Super Hero (and Netflix's One Piece) is proof it's time for a live-action DB movie franchise

[mecha3000]

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero beat BEAST, a movie starring Idris FREAKIN Elba. Apparently, he's not exactly in movies that are box office hits, but the fact remains: Super Hero was number one at the box office this weekend over a movie with a fairly popular actor who is attached to the biggest Hollywood franchises (Fast and Furious and DC). Dude was even in the running for James Bond! So, no more excuses like "Dragon Ball won't be successful in live-action! An old, terrible movie from 2009 proved that!" OR "Anime can't be adapted to live-action well!" Marvel adapted the purple man looking for six colorful rocks in the same movie/universe as a talking tree and raccoon. Don't tell me Dragon Ball can't work. With the right production team, it ABSOLUTELY can.

In my opinion, people who reject the possibility of live-action Dragon Ball are holding the franchise back. A live-action movie is the next step this franchise needs to achieve mainstream fandom. Look at Marvel when Endgame came out and compare it to when Iron Man first came out (or even further back with X-Men and Spider-Man). With the right team, I believe Dragon Ball can achieve that popularity. And here comes the "Dragon Ball doesn't need live-action. It does just well animated and that's the way it should be" purists. Those are the same people who didn't want Super Hero to be CGI and I feel like this type of thinking is why Toei is afraid of trying new things with DB. There's always naysayers who want Dragon Ball to stay the same way it's been for almost 40 years.

Again, a CGI Dragon Ball movie beat BEAST. So, imagine how well a live-action Dragon Ball movie (most likely should be based on Z this time) would do. I mean, my theater was PACKED both times I saw it and the audience reacted the same way they do at Marvel movies. And I'm hoping Toei sees this overseas success and gives Dragon Ball a second chance after Evolution. And this time, Toriyama NEEDS to be involved in some capacity along with a competent cast and crew.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I never saw any reason why Dragon Ball couldn't be #1 at the US box office, it is one of the most popular entertainment brands/IPs of all time that makes billions of dollars a year between all the toys, merchandise, games and home video sales, and has been talked about on Forbes. It is without a shadow of a doubt mainstream.

It can be done well in live action, Hong Kong has shown it can be done with decades of wuxia films, Marvel has shown that it can be done, Shang-Chi was a martial arts movie, Captain Marvel has transformations, Guardians of the Galaxy has anthropomorphic creatures, all you need to do is put all those elements together, get a director who loves and is passionate about the series, give it a good budget and bang, you've got a hit for both fans and the critics on your hands.

I do hope it will happen one day. I like Marvel but no where near as much as Dragon Ball, and I'd love to have my favourite universe have some good live action movies that can give it the wider exposure it deserves.

[Lord Beerus]

All DBS Superhero is proof is off is that a lot of people like Dragon Ball. I have no idea how an anime film that is very likely not to make more than $90 million at the box office when all is said and done somehow translates to there being an audience for a live-action adaptation of Dragon Ball. This has been tried before and it didn't work, so just let the idea die. Not every major comic needs a live-action adaptation.

[Majin Buu]

While I do think a live-action Dragon Ball can work with the right cast and crew, as an animation fan I've always chafed against the idea that animated properties need live action adaptations to be big and successful since it plays into the perception that animation is a lesser medium than live action.

I'd rather have an animated Dragon Ball reboot achieve that kind of success than a live action reboot.

[MasenkoHA]

While I do think a live-action Dragon Ball can work with the right cast and crew, as an animation fan I've always chafed against the idea that animated properties need live action adaptations to be big and successful since it plays into the perception that animation is a lesser medium than live action.

I'd rather have an animated Dragon Ball reboot achieve that kind of success than a live action reboot.

This. There's no NEED for a live action Dragon Ball movie and it just comes off as people being embarrassed to be watching a cartoon.

That said I'm all for proving the "Dragon Ball can't work in live action!" people wrong.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I don't think a live action movie would be needed to give people who wrongly frown upon animation a substitute, but I think a faithful adaptation would give Dragon Ball greater exposure, because there are unfortunately a lot of people who flat out refuse to watch anything animated. I've heard Star Wars fans say they don't care how great the storylines and character arcs in Clone Wars are, the medium of animation is a dealbreaker for them.

