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Dragon Ball Z Movie 6 DVD (Hyb): Return of Cooler Uncut
Juidar Hawkins - Jun 17 2002 juidar@yahoo.com Rating: "Okay." It looks good but............ Why can't funimation stick with the original DBZ movie covers!?!?!?!? Mike A. Randall - Aug 13 2002 apwhat02@aol.com Rating: "Okay." This Sucks Well first off this movie isn't one of the best dragon ball z movies... and 2nd, funimation did a terrible job dubbing this one. With all their other projects it seems they rushed this. The music is new.. but it sucks. Most of the movie is silence and whenever there is music it really blows. Not like the previous 2 other movies which they used real bands. Its a shame cuz this movie could have been alot better if they just kept the original japanese soundtrack for the dubbed version... Scott T. Frerichs - Aug 13 2002 sfrerichs@charter.net Rating: Pretty good! A generally entertaining DragonBall Z movie Dragonball Z: The Return of Cooler is a look at how good a DragonBall Z movie can be if FUNimation tries hard enough. Packaging - 3.0 Everyone has noticed FUNimation's lack of good coverart for all their titles after they seperated from Saban and Pioneer. All of their titles, with the exception of Movie 4, have had bland and dull coverart, and this is no exception. While I'll give them brownie points for the drawn in Metal Coolers and the overlay of the big Metal Cooler, the background was just the regular New Namek and was quite boring and very easy to pass up. I, really, could come up with better. Menus - 4.3 The menus, on the other hand, are wonderful. Easy to navigate and a creative design. Almost as good as their Blue Gender menus, but not as good as their Freeza Saga, which intergrated a 3D enviroment. Video - 5.0 The video transfer is the best I've ever seen for a DragonBall Z title and was very pleasing to the eye. Everything looked the best it could for a title as old as this. Audio - 4.0 Next, the audio, for the English Dolby Digital 5.1, was very clear and gave a fantastic form of atmosphere, using the rear speakers wonderfully. The Japanese and English 2.0, while a little bland, came across fine and still gave a great viewing/listening session. Extras - 2.0 As for extras, FUNimation does a little more with this package. They give us their regular assembly - Trailers of their other shows - and now interviews with the actors about the movie. It's a welcome extra, but doesn't help the fact that those are really the only valuable extras in there. Content - 4.7 When New Namek, the home planet for all Namekians, is threatened by a monsterous, energy sucking, planet sized machine, Dende - The Guardian of the Earth - must enroll the strongest man in the universe to rescue his people: Son Goku. Of all the 13 movies, this seems to be the highest rated, and for good reason. While the movie could have used a little more plot, the way the plot flowed was wonderful. Everything is set up right and the Cyclopian Droids are a much better substitute for those lackies we always see. It felt like a real all out war for the planet, with all of the Z fighters fighting their own (nicely done) battles. The fight with Goku and Cooler is hot and powerful and emotion in the battle is set up nicely. The "Odd Couple" pairing of Son Goku and Vegeta is a fresh show as well. I'll stop here as to not reck the rest of the plot for those unfamiliar with this movie. Japanese Cast - 4.8 The Japanese cast continues to absolutely excel in all catagories. Nozawa Masako's Goku is valiant and pure hearted, along with her Gohan, and makes them feel loveable and powerful at the same time, something that's rather hard to find in most main charecters these days (referring to Shinji from Evangelion and Hitomi from Escaflowne). Horikawa Ryo's Vegeta is as powerful, strong and proud as ever, making him the #1 bad boy of the series. Furukawa Toshio pulls off a fantastic, deadly Piccolo that comes across as silent and strong. Tanaka Mayumi gives us another unmatchable Krillen, with her humerous wit and the timeless line, 'Nande ore taki?' which means, 'Why only me?'. Cooler comes off as cruel, deadly and English Cast - 3.9 The English cast, while always under fire, seems to pull out all their best here. Sean Schemmel keeps up his strong willed, valiant Goku and Chris Sabat pulls off an even more pushy and fierce sounding Vegeta than usual. Both actors fulfill their roles with great feeling. Chris Sabat also voices Piccolo and was able to give him more of an arrogant feel instead of just silent and deadly. It helped the charecter come across more than his usual, though the Japanese still has a better 'cool' feeling. Krillen comes off less annoying than usual and a bit more tough around the edges, but he loses his memorable line for, 'Didn't think so...' It's kind of a let down, but he's still enjoyable. Japanese Script - 5.0 The Japanese script is wonderful as always, giving a mix of 'To the point' and superb lines like, 'Some things may be impossible, but that doesn't mean we won't die trying!' There's never anything too corny and it feels strong and refreshing. 3.0 The English script, though, sacrafices some of that for more of a 'Badass' feeling. It throws in some corny one liners that detract from the action and drama and it feels very unnatrual. The script is the biggest reason alot of people don't like the voices for the dub. A good actor can't act well on bad material. Japanese Soundtrack - 4.5 The Japanese soundtrack is timeless. It's powerful and dramatic and really gives the series a push. Shunsuke Kikuchi really knows how to pull emotion out and drive the series with violin and trumpet pieces, some nice acoustic guitar and well placed keyboard pieces. The problem is that the movies seem rather low brow when you're using the same music as in the series over and over in the movie, and even playing series' original openings (This being the first theme, Cha-La-Head-Cha-La) instead of newly animated openings with new music. It just makes the movie feel less special, although there are 1 or 2 pieces that were original to the movie and stuck out nicely and, as always, a nicely done Vocal ending by Kageyama Hironobu. American Sountrack - 3.7 The American soundtrack is hated by alot mostly because of it's bland mix of hardrock and corny jingles, all sounding like they were done with a low rate keyboard. Personally, I feel that Bruce Faulconer has NO real sense of music. Sure, he can create neat little jingles here and their, but he has no idea what real Emotion is in music. FUNimation noticably, though, has taken steps to enroll large name bands for their movies 4 and 5. But this seems to have changed as The Return of Cooler has stepped up. Their not using any known bands (or unknown bands, for that matter) but are, instead, creating their own music with the help of Mark Menza. This man has extreme talent and provides a much more eerie and atmospheric tone than Bruce could ever pull off by giving us pieces that never really repeat themselves and really set good pacing for the movie. He also provides a much more entertaining opening theme than Bruce Faulconer's rather grating opening used in the series. The only thing missing were some vocals, but it's exceptable none-the-less. FUNimation seemed to have tried hard to make this movie as entertaining as possible and pulled it off nicely. The Japanese is still superior in everyway (not to make the American sound horrible), but the English version is still very fun and deserves a watch. |
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