Dragon Ball Z Spanish "Las Peliculas Vol 1" Boxset review

[Puto]

So I recently received my spanish DBZ "Las Peliculas Vol 1" boxset, which includes DBZ movies 1 through 8. So I thought I should do a quick review of this.

1: The boxing

The discs come in a box containing 4 DVD cases, each case containing two discs. Each disc contains one movie. Fairly simple.

The large box looks like this from the front, and like this from the back. The four disc cases look like this: 1, 2, 3, 4.

2: Audio

The discs contain the original japanese version, as well as three dubs in the different languages of spain: Castillan (Spanish), Catalan, and Basque/Euskera.

The Japanese track is presented in stereo -- great quality throughout, no hissing whatsoever (unlike FUNimation's double features in which the Japanese track sounds like crap).
The dub tracks, on the other hand, are not so great. Though the voice recordings are presented in high quality, the background music and sound effects are low quality, having been mixed from an old french master that was at 16KHz. They are also pitched up by 4%, even though the set itself isn't sped up. The opening (Cha-La Head Cha-La) is dubbed, with the Spanish and Catalan tracks using their own high-quality custom instrumental, whereas the Basque track uses a VERY low quality rendering of the original japanese instrumental (seriously, it sounds like it went through 8 generations of VHS or something).

3: Video

The video is presented in 16:9 widescreen, having been apparently based on the Dragon Box masters. It is unfortunately interlaced, and presented at the standard PAL widescreen resolution of 1024x576. All japanese credits are retained.

Here are some screenshots taken from each movie, in case anyone wants to compare to other releases (Dragon Box, FUNimation double features?):

End of Cha-La (final animation) (M8)
Piccolo screaming like a madman (M1)
Son Gokû on the Kinto'un at the end of Movie 1 (M1)
Kamehameha vs Uirô's beam thing (M2)
Kuririn charging a Kienzan (M3)
Let that child alone (M3)
Gokû unconscious on the ground (M4)
Genki Dama!!! (M4)
Gokû after spotting Coola (M5)
Super Saiyan Son Gokû (M5)
Metal Coola (M6)
Super Glowing-Hairajin Son Gokû (M6)
Super Saiyan Vegeta (M7)
Super Saiyan Trunks (M7)
Super Saiyan Son Gokû (M7)
I am Hulk hear me roar (M8)
Toei Punch GO! (M8)

4: Subtitles

The subtitles are accurately translated from the original japanese dialogue, having taken no hints from the dub whatsoever. With that said, some of the name romanisations are awkward, especially on earlier movies, while others are decent. Here are some of the romanisations used throughout the movies:

Garlick
Klylyn
Ten Shin Han
Chaoz
Yamcha
Son Goku
Son Gohan
Chichi
Gyumaoh
Piccolo Daimaoh
Kaioh
Dr. Willow
Tarles
Kame Hame Ha
Taiyo Ken
Kaioh Ken
Sokidan
Genkidama
Shenron
Dios [translates to God; used for Kami]
Nyoibo
Coola
Freeza
Thousa
Naise
Dore
Big Gete Star
Trunks
Vegeta
Piccolo
Saiyan [not always in caps, the race name is written in lowercase, Super Saiyan is capitalized]
Broly
Paragus
El Gran Torneo de las Artes Marciales [The Great Martial Arts Tournament; used as the translation of "Tenka'ichi Budôkai"]

Anyone interested in anything specific from this?

[sangofe]

I like the looks of the disc cases (edited due to a horrible grammar error...)

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, out of curiosity, how good (or bad) are the dubs? With regard to both translation and acting quality, I mean. I once heard someone say, "Every dub other than the American dub has accurately-translated dialogue." To be quite frank I'm...not sure I believe that. I'm sure there are some dubs here and there with better dialogue (like the Mexican dub), but EVERY other dub? I find that hard to believe. What's your take on it?

[Metalwario64]

"Every dub other than the American dub has accurately-translated dialogue."

Someone hasn't watched the Portuguese dub...

[TheBlackPaladin]

"Every dub other than the American dub has accurately-translated dialogue."

Someone hasn't watched the Portuguese dub...

