Dragonball Movie to Do Reshoots

[caejones]

Buy All Our Playsets and Toys!

What bothers me the most right now is that I didn't get as excited and laughy over that line as Rocketman's "Cell saga as a YuGiO battle" post. Seriously, I am totally confused at myself right now.

Kino of the second TMNT movie should have played Goku, were this the early 90s.

I think including a lot of the apparently missing cast members in this movie is easily doable. But it could get rather cluttered and a lot of things would probably feel tacked on (Spidey 3? ).
Although, I'd rather go over my idea for the whole thing than give examples.

[Rocketman]

So far it resembles Spider-man

We can only hope, as Spider-Man was great.

[Super Ghost Kamikaze]

So far it resembles Spider-man

We can only hope, as Spider-Man was great.

I have many points of contention with that statement.

Mainly the point that Spider-Man sucked.

If Spider-Man doesn't have a motor-mouth during a fight, then he's not a Spidey I want anything to do with. Except in the movie video games, where they get it right.

[Kunzait_83]

b

[Acid_Reign]

If Spider-Man doesn't have a motor-mouth during a fight, then he's not a Spidey I want anything to do with. Except in the movie video games, where they get it right.

And in the new The Spectacular Spider-Man animated TV series. Seriously good stuff; I think it’s one of the best shows in the CW’s (now 4kids-infested) lineup. It’s true to the characters while portraying them in a new light. And it continues to introduce the story to new generations of kids. These are the things that good adaptations are made of. There’s a marketing aspect to it, sure, but not at the expense of integrity.

[Kaboom]

Sticking Chatku into a martial arts school with Gohan being the lead teacher would have been a much more fitting. Why complicate things and deviate more from Goku's origins from when the first set viewers were introduced to our little monkey-boy?

Goku lives at home with Gohan out in the country, where Gohan raises him. There was even a shot of the two of them sparring in the promo.

So far it resembles Spider-man

We can only hope, as Spider-Man was great.

Seconded.

[omegacwa]

Wow, you guys took my Speed Racer comment seriously.

Anyway, what I mean is, I know no one person in my real life, sorry you guys don't count, who actually really like Speed Racer. I have tons of friends who at least have a passing interest in DB. So, I feel, whatever Speed Racer made, multiply that by two or three, and that's how much Dragonball should make, if all the fans, and non fans with passing interest go to see it.

I think we should all be glad that Wong re wrote the script, cause frankly, that supposed "Ben Ramsey Leaked Script" was really awful, and if that guy was paid 500 grand for it, Fox got robbed cause it stunk.

Here is a repost of my thoughts on the "script"

Anyway, I am still optimistic about the movie. I just got around to reading the "leaked" script. And I have to say, I was unimpressed. If that was a first draft or something that was written years ago, then fine. But they changed Goku's character so much, and things seemed to happen at random. It also wasn't very professional. I think FOX claimed it was fake, or something. Which is possible, some body on the net could have easily written it in less than a week based on the little bits of plot synopsis that we had, slapped a phone number and Ben Ramsey's name on it.

My main Gripes with this supposed script are the following.
1. Goku being actively interested in girls.
2. Goku being into Bulma
3. Goku's playing "Dragonball" with his loser buddies.
4. Half oozaru transformations? What?
5. Nameks are evil shape shifters, again, What?
6. The final battle is 2 seconds long.
7. Piccolo is in 1 second of that final battle and has almost no lines.
8. Kame-Catch, horrible!
9. Dragonball Trading cards, WTF?
10. Nimbus coming out of fucking nowhere.
11. Constantly referring to Goku's clothes as "Shaun-John, and Fubu"
12. Random High School party scene with no fighting or anything.
13. Goku randomly fighting wolves?
14. Namek-jins. What the hell does that mean?
15. Oolong's random ass scene where he is a ghost.

There were a few things I liked though. I am happy Krillin wasn't ditched, and Yamcha was more or less the same, except he wasn't afraid of girls he was just a tremendous asshole. Goku and Bulma meeting in pretty much the same way they did in the manga. And a few other things. But not a whole lot. I can tell by the promo reel thing that some of the elements were left intact, but thank god they have changed a lot of the other stuff.

