Trunks - Prelude to Terror DVD

[SylentEcho]

Hi everyone. I found this DVD lying in a local video library without a cover and asked them if I could borrow it. They didn't have it listed on their PC or whatever and instead sold it to me at a dirt cheap price.

My question is, I think it's fake since the menus look like this:



Can any one who owns this DVD tell me if this menu is real or fake?

[VegettoEX]

What about that would lead you to believe it's fake? Looks like the real disc to me -- those are the actual menus from the actual disc.

[SylentEcho]

Really? The disc itself looks real, I just thought it may not be because the menus look kind of shabby compared to the Freeza DVDs. I mean, anyone can make custom menus.

So do you have this DVD? Or are you assuming that it looks real therefore it must be.

[GroundZero0215]

Definitely looks like the real deal to me as well...and it even looks like it is the updated version of the DVD, with the two extra episodes. From what I remember, that menu was used for both of the Trunks DVD's.

[SylentEcho]

Thanks for clearing that up. Neat! Now that I got the disc for almost free, I can print the cover out.

[Pokewhiz7]

Thanks for clearing that up. Neat! Now that I got the disc for almost free, I can print the cover out.

I'm no expert on the subject, but is that entirely legal?

[Zestanor]

Yes, the Trunks DVDs are apparently a bit older than the Freeza ones. I read this on the site's DVD guide though, and I'm not too certain of its credibility, as it lists the Trunks DVDs as older than even the Ginyu DVDs (and I thought it was clear that those were first.) However this is the five episode version, and I don't know when they started reprinting the DVD with the two extra episodes on it.

[VegettoEX]

Nah, I had a goof on the Ginyu disc dates -- fixing that now.

The Trunks DVDs were indeed some of the earliest ones, which is why they're so budget-looking all around.

[Gaffer Tape]

My only question is if the thumbnail you posted is exactly representative of the cover art on *your* DVD case. Because the image you posted is of the original release, not the re-release that's on your disc. The re-release cover has a different font for the disc name and a much smaller splash image of the langauge options.

EDIT: Oh. Blah. "Without a cover." That's what I get for reading... I guess in that case I should say instead that you'll be printing out the wrong version of the cover if you print out that one, but it's really not all that important.

[Ahiru77]

Almost for free ?!....such luck.
But it looks like the dvd is missing the very episodes it shows on the cover. A bit of a loss...

[VegettoEX]

But it looks like the dvd is missing the very episodes it shows on the cover.

A common trend for FUNimation's old single DVDs.

"Death of a Prince" has the scene where Vegeta fires a blast at Freeza after being brought back to life after Goku's already a Super Saiyan. "Earth's Last Hope" has SSJ2 Gohan's mid-episode Kamehameha before he's even gone SSJ2.

[G1Ravage]

I can confirm: It's real.

I was buying these Dragon Ball Z DVD's as they were being released. FUNimation was very erratic with their DBZ releases, jumping from one saga to another and back again.

They released the first two Ginyu discs, Ginyu Assault and Double Cross, and then released the Trunks - Mysterious Youth and Prelude to Terror discs, which contained numerous subtitling timing errors. By the time they went back to the Freeza saga, they had improved their DVD designs considerably.

[Super Sonic]

But it looks like the dvd is missing the very episodes it shows on the cover.

A common trend for FUNimation's old single DVDs.

"Death of a Prince" has the scene where Vegeta fires a blast at Freeza after being brought back to life after Goku's already a Super Saiyan. "Earth's Last Hope" has SSJ2 Gohan's mid-episode Kamehameha before he's even gone SSJ2.

Remember those days, and guys made due to them being screenshots instead of original art. Though still, I'd rather have a screenshot from a different ep, than have original and yet inaccurate art, like a certain video my dad bought me as a kid.

[Kingdom Heartless]

Wow, they had the Japanese language option all the way back there? That makes me jealous....

[SylentEcho]

I'm no expert on the subject, but is that entirely legal?

Me printing out the cover and keeping it on my shelf is perfectly legal. That library selling it to me was not. Meh, who cares? They're in the wrong.