EXACTLY. I have seen that dub and for that reason I have a hard time believing "Every other dub has better dialogue." At the same time, I wonder if that's true for other dubs?

[Greenman]

The Spanish release is on top, FUNimation "remastered" on bottom.

[rereboy]

"Every dub other than the American dub has accurately-translated dialogue."

Someone hasn't watched the Portuguese dub...

That`s actually not a fair point.

The Portuguese bought Dragon Ball from the French and the Portuguese Dub is translated to Portuguese from the French Dub.

The Portuguese Dub never had access to the original Dub (the japanese).

So, the Portuguese Dub actually has everything that the French Dub translated/did wrong plus some other stuff that the Portuguese Dub did wrong on its own. But the majority of everything that is wrong with the Dub are the mistakes that already existed in the French Dub. And so the majority of the mistakes are not the Portuguese Dub`s fault.

You can criticize the voices of the Portuguese Dub if you don`t like them and its a fair point, but most of the translation mistakes are the French Dub`s fault.

As for the video posted, it focuses mainly on the mistakes that the Portuguese Dub did on his own, but they are not actually mistakes. They are actually liberties that they took to make certain scenes funnier and it works like a charm . Man, that`s one of the reasons I love the Portuguese Dub actually. In some points it was like a episode of dragon ball abridged

[Puto]

"Every dub other than the American dub has accurately-translated dialogue."

Utter bullshit. Though it's true that every dub other than the American dub has the original BGM, at least...

The dubs in these DVDs are all inaccurate in several ways. From Saiyans being called "Space warriors" to rewritten lines to Broli calling Gokû by his Earth name to calling out the wrong attack names... They're pretty bad. I can't say much about the acting quality because I just don't *want* to watch these knowing in advance the script is a pile of crap.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Utter bullshit. Though it's true that every dub other than the American dub has the original BGM, at least...

True...in a way. I'm not even sure that's a valid criticism anymore considering that from the orange brick sets onward the Japanese music/English voice combo has been a selectable audio track.

[Blue]

Utter bullshit. Though it's true that every dub other than the American dub has the original BGM, at least...

True...in a way. I'm not even sure that's a valid criticism anymore considering that from the orange brick sets onward the Japanese music/English voice combo has been a selectable audio track.

How long did that take them?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Utter bullshit. Though it's true that every dub other than the American dub has the original BGM, at least...

True...in a way. I'm not even sure that's a valid criticism anymore considering that from the orange brick sets onward the Japanese music/English voice combo has been a selectable audio track.

How long did that take them?

Does that matter? It's better than never doing it at all.

[sangofe]

"Every dub other than the American dub has accurately-translated dialogue."

Someone hasn't watched the Portuguese dub...

EXACTLY. I have seen that dub and for that reason I have a hard time believing "Every other dub has better dialogue." At the same time, I wonder if that's true for other dubs?

That was incredibly funny.

[Blue]

Does that matter? It's better than never doing it at all.

It's still ridiculous how long it took them to do what the rest of the freaking world was doing from day one. It's a perfectly valid criticism.

[SonGokuGT]

Rereboy,

So the French made that crack about Miss Portugal '97?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Does that matter? It's better than never doing it at all.

It's still ridiculous how long it took them to do what the rest of the freaking world was doing from day one. It's a perfectly valid criticism.

Well, I must respectfully disagree. Sometimes I think the reason anime companies keep making mistakes is because when they do something right, the fanbase is ungrateful. For example, people complained for a long time about wanting uncut Yu-Gi-Oh DVDs, and when that finally happened, there was no thanks. Just a universal mutter of, "Pfft, 'bout time." No wonder, then, that 4Kids stopped making them if that was the response.

[Blue]

Does that matter? It's better than never doing it at all.

It's still ridiculous how long it took them to do what the rest of the freaking world was doing from day one. It's a perfectly valid criticism.

Well, I must respectfully disagree. Sometimes I think the reason anime companies keep making mistakes is because when they do something right, the fanbase is ungrateful. For example, people complained for a long time about wanting uncut Yu-Gi-Oh DVDs, and when that finally happened, there was no thanks. Just a universal mutter of, "Pfft, 'bout time." No wonder, then, that 4Kids stopped making them if that was the response.

