Dragonball Evolution's effect on the franchise

[cRookie_Monster]

This subject has probably been beaten to death...but I was just looking at this chart of searches on Google's trends page.

https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q ... nball%20GT

There's a huge spike for "Dragonball" and then a very large dropoff... Hover over the spike and you'll see the article timed with it is "'Dragonball Evolution' a backwards step". Wow... I think the search rate will naturally decay over time...but this graph is kinda incriminating for the movie. People said it would damage the franchise...I didn't really believe it. Fans will be fans right? Did it really put that negative of a spin on the whole thing? Did a lot of old fans walk away after that or did the new ones just stop coming? Am I reading it incorrectly? Thoughts?

[edit]
Hahaha, look at the next article after the movie one.
"DVDs: "Hannah Montana" VS "Dragonball""
Was that the real killer!?
Edit again...ahh the Hannah Montana article is addressing the Evolutions movie...very unfavorably.

[Hellspawn28]

DBE was a box office failure, I don't think it damage the series like Batman & Robin and Godzilla (1998) did since those movies nearly killed their own franchise. Unlike those movies, DBE had no expectations from anyone since everyone thought the movie looked terrible. I saw nothing but bad things when people posted comments about the trailer. I don't think DBE had no effect on the franchise at all.

[Pafupafu]

Dragonball Evolution basically confirmed that the series can not be done justice in Film until there is either a much larger budget or a breakthrough in technology. DBE had the misfortune of a terrible screenplay which disregarded majority of a 15+ year Mythology. It was a textbook "Americanization". As cliche as that sounds, it is very much the definition of infecting a Japanese story with American topics. I can guarantee that there will eventually be a live-action film that is much closer to the original source material but the technology to do so is too costly and Dragonball is just not a property that can guarantee a profit. All Dragonball Evolution did, in the long run, is delay any thought that a Dragonball film would be profitable. And to be honest, I'm not sure if it ever will be. Dragonball is a story that is not easily told. The closer to the source material, the more expensive and longer the movie(s) become. It's a catch-22, but it is part of Toriyama's genius. Dragonball was made as a Manga and a Series because those are the only appropriate mediums to tell the complete story. The adaptation of the property is such a difficult task as it must almost be written with a budget in mind. There's just not a large enough audience to justify such a huge financial risk. It won't be done until the time and technology to do so sinks substantially in price.

[Hellspawn28]

If they had the budget around Transformers then they might pull it off. 40 million is too small for a DB movie and the special effects look terrible too (District 9 came out the same year as DBE and it had better looking special effects). DBE biggest problem that it had a bad script. The movie was making Goku into a Peter Parker type of character when Goku was never a superhero to begin with. Not to mention the rest of the story is poorly put together since they never explain or show how Piccolo came back and what type of word that the movie takes place in.

[Pafupafu]

If they had the budget around Transformers then they might pull it off. 40 million is too small for a DB movie and the special effects look terrible too (District 9 came out the same year as DBE and it had better looking special effects). DBE biggest problem that it had a bad script. The movie was making Goku into a Peter Parker type of character when Goku was never a superhero to begin with. Not to mention the rest of the story is poorly put together since they never explain or show how Piccolo came back and what type of word that the movie takes place in.

Just an fyi, District 9's reported budget is something to take with a grain of salt. Over 10 million spent on pre-production was allocated from a cancelled "Halo" project and Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, who handled the effects, did not charge typical rates as it was an in-house production.

DBE was essentially an average teen superhero film sprinkled with similarities to the original source material. The effects alone were ridiculously unpolished and there were obvious budget restraints, but even with $500million, it wouldn't have been any better as the story was so poorly pieced together.

[Hellspawn28]

All of the casting in DBE was terrible too. Justin Chatwin's acting was terrible and James Marsters was the only one that who pull off a decent role. Yun-Fat Chow acting was rather hammy and that's surprising coming from him since he is a good actor. I'm glad that the movie did poorly at the box office since someone else over time can grab the rights to the series and make a better movie.

[Pafupafu]

All of the casting in DBE was terrible too. Justin Chatwin's acting was terrible and James Marsters was the only one that who pull off a decent role. Yun-Fat Chow acting was rather hammy and that's surprising coming from him since he is a good actor. I'm glad that the movie did poorly at the box office since someone else over time can grab the rights to the series and make a better movie.

I agree about the casting. A lot of people were upset about non-asian actors in the lead roles but honestly, they were just terrible actors, regardless of race. I actually worked on a (terrible) US/UK movie with Ernie Hudson (who played Master Roshi's mentor in DBE) and he had nothing good to say about his time on the set of DBE. It was last November but I remember him specifically saying that he "never thought it would see the light of day". Go figure.

Any way, there's definitely going to be some form of live-action DragonBall film eventually. The recent explosion of comic properties being adapted was what got DBE made but that was in a time where studios were careless with their choices of writers/directors. Hopefully after the Nolan/Whedon eras, a better trend will begin.

[Kingdom Heartless]

Any way, there's definitely going to be some form of live-action DragonBall film eventually. The recent explosion of comic properties being adapted was what got DBE made but that was in a time where studios were careless with their choices of writers/directors. Hopefully after the Nolan/Whedon eras, a better trend will begin.

I'm not sure if I'd agree with that. DB:E was made during a period where most comic adaptions were getting more respect, with less and less lousy adaptions. It came out in 2009, after the likes of The Dark Knight, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.

