Funimation's 'Buu Saga' and 'Ultimate UNCUT' Dubs

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

What did you think of them?
I personally thought they were a huge step up from the previous dubs Funimation had done, especially the 'Buu Saga' dub, which I think was almost as good as the 'Dragon Ball' dub. The scripting was done pretty well (Some lines were word-for-word with the Japanese version) and the voice acting was decent. Bruce Faulconer and co. were also at the top of their game with some brilliant themes appearing throughout the arc. No more of that boring "Dun, dun, duuuun", if you know what I mean.
I didn't like the 'Ultimate UNCUT' dubs as much, as the voice acting sounded really forced and the script was based off the old ones from the 'Saban/Funimation days'. I also wasn't a fan of Nathan Johnston's music. I've heard that they stopped using the old scripts once they got to the 'Namek stuff', but I haven't seen or heard any of that part of the series with the 'UU' dub, so I'm not sure.

[BluezaBladeNZ]

I haven't seen these dubs for about a year now but from what I remember, the Boo era definitely was better than the earlier arcs, but there would be moments where it would slip and have completely different stuff, probably due to the different writers.

I did like the Ultimate Uncut Dubs at first but when Kai came around and noticed the differences, it started to feel a bit awkward to watch. The Namek arc definitely was the better written bit in that dub, it even had a few cusses in there too (Kuririn and Jhesse both say 'bastard').

[Ultimate_DB_Fan]

I thought they were good. I was just today watching some Buu vs. Gohan stuff with Faulconer's BGM runnin', and just really enjoying myself.

What's-his-name who voiced all the forms of Super Buu, I felt really did his thing.

The Saiyan arc might've had the Saban scripts to go by, but it was still my voice cast at their very best. Linda Young included.

[SylentEcho]

The Namek arc definitely was the better written bit in that dub, it even had a few cusses in there too (Kuririn and Jhesse both say 'bastard').

Ultimate Uncut was only till the Saiyan arc. You're talking about the Orange Bricks.

I liked Ultimate Uncut, but their dub wasn't any different than Oceans. They just corrected a couple of things like Gohan saying he was 4 years old, Goku's dad not being a scientist.

Their Namek dub script was good, but the voices and the acting was so abysmal. Watching that only made me miss the Ocean Dub even more and order the sets online because I knew I'd never ever see the Funi Namek dub again.

[Eddie]

The Buu arc was decent. The casting was good (in my opininion), but the writing certainly wasn't perfect. A step up, though, sure. What always pissed me off, though, was Funimation SCREWING STUFF UP THAT THEY GOT RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Yeah, I'm bitter. I very clearly remember Goten saying "Kamekameha!" on Cartoon Network. Trunks even mentioned that Goten said it wrong. I prefer the japanese version, but I was well into high school before I received any DVDs. The dub was my only option, so I watched it as often as I could. Along come the season sets, and I decided to watch some dub stuff (mix of nostalgia & curiosity). For no apparent reason they changed one of the best Goten lines, one of the things that they actually got right from the true version. I'm not a dub hater by any means, but crap like that doesn't happen in the japanese version. As for the Ultimate Uncut dub, sorry. I can't remember it well enough to have a solid opinion of it. I used to watch the dub out of necessity, but once I started getting DVDs, I primarily watched the japanese version.

[TripleRach]

The Namek arc definitely was the better written bit in that dub, it even had a few cusses in there too (Kuririn and Jhesse both say 'bastard').

Ultimate Uncut was only till the Saiyan arc. You're talking about the Orange Bricks.

Episodes 1-67 were all dubbed for the Ultimate Uncut line, even if only 1-27 made it to DVD. And all 67 aired on Cartoon Network (pretty much unedited), so a lot of people saw those versions of the episodes well before the orange bricks. People like to call the entire thing the "Ultimate Uncut dub" because it's easier than saying "FUNimation's in-house dub of 1-67" or something.

[Ahiru77]

Wasn't this arc the one that the dub made Piccolo forget something in his other pants pocket ?

Actually I think this saga out of all sagas wouldn't have suffered at all if Funimation just went beyond crazy with it's script. It's Buu.......and kids......and serious people making faces.

[Eddie]

Wasn't this arc the one that the dub made Piccolo forget something in his other pants pocket ?

Yes, yes it was. I had that episode on edited VHS, so I saw it many times. Hence my earlier remark that the writing certainly wasn't perfect.

