"Ultimate Uncut Edition" DVDs Discussion

[omae no kaasan]

You don't need to remind us that you aren't a fan of the dub a thousand times~!

I don't mind it

[tealsmith]

I'm still on the fence as to whether to pick this up or not. I have the money to do so, but $30 (CDN) seems a little steep. If it meant that the DVDs would cost less, I would have preferred if Funi just not bothered with the new dub, and simply put on the Japanese version with subs. Oh well. I'll probably get it when all the volumes are released into a box set.... in like, 2 years

On another note, wow, I had no idea the Dragonbox's visual quality was that good. Looking at the comparison images of Pioneer's, Funi's, and Toei's DVD image quality was shocking to say the least.

[lost in thought]

It's done by Falcouner, everyone's favorite "composer."

I am not sure where you got your information, but it's been pretty common knowledge for awhile now, that the composer was not going to be Falcouner. Just as Laserkid had said.

Really, it's not? I could've sworn that I read somewhere that it was. Who is it then?

Now referenced, it's been confirmed for you yet again that its really not. Though the people FUNimation used aren't much better.

The opening theme is done by a fella named Dave Moran, and the closing by Mark Menza, while the additional music [more than likely all of the BGMs, and sound effects,] were done by Matt Cheney, so atleast this time the whole lot of music isn't done by just one man... so not only is it possible to make great music for the rest of the releases, it has twice the possibility of making really crappy music too.

[Jimu00]

Okay then, thanks for correcting me. I've been out of the DBZ loop for a while with college work, so I apologize for my incorrect information.

[lost in thought]

No worries, it happens.

[FDLink]

I know its for continuity's sake to continue to change DBZ's music, but that's still not an excuse. I don't care if the dub music is reasonably good, nothing less than the original will do. Would you change the music to LotR or Star Wars for an international release?

[tealsmith]

I know its for continuity's sake to continue to change DBZ's music, but that's still not an excuse. I don't care if the dub music is reasonably good, nothing less than the original will do. Would you change the music to LotR or Star Wars for an international release?

No, but I'm pretty sure for Star Wars that George Lucas would. He doesn't seem to mind changining everything else

[lost in thought]

Would you change the music to LotR or Star Wars for an international release?

The Flanel bear would probably buy the rights to music performed by various ethnic performers, and blend that into the movies, and dub them in the worst concievable way.

I know its for continuity's sake to continue to change DBZ's music, but that's still not an excuse. I don't care if the dub music is reasonably good, nothing less than the original will do. Would you change the music to LotR or Star Wars for an international release?

Most people don't care about the original music, and I would imagine that the only reason FUNi changed the music in the first place, was for fan relation. Rock, and rap music is pretty popular right now in the United States, so it almost makes sense for them to do it.

As far as Lord of the Rings goes... I don't think Peter Jackson would allow it, but if he sold the rights, so it could be dubbed, I can imagine the music might change.

[majinboogc]

The Flanel bear would probably buy the rights to music performed by various ethnic performers, and blend that into the movies, and dub them in the worst concievable way.

Fox used Intertrak de Mexico, the dubbing company that dubbed Dragon Ball in Mexico. Palpatine is played by Jesús Colin the guy who VAs Roshi in all of Dragon Ball. The music stayed the same. But yeah...

I love the fact that they used the Spanish dub. I have been looking in Mexico for Spanish DVDs but they didn’t make any, and when they released movie #5 with the Spanish audio track I was left with the impression that they would continue releasing the movies with the Spanish audio track. As soon as I saw that it contained the Spanish audio also I went on blockbuster online and rented it to see for myself. After confirming I went to best buy and bought it. I hope that they continue to re-release the entire series. I will continue to buy them IF and only if they continue to release the Spanish audio track.

[ThunderPX]

I still haven't heard the opening and ending themes, but I'm not sure I want to.

[Jimu00]

I still haven't heard the opening and ending themes, but I'm not sure I want to.

The opening theme is pretty much just mindless rock music, with various sound effects and dragon roars thrown in. The ending theme is actually quite mellow, coming from FUNimation. I may even go as far as to say that it's decent.

[lost in thought]

The opening theme is pretty much just mindless rock music, with various sound effects and dragon roars thrown in.

