Can Dragon Ball Work In Live-Action?

[ABED]

Toei would just need to partner with a big studio, I'm sure they would all jump at the chance to do it.

The issue isn't the budget. The issue is revenue. How much does a studio think it can make.

[Lord Beerus]

No.

Dragon Ball is so cartoonish and outlandish with its aesthetic style that it's impossible to capture completely faithfully in a live-action setting, even if it had a monster budget behind it. You would need a crapload of CGI just to match some of the settings in Dragon Ball, let alone how the characters would be presented.

And then in that situation, some liberties in the visual direction for a live-action Dragon Ball story would be taken, and for a lot of people, Dragon Ball lives and dies by its visuals.

And besides, it would really be a near improbable task to make a live-action Dragon Ball movie capture all the aesthetics of the manga without going into the uncanny valley.

I honestly wish fans would drop the idea of a live-action Dragon Ball movie. Some stories just don't translate well into live-action. And as shown with Dragon Ball Evolution, Dragon Ball is one of them.

[Kid Buu]

Dragon ball Evolution's awfulness had absolutely nothing to do with whether Dragon Ball is adaptable. Fox didn't even do the bare minimum to present Dragon Ball with any sort of faithfulness. They just cobbled together some mid-00s coming of age action nonsense and slapped the Dragon Ball names onto it.

Didn't they just make it because their licence was running out?

[Anonymous Friend]

Then main issue that cause products like this to fail is two fold: producers who don't have enough faith to just bring the source material to the screen, and fans who don't accept that some elements have to be adjusted.

Snyder to Watchmen and made an almost faithful 1:1 adaptation. And you had people complaining that it was too much like the comic and those complaining it was too far from it.

I remember an animator working on a superhero cartoon saying that when they draw the characters and animate them, they could be as detailed in the models, but that doesn't transfer well to animation. Certain details and "mannerisms" of the animated series/manga might not work well in a live action medium. what immediately comes to mind are some stables are anime like 30 second staredowns, long powerups, speedlines, stillframes. they'd have to get the point of things like that conveyed differently.

I thought Battle Angel Alita was pretty cool. Ghost in the Shell was cool, but boring. It seems like those filmakers tried to just tell the story of the source and used the source to season it up. Dragonball is basically an action adventure that has big flashy superhero styled fight screens.There's nothing it has that we haven't seen because so much of what we have had elements taken from it.

[Kid Buu]

You'll get Hollywood Super Saiyan next year when Sonic 2 come out.

[Hellspawn28]

Dragon ball Evolution's awfulness had absolutely nothing to do with whether Dragon Ball is adaptable. Fox didn't even do the bare minimum to present Dragon Ball with any sort of faithfulness. They just cobbled together some mid-00s coming of age action nonsense and slapped the Dragon Ball names onto it.

Didn't they just make it because their licence was running out?

That's what I heard from many sources as well. They bought the rights in 2002, hire one writer in 2003, and did nothing else with for 3-4 years. They probably want to make it because of the brand name and knowing that they can make a quick buck of it. That's why they were like "Do whatever you want with it" when James Wong was hire to direct it.

It won't surprise me if Shueisha told people not to do another live action movie again. 12 years later and no one has done another live action DB movie.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I think Evolution's abysmally poor box office performance back in 2009 effectively put the kibosh on any filmmakers making another attempt at doing Dragon Ball in live action at least in the immediate future. Frankly, i wouldn't be surprised if the folks at Shuiesha took one look at how badly the film did and was like "Yeah, let's just not try this again for a while, m'kay" Would it be cool to see that done right at some point? Yes, it absolutely would but also at the same time take a lot of work for any potential adaptation to come even close to portraying the look of the manga or anime. The former's problem was that it felt very much like a generic mid 2000's action movie with Dragon Ball names and such haphazardly pasted onto it, and that's not including how poorly the characters were written to the point where they barely resembled their book and anime counterparts.

Basically, it can be done but would take an insane butt load of good writing and right amount of effects that would convincingly represent the series in a faithful and respectful fashion that i don't see them really being at the point to pull off at least not right now anyway. I think the fact that no studio has tried doing another one since then speaks to the difficulty of adapting this specific property into a live action format.

[Anonymous Friend]

Dragon ball Evolution's awfulness had absolutely nothing to do with whether Dragon Ball is adaptable. Fox didn't even do the bare minimum to present Dragon Ball with any sort of faithfulness. They just cobbled together some mid-00s coming of age action nonsense and slapped the Dragon Ball names onto it.

Didn't they just make it because their licence was running out?

That's what I heard from many sources as well. They bought the rights in 2002, hire one writer in 2003, and did nothing else with for 3-4 years. They probably want to make it because of the brand name and knowing that they can make a quick buck of it. That's why they were like "Do whatever you want with it" when James Wong was hire to direct it.

