English Dragon Ball/DBZ Dubs!

[Mew]

I am interested in this topic. Most DB/DBZ fans know of the FUNimation and Ocean dubs, but there are many more! Here are clip samples of some of the interesting, horrible, or horribly hilarious English dubs of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z! Etsyturtle2 helped me find most of the clips, sp thanks to him for the help!

The first dub made was the Harmony Gold dub of Dragon Ball. Little is known about it, but it is said that they merged Dragon Ball movies The Curse of the Blood Rubies and Mystical Adventure to create a VHS film that was aired in some local Philadelphia stations. It is also said that they dubbed the first 5 DB episodes, but little footage has been found. Here is the first intro, Mystical Adventure!, in the Harmony Gold English format! Here Goku is called Zero.


The next dub is the Ocean dub, made by an early FUNimation! The dub was a heavily censored version to air on TV appropriate for kids. Goku is still Goku here. There was a new intro for this version. They also dubbed DBZ in the same style.



Next, is the actual FUNimation dub. The dubbed Dragon Ball/DBZ mostly uncensored. They dubbed Mystical Adventure and Rock the Dragon for English openings.


Next post will be the horrible Big Green and Speedy dubs!

[Slade]

I was sure the Ocean dub did Rock the Dragon...

[CyberCubed]

Ah, the old Ocean cut DBZ dub. It removed all lines of death and called the afterlife the "Next dimension." So many unintentionally classic cheesy lines came from that dub like Tien saying, "Wait till my arm grows back!" and, "Too bad its Sunday, those buildings would have been filled tomorrow!"

Thank god FUNimation redubbed the beginning of the show later on.

[Mew]

Originally Posted by Slade

I was sure the Ocean dub did Rock the Dragon...

Hmmm... maybe that video was wrong? :/

[Mew]

The Big Green dub. Aired in the UK, with crappy acting and horrible name
pronunciation! Big Green has a nice white cape.


And last but not least, the Speedy dub. I have no words for it, just see for yourself.


That's it, far as I know. If you know any other English Dragon Ball or DBZ dubs, you can post them below!

[sdp]

Jeeze, I'm lucky I got to watch the spanish dub of Dragon Ball/z. I got to watch everything uncensored and the original music not to mention the original series first. I still watched the American Dub that aired in Toonami though so the American voices are also nostalgic to me as are some of the music themes, especially Piccolo's theme. I cannot understand how anyone says that the American music is better, that's pure nostalgia glasses (earpiece?) talking. Overall I think the Spanish dub was near perfect.

I get lost by how many dubs the american version has gotten, I'm only familiar with the original toonami DBZ run and the "uncut" one that aired in 2005 I think on CN.

[CyberCubed]

Some of the American Faulconer tracks are great, like the Super Saiyan 3 theme, the Super Vegeta theme, Majin Buu's theme, Perfect Cell and Pikkon's theme, and the "New earth" music.

Keep in mind you can watch the english dub with the Japanese music on the DVDs, so American fans can also watch it with the original soundtrack.

[sdp]

Anime becoming big in America in the late 90s was the worst thing that could've happened to other countries. Before that many countries would dub the originals and you had plenty of faithful uncensored adaptations but once American companies realized there was money in this they started buying the worldwide rights to distribute and all countries got stuck with the sh-tty American dubs. Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball are all examples of shows that got awesome adaptations worldwide while shows like Pokemon, YuGiOh etc. we all got the crappy censored ones. It's good the US was late to the Anime bandwagon which had been huge already in Europe/Latin America since at least the 80s.

[Bry]

Originally Posted by Mew

[COLOR=Cyan]The next dub is the Ocean dub, made by an early FUNimation! The dub was a heavily censored version to air on TV appropriate for kids. Goku is still Goku here. There was a new intro for this version. They also dubbed DBZ in the same style.

My introduction to Dragon Ball! I think YTV showed this run in Canada, and I still have the DVD set that came out about 15 years ago. Most of the censorship is pretty hilarious, but I still really like that original cast and have a serious soft spot for that theme song.

Originally Posted by Slade

I was sure the Ocean dub did Rock the Dragon...

Yeah, I remember it being the theme song when that dub first aired, and it appears that's the case. It was during the Funimation/Ocean/Saban days, and apparently the song was recorded by Saban.

[Mew]

Originally Posted by Bry

My introduction to Dragon Ball! I think YTV showed this run in Canada, and I still have the DVD set that came out about 15 years ago. Most of the censorship is pretty hilarious, but I still really like that original cast and have a serious soft spot for that theme song.



Yeah, I remember it being the theme song when that dub first aired, and it appears that's the case. It was during the Funimation/Ocean/Saban days, and apparently the song was recorded by Saban.

Such confusion. What was the uncut FUNimation DBZ dub theme?

[Mew]

The Philippines dubbed Chala Head Chala in English.

Also dubbed Mystical Adventures

[Bry]

Originally Posted by Mew

Such confusion. What was the uncut FUNimation DBZ dub theme?

Not sure, to be honest. "Rock the Dragon" was (I believe) the original US theme. But after Funimation, Saban, and Ocean parted ways, the Westwood/Ocean dub continued in Canada, so that's the one I saw, for the most part. And that's where the theme you posted came from (unless there was another use I'm not aware of).

Not as good as "Rock the Dragon", but it's what we got.

Originally Posted by Mew

The Philippines dubbed Chala Head Chala in English.

Also dubbed Mystical Adventures

Aha! Someone made a version of Cha-La Head-Cha-La using that vocal track and the original music, which sounds quite a bit better, IMO:



Definitely prefer this to the instrumental theme from the Funimation DVDs/Blurays, which I always found kind of bland, personally: