DragonBall Z Abridged

[rereboy]

This is a terrible post that you should be ashamed of.

Dragonball is already saturated with humor. There are only two ways to make Dragonball Abridged - literally abridge the show (to be honest I'd be thrilled to see Dragonball get the Kai treatment) or replace the jokes that are already in the show with dialog that turns the subtext into text. How would you "enhance" the scene where Krillin convinces Roshi to take him on as a student by giving him porn? Have a character in the scene say "wow, Roshi breaks his decades-long trend of shunning students just because someone threw a girly mag at him! Guess his convictions aren't as strong as his libido! What a wacky turn of events!"? That's already the subtext of the entire sequence.

Just because you can't see any worthwhile way to do an abridged Dragon Ball, it doesn't mean that there isn't one. Maybe its you that should be ashamed for thinking that if you can't figure it out, it can't be done.

[Kawanakajima]

More specifically, FoolsGil should be ashamed of his knee-jerk reaction that if someone doesn't think a hypothetical Dragonball Abridged could be done well that they must hate DBZ Abridged.

I understand that we're probably not going to come to an agreement, but now I'm intensely curious: how would you approach creating "Dragonball Abridged"? Give us an outline of a specific scene.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Well they could make fun of the dub line about King Piccolo going into space. Something like this.

Piccolo: This is impossible! I've fought enemies all throughout the Earth and space and none of them could defeat me!

Goku: Wait, you fought in space?

Piccolo: Yeah, I sure did, I kicked all kinds of ass!

Goku: How did you get there?

Piccolo: I, uh, I had a spaceship.

Goku: Where did you get the spaceship from?

Piccolo: Would you stop being so damn skeptical? I mean, you're the guy who went to the moon with a magic stick!

Goku: Okay, fine. But when did you go into space? It couldn't have been after Pilaf revived you, there wasn't enough time.

Piccolo: It was before I was sealed, obviously!

Goku: So when Roshi, Mutaito, and more of your enemies were still around you just decided to go on a jaunt through space to pick fights with random aliens?

Piccolo: Um, yes. Yes, I did.

Goku: Okay, so who did you fight?

Piccolo: Uh, I don't know. Some guys.

Goku: If you're supposed to be the biggest badass in outer space, you'd figure you could at least name some names...

Piccolo: What do you care? You don't know anything about outer space!

Goku: Well Bulma told me that her sister met a spaceman named Jaco and he never said anything about you...

Piccolo: J-just shut up! What is this, 20 questions? I went to space, I kicked ass, and that's that!

Goku: Did not...

Piccolo: AARGH! *blasts him*

Or something like that.

[Kawanakajima]

I appreciate the effort, but making fun of bad dub lines (and Toei's shameless cost-cutting animation techniques for that matter) does not carry a show, even one with episodes that last between 5-10 minutes. When the punchline is about a bad localization instead of a riff on the situation or character, you can't draw that out because there isn't anything more to be said. Even in DBZA the times they make fun of bad dub lines are very brief. Freeza says "I can breathe in space," and Goku remarks "but space is a vacuum!" and that's it. They don't linger on the moment. In the stinger of Episode of Bardock, Chilled's guys praise Bardock, one of them calls him a "brilliant scientist," Bardock calls back to the original context of the bad line and then it's over. There's no point dissecting why the line is bad - if it's notorious enough to work as a reference, the audience already knows why it's bad.

I'm particularly partial to how LittleKuriboh does bad dub lines in his YGOA, he just has the characters say the lines unaltered and subtitles the scene with "actual 4kids dialog". That doesn't work for DBZA though because their take has the characters behaving much more faithfully to their original personalities whereas YGOA has a very meta take on its parent material.

[FoolsGil]

I appreciate the effort, but making fun of bad dub lines (and Toei's shameless cost-cutting animation techniques for that matter) does not carry a show, even one with episodes that last between 5-10 minutes. When the punchline is about a bad localization instead of a riff on the situation or character, you can't draw that out because there isn't anything more to be said. Even in DBZA the times they make fun of bad dub lines are very brief. Freeza says "I can breathe in space," and Goku remarks "but space is a vacuum!" and that's it. They don't linger on the moment. In the stinger of Episode of Bardock, Chilled's guys praise Bardock, one of them calls him a "brilliant scientist," Bardock calls back to the original context of the bad line and then it's over. There's no point dissecting why the line is bad - if it's notorious enough to work as a reference, the audience already knows why it's bad.