They stopped making them because the sales sucked not because fans weren't sucking 4kids cock and praising them. That's a case of fans not putting their money where their mouth is. A completely unrelated problem.

[TheBlackPaladin]

They stopped making them because the sales sucked not because fans weren't sucking 4kids cock and praising them. That's a case of fans not putting their money where their mouth is. A completely unrelated problem.

Well, first off, it's not confirmed that it was due to low sales. There's evidence to suggest that it was because of legal problems with FUNimation, who played a big hand in the uncut dub. Assuming it was sales, though, how is it not related? Assuming it was sales, this a great example of what I mean--they didn't thank 4Kids for their efforts by buying the DVDs. Which essentially meant that they didn't care if the series was uncut or not, they just liked the idea of 4Kids being this evil entity that they could hate. 4Kids acted as an entity to cast as a villain in their anime drama of censorship vs. art.

So, what did 4Kids do? They went back to making their anime edited-only. This should not have surprised anyone. The ungratefulness of the fanbase at large destroyed any motivation they might have had to make uncut DVDs. Mind you, I'm generalizing. I'm not talking about all of the fanbase, because there were those who actually bought the DVDs. Most of them, however, were ungrateful.

As far as the music issue with DBZ is concerned, though, I still think it's a rather bitter attitude to say that eventually including the Japanese music with the English voices was "too little, too late." Granted, I'm a little biased because that's my favorite way to watch DBZ. However, I'm going to use an example that is loosely similar. It's kind of like saying, "Well, sure, my aunt doesn't have cancer anymore, but it took the doctors so long to cure it. Does it really matter that she's cured now?" Obviously that's not completely similar, hence the reason I use the term "loosely," as the emotional severity of these two events are completely different. The idea, though, is similar enough. It's never too late to go back and fix mistakes, and there's no point in dwelling on them once they've been fixed.

[sangofe]

Rereboy,

So the French made that crack about Miss Portugal '97?

No, the French dub really hasn't gotten that many erros as Rereboy is claiming.... I know this because I've watched large portions in French.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

"Every dub other than the American dub has accurately-translated dialogue."

Someone hasn't watched the Portuguese dub...

Ginyu's scream was the funniest thing I've heard all day. Thank you.



Oh and it's awesome how they use "Piccolo Daimaoh" in those subtitles.

[Blue]

They stopped making them because the sales sucked not because fans weren't sucking 4kids cock and praising them. That's a case of fans not putting their money where their mouth is. A completely unrelated problem.

Well, first off, it's not confirmed that it was due to low sales. There's evidence to suggest that it was because of legal problems with FUNimation, who played a big hand in the uncut dub. Assuming it was sales, though, how is it not related? Assuming it was sales, this a great example of what I mean--they didn't thank 4Kids for their efforts by buying the DVDs. Which essentially meant that they didn't care if the series was uncut or not, they just liked the idea of 4Kids being this evil entity that they could hate. 4Kids acted as an entity to cast as a villain in their anime drama of censorship vs. art.

So, what did 4Kids do? They went back to making their anime edited-only. This should not have surprised anyone. The ungratefulness of the fanbase at large destroyed any motivation they might have had to make uncut DVDs. Mind you, I'm generalizing. I'm not talking about all of the fanbase, because there were those who actually bought the DVDs. Most of them, however, were ungrateful.

As far as the music issue with DBZ is concerned, though, I still think it's a rather bitter attitude to say that eventually including the Japanese music with the English voices was "too little, too late." Granted, I'm a little biased because that's my favorite way to watch DBZ. However, I'm going to use an example that is loosely similar. It's kind of like saying, "Well, sure, my aunt doesn't have cancer anymore, but it took the doctors so long to cure it. Does it really matter that she's cured now?" Obviously that's not completely similar, hence the reason I use the term "loosely," as the emotional severity of these two events are completely different. The idea, though, is similar enough. It's never too late to go back and fix mistakes, and there's no point in dwelling on them once they've been fixed.

Are you really comparing Dragonball music to someone having cancer? Even "loosely" that's still batshit. Be honest you're using the cancer scenario even though you realize it's stupid to try and add some severity to your argument.
Yeah I'm done here.