Dragonball Evolution - Looking Back

[JustAlex1997]

Despite its infamy in its time, Dragonball Evolution is a movie that the Dragon Ball fanbase (hell, even the world) has seemingly collectively forgotten about. Whether it was a forgotten out of disgust or simply because of improvements to the state of the franchise, Dragonball Evolution has been reduced to little more than dusty unsold Blu-rays. Because of this, I thought it would be fun (okay, maybe painful) to take a walk down memory lane.

In 2009, I was just getting back into Dragon Ball. All I had was a couple of old toys, a DVD or two, and a copy of Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3. When the trailers started showing up on TV, I was fairly interested as I was thinking almost exclusively about Dragon Ball at that time. Being an unemployed kid, I ended up watching it online (shh). Perhaps coincidentally, I immediately felt ill afterwards. Still, I ended up getting the DVD and most of the toys later as, until recently, Dragon Ball stuff was otherwise nonexistent in Canada (at least in my province).

Where were you when Dragonball Evolution released?

[eledoremassis02]

I avoided this movie like the plaque when after seeing the leaked set images but I gave it a rent and made it up to the famous cheese and crackers line.

It's a shame because I thought some of the casting choices were good, like Chow Yun-fat and it was cool that they got a Japanese actress for Mai but it's a shame Stephen Chow basically got exploited for his name as I think he was the best qualified for the job.

On a "FUNi" not the fact that Disney has/shares the film rights is pretty funny. I wonder if they've had thoughts about reviving a live-action film?

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I had seen some bits of it online before release, but not the whole thing until shortly afterward and needless to say i was shocked by how awful it ended up being. Much like the ill fated Avatar- The Last Airbender live action movie which came out around a year later, it just felt like a misguided and poorly written adaptation of something that had already been done mostly well enough in animation by people who clearly didn't understand the source material.

I thought Chow Yun Fat was actually a pretty good choice for Roshi overall, given his prior performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and other films but the rest of the cast especially Justin Chatwin as Goku just felt so unfitting for these established characters.

[WittyUsername]

I was one of the people who actually saw it in theaters. The nicest thing I could say about it is that it was short.

[Neo-Makaiōshin]

The first time I heard anything about Evolution was around 2010 via an anime magazine, at the time that was my main source of anime news, that published an issue dedicated to a "Dragon Ball Franchise Retrospective" and that where I found out about it. From there I went with the preconseption of the movie being such a pile of shit without any kind of critical thinking (like the teen I was).

I didn't watch the movie until somewhere 2011-2012 via bootleg DVD and I remember being...kinda underwhelmended, I was expecting something awful but I got something underwhelming, it was not great but not something worth the outcry, it was very innofensive.

Now over a decade later I still hold that the movie is an innofensive movie far from the worse piece in the large Dragon Ball franchise (Episode of Bardock and Minus are far more deserving of the hate that the movie got), I at least can laught at it (not something I could say from the former two examples).

[Planetnamek]

I was in my second year of college and hadn't thought about DBZ in years since the dub had ended, when it came out on DVD I rented it from the video store out of curiosity and ended up quite liking it in spite of the amount of liberties it took with the source material. I considered getting back into DBZ but hearing about the Orange Bricks problems turned me off from that for many years.

I appreciated that Chi-Chi wasn't a nag for once and was actually quite supportive.

I remember being surprised at how violent it was for a PG- rated movie, almost Temple of Doom levels at times.

[90sDBZ]

I pretty much didn't care about it, and only watched it on TV a couple of years after its release out of curiosity. I could tell pretty much right away from early screenshots online that it would suck, so I had no strong feelings about it when I eventually watched it.

In 2008 I was more bothered by the fact that the UK had no home release of the series whatsoever, and hadn't had it on the air since 2005. I had followed the UK broadcast pretty much religiously from 2000 to 2005, and suddenly I had no means of rewatching my favourite show outside of short Youtube clips. Importing it all was way too expensive for me at the time.

For these reasons, Evolution coming out felt like the final nail in the coffin. They couldn't give us a home release of a series which was a massive hit on UK TV, and yet they could give us this awful movie.

Then 2012 came around and we finally got a home release, along with Kai finally being shown on TV. Thank goodness for Manga UK for finally giving us UK fans access to our favourite show again.

[LoganForkHands73]

I appreciate that the lead actor ironically came back to the spotlight to play a Superman-like character in a recent Doctor Who episode, kind of made me reevaluate him as an actor, but otherwise, this film can get straight in the bin.

[Demon Prince Piccolo]

I remember it piquing my curiosity...and then I saw the screenshots. The only character design I kind of like was Emmy Rossum as Bulma (shelooked about like what I could see a real-life version of Bulma looking like...or maybe since I was 14-15 at the time, I found her hot). The more posters came out, with me seeing how cheap they looked, and then hearing that Krillin wasn't even in it and that Goku would have to deal with bullies...the whole thing put me off. To this day I still haven't seen it.

I've contemplated eventually sitting down with it, but I just can't bring myself to (must like with the Shymalan Last Airbender film).