The fans who watch Dragon Ball animated, and the current and future generations of anime fans will continue to do so. A good live action movie wouldn't change them, but it would give the people who are set in their ways about animation a means of getting into the series. There would likely be a minority that become more willing to watch the anime if they loved the live action adaptation, but I welcome any new fans this franchise brings in.

[Koitsukai]

I don't think the problem would be how it'd fare in the box office, but how faithful a live adaptation would be, or what part of the story you could tell.
If you were to tell Goku's story, then you'd need like 6 movies if you want to do it properly, and I'd rather have that funding go to the animated version of it, be it more movies or DBS 2, or other characters' spinoff. I don't think I want to see a real life Son Goku.

And I'm also not interested in watching a live-action movie of something I've already seen many times, but perhaps a live-action spinoff could be something I might be interested in. Like about Hit, Jiren, Beerus or some other character, but I'd take an animated version of it over a live-action one every day, though.

[DragonBallFoodie]

Almost every DB film would be proof of that at this point.

But I don't have a problem if it's done well.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I'm not saying that there should NEVER be a studio made big screen live action DB film, it's just that at this point they'd be hard pressed to find a cast and crew that could successfully pull off executing it. Dragon Ball is a work that has primarily been rooted in it's distinct cartoonish visuals ever since the manga debuted back in 1984 and honestly it's worked best for the most part on screen in an animated format, and while there's been LA attempts in the past they were either super low budget affairs produced in foreign countries (The Magic Begins) or big studio produced but which bombed hard (Evolution) yet haven't truly done the series justice artistically speaking.

I liken it to something like the Netflix One Piece adaptation, because that too is trying to adapt a manga/anime that is HEAVILY tied to it's look because Oda's art style is so distinctivly cartoony and there's just no way to recapture that in live action. Now granted, the sets and such are amazing as shown in the trailers and i'll certainly commend them for that. However, all of the over the top craziness that goes with the art and the One Piece world in general (exaggerated body sizes, the Devil Fruits' powers.etc) is something you just can't translate over in a way that would truly do it justice.

[WittyUsername]

Did 20th Century Fox/Disney’s license expire by now?

[Modern_Dingus]

The question isn't "Can we make a good Live-Action DB Movie"

It's WHY do we need a Live-Action DB movie? What will it accomplish that animated can't? Retelling the story? We don't want to fall down a rabbit hole of "re-imagining" the past of Dragon Ball because it'll just lead to stagnation.

It's not about if we could, it's about if we should. There's just not point.

[Hellspawn28]

Honestly, we don't need a new live action film. It won't be against to have a good adaption, but let's wait until another 10-20 years for another one.

[Shaddy]

We will never "need" a live-action DB movie. Even if we got one, the most it should ever be is an accessory to the series we already have. Dragon Ball's strongest, most consistently-competent aspect, it's last remaining core appeal that Toriyama hasn't found a way to ruin on his own, is his character art. Abandon that and everything falls on the weaker elements of the franchise to do the heavy lifting, and I don't trust Hollywood with that any more than Toei.

[Majin Man 101]

I do not believe that a live action Dragon Ball film would ever be received well by fans or critics alike. After the embarrassing live action Cowboy Bebop and Death Note adaptations on Netflix, I think the writing is on the wall for live action anime adaptations. Let us not even talk about Evolution.

We are going to have to wait and see how the live action adaptations of Yu Yu Hakusho and One Piece turn out. I'm 99.99% sure that they will be embarrassing and cancelled after 1 season, but who knows, anything is possible, and I actually hope they are good so more fans can be introduced to Japanese animation through them.

If anything, Super Hero proves that Toei and Sony should just go ahead and pull the trigger on making the next Dragon Ball film a wide release and advertise it HEAVILY. Super bowl adds and all. All they would have to do is make it an event film and tease how the movie is going to have a huge twist or surprise and I guarantee you all that combined......Dragon Ball could EASILY rake in 500 million dollars plus + WORLDWIDE. Give the movie $20 million dollar budget, and advertising budget of $70 million......THINK OF THE PROFITS for the big cat with the big hat would rake in. It would be astronomical, and they would then begin to understand how huge the Dragon Ball IP is, because at this time I still do not believe that have a complete understanding of what they have.

