Dragon Ball Z Light of Hope

[Dyno]

I always tend to not like anything that come from fans... But... Well, no matter how much I try, words wouldn't describe, so I will just left my impression:

Congratulations!

[Marco Polo]

Is Gohan using Senzu powder?

[DerekPadula]

Is Gohan using Senzu powder?

No, it's supposed to be the natural plant material that Goku showed him how to apply to wounds as a young boy. I wrote it into the script as being applied on a big leaf, and flattened with a rolling pin, ala that early episode in DBZ. But the director modernized it. That kind of irked me at first, but the point is still made that Gohan prefers natural remedies and is a product of East Asian culture, while Bulma and Trunks are Westerners. If we were to show Trunks attending to his wounds, then it'd be with Western methods.

[Sinestro]

Now that's how you do live DBZ. Great video.

[Tzigi]

Watched it and have to say two things:
- amazing how with a non-super-studio-level budget you managed to get so "correct" a live-action DB with it
- sadly this movie proves to me that DB wouldn't work as a live-action franchise. Mind you, I'm not saying it's bad (the movie's really good) but it completely lacks the real Dragon Ball feeling - the knowledge somewhere down below that it's not humans (I don't have this feeling with for example Evangelion which I can't wait to see in live-action but DB doesn't fit with it).
So while it's a great adaptation and proves what should have been done (instead of the abomination that was DB:E), it also proves that DB is best left alone as anime.
Still, I'll be cheering on your next projects.

[Ajay]

First Dragon Ball fan film I haven't turned off in the middle of.

I think it was a smart move to tackle the Trunks special story when taking on this very dark, Hollywood-action tone. For once, making Dragon Ball dark and dramatic actually made sense. I do think you could have gotten by without including some of the very hammy lines. They work nicely in a cartoon setting but when placed alongside amateur actors in a real life short, it comes across quite cheesy.

I have to commend the attention to detail; from the costume design to the mountainous locations chosen, it actually looks like it belongs in the Dragon Ball universe. I do feel like your audio - from score to foley - started to negate the tone set by the aforementioned positives, however.

Punches, ki attacks, and general atmosphere all lacked the necessary oomph to carry a piece like this. I fully appreciate that audio is incredibly hard to make sound professional but it's something that I feel stands out more than any visual issue. Hopefully that's something that can be addressed in the future.

Regarding the score - I understand this is clearly attempting to cinematise Dragon Ball but music is part of the identity of the show. I don't feel like the generic action music really helped accentuate the wonderful love and care put into the other aspects of the short. If you want to make Dragon Ball feel big and cinematic, I think it would be worth looking into how you could potentially incorporate the sounds of Kikuchi or Yamamoto into the sound you've chosen to go with. It's something you've seen Hans Zimmer do successfully with Man of Steel and the Superman theme - it would be great if your composer could try and do something similar (a big ask, I know).

After that slew of negativity, I do want to reiterate that I enjoyed it on the whole. It's a film that clearly has a staff that understands the subject matter. You can see the steps taken to ensure that the visuals match fans expectations and that the plot is appropriate to the tone. It has a lot of promise and I hope my comments are taken as genuine criticism rather than 'hey, it's not the anime!'.

Best of luck with Episode 2.

[DBZfan29]

Definitely much better than K&K's cheesy trailer!

I liked how the project adapts Trunks' story; a while back I think I posted how I would handle a Dragon Ball film adaptation and focusing on Trunks was actually what I thought would work really well.

I still can't see Dragon Ball being done live, though. It just seems so cheesy when you actually see real people screaming "KA-ME-HA-ME-HAAAAA." The sound effects from the show, for example, just don't sound right in a live action film.

The film has a fitting title, since this films shows a little light of hope for the series. I believe with a huge ass budget (like on the level of Interstellar) something like this might work out in the end.

[Avenged]

Over 100,000 views in just hours, yeah pretty sure you'll hit that 1 million mark soon.

[DerekPadula]

Over 100,000 views in just hours, yeah pretty sure you'll hit that 1 million mark soon.

Let's hope so! We also achieved "Over 9,000!" Likes.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

That was amazing.

[qjz123]

I thoroughly enjoyed it, some of the scenes were cheesy but most of it was awesome. I really enjoyed android 17's actor IDK he just has that look he fits really, really well. All in all this was FAR better than anything KK productions has done. You guys even had better VFX even though you had less money to work with. I also liked how you handled the SSJ transformation, the whole hair standing straight up and glowing might work in the anime but in a live action adaptation it seems kinda cheesy since no one naturally has hair like that. I really hope your series takes off!

[FortuneSSJ]

Holy shit! Much better than I expected!!! I don't care about Live Actions and Dragon Ball is one of those series I really didn't see working. But they did an awesome job.
As a fan since I was a kid, I approve this!

Flaws:
Its just a shame they don't used some of the anime japanese BGM.
Love the cast but the acting could be better.

But overall, its awesome and definitely worth the wait.
I hope they never rush this and take their time.

11:50 *repeats countless times* xD

I don't know why people are talking about DB Evolution. That never happened in my timeline.

[Avenged]

Almost 300,000 views nice. I noticed you're using adsense as well. I just hope you use atleast some of the money made from this episode for episode two unlike K&K.

[Hellspawn28]

At least the dark tone fits with the story and was not super dark & edgy like the Power Rangers fan film that was put on the web today .

[Plague-Memories]

You guys did a good job, but Dragon Ball just does not work in a live action setting. It had me cringing left and right. Very well made, though.

[BrandonR24]

You guys did a spectacular job. I love Trunks' casting, kid fits the personality. Wish I could help with a project like this sadly I'm in Kentucky haha. Being into film/photography, seeing people who asked for no money and quite honestly did this on their own makes me happy. Sharing it around and people are impressed. Keep it up! Hope you guys hit the Million mark. Waiting for Episode 2.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

Quite spectacular for a Pilot episode. It has an excellent cast, as is the scripting. I wouldn't mind seeing Episode 2 for Light of Hope.

Has Robot Underdog gotten donation from the people yet? How much would it need to make budget for Episode 2?

[Sigh-Ya-Jin]

Is that, this?..

http://youtu.be/opji5DgE_nQ

[Tennessaiyan]

The Light of Hope pilot episode far surpassed my expectations. I was expecting it to be a little better than K&K's (which I was so disappointed with) but, WOW. The fight scene made my draw drop, and that's saying a lot, since that's usually the worst part of a DB fan project (right along with bad acting, lol.) The action had a very DB video game feel to it, which I love, with that nonstop-action and impact, and the casting and acting was good; much better than any fan project I've seen.

There were very few things that bugged me about the episode, namely sound issues. One being Trunks' fight with 18. That bit just felt choppy; I believe it was Trunks' voice. It sounded like they reused some of the sounds he made when throwing punches and it just didn't sound natural enough. And at the very end when Gohan and Trunks were by the ocean, the wind and waves overpowered their voices. Loved everything else, though. What an accomplishment!

[DerekPadula]

Thanks for the praise everyone.

For the record, we're not happy with the sound either. But the ocean scene and the sound effects for Trunks were all filmed and recorded by our Second Unit crew, and some things were botched. There was no chance or budget to go re-film them. Why they didn't do ADR with Trunks? I don't know, and it bothers me too. But I'm sure Donnie and Rita have their reasons.

In any case, Episode 2 won't have these issues, presuming the budget is in place. And now that we've proven we can do DBZ justice, we're hopeful that more people will donate.