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Dragon Ball Z: A Black Day for Planet Earth (1997)
The action heats up, and so does the censorship
In the Saban dub of Dragon Ball Z, this episode marks the start of the conflict between Nappa/Vegeta and Earth's Special Forces, even though Nappa technically doesn't start fighting until episode 18 (20-something in the non-censored version of the series).
The prior episodes mainly revolve around the training of Earth's Special Forces, so most of Saban's censorship in those episodes was related to Goku's misadventures in the afterlife (ie changing "Hell" to "Home for Infinite Losers" in episode 8). With this one, we start seeing absurd dialogue used to cover up mass carnage. Such as when Vegeta quips, "Too bad it's Sunday, those buildings would have been filled tomorrow" just SECONDS after literally destroying a city that was shown to be packed full of people. Aside from the censorship, the Saban dub for this episode and the rest of the Saiyan Saga is still good in my opinion, especially in terms of music, so I'd recommend it over the uncensored redub. Just be prepared for some of the most obvious attempts to cover up death.
Keys to Tulsa (1997)
An impossible to follow plot that's redeemed by solid acting and characterization
Eric Stoltz plays a laidback slacker archetype named Richter, and his witty interactions with an assortment of quirky rural characters are what make this a fairly enjoyable film. Joanna Going is "going" against type by playing a trashy stripper. The same can be said for Spader, who plays a similarly lowlife character, in stark contrast to the smug yuppie roles we associate with him.
The scenes with Richter's mother (Mary Tyler Moore) are noticeably more comedic in nature, and almost feel like they're from a different movie. But they do provide a distraction from the confusing main plot, and the scene where Going's character meets Richter's family is probably one of the most entertaining parts of the film.
As far as the soundtrack goes, all I can say is that it isn't cinematic at all, although I can understand why they went the route they did, considering the setting.
Bureau of Alien Detectors (1996)
One of the better shows associated with Saban
This comes off very much like "X-Files: The Animated Series". The acting, sound design and general themes all owe a massive debt to that show. However, there's also a heavy emphasis on action, which is to be expected, seeing as this was a Saturday Morning Cartoon from Saban Entertainment, the creators of "Power Rangers".
My favorite aspects of B.A.D. are the soundtrack and gritty storylines. The music does the job in the scarier scenes, but also has an ethereal quality to it. The stories, while generally falling into the "monster of the week" pattern, are still far more interesting than typical Saturday Morning fare.
This likely was a victim of the crappy network it aired on (UPN). I could potentially see B.A.D. being more successful on either FOX Kids or first-run syndication. If there's any Saturday Morning Cartoon of this period that deserved another season, it was this one. Thankfully though, not long afterwards a similar animated series called "Roswell Conspiracies" came along and was sort of able to replicate what B.A.D. had done.
Dragon Ball Z: Goku vs. Vegeta... a Saiyan Duel! (1997)
The peak of DBZ
This is pretty much my favorite Dragon Ball Z episode ever. Basically it starts with Goku fighting Vegeta in a rocky wasteland, and ends with him defeating the Evil Saiyan Prince in a beam battle (although this turns out to be one of many false dawns). There are a couple of cutaway scenes in Master Roshi's island, which do a good job adding some comic relief, as well as a few other filler scenes with Gohan, Krillin and Yajirobe.
Due to heavy editing in the English dub, the corresponding episode in the Japanese version ends and begins at different points. The dub itself (produced by Ocean Group, Saban Entertainment & FUNimation) is superb. The dark guitar-driven soundtrack by Saban adds to the intensity of Goku and Vegeta's fight, while Ian Corlett & Brian Drummond from Ocean Group are perfect as the two Saiyan warriors.
Overall, this would be an ideal episode for someone who is new to Dragon Ball. Everything that is great about the series is present here.
Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (1997)
The best version of this particular film
Dragon Ball Z's third film, "The Tree of Might", has had a long history in terms of English dubs. The first dub, produced by FUNimation, split the movie into three television episodes of DBZ. These episodes were distributed by Saban and featured the Canadian Ocean voices. A year later after Saban ditched the show, FUNi and Ocean redid things with Pioneer and the outcome was a more accurate uncut dub. Two other (bad) English dubs were subsequently made in France and Malaysia, before FUNi finally redubbed the film in 2006 with the current American cast.
The main reason i prefer this version is because of it's musical score. The "Shuki Levy score" (which was supposedly composed by Ron Wasserman) is far more suspenseful and exciting than any other DBZ soundtrack. Shunsuke Kikuchi's original Japanese soundtrack for this film has way too much silence, which gives the film a very mundane feel, and the music itself is boring and unfitting. Nathan M. Johnson's electro-orchestral score from the 2006 redub was just totally forgettable.
The script used isn't perfect (quite a few cringy one liners) but the awesome Ocean cast make up for it. Ian James Corlett in particular did much better here as Goku than Peter Kelamis or Sean Schemmel.
You can find this dub on FUNimation's 2013 "Rock the Dragon Edition" set, where it's packaged as a full-length movie instead of three individual episodes.