I think the issue is Fox themselves needing more faith in source material. Many of the lousy comic adaptions come out under their watch, and quite often it seems to be from interference. I'm not saying that DB:E would have been any good without Fox, but a more daring studio is the only one where it would have stood a chance. Fox are notorious for interference.

[Chuquita]

I'm actually kind of surprised that the Jump 08 special didn't make as big of an impact as I thought (late 08 still looks kinda low) ; maybe it was an insular thing since Jump Festa isn't as well known outside of Japan. o_O

What else was going on back in the spring of 09 for DB aside from the LAM? *checks her old DA entires*.
Ah, Kai had just started up in Japan; they were in the first couple episodes around that time.

As far as I was aware, DBE was announced, there was excitement that turned to tepid anxiety that turned into a "can't look away from the train-wreck" sort of thing and then all of a sudden it vanished and the fandom went on only a little worse for the wear. Before the movie came out, I was worried it wasn't just going to be a train-wreck, but that it actually was going to hugely damage the entire franchise because I thought it would be a really well-known bomb of a film. It turned out to be quite an obscure bomb of a film instead.

I just don't think I have enough information atm to really dig into this. ^^;;

[Pafupafu]

Any way, there's definitely going to be some form of live-action DragonBall film eventually. The recent explosion of comic properties being adapted was what got DBE made but that was in a time where studios were careless with their choices of writers/directors. Hopefully after the Nolan/Whedon eras, a better trend will begin.

I'm not sure if I'd agree with that. DB:E was made during a period where most comic adaptions were getting more respect, with less and less lousy adaptions. It came out in 2009, after the likes of The Dark Knight, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.

I think the issue is Fox themselves needing more faith in source material. Many of the lousy comic adaptions come out under their watch, and quite often it seems to be from interference. I'm not saying that DB:E would have been any good without Fox, but a more daring studio is the only one where it would have stood a chance. Fox are notorious for interference.

Push, Whiteout, Surrogates, and G.I. Joe all came out in 2009 as well. Joe made dough but was universally panned. DBE falls in the category with these films. Popular properties adapted into terrible and budget-condensed movies with the wrong people at the helm.

[soulnova]

I'm actually kind of surprised that the Jump 08 special didn't make as big of an impact as I thought (late 08 still looks kinda low) ; maybe it was an insular thing since Jump Festa isn't as well known outside of Japan. o_O

What else was going on back in the spring of 09 for DB aside from the LAM? *checks her old DA entires*.
Ah, Kai had just started up in Japan; they were in the first couple episodes around that time.

As far as I was aware, DBE was announced, there was excitement that turned to tepid anxiety that turned into a "can't look away from the train-wreck" sort of thing and then all of a sudden it vanished and the fandom went on only a little worse for the wear. Before the movie came out, I was worried it wasn't just going to be a train-wreck, but that it actually was going to hugely damage the entire franchise because I thought it would be a really well-known bomb of a film. It turned out to be quite an obscure bomb of a film instead.

I just don't think I have enough information atm to really dig into this. ^^;;

You know what's worse? It was filmed here in Mexico. The news were a hype bomb among all anime fans. I could not believed our luck. I was actually thinking on making a roadtrip there and maybe, who knows, be an extra? camp outside? We didn't care, it was freaking DRAGONBALL.

And then... the first pictures and info about the plot were leaked...

I don't have to say to what levels of hatred the fandom exploded. There were two "Hitler learns about DBE" with the Spanish subtitles with million views by the next day.

It was a dark day to all of us...

[DBZnut]

I personally think it didn't have a huge effect, most people knew it would fail so it had low hopes.

I didn't bother watching it until it came out on DVD.

[The Time Traveller]

Is the huge spike the one timed at April 2009? It's for Kai then surely, that's when the Kai line appears to lift as well.

[Hellspawn28]

Fox has shown improvement lately with their newest movies like X-Men: First Class, Prometheus, Predators and Rise of Planet of the Apes. Fox could make a good DB movie now possibly if they can learn from their mistakes.

[cRookie_Monster]

Is the huge spike the one timed at April 2009? It's for Kai then surely, that's when the Kai line appears to lift as well.

Good point, if you look at the Kai line below, the big spike follows the little one for Kai, but DBE also came out that month. No wonder there was such a huge spike there. What impressed me was how low the graph drops over the next year after that and stays down...

[Hellspawn28]

I do give DBE some credit for not making the movie into a total CG fest similar to Transformers. At least the movie did had some practical effects used in the movie.

[Jackal puFF]

I do give DBE some credit for not making the movie into a total CG fest similar to Transformers. At least the movie did had some practical effects used in the movie.

What's wrong with CG? Practical effects? Bad effects if you ask me.

[Hellspawn28]

I think CGI can look good if used right, and not overused. With Practical effects, they tend to look more real and they feel like that they more craftsmanship where put into them. I find the Dinosaurs to look more life like then the any of the robots in Transformers for example. Even when practical effects look bad, they still look real. DBE used suits for the creatures that Piccolo created in the movie which looked pretty decent (I always been a fan of suit work). I thought the Oozaru suit that they used look terrible in my opinion.

Bad effects if you ask me.

Really? Some of the best looking special effects are practical effects.

[Cipher]

I think giving credit to Evolution for lowering interest in the franchise is giving it too much credit for doing anything.

[Eire]

If you feel bad about Evolution, go to Avatarspirit.net and confort yourself with threads dedicated to The Last Airbender, that had a way better promotion than Evolution.

Even the worse adaptation won't spoil the book it was based on, so why should it work different for movies based on TV series? There's always a kind of promotion, since the name of the precursor is cited everywhere and usually praised, comparing to new one?