Best Dragon Ball/Z Movie?

[Daimakku]

I remember someone making a poll thread a few months back about the Kanzenshuu's forums users' favorite DBZ movie, and Movie #9 was winning by far.. and I have to agree, it's also my favorite one, if only because Gohan is my favorite character in Z, especially SSJ2 teen Gohan. The others here have covered what makes movie #9 so great, too.

Bardock : Father of Goku .

The movie was definitely dramatic and moving !!

That's a TV special, not a movie. But I can see why people would think the Trunks and Bardock specials are movies. They honestly have more movie-like qualities than the movies themselves! If the Trunks and Bardock specials were considered movies I'd probably go with the future Trunks one. When Gohan dies and Trunks goes super saiyan for the first time from pure frustration really had me teary eyed when I first watched it.

[Sebastian]

I go back and forth on whether movie 3 or 5 is my favorite.

I enjoy movie 3 because all of the characters play a part in it, I might be wrong, but aren't this and movie 9 the only DBZ movies that Yamcha and Tien even appear in? I also really like Tullece, his henchmen are forgettable but Tullece always just seemed smarter than the other movie villains, to the point where he almost won even. The standoff between Goku and Tullece right before Goku throws the Genki Dama is one of my favorite moments in the series.

Movie 5 starts off slow but once Piccolo shows up things get good. The fighting in this movie isn't as well choreographed as the first few films, but it's still really fun to watch, especially once Goku goes super saiyan. Cooler was interesting, he's less arrogant than Freeza, so he can truly appreciate the threat that Goku poses to him. It's not until he transforms that he start's doing the whole "I'm the unbeatable master of the universe" speech that every other Villain makes.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I'm actually finishing up movie 13, 'Wrath of the Dragon' off of Nicktoons right now, and remembering why I love it so much. All I have to do is ignore the Trunks' sword thing (which is easy given the controversial part of it comes from the ending credits rather than part of the movie itself), and it's just about perfect.

I wish I could remember what thread it was and who asked, but I remember recently someone having some question around the part where Vegeta got smacked through the building and Goten and Trunks fuse into Gotenks. I just saw that part again and could probably definitively answer it now...

[Cipher]

I must be doing this wrong, because movie 9 is among my least favorite. The climax is in all ways a rehash of the preceding storyline (one of the worst offenders of all the movies in this regard) and despite all sorts of fun elements being in play (Mr. Satan, a friendly tournament, etc.), it's just ... incredibly cookie-cutter.

I'm not a huge fan of any of the movies; they're fun, and watched with the idea that a Japanese child would've gone into these with some anticipation during a school break makes them kind of tolerable fluff pieces. But they're just kind of there.

Movie 8 really tickles my giblets though. The longer run time does it well, and regardless of his fanbase, Brolli is an absolutely terrifying villain for the series. I also like the way in which it epitomizes the brief self-serious era of Dragon Ball.

[AnimeMaakuo]

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[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Love Movie 13 for being character-focused while still delivering the goods, and I'm appreciating Movie 2 a lot more now.

Movie 8 really tickles my giblets though. The longer run time does it well, and regardless of his fanbase, Brolli is an absolutely terrifying villain for the series. I also like the way in which it epitomizes the brief self-serious era of Dragon Ball.

Seconded on everything there.

[penguintruth]

Brolli is an absolutely terrifying villain for the series.

Terrifyingly lame.

DUHR BROLI SMASH BROLI AM STRONGEST THERE IS

And that story? Wow, so he's the REAL Legendary Super Saiyan! Because the legend really need clarifying, right? No. Part of the fun of the Super Saiyan is how vague the legend was. Vegeta and Freeza were only somewhat familiar with it. This is why movies like the Broli movies and Episode of Bardock destroy the mythos. If you try too hard to explain it, it loses its mystique.