Remember those days, and guys made due to them being screenshots instead of original art. Though still, I'd rather have a screenshot from a different ep, than have original and yet inaccurate art,

I think the Funimation screenshot art looked pretty cool, except for the fact that many of them were inaccurate like VegettoEX mentioned. A lot of original art I've seen for Dragon Ball/Z DVDs have been pretty unoriginal.

[Ashura]

Wow, they had the Japanese language option all the way back there? That makes me jealous....

Funimation's very first DBZ DVD had the Japanese language option, which was touted on the cover pretty specifically because of the demand. It was pretty hacky and patchwork though, since it had alternate tracks for the US dub and all sorts of weird stuff in its construction. I believe the second disk is where you could start doing audio swaps on the fly.

You notice they pretty heavily tried to copy the Pioneer covers as much as they could though; Using Serpentine as the main font just like Pioneer, but Funimation didn't have an experienced graphics agency working for them like Pioneer did. (I wish I could remember the agency they used...Chad told me one time I think.)

A common trend for FUNimation's old single DVDs. "Death of a Prince" has the scene where Vegeta fires a blast at Freeza after being brought back to life after Goku's already a Super Saiyan. "Earth's Last Hope" has SSJ2 Gohan's mid-episode Kamehameha before he's even gone SSJ2.

I guess you have to look at the situation they were in. Pioneer pretty much used up all of the good Toriyama artwork on their releases. (In fact, some of the VHS/DVD covers are really bizarre choices, but at least they look good.) So their alternative was to go through episodes and find screenshots for covers (the color quality showed due to this; they weren't even redrawing the screencaps like ADV did for all the covers they had without artwork. It looked very low-rent.), and you could probably go through entire batches of episodes and not find something not only dynamic enough but also the right aspect to go from a 4x3 to a VHS cover. Stuff like Volume #29 -- "Namek's End" -- is a great example where they probably just couldn't find anything that worked better.

You can really tell they were really struggling with how to make everything work early on; to make matters worse, they also had to find shots that allowed them to fit their huge 'IN BOTH LANGUAGES!' burst. By volume 24 they shrink the snipe because they probably realized they were making it harder on themselves and it just looked ugly. Even still, those things are glowed and dropshadowed to hell to make them actually pop rather than anything more subtle.

I have no proof for this since I haven't done the research and compared covers to screens, but I suspect to try to get the resolution a bit higher on the covers they used a lot of still pan-up scenes along the way. Is that Trunks scene a slow pan up him before he kills Freezer or something? I can't remember.

I don't know at which point they started vector tracing/redrawing the shots for the DVD covers; "Kid Buu: A New Beginning" definitely is cleaned up to an amazing degree, and the designers started to get proficient on cleanup and recompositon by that point. (Just by looking at the JPG, Trunks Prelude to Terror was probably redrawn, but I can't confirm without looking at the package.) They didn't start really trying to design eyecatching covers until they started releasing Dragonball and Dragonball GT, though.

I remember the Tournament Saga DVD was the first Funimation disk I saw that I was really impressed with. I was like, man, they're really trying to step up their game in terms of packaging.

[Castor Troy]

You notice they pretty heavily tried to copy the Pioneer covers as much as they could though; Using Serpentine as the main font just like Pioneer, but Funimation didn't have an experienced graphics agency working for them like Pioneer did. (I wish I could remember the agency they used...Chad told me one time I think.)

I think their janitor was also the graphics designer and the voice of Cell.

[Gaffer Tape]

Chris Psaros...?

[JulieYBM]

Oh man, I just noticed...that cover IS redrawn. Oh, how awful it looks. >_<

[KiddoCabbusses]

Oh man, I just noticed...that cover IS redrawn. Oh, how awful it looks. >_<

It blends in with the TV show's art-style more than Toei's redrawn Kai scenes, to my eyes.

This also reminds me of how there's some slight differences between the VHS and DVD covers for some volumes - like character positions being moved around - which would only make sense if the scenes were redrawn. I think I noticed this when browsing around and seeing the cover of "Cell Games - A Moment's Rest" or whatever volume that was.