Who composed Rock the Dragon?

[MasenkoHA]

I mean a lot of censorship and standards and practices don’t make sense


Kids understand the concept of death. It’s one of the most basic fundamentals of life. If kids can understand Scar killed Mufasa they can understand Freeza and his gang killing Nameks. No matter how many times Saban forced Funimation to say “Trapped in another dimension” any kid watching would see X character has a halo on their head= dead dead dead

The impact stars were utterly pointless (as well as just tacky) but it was clear as day they were covering up punches to the face

Kids will see adults smoking and drinking all the time. Who cares if Roshi drinks beer or Ox King and Dr.Briefs smoke as long as nobody a kid would actually want to imitate (read: Goku, Vegeta) is smoking or drinking

[Planetnamek]

I mean a lot of censorship and standards and practices don’t make sense


Kids understand the concept of death. It’s one of the most basic fundamentals of life. If kids can understand Scar killed Mufasa they can understand Freeza and his gang killing Nameks. No matter how many times Saban forced Funimation to say “Trapped in another dimension” any kid watching would see X character has a halo on their head= dead dead dead

The impact stars were utterly pointless (as well as just tacky) but it was clear as day they were covering up punches to the face

Kids will see adults smoking and drinking all the time. Who cares if Roshi drinks beer or Ox King and Dr.Briefs smoke as long as nobody a kid would actually want to imitate (read: Goku, Vegeta) is smoking or drinking

I agree, but the FCC feels differently.

[MasenkoHA]

I mean a lot of censorship and standards and practices don’t make sense


Kids understand the concept of death. It’s one of the most basic fundamentals of life. If kids can understand Scar killed Mufasa they can understand Freeza and his gang killing Nameks. No matter how many times Saban forced Funimation to say “Trapped in another dimension” any kid watching would see X character has a halo on their head= dead dead dead

The impact stars were utterly pointless (as well as just tacky) but it was clear as day they were covering up punches to the face

Kids will see adults smoking and drinking all the time. Who cares if Roshi drinks beer or Ox King and Dr.Briefs smoke as long as nobody a kid would actually want to imitate (read: Goku, Vegeta) is smoking or drinking

I agree, but the FCC feels differently.

Again, the FCC isn’t responsible for most of this stuff.
Saban made sure the show was censored well past the FCC’ standards

[jjgp1112]

There's definitely a lot of self editing, because when you look at a show like Avatar The Last Airbender, that show regularly talked about death and violence (I mean genocide is like the core element of the entire plot ) yet DBZ Kai on Nicktoons always resorted to euphemisms whenever the subject of death came up, even more so than on Cartoon Network when they only avoided the word "kill." Funimation was probably playing it as safe as possible.

[WittyUsername]

It’s definitely not far fetched to assume that Saban was probably pretty finicky about censorship and promoting positive morales for kids. I mean, Power Rangers has always insisted on using the word “destroy” instead of “kill” or “die”, no matter how awkward the former sounds, and MMPR in particular made a big deal out of portraying the Rangers as a bunch of upbeat goody goods who are always doing activist work.

There's definitely a lot of self editing, because when you look at a show like Avatar The Last Airbender, that show regularly talked about death and violence (I mean genocide is like the core element of the entire plot ) yet DBZ Kai on Nicktoons always resorted to euphemisms whenever the subject of death came up, even more so than on Cartoon Network when they only avoided the word "kill." Funimation was probably playing it as safe as possible.

In the case of DBZK on Nicktoons, from what I understand, the early episodes actually did have the characters acknowledging death. Apparently, the decision to phase out anything related to “die” or “kill” was made specifically so that less work would need to be done for the CW broadcast.

[AlexSketchy04]

I mean a lot of censorship and standards and practices don’t make sense


Kids understand the concept of death. It’s one of the most basic fundamentals of life. If kids can understand Scar killed Mufasa they can understand Freeza and his gang killing Nameks. No matter how many times Saban forced Funimation to say “Trapped in another dimension” any kid watching would see X character has a halo on their head= dead dead dead

The impact stars were utterly pointless (as well as just tacky) but it was clear as day they were covering up punches to the face

Kids will see adults smoking and drinking all the time. Who cares if Roshi drinks beer or Ox King and Dr.Briefs smoke as long as nobody a kid would actually want to imitate (read: Goku, Vegeta) is smoking or drinking

I agree, but the FCC feels differently.

Again, the FCC isn’t responsible for most of this stuff.
Saban made sure the show was censored well past the FCC’ standards

Actually, cigarettes and alcohol are those things that the FCC has as a No No for Kid shows, same with Nudity

Saban only edited the show according to the Network standards, i don't think Saban themselves had any Standards on what to edit

[MasenkoHA]

I agree, but the FCC feels differently.