[desirecampbell]

Same as the Manga

• - The story is set in a world with a society that is simultaneously futuristic and mystical. We've seen nothing that indicates anything except a "normal" Earth setting. We can assume that there will be "energy attacks", but there's nothing to suggest dinosaurs, demons, martial art hermits, budokais, super-advanced tech (capsules, flying cars), etc. There's advanced cities and technology right alongside demons, aliens, ki-using martial artists, and ancient artifacts (the only difference is that the "normal" population is composed of only humans, doing away with more childish elements such as animal-people and Pilaf-like creatures) Dragon Ball is supposed to be childish and light-hearted
  - The mystical set of seven DragonBalls, when gathered, can be used to summon a dragon god who will grant the summoner a wish. We've seen one Dragon Ball and only on a poster. There's no information on how, or even if they'll be in the film (notice how there's been no information about Piccolo wanting the Dragon Balls?)
  - Goku is a Saiyan, sent to Earth to "destroy all humans" but is instead raised by the kindly old martal arts master Gohan, making him into a kindhearted, adventurous, heroic, but somewhat naive and socially awkward boy. We've actually seen nothing of Chatwin's portrayal of Goku. All we know is that this Goku is smart enough to have progressed to high school, and have a normal interest in girls. Goku is supposed to be naive, because he's known only Gohan (which was only until Goku killed him). Reading, counting, how to tell if that person is male or female, are all skills he develops slowly. He's got his natural-born Saiyan strength, drive, and appetite. (Whether or not we have anything pertaining to his "programming" being erased by head trauma remains yet to be seen) Again, there's been nothing to say he doesn't possess these characteristics, but we haven't seen anything to say he does either
  - Piccolo is a Namekian who came to Earth eons ago, and after having some conflict with humanity and labled as a demon king, was sealed away by Roshi's former master. (We have no info so far as to Piccolo's relation to Kami or any similar character) He seeks to and succeeds in using the DragonBalls to restore his youth, in order to take revenge upon the ones who opposed him and conquer the world. Have we had any conformation about the use of Dragon Balls to restore youth? From what I remember the only reason Piccolo will look old at all is because Marsters forced the makeup guy the day of the shoot.
  - Chi-Chi has known Goku since their childhood, and has romantic feelings for him, which go largely unrequited at first due to Goku's ignorance. She is a strong martial artist in her own right. (we have no info as for her social standing or family so far)
  - Bulma is an ambitious, brainy young woman after the DragonBalls, with a flirtatious nature.
  - Roshi is a wise (we assume), powerful (again, nothing's been said), seemingly-immortal (yet again, nothing has been make clear about that) martial arts master, and was Grandpa Gohan's master (do we have any conformation on that? It'd make sense; but I haven't read anything about it). He trains Goku (directly or indirectly teaching him the Kamehameha), and eventually dies attempting to fight/seal away Piccolo. Where have you heard about his death?
  -Yamcha is a resourceful desert bandit ("desert bandit" might be a bit of a stretch, at most ) who easily attracts women (we don't know yet whether he has the same difficulty dealing with them yet) antagonizes Goku and Bulma's group at first, but later teams up with them against a common enemy. He gets romantically involved with Bulma. Have we had any information that even remotely suggests this?

Improvements over the manga

• - Goku starts off the story already a teenager, instead of a young boy. Probably better than having a child actor try to portray Goku's completely naive, clueless, innocent young self. Because Goku's not supposed to exude child-like naivety and wonder? Instead, we're getting a teenage Goku probably more akin to his 23rd Budokai self, who's a little older, and SLIGHTLY more wise to the ways of the world. Much easier a character to work with. Easier? How? He wasn't that different in the manga at that time, save learning to count and having had the arduous task of learning "this is boy; this is girl".
  
  - Piccolo reveals Goku's Saiyan heritage, and plays to it's "born to fight" nature by proposing Goku join him in conquest. This does two big, good things. It gets such an important plot point worked into the story at a much earlier and more appropriate point (More appropriate? How? It's not appropriate for Piccolo to know about aaiyans, and since the story arc they're covering doesn't actually concern Goku being anything except 'avenging do-gooder' neither Goku, nor the audience, have any reason to know he anything but human. The next arc is when Goku should be shown as alien, and specifically, saiyan - the Vegeta/saiyan arc gains most of it's weight through the use of character parallels; Goku's brother became evil, and the rest of his race is evil. Look what Goku could have been, etc. It's important for the story for Goku to be told about being a saiyan and be shown what it means. "Hey, you're a saiyan." doesn't have as much punch as "Hey, you're a saiyan, and so am I, and we're brothers, and I'm clearly evil, and I stole your son." ) , while also eliminating need for Raditz, a small, one-shot, throwaway character (who is a more appropriate character to deliver the plot point; being 1. a saiyan, 2. Goku's brother, 3. basically a henchman of the major villain of the saiyan-centric arc.). It also creates an extra, juicy layer of delicious drama between the movie's hero and the villain. No, it creates a stupid extra plot point in an already crowded movie. It should be given a lot of screen time to show Goku's internal dilemma about not only being one of these savage evil saiyans, but being the direct cause of the planet's endangerment, but this plot point will either be given too little time, or it will take away from the massive amounts of exposition the film will need. Including it in this film is in no way helpful.
  