[Hellspawn28]

I'm not a huge fan of any of the movies neither. I won't call them good movies critically speaking, but most of them are enjoyable. I had the most fun watching DBZ Movie 1, Movie 5, Movie 6 and 13. Movie 13 was on TV today and I still enjoy the movie. I fee like Movie 13 had a good story and do you care for Tapion in the film. I still find Movie 7 to be the most overrated DBZ movie since I found nothing special in my opinion.

[batistabus]

I agree with Mike and his reasoning...1 and 9 all the way!

As for specials, I love the Jump Anime Tour, Bardock 1, and Trunks. Again, as with the movies, they add to the story, don't really contradict, and still have the same flavor as the original series (Bardock to a lesser extent).

Everything else bores me to sleep, but I don't mind 12 & 13. Episode of Bardock is nice to watch and listen to, but the plot makes me vomit.

As for Broli, Paragus is by far the best thing about that movie. Where's the love for him?

[TonyTheTiger]

And that story? Wow, so he's the REAL Legendary Super Saiyan! Because the legend really need clarifying, right? No. Part of the fun of the Super Saiyan is how vague the legend was. Vegeta and Freeza were only somewhat familiar with it. This is why movies like the Broli movies and Episode of Bardock destroy the mythos. If you try too hard to explain it, it loses its mystique.

In fairness to Movie 8, I'd say it lost its mystique the second Trunks showed up. I wholeheartedly agree that something was lost somewhere along the way but I think it happened much earlier than Broli. I actually like the idea of an evil Super Saiyan. At least at that point in the story an evil Super Saiyan makes sense since everyone was doing it by that point.

What Broli does that's screwy is mutate the legend into some weird separate entity that's kinda the same as what Goku accomplished but...not really. Defining Broli as something distinct as opposed to just an evil Super Saiyan turns not just the legend but the entire idea of Super Saiyan on its head. They tried too hard to make him special. He'd have been better off just being an ordinary Super Saiyan who also happens to be insane, which is itself enough of a threat to justify the movie. Pulling the whole legendary bit added nothing except confusion as to what the rules are and a rather ridiculous Vegeta breakdown.

[penguintruth]

That's another thing that got me: Vegeta being a pussy. A total pussy. Not just refusing to fight, not trying to escape so he can come back someday strong enough to fight the opponent. Being a complete whimpering sissy. They should have put him in a yellow sundress for that movie. Maybe a floppy hat. Maybe he could have carried a purse with a big sunflower design on it. Vegeta's theme in movie 8 should be "I Feel Pretty". The movie should have ended with Vegeta getting sex reassignment.

Kuririn is more of a man in that movie.

[Saiga]

It's hard to say. I have a real soft spot for movie 4, partly because of the English dub's music.

But I also really like movie 9 for the battles and for having Gohan be the star.

Actually, I think it'd be movie 10 or 12, but I haven't seen either of them recently. I prefer stories set in the Boo era.

I agree with penguintruth on movie 8, though. I don't like Broli as the actual Legendary Super Saiyan, and Vegeta being so terribly OOC was just painful to watch.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

That's another thing that got me: Vegeta being a pussy. A total pussy. Not just refusing to fight, not trying to escape so he can come back someday strong enough to fight the opponent. Being a complete whimpering sissy. They should have put him in a yellow sundress for that movie. Maybe a floppy hat. Maybe he could have carried a purse with a big sunflower design on it. Vegeta's theme in movie 8 should be "I Feel Pretty". The movie should have ended with Vegeta getting sex reassignment.

Kuririn is more of a man in that movie.

Someone posted up a real good analogy for explaining this once. I can't remember the exact post, but it was something to the effect of Vegeta being the owner of the best toy shop in town and he doesn't believe in Santa Claus. He soon finds out that he is in fact real, now he has to compete with Santa. The original poster obviously explained it better since I'm just digging this out of my memory.

It really bothers me when people just write something like "Movie 8", instead of "DBZ Movie 8". Movie 8 could refer to DBZ Movie 5.
There are 3 prior Dragon Ball films after all.
- Just a minor pet peeve of mine.

[Cipher]

Terrifyingly lame.