Again, the FCC isn’t responsible for most of this stuff.
Saban made sure the show was censored well past the FCC’ standards

Actually, cigarettes and alcohol are those things that the FCC has as a No No for Kid shows, same with Nudity

Saban only edited the show according to the Network standards, i don't think Saban themselves had any Standards on what to edit

Yes, Saban did have restrictive standards independent of, and far more than restrictive than, the FCC. This is why DBZ under them was censored far more than a lot of its peers.

There isn’t any evidence showing smoking or drinking is any sort of rule beyond networks going “We don’t want MADD or PTV coming after us”

[jjgp1112]

It’s definitely not far fetched to assume that Saban was probably pretty finicky about censorship and promoting positive morales for kids. I mean, Power Rangers has always insisted on using the word “destroy” instead of “kill” or “die”, no matter how awkward the former sounds, and MMPR in particular made a big deal out of portraying the Rangers as a bunch of upbeat goody goods who are always doing activist work.

There's definitely a lot of self editing, because when you look at a show like Avatar The Last Airbender, that show regularly talked about death and violence (I mean genocide is like the core element of the entire plot ) yet DBZ Kai on Nicktoons always resorted to euphemisms whenever the subject of death came up, even more so than on Cartoon Network when they only avoided the word "kill." Funimation was probably playing it as safe as possible.

In the case of DBZK on Nicktoons, from what I understand, the early episodes actually did have the characters acknowledging death. Apparently, the decision to phase out anything related to “die” or “kill” was made specifically so that less work would need to be done for the CW broadcast.

Ah, makes sense.

[Robo4900]

I... kinda get it... but it doesn't really make sense why they allowed the first 3 episodes run uncut with their standards (Death, Kill, etc)

I'm sure something must have happened to make their standards more strict

But at the same time, the explanation kinda makes sense

Umm. The first 4 episodes WERE NOT uncut. They were heavily cut down, and there were heavy edits all over the place; the farmer has a line after the bullet goes through him to show he's not really dead, also his cigarette was edited out, and blood was all edited out... Hell, Gohan's tears when he's crying because Raditz is holding him at the beginning of episode 2 were digitally edited out.

Saban imposed some pretty serious restrictions early on. The thing I've heard in regards to "Never say die" is that because the first four episodes leaned so heavily on that, they were advised to tone it down... Off, if possible (it's possible this was prompted by a parent complaint or something). So, to be safe, they decided to completely remove all such references.

[Planetnamek]

I... kinda get it... but it doesn't really make sense why they allowed the first 3 episodes run uncut with their standards (Death, Kill, etc)

I'm sure something must have happened to make their standards more strict

But at the same time, the explanation kinda makes sense

Umm. The first 4 episodes WERE NOT uncut. They were heavily cut down, and there were heavy edits all over the place; the farmer has a line after the bullet goes through him to show he's not really dead, also his cigarette was edited out, and blood was all edited out... Hell, Gohan's tears when he's crying because Raditz is holding him at the beginning of episode 2 were digitally edited out.

Saban imposed some pretty serious restrictions early on. The thing I've heard in regards to "Never say die" is that because the first four episodes leaned so heavily on that, they were advised to tone it down... Off, if possible (it's possible this was prompted by a parent complaint or something). So, to be safe, they decided to completely remove all such references.

Yeah sometimes that happens with original dub airings, I remember one episode of Yu-Gi-Oh originally had the symbols for the Dungeon Dice crests completely unaltered in the first airing, but then changed for all subsequent airings and the home video releases(Because one of the symbols resembled the Star of David). I don't know if that first airing was a mistake or if someone complained and 4Kids changed it as a result.

[MasenkoHA]

I... kinda get it... but it doesn't really make sense why they allowed the first 3 episodes run uncut with their standards (Death, Kill, etc)

I'm sure something must have happened to make their standards more strict

But at the same time, the explanation kinda makes sense

Umm. The first 4 episodes WERE NOT uncut. They were heavily cut down, and there were heavy edits all over the place; the farmer has a line after the bullet goes through him to show he's not really dead, also his cigarette was edited out, and blood was all edited out... Hell, Gohan's tears when he's crying because Raditz is holding him at the beginning of episode 2 were digitally edited out.

Saban imposed some pretty serious restrictions early on. The thing I've heard in regards to "Never say die" is that because the first four episodes leaned so heavily on that, they were advised to tone it down... Off, if possible (it's possible this was prompted by a parent complaint or something). So, to be safe, they decided to completely remove all such references.

