Speedy Video Legitimacy

[atm5508]

Does anyone know if Speedy Video held a legitimate license to the Dragon Ball or DBZ franchise? I was always under the impression that they did, but now I'm not so sure.

I recently bought a lot of Speedy DBZ VCDs and there was one Dragon Ball movie in the mix, Movie 1. However, instead of their in-house dubbing it contains the 1995 Funimation/Trimark Dub Curse of the Blood Rubies.

Could they have licensed it from Funimation/Trimark? Or could they be a bootlegger?

[linkdude20002001]

I think they are a bootlegging company. They have several FUNi releases for sale. Though...there have been official releases of FUNi's dub by other companies before like Madman in Australia and Bridge Pictures in the Netherlands. Maybe it is legit after all. But I've always wondered.

[Timo]

If they are a bootleging company, from where did they get the International Tape/Music & Effects track to dub the stuff?

[atm5508]

Good question. Couldn't they have overdubbed the voices though? I've never checked to see if you could hear BGM during dialogue.

[Puto]

The malaysian english dub is definitely done with the proper bgm/sfx track.

[atm5508]

Are there any dubs that were not sanctioned by Toei which have the proper sfx/bgm?

[Puto]

Considering that I've never seen any "unofficial dub", I can't tell for sure.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Their release of the Jump Super Anime Tour Special is very sketchy looking. There may or may not be any Toei, or Shueshia logos/copyrights on the box (that sticker could have the Toei logo on it, but I can't be for certain), the art is just random Z art, and the logo is simply an edited Z logo. It also doesn't help that the back of that box reveals a logo that's a blatant ripoff of Aniplex's logo.

Does your release have any Toei stickers, logos, etc.?

[Namekjin]

Maybe just DB Movie 1 is a bootleg.

[atm5508]

I don't have my releases accessible at the moment, but I don't remember seeing any logos besides the Speedy logo.

And it's certainly possible that some of their releases were done without permission while they had permission for others.

[KiddoCabbusses]

atm, I have the "Rival Fusion" VCD.

I tried digging through the artwork to find some copyright stuff, and on the back label and the VCD coverart;

"[Copyright logo] 1995 Bird Studio/Shueisha Toei Animation Licensed by T.A.E./A.I.
Exclusively distributed in Malaysia by SPEEDY VIDEO DISTRIBUTORS/SDN/BHD
[The rest is obscured by a market sticker of some sort]"

Likewise, the front cover and the CD itself have
"[Copyright logo] 1995 Bird Studio/Shueisha Toei Animation Licensed by T.A.E./A.I."
on it.

I have yet to identify who "T.A.E./A.I." is, although an association most immediately associated with Toei that has a chunk of such initials is "Toei Animation Enterprises (Hong Kong)". Although that is not a Malays-associated group, I have seen listings for -various- Speedy VCDs which appear to be based on old Ocean/FUNi singles.

Check some of the listings on here, for example;

http://www.vcdcd.com/cgi-bin/genre.cgi?genre=Anime

Kinda strange that there'd be both a "Cooler's Revenge" and a "The Strongest Vs. The Strongest", isn't it?

Was this said VCD you have?

http://www.vcdcd.com/cgi-bin/vcd_info.cgi?id=738

(EDIT: On one other note, I think it might also be possible that bootleggers used Speedy's name to sell products. I've noted that on some of the coverarts, the logo seems to be shaped randomly each time. I would suggest to check your logo to see if it has the same fonts as the one on the website. The "Rival Fusion" VCD I have does.)

[atm5508]

That is the exact release I that I own.

It would make sense that some of their releases would be based off of the Funimation/Ocean Dubs if they had access to it, so that is certainly a possibility. I suppose what made it seem so sketchy is the different title. Funimation named the movie Curse of the Blood Rubies, but Speedy still used the name Legend of Shenron. Granted, this may just be a mistake and nothing else.

[KiddoCabbusses]

Alright, thanks for the confirmation. This makes me hesitant to consider "The History of Trunk" for a purchase.

Considering that Speedy seems to have taken quite a bit from FUNimation's sources, I'm kinda inclined to think that the rather imfamous dubs on their VCDs originated from elsewhere as well, which is why I've attempted to look up "T.A.E./A.I.", but if they're not Toei HK, then I don't really have any other place to look...

[atm5508]

Is there any way we can contact Speedy? I know it's probably not the best option, but they might be able to shed some light on the subject.

I wish I had the complete collection of these so that I could check each release...

[KiddoCabbusses]

Well, there's

http://www.speedy.com.my/store/Default. ... =109&tab=7

I've also tried running searches on the DB/Z items in their engine but their results aren't very detailed.

[linkdude20002001]

I wonder if A.I. stands for Animation International... They appear to a company like AB Groupe, acquiring the licence to Japanese cartoons for multiple countries so they can sub-licence the shows to other companies. That's how Creative Products Corporation acquired the licence for the Philippines. Animation International has an office in Malaysia, so it's possible that they acquired rights to Dragon Ball for that country as well. Speedy might've just stolen the dub from T.A.E and A.I..

[atm5508]

I wonder if A.I. stands for Animation International... They appear to a company like AB Groupe, acquiring the licence to Japanese cartoons for multiple countries so they can sub-licence the shows to other companies. That's how Creative Products Corporation acquired the licence for the Philippines. Animation International has an office in Malaysia, so it's possible that they acquired rights to Dragon Ball for that country as well. Speedy might've just stolen the dub from T.A.E and A.I..

I had no idea that Creative Products Corp. ever officially released anything, I've never seen a physical copy

As for the logic behind that, it does seem to be the best lead we have, and it would make perfect sense. It's just very strange that they would use Funimation/Ocean dubs for some releases and Speedy dubs for others, but they might have been trying to speed up the release schedule by using their own cast.

[KiddoCabbusses]

Well, the old VHS copy-of-a-copy I used to have of "The Greatest Rivals" had to have come from some actual release somewhere down the line (Unless it was recorded from a TV Broadcast, but there was no sign of a network bumper or anything)... I seriously wish I hadn't lost track of that tape.

Anyway, atm, I guess I should ask; how do the other VCDs look, video-wise? "Rival Fusion" looks like it was rerecorded right from the Laserdisc version, but most the Youtube footage I see of the Speedy dubs look more like International VHS versions or such (And yeah, VHSes... the quality looks like pooo).

[atm5508]

Honestly, the quality of the releases I have varies greatly. Rival Fusion does indeed look like it was recorded from the LaserDisc. My copy of Legend of Shenron/Curse of the Blood Rubies is of a surprisingly high quality (maybe they did receive a master from Funimation). I can't remember which disc it was, but one of the movies I have definitely looks like it came from a VHS tape. Most seem to be somewhere in between the two extremes though.

[linkdude20002001]

I had no idea that Creative Products Corp. ever officially released anything, I've never seen a physical copy

There actually was an official VHS release of the Creative Products dub. One of the voice actors from that dub said he owned the VHS tape but lost it unfortunately. It was released a year or two after the theatrical release.