Could a dub version of "Cha-La Head Cha-La" work?

[Super Sonic]

As the title says, do you guys think an English version of "Cha-La Head Cha-La" have worked for the North American dub. Can figure besides money reason on why it was replaced back in 1996, as its length, and not being actiony enough contributed to that. (For young guys, back then action cartoons in the US tended to have more actiony themes, be with lyrics or instrumentals). Part of me thinks in keeping doing like US cartoons, had it been kept back then, the lyrics would've been changed to being about the plot on finding the Dragon Balls or fighting enemies rather than adventure themes a la Sailor Moon and Star Blazers. That's my thoughts. What about you guys?

[Xeogran]

There was one in Philippines! It was a different version than usual but I really like listening to it. Two versions even!
I like the first one the best (of course besides the original Japanese)

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fRQBBfjC8
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVYrHgmaUlU

[MasenkoHA]

Yes, frankly the fact that Dragon Ball Z is the ONLY Dragon Ball property to not have an English version of the theme song by Funimation makes it stick out like a sore thumb when placed against original Dragon Ball, GT, Kai, TFC, and Super. And I don’t think we were ever provided a reason for why an English Head Cha La (and We Gotts Power for that matter) wasn’t produced for the Orange Bricks the same way Bit by Bit was produced for the Green Bricks, presumably it was because Funimation figured they already a theme on hand that was long enough to fit in with Head Cha and We Gotta Power animation, the Menza theme they had composed for Movie 6 back in 2002, where “Step into the Grand Tour” was too short .

It was almost definitely replaced for length and not conforming to what American kids “listened to” but the fact they never got around to creating an English version is odd.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's possible that TOEI didn't send Funimation a good Music and Effects (ME) track, as they haven't the best track record with that sort of thing. Often these ME tracks lacked instrumental versions of the Japanese songs or even the songs entirely. Funimation would have needed an instrumental version of Cha-La Head Cha-La to Dublin over it, and I'm doubtful they had one back in the 90s as we've heard anecdotal accounts from Sabat about the Kikuchi track being so bad it was distracting. Long and short of it is Funimation received such poor materials they resorted to making stuff up, and doing their own OPs is no exception.

[MasenkoHA]

It's possible that TOEI didn't send Funimation a good Music and Effects (ME) track, as they haven't the best track record with that sort of thing. Often these ME tracks lacked instrumental versions of the Japanese songs or even the songs entirely. Funimation would have needed an instrumental version of Cha-La Head Cha-La to Dublin over it,

Not really though. They clearly didn’t have a clean instrumental version of Makafushigi Adventure to use and just recreated the instrumentals

https://youtu.be/BWI3d7tC2VY

https://youtu.be/ROnd7d4axHo


I don’t buy they couldn’t have done the same with Head Cha La if they wanted to

and I'm doubtful they had one back in the 90s as we've heard anecdotal accounts from Sabat about the Kikuchi track being so bad it was distracting and Schemmel not hearing Nozawa till years later. Long and short of it is Funimation received such poor materials they resorted to making stuff up, and doing their own OPs is no exception.

Yeah Sabat said this but

This wasn’t an issue for the older Dragon Ball series?

They were able to fix this alleged issue for the Orange Bricks which were poorly and lazily handled everywhere else?

Gen Fukunaga straight up said “We decided to replace the score for the royalties we could make off our own original score”


Yeah, no, math isn’t mathing. I’m not saying Sabat is lying but he was more likely misinformed on the alleged issue with the Japanese M&E tracks.


This whole narrative of “It’s not actually Funimation’s fault their dub turned out so bad! It’s actually Toei’s!” doesn’t hold up under any scrutiny.

[Aim]

Yes, frankly the fact that Dragon Ball Z is the ONLY Dragon Ball property to not have an English version of the theme song by Funimation makes it stick out like a sore thumb when placed against original Dragon Ball, GT, Kai, TFC, and Super. And I don’t think we were ever provided a reason for why an English Head Cha La (and We Gotts Power for that matter) wasn’t produced for the Orange Bricks the same way Bit by Bit was produced for the Green Bricks, presumably it was because Funimation figured they already a theme on hand that was long enough to fit in with Head Cha and We Gotta Power animation, the Menza theme they had composed for Movie 6 back in 2002, where “Step into the Grand Tour” was too short .

It was almost definitely replaced for length and not conforming to what American kids “listened to” but the fact they never got around to creating an English version is odd.

IIRC Sean said it wouldn’t work or something

[TVfan721]

Wasn't there a somewhat English version of it on the orange bricks?

There was one in Philippines! It was a different version than usual but I really like listening to it. Two versions even!
I like the first one the best (of course besides the original Japanese)

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fRQBBfjC8
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVYrHgmaUlU

Wow, I love that first one. Dare I say, I like it more than the original. The emotion in that guy's voice makes it a stronger version IMO.

[TheGreatness25]

Wasn't there a somewhat English version of it on the orange bricks?

No. There was this thing which sounds about as much like Cha-La Head Cha-La as I sound like Enrique Iglesias. Spoiler alert: I don't.

https://youtu.be/mAm0JAnk6bg

[MasenkoHA]

]
IIRC Sean said it wouldn’t work or something

He did but this was back around 2000 when Funimation was more of an entertainment company who also did things like Cyboar and that Chuck E. Cheese tie in video. Now that they’ve long since cemented themselves as a dubbing company it just sticks out like a sore thumb their flagship property never got an English adaptation of its theme song(s).

