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Akira Toriyama with his pet cat, Koge (1987)

AB Group

AB Groupe logo

AB Groupe is a French broadcasting group, and the distributor of the Dragon Ball franchise for European and French-speaking markets. They are responsible for creating many of the European dubs of the franchise.

In English-speaking countries, AB Groupe is mostly known for their dub of the Dragon Ball Z films (often referred to by fans as the "Big Green" dub), Canadian Westwood dub of Dragon Ball Z as well as the Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT.

Overview[]

History and work on the anime series[]

The company was founded as a split of AB Productions in 1977 by Jean-Luc Azoulay (Jean-François Porry) and Claude Berda as a music production company. In 1987, it went into the world of television. The company owned AB Video which distributed content on VHS cassettes, AB Distribution which focused on distributing TV shows, AB International Distribution to distribute franchises outside France, AB Films Distribution which distributed movies, AB Sat which is a digital television package, two TV channels: AB1 (from 1995) and AB Cartoons (from 1996).

They are responsible for creating French-language dub and many European dubs of the series. They created the English dubs of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT, as well as the second half of Dragon Ball Z (123-291), for their markets in association with Westwood Media, Ocean Productions, Blue Water Studios and Chinook Animation. Their other major anime property is Sailor Moon, as they have mostly had a hand in its French release. AB Groupe is also infamous for sending numerous copyright takedown notices to Team Four Star for their Dragon Ball Z: Abridged series.

The "Big Green" dub[]

Main article: AB Groupe dub They also produced English dubs for most of the feature films and TV specials for UK distribution in collaboration with other production companies. These productions are notorious among fans for their poorly-written scripts (which were based off AB Groupe's own scripts for their French-language dub of Dragon Ball Z), bizarre changes to characters' names (for example, Piccolo is called "Big Green" and Saiyans are called "Space Warriors") and sub-par voice acting. Little information is available on the production surrounding these dubs, though it is presumed that they were recorded in either the Netherlands or France sometime in the early 2000s, although the precise location and dates remain a mystery.

Despite being aired on Toonami UK, only the movies Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest, and Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug were distributed on DVD there due to poor sales. However, Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle and Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure, the first nine Dragon Ball Z movies, and the two TV specials were also dubbed by this company. All of their dubs of the Dragon Ball Z movies/specials have been released on VHS and DVD in the Netherlands and other select European countries. Some of the names of the films were changed, but most resembled the Japanese film titles. These dubs are known by fans as the "Big Green" dub.

Songs[]

The company's founder, Jean-François Porry, is known to be the songwriter of various intros and songs for AB Groupe, including Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT.

Intros[]

Songs used in France as anime intros. They were later exported along with the anime to other countries, where they were released unchanged or translated.

  • Dragon Ball (Performed by Francine Chantereau)
  • Dragon Ball (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • Dragon Ball Z (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • Dragon Ball Z: Version 1995 (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • Dragon Ball Z: Movie version (Performed by Ariane Carletti)

Physical releases[]

Only available in physical editions on cassettes or discs. Some were also released outside of France, for example in Spain.

  • Dragon Ball: Nouvelle version 1995 (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • Dragon Ball Z 2000 (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • Cherche (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • La chanson de Bulma (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • Le secret des 7 boules de cristal (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • San Gokou (Performed by Ariane Carletti)
  • Dragon Ball: Génération Bioman (Performed by Bernard Minet)
  • Dragon Ball GT (Performed by Bernard Minet)
  • Dragon Ball et Dragon Ball Z (Performed by Bernard Minet)
  • Dragon Scatt (Performed by Bernard Minet)
  • Dragon Ball Z Rap (Performed by Bernard Minet)
  • La marche des héros (Performed by Bernard Minet)

See also[]

Reflist[]

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