I also remember that when it was announced Faulconer wasn't going to do GT's music that BF gave out the e-mail addresses of several top execs at Funi and asked his fans to e-mail them asking them to hire Faulconer again. (according to a friend of Sonny Strait's on his old website, Funi wasn't amused about this at all)
....
Actually, why did they replace Faulconer anyway for GT? Faulconer actually does have some good catchy tunes but Menza's music for GT was literally complete garbage. (I'm not joking, I know I've complained about Faulconer's music in the past before but it's not that bad and it honestly sounds like the London Symphony Orchestra compared to Menza)
I know Jon Allen once said something about Funimation being happy with Menza's performance with DBZ Movie 6 (which had good music) but Menza never really ever hit that level of quality again.
Faulconer Productions Reorganization
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Re: Faulconer Productions Reorganization
Sean Schemmel is THE MAN! :)
Me- "Also, before anyone mentions it, Schemmel's interview was from nearly 15 years ago. He paid a brief visit to Kanzenshuu's forums a few years back and earned legendary respect that cancels out anything he said from that long ago. :D"
Me- "Also, before anyone mentions it, Schemmel's interview was from nearly 15 years ago. He paid a brief visit to Kanzenshuu's forums a few years back and earned legendary respect that cancels out anything he said from that long ago. :D"
Re: Faulconer Productions Reorganization
After reading all of the stuff you used to write on the DBZOA website, I never expected you to acknowledge that Faulconer's score is "not bad"GS7X7 wrote:Actually, why did they replace Faulconer anyway for GT? Faulconer actually does have some good catchy tunes but Menza's music for GT was literally complete garbage. (I'm not joking, I know I've complained about Faulconer's music in the past before but it's not that bad and it honestly sounds like the London Symphony Orchestra compared to Menza)
Menza was an interesting composer for the Dragon Ball series. He did a fairly good job with Movie 6, even creating a little theme (his SSJ theme) that got reprised in a couple of later movies and in GT. Then I don't know what happened. I would actually guess GT's music resulted from more of a direction from Funi than Menza's stylistic choices. I know you remember their "hardcore" marketing campaign. GT's dub completely changed the nature of the show, something that was only recently rectified by the Green Brick sets (which still feature the unnecessarily "hardcore" narration). The hip-hop, constant drum beat score for GT was apparently designed to make the show that much more hardcore. I half expected Super 17 to hold his gun sideways (gangsta style) and threaten to bust a cap in SSJ4 Goku's ass...
I suspect the replacing Faulconer decision was made because Menza probably came a little cheaper, did a decent job with Movie 6, and didn't give out executives' direct email addresses to anyone who ever contacted him about his music. Faulconer could likely have asked for more money for GT because, outside of the anime community that had been watching the fansubs and whatnot beforehand, his music apparently was fairly popular. I know I enjoyed it, and it seems that as fans who were kids back during its run got older, they became more vocal about how much they enjoyed it. I doubt I would have really enjoyed GT like I did Z regardless of what score it had, but for me, a Faulconer score would have been vastly better than the garbage we got.
Re: Faulconer Productions Reorganization
Well, times change and views change, heh. I even plan on redoing all my old movie reviews. (mainly because all the ones before Movie 6 suck, and because SSJLeia made me make the tv specials negative when I really wanted to praise them. My movie 6 and 8 reviews I'm happy with, as well as 7.... the movie 7 dub was so bad it needed to be torn apart)
Actually, Mark Menza is the main reason I reassessed Faulconer. When I heard Menza's music in GT I was like, "you know, Faulconer REALLY wasn't that bad compared to this garbage." If Shuki Levy was a guy on a casio keyboard and Faulconer simply allowed his cat to jump all over the keyboard (like Psaros once famously remarked) then Menza gave Ex-Lax to his cat and simply allowed it to take a dump on a casio keyboard and a guitar while he recorded the whole thing.
I am serious though, there is absolutely nothing redeeming about Menza's GT score. It allowed me to see the positive in Faulconer's work but that was it.
Even with the first and last dubbed episodes of GT Menza still dropped the ball. (the ending sequence with the credits was especially painful to watch)
To my knowledge I've yet to encounter any strong fans of Menza though I've found a number for Faulconer.
Actually, Mark Menza is the main reason I reassessed Faulconer. When I heard Menza's music in GT I was like, "you know, Faulconer REALLY wasn't that bad compared to this garbage." If Shuki Levy was a guy on a casio keyboard and Faulconer simply allowed his cat to jump all over the keyboard (like Psaros once famously remarked) then Menza gave Ex-Lax to his cat and simply allowed it to take a dump on a casio keyboard and a guitar while he recorded the whole thing.
I am serious though, there is absolutely nothing redeeming about Menza's GT score. It allowed me to see the positive in Faulconer's work but that was it.
Even with the first and last dubbed episodes of GT Menza still dropped the ball. (the ending sequence with the credits was especially painful to watch)
To my knowledge I've yet to encounter any strong fans of Menza though I've found a number for Faulconer.
