DB in live action: what does and does not work (pics)

[DragonBallFoodie]

Jiren

While the shootyblasty lasers and explosions side of DB could easily be replicated with CGI, and the villains such as Cell and Buu and Frieza could be accomplished reasonably well with mo-cap the same way Gollum and the PoTA apes were, it's the more human characters that might be trickier, because there were various "shortcuts" and stylistic choices made for them that could be problematic simply because doing them live would potentially be a uncanny-valley human-but-not-quite situation.

First thing that comes to mind? Goku's hair. Not just the spikiness of it, but the shape of it, how it looks from different angles - all three of them.

That infamous silhouette exists only in those three forms - front, profile, and behind. His face moves but his hair does not. They're like how no matter which way Mickey Mouse's head is turned, his ears are always drawn like this -> O_O even though that's physically impossible.

Unless they also CGI his hair, how could live action replicate that without looking ridiculous?

Vegeta is the same situation, if not worse, because he doesn't even have a second and third position - just a singular shape, a big black christmas-tree-shaped thing on his head, devoid of details to indicate anything three-dimensional. Some of the toys' attempts to figure that out have been comically absurd - I had an action-figure of Veggie as a kid that rendered his hair in such a way that while a facing-forward view was perfect, any angle other than straight-on looked downright bizarre - it was a smooth wedge-shaped shark-fin of black plastic with the back-side of it a lump of spikes resembling hiking-boot cleats.

And then there's the more "unique" things like Krillin's nasal absence, Tien's third eye, etc., that if done live action would likely also trigger the sensations of uncanny-valley due to them being humans with either something expected being absent, or something unexpected being present.

I have to agree, VFX can cover landscapes and creatures, but with the actual heroes themselves it's more of a challenge because of how cartoonish they are. The Saiyan hair is a definite design problem.

There have been some decent artwork that shows off the Saiyan hairstyles in a feasible manner:

(I think this has the best potential to work out)




(Could do with more smiles though, he looks like constipated Kenshiro)




Vegeta's a lost cause though, his hair is a fucking widow's peak pointed upwards and noone can make that work.

[MR.Mark]

Vegeta's a lost cause? I highly disagree with that, I still feel Goku is a lot harder to crack hair wise. At the end of the day though, things like there hair comes down to making them look just faithful/good enough. It's like a good CGI effect, our brain will always know it's cgi, but if it's polished enough we will roll with it.

[Anonymous Friend]

There are four areas of any proposed live action Dragon Ball adaption that needs to be addressed:

Costumes

Hair styles

Creature designs

Story


Costumes are probably the easier to do, but can easily go wrong. Comic book movies took a while to figure out how accurate to make them. You have to take into account fighting scenes as well as qhether the characters will be wearing them in "normal" scenes as well. In the end, most people are familiar with gis. Just make aure the fabric looks great during fights and relaxed during talky bits. The Saiyan/Freeza army style could lose the spandex and go for a more simplified military/swat style. Certain colors would still work, but some won't. Superman, Spider-Man, and Captain America definitely were good with their bright colors. But notice how Wonder Woman in the comic generally wears Cap's colors but they were toned down for her movie appearances. Then again, these aren't superheroes in Dragon Ball.

Hair styles are definitely much more difficult to grasp. Seeing someone IRL with "anime hair" gives a totally different connotation. There's a YouTuber called SuperButterBuns whose videos I've been checking out and she seems to have the most anime-ish hair I've ever seen. With the saiyans, you're going to need to make some concessions. If you try to go all the way, it will look terrible. No amount of concept art or cosplay will convince anyone otherwise.

When it comes to creatures, Marvel hasn't really done much in that department. It's been about ten years since the second Hulk movie and there were a few instances in a couple of Thor's movie with elaborate creatue design and choreography. But nothing as substantial as Dragon Ball styled fight. I personally believe that Freeza, Cell, and Buu should be CG like Steppenwolf, and using motion capture. While these characters are very humanoid in design, it would be better for consistency. Using the Jurassic Park style of mixing practical and CG really only works well for slower paced animal like creatures that the caat needs tactile interaction with and larger scaled wide shots.

The problem with Dragon Ball's story is the the part that everyone and their grandma knows is actually thd middle of the story. I personally beleive you can start at the arrival of Raditz. This event just won't have the impact it should. You would also need to give introductions to the entire crew as well. Only to have the climax be all but three of the main fighters are dead. Plus you get no substantial development for Piccolo. I mean, you can still hit all the beats, but it won't be as impactful. Maybe if this project got a couple of parts alocated like the Attack on Titan, Deathnote, Bleach, and Ruroni Kenshin japanese movies, we can get some room to build is world and characters.

[DragonBallFoodie]

https://www.cbr.com/black-panther-killm ... a-costume/



That looks like a good way to design Vegeta's outfit.

I wouldn't call Killmonger's uniform a homage though, all the two really have in common are being blue military suits.

[Avenant]

The problem with Dragon Ball's story is the the part that everyone and their grandma knows is actually thd middle of the story. I personally beleive you can start at the arrival of Raditz. This event just won't have the impact it should. You would also need to give introductions to the entire crew as well. Only to have the climax be all but three of the main fighters are dead. Plus you get no substantial development for Piccolo. I mean, you can still hit all the beats, but it won't be as impactful. Maybe if this project got a couple of parts alocated like the Attack on Titan, Deathnote, Bleach, and Ruroni Kenshin japanese movies, we can get some room to build is world and characters.

Don't forget that Star Wars debuted in the middle of a story. As long as there's enough interesting development and characters are developed continuously from that point, there's no reason it can't be great. It's also great for franchise starters because it gives the opportunity to create prequel$. We can only hope that they have good writing to elevate the concept.

[ABED]

The problem with Dragon Ball's story is the the part that everyone and their grandma knows is actually thd middle of the story. I personally beleive you can start at the arrival of Raditz. This event just won't have the impact it should. You would also need to give introductions to the entire crew as well. Only to have the climax be all but three of the main fighters are dead. Plus you get no substantial development for Piccolo. I mean, you can still hit all the beats, but it won't be as impactful. Maybe if this project got a couple of parts alocated like the Attack on Titan, Deathnote, Bleach, and Ruroni Kenshin japanese movies, we can get some room to build is world and characters.

Don't forget that Star Wars debuted in the middle of a story. As long as there's enough interesting development and characters are developed continuously from that point, there's no reason it can't be great. It's also great for franchise starters because it gives the opportunity to create prequel$. We can only hope that they have good writing to elevate the concept.

I know it's called Episode 4, but It isn't the actualy middle of the story. It's structured as the beginning. For a DBZ movie to start at the Saiyan arc it would have to be structured differently because 1) It's a movie, not a TV show or serialized comic, and 2) the movie is presumably going to introduce the audience to the world, its characters, and the conflicts.

And does it really need to be pointed out that even a good graphic doesn't guarentee it will look good in live action. There's a great costume design artwork of Evans as Cap in his Avengers costume and it looks great. In the film, not so much.

[ekrolo2]

The alien designs can work, the humans can't. You're not gonna make a version of Goku or Vegeta that doesn't like total arse.

[Avenant]

I know it's called Episode 4, but It isn't the actualy middle of the story. It's structured as the beginning. For a DBZ movie to start at the Saiyan arc it would have to be structured differently because 1) It's a movie, not a TV show or serialized comic, and 2) the movie is presumably going to introduce the audience to the world, its characters, and the conflicts.

My point is that beginning with the Saiyan saga could work if structured properly for a film. No matter what, compromises are going to have to be made in order to bring a proper Dragon Ball live-action film to life. As long as the spirit and general accuracy of Dragon Ball is kept, I am completely fine with certain cinematic compromises, such as those that have been made in the Marvel films.

[Avenant]

The alien designs can work, the humans can't. You're not gonna make a version of Goku or Vegeta that doesn't like total arse.

Unfortunately the fanbase can never be completely satisfied with any casting due to the large popularity of the franchise and personal perceptions of what the characters would look like in real life. That doesn't mean, however, that there can't be a live-action version of Goku and Vegeta that is acceptable by a majority of the fanbase.

I, myself, would love to see a mixed asian, caucasian actor portraying Saiyans, since they're humanoid but not from Earth. But that could just be me!

[ekrolo2]

The alien designs can work, the humans can't. You're not gonna make a version of Goku or Vegeta that doesn't like total arse.

Unfortunately the fanbase can never be completely satisfied with any casting due to the large popularity of the franchise and personal perceptions of what the characters would look like in real life. That doesn't mean, however, that there can't be a live-action version of Goku and Vegeta that is acceptable by a majority of the fanbase.

I, myself, would love to see a mixed asian, caucasian actor portraying Saiyans, since they're humanoid but not from Earth. But that could just be me!

They can get a Mercedes Benz to play it and I wouldn't be interested, anime in live action is just a thing that's never appealed to me.

[ABED]

I know it's called Episode 4, but It isn't the actualy middle of the story. It's structured as the beginning. For a DBZ movie to start at the Saiyan arc it would have to be structured differently because 1) It's a movie, not a TV show or serialized comic, and 2) the movie is presumably going to introduce the audience to the world, its characters, and the conflicts.

My point is that beginning with the Saiyan saga could work if structured properly for a film. No matter what, compromises are going to have to be made in order to bring a proper Dragon Ball live-action film to life. As long as the spirit and general accuracy of Dragon Ball is kept, I am completely fine with certain cinematic compromises, such as those that have been made in the Marvel films.

But unlike Marvel comics, DB isn't constantly being reinterpreted with numerous authors putting their stamp on the character. DB is one guy's story. It's a property with a massive fanbase, so Toriyama's voice would have to be present. I just don't see that ever happening.

[Avenant]

I know it's called Episode 4, but It isn't the actualy middle of the story. It's structured as the beginning. For a DBZ movie to start at the Saiyan arc it would have to be structured differently because 1) It's a movie, not a TV show or serialized comic, and 2) the movie is presumably going to introduce the audience to the world, its characters, and the conflicts.

My point is that beginning with the Saiyan saga could work if structured properly for a film. No matter what, compromises are going to have to be made in order to bring a proper Dragon Ball live-action film to life. As long as the spirit and general accuracy of Dragon Ball is kept, I am completely fine with certain cinematic compromises, such as those that have been made in the Marvel films.

But unlike Marvel comics, DB isn't constantly being reinterpreted with numerous authors putting their stamp on the character. DB is one guy's story. It's a property with a massive fanbase, so Toriyama's voice would have to be present. I just don't see that ever happening.

That's true, but given the right relationship between the screenwriter and Toriyama, it could be possible. All depends on the director as well, someone who is just enough of a fan to not let it cloud their judgement. Who knows. I'm optimistic!

[ABED]

Alright well, I don't think it's ever going to happen. This is all conjecture as there is no talk about making a live action movie.

[kn83]

The alien designs can work, the humans can't. You're not gonna make a version of Goku or Vegeta that doesn't like total arse.

Unfortunately the fanbase can never be completely satisfied with any casting due to the large popularity of the franchise and personal perceptions of what the characters would look like in real life. That doesn't mean, however, that there can't be a live-action version of Goku and Vegeta that is acceptable by a majority of the fanbase.

I, myself, would love to see a mixed asian, caucasian actor portraying Saiyans, since they're humanoid but not from Earth. But that could just be me!

I see this as well. Brandon Lee or a much buffer John Foo could make a decent live action Goku.