My Specials and Movies Marathon

[MagicBox]

For the record, here's what the dub music credits on FUNi's DVDs say.

Dragon Ball Z Movie 01: Mark Menza

Dragon Ball Z Movie 02: Nathan Johnson

Dragon Ball Z Movie 03: Nathan Johnson

Dragon Ball Z Movie 04: The licensed vocal songs are credited, with "additional music scoring by Bruce Faulconer and Cakemix Music."

Dragon Ball Z Movie 05: Only the licensed vocal songs are credited.

Dragon Ball Z Movie 06: Mark Menza

Dragon Ball Z Movie 07: Mark Menza

Dragon Ball Z Movie 08: Both Mark Menza and Bruce Faulconer are credited for this one, in addition to the licensed vocal songs.

Dragon Ball Z Movie 09: Mark Menza

Dragon Ball Z Movie 10: Nathan Johnson & I.O.N

Dragon Ball Z Movie 11: Mark Menza

Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Nathan Johnson & Dave Moran

Dragon Ball Z Movie 13: Nathan Johnson

On the "remastered" double-feature and movie pack discs, Mark Menza is incorrectly credited for movie 12 and 13's music.

[Valerius Dover]

^Ah, nice, thanks for the list! That makes it pretty clear. Hmm, I'll see for myself once I get to the later Movies how similar the style is to Dead Zone.

On another note, does Movie 5 have anything but Insert Songs?

Oh, and another thing. The Season Sets don't credit Johnson or Falconer at all. The Specials and Movies are the first place I've seen the US composers credited.

[clutchins]

On another note, does Movie 5 have anything but Insert Songs?

Yeah I think that's correct. That's why I never liked the dubs for the middle movies (4-7) because they relied too heavily on those hard rock bands. At least Broly and Bojack were kind of cool/interesting as far as DBZ movies go.
And no I haven't seen them with the Kikuchi score yet but I probably will soon.

[Valerius Dover]

Ok, now we've gone ahead and seen the next two Movies, Dragon Ball Z: Tree of Might and Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.

Movie 3 Notes

-Turles is a great villain, too!
-His henchmen are pretty generic. All of them do get lines, but none of them are named until the credits. For those not in the know, the twins are Lakasei and Rasin, Cacao is the one with the garbled voice, Amond seems to be the biggest, and Daiz is the other one.
-No weird Gohan sequence? I was hoping that'd be a thing in all the Movies.
-We get to see where Icarus came from. Which would be great if this fit.
-Johnson's music has a lot of militaristic drum beats in this one used for the villains.

Movie 4 Notes

-For quite possibly the only time in the Movie Franchise, the Opening is placed at the very beginning.
-Lord Slug is voiced by Brice Armstrong, aka Captain Ginyu and the narrator from Dragon Ball.
-His henchmen are a mixed bag. Angila and Medamatcha are the only ones named, while Wings is the only other one with decent screentime. Commander Zeun, who really obviously is Brad Jackson, gets killed in his first scene. Is this the fate that Tagoma has to look forward to in Movie 15? There are also two aides who don't do much.
-The music.....they put on a bunch of heavy metal songs, with maybe about 5 or so Falconer tracks all from the series. So, instead of cinematic scores like the first three, we get all insert songs and recycled music, he kind of stuff you'd expect from a fandub. That being said, I can't deny that it was freakin' badass. Special props go to Piccolo's entrance.
-Gohan gets to whistle.....YAY.
-Ending Theme is Coming of Age. How fitting given Slug's condition early in the Movie.

Also, neither Movie has the Narrator speaking, despite the fact that Kyle Hebert is credited as doing so in Movie 3.

[Valerius Dover]

Ok, now I've seen Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge and Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler.

Movie 5 Notes

-What a way to open a movie. I mean, holy shit, this is the most badass Movie prologue I've seen yet. The flashback sequence, the song playing, everything is just pure awesome!
-Aside from that, I don't have much to comment on the song placement in the Movie, but they seem to be louder on average than the ones in Movie 4. Also, the cues seem a bit odd at points, such as the transition from Chi-Chi doing a face-fault to Cooler receiving news of his brother's demise. The song starts playing as Chi-Chi falls. It also stops abruptly just after the scene ends.
-Cooler's Armored Squadron are way cooler henchmen than the ones in the previous films. Salza is apparently Jeice's French cousin, Neiz has the retracting head, and Dore is just sort of there.
-Another unique Ending Theme, one of many songs licensed for the Movie.
-Oh, and finally, the Narrator speaks again in this Movie, as well as the next one.

