Dragon Ball Evolution: A 10th Anniversary Retrospective

[Lord Beerus]

2. It led to James Marsters becoming a fan of the series. And in the process, becoming the best English VA to ever grace Dragon Ball.

Elaborate??

When doing research in preparation for his role in the film (King Piccolo), James watched the original Dragon Ball anime. He loved it, became a huge fan of Dragon Ball in general because of it, and even lobbied hard for King Piccolo's appearance in the movie to be more faithful to the anime/manga, as it was originally a major deviation from how it was supposed to look. I mean, do you think James Marsters voicing a major character in a Dragon Ball anime down the line was a coincidence?

An interview from 2012 delves into more information.

[KBABZ]

When doing research in preparation for his role in the film (King Piccolo), James watched the original Dragon Ball anime. He loved it, became a huge fan of Dragon Ball in general because of it, and even lobbied hard for King Piccolo's appearance in the movie to be more faithful to the anime/manga, as it was originally a major deviation from how it was supposed to look. I mean, do you think James Marsters voicing a major character in a Dragon Ball anime down the line was a coincidence?

An interview from 2012 delves into more information.

That's pretty dope! I've always secretly wanted Justin Chatwin to have a minor role in a piece of media sometime. I think the stage show of the Cell Games that kicked off the TB early in the Buu arc would have been a great spot to do it.

[MasenkoHA]

The thing is even though Dragon Ball Evolution is pretty bad and has that “this really should have been straight to dvd vibe” it’s not even worst movie of 2009.

Zombieween 2 and Bayformers 2 also came out in 2009. They’re both far far worse than Dragon Ball evolution. 2009 was not a good year for mainstream nerd shit.

[KBABZ]

Zombieween 2 and Bayformers 2 also came out in 2009. They’re both far far worse than Dragon Ball evolution. 2009 was not a good year for mainstream nerd shit.

Had the best Ratchet & Clank game of all time release that year, though! : D

[ABED]

It was my understanding that Marsters was already a fan of Dragon Ball (DBZ at least). I recall him talking about watching the series with his son.

It motivated Toriyama to write more Dragon Ball stories and and be more involved in the creative process of Dragon Ball projects.

I don't think I would consider that a plus.

[Hellspawn28]

...I feel like it bears mentioning that 2009 is also the year that gave us X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. It was an interesting year in film history.

You also had Transformers 2 that year and that movie is just as awful as Dragon Ball Evolution, X-Men Origins, and Legend of Chun-Li. Transformers 2 was so bad, it won worst movie of 2009.

[MasenkoHA]

...I feel like it bears mentioning that 2009 is also the year that gave us X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. It was an interesting year in film history.

You also had Transformers 2 that year and that movie is just as awful as Dragon Ball Evolution,.

*worse

[ABED]

Granted, I've only ever seen either film once, but from what I can recall, I'm not sure how you would qualify either as worse to any significant degree.

[MasenkoHA]

Granted, I've only ever seen either film once, but from what I can recall, I'm not sure how you would qualify either as worse to any significant degree.

Bayformers 2 was an assault on my eyes, ears, and brain for how goddamn stupid it was. I don’t give one iota of a fuck about Transformers its just a shitastic movie.


Strip away the “this is a horrid adaptation of Dragon Ball” element from Dragon Ball Evolution and its just a run of the mill bad movie that uses a lot of tired cliches.

Remove the fact that you’re a Dragon Ball fan for a moment and Dragon Ball Evolution is relatively less awful than Bay’s Transformers 2 as a movie.

[ABED]

And Evolution is cheap but not in a fun way. It's cheap all around. At least Transformers has production value and John Turturro.

[Lord Beerus]

It motivated Toriyama to write more Dragon Ball stories and and be more involved in the creative process of Dragon Ball projects.

I don't think I would consider that a plus.

You don't like anything Toriyama has contributed to modern Dragon Ball stories?

[ABED]

It's not that he hasn't done anything good (I love Battle of Gods), it's that the bad outweighs the good by a significant margin. Nothing I'm seeing or reading is making a compelling case for its own existence beyond "it makes money". We had closure and I've come to dislike never ending stories. "Part of the journey is the end." Even just a good ending is worth its weight in gold and I've come to like the original ending.

[sunsetshimmer]

It's pretty bad movie, but it's still better than Death Note from Netflix if you ask me.

There are few things i liked in this movie:
-Goku vs bullies fight was actually fun
-Chichi was just cool
-Piccolo looked pretty good
-Character outfits were overall okay and weren't just copied directly from DB anime/manga
-Entire idea of making Goku a teenager and change story "a bit" was pretty fun (except for Oozaru part...) although execution was mostly awful

It's far from being the worst movie i ever saw, but i can't force myself to call it good or even decent, no matter what. On the other hand, i don't completely despise this movie as part of franchise and i feel no personal hatred for people responsible for this. I am too old for this. Especially now, 10 years since movie was made, i find i silly to still talk about it and bash it instead of simply forgetting it and ignoring its existence if you really hate this movie so much. I mean even Toriyama said it's not Dragon Ball in his eyes.

