Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle Revisit

[Attitudefan]

I re-watched Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle (Movie 2) in awhile. I watched it in Japanese every time before hand and this time I watched it in English. I watched it from the Movie box set which re-released some of FUNI's earliest works. Overall, it was one of their better works during that time period. I really enjoyed every minute of that dub!

Their Menu was missing a chapter select but I'll explain why in a moment.

Voice Talent

Many of the voices are very familiar from their run of Dragonball on cable television. However, two distinct roles were very different. I watched movie 3 in English so Goku was no surprise for me. He was voiced by Ceyli Delgadillo who was the voice of Dende during DBZ's first broadcast run of Season 3. Bulma was voiced by Leslie Alexander. I don't recognize her from anywhere else in Dragonball. I admit, I actually like her as Bulma.

The rest of the cast was the same. In contrast to their goofy roles in Season 3 of DBZ and the Dragonball broadcast dub, the characters lack any stupid stereotyped accents; most notably were Yamcha and Lunch. Holy cow, Chris Sabat's Yamcha was believable and not annoying in the least! Lunch lacked that Brooklyn accent. I can really take her character seriously! The rest of the main cast sounded the same compared to the series run on TV.

Quality

Under this topic, I am going to be broad about quality; I will talk in terms of acting and quality of the sound.

Acting

The acting was sometimes above their Season 3 counterparts in Z and other times were around that same level. The character Lucifer voiced by Mike McFarland had the most noticeable drops in acting. He went from being fairly believable and natural to sounding really forced near the end. The voice itself was slightly inconsistent and it sometimes sounded like, what would later be, his Yajarobi voice. Goku, too, had various differences in acting. At the beginning of the film where he gets Roshi's attention and bugs him about becoming a pupil was well acted and had me laughing! I loved how they did it. Near the end, or anytime Goku was in fight mode, Delgadillo doesn't measure up to standards. She doesn't sound angry and loud. It really takes one out of the mood.

Krillin and the rest of the gang sound fine, I have no quarrels with them at all. Krillin is well acted throughout the movie (like usual) and they lacked any annoying accents unlike later on.

On to Chris Sabat. What to say? He sounds way better here than what became his default Yamcha voice or even his over-the-top surfer Yamcha in DBZ Season 3. It's unbelievable really! He got it right the first time around but changed it later on! I cannot explain this phenomenon!

Overall, the cast was believable and the acting was above par from their DBZ dub in 1999. There was no annoying excessive grunting like we see in their later dubs and what carries over today. Too much grunting in their dubs of any anime. That gives it a major plus here actually. I didn't compare it to the Japanese script but their doesn't seem to be much filler dialogue to fill silent spaces. Again, a major plus to this dub. It was fairly accurate in terms of dubs made in those days and hell of a lot more accurate than anything they did for Z. Why couldn't they have continued doing this? There were changes in dialogue about Goku's transformation. In the original, none of them knew about the Oozaru transformation while in the dub only Krillin did not (because he just met Goku). I have no problem with this as it adds continuity to the stroy of Dragonball. So again, the dub was better than their later projects on Dragonball.

Sound

The audio was muffled sometimes with certain characters and clear with others. I don't know exactly why other than it's because they did recordings in different locations; it is also possible that the sound tapes have deteriorated over time but I doubt that. The quality was pretty bad considering the years it was dubbed in. Way under standard quality.

The DVD quirks

So the reason the chapters were missing was because the Japanese dub had a completely different order than the English dub. Much to my surprise, the English dub had the old Peter Berring opening from Dragonball in 1995, "Get that Dragonball". The dub was missing the Toei logo with the splashing waves and the intro came before the prologue. The Japanese dub, if selected, has the logo at first, the prologue and then the opening credits. The credits were in terrible shape and had a weird black bar appearing on the bottom from time to time (only the Japanese opening credits had this, not the dub opening). I really love "Get that Dragonball" so I have no complaints in seeing it over Mystical Adventure. It's an amazing opening. Anyways, there would be no way to have chapters as the dub is out of order from the original.

The dub was good; I give it 7.5/10

[Gonstead]

You should do more reviews.

Would you take requests?

[Attitudefan]

You should do more reviews.

Would you take requests?

Hmmm... I should? I just had to do this one because of how it really shocked me with how In-House FUNi could have been but went the other direction instead.

Sure, I'll take requests can you PM me for requests instead of filling this thread up with them?

[atm5508]

I thoroughly enjoyed your review, great work!

[Cipher]

I'm not sure I could ever go back and review the English dub of this movie objectively.

