Dragon Ball Movies HD Remaster - Amazon Video/Netflix Japan - Discussion Thread

[Afam]

Is anyone able to tell if the movies that Funi put up for streaming today are the new remasters or not? I watched Movie 3 today and it looked good but I have no idea what to compare it to.

[Forte224]

Is anyone able to tell if the movies that Funi put up for streaming today are the new remasters or not? I watched Movie 3 today and it looked good but I have no idea what to compare it to.

Ha, I re-subscribed to FUNimationNow just to check. Sadly, I compared The World's Strongest with my blu ray side by side and they seem to be identical, except the stream is zoomed out ever so slightly. So...it doesn't appear to be so.

[ErikB]

Just came by to say that, yeah, unfortunately the FunimationNow streams that just went up are not Toei's remasters. History of Trunks is a dead giveaway as it's still in widescreen and looks no better than the DVD I already had.

[SpiritBombTriumphant]

Judging by the above posts, it looks like I don't need to resubscribe to FunimationNow for those movies.

[uzuni]

I see they’ve added all the films save for the Broly Trilogy, Fusion Reborn, and Bardock. Naturally.

[Robo4900]

I see they’ve added all the films save for the Broly Trilogy, Fusion Reborn, and Bardock. Naturally.

Despite what Funimation may tell you, Bardock is not a movie.

They brand Bardock and Trunks as movies for silly reasons. Dunno why they still do, it seems like just a leftover of the way they used to market them way back.

[Forte224]

I see they’ve added all the films save for the Broly Trilogy, Fusion Reborn, and Bardock. Naturally.

Despite what Funimation may tell you, Bardock is not a movie.

They brand Bardock and Trunks as movies for silly reasons. Dunno why they still do, it seems like just a leftover of the way they used to market them way back.

To be fair, they just uploaded History of Trunks to FUNimationNow and it's listed under "Specials" instead of "Movies".

[Robo4900]

I see they’ve added all the films save for the Broly Trilogy, Fusion Reborn, and Bardock. Naturally.

Despite what Funimation may tell you, Bardock is not a movie.

They brand Bardock and Trunks as movies for silly reasons. Dunno why they still do, it seems like just a leftover of the way they used to market them way back.

To be fair, they just uploaded History of Trunks to FUNimationNow and it's listed under "Specials" instead of "Movies".

Oh, that's good.

Shame it's still the sucky widescreen master, but... Progress is good, I suppose.

[Forte224]

Despite what Funimation may tell you, Bardock is not a movie.

They brand Bardock and Trunks as movies for silly reasons. Dunno why they still do, it seems like just a leftover of the way they used to market them way back.

To be fair, they just uploaded History of Trunks to FUNimationNow and it's listed under "Specials" instead of "Movies".

Oh, that's good.

Shame it's still the sucky widescreen master, but... Progress is good, I suppose.

Yeah progress is progress. I assume the 16:9 part won't change until a (potential) Toei remaster shows up and FUNimation (potentially) brings it over. Otherwise they'd just have to upload the footage from the old FUNi single, right? And I doubt they'd do that.

[uzuni]

Since they’re specials, I assume the two are meant to be viewed in 4:3 only and not 16:9 OR 4:3 like the thirteen films.

[JohnnyCashKami]

To be fair, they just uploaded History of Trunks to FUNimationNow and it's listed under "Specials" instead of "Movies".

It took them years but they're finally correcting themselves. Let's hope they'll also rename the GT "movie" as what it is, a (TV) Special.

Since they’re specials, I assume the two are meant to be viewed in 4:3 only and not 16:9 OR 4:3 like the thirteen films.

Originally, yes.

I personally hate watching anything Dragon Ball in cropped 16x9 WS but as long as it's done right and by TOEI, I'll give it a pass. Kai TFC's selective cropping was actually really good but god, how I hated (and still do) the green tint and the background music by Sumitomo.

I'm not saying I detest the Kai TFC score, I actually like it a lot as video game music-type but to watch Kai TFC with it? Can't stand it.

[KBABZ]

I see they’ve added all the films save for the Broly Trilogy, Fusion Reborn, and Bardock. Naturally.

Despite what Funimation may tell you, Bardock is not a movie.

I've always found the distinction between an OVA and a movie to be a weird and arbitrary one, but hey that's just me.

[linkdude20002001]

I've always found the distinction between an OVA and a movie to be a weird and arbitrary one, but hey that's just me.

Most OVAs I've seen are episodes, not movies. But they can be either. In the case of a series of OVA episodes, they seem to be of MUCH higher quality than if it were produced for TV. Which is the opposite, I think, for OVA movies, which instead are more..."too low budget (or not good enuf?) to get into theaters".

But then the Bardock special is unrelated to all that since it's a "slightly longer, slightly higher quality episode", but FOR TV, not straight-to-video. OVAs are straight-to-video.

[KBABZ]

I've always found the distinction between an OVA and a movie to be a weird and arbitrary one, but hey that's just me.

Most OVAs I've seen are episodes, not movies. But they can be either. In the case of a series of OVA episodes, they seem to be of MUCH higher quality than if it were produced for TV. Which is the opposite, I think, for OVA movies, which instead are more..."too low budget (or not good enuf?) to get into theaters".

But then the Bardock special is unrelated to all that since it's a "slightly longer, slightly higher quality episode", but FOR TV, not straight-to-video. OVAs are straight-to-video.

