MasenkoHA wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:56 am
90sDBZ wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:51 am
I know many would have liked to have the Westwood dub on there too, but that never aired in the US, so wouldn't really have been marketable.
AB Groupe is more likely to have the masters than Funimation, I would think.
First off, just because the Westwood dub didn't air in the US, doesn't mean it wouldn't be marketable. It's not hard to imagine that if an Ocean box set of 1-53 would sell, people would be interested in a version of that which would also include 108-276.
And remember, in Canada, the Westwood masters of 108-167 aired with Funimation's dub audio on it, so you could even dual-track those episodes. Throw in Funi 54-107 (either the Canadian edit, or the mainstream one), and double-up 168-276 to contain Funi's TV version of those episodes (maybe halve the number of episodes per disc for 168-276 so you can include both versions of each of those episodes on one disc), and you have everything.
Granted, this would be a big set, but they sold RTD as a collectors' box, so why not do it like this? It would pretty much close the book on people asking for the edited dubs, it would cater to both the American and Canadian audience, and MangaUK could import it and cater to the UK audience.
... But Funi would never do this.
Second off, AB Groupe only ever distributed the PAL version of the show to European territories that picked it up. Westwood Media, which is essentially a production arm of Ocean, actually produced it, so Ocean would most likely still have the original NTSC masters (including the less-edited Canadian versions of some episodes that were more edited on the PAL airings -- granted, evidence of the PAL airings having any additional cuts are inconsistent, but I do know for a fact that the Canadian airings had less motion blur censorship of flashing images), and Funi and Ocean have worked together since '98 (IIRC Funi had Ocean dub the last couple of seasons of a show they'd originally dubbed the first few of under another company, to have a consistent voice cast on the dub of the show. And in Dragon Ball specifically, Funi kept some of Ocean's writers on-board until at least GT. And of course, for Kai, they licensed Ocean's edited video master).
And Toei may have the masters somewhere.
And because Ocean's rights to record the Westwood dubs almost certainly came from a loophole in their contract to act as the local producer signing the actors' paychecks in the Saban era (Ian Corlett is fairly sure this is how it happened, and has talked about this stuff in the past a few times; given his involvement in these dubs, I think it's fair to assume he's right), I'm 99% sure Funimation could throw their weight around and release this dub on DVD without having to deal with any red tape about licensing or acquiring masters; the worst case is Funi have to license it from Ocean/IPP and could have the masters transferred and delivered with ease, and the best case is that the legalities of this all means Funi are alright entitled to the rights to release this stuff, and happen to have copies of these masters squirrelled away somewhere. The truth is likely closer to the worst case scenario tbh... Which isn't a problem.
Either way, I don't think AB Groupe enter into it at all.
The only thing that enters into any of this as a potential roadblock is that Funimation would have ZERO interest in acknowledging Ocean's post-1998 dubbing AT ALL. Anything that suggests Ocean's dubbing was anything more than an obscure, fun thing that happened briefly in the '90s and was over after just a year or two of this franchise's 25-year history
(in America, as presented by Funimation. Though they frequently forget that part, conveniently enough...), forgotten as just some weird, obscure artefact of the '90s, would be antithetical to Funi's attitude on Ocean's work since the move in-house.
... So I don't think Funi would ever even consider doing this themselves. I think MangaUK
COULD do something, but they don't tend to do their own releases, so it's unlikely.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.
I never heard that before anywhere, it's really too bad that didn't end up happening, I definitely would've paid good money to have all of the recaps and NEPs with Dale Kelly.