Movie 6 Notes

-Meta-Cooler really presents some interesting twists, and sort of reminds me of Buu in a way.
-Vegeta finally makes his Movie debut. Great to have him back!
-Music is somewhat different than Menza's own Movie 1 work, sounding a lot like his Opening Theme at times. Also, there's a lot of silence in this Movie. A lot. Whereas the Series and Specials don't allow for much, the first 3 Movies had a few moments of silence, while Movies 4 and 5 used it a fair amount between songs. But this one is an American score with plenty of actual silence. Overall, it's great stuff and never really feels awkward at all.
-The scene at the end where Goku and Vegeta fall is just hilarious.

[Dyno]

Movie 5 Notes

-What a way to open a movie. I mean, holy shit, this is the most badass Movie prologue I've seen yet. The flashback sequence, the song playing, everything is just pure awesome!

Yep. Movie 5 has the best prologue ever. I'm glad they did the same for Dragon Ball Kai, after all, that is where Dragon Ball truly starts.

[clutchins]

Salza is apparently Jeice's French cousin

Somewhere, antfish is laughing.

[Valerius Dover]

So, now I've gone on to see Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13.

Movie 7 Notes Follow

-This movie is just funny in every way, and I it's evident that not all of it is dub-only. Android 15 has a tendency to slip through the snow a lot.
-Well, Android 14 doesn't contribute much, but 15 is just a joy to watch and listen to. Smooth.
-Android 13 swears mutliple times in this movie, using the word Ass twice in the same scene and Damn later in the movie while Super.
-Mark Menza's music is a bit more chill than the previous movie, but fitting giving the silly nature of the feature. Once again, silence is used. Oh, and the Super Saiyan theme from the previous film returns.

[UltraPerfectCellZ]

-The Ending for Trunks has the series ending theme, rather awkward when placed against that footage. Plus, it ends early.

That must have been from the Double feature release then. Not sure if this has already been said but the original DVD's/VHS and Cartoon Network run had this track play in the credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAxaf3iGSc
It made the ending seem a lot more depressing if you listen to the lyrics but it was better than all the other endings the English side had.
Then the rest of the credits changed to shitty rap music from the Trunks vs Androids fight

[Valerius Dover]

Ok, so now I've seen the one everyone talks about. Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan.

Movie 8 Notes

-The title spoils a major plot point in the Movie, but then again so did the marketing.
-The music is kind of a mixture. There were two or three tracks that seem to have been done by Faulconer, but weren't in the series. The rest of the instrumental BGM was by Menza in the usual style. And then there are the Insert Songs. Not a whole lot of silence in this one, just a few scenes early on.
-Unique Opening Theme, a Remix of the extended second Title Card theme from the series.
-Unique Ending Theme as well, though that's expected from the rock band movies.
-Master Roshi behaves very strangely in this one. It's pretty obvious he's drunk off his ass.
-Krillin's singing is glorious.

Broly Summary

-I can see why people love this character. He's powerful, presented as unstoppable. Vic Mignogna also gives a chilling performance that I didn't expect. The idea of a character not being what he seems is also thrilling! Overall, I'd say I like this character and can see why so many others love him so much! Looking forward to his other appearances (or technically just appearance).

[Dyno]

I have always tried to understand why so many people suck his dick a lot around the world like an icecream, and by reading your review... There's love only for the "strong/stronger/strongest"? But Yajirobe is way, way... Way cooler than it. Chaos, Pilaf, Shuu and Mai... Much better and well developed.

Guess I will never understand why the world do that.

[Kakacarrottop]

Ok, now we've gone ahead and seen the next two Movies, Dragon Ball Z: Tree of Might and Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.

Movie 3 Notes


-His henchmen are pretty generic. All of them do get lines, but none of them are named until the credits. For those not in the know, the twins are Lakasei and Rasin, .

Turles and his henchmen all had pretty generic voices in the FUNi dub. Imo the Ocean actors made them sound slightly more interesting.

[thaman91]

-Unique Opening Theme, a Remix of the extended second Title Card theme from the series.

Are you watching the series on the orange bricks? Because on the orange bricks, they replaced the original Faulconer openings from the old singles with the theme you typically hear on the bricks. So this movie's opening theme is actually a remix of that Faulconer opening theme (which the title card theme is based off of). These were the original openings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK-bZojyxIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2Vl8dJXRiI

[Valerius Dover]

^It's 2015. Nobody who gets into the franchise in 2012 is going to use the singles, which aren't even technically uncut. The Bricks are the only affordable and consistent DVD release that's fully uncut. Everything I see is under the Remastered label. Bricks, Movie Packs, Double Feature for the Specials, you name it. It's consistent and it works.

