For anybody unsure of which French release Robo4900's referring to and what the rest of the movies look like:

Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z : L'intégrale des films (Part 2)



Screenshots

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[HakkaiBills93]

I remember that in Portugal they promoted the 13th movie a lot but simply as "The Movie" or something. Never got to watch it on the theaters though I remember the posters and everything.

it is a "movie" with 2 part (movie 12-13) that was made by AB cutting all hitler parts and few cuts in movie 13 , it seems to have been export in germany, portugual, spain , the interesting things (just for the collector) is that the dub for movie 12 use movie 13 bgm inside

this version isn't in the french dvd box

about this dvd box i have to say as i have it personnaly that movie 7-8-9-10-11 looks great but even if movie 12-13 are uncut inside they made a sort of hybrid things by just adding cut scenes where they were originally but not using the same footage so you see quality differrence between the two footage just by watching..it is sad that AB didn't just use the new scan of movie 12-13

[sangofe]

Good news: Pioneer's releases of movies 1-3 are Ocean-dubbed. That's why I mentioned it, actually. Ocean dubbed movies 1-3 in 1998 under Pioneer. Their scripts for movies 1 and 2 would later be used by Funimation, but Funimation added a ton of extra waffle to the lines, and in general Americanised it, and I believe they added some censorship too. On top of this, the acting was about on-par for Funimation in 2005, while Ocean was giving some of their best performances you'll see; it was directed by Karl Willems, who you may know as the one who directed Ocean's dub of Death Note.

Movie 3, Funimation used the Saban script with some new material written to fill in the missing scene. Ocean's dub of movie 3 from the 1998 Pioneer DVD uses an entirely different script, which is highly accurate.

The Ocean dubs of movies 1-3 are considered the definitive dubs of those movies, and many consider them to be among the best dubbing work Dragon Ball has ever received. So, I would recommend those rather highly for their dub track.

Ultimate Uncut uses Funimation's dub. The visuals on movie 1 are quite a bit better than the Pioneer DVD, but 2 and 3 are about on-par, maybe with slightly better encoding.

I have the UUE and the Pioneer DVDs plus the RtD DVD set too. I noticed that the Japanese audio on Dead Zone UUE has a strange sound effect added when Gohan gets hit whereas the Pioneer DVD doesn't.

Ocean Dub did an amazing job with the dubbing of movies 1-3 and especially the Kaioh-ken scene with Peter Kelamis, that sounded nearly like Lord Nozawa!

The Madman DVDs are vastly inferior to the French ones. As I mentioned, the French ones are the best those movies have ever looked; that's because it uses an entirely different transfer to any other release.

Well, that's a shame. Guess I'll try to get the French DVDs then and the few Madman ones then.

Thank you so much for all the info about the optimum 4x3 AR releases.

It's very important to know that movie 7-11 from the French dvds are good looking for only the collector's box, not any individual release! They use crappy VHS transfers..

[Robo4900]

But, I must stress this, the French DVDs of 7-11 are possibly the best those films have ever looked. No English tracks, but you mentioned the German DVDs, so... Thought I'd point this out.

For anybody unsure of which French release Robo4900's referring to and what the rest of the movies look like:

[snip]

Screenshots

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Cheers, dude. Thanks for linking the release, and posting the box there, and some more screenshots.
I did link some screenshots in my post, but yeah, those are better; all mine were taken only from Broly 1.

Cool thing about the French DVD release these movies come from is that it includes the Trunks special with the same kind of remastering. Picture's not as sharp as the DBox version of the Trunks special(And, being from 16mm film, it's not as sharp as the French movies either), but it does look rather nice.

Another cool thing is that this nice-looking stuff scanned from film on the French DVD release is native 576p. Not that far off from being 720p HD.
(That's not to say that anyone should upscale this, that would entirely miss the point; the point I'm making is: Damn these remasters are good)

It's very important to know that movie 7-11 from the French dvds are good looking for only the collector's box, not any individual release! They use crappy VHS transfers..

I thought that might be the case. Damn, they used the VHS masters? That's real crap. Glad they put out the collector box, just a shame movies 1-6, 12-13, and DB 4 weren't done as nicely as 7-11.

[Kuwabara]

How do the Pioneer LaserDiscs of Movies 1-3 stack up to the Ultimate Uncut versions on DVD?

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Would FUNi's cropped DVDs be equally lacking, being derived from the same transfer? I don't mind going 4:3 for the movies in the least, I already own two, but I'm going to have to get that FUNi dub + Kikuchi audio track from somewhere else!

[SuperCyan2]

Robo, so are also DB Movies 1-3 the best looking in 4x3 AR from the French DVD box?

It may or may not because FUNimation has apparently remastered Movies 1-3 and 4, the fourth one looks really good to me and I'd buy it on Blu-ray but FUNi themselves haven't published it so neither am I going to import a dub-only release from Mexico (prefer to watch it in Japanese with English subs).

Say, do you have any screenshots of DB Movies 1-3 on Blu-ray?

[Robo4900]

Would FUNi's cropped DVDs be equally lacking, being derived from the same transfer? I don't mind going 4:3 for the movies in the least, I already own two, but I'm going to have to get that FUNi dub + Kikuchi audio track from somewhere else!

The Funi cropped DVDs are not from the same transfer as the 4:3 DVDs; Funi's cropped DVDs are a transfer from the 35mm film they got from Toei. Unfortunately, they used the same kind of filtering as they did for their "Season" releases of the series. I believe the DVDs use the same master as the Blu-Rays, though I may be wrong.

Robo, so are also DB Movies 1-3 the best looking in 4x3 AR from the French DVD box?

No, absolutely not. The French movies 1-6 are cropped transfers, and are of worse quality than Funimation's cropped DVDs, from what I hear.
The nicest-looking release of movies 1-3 in 4:3 is Funimation's "Ultimate Uncut" DVDs.

It may or may not because FUNimation has apparently remastered Movies 1-3 and 4, the fourth one looks really good to me and I'd buy it on Blu-ray but FUNi themselves haven't published it so neither am I going to import a dub-only release from Mexico (prefer to watch it in Japanese with English subs).

Say, do you have any screenshots of DB Movies 1-3 on Blu-ray?

They did remaster all four DB movies. Unfortuantely, they screwed up the transfer of movie 2 somehow by removing second frame, thus decimating the movie to 12fps, half of the full 24fps it should have. Aside from this issue, which -- as I say -- only affects movie 2, all four HD transfers look excellent. I only have screenshots of movies 1 and 3 to hand at the moment.