[xzero]

The Buu episodes were all over the place. Sometimes, they were super accurate. Other times, they weren't. The voices were generally well-done, particularly the leads. Piccolo and Vegeta had a somewhat inaccurate, but nonetheless very well-handled exchange about Vegeta's suicide decision. Babidi and Dabura's voice actors did really good jobs with the characters, at least in my opinion. I also enjoyed Justin Cook's Super Buu, though the baby voice for Fat Buu was annoying (Kid Buu was pretty much perfect, though he has like 10 lines throughout all 12-15 episodes he's in).

You could really tell this was when Sean started to understand Goku, as did the directors at the time. He clearly had no clue during Freeza (the Z and Kai Goku dubs are like night and day), and he was sort of getting it during Cell, but Buu was the first time you could really hear a dub Goku that was closer, if not in pitch, then in performance, to the Japanese portrayal. He still had some of that "I'm a superhero" thing going at the time, but it was generally toned down compared to earlier stuff.

I think these things are why dub fans aren't really complaining too much that Kai isn't doing Buu. Yes, it's be great to hear some new voices and see how the experienced cast handles it now, but in the grand scheme of the Z dub, it was one of the few things that didn't need major surgery to make good. Whereas the Freeza Saga needed a triple bypass, the Buu Saga just needed a boob job and some botox.

I personally thought they were a huge step up from the previous dubs Funimation had done, especially the 'Buu Saga' dub, which I think was almost as good as the 'Dragon Ball' dub ... Bruce Faulconer and co. were also at the top of their game with some brilliant themes appearing throughout the arc. No more of that boring "Dun, dun, duuuun", if you know what I mean.

This is pretty much the case. For Faulconer score fans, the Buu Saga had almost everything they could ask for. There was a TON of original material (by my estimation, the Buu Sagas CD holds roughly a third of the new music for that set of episodes; I've compiled close to 3 hours of music exclusively from that era, so it's got to be a 3-CD thing at least), and there was great use of some older stuff from Freeza and Cell, particularly battle music. One other thing I'll note about it is that it had one of the most brilliant uses of thematic scoring I've ever heard, and no, I'm not kidding. Babidi, Fat Buu, Evil Buu, Super Buu, and Kid Buu all share the same theme. There were other tracks surrounding them, but each of these characters had a core theme that evolved as it went through the various stages. Freeza had a theme and some variations, but there wasn't much room for evolution. Cell had stylistic evolutions with different songs, going from rough grunge music to the smooth whistle theme for his perfect form. Buu had both stylistic and thematic evolutions, and really showcased what the guys at Faulconer Productions Music were capable of by that point.

I didn't like the 'Ultimate UNCUT' dubs as much, as the voice acting sounded really forced and the script was based off the old ones from the 'Saban/Funimation days'. I also wasn't a fan of Nathan Johnston's music. I've heard that they stopped using the old scripts once they got to the 'Namek stuff', but I haven't seen or heard any of that part of the series with the 'UU' dub, so I'm not sure.

The Saiyan Saga UUE was alright (music aside since I was never a fan of any dub score other than Faulconer's). It was reasonably accurate, but had too many holdover lines from the original Ocean Group dub, which ranged from "well, that's close" to "WTF?" Thankfully, most of the WTF moments were excised. I always felt the only time they truly nailed the dub was the Namek Saga. Love or hate Linda Young's Freeza, the lines were generally pretty accurate, and the acting was spot on across the board. I know some people hate Recoome in the dub because they changed his personality a bit, but even he wasn't *terrible*. Plus, Sabat's Vegeta rocked during that season in particular. The Namek Saga also was the only saga to have a lot of swearing, which is something they only really started doing during the Saiyan Saga's UUE dub. Kai, of course, retained it for all of its home releases. Honestly, the Dragon Box 2 set is probably worth checking out if you're interested in the Namek Arc. The voices worked well with the Kikuchi music, and overall, the Namek episodes were handled pretty nicely.

[MugiMikey]

What always pissed me off, though, was Funimation SCREWING STUFF UP THAT THEY GOT RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Yeah, I'm bitter. I very clearly remember Goten saying "Kamekameha!" on Cartoon Network. Trunks even mentioned that Goten said it wrong.

Um, wasn't that in the original? I didn't get the chance to watch that episode in Japanese yet... but I vividly remember Goten saying that, along with Trunks calling him out on it in the manga.