I'm particularly partial to how LittleKuriboh does bad dub lines in his YGOA, he just has the characters say the lines unaltered and subtitles the scene with "actual 4kids dialog". That doesn't work for DBZA though because their take has the characters behaving much more faithfully to their original personalities whereas YGOA has a very meta take on its parent material.

I love you. You're just the best.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Well you asked for how a scene would be done, that was just an idea I had.

[matt0044]

I didn't mean they shouldn't try a DB Abridged. Like I suggested, they can use the Movie Trilogy to maybe save some time (maybe use Goku as a framing device).

[Kawanakajima]

Well you asked for how a scene would be done, that was just an idea I had.

I applaud your effort, but an abridged series formed mainly of scenes explaining to the audience why lines from the dub are bad, even if the explanation comes straight from the characters' mouths, sounds more like an academic critique than a humorous parody. That sort of thing might be fine for one short video, but it's not going to carry an entire internet comedy show. It's not particularly clever or unexpected and a casual fan or a newcomer to the franchise is just going to be left scratching their head about why the characters are spending half a minute analyzing some dumb thing a guy said.

[BlazingBarrrager]

Not sure if you guys watched this but...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWOybKwGiJg
I find this to be the funniest "Best of" yet, especially since they put in extra jokes. Probably also the only time outside of DBZ Abridged we see Kurrin's owned count meter.

[EmmaWinters]

Late to the party, but I enjoyed the special a lot more than I thought I would. Good job.

[BlazingBarrrager]

Seeing as how Battle of Gods is, for the most part, not getting abridged I might as well ask this question. Who would be higher on the pecking order: Mr. Popo,or Whis?

[Polyphase Avatron]

Seeing as how Battle of Gods is, for the most part, not getting abridged I might as well ask this question. Who would be higher on the pecking order: Mr. Popo,or Whis?

For some reason I see Abridged Whis being a stoner. I don't know why.

[Big Momma]

Seeing as how Battle of Gods is, for the most part, not getting abridged I might as well ask this question. Who would be higher on the pecking order: Mr. Popo,or Whis?

For some reason I see Abridged Whis being a stoner. I don't know why.

It might be because he spends almost the entire movie snacking.


Personally, I don't really think that's a good fit, though.

[BlazingBarrrager]

What''s funny about Whis snacking throughout the entire movie is that not only does he seem uninterested in Goku and Beerus' fight, but he knows he can do whatever the hell he want (even at the expense of Beerus' temper) and Beerus can't do squat to stop him from doing so. So this (coupled with how he's currently the strongest known DBZ character) is why I chose to compare him to Abridged Mr. Popo over Beerus.

[TKA]

That Trunks special was good. A bit disappointed Gohan's last fight with them never made it in, but oh well.

I hope TFS tears the Broly special a new ***hole.

[Doctor.]

That Trunks special was good. A bit disappointed Gohan's last fight with them never made it in, but oh well.

I hope TFS tears the Broly special a new ***hole.

Perhaps they'll actually make Broly an actually decent and enjoyable character.

[jcogginsa]

i found Broly decent in his first movie, but the second movie removed much of his personality

[Doctor.]

I haven't watched any of the movies besides Battle of Gods in a looong time, but I do remember that Broly in the first movie was the generic cocky and arrogant villain, while in the second movie, he was just insane. Either way, he was uninteresting.

[jcogginsa]

I haven't watched any of the movies besides Battle of Gods in a looong time, but I do remember that Broly in the first movie was the generic cocky and arrogant villain, while in the second movie, he was just insane. Either way, he was uninteresting.

i tend to overthink characters. I also may be overstating things because i saw the 2nd one first

[BlazingBarrrager]

I haven't watched any of the movies besides Battle of Gods in a looong time, but I do remember that Broly in the first movie was the generic cocky and arrogant villain, while in the second movie, he was just insane. Either way, he was uninteresting.

He was certainly better in the first movie than the second since he wasn't shouting "Kakarooot!" every damn minute (especially when he went LSSJ). I think I read somewhere that his English voice actor didn't like playing the role as well, though I forgot why. Either way, I'm really to looking forward how he'll turn out when he gets the old TeamFourStar touch. Might even have to throw in some of the special soda (callback from the Namek saga).