What’s funny is they altered Chi Chi’s line

“I’m gonna worry myself to death”

to

“All this worrying is going to give me wrinkles”


...just to be extra safe I guess even though its just an expression, yet, iirc, they kept Raditz telling Gohan “You’ll have a death worthy of a Saiyan” even in the re-airings, despite that being worse.

And then later in the Namek saga Bulma says something like “If we crash and die, I’m gonna be very upset” which is really no different than Chi Chi saying she’ll worry herself to death.

[AlexSketchy04]

I... kinda get it... but it doesn't really make sense why they allowed the first 3 episodes run uncut with their standards (Death, Kill, etc)

I'm sure something must have happened to make their standards more strict

But at the same time, the explanation kinda makes sense

Umm. The first 4 episodes WERE NOT uncut. They were heavily cut down, and there were heavy edits all over the place; the farmer has a line after the bullet goes through him to show he's not really dead, also his cigarette was edited out, and blood was all edited out... Hell, Gohan's tears when he's crying because Raditz is holding him at the beginning of episode 2 were digitally edited out.

Saban imposed some pretty serious restrictions early on. The thing I've heard in regards to "Never say die" is that because the first four episodes leaned so heavily on that, they were advised to tone it down... Off, if possible (it's possible this was prompted by a parent complaint or something). So, to be safe, they decided to completely remove all such references.

Uncut in terms of dialogue (Death in the air, we'll be killed, etc) it was still visually edited

And yeah, i think there was a complain, Gen mentioned once it was a network request (or something like that)

[Planetnamek]

I... kinda get it... but it doesn't really make sense why they allowed the first 3 episodes run uncut with their standards (Death, Kill, etc)

I'm sure something must have happened to make their standards more strict

But at the same time, the explanation kinda makes sense

Umm. The first 4 episodes WERE NOT uncut. They were heavily cut down, and there were heavy edits all over the place; the farmer has a line after the bullet goes through him to show he's not really dead, also his cigarette was edited out, and blood was all edited out... Hell, Gohan's tears when he's crying because Raditz is holding him at the beginning of episode 2 were digitally edited out.

Saban imposed some pretty serious restrictions early on. The thing I've heard in regards to "Never say die" is that because the first four episodes leaned so heavily on that, they were advised to tone it down... Off, if possible (it's possible this was prompted by a parent complaint or something). So, to be safe, they decided to completely remove all such references.

Uncut in terms of dialogue (Death in the air, we'll be killed, etc) it was still visually edited

And yeah, i think there was a complain, Gen mentioned once it was a network request (or something like that)

Not surprising, parents love to complain about just about anything in kids shows. Even 4Kids edited dub of Shaman King still got more then a few complaints from parents.

[MasenkoHA]

I... kinda get it... but it doesn't really make sense why they allowed the first 3 episodes run uncut with their standards (Death, Kill, etc)

I'm sure something must have happened to make their standards more strict

But at the same time, the explanation kinda makes sense

Umm. The first 4 episodes WERE NOT uncut. They were heavily cut down, and there were heavy edits all over the place; the farmer has a line after the bullet goes through him to show he's not really dead, also his cigarette was edited out, and blood was all edited out... Hell, Gohan's tears when he's crying because Raditz is holding him at the beginning of episode 2 were digitally edited out.

Saban imposed some pretty serious restrictions early on. The thing I've heard in regards to "Never say die" is that because the first four episodes leaned so heavily on that, they were advised to tone it down... Off, if possible (it's possible this was prompted by a parent complaint or something). So, to be safe, they decided to completely remove all such references.

Uncut in terms of dialogue (Death in the air, we'll be killed, etc) it was still visually edited

And yeah, i think there was a complain, Gen mentioned once it was a network request (or something like that)

That’s not what uncut means though.


It was still an edited product: scenes removed and rearrange for pacing. The inexplicably durable farmer who was only in mild pain from slamming into a Chevrolet, Goku and Raditz bloody wounds censored away. Lechery and alcohol removed etc

It was just the edited dub ended up not being edited enough and Saban made them go back and remove most references to death and killing

[WittyUsername]

Umm. The first 4 episodes WERE NOT uncut. They were heavily cut down, and there were heavy edits all over the place; the farmer has a line after the bullet goes through him to show he's not really dead, also his cigarette was edited out, and blood was all edited out... Hell, Gohan's tears when he's crying because Raditz is holding him at the beginning of episode 2 were digitally edited out.

Saban imposed some pretty serious restrictions early on. The thing I've heard in regards to "Never say die" is that because the first four episodes leaned so heavily on that, they were advised to tone it down... Off, if possible (it's possible this was prompted by a parent complaint or something). So, to be safe, they decided to completely remove all such references.

