Ultraman TV and Movie Licensed to Mill Creek for North Ameri

[Dai]

Excellent. I'm definitely buying Z. Very quirky show with some great action direction.

[lhb412]

No home video announcement yet, but they've announced that the current English dubbing group is redubbing the Ultraman Zero movie trilogy. Kinda weird, but also kinda obvious; Zero is a kind of signature character for the brand and I can see the logic in having a well-produced English version available for his thing.

[Benjamin Haines]

Wait, they're redubbing movies that already have English dubs on the North American blu-ray discs that have been out for years now? Are the existing dubs that bad?

[lhb412]

Yeah, the William Winkler produced dubs are... let's say, not the kind of first impression Tsuburaya would like to make if they want newbies to watch one of their signature projects.

The standout cast member from those original dubs was Daniel Van Thomas as Zero, and he'll be back - but not as Zero; he'll be playing Rei in the new dub. Sean Schemmel (that's Goku himself!) will play Zero.

[Benjamin Haines]

Starsteam just shared this on the Blu-Ray.com forums today: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23299873&postcount=5618

Quote:

"BREAKING NEWS FROM G-FEST

Coming soon from Mill Creek
-Ultraman Arc series + movie (October)
-Ultraman 4K Discovery (new film with remastered footage and Eng dub) (November)
-Ultraman: Towards the Future (March)
-Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero
-Ultraman 4K UHD with dub (July 2026)
-Ultraseven 4K UHD (September 2026)"

End quote.


Here's hoping that Towards the Future and The Ultimate Hero will have the original English audio tracks. I know that sounds like an unnecessary hope for shows that were shot in English but Mill Creek just released the most bizarre blu-ray disc edition of another vintage title that wasn't in their first Ultra licensing deal, the 1987 Hanna-Barbera animated film Ultraman: The Adventure Begins (Ultraman USA). It's one disc with three separate video presentations of the movie: the American version but with a brand-new English dub, the Japanese version with no English subtitles whatsoever, and the Japanese version with the brand-new English dub. Despite being three separate video files of the same movie on one disc, all three of them still use the "Ultraman: The Adventure Begins" opening title card, with the only visual difference between any of them being the end credits. There aren't any English subtitles because TPC didn't provide them and Mill Creek didn't bother to commission them, and the original English audio from 1987 is not on the disc because they apparently couldn't license it. That's what gives me pause about this otherwise great news that Mill Creek has finally licensed Towards the Future and The Ultimate Hero.

The original Ultraman and UltraSeven getting 4K disc releases next year is awesome. Again, here's hoping that the English dub reportedly included with Ultraman is the classic 1966 dub and not a new dub like The Adventure Begins.

It's still so cool that Mill Creek is able to release some of these shows on North American disc so soon after they've first aired in Japan. Ultraman Arc will be out this October after the release of Decker in August! I really need to finish the rest of the Ultra Galaxy and Mebius content so I can proceed with each of the 2013-present Ultraman shows and films that I still haven't seen. I did collect everything from Mill Creek's original deal, so I don't need to scramble for any of that ones that have sold out. Of the newer releases, I already nabbed Taiga and I also won both Blazar and Z from SciFi Japan's promotional contests, so I'm currently lacking just Trigger and the Ultra Galaxy Fight compilation set. I don't intend to get that bizarre edition of The Adventure Begins.

[lhb412]

Ha! You beat me to it!

Very exciting. I've actually never seen either Great or Powered.

I looked up what "Ultraman 4K Discovery" was, and apparently it's four compilation movies with four episodes apiece done a few years ago, essentially a way to theatrically screen the new 4K remaster of the OG series. This means if you want 4K Ultraman episodes over half a year earlier than the complete series set then you can content yourself with 16 episodes!

Of the classic shows, Ultraman is the one that needs that 4K remaster the most! The initial HD version that's been available is pretty cruddy!

[Kailem]

Waaaaaaait waitwaitwaitwaitwait.....they got Towards the Future?!?!?!

Talk about a rollercoaster reading this news!! Instant elation that the impossible has somehow been made possible to instant worry reading about their release of Ultraman USA! Why would they have a new dub but not subs?!

Wow though! Never thought I'd ever see the day! But yeah, given the situation with the masters being lost or whatever it was, and the Japanese DVD release using a VHS rip with burned-in Japanese subs (and with a different theme tune, if I recall correctly), I too am hoping that we get something that's at least better than that on the A/V front! So fingers crossed this doesn't turn out to be a monkey's paw situation, and that I can finally relive my one and only childhood Ultraman show somewhere *other* than Youtube when this comes out!

[Benjamin Haines]

Kailem, Mill Creek's stated reason for not including English subtitles with the Japanese-language Ultraman USA was that TPC didn't provide them with any subtitles. It seems that Mill Creek has only ever included subtitles provided by TPC on any of these releases, and Mill Creek apparently feels no need to commission their own translation or even type up their own dubtitles when releasing a foreign-language movie that doesn't already have a subtitle track.

lhb412, I've watched both of the English-language Ultraman shows with their original audio and no burned-in Japanese subtitles, with the English-language Ultraman: Towards the Future and Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero title cards. The show titles were changed to Ultraman Great and Ultraman Powered respectively in Japan but the character is just called Ultraman in each series. Towards the Future is a solid show and it's a lot of fun. The Ultimate Hero stars Kane Kosugi (Godzilla: Final Wars, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger) but the show is unfortunately awful.

Those compilation films of the 4K-restored Ultraman episodes were screened at the Ultrafest film festival in San Francisco two years ago:
https://www.scifijapan.com/1512-ultrafest-ultraman-film-festival-coming-to-san-francisco-in-july
https://web.archive.org/web/20230618013552/https://bayareafilmevents.com/ultraman

[lhb412]

I dunno if it's a mistake or overstock or whatever, but deepdiscount.com is listing the Ultraman Z set for $3.99! Just ordered. Hope it isn't canceled.