That being said, I am aware of the older theme songs, I just refer to it in the only way that it's still relevant on the current releases in this day and age. It may not be the opening anymore, but it still survives in the dub through the latter melody being used on Title Cards and various moments through-ought the series.

[Valerius Dover]

And time for another update, now I've seen Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound.

Movie 9 Notes

-This one has a slower beginning than most, spending at least 20 or so minutes at the tournament before even introducing Bojack's crew.
-Speaking of crew, Kogu and Zangya are never referred to by name, except in the credits. Only Bujin and Bido are. Kogu was pretty short lived, while the other three actually survived longer than the average henchmen, so kudos to them.
-We finally get to see Yamcha and Tien for the first time since Movie 3. Speaking of which, the latter is actually referred to by his full name by the announcer, something that never happened in the Z series, but did happen in the Dragon Ball tournaments.
-This movie seems to fit into the timeline with no problems whatsoever. I couldn't even think of anything if I tried.
-Menza's music seems to be average. It started going for hip-hop beat towards the end, almost. Mr. Satan's appearance made me miss his theme from the series, though.
-Trunks swears at one point in this movie, asking what the Hell Kogu is.
-Master Roshi pulled a Terminator.

[Valerius Dover]

Sorry to triple post, but it's time for the usual update. I've now seen Dragon Ball Z: Broly - Second Coming and Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly.

Movie 10 Notes

-Broly isn't nearly as talkative in this one. He yells "Kakarot" a lot and says one line towards the end and that's it.
-Videl sounds a little different, but it is Kara Edwards voicing her. Probably because this was dubbed sometime after the Buu Arc was finished.
-Maloja, the village idiot and self-proclaimed Shaman is never referred to by name. Neither is Coco, the sacrifice volunteer.
-The cast is somewhat downsized, focusing on just a few characters with most regulars not appearing.
-The Narrator gets to speak in this one again. He was absent in the previous movie.
-Music is a mix of Johnson's cinematic score and more Insert Songs. The latter kick in once Broly is involved.


Movie 11 Notes

-For being the least popular Movie, this one I actually found pretty fun!
-Goku has no involvement in the main plot whatsoever. In Movies 9 and 10 he at least helped out a little bit. He does get an appearance at the end, though.
-Downsized cast again. Even Gohan and Videl are absent this time.
-Bio-Broly isn't really Broly, and he looks like he's covered in shit. Probably why even Broly fans hate this movie. He doesn't have any lines either.
-Narrator is missing again.
-Menza's music is somewhat funky earlier on, but then gets more cinematic afterwards, where it starts to remind me of his Movie 1 score.

[theoriginalbilis]

I always find these posts interesting to read. Especially since it's a complete newcomer's views on the anime. I do kind of wish you'd say more about which movies you liked or disliked though. You seem to state more observations than opinions.

I can't remember if you posted about it previously, Valerius Dover, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on DragonBall Movies 1-3, and the Path to Power, especially the dubbed versions, since you're one of the few members here that seem to be really into the FUNi dub.

[Valerius Dover]

^Well, I didn't start doing the documenting thing until I got to the Buu Arc, but I could go ahead and add notes for the DB Movies that I saw just before seeing Z. (Yeah, unlike a lot of other people, I actually started from the beginning). I'll add those notes after I see the last two Movies. As for whether I enjoy them or not.....well, it's Dragon Ball. It's hard for me not to enjoy something that's Dragon Ball. Even Movie 11. Basically, the default is that I like it.

[thaman91]

Since Battle of Gods features a mix of the old voices from the series and the newer voices from Kai, I'm curious to hear what you think about how the older voices sound so many years later and how you think some of the recasts compare to the originals.

[ffxiimaniac]

^Well, I didn't start doing the documenting thing until I got to the Buu Arc, but I could go ahead and add notes for the DB Movies that I saw just before seeing Z. (Yeah, unlike a lot of other people, I actually started from the beginning). I'll add those notes after I see the last two Movies. As for whether I enjoy them or not.....well, it's Dragon Ball. It's hard for me not to enjoy something that's Dragon Ball. Even Movie 11. Basically, the default is that I like it.

Keep going! Very interesting. You're almost to my personal fav. Movies 12. Hilarious.