Ultimate Uncut Dub based on Ocean Studios Dub script?

[B]

The point of the re-dub, first and foremost, was to have uncut footage for the DVD home release. DBZ was edited down from 67 episodes to 53 for its syndicated TV run. I'm honestly of the opinion that assuming FUNi was trying to "appease" dub fans with old lines is giving them far, far too much credit; most likely if a scene wasn't vastly different visually, they didn't bother rewriting a portion of the script for it. It's the same with the re-dubs for the first three movies; it wasn't some evil, concocted plan to use the garbage dub for Movie 3; it was most likely just what they had the most readily available.

The simplest answer is when the bottom line is the most important thing, the things us megafans obsess over don't get checked all that hard.

[Hellspawn28]

The best thing I like about the Ultimate Uncut run was staying up late to watch it every day during the summer. I also remember the DVD sets for the Ultimate Uncut was never finished. Funimation decided to give us the Season Sets later on.

[WittyUsername]

They were indeed using the old scrips from the broadcast dub as a template when they were redubbing the first 67 episodes. It was apparently much cheaper that way, and Funimation at the time obviously didn't feel like going through the trouble of completely rewriting what they already had. That being said, they did at least change some of the especially inaccurate lines from the old dub, such as the infamous line about Bardock being the Dragon Ball equivalent of Jor-El, or about Vegeta being the one who killed Grandpa Gohan, despite not being anyway near Earth at the time. Some of the especially corny lines were also removed ("This three-eyed cowboy is going for one last ride"), and of course, most of the lines that implied censorship were also removed.

To the dub's credit, most of the filler moments that didn't make it into the original dub were kept fairly accurate to the Japanese version, and the scripts did start to change things up from the old dub by the time the Freeza saga came around. It was still a pretty flawed dub, but it did at least make more of an effort to be like the Japanese version compared to the old dub with the Ocean voice cast.

[TheBlackPaladin]

To the dub's credit, most of the filler moments that didn't make it into the original dub were kept fairly accurate to the Japanese version, and the scripts did start to change things up from the old dub by the time the Freeza saga came around. It was still a pretty flawed dub, but it did at least make more of an effort to be like the Japanese version compared to the old dub with the Ocean voice cast.

Agreed. The scenes that were cut from the original dub--in other words, scenes that FUNimation had no previously-existing script to work off of--were adapted pretty well. When the Kai dub debuted, I appreciated how much better it was from their earlier efforts, but I was not surprised by it. People who had been following the dub over the years could see signs of steady improvement, and how FUNimation adapted the previously cut scenes in their redub of the first two "seasons" of DBZ was one of the signs of the good things to come.

[veggiechan]

I always wonder how much more expensive it was to dub the new, previously edited scenes. I always wondered what may have been if they just rewrote the entire script of the show (even though that wasn't really a concern at the time) because as previous posters mentioned, they were decently faithful to the script in 2005. It's not a huge deal anymore with Kai around, but sometimes I like to watch my Dragon Boxes in English and it's impossible to tolerate some of the obviously novice voice work and terrible script on season 3 up to even the Buu saga somewhat (although it was noticeably better here).

Ultimately, I guess I'm just a bit disappointed there will probably never be a 4:3 DBZ with accurate scripting ever available for English dub fans.

[Hellspawn28]

Even back in 2005, they could have done a better job for UU. I think Funimation at the time was like "Let's keep our non DBZ titles faithful while still make DBZ westernize for the US market".

[TheGreatness25]

Well, they were following what brought them to the dance. Would it make it better if the Saiyan and Namek arcs had accurate scripts but not onward? As I mentioned before: this release was for the dub fans because the non-dub fans weren't fans of the rest of their work with the series and probably watched it with Japanese audio and subtitles, so it didn't really matter to them. Meanwhile, they had these dub fans that they could still cater to. FUNimation undoubtedly divided the fanbase and it's been a never-ending juggling act to appease both sides. Even as recently as the Dragon Box Z release, there were pockets of fans who seriously hated that there was no dub music on there. The thing is that in a weird way, with each release, they could've appeased the original Japanese version's fans because the Japanese audio and subtitles were there for every release (except for the Saban release). So essentially, the dubbies never got a 4:3 release of the majority of the Ultimate Uncut episodes as presented on Cartoon Network in 2005.


But yeah, the entire UU project seemed cheaply done so yeah, they probably didn't feel like rewriting the script. I feel like a lot of the lines were delivered really rushed and void of much emotion. Though, honestly, Steve Simmons was translating the script anyway for the UU subtitles. So theoretically, they still had to translate it, so it's not a question of saving money on that. I guess there would have to be someone they paid to sit there and rework the Simmons translation to fit the mouth flaps and whatnot, so that's all I can think of.

[ABED]

That implies "Americanizing" it is what made it popular when in fact it's the show itself. This release was for fans of the show that wanted it uncut.