DUHR BROLI SMASH BROLI AM STRONGEST THERE IS

And that story? Wow, so he's the REAL Legendary Super Saiyan! Because the legend really need clarifying, right? No. Part of the fun of the Super Saiyan is how vague the legend was. Vegeta and Freeza were only somewhat familiar with it. This is why movies like the Broli movies and Episode of Bardock destroy the mythos. If you try too hard to explain it, it loses its mystique.

Actually, I find the "legend" aspect distractingly ill-explained and annoying.

What I like about Brolli is how un-Dragon Ball he is. Most of the movie villains eschew the main series' philosophy of unassuming, wry villains for heavy bruisers, but Brolli takes it to the next level. While most Dragon Ball villains, again, are unassuming, have some sort of central gimmick and a super-villain personality (demon king, transforming witty alien, sardonic bug monster, etc.), Brolli has none of that. He's just a straight-up insane humanoid with amazing strength who likes to hurt things and can't be reasoned with. And while I suppose that's what Bojack is too, he doesn't really play up that aspect (or any aspect) enough to have a presence.

Brolli and his first movie (which has a much darker atmosphere from the previous seven) are quite a surprise for the franchise. You just have to separate it from the "DUHR BROLI SMASH AM STRONGEST" fans it's earned.

I still find Movie 7 to be the most overrated DBZ movie since I found nothing special in my opinion.

Movie 7 is what pops into my head as the go-to generic Dragon Ball Z movie. But I do kind of enjoy it on those grounds, as well as for, like Movie 8, the way it epitomizes that period when Toei was all about Dragon Ball as a serious action franchise. (Which is more a curiosity now than anything.)

[CaBrPi]

This is difficult for me.

I really love the first three DBZ movies, and I actually do like the fourth as well. The first Coola movie has a lot of sentimental meaning to me. I do enjoy them all for what they are, though. At least, the ones I've seen.

I also highly enjoyed the first DB movie. It felt like a properly-abridged version of the first thirteen episodes with a decent animation bump. It didn't hurt that I watched it with Funimation's in-house cast (which I've heard was done as sort of a test-run, similar to what the DB movies had been in the past).

Now, best overall would probably be DBZ Movie 13, out of the ones I've seen. It's one of the few movies that really feels like something from the actual series, despite Hildegarn being a very not-Dragon Ball villain.

As for favorite... I'm undecided.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Never questioned Vegeta's breakdown. For most of his life he had two people he was training to beat; Freeza and Goku. Then here comes this Sayain waif who can't even speak properly to turns into this hulk that he cannot physically become who proceeds to bulldoze the man he's put on the gold standard for years. Broly doesn't have to be THE Sayain of Legend, he's just every brutal trait the Sayain's ever given themselves made real at its most extreme.

That's totally cause for a "F*** this, I give up" reaction. In a way it's Vegeta's reaction to how nonsensically strong and unsubtle Broly is.\

[Gyt Kaliba]

Never questioned Vegeta's breakdown. For most of his life he had two people he was training to beat; Freeza and Goku. Then here comes this Sayain waif who can't even speak properly to turns into this hulk that he cannot physically become who proceeds to bulldoze the man he's put on the gold standard for years. Broly doesn't have to be THE Sayain of Legend, he's just every brutal trait the Sayain's ever given themselves made real at its most extreme.

That's totally cause for a "F*** this, I give up" reaction. In a way it's Vegeta's reaction to how nonsensically strong and unsubtle Broly is.\

That's always how I looked at it too. I didn't see it as Vegeta being out of character, I saw it as him just being THAT beaten and terrified, something we'd never seen before and really made Broly seem terrifying.

[CaBrPi]

While I suppose Vegeta losing the will to fight isn't entirely OOC... the one time he did it in the manga was after using up every last bit of power he had, after increasing that amount of power by a presumably considerable amount. In the Broly movie, he does it without breaking a sweat.

[NeoKING]

Movie 2. It does its own thing. And the Pioneer English dub is perfect.