Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4

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MasenkoHA
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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4 (CURRENT WEEK)

Post by MasenkoHA » Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:37 am

Kaio’s info dump on Slug to explain why he’s evil just screams Toei realizing last minute that Namekians are all suppose to be a good peaceful race (excluding Piccolo for obvious reasons but he’s a roundabout Namekian anyways) and needing to give a handwave.

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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4 (CURRENT WEEK)

Post by ABED » Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:16 pm

It feels odd to have to explain that some people break bad even if they are from peaceful races. Of all the things to not have to explain.
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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4 (CURRENT WEEK)

Post by BlazingFiddlesticks » Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:18 pm

I've been following the rewatch threads a bit but have never posted and just want to say I appreciate Robo and KBABZ doing so much with the trivia sections, they are worth the stop by by themselves.

I do agree with Slug being the first sign of the initial DBZ movie formula wearing out its welcome, and wearing too much of the skeleton of Tree of Might. But I also find myself in the small camp that very much enjoys that this is the beginning of the Z movies with routinely "dirty" fighting antics, that would ultimately reach their peak with Broly. Chi-Chi gets punted around, so Gohan kicks in a soldier's glass helmet, only to get shot out of the sky by the entire troop. Then Piccolo enters by throwing another solider into a spotlight to break it, because that looks cool, then challenges Dotadabo only to break his arm, ambush him, and blow his head off, etc. etc. And that just keeps happening through the whole fight, and I just can't call it boring. Sure, some of those call directly back to the series, but plucking Saiyans out of the ground like vegetables or punching right through (giant!) King Piccolo with your last ounce of strength are perfectly over the top and worth calling back to. Slug being a, eh, huskier Namekian compared to the sleeker Piccolo model is also a good little detail, since the story never gave a named Namekian with that build.
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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4 (CURRENT WEEK)

Post by KBABZ » Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:23 pm

BlazingFiddlesticks wrote: Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:18 pm I've been following the rewatch threads a bit but have never posted and just want to say I appreciate Robo and KBABZ doing so much with the trivia sections, they are worth the stop by by themselves.
Thanks so much!! Some weeks I wonder if anybody even reads 'em, so it's great to hear that you stop by just for the Trivia. : )

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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4 (CURRENT WEEK)

Post by MrSatan2099 » Mon Jan 11, 2021 4:50 pm

I'm not saying the movie is good, but I think a little bit of it's general reaction is a long time bad reputation. Twenty years ago every fan site beat us all over the head with the idea that this was hands down the worst Dragon Ball movie and I think it just automatically has been to a lot of people ever since. Keep in mind this was a common opinion before a lot of people state side had even seen the movie. I think it goes a long way to earn that reputation, but is it the worst one? Possibly. It's definitely in the bottom tier, but it has it's moments. I think it has some nice visuals, it does really accurately reflect cold and desolate weather, which is something a little different for the brand. It has some neat character designs and unique outfits. Unfortunately it is just as derivative and uninspired as everyone says. Then again being derivative never stopped some people from liking a lot of the other movies.

Personal note, even though I would not consider myself to be especially nostalgic for this film (not at all like the first three at least) it was the very first commercial Dragon Ball VHS release I ever bought for myself. I had only ever had home recordings up to that point. So that's always a pleasant thought for me.

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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4 (CURRENT WEEK)

Post by KBABZ » Mon Jan 11, 2021 9:32 pm

MrSatan2099 wrote: Mon Jan 11, 2021 4:50 pm I'm not saying the movie is good, but I think a little bit of it's general reaction is a long time bad reputation. Twenty years ago every fan site beat us all over the head with the idea that this was hands down the worst Dragon Ball movie and I think it just automatically has been to a lot of people ever since. Keep in mind this was a common opinion before a lot of people state side had even seen the movie.
I've heard that it was one of the worst, but I hadn't watched any of the movies until this Rewatch, and having viewed the six movies that preceded this one, I had a much better bar of expectation for what these movies are like: non-canon excuse plots to get to some cool fights with great animation, and that's about it when it comes to things you can rely on. So with that in mind, Lord Slug is a movie that fails to spark in a long line of movies of that are generally not as engrossing as the anime and manga on which they're based.

Having done the trivia catchup and watched Tree of Might, the Bardock Special, and then Lord Slug back-to-back, there's an ENORMOUS gulf between the movies and the special. The movies feel like paper-thin hype pieces, while the Bardock Special feels like somebody's pet project that shines a light on an important moment in the backstory. It's got me excited for the Trunks Special!

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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4 (CURRENT WEEK)

Post by KBABZ » Mon Jan 11, 2021 10:57 pm

Double-post: I'm taking this Trivia thing VERY seriously.

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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4

Post by Planetnamek » Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:23 pm

I know this is generally seen on as the worst of the DBZ movies, but I had a fairly good time with it, I quite enjoyed the rock songs Funimation put in the film. As I mentioned on other threads I believe the reason for putting these songs in the film is because by this point it was becoming very popular for DBZ fans to make their own AMVs, many of which were set to rock music(there were whole contests at fan conventions dedicated to making the best DBZ video) and Funimation saw this phenomenon and decided to capitalize on it by putting rock music into the movies themselves to save fans a step.

It was a good choice for Funi to start this trend on the DBZ film that fans liked the least even in it's original version to ease fans into it.

Lord Slug isn't the most interesting villain but I did enjoy the action scenes well enough, especially when Goku goes Super-Saiyan for the very first time.
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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4

Post by MasenkoHA » Tue Feb 09, 2021 11:30 pm

Planetnamek wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:23 pm I know this is generally seen on as the worst of the DBZ movies, but I had a fairly good time with it, I quite enjoyed the rock songs Funimation put in the film. As I mentioned on other threads I believe the reason for putting these songs in the film is because by this point it was becoming very popular for DBZ fans to make their own AMVs, many of which were set to rock music(there were whole contests at fan conventions dedicated to making the best DBZ video) and Funimation saw this phenomenon and decided to capitalize on it by putting rock music into the movies themselves to save fans a step.
I think the worst thing about it isn’t that they did it but that the placement of the rock songs is so badly placed and eclectic. It just feels so off and I’m glad they only did it for 3 movies.
It was a good choice for Funi to start this trend on the DBZ film that fans liked the least even in it's original version to ease fans into it.
I doubt it was an intentional choice they just did it to the first movie they produced themselves.


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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4

Post by Planetnamek » Mon Mar 01, 2021 6:33 pm

DBZ Uncensored 2 has a pretty good page on this film:https://web.archive.org/web/20080401163 ... mov04.html
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Re: Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 53 - DBZ Movie 4

Post by MasenkoHA » Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:49 pm

Planetnamek wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 6:33 pm DBZ Uncensored 2 has a pretty good page on this film:https://web.archive.org/web/20080401163 ... mov04.html
Interesting that Toei was holding out on licensing the rest of the movies in hopes for a theatrical release. The license for the Dragon Ball movies and first 3 Z movies were definitely all included when Funimation first licensed the series so I’m surprised Toei didn’t just give them everything at the time.

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