Which to me means that OVAs are the Japanese version of Straight to DVD movies, only with a positive connotation rather than a negative one.

Personally I consider them to be like movies due to the higher production values and longer running time compared to a normal episode.

[linkdude20002001]

Which to me means that OVAs are the Japanese version of Straight to DVD movies, only with a positive connotation rather than a negative one.

Personally I consider them to be like movies due to the higher production values and longer running time compared to a normal episode.

That's how I've always interpenetrated it. Tho, only for the episodes at least. When it comes to the movies...I don't really know if they're better than theatrical ones, worse, or the same.

Well, the episodes can vary in length. The episodes in the third Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA are all 30 minutes long. Of course, the first episode of the first OVA is 44 minutes long, and some of the DB films are 46 minutes long, so I can see why it's a bit confusing. Maybe 45 minutes is the dividing line? Like how 30 minutes (or 25) is often the dividing line between an EP and an album.

[KBABZ]

Well, the episodes can vary in length. The episodes in the third Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA are all 30 minutes long. Of course, the first episode of the first OVA is 44 minutes long, and some of the DB films are 46 minutes long, so I can see why it's a bit confusing. Maybe 45 minutes is the dividing line? Like how 30 minutes (or 25) is often the dividing line between an EP and an album.

It would vary depending on the series. A TV show might have an episode length closer to an hour, so to make a feature-length special for it is one the one hand easier but on the other hand more similar to a normal episode. For example, Doctor Who episodes are 45 minutes long, while Day of the Doctor is an hour and a half. And since I just used it, for me the term "feature-length" comes with extreme cinematic baggage. To me that has the suggestion of "hey, this could have been released theatrically with how long and awesome it is", not just in runtime but also in scope. Plus, the onset of Netflix specials and films show that you don't need to release something theatrically in order for it to be seen as a proper movie.

It's because of those reasons that I've always found the separation of the Bardock, Trunks and Goku Jr. specials to be rather arbitrary since, like the films, they tell unique stories outside the framework of the anime, have similar production values, and similar runtimes (with specials being a bit shorter usually). About the only real thing that separates the two is that one gets a poster!

[Robo4900]

Yeah progress is progress. I assume the 16:9 part won't change until a (potential) Toei remaster shows up and FUNimation (potentially) brings it over. Otherwise they'd just have to upload the footage from the old FUNi single, right? And I doubt they'd do that.

Indeed. If Funimation suddenly changed their ways yesterday and are now on a much better path, they still have to make do with what they have, which is 16:9 cropped. Not saying they have changed, but... Yes, you're absolutely right. Presumably, Toei will do a master, so the real thing to watch out for would be Funi importing that.

The improvement of properly classifying the TV specials as TV specials is certainly a step in the right direction, I'd say, even if the masters they're using are still crap.

As for the discussion above about the TV specials as movies -- they're not movies. They did tend to have higher production values than the series, yes, but they were still produced on 16mm film, for a 4:3 frame, on a much lower budget than the movies, and assembled for a TV debut. The reason for the higher production values probably mostly boils down to the longer timeframe for the production, but regardless... At the very best, you could consider them TV movies, but that makes the terminology confusing. TV specials is the correct categorisation for them. There's no real reason to lump them with the movies; Toei never do.

Since they’re specials, I assume the two are meant to be viewed in 4:3 only and not 16:9 OR 4:3 like the thirteen films.

Precisely.
The TV specials were created with 4:3, and only 4:3, in mind. The movies were created, not even with 16:9, but with 1.85:1 in mind as the main ratio, but with animation done such that 4:3 would work for TV. I believe the correct terminology is it was filmed mainly for 1.85:1, but protected for 4:3.

See somewhat opposite cases in: Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which were both filmed for 4:3 onto film with a ratio fairly close to 8:5(Frequently called 16:10), which means a widescreen master could be scanned off it, but they were not protected for anything wider than 4:3, so you'd have edges of sets, crew members, lighting equipment, even parts of the camera in those 16:9 areas.
The Dragon Ball movies were put on 4:3 film, but protected for 4:3 by animating such that 4:3 would work for TV presentations. However, it was primarily assembled for 1.85:1, so if a mistake slips in outside the 1.85:1 area, as did happen in about 5 or 6 shots of the movies, then it's no big deal.

The TV specials were animated like the TV show, though. They were shot on 4:3 film, framed for 4:3 viewing, and never intended to be seen cropped to 16:9, 1.85:1, or anything else wider or thinner than 4:3.

[KBABZ]

There's no real reason to lump them with the movies

The main site puts them all on a general "Movie Guide" page rather than a "Movies & Specials" page, if that's worth anything.

[Robo4900]

There's no real reason to lump them with the movies

The main site puts them all on a general "Movie Guide" page rather than a "Movies & Specials" page, if that's worth anything.

Sure... Under the "Television specials" header, alongside the Summer Vacation and Year-End specials... And they're also present in the relevant parts of the TV show guides, which is what the navigation links in the pages themselves point to...

[KBABZ]

There's no real reason to lump them with the movies

The main site puts them all on a general "Movie Guide" page rather than a "Movies & Specials" page, if that's worth anything.

Sure... Under the "Television specials" header, alongside the Summer Vacation and Year-End specials... And they're also present in the relevant parts of the TV show guides, which is what the navigation links in the pages themselves point to...

Heh, true enough. Could we lobby to have the title of the page changed to Movies and Specials, then?