It won't surprise me if Shueisha told people not to do another live action movie again. 12 years later and no one has done another live action DB movie.

It's the same reason we got Fan4stic. Actually, go even further back. That's why we got that other really bad FF movie thirty years ago.

No one expected to make money off what they made. They spent just enough money to not be more than what they would have to pay to keep the rights. The fact that they spent the money to make this film and not just let the rights go prove that they beleieve enough in the property.

Also, if a company has film rights the main copyright holder can't tell them not to make another movie. They can make as many as they want.

Has the Sony/Disney Spiderman situation not leatned no one?

[Kid Buu]

I think Evolution's abysmally poor box office performance back in 2009

If I remember correctly, it did decent worldwide thanks to a few Asian countries.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I think Evolution's abysmally poor box office performance back in 2009

If I remember correctly, it did decent worldwide thanks to a few Asian countries.

I mean as in overall U.S numbers, here it was a total box office bomb and only performed decent at best in some countries over there as you mention.

[Hellspawn28]

I think Evolution's abysmally poor box office performance back in 2009

If I remember correctly, it did decent worldwide thanks to a few Asian countries.

Still not enough to make back its money. A movie can do well overseas, but still consider to be a flop if it bombs in the US. The Polar compass comes to mind.

[Brogeta]

....What? Why? That would be the most hokey, dumb looking route possible. What reason would there to be to make Goku a CG character surrounded by real people? Toiyama's even said in the past that he wanted to make Goku as plain and nondescript looking as possible, and the weird hair was a compromise. Some doofy looking CG character would sure as hell defeat the purpose of that.

"Guess what guys! We're bringing Dragon Ball to life! ....but the main character will be CG." Might as well not even waste their time making it live action if they're doing some shit like that.

I knew people would get triggered by that comment.

Dragon Ball is extremely cartoony, so I would make the world heavily CG but with real people in it. Oolong, the giant fish, dinosaurs, big cats, animal people, ect would be all CG and would look like 3D versions of Toriyamas art. Bulma, Krillin, Yamcha, Ox King and Roshi would be live actors, but Goku and Pilaf would be CG. I'd also make Roshis exaggerated, cartoony nose bleed reactions CG. If you tried to turn it into full live action and make it look realistic it just wouldn't be Dragon Ball anymore.

Picture this Goku with live action Bulma searching for the Dragon Balls

That would looks absolutely stupid next to regular human actors.

Goku is supposed to be a regular looking kid with weird hair and a tail. Toriyama's intention was for Goku to look ordinary. A CGI character with cartoony features is NOT that. Like, what is this shit, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Of course the cartoony elements of Dragon Ball are going to be lost when transporting it to live action - that's true of every fantasy work that's ever been adapted. The challenge is to adapt it to the real world in a reasonable way, and we have THRITY YEARS OF CINEMA that show that it's very much possible.

Your idea would not work in the slightest.

That's the thing about fans though, they want the characters to be 100% exactly like the source material in design, dialogue, with a plot that's follows beat for beat exactly like whatever the live movie is adapting.

Not every element of Dragonball will translate well into live action without changing things around to fit a realistic real world setting. That would require a lot of change in how characters looks behave and etc. Not to mention cutting down an entire manga arc to fit a 2 hour runtime which about the average length of a movie which means a lot of the original story would have to be cut up and stitched together. Or create an entirely new story and risk backlash.

Who cares what those loud, pedantic fans, think? If comic book movie directors were so beholden to the demands of Comic Book Guy we'd get a lot of nonsense. You have to compromise in a reasonable way, and ignore the vocal minority with unrealistic expectations and quite frankly have no clue what they're dealing with.

You think Marvel and every other studio that's pulled off good comic book movies were pressed about getting every single detail correct and worried about every corner of the fanbase? Of course not, and the moves were better for it. Stories are going to be altered, elemnts are going to change, a lot of stuff is going to be cut and clipped - that's why it's an adaptation. The crybabies who think every detail has to make it in have the original series at their disposal.

Pardon my Kunzait but some of you guys sound like you don't watch many movies.

That is what I was arguing though..A live DBZ can't work without changing a lot of things. As I mentioned before not everything translates well when going from 2d to real life.

I do watch movies and I'm not a mega fan who will care about things needing to be change. I already know full to well as I pointed out that what works in animation and comics does not mean it will in live.

Another thing to worry about is budget. Is there enough audiences out there to give DBZ a mega budget with the hopes that investment will be returned. Studios are looking to make billion dollars franchise.

Budget just doesnt mean the cost to make a movie either, also advertisement, and merchandise as well. All that will have to not only be made back, but doubled or triple. Studios are not looking for high risk projects only to flop or break even.

It's one of the reasons Fox Studios (idk thier name) kept chasing after Disney before selling their properties or why WB kept chasing after Marvel only to have a lot of hits or misses.

