DragonBall Z: Broly Double Feature [Blu-ray]
- Other
- Product Name: DragonBall Z: Broly Double Feature [Blu-ray]
- UPC: 704400038617
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- Rated 5 out of 5 stars
The Perfect Blu-Ray Pack for OG Broly Fans
I originally owned the Broly Triple Threat DVD set. I personally loved the set so much. After I discovered there were Blu-Ray releases of the Broly films, I looked to see if I could find a copy out in the wild. The first one I found was the most recent re-release of the films. It's hard to describe, but it's basically the one with the common DB movie cover art for Blu-Rays nowadays. Unfortunately, I was disappointed to find out how different it was. The music was changed out with what sounded like Dragon Ball music, but the original music just made the films so much more enjoyable. I later discovered another pack and when I found it, I got rid of the pack I had in favor of this one. Turned out to be the same thing, just different cover. After I found this one, I was a little upset that Bio-Broly wasn't in this, but who cares about that film? All that mattered was whether or not this still retained the original music. Luckily, it does. I have zero complaints about this set. Yeah I mentioned I wish Bio-Broly was in this, but the fact that the original music from the original releases were present and that really Bio-Broly wasn't that good, I can forgive Funimation for leaving out Bio-Broly on this one. If you want an upgrade of your original Broly films in HD and you don't mind leaving out Bio-Broly, this is it!
Posted by cslaughter
- Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Let the good times roll with Broly
This Blu-Ray is actually a double-feature, containing the first two movies of the popular anime series DRAGON BALL Z that involve Broly (there is a third one not featured in this Blu-Ray). This release is unprecedented in the history of anime as it is one of the first anime titles to be released in a high-definition format, in this case Blu-Ray. As such, you're going to get the best out of this purchase if you own both a Blu-Ray player (such as the Playstation 3) as well as a high-definition TV. This release is also part of FUNimation's continued effort to put DRAGON BALL Z through a remastering process. This process, which was undertaken by using the original Japanese film negatives, involves removal of old scratches and grain, restoration of the original colors, and a crisp, clear digital restoration of the voices and sound effects for 5.1 surround sound (although 2.0 stereo is available for those without surround sound). The result is an absolutely beautiful 1080p picture and some wonderful sound that quickly warrant a 5/5 review from me. Having said that, you undoubtedly have read complaints involving the remastering process (which infuriatingly insist on putting the word "remaster" in quotation marks, as if to indicate that the process was a careless, reckless, and effortless attempt). The most frequent of these complaints is the complaint of the original aspect ratio of the picture. Approximately 20% of the original 4:3 picture (consisting of both the top and bottom portions combined) was eliminated in order to produce the 16:9 widescreen format that this Blu-Ray plays the film in. As a compensation, 10% of the footage that appears on the left and right side, normally absent from 4:3 presentations, appears here. However, many fans have still taken issue with this, arguing that since the picture was originally presented in 4:3, it should also be presented in 4:3 on the Blu-Ray. This argument deserves some consideration when referring to the remastered DVD season box sets of DRAGON BALL Z by FUNimation (the first parts of the DRAGON BALL Z franchise to be remastered), which were originally presented in 4:3 and, prior to FUNimations' remastering, were never presented in 16:9. However, the movies are a different story. They actually were originally presented in 16:9, as their first release was in Japanese movie theaters. As such, 16:9 actually *is* the original aspect ratio for the movies, just not for the TV episodes. Just like here, 20% of the vertical image was eliminated. The difference here, though, is that unlike the TV season box sets which also eliminated 20% of the vertical image, the original animators of the DRAGON BALL Z movies knew ahead of time that the movies were going to be presented in 16:9 (because it was in movie theaters), and kept this in mind while animating so that no details of any importance would be lost. In reality, the only time the movies have seen a 4:3 release are in the first English DVD copies released by FUNimation (these movies have been released before, but without the remastering process). As such, Japan has never seen any kind of release, DVD or otherwise, of the movies in 4:3. So to say that this release is not the original aspect ratio is completley incorrect. Having said that, I'm not completley satisfied with this release for two reasons. Firstly, the remastering process for the TV season box sets has included an option that allows for the english voices to be heard alongside the original Japanese music in 5.1 surround sound. No such option exists here. The only options are to hear the dub music/English voice combo in either 5.1 surround sound or 2.0 stereo. Considering the storage space offered on Blu-Ray, this is rather baffling. The second major complaint is that, while the original Japanese voice/Japanese music combo are available (with expertly-translated subtitles by Steve Simmons), they are only available in 1.0 Mono. This is understandable for the DVD releases due to the limited storage space, but Blu-Ray has a whopping 50 GB of storage. There's absolutely no excuse for not remastering the Japanese voices. Otherwise, though, this release is absolutely incredible. The visual quality of the picture thanks to the remastering process is absolutely