On the surface, I don't think it's all that good; some of the voices aren't quite as "cartoony" and over-the-top as they are in the actual series, but overall it's still pretty amateurish.

But that's what I love about it. This was the first Dragon Ball (not Z) VHS I owned as a fourth or fifth grader in the late '90s. More than that, it was one of my first exposures to the first Dragon Ball anime, period. The voices on this, in all their awkwardness, with all the low recording quality, were so distinct from the rest of the series and so much a part of my discovering this mythical pre-Z material, this dub will always have a place with me. I think it's responsible for a lot of my enjoyment with Sleeping Princess in general, as I wasn't all that charmed by my last Japanese viewing.

[Attitudefan]

Yes, it is very well done. Their script, voice performances and just about everything is good.

I love hearing the old English Dragonball theme too to top it all off.

[Attitudefan]

I'm not sure I could ever go back and review the English dub of this movie objectively.

On the surface, I don't think it's all that good; some of the voices aren't quite as "cartoony" and over-the-top as they are in the actual series, but overall it's still pretty amateurish.

But that's what I love about it. This was the first Dragon Ball (not Z) VHS I owned as a fourth or fifth grader in the late '90s. More than that, it was one of my first exposures to the first Dragon Ball anime, period. The voices on this, in all their awkwardness, with all the low recording quality, were so distinct from the rest of the series and so much a part of my discovering this mythical pre-Z material, this dub will always have a place with me. I think it's responsible for a lot of my enjoyment with Sleeping Princess in general, as I wasn't all that charmed by my last Japanese viewing.

Sure, some of the acting is stiff and awkward but overall it's not that bad. It's better than their Season 3 acting. It's not as robotic and I can actually feel the characters are genuinely interacting with each other. I was afraid at first at listening to this but I was surprised. I love Goku and Roshi's interaction at the beginning; it was genuine.

It is amateurish compared to the Saban dub running at that time but it's better than what they did for Z.

[atm5508]

Oh, and just a quick note: The 1995 Dragon Ball opening theme is more accurately referred to as "Gotta Find That Dragon Ball!" (although on the soundtrack CD it is simply referred to as "Main Title").

If you check the lyrics section here on Kanzenshuu, they have it listed as "Gotta Find That Dragon Ball": http://www.kanzenshuu.com/lyrics/

I see this referred to as "Get That Dragon Ball" fairly often, but that title more accurately describes Harmony Gold's dub of "Makafushigi Adventure!", which begins with the lyrics "Get that Dragon Ball! Get that Dragon Ball!"

I couldn't find this on the lyrics page of Kanzenshuu, but the opening (with transcribed lyrics) can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okGiT8GIY_g

[Cipher]

It is amateurish compared to the Saban dub running at that time but it's better than what they did for Z.

This is true. The voices are more natural, but you'd never mistake them for a seasoned cast of voice actors. (Goku is abnormally soft-spoken; everyone's still a bit wooden, etc.)

But I love it in a way that absolutely doesn't carry over to FUNimation's early in-series dubs.

[Attitudefan]

Oh, and just a quick note: The 1995 Dragon Ball opening theme is more accurately referred to as "Gotta Find That Dragon Ball!" (although on the soundtrack CD it is simply referred to as "Main Title").

If you check the lyrics section here on Kanzenshuu, they have it listed as "Gotta Find That Dragon Ball": http://www.kanzenshuu.com/lyrics/

I see this referred to as "Get That Dragon Ball" fairly often, but that title more accurately describes Harmony Gold's dub of "Makafushigi Adventure!", which begins with the lyrics "Get that Dragon Ball! Get that Dragon Ball!"

I couldn't find this on the lyrics page of Kanzenshuu, but the opening (with transcribed lyrics) can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okGiT8GIY_g

Right. Duly noted for any future references to that song. Thanks!

It is amateurish compared to the Saban dub running at that time but it's better than what they did for Z.

This is true. The voices are more natural, but you'd never mistake them for a seasoned cast of voice actors. (Goku is abnormally soft-spoken; everyone's still a bit wooden, etc.)

But I love it in a way that absolutely doesn't carry over to FUNimation's early in-series dubs.

Goku's soft-spoken voice really puts me off when he's getting excited or serious when he's in fight mode. It bugged me a lot in the 3rd Dragonball movie but I wasn't as annoyed by it in this movie (for some reason). To be honest, I was not as critical of them because it was their first dub and it was better then what they did later haha.

[Gaffer Tape]

That was a really good review. And I pretty much agree too. For a long time, I referred to this as the best dub that FUNimation ever produced independently. It had the original music, the script wasn't tooooooo far off, and, while I think their voice cast was still mostly bad, it was just barely above season 3 level. I disagree about the Blooma voice, though. She always grated on my nerves. It almost sounded like she was trying to be a man pretending to be a woman.

