Alestat: Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are two very different things. Molly was referring to Dragon Ball and, based on your mention of Kai, you're referring to Dragon Ball Z.

With that being said, the original 16mm prints of Dragon Ball Z were not lost. They were used as the source for the beautiful Level 1.1 and Level 1.2 blu-rays.

It's a damn shame that they decided to stop producing the "Level sets" and went back to releasing the heavily-DNR'd and cropped releases that they're putting out now.