Sean Schemmel is THE MAN! :)
Me- "Also, before anyone mentions it, Schemmel's interview was from nearly 15 years ago. He paid a brief visit to Kanzenshuu's forums a few years back and earned legendary respect that cancels out anything he said from that long ago. :D"
Me- "Also, before anyone mentions it, Schemmel's interview was from nearly 15 years ago. He paid a brief visit to Kanzenshuu's forums a few years back and earned legendary respect that cancels out anything he said from that long ago. :D"
Re: Faulconer Productions Reorganization
I've had a long, miserable, and busy week. That sentence not only made me smile, it made me laugh out loud. Thank you for thatGS7X7 wrote:If Shuki Levy was a guy on a casio keyboard and Faulconer simply allowed his cat to jump all over the keyboard (like Psaros once famously remarked) then Menza gave Ex-Lax to his cat and simply allowed it to take a dump on a casio keyboard and a guitar while he recorded the whole thing.
As for Menza's quality, the only defense I have for it is that occasionally, he would stumble upon a theme. I think a lot of it was a mistake. The only song people are really quick to defend, and for good reason in my opinion, is his Super 17 Theme. The problem is that it almost sounds like a mistake when compared to the rest of the music. The Faulconer dub ended on the really strong note of the Buu Theme and its numerous variations, each of which was used well and clearly done intentionally to develop the character through music. For Super 17, you're sitting there watching it and suddenly something mildly memorable is heard and your first reaction is, "Really?"
I completely agree with the comment about the music over the ending sequence, though. That whole thing is a major problem in the dub, first because the music sucks, and then because even when Dan Dan is put back in, the stupid narration and sound effects play over it completely unnecessarily.
Incidentally, I remember some of your movie reviews. I remember reading your review of movie 6 back in the day, which was partially what encouraged me to buy it the next time I went out to the mall a few days later. It was one of the first relatively positive ones. And movie 7... oh, movie 7. Say what you want about his Garlic Jr. voice, but Chuck Huber is generally a solid VA (see, e.g., Hiei). But that ridiculous Android 13 voice... and that god awful music... and the not-even-the-kind-of-bad-you-can-laugh-at script... I hated that dub. It needs to die.
Re: Faulconer Productions Reorganization
If Funimation wanted to be really creative then they should have remixed with...
1. Some dub American music. (some from Faulconer and Shuki, and maybe some- mostly Movie 6- from Menza)
2. Some Japanese DBZ-GT music.
3. Other J. music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUvEdpkMV_Q
Like take this song! Imagine if this was used for all the most epic fights in GT! Instead of seeing a musical composition as inherently perfect or flawed, they should see have seen it as something that could be improved upon and looked for a kind of synthesis instead. It'd require a bigger music budget but if they ever re-re-redub all of DBZGT (hey, you never know) I wouldn't mind if they did this.
Btw, how much of DBZ-GT has the original music or dual-soundtrack options for the dub? I know the redub of Seasons 1-2 has dual, Kai's all original and I heard they added dual to DBGT.... do any of the movies offer these options?
1. Some dub American music. (some from Faulconer and Shuki, and maybe some- mostly Movie 6- from Menza)
2. Some Japanese DBZ-GT music.
3. Other J. music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUvEdpkMV_Q
Like take this song! Imagine if this was used for all the most epic fights in GT! Instead of seeing a musical composition as inherently perfect or flawed, they should see have seen it as something that could be improved upon and looked for a kind of synthesis instead. It'd require a bigger music budget but if they ever re-re-redub all of DBZGT (hey, you never know) I wouldn't mind if they did this.
Btw, how much of DBZ-GT has the original music or dual-soundtrack options for the dub? I know the redub of Seasons 1-2 has dual, Kai's all original and I heard they added dual to DBGT.... do any of the movies offer these options?
Sean Schemmel is THE MAN! :)
Me- "Also, before anyone mentions it, Schemmel's interview was from nearly 15 years ago. He paid a brief visit to Kanzenshuu's forums a few years back and earned legendary respect that cancels out anything he said from that long ago. :D"
Me- "Also, before anyone mentions it, Schemmel's interview was from nearly 15 years ago. He paid a brief visit to Kanzenshuu's forums a few years back and earned legendary respect that cancels out anything he said from that long ago. :D"
Re: Faulconer Productions Reorganization
Well, if you get the Orange Bricks and Green Bricks for Z and GT, respectively, they have both music tracks on them, though the GT sets wisely completely removed the "Take it to the Grand Tour" "song." The Z sets have Nate Johnson for the first 64 episodes, then Faulconer for the rest. Kikuchi's score is the default option.
The movies and TV specials included in those 2-disc steelbook sets all have both music options for the dub, as does the GT TV Special included on the last disc of GT vol. 2.
Also, "The Biggest Fight" was one of the first Japanese songs I came across back in the early days of the whole internet thing. After waiting 25 minutes to download it a 3kbps, my ears were blown away by it. So good.
The movies and TV specials included in those 2-disc steelbook sets all have both music options for the dub, as does the GT TV Special included on the last disc of GT vol. 2.
Also, "The Biggest Fight" was one of the first Japanese songs I came across back in the early days of the whole internet thing. After waiting 25 minutes to download it a 3kbps, my ears were blown away by it. So good.