As for the knowledge of Oozaru, I do disagree on that because this isn't supposed to tie into continuity of Dragon Ball. It forms its own continuity with its other two films (albeit based on the continuity of the series), something I guess FUNimation forgot. Especially with Lunch almost getting eaten (akin to Blooma), this is the analog to the transformation at Pilaf's. There was no Oozaru in the first film, so there's no reason anyone should know about it. So if you watch all three dubbed movies, those lines aren't going to make any sense.

[Akumaito Beam]

As for the knowledge of Oozaru, I do disagree on that because this isn't supposed to tie into continuity of Dragon Ball. It forms its own continuity with its other two films (albeit based on the continuity of the series), something I guess FUNimation forgot. Especially with Lunch almost getting eaten (akin to Blooma), this is the analog to the transformation at Pilaf's. There was no Oozaru in the first film, so there's no reason anyone should know about it. So if you watch all three dubbed movies, those lines aren't going to make any sense.

Funnily enough they ended up calling Chaozu a "prince" in the season 3 dub during the finale of the Freeza saga based off of (what I'd have to imagine was) Dragon Ball movie 3. I have to wonder if they thought these movies actually did tie into the canon somehow.

Edit: This was a pretty fun,short and sweet review. I wouldn't mind seeing more.

[Gaffer Tape]

Yeah, that's right (well, close enough: they called him "the young emperor.")! I remember having heard that somewhere else in the past, so when the dub said it, I believed that actually was part of his backstory at the time.

[KiddoCabbusses]

May I ask how the dub in the 4-movie Box compares to the one in the singles/3-movie box? I mean, I know it's the same voice cast and etc. but I was curious about sound remastering or enhancement.

(I'd ask about video as well but that's kinda been covered.)

[Attitudefan]

May I ask how the dub in the 4-movie Box compares to the one in the singles/3-movie box? I mean, I know it's the same voice cast and etc. but I was curious about sound remastering or enhancement.

(I'd ask about video as well but that's kinda been covered.)

I don't have that box-set.

Yeah, that's right (well, close enough: they called him "the young emperor.")! I remember having heard that somewhere else in the past, so when the dub said it, I believed that actually was part of his backstory at the time.

I never knew that.

Edit: This was a pretty fun,short and sweet review. I wouldn't mind seeing more.

Thanks

I disagree about the Blooma voice, though. She always grated on my nerves. It almost sounded like she was trying to be a man pretending to be a woman.

She sounds a little old for Bulma but she didn't have that valley girl tone to her; that southern squeekyness bugs me to no end when watching long periods of Dragonball.

[Gaffer Tape]

Yeah, that's right (well, close enough: they called him "the young emperor.")! I remember having heard that somewhere else in the past, so when the dub said it, I believed that actually was part of his backstory at the time.

I never knew that.

Yeah, it's at the very end of the Freeza arc, when the narrator has to steamroll over all the events. When Chaozu is brought back to life, the narrator says something to the effect of, "The first wish was used to bring back the young emperor Chiaotzu!" I have no idea if they changed the line when they booted Dale Kelley.

[Attitudefan]

Yeah, that's right (well, close enough: they called him "the young emperor.")! I remember having heard that somewhere else in the past, so when the dub said it, I believed that actually was part of his backstory at the time.

I never knew that.

Yeah, it's at the very end of the Freeza arc, when the narrator has to steamroll over all the events. When Chaozu is brought back to life, the narrator says something to the effect of, "The first wish was used to bring back the young emperor Chiaotzu!" I have no idea if they changed the line when they booted Dale Kelley.

I'm going to have to pop in the DVD to find out! I guess they knew very little back story so they went off something they had easy reference to (because those movies somewhat summed up the events in Dragonball)

[The GREAT D.]

Yeah, it's at the very end of the Freeza arc, when the narrator has to steamroll over all the events. When Chaozu is brought back to life, the narrator says something to the effect of, "The first wish was used to bring back the young emperor Chiaotzu!" I have no idea if they changed the line when they booted Dale Kelley.

Nope, Kyle Hebert still calls him an emperor in the "revised" dub that appears on the Orange Bricks and Dragon Boxes.

[Gaffer Tape]

You know, I'm almost tempted to forgive them for that, as DB movie 3 gives Chaozu a much more compelling and interesting backstory and motivations than he ever gets in the main series. Just calling him an emperor in that scene conjured up ideas in my 13 year old head of so many other stories and adventures that I had missed. Almost tempted...