[Matches Malone]

It's amazing how one movie was enough to kill what little chances anime/manga had at live action in Hollywood, despite being over a decade old. Even Batman and Robin wasn't able to do that to comic book movies, as they bounced back 3 years later with X-men. I guess Evolution was the reason Toriyama got involved with BOG, so there's that I guess.

[WittyUsername]

It's amazing how one movie was enough to kill what little chances anime/manga had at live action in Hollywood, despite being over a decade old. Even Batman and Robin wasn't able to do that to comic book movies, as they bounced back 3 years later with X-men. I guess Evolution was the reason Toriyama got involved with BOG, so there's that I guess.

I don’t think it had any real impact on Hollywood adaptations of manga and anime. It was pretty quickly forgotten, and we’ve had other adaptations since then.

[LoganForkHands73]

It's amazing how one movie was enough to kill what little chances anime/manga had at live action in Hollywood, despite being over a decade old. Even Batman and Robin wasn't able to do that to comic book movies, as they bounced back 3 years later with X-men. I guess Evolution was the reason Toriyama got involved with BOG, so there's that I guess.

Hollywood did have another shot with Edge of Tomorrow which I think was the only westernised anime/manga/light-novel property in recent years to be truly successful both critically and financially. Ironically, I think the source material for that movie being highly obscure in the West worked in its favour because there wasn't much fan expectation for it, so they could safely take liberties with it. When much more popular properties like Ghost in the Shell and Death Note started to be unfaithfully adapted and whitewashed for mainstream western audiences, that pretty much double-tapped any remaining interest in "weeb shit" for American studios that Dragonball Evolution had already tainted. GitS at least made some money back but I don't see any more anime franchises getting westernised recently.

[Planetnamek]

It's amazing how one movie was enough to kill what little chances anime/manga had at live action in Hollywood, despite being over a decade old. Even Batman and Robin wasn't able to do that to comic book movies, as they bounced back 3 years later with X-men. I guess Evolution was the reason Toriyama got involved with BOG, so there's that I guess.

Hollywood did have another shot with Edge of Tomorrow which I think was the only westernised anime/manga/light-novel property in recent years to be truly successful both critically and financially. Ironically, I think the source material for that movie being highly obscure in the West worked in its favour because there wasn't much fan expectation for it, so they could safely take liberties with it. When much more popular properties like Ghost in the Shell and Death Note started to be unfaithfully adapted and whitewashed for mainstream western audiences, that pretty much double-tapped any remaining interest in "weeb shit" for American studios that Dragonball Evolution had already tainted. GitS at least made some money back but I don't see any more anime franchises getting westernised recently.

That film was based on a Manga/Anime? Wow I had no idea. Can't really blame Hollywood for the Ghost in the Shell adaption though as it was the film's Japanese production company that insisted that a white female be cast in the lead or the film would not ever get made period(also the creator of the anime said he was fine with the casting). I personally quite liked that film and it did have a pretty good in-universe explanation for the casting choice, also didn't mind the Death Note film that much.

I know there was talk of an Akira live-action film many years ago and i remember getting pretty pumped for that, shame it never happened.

[WittyUsername]

It's amazing how one movie was enough to kill what little chances anime/manga had at live action in Hollywood, despite being over a decade old. Even Batman and Robin wasn't able to do that to comic book movies, as they bounced back 3 years later with X-men. I guess Evolution was the reason Toriyama got involved with BOG, so there's that I guess.

Hollywood did have another shot with Edge of Tomorrow which I think was the only westernised anime/manga/light-novel property in recent years to be truly successful both critically and financially. Ironically, I think the source material for that movie being highly obscure in the West worked in its favour because there wasn't much fan expectation for it, so they could safely take liberties with it. When much more popular properties like Ghost in the Shell and Death Note started to be unfaithfully adapted and whitewashed for mainstream western audiences, that pretty much double-tapped any remaining interest in "weeb shit" for American studios that Dragonball Evolution had already tainted. GitS at least made some money back but I don't see any more anime franchises getting westernised recently.

That film was based on a Manga/Anime? Wow I had no idea. Can't really blame Hollywood for the Ghost in the Shell adaption though as it was the film's Japanese production company that insisted that a white female be cast in the lead or the film would not ever get made period(also the creator of the anime said he was fine with the casting). I personally quite liked that film and it did have a pretty good in-universe explanation for the casting choice, also didn't mind the Death Note film that much.

I know there was talk of an Akira live-action film many years ago and i remember getting pretty pumped for that, shame it never happened.

Technically, it’s based on a light novel, but as far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong), that’s not much different from a manga. The last I heard of that planned Akira film was that it was supposed to be directed by Taika Waititi, but I’d assume his hands are currently tied up with Marvel.

Anyway, I remember there having been rumors back in 2009/2010 that Fox was planning a reboot, but in hindsight, that probably wasn’t true. Fox almost seemed like they made DBE out of obligation. They clearly had no faith in it whatsoever.

[JustAlex1997]

It should also be noted that I get the urge to rewatch this movie once every few years. I've since upgraded to the Blu-ray, so I can now enjoy watching Randall Duk Kim eat duck feet at 1080p.

