Dragon Ball (BLT Productions dub)

FUNimation's very first English dub of **Dragon Ball** is the second English dub of the popular *Dragon Ball* franchise, originally released in 1995.

## History

FUNimation Productions acquired certain rights to the wildly popular Japanese television series *Dragon Ball* and its sequel, *Dragon Ball Z*, in 1995. At the time, FUNimation was a relatively new company (founded in 1994) and did not have the financial wherewithal to produce a dub entirely on their own, and instead collaborated with other production companies. They immediately began work on an English dub for *Dragon Ball* and completed the first 13 episodes of the series in the same year, and the series was shown in syndication.

This dub had slight censorship, although not to the extent of the later Saban/FUNimation-produced Ocean dub. It was dubbed by BLT Productions at Dick & Roger's Sound Studio in Vancouver, featuring various freelance voice actors from the Ocean Group who would later dub *Dragon Ball Z*. Peter Berring's replacement score was used. Seagull Entertainment handled distribution for the show.

The network ratings for *Dragon Ball* were very poor due to Seagull Entertainment being unable to get the show a good time slot, so FUNimation cancelled work on *Dragon Ball* and opted to focus on the more action-oriented *Dragon Ball Z* instead in hope of better ratings. They concluded that *Dragon Ball* was "not a good fit for the US market."

## Episodes

1. Secret of the Dragon Ball
2. The Emperor's Quest
3. The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi
4. Oolong the Terrible
5. Yamcha the Desert Bandit
6. Keep an Eye on the Dragon Balls
7. The Ox-King on Fire Mountain
8. The Kamehameha Wave
9. Boss Rabbit's Magic Touch
10. The Dragon Balls are Stolen
11. The Penalty is Pinball
12. A Wish to the Eternal Dragon
13. The Legend of Goku

## Credits

**Produced by**:
FUNimation Productions, Inc.

**Executive Producers**:
Gen Fukunaga
Cindy Brennan Fukunaga

**Producers**:
Daniel Cocanougher
Barry Watson

**Story Editors**:
Cliff MacGillivray
Christopher Neel

**Writers**:
Christopher Neel
Terry Klassen
Barry Watson
Ian Corlett
Ted Lehman
Barry Sitgler
Al Gregory

**Audio**:
Dick & Roger's Sound Studio
Vancouver, B.C.

**Voice Directors**:
Michael Donovan
Doug Parker

**Voices**:
Ted Cole
Jim Conrad
Don Brown
Ian Corlett
Michael Donovan
Saffron Henderson
Lalainia Lindbjerg
Kathy Morse
Doug Parker
Teryl Rothery
Andrea Libman
Alec Willows
Dave "Squatch" Ward

**English Reversioning**:
Josanne B. Lovick Productions, Inc.

**Post-Production**:
Gastown Post
FUNimation Productions, Inc.

**Music**:
Peter Berring
Griffiths, Gibson & Ramsay Productions

**Title Design**:
Barry Backus

**Version Editors**:
Byron Watson
Patrick Carroll
Daniel Cocanougher

**Animation Design**:
Brian Farmer

**Animation Paint Editing**:
Brian Farmer
Byron Watson

**Original Japanese Version**:
"Dragon Ball"

**Author**:
Akira Toriyama

**Music Background**:
Shunsuke Kikuchi

**Opening/Ending Music**:
Takeshi Ike

**Original Lyrics: Opening**:
Yuriko Mori

**Original Lyrics: Ending**:
Takemi Yoshida

**Directed by**:
Minoru Okazaki

**Produced by**:
Toei Animation, Ltd., Japan

**Based on the Original Story by**:
Akira Toriyama

© 1995 Toei Animation
© 1986 Bird Studio/Shueisha/Toei Animation

## Trivia

* This version is the only dub of the franchise associated with FUNimation to have never at any point aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami.
* Apparently, this dub aired on YTV in Canada in 1996, which was before Blue Water Studios' 2003 redub of *Dragon Ball*.
* An alternate version of this dub's title card exists only on episode 2 and promos for the dub.