[Hellspawn28]

It won't surprise me if Toriyama is like "I will direct, write, and produced a live action movie myself". It would be interesting to see if he can pull off a full length movie on his own. Some authors have directed their own work (As seen with Hellraiser) and it has turn to be good, or it could also be a total train wreck like the Wing Commander movie was.

[DragonBallFoodie]

I feel I should wait till the live-action ST SEIYA, HELLSING films and the live-action ONE PIECE TV show have released.

The first one has already begun production.

[Anonymous Friend]

That is what I was arguing though..A live DBZ can't work without changing a lot of things. As I mentioned before not everything translates well when going from 2d to real life.

I do watch movies and I'm not a mega fan who will care about things needing to be change. I already know full to well as I pointed out that what works in animation and comics does not mean it will in live.

Another thing to worry about is budget. Is there enough audiences out there to give DBZ a mega budget with the hopes that investment will be returned. Studios are looking to make billion dollars franchise.

Budget just doesnt mean the cost to make a movie either, also advertisement, and merchandise as well. All that will have to not only be made back, but doubled or triple. Studios are not looking for high risk projects only to flop or break even.

It's one of the reasons Fox Studios (idk thier name) kept chasing after Disney before selling their properties or why WB kept chasing after Marvel only to have a lot of hits or misses.

You haven't been paying attention to the US market if you don't think that proper marketing would produce a hit. Plenty of marketing have turned things that only appeal to a very small group of people into megablockbusters. And even better if there's even a smidget of enjoyability to it. Most of the big money spending demographics today have watched, or is aware of Dragonball as a series.

Nothing from DB really needs to be changed. You just have to choose where to start from. DB chapter 1 is probably the sensible option, but Z is where all the excitement and fans be. Z can definitely work, too. You just have to work extra hard to make all of the deaths matter. Or but your best effort on that Piccolo sacrifice. There's nothing "special" about the plots of DB that haven't been done. We've had main characters who die at the beginning. We've had training movies. And big climaxes with lots of fighting.

[NitroEX]

It won't surprise me if Toriyama is like "I will direct, write, and produced a live action movie myself". It would be interesting to see if he can pull off a full length movie on his own.

That would never happen, not unless he pulled a George Lucas and self-funded the film himself. No studio would trust him with zero track record. And besides, it would turn out awful. Being a good Mangaka doesn't exactly translate to being a good filmmaker. There's a lot of skills he'd be lacking.

[WittyUsername]

Has Toriyama ever even worked on anything live action before? The idea that he would even attempt to make a live action Dragon Ball film himself sounds like pure fantasy. He would be out of his element. Besides, him having full creative control is unlikely to end well. Even for the original manga, he had editors who regularly gave him suggestions.

[Goku da Silva]

No.

Dragon Ball is so cartoonish and outlandish with its aesthetic style that it's impossible to capture completely faithfully in a live-action setting, even if it had a monster budget behind it. You would need a crapload of CGI just to match some of the settings in Dragon Ball, let alone how the characters would be presented.

And then in that situation, some liberties in the visual direction for a live-action Dragon Ball story would be taken, and for a lot of people, Dragon Ball lives and dies by its visuals.

And besides, it would really be a near improbable task to make a live-action Dragon Ball movie capture all the aesthetics of the manga without going into the uncanny valley.

I honestly wish fans would drop the idea of a live-action Dragon Ball movie. Some stories just don't translate well into live-action. And as shown with Dragon Ball Evolution, Dragon Ball is one of them.

Complete agree with you mate!

[Anonymous Friend]

No.

Dragon Ball is so cartoonish and outlandish with its aesthetic style that it's impossible to capture completely faithfully in a live-action setting, even if it had a monster budget behind it. You would need a crapload of CGI just to match some of the settings in Dragon Ball, let alone how the characters would be presented.

And then in that situation, some liberties in the visual direction for a live-action Dragon Ball story would be taken, and for a lot of people, Dragon Ball lives and dies by its visuals.

And besides, it would really be a near improbable task to make a live-action Dragon Ball movie capture all the aesthetics of the manga without going into the uncanny valley.

I honestly wish fans would drop the idea of a live-action Dragon Ball movie. Some stories just don't translate well into live-action. And as shown with Dragon Ball Evolution, Dragon Ball is one of them.

Complete agree with you mate!

Kung Fu Hustle is pretty much Dragonball without ki blasts and was a smash.

[Cipher]

I a word (or two), I think, “Yes, totally.”

There’s a whole genre of wacky, live-action magical martial-arts films it would fit right into.

I see people bringing up Kung-Fu Hustle as live-action DB without ki blasts, but heck, we have plenty of examples with ki blasts too!

Could it work as a Hollywood film, with the kind of approach that usually implies? Eeeeeehhh.