[Hellspawn28]

The movie came out a month before I graduated out of High School. I was following the news for the movie long before the moie was official. I thought it enjoyable for being so bad. It's a bad movie, but at least there was no high hopes for the movie. There is way worse movies out there than DBE and I do think people need to get over it. It's not like the movie did any damage to brand name like Batman & Robin or Godzilla 1998 did.

I don't think the movie is the worst Hollywood adaption of an anime and manga. The movie does have a pretty diverse cast when you look back on it. Chi Chi, Mai, Roshi, Grandpa Gohan, and Yamucha are played by East Asian actors. Master Mutaito is even played by a black guy. Goku is the only one who is whitewashed in my opinion. Piccolo is a green alien and Bluma's character can be played by anyone in my opinion.
At least the movie has some Asian representation unlike other movies based on anime & manga like Oldboy (2013) in my opinion.

[Demon Prince Piccolo]

It's amazing how one movie was enough to kill what little chances anime/manga had at live action in Hollywood, despite being over a decade old. Even Batman and Robin wasn't able to do that to comic book movies, as they bounced back 3 years later with X-men. I guess Evolution was the reason Toriyama got involved with BOG, so there's that I guess.

I don’t think it had any real impact on Hollywood adaptations of manga and anime. It was pretty quickly forgotten, and we’ve had other adaptations since then.

I wouldn't say that. If the film had done well commercially at the very least, we'd likely have seen a lot more anime adaptations since. So while sure, there have been a few anime adaptations to come along since, I'd still say that for the most part studios shy away from adapting these properties.

[Hellspawn28]

Fox had the rights since 2002 and didn't do anything with until 2007. They hired Tedi Sarafian (Terminator 3) as the writer in 2003, and we haven't heard anything after that before the movie was officially announced in 2007. I remember many people thought the movie would never get made and it would be another title sitting on the back burner. Fox hiring James Wong as the director was already a red flag because he is not a good director. You know that the movie is going to be shit when the first Final Destination movie is the only decent movie under his belt.

[WittyUsername]

Fox had the rights since 2002 and didn't do anything with until 2007. They hired Tedi Sarafian (Terminator 3) as the writer in 2003, and we haven't heard anything after that before the movie was officially announced in 2007. I remember many people thought the movie would never get made and it would be another title sitting on the back burner. Fox hiring James Wong as the director was already a red flag because he is not a good director. You know that the movie is going to be shit when the first Final Destination movie is the only decent movie under his belt.

I didn’t even realize there was supposed to be a live action Dragon Ball movie until I saw a Wikipedia article in 2007 that talked about how there was one in development hell. I didn’t think much of it until much later, when I saw this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo4t8PeqJ6E). Mind you, I was more or less out of Dragon Ball at the time, so I didn’t have any particularly strong opinions on it one way or the other. I certainly didn’t think it looked good, but it didn’t make me angry enough to boycott it.

[LoganForkHands73]

It's amazing how one movie was enough to kill what little chances anime/manga had at live action in Hollywood, despite being over a decade old. Even Batman and Robin wasn't able to do that to comic book movies, as they bounced back 3 years later with X-men. I guess Evolution was the reason Toriyama got involved with BOG, so there's that I guess.

Hollywood did have another shot with Edge of Tomorrow which I think was the only westernised anime/manga/light-novel property in recent years to be truly successful both critically and financially. Ironically, I think the source material for that movie being highly obscure in the West worked in its favour because there wasn't much fan expectation for it, so they could safely take liberties with it. When much more popular properties like Ghost in the Shell and Death Note started to be unfaithfully adapted and whitewashed for mainstream western audiences, that pretty much double-tapped any remaining interest in "weeb shit" for American studios that Dragonball Evolution had already tainted. GitS at least made some money back but I don't see any more anime franchises getting westernised recently.

That film was based on a Manga/Anime? Wow I had no idea. Can't really blame Hollywood for the Ghost in the Shell adaption though as it was the film's Japanese production company that insisted that a white female be cast in the lead or the film would not ever get made period(also the creator of the anime said he was fine with the casting). I personally quite liked that film and it did have a pretty good in-universe explanation for the casting choice, also didn't mind the Death Note film that much.

I know there was talk of an Akira live-action film many years ago and i remember getting pretty pumped for that, shame it never happened.

You learn something new everyday, eh?

I wanna be clear that I personally don't actually mind the concept of Westernised or "whitewashed" adaptations. Every culture does it in one way or another, it's just a side effect of cultural translation. It helps that the original authors of both GitS and Death Note approved of the casting choices. Plus neither source material are so exclusively rooted in Japanese iconography that they can't be translated to other countries for fear of cultural appropriation accusations. In the past, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai being adapted into an all-American cowboy movie produced one of the best Westerns of all time, The Magnificent Seven, and more recently the American remakes of J-horror movies like Ring in the 2000s were very successful and iconic in their own right.

However, I can't blame modern audiences for being less tolerant of this sort of thing when Asian-American leads are still almost unheard of in Hollywood.