Mindless sums up that track quite well... I think I prefer the original themes [funi's themes,] over it... this new theme doesn't seem to even have any direction, even FUNi's original theme's had a flow to them, this doesn't. [Atleast in my opinion, anyway.]

[Fushar]

I still haven't heard the opening and ending themes, but I'm not sure I want to.

Lets pray to God that it is not rap.

[Super Sonic]

I still haven't heard the opening and ending themes, but I'm not sure I want to.

Lets pray to God that it is not rap.

It's an instrumental rock theme. Not "Rock the Dragon" but ok.

[leowong1]

Is it also possible that they're difficult to fully remaster since the copies that FUNi owns are not originals?

Yeah, FUNimation's copies are at least 3rd generation, possibly even 4th generation. I'm not sure how they recieve the copies, but I'm guessing it's on some form of cassette, which means it'll also degrade over time spent in their possession as well. As for the "remastering", FUNi uses the term pretty loosely. It looks like all they did (similar to all DBZ releases) was simply run the image through a filter and turn up the black level, which helps to hide imperfections such as grain.
The positives: Gives the animation a harder/sharper look, helps to hide damage to the video.
The negatives: Finer details in the animation are occasionally lost and the colors are flat-out wrong.
As for the zoom, I'm 99% certain that Toei did that when they made the 2nd generation copies. The animation cels were sometimes misaligned when photographed, and zooming in on the image would gaurantee no visible animation errors.

Dragon Box, on the other hand, used the original 16mm reels of film. These likely have never been touched since the original 2nd generation copies were made, so naturally they're already in beautiful condition. They re-framed the images that were misaligned, allowing for the entire image to be available on-screen. They also did frame-by-frame digital remastering.

Given the materials that FUNi has, I'd say that their video quality is pretty damn good. Even if they wanted to truly remaster the video, they just don't have all the necessary material (ie. the original prints), so it would really be a waste of time for them. I think it's wrong for them to advertise these disks as something special (they seem pretty run of the mill to me), but I must admit that they've done a pretty decent job here!

Actually I do not agree with u saying that toei's 2nd generation tape has been zoomed in.
Take a look at these comparison between Dragonbox Z saga and the region 3 Hong Kong licensed dbz dvd( they are not the bootleg, made by MI from reencoding dbox)

Although the quality of hk r3 dvd is shameful compared to jap r2 dvd, u can see that the 2 frame fit perfectly. So it proves that it is only funimation's problem to zoom in the frame.

[Timo]

HK-DVDs, huh?^^
With Chinese dub? Where can I get them? yesasia don't ship (at least these DBZ DVDs with the chinese dub) to Germany.

[leowong1]

HK-DVDs, huh?^^
With Chinese dub? Where can I get them? yesasia don't ship (at least these DBZ DVDs with the chinese dub) to Germany.

do u really wanna buy this hk "licensed" set?
the quality is even worse than dbox bootleg. i really regret i purchased it.
there is also, no subtitle for the japanese audio, the sub is just the cantonese script...

[Timo]

Mhm, I'm interested in the chinese dub and I collect DBZ DVDs from different countries, so...

[SaiyaJedi]

Actually I do not agree with u saying that toei's 2nd generation tape has been zoomed in.

[snip]

Although the quality of hk r3 dvd is shameful compared to jap r2 dvd, u can see that the 2 frame fit perfectly. So it proves that it is only funimation's problem to zoom in the frame.

That doesn't prove anything; it merely shows that the Cantonese dub had different (and likely a generation or two closer to the original) masters. Additionally, you're not using the same scene as a reference, and since different parts of FUNimation's masters seem to have different levels of wear and tear, using a completely different scene (that for all I know, was unaffected in FUNimation's version) isn't a good way to compare.

[DBW]

Take a look at these comparison between Dragonbox Z saga and the region 3 Hong Kong licensed dbz dvd

So the one on the left is Dragon Box, and the one on the right is the liscenced Hong Kong version based off of Dragon Box. What the hell is this supposed to prove?

Besides, Toei has openly acknowledged that the 2nd gen copies were zoomed in on. Check the February 12th update...
http://www.jumpland.com/dvdsite/diary02.html

下のラインを消すには全体を拡大しちゃえば良いんだけど、そうすると今度は横と上ももっと画面外にはみ出しちゃう！
Roughly: The whole screen would be magnified to erase the line at the bottom, but it would result in the sides and top of the picture also being erased!