Dragon Box Footage used on DBZ Single?

[TheBalishChannel]

I was re-watching the Cell Games Saga on my North American DVD singles and noticed that the first episode included on Volume #49 (Guardian's Return) has vastly superior video quality compared to the latter episodes on the disc. To me, it looked more akin to TOEI's Dragon Box masters as opposed to FUNimation's grainy digibetas. As it turns out, it appears the episode is using an unremastered transfer of the same footage featured on Disc 5 of Dragon Box Z: Volume 2; not unlike FUNimation's initial release of Dragon Ball GT.

Curiously, the Australian equivalent of Volume #49 (3.18 - Guardian's Return) released by Madman includes the original digibeta source footage seen on the TV Broadcasts and VHS releases. The build date for the Australian DVD reads "5/9/2002," while the North American DVD reads "2/5/2004," which isn't too long after Dragon Box Z: Volume 2's release date (9/18/2003).

It's assumed that FUNimation delayed their release of the Cell Games in order to remove Dale Kelly's narration from a majority of the episodes. By the end of the Cell Games, the producers at FUNimation were frustrated with Dale Kelly's handling of the licensed music for the two TV Specials (Bardock: The Father of Goku and History of Trunks). Mr. Kelly was gracious enough to provide a more in depth summary in my interview with him on Twitch.

[gokaiblue]

Interesting stuff! Is this the case for the VHS release too?

[TheBalishChannel]

Interesting stuff! Is this the case for the VHS release too?

The release of Volume #49 (Guardian's Return) on VHS was 11/6/2001; over two years prior to the release of its DVD equivalent, which was released on 3/23/2004. The Dragon Boxes were not released in Japan until 2003, and as such, the usual grainy digibeta footage featured on the VHS release was the only master that existed for FUNimation at the time.

[Metalwario64]

Wow, I don't remember this! I bought all of the Cell singles a few years back and I even watched that episode and I don't recall the Dragon Box footage (It's basically like the GT singles, right?)

Why did they just have the footage for this episode? So strange.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Wow, I don't remember this! I bought all of the Cell singles a few years back and I even watched that episode and I don't recall the Dragon Box footage (It's basically like the GT singles, right?)

Why did they just have the footage for this episode? So strange.

It really is weird. The closest possible thing I have to an explanation is that Toei was apparently notorious among dubbing companies--in several countries--back in the day for sending dubbing companies very crappy video/audio materials for dubs. So, who knows, maybe in their haste to just give FUNimation "whatever they saw first," they sent them the Dragon Box version of that episode.

[HakkaiBills93]

Wow, I don't remember this! I bought all of the Cell singles a few years back and I even watched that episode and I don't recall the Dragon Box footage (It's basically like the GT singles, right?)

Why did they just have the footage for this episode? So strange.

It really is weird. The closest possible thing I have to an explanation is that Toei was apparently notorious among dubbing companies--in several countries--back in the day for sending dubbing companies very crappy video/audio materials for dubs. So, who knows, maybe in their haste to just give FUNimation "whatever they saw first," they sent them the Dragon Box version of that episode.

i think that maybe funimation have lost or damaged those episodes then ask toei for episodes and Toei send them this version or they surely buyed the dragon box footage at that time and use wrongly the remastered for this one.

all funi singles have more or less good colors and not so bad footage so i think more about a footage error using the dragon box footage before they were supposed to used it

[mute_proxy]

It really is weird. The closest possible thing I have to an explanation is that Toei was apparently notorious among dubbing companies--in several countries--back in the day for sending dubbing companies very crappy video/audio materials for dubs. So, who knows, maybe in their haste to just give FUNimation "whatever they saw first," they sent them the Dragon Box version of that episode.

Or maybe that specific episode was in top notch condition prior to the Dragon Box remastering, and what they sent Funi wasnt remastered but looked just as good

[HakkaiBills93]

It really is weird. The closest possible thing I have to an explanation is that Toei was apparently notorious among dubbing companies--in several countries--back in the day for sending dubbing companies very crappy video/audio materials for dubs. So, who knows, maybe in their haste to just give FUNimation "whatever they saw first," they sent them the Dragon Box version of that episode.

Or maybe that specific episode was in top notch condition prior to the Dragon Box remastering, and what they sent Funi wasnt remastered but looked just as good

impossible as funimation masters degrade differrently than Toei so colors should look differrent but they are EXACTLY the same.
And like everyone should know, dragon box colors are wrong for the whole show, you have the same color cast and same colors alteration, it only mean that the source is the same (even the crop is the same), if you carefully look, funi single are all more crop than dragon box)

[TheQuazz]

It's assumed that FUNimation delayed their release of the Cell Games in order to remove Dale Kelly's narration from a majority of the episodes.