[Gaffer Tape]

Yes, it was. He's claiming that FUNimation translated that correctly at some point and then went back and got it wrong. But did that happen? When did they ever get that right? As far as I know, the Buu arc was never redubbed. And I have the original single DVD of that episode, and I remember always being annoyed that they totally omitted that joke. So when was it correct?

[Eddie]

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. The original japanese version was always "Kamekameha!" with Trunks pointing out Goten's error. Funi originally dubbed that line the same way, with Goten screwing up. Later on, for no apparent reason, Funimation changed it to Goten saying "Kamehameha!" with Trunks asking if Goten could control it. I'm not sure if the changed audio was always present in the home release or if it was new to the season sets. I never understood why Funimation changed it. Perhaps somebody thought, "Oh shit! A dub line that accurately portrays a scene as it was in the japanese version?! That will never do! Let's completely change the meaning of this dialogue!"

EDIT: @Gaffer I'm 99% sure that Goten DID say Kamekameha when that episode aired on Cartoon Network. Perhaps it was only present in the edited TV version.

[Mosaic]

I guess I'm alone here, but I overall don't care for the English dub of Z. It's not terrible, but it's far from good. I'm not a huge fan of the voices, I can't stand the English music, and the script took way too many liberties for my taste. Maybe I'm just a nitpick, but I got annoyed when they would do little rewrites.

One example I can think of is when Videl finds out Gohan died and says "I loved him". To me that was pretty OOC, and dumbed down the scene. We all know how she feels about him, but she wouldn't outright say it... especially then.

I can't remember the "Ultimate Uncut" dub that much. I know I watched it when it aired on Cartoon Network years ago. I was too shocked on the fact Cartoon Network allowed Gohan's penis, and a snake chick blowing out her brains to be seen on TV. Those were the days.

[Gaffer Tape]

As I just said, the original home release had the inaccurate line, so it's definitely been around since it was first dubbed/released. I admit I had stopped watching the dub at this point, so I have no idea what was said on CN. I have a hard time believing (but given FUNimation, it's not impossible) that this would be translated correctly on TV and then purposely mucked up on a DVD of the same era. I'd love to see a clip of this.

[Kaboom]

The Majin Boo arc's dub is best described as "decent." On the whole, it's much more faithfully written, and the casting was newer and better than the prior portions of the series. If the rest of the dub gets an F, and Kai gets a B+, then the Boo arc is a solid C. On the whole, it's a mostly-acceptable substitute until we get the final third of Kai.

[Eddie]

I've been searching all over the internet for that damn Kamekameha line, but I can't find clips from the initial Toonami broadcast. I'm starting to think it's another "I smell death in the air" type of thing.

[bkev]

Here's the purportedly revised version of the not-Kamekameka Goten attack.

[SovietJedi]

Funimation's dub of the Buu Saga and Saiyan/Namek Saga is the best work they ever did with DBZ (before Kai) in terms of both voice acting and scriptwriting. This makes sense though, because these were the last sagas they dubbed. The actors had finally settled into all their roles and gotten much more experience with acting by that time. Funimation was definitely at their peak as far as DBZ goes. I might even go as far as to call it one of the best anime dubs of its time.

The UU dubs are so good, in fact, that when you reach the Freeza Saga and the acting does a complete 180, it makes it a bit awkward. Trying to watch the whole series in chronological order with Funimation's dub is hard, to say the least, because of the jarring change in acting skills. If it wasn't for the promise that the acting gets better as the series goes on, it might become completely unwatchable.

[Cipher]

The UU dubs are so good, in fact, that when you reach the Freeza Saga and the acting does a complete 180, it makes it a bit awkward. Trying to watch the whole series in chronological order with Funimation's dub is hard, to say the least, because of the jarring change in acting skills. If it wasn't for the promise that the acting gets better as the series goes on, it might become completely unwatchable.

I can't imagine what an awkward experience it would be to watch Funimation's dub chronologically, starting with Dragon Ball and ending with GT. Episode 68 would just be so jarring.

At any rate, I'd hold the late Buu arc, the "Ultimate Uncut Dub," late Dragon Ball and all of GT on about the same level. The voices have evolved to the point where, love them or hate them, they're distinct and not wooden (with a few being fantastic). The scripts still vary wildly from episode to episode though. Some are nearly line-for-line translations, while others suffer from constant punching-up and inaccurate dialogue.

[DB_Fan1991]

I just finished a re-watch of the FUNi dub and it is very awkward going from the UUE dub to the Freeza saga dub.