[Metalwario64]

The visual style of Dragon Ball is one of the things I love most about it.

Don't care to see it join this trend of remaking all popular animation into live action. But I mean of course I wouldn't have to watch it, so it ultimately wouldn't affect me I suppose.

[JulieYBM]

I don't really see why we should assume that a live action adaption would legitimize Dragon Ball (or any comic or animated work) or that it is our job as fans to fan the flames of capitalism by acting as backseat marketing strategists for assholes who will have more time, money, homes and healthcare than we all ever will. They can figure this shit out for themselves.

Anyway, I think there are some cool directors at the live action arm of Toei that would make a cool Dragon Ball film if given the production time and resources. The Super Sentai series has been producing cool fight scenes on short schedules for quite a while now.

[Majin Buu]

I don't really see why we should assume that a live action adaption would legitimize Dragon Ball (or any comic or animated work) or that it is our job as fans to fan the flames of capitalism by acting as backseat marketing strategists for assholes who will have more time, money, homes and healthcare than we all ever will. They can figure this shit out for themselves.

This. Sometimes people on here sound more like studio executives than fans. It's a little weird.

[JulieYBM]

I don't really see why we should assume that a live action adaption would legitimize Dragon Ball (or any comic or animated work) or that it is our job as fans to fan the flames of capitalism by acting as backseat marketing strategists for assholes who will have more time, money, homes and healthcare than we all ever will. They can figure this shit out for themselves.

This. Sometimes people on here sound more like studio executives than fans. It's a little weird.

Yeah, it's an unfortunate problem that I see a lot in fandom. How we experience works of art through the lens of capitalism gets us to think about that art in the way that will make capitalism grow. It's a sort of self-repairing and self-growth system. Get the peasants to dedicate themselves to making the system grow all while giving far, far less back than they take.

[dva_raza]

I have no idea, whatsoever (been wondering since the rampage of horrid Disney remakes started) why would anyone want to see a SAME story already perfectly accomplished and iconic with the technique it used replicated in an uglier style.

Going from (limitless) drawn designs, to real life ones will always be a downgrade visually and a fantasy story especially will never benefit from limiting the scope of possibilities. Most of the elements, and characteristics that make it impactful will be either lost for the sake of realism or look awkward and ugly.

The way things come to life with animation could never be replicated with live action. And Dragon Ball came to life in the way that it did. You change that way and it will become something else. And personally I don't want it to be something else lol. I want what I like the way it is, otherwise I wouldnt've liked it in the first place.

Also I don’t get this incessant and creepy-ass NEED to consume.
Non-stop live action rehash productions are nothing more than a money grabbing waste of space. There are ALREADY several different lines of material to be following with this franchise. The manga, the films, the anime, Heroes. You want to make it an absolute mess and also have a live action version with its respective franchise and timeline now? What the hell for?


Also

A live-action movie is the next step this franchise needs to achieve mainstream fandom.

a CGI Dragon Ball movie beat BEAST. I mean, my theater was PACKED

way to debunk yourself about this franchise needing something in the first place.

Apparently not everything needs to become a Marvel type jumble and Toei and Toriyama know what to do with their product better than you. Don't call "purists" fans and artists who have artistic intelligence and integrity.

[WittyUsername]

I don’t know if I agree with the notion that a live action film would be an inherently bad idea, just because it’s been done in animation. Superhero movies are perfectly fine for what they are, and some of them are even considered genuinely great movies.

With that said, making a live action film based on DC or Marvel characters has inherently more flexibility to it than a live action adaptation of Dragon Ball, which was written by a single author, and had a linear serialized story with a clear beginning, middle and end.

If you were going to do another live action Dragon Ball film, I’d argue you’d have to make some notable changes just to give the story its own identity, but it would need to be done in a way that would still maintain the unique spirit of Dragon Ball, which would be difficult, especially for Hollywood.

Also, as a side note, which studio would even handle a future Hollywood Dragon Ball film? It probably wouldn’t be Fox/Disney. I would say that Legendary might be the best option, but since Sony owns FUNimation/Crunchyroll, would they be the most likely candidate?