Sorry about the off-topic post, but does this mean that the single DVD releases of the Cell Games don't have Dale Kelly's original narration? I've been thinking of collecting the original DVDs, but if they've been altered like that from their original broadcast I think I'll pass on them.

In regards to the 'Box footage, that is super, super weird, especially considering it aired and was included on other releases with Funi's usual video quality. Is the whole episode in this quality, including the recap, NEP and OP/ED?

[Metalwario64]

It's assumed that FUNimation delayed their release of the Cell Games in order to remove Dale Kelly's narration from a majority of the episodes.

Sorry about the off-topic post, but does this mean that the single DVD releases of the Cell Games don't have Dale Kelly's original narration? I've been thinking of collecting the original DVDs, but if they've been altered like that from their original broadcast I think I'll pass on them.

In regards to the 'Box footage, that is super, super weird, especially considering it aired and was included on other releases with Funi's usual video quality. Is the whole episode in this quality, including the recap, NEP and OP/ED?

Yeah, they started stripping Kelly's narration at this point, and replaced him with Hebert. Those Hebert recordings were then reused for those episodes on the Orange Brick version of the FUNimation dub.

[Ringworm128]

Ok please don't hit me for this theory, but maybe this footage was sort of the first step for Funimation getting the Dragonbox masters. They announced the Dragonboxes several years later; but we don't know how long they actually had the rights/footage for.

[shenron002]

lol I actually created a Dale kelly Dragon box version of the show, loved it how he made it sound like a monster truck rally.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x143qn9

[william_homyk]

lol I actually created a Dale kelly Dragon box version of the show, loved it how he made it sound like a monster truck rally.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x143qn9

Where can I find / download Project Box Z?

[eledoremassis02]

I just compared the two and it seems there is artifacts on the FUNi DVD though it's possible these are unremastered versions that were cleaned up for the Dragon Boxes?

[JohnnyCashKami]

I just compared the two and it seems there is artifacts on the FUNi DVD though it's possible these are unremastered versions that were cleaned up for the Dragon Boxes?

The old FUNimation single DVDs generally had some sort of compression done to them even though there'd still be plenty of space left for a whole DVD5. It's really a shame FUNimation always had to "improve" their Dragon Ball Z releases. Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT thankfully were given partially unaltered releases (DB - Saga Sets, GT - Singles).

These days it's kinda hard to watch the old FUNimation DVDs of Dragon Ball Z while they're in fullscreen as I like them, the compression really did a number on them.

[eledoremassis02]

I just compared the two and it seems there is artifacts on the FUNi DVD though it's possible these are unremastered versions that were cleaned up for the Dragon Boxes?

The old FUNimation single DVDs generally had some sort of compression done to them even though there'd still be plenty of space left for a whole DVD5. It's really a shame FUNimation always had to "improve" their Dragon Ball Z releases. Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT thankfully were given partially unaltered releases (DB - Saga Sets, GT - Singles).

These days it's kinda hard to watch the old FUNimation DVDs of Dragon Ball Z while they're in fullscreen as I like them, the compression really did a number on them.

I feel the same way, I do thend to like the colors. I meant film artifiacts (my bad) like dust a debree that dont apear to be on the Dbox.

[JohnnyCashKami]

I feel the same way, I do thend to like the colors. I meant film artifiacts (my bad) like dust a debree that dont apear to be on the Dbox.

You know, that talk of Dragon Box and FUNimation it reminded me that they (FUNimation) released Dragon Ball GT with Dragon Box footage and it even included the NEPs, original GT openings and endings with Japanese text and textless so they definitely own Dragon Box content but aren't releasing it to the market.

The Dragon Ball GT green bricks are really good but it uses that tacky metallic GT logo and they got rid of the NEPs for some reason, so as such, the FUNi Dub GT NEPs can only be seen with the Menza score which if you're a fan of (i.e. the dub), it's better than nothing. I suppose someone who'd really want the FUNi Dub NEPs with the original Tokunaga score could make it happen.

[eledoremassis02]

I feel the same way, I do thend to like the colors. I meant film artifiacts (my bad) like dust a debree that dont apear to be on the Dbox.

You know, that talk of Dragon Box and FUNimation it reminded me that they (FUNimation) released Dragon Ball GT with Dragon Box footage and it even included the NEPs, original GT openings and endings with Japanese text and textless so they definitely own Dragon Box content but aren't releasing it to the market.

The Dragon Ball GT green bricks are really good but it uses that tacky metallic GT logo and they got rid of the NEPs for some reason, so as such, the FUNi Dub GT NEPs can only be seen with the Menza score which if you're a fan of (i.e. the dub), it's better than nothing. I suppose someone who'd really want the FUNi Dub NEPs with the original Tokunaga score could make it happen.

I got the singles as soon as I found out they were Dragon Box. I do think their dragon ball is a tad better just cause of the colors but I'd like to see them release Dragon Ball again and I wonder if they have those in Dbox and why they never released it (and the movies)