Uncut in terms of dialogue (Death in the air, we'll be killed, etc) it was still visually edited

And yeah, i think there was a complain, Gen mentioned once it was a network request (or something like that)

That’s not what uncut means though.


It was still an edited product: scenes removed and rearrange for pacing. The inexplicably durable farmer who was only in mild pain from slamming into a Chevrolet, Goku and Raditz bloody wounds censored away. Lechery and alcohol removed etc

It was just the edited dub ended up not being edited enough and Saban made them go back and remove most references to death and killing

As much as I think the attempts at censorship were silly, I wouldn’t say that it would be a stretch for the farmer to survive that, considering that Mr. Satan survived getting flung into a mountain, and the Pilaf gang survived getting dropped from an airship.

[AlexSketchy04]

Uncut in terms of dialogue (Death in the air, we'll be killed, etc) it was still visually edited

And yeah, i think there was a complain, Gen mentioned once it was a network request (or something like that)

That’s not what uncut means though.


It was still an edited product: scenes removed and rearrange for pacing. The inexplicably durable farmer who was only in mild pain from slamming into a Chevrolet, Goku and Raditz bloody wounds censored away. Lechery and alcohol removed etc

It was just the edited dub ended up not being edited enough and Saban made them go back and remove most references to death and killing

As much as I think the attempts at censorship were silly, I wouldn’t say that it would be a stretch for the farmer to survive that, considering that Mr. Satan survived getting flung into a mountain, and the Pilaf gang survived getting dropped from an airship.

Didn't the farmer appeared in future episodes? i swear that i saw him during the android saga

[MasenkoHA]

He did not

[jjgp1112]

That’s not what uncut means though.


It was still an edited product: scenes removed and rearrange for pacing. The inexplicably durable farmer who was only in mild pain from slamming into a Chevrolet, Goku and Raditz bloody wounds censored away. Lechery and alcohol removed etc

It was just the edited dub ended up not being edited enough and Saban made them go back and remove most references to death and killing

As much as I think the attempts at censorship were silly, I wouldn’t say that it would be a stretch for the farmer to survive that, considering that Mr. Satan survived getting flung into a mountain, and the Pilaf gang survived getting dropped from an airship.

Didn't the farmer appeared in future episodes? i swear



i saw him during the android saga

No, Toei just recycles character designs for random filler characters

[Super Sonic]

It’s definitely not far fetched to assume that Saban was probably pretty finicky about censorship and promoting positive morals for kids. I mean, Power Rangers has always insisted on using the word “destroy” instead of “kill” or “die”, no matter how awkward the former sounds, and MMPR in particular made a big deal out of portraying the Rangers as a bunch of upbeat goody goods who are always doing activist work.

TV things as the first movie used direct references like "kill" and "die/dying" as movie could get away with more. Though the chanting "Leap to our doom," sounds funnier than outright saying kill themselves (to the target audience anyways).

With the stuff regarding direct references to death, sometimes with stuff on tv some shows could refer every once in a bit, while others couldn't. I remember the old Toonami days when it was dominated by DBZ and other Funi works and Bandai shows. DBZ could use the word "kill" while the Bandai shows couldn't, though they didn't always replace "kill" with "destroy". Used to think it was kinda funny during the old Midnight Run was airing G Gundam and G.I. Joe with the former showing killing without saying the word "kill" and the latter doing the opposite at times. Though sometimes some shows can be clever about it and know what they mean. For example, Ultimate Spider-Man had an episode with Deadpool talking about "Un-aliving" Taskmaster and his goons and when Spidey asked what he meant he said he couldn't say the "k-word" out loud then used euphemisms till Spidey realized and asked if he wanted to kill them directly. Deadpool said it did sound bad when saying it out loud, and confirmed it.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Old thread I know, but thought I'd post as I have an update, however minor.

I took it upon myself to email Ron Wasserman and ask if he knew Jeremy Sweet. I figured even though Ron composed the score at home if anyone knew Jeremy personally it would be him by dint of their mutual association with Saban. I also said he could pass on my email for Jeremy to reach out to me if he could confirm whether or not he sang Rock the Dragon.

Turns out Ron Wasserman did know Jeremy Sweet but hasn't spoken to him since the 90s, although he too is interested in knowing did Jeremy sing the song. He advised me to try Facebook to locate Jeremy. I've tried on and off for years but haven't been able to find any contact details for Jeremy Sweet, social media included.

So if anyone does find a way to track Jeremy Sweet down please do so. Hopefully this mystery will one day be solved.