In 2000? Yeah it wasn’t weird that there was no English Head Cha La and it made sense that there wasn’t for Funimation’s company purposes

In 2022? When they had long since went back and re-inserted the Kikuchi score into their dub of Dragon Ball Z and made it the default version and all their other dubs have English adaptations of their OPs? Yeah it’s weird.

[TheGreatness25]

Spoiler:

It's possible that TOEI didn't send Funimation a good Music and Effects (ME) track, as they haven't the best track record with that sort of thing. Often these ME tracks lacked instrumental versions of the Japanese songs or even the songs entirely. Funimation would have needed an instrumental version of Cha-La Head Cha-La to Dublin over it,

Not really though. They clearly didn’t have a clean instrumental version of Makafushigi Adventure to use and just recreated the instrumentals

https://youtu.be/BWI3d7tC2VY

https://youtu.be/ROnd7d4axHo


I don’t buy they couldn’t have done the same with Head Cha La if they wanted to

and I'm doubtful they had one back in the 90s as we've heard anecdotal accounts from Sabat about the Kikuchi track being so bad it was distracting and Schemmel not hearing Nozawa till years later. Long and short of it is Funimation received such poor materials they resorted to making stuff up, and doing their own OPs is no exception.

Yeah Sabat said this but

This wasn’t an issue for the older Dragon Ball series?

They were able to fix this alleged issue for the Orange Bricks which were poorly and lazily handled everywhere else?

Gen Fukunaga straight up said “We decided to replace the score for the royalties we could make off our own original score”


Yeah, no, math isn’t mathing. I’m not saying Sabat is lying but he was more likely misinformed on the alleged issue with the Japanese M&E tracks.


This whole narrative of “It’s not actually Funimation’s fault their dub turned out so bad! It’s actually Toei’s!” doesn’t hold up under any scrutiny.

I've thought for years that the entire idea that Funimation never got a track clean enough to pull original BGM from, sounded strange. Unless Toei gave Funimation a worse track than literally every other dubbing company in the world, it doesn't make sense because to my knowledge, every other dub used the original BGM.

I can sort of understand Funimation's logic in replacing the Z score. I can't get it got Dragon Ball because yeah, while the opening was a lot different than "Mystical Adventure," I wouldn't say that the rest of the Peter Berring score tried to capture a different feeling than the Kikuchi show. This is why I could believe that while thing about Funimation not getting clear audio from Toei, but still--EVERY other dub company got cleaner audio than they did?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I could see it being a bit of both. Not all of the film prints TOEI sent to the various international license holders were made equal. Funimation had better masters than AB Groupe for example, hence the drop in PQ for the last 4 episodes of the Westwood dub. If Funimation received a poor ME track from TOEI they could have taken the initiative to request better or create their own score with the justification of it being the more financially attractive option, and for better or for worse they chose the latter. Funimation likely had the same rationale for not dubbing Cha-La Head Cha-La. Even if they didn't get a good quality track for it, they would opt to record Rock the Dragon because its an original OP and could generate them royalties, not just through airing, but also it's use in advertising, etc.

[MasenkoHA]

I've thought for years that the entire idea that Funimation never got a track clean enough to pull original BGM from, sounded strange. Unless Toei gave Funimation a worse track than literally every other dubbing company in the world, it doesn't make sense because to my knowledge, every other dub used the original BGM.

Yeah, it doesn’t make sense for multiple reasons. “Keeping the Japanese music just wasn’t an option for us !” is a flat out lie. They could. They didn’t want to.

I can sort of understand Funimation's logic in replacing the Z score

Sure, on the basis of “We’re a brand new company and we’re not entirely sure how well this Dragon Ball Z show is going to perform with Americans so lets create a brand new score composed by the guy who did Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that conforms to what focus groups told us about kids only watching cartoons with wall to wall music and has the added benefit of making us extra money off royalties” it gets less understandable when they receive solid proof that keeping the music wasn’t going to make kids change the channel and watch something else (see Toonami’s broadcast of Dead Zone and World’s Strongest)

. I can't get it got Dragon Ball because yeah, while the opening was a lot different than "Mystical Adventure," I wouldn't say that the rest of the Peter Berring score tried to capture a different feeling than the Kikuchi show.

The Berring score is worth mentioning because if we buy into the excuse that Funimation just could not keep the Japanese music for Z because Bad M&E tracks/licensing cost than why did they initially replace the music for Dragon Ball and THEN changed their minds and retained the music for their second dub (which they also used as a selling point)? It was a business decision to replace the music and then a business decision to keep the music. It was never a “We’re a poor company being unfairly treated by Toei’s lazy practices”

[Super Sonic]

Sure, on the basis of “We’re a brand new company and we’re not entirely sure how well this Dragon Ball Z show is going to perform with Americans so lets create a brand new score composed by the guy who did Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that conforms to what focus groups told us about kids only watching cartoons with wall to wall music and has the added benefit of making us extra money off royalties” it gets less understandable when they receive solid proof that keeping the music wasn’t going to make kids change the channel and watch something else (see Toonami’s broadcast of Dead Zone and World’s Strongest)

That was the thought back then. Sometimes while not a deal breaker would tend to work, as personally after watching it all, prefer Voltron's music to Go Lion's. As for intro, Japan changes when they import as well. Nothing against Japanese folks who grew up with this, but with G1 intro's I'm a traditionalist and have to go more for the short and simple original and its redone music for subsequent seasons.