incredible, having restored the animation to its original pristine condition, if not better. The acting is also very well-done from both the Japanese and the English voice cast, and many DRAGON BALL Z fans have noted that the English script for this movie, as written by Christopher R. Sabat (the voice of Vegeta and Piccolo) is the most faithful translation FUNimation has ever given a DRAGON BALL Z release. The dub music, while not as good as the original Japanese music, still manages to be lively enough in its own right. I would absolutely recommend this purchase, it's worth every dollar and then some. PS: UPDATE (7/24/2012)... So..you know how I said that FUNimation had "no excuse for not remastering the Japanese voices"? Well...turns out...I was wrong. They do have an excuse. A perfectly acceptable one, for that matter. The reason the audio quality of the English dub audio is so much better than the audio quality of the original Japanese audio is for two reasons: 1) The English dub was recorded with slightly better audio equipment. 2) The original masters for the Japanese audio were, in the case of the TV series, destroyed by Toei. In the case of the movies, the original masters were not destroyed, but they were not what was given to to FUNimation for dubbing purposes. The first point is self-explanatory, so I'll go into detail about the second point a little bit. Back in the day DBZ was recorded, everything was still done on film reels. Big, big film reels that took up space in warehouses. However, even with the first DB episode, the audio was recorded and mixed in very high-quality mono, and those film reels were then sent off to Fuji TV (the network that originally aired the show in Japan) for them to air. If you search YouTube for "Dragon Ball Fuji TV" or "Dragon Ball Z Fuji TV," you might be able to find uploaded examples of these episodes from people who taped them when they originally aired. The thing is, that high-quality audio on the film reels was only aired on Fuji TV once. After that, the film reels were converted to significantly lower-quality video tapes (which is what Fuji TV would use for reruns), and the original film reels were destroyed to make room for more film in Toei's warehouses. This usually leads people to ask, "WHY IN GOD'S NAME WOULD THEY DESTROY THE BEST AVAILABLE MATERIALS FOR THEIR TV SHOW!?" The answer to that is because the marketplace back then is much different than it is now. Back in the late 80's and mid 90's, we didn't have DVD. We just had VHS, and it was considered absurd that someone would buy hundreds of VHS tapes to own the entirety of a TV series. Plainly put, there wasn't a market for home releases of TV shows back then. So, since Toei figured the only way people were ever going to see the show again was through TV reruns, they figured that replaying the lower-quality tapes that the film reels were converted to would suffice. So, in the case of DB and DBZ, the original film reels were destroyed. Which sucks, because in order to remaster anything into a higher audio quality, you need the source material. FUNimation can do that with their English dub audio because, since they still have the original source recordings for their dub, they can--and did--upgrade it easily. Toei, however, destroyed their original film reel mono masters, so upgrading the audio or, for that matter, even replicating the original audio, is now no longer possible. Even the "Dragon Boxes" which have since been released, and many fans of the original Japanese version hold up to be the pinnacle example of how to release a series on home video, is considered a little bit of a rip-off by those in the know. The audio quality for the Japanese audio on the Dragon Boxes, while probably the best remaining audio we have available, is not NEARLY what it was when the show originally aired on Fuji TV, and while the visuals were remastered, the film they used had aged a bit, distorting the colors somewhat. For that reason, there will unfortunately never be a "perfect" release of DB, DBZ, or their movies. The materials needed to do that simply no longer exist. ...However, small exceptions do exist. Toei DID keep the film reels for the *movies.* The Dragon Box release of the movies used that as their audio source, and if you ever get a chance to watch the movies on the Dragon Box release, you will notice that the Japanese audio, while still mixed in mono, is significantly higher quality than what's on the TV shows. Furthermore, for some odd reason, Fuji TV did keep the original audio sources for Dragon Ball GT. For yet another odd reason, Toei decided not to use that as their source of audio for the Dragon Box release of GT (perhaps because while they have the rights to GT, they don't have the rights to those specific tapes as they are the property of Fuji TV?). Finally, the reason the FUNimation releases of the Japanese audio on the movies, and on GT, doesn't sound as good as good is because Toei didn't provide FUNimation with those audio sources. They didn't provide any of the international dubbing studios with those sources. They were notorious back in the day for delivering pretty lousy masters to their international licensees. They did deliver pretty high quality ME tapes ("Music and Effects only" tapes) to FUNimation, because Toei held on to the original MEs to distribute to their international licensees for dubbing purposes. Alas, we're never going to get a "perfect" release of anything related to DB, DBZ, or DBGT. However, that would be because Toei destroyed the original materials. It ain't FUNimation's fault, and I shouldn't have blamed them for that in my review.
Posted by RandyRaneTheLadiesMan
- Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Could not watch
I could not watch the DVD because I do not have a blue ray DVD player. But i'm sure it would have been a wonderful experience because my grandson loves Dragon BallZ
Posted by noody