Going back to Saban dubs, the closest thing to Willow Town we have is someone uploading full episodes in spanish (stuff like the end credits and episode title cards are left in english tho). youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7bfewBHhpDU9K96efZyViwF13IKDzL7o
Like I said, I don’t know how likely it is to find english episodes since it only aired on Cheez TV for 2 months: December 2000 through January 2001 but I will still hope something will turn up soon.
Wellll, look like the spanish episodes have been private and there is currently no reuploads anywhere else. Complete whiplash too because not only i was JUST thinking about asking a friend to upload them on Archive but was watching one of the episodes right before the takedown. Sucks because while they weren’t in english, it was still the closest thing to having the Saban dub.
EDIT: the episodes are back up! Honestly, I have no idea why they were taken down in the first place if they were only gonna make them public again but hey, hopefully they will be posted in Archive soon.
Some info regarding Noozles: -the version of episode 8 "The Art Contest" that is on Archive.org and on at least one bootleg DVD set is missing about two minutes worth of scenes because it was taken from a VHS release that edited several episodes together into a feature-length movie, but the unedited version taken from a seperate single-episode VHS release was on YouTube last time I checked. Some other episodes might exist with a narrator speaking at the beginning and/or end that wasn't originally there if they were sourced from that movie edit but I think most copies of those episodes in circulation are the ones without the narrator
-all English copies of episode 11 "That Old Pink Magic" in circulation have the last line cut off. However, for many years there was and still might be a German-dubbed copy of that episode that has it intact, and since the German dub might have been directly translated from the English it would be nice if someone could at least translate it
-for many years the original Japanese version has been available on various hard-to-access-outside-of-Japan streaming sites and it could probably be used to remaster the English dub. I've also always been curious as to what kind of things got changed or lost in translation when Saban dubbed this show, if you watch all the non-filler episodes you'll see some very obvious plotholes much like the ones I've heard that the DiC dub of Sailor Moon was full of
If we’re doing Saban-related dubs, how about Shin-chan? It wasn’t made by Saban but they licensed the series on Fox Kids in Europe. Most of the Vitello season is found but the Phuuz season is entirely lost. I have a theory they didn’t air it anywhere but Israel (they had Hebrew subtitles) because only Israeli forums or internet users have recollections of Phuuz episodes.
As most people know, Saban Entertainment produced a number of dubs of Japanese anime from the mid-80s until they were sold to Disney in 2001.
The problem is, most of these dubs never aired in America (though they did air in English elsewhere), and so most of them are pretty much lost. While a lot of them are probably still in the Disney archives, of course, they are not actually available to the public, and that's the problem.
This is basically the situation with all the known Saban anime dubs (none of the post-Digimon ones are included here because they're all extant):
Macron 1 - 4 VHS tapes containing 20 episodes. Not fully extant in either American or international form. My Favorite Fairy Tales - One episode ("Little Black Sambo") is missing, for obvious reasons, but otherwise fully extant. Maple Town - Select episodes on VHS, nothing else really extant. Noozles - Fully extant. Bumpety Boo - 4 VHS tapes containing the first 12 episodes and that's it. Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics - There are four episodes not extant, but otherwise fully available. Maya the Bee - Only two episodes anywhere on the Internet. Ox Tales - Most of the series is extant, but not all of it. Wowser - The first 16 or so episodes were released on tape, nothing else otherwise. Dragon Warrior - Fully extant. The Littl' Bits - Three episodes missing, but otherwise fully extant. Peter Pan: The Animated Series - There are 14 episodes out there on the Internet but nothing otherwise. Pinocchio: The Series - Fully extant. Adventures of the Little Mermaid - Fully extant. Bob in a Bottle - One full episode and one clip of an episode available, otherwise nothing. Funky Fables - About 7 episodes missing, but the rest is available. Jungle Tales - Nothing at all. Rock'n Cop - Nothing at all. Samurai Pizza Cats - One of the few with a good, legal release, thank God. Three Little Ghosts - One VHS tape with six episodes (which I have), otherwise nothing. Tic Tac Toons - Nothing at all, not even credits. Huckleberry Finn - The first five episodes, but nothing otherwise. Button Nose - One episode that's clearly a rough mix surfaced this year, but nothing else otherwise. Teknoman - Fully extant. Honeybee Hutch - Nothing at all. Eagle Riders - Fully extant. Willow Town - Nothing at all. Super Pig - Nothing at all. Bit the Cupid - Nothing at all, not even credits.
(A list of Saban's non-anime productions with missing episodes would be longer, but that's for another time.)
Anyone out there have anything from the shows on this list that aren't fully available? Any missing English-dubbed episodes?
The following Saban series have at least one VHS release: Macron 1 My Favorite Fairy Tales Maple Town Noozles Bumpety Boo Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics Maya the Bee (Three volumes. Volume 1 is called Making New Friends, Volume 2 is called Ants, Ants, and More Ants!, and Volume 3 is called Beehives of Adventure. Unfortunately, these releases are much harder to find than the other Saban VHS releases.) Ox Tales Wowser The Litt'l Bits The High Flying Adventures of Peter Pan Pinocchio Adventures of The Little Mermaid Funky Fables Samurai Pizza Cats (Individual episodes were only released in the UK, the USA only got a compilation of episodes edited into a movie.) Three Little Ghosts (Although the cover says Volume One on it, there was only one volume released.) Creepy Crawlers Sissi (Only in the UK.)
I know this may sound odd, but according to Wikipedia, Saban dubbed Chinese cartoon Shuke And Beita. There doesn't seem to be any proof of this dub existing though, only the original Chinese version. It sounds so strange to see that this was going to get a dub in 1993 considering Chinese cartoons were something not a lot of people in the US gave a crap about(heck, nor did they gave a crap about Mexican cartoons). I bet you this probably only ever aired in Singapore, or Hong Kong. I doubt the dub aired anywhere else(ok, maybe the US, & Philippines, but even those are a stretch).
Speaking of El Chavo Animado, there's also the lost English Season 3 episode "All for a Cake", as well as all of the other English Season 3 episodes, which are existence unconfirmed.
The fact that some of the Saban dubs (including Rock'n Cop, which kind of reminds me of Lupin VIII since it takes place in the future and the main protagonist is a cop who kind of looks like Lupin III) was never released in the US yet has non-English dubs based on the Saban English dubs that are easy to find reminds me of the situation with the Vitello/Phuuz dub of Crayon Shin-chan (the Phuuz dub is lost and the closest thing to watching the dub is the non-English dubs that are based on it). I'm curious about the Saban dub of Rock'n Cop because I don't know the voice cast of that dub and where it's recorded at. I'm guessing that it's recorded in Montreal, but Los Angeles is a likely dub location.
Last Edit: Mar 3, 2023 5:17:25 GMT by doraemon2000
Post by ♥︎Pinkoctopede64★ on Jun 15, 2023 1:40:43 GMT
ok so i was messing around with google newspapers and apparently willow town aired in thailand. i was looking for a different piece of lost anime media and willow town just so happened to appear as well. according to the nation, it aired on IBC 7 cartoons from november 1996 to october 1997 (a WAYYY larger life span than when it aired in australia for only 2 months). now i don’t know if it’ll be easier to find since i never researched for lost media in thailand once but it’s still something to keep in mind of.
Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
Interesting. I hope discotek can still help with these searches.
hopefully but idk about willow town in particular because it’s owned by enoki films and from what i heard via twitter, they cut out their licensing deals with them and same with retro crush. god knows if it’ll ever get an official release or not (not just talking about the dub but the anime in general)
Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.