[ABED]

It's pretty bad movie, but it's still better than Death Note from Netflix if you ask me.

There are few things i liked in this movie:
-Goku vs bullies fight was actually fun
-Chichi was just cool
-Piccolo looked pretty good
-Character outfits were overall okay and weren't just copied directly from DB anime/manga
-Entire idea of making Goku a teenager and change story "a bit" was pretty fun (except for Oozaru part...) although execution was mostly awful

It's far from being the worst movie i ever saw, but i can't force myself to call it good or even decent, no matter what. On the other hand, i don't completely despise this movie as part of franchise and i feel no personal hatred for people responsible for this. I am too old for this. Especially now, 10 years since movie was made, i find i silly to still talk about it and bash it instead of simply forgetting it and ignoring its existence if you really hate this movie so much. I mean even Toriyama said it's not Dragon Ball in his eyes.

Yeah, it's in the same realm of The Legend of Chun Li. Both are thoroughly forgettable.

[Lord Beerus]

It's not that he hasn't done anything good (I love Battle of Gods), it's that the bad outweighs the good by a significant margin. Nothing I'm seeing or reading is making a compelling case for its own existence beyond "it makes money". We had closure and I've come to dislike never ending stories. "Part of the journey is the end." Even just a good ending is worth its weight in gold and I've come to like the original ending.

I think Toei and Bandai are far more guilty of indulging in their fever dreams, while stroking the nostalgia fans had for days gone by for an easy profit than Toriyama. I mean, why would Toriyama even been interested in more money at this stage? He was the most successful mangaka in Japan for MANY years, and I'm sure is sitting on a very healthy sum of retirement money from the success of Dr Slump and Dragon Ball, while getting a good royalties check in the mail every month.

Toriyama latched himself on to Battle Of Gods because he saw a good concept and wanted to add his unique twist to it, Resurrection F was based on him hearing a rock song about Freeza, Jaco The Galactic Patrolman was Toriyama looking to expand the Dragon Ball cosmos with his wonderful sense of humour, charm and whimsy, Dragon Ball Super Broly was him taking the opportunity to retool a character he found interesting, and Dragon Ball Minus was... a bad day at the office.

Don't get me wrong, Toriyama certainly can be guilty of writing stories that he know will shamelessly pander to the young Japanese boys he always written for. Dragon Ball Minus was bad and shameless fanservice, and the Future Trunks arc and Dragon Ball Super Broly were conceptualized solely on the merit of the popularity of those characters domestically and internationally. But Toriyama's involvement in modern Dragon Ball stories come with a much more earnest approach in general, even if he can himself succumb at times to nostalgia stroking at times.

And as far as Dragon Ball's position on being an never ending story... Dragon Ball has definitively ended. All the major stories coming from Toriyama pen these days stories are taking place in the 10 year blank period before Dragon Ball reaches its climax. So it's not necessarily and never ending narrative, but more of a series of ultimately inconsequential side-stories.

[ABED]

That ending no longer has the same meaning if you take Super into account. Uub is supposed to represent that there are more mountains for Goku to climb. Uub's only value is he is the incarnation of the strongest being Goku had ever faced and yet we clearly see from Battle of Gods, that is not true.

[Char Aznable]

The thing is even though Dragon Ball Evolution is pretty bad and has that “this really should have been straight to dvd vibe” it’s not even worst movie of 2009.

Zombieween 2 and Bayformers 2 also came out in 2009. They’re both far far worse than Dragon Ball evolution. 2009 was not a good year for mainstream nerd shit.

Oh man, that was a wild year. Dragon Ball Evolution at least kept me watching the entire time so I can witness its crap factor, both times I tried watching Transformers 2 I fell asleep.

[Hellspawn28]

And Evolution is cheap but not in a fun way. It's cheap all around. At least Transformers has production value and John Turturro.

Having better production value does not make it better IMO. DBE is worst than Transformers 2 (even the other sequels) because at least DBE was trying to tell a story and is only like 85 minutes while Transformers 2 goes on forever and feels almost plotless with all of the action going on.

[ABED]

And Evolution is cheap but not in a fun way. It's cheap all around. At least Transformers has production value and John Turturro.

Having better production value does not make it better IMO. DBE is worst than Transformers 2 (even the other sequels) because at least DBE was trying to tell a story and is only like 85 minutes while Transformers 2 goes on forever and feels almost plotless with all of the action going on.

Both were trying to tell stories. Trying doesn't get points with me. Actual execution matters and both of the movies are so fundamentally flawed that the only thing I can say is noticeably better that one looks like a movie with some money behind it. And while Bay's style isn't exactly to my liking, he's at least distinct.

If Tranformers has a problem it's not being plotless. It may not be coherent, but it's not a lack of plot, it's that there are too many convoluted plots. It's a VERY common problem with modern blockbusters - overly convoluted plots.

I think TF2 was better, if only because I don't recall being embarrassed to see it. I was very embarrassed to see DBE because almost no one else was there in the theater, I knew it would be awful, and only saw it out of morbid curiosity.

[louisascommie]

2009 if film really suffered from the writers strike

Not that dragon ball evolution was affected by it