[TheGreatness25]

Again, clearly not. Don't assign them a mission statement for their release. If it were targeted for fans of the show and not their dub, they would've used the original music and done an accurate script.

[MetaMoss]

I'm with TheGreatness25 here. The UUC was so that Funimation had a consistent episode 1 to 291 version of DBZ with their in-house voice cast. It used some Ocean scripts because Season 3 onward followed from those scripts, so it made sense from a consistency (and a not-having-to-for-new-scripts) standpoint. It had a replacement score because the rest of the series did. It was meant to fit right in with the Freeza, Cell, and Buu arcs that they had already done in-house, so they stuck with their old inaccuracies. We can say it was a bad move for them to have kept on being inaccurate to the Japanese original, but that wasn't a concern back in 2005. Any changes to their "Americanization" made then would've just alienated the vast majority of their fans at the time (who had watched the dub on Cartoon Network). With the Orange Brick release (when we actually got all of the UUC dub), Funimation finally got their consistent 1-291 version.

[ABED]

I really don't think those changes would've alienated anyone at least not a significant amount or to a significant degree. I think the different American score would've "alienated" more dub fans than different dialog.

[MetaMoss]

The fans would've probably noticed if Funimation tried to do a more accurate adaption with the UUC. The replacement score had very similar motivations and intentions as the Falconer score, so I doubt too many fans were mad about that. Imagine, if you would, the UUC having the Kikuchi score instead. Now, that would've gotten a negative response from dub fans.

[ABED]

The fans would've probably noticed if Funimation tried to do a more accurate adaption with the UUC. The replacement score had very similar motivations and intentions as the Falconer score, so I doubt too many fans were mad about that. Imagine, if you would, the UUC having the Kikuchi score instead. Now, that would've gotten a negative response from dub fans.

I'm sure they would notice, but there's little reason to think the response would be negative. And whether the motivations and intentions for the replacement score in the UUC were similar, that's of no comfort to fans of the Faulconer score. It was different.

[MetaMoss]

The fans would've probably noticed if Funimation tried to do a more accurate adaption with the UUC. The replacement score had very similar motivations and intentions as the Falconer score, so I doubt too many fans were mad about that. Imagine, if you would, the UUC having the Kikuchi score instead. Now, that would've gotten a negative response from dub fans.

I'm sure they would notice, but there's little reason to think the response would be negative. And whether the motivations and intentions for the replacement score in the UUC were similar, that's of no comfort to fans of the Faulconer score. It was different.

Different, but not jarring. It still felt like the DBZ folks had watched from 1999 to that point, so it did its job.

[ABED]

The fans would've probably noticed if Funimation tried to do a more accurate adaption with the UUC. The replacement score had very similar motivations and intentions as the Falconer score, so I doubt too many fans were mad about that. Imagine, if you would, the UUC having the Kikuchi score instead. Now, that would've gotten a negative response from dub fans.

I'm sure they would notice, but there's little reason to think the response would be negative. And whether the motivations and intentions for the replacement score in the UUC were similar, that's of no comfort to fans of the Faulconer score. It was different.

Different, but not jarring. It still felt like the DBZ folks had watched from 1999 to that point, so it did its job.

Yeah it is, it's a completely different sounding score. Those fans in 99 were used to being jarred. They stayed with the show even though there was a completely new cast. Even the dialog in season 3 was a giant step down from what came before. If the viewers could take that, what would be so off-putting about more faithful dialog?

[MetaMoss]

I'm sure they would notice, but there's little reason to think the response would be negative. And whether the motivations and intentions for the replacement score in the UUC were similar, that's of no comfort to fans of the Faulconer score. It was different.

Different, but not jarring. It still felt like the DBZ folks had watched from 1999 to that point, so it did its job.

Yeah it is, it's a completely different sounding score. Those fans in 99 were used to being jarred. They stayed with the show even though there was a completely new cast. Even the dialog in season 3 was a giant step down from what came before. If the viewers could take that, what would be so off-putting about more faithful dialog?

Because it wouldn't have been "compatible" with the 1999-2003 DBZ. That's what it was supposed to be: an in-house dub of the first 60-ish episodes that Funimation could tack on the front of any future releases of "The Complete Series" and TV airings. You had Sean Schemmel as Goku, Chris Sabat as Vegeta/Piccolo/half the cast, and so on, for the entire 291 episodes. You didn't have that jarring cast change right before Jeice and Burter, and you got all the episodes in their (visual) entirety. This was the completion of the Funimation in-house dub, not a new production. We got our new production with Kai.

[ABED]

It's still a jarring change. The music is completely different, and you can hear the stark contrast between the actors in 2005 and 1999. I understand your point. I never didn't, but I'm saying that everything was such a sharp contrast that keeping the bad scripts wasn't going to make the Z dub that much more consistent.