  - Likewise, Piccolo is the one responsible for Gohan's death. This conveniently serves to not only get the plot of the movie going, but also gets Goku personally involved. Because Piccolo couldn't have just killed Goku's long-time martial-arts friend. No, that'd be stupid. Two birds with one stone out of an old plot point (Gohan dying) that was initially meaningless. Gohan's death is actually four-fold: it gives an excuse as to why Goku's so naive, and also an excuse as to why Goku hadn't met Roshi, Goku believing Gohan's spirit to be in the four-star-ball is part of the reason he agree to travel with Bulma, and eventually we get a bit of internal drama when Goku sees Vegeta transform.
  
  - Goku is a little less blindly confident than he normally is in the series. I know I may get lynched for suggesting this as an improvement, but looking at it from a story-telling standpoint, it works. Just because as a character, Goku is ambitious, excitable, and enjoys improving himself, doesn't mean he's stupid. Goku's never been stupid. Infact he's always shown to be rather clever. Naive, yes; stupid, no. In any given story, it's normal and appropriate for even the otherwise ambitious and optimistic hero to have some doubts when the odds are stacked against him, and even the original Goku has felt that way before. Exactly - it's part of Goku's character already to doubt himself at times; but that then pushes him harder to overcome. If there's no sense of doubt or uncertainty in a conflict, then it's boring. Exactly. The conflict here will be physical. The doubt should be about not being strong enough. This doubt will be created by the film showing the fight to be difficult for Goku. *sigh* Which battles from the series have you found to be dull because Goku was sure he was going to win? I think it's be even more dull if Goku could easily beat a guy, and the only doubt he had was emotional. But this does NOT mean the character in question has been reduced to some mopey wimp. NOTHING suggests Goku has been. We've had absolutely zero information to suggest anything about Goku's mentality during battle.
  
  - This movie has no "wasted" characters (Ha! I fucking bet they don't! I bet all those school-chums are integral during the final battle. And in the next film, Teto cuts off Vegeta's tail.), which was a big fault of the original series. Characters that were originally useless or feeble have been made a little more self-dependent (actually, we've seen nothing to suggest that. What exactly is Mai, Bulma, and Yamcha supposed to be doing in this movie?). Particularly Bulma and Mai. The changes made to these characters for the movie are NOT detrimental. What? Bulma's only change is lack of blue hair, a new found penchant for guns, and no way of helpfully contributing to anything. Bulma has been given no way to help defeat Piccolo, and without that, she's basically a pointless character. Mai now has no comic counterpart, nor any connection to having past conflict with Goku. Oh, and she can shape-shift. Whoopie. Is there any information yet on what the hell her character's supposed to do besides releasing Piccolo? I'm guessing, basically the same as the series: nothing at all.
  
  The former is shaping up to be still plenty as spunky, smart, and resourceful as her original self (which is a great and interesting character when solving puzzles, looking for Dragon Balls, even the occasional Rabbit Gang. But this film isn't about the "search for the Dragon Balls", or even "defeat the Red Ribbon Army", it's "defeat Piccolo", and there she's of no help/). 'Cept now, she's also good with guns. That's an improvement. Yeah, shooting things is real resourceful. She's still smart, and it's gonna be kickass if she gets to put those brains of hers to some tactical use. Which she won't. It'd be hilarious to see her and Yamcha defending themselves against a horde of Fulum (Fulum? Are those the demons that look like garbage? Then no, actually, it'll be distracting and dull from the actually important battle between Goku and Piccolo.), and Bulma actually saving Yamcha's skin once or twice. I'm looking forward to the idea of her and Chi-Chi possibly teaming up against Mai. Lame.
  
  As for Mai herself (though she might not always be "herself", because she's also a shapshifter), she's probably the character with which the most liberty has been taken, but it's by no means a bad thing. Like I said earlier:

  Pilaf and company did work for Piccolo. Since the movie has a more realistic tone, they've kept and improved upon the one out of the three that wasn't an anthropomorphic dog dressed like a ninja or the squat little blue troll dressed like a clown.

  They could have just as easily done away with anything related to Pilaf altogether, by having some other character release and work for him, or not involve anyone else at all. But they didn't. They tried to keep some essence or member of Pilaf's crew involved, and Mai (the shapshifter) seems the obvious choice.
  
  Mai (the shapshifter) as she was in the series (not a shapshifter) is completely useless (even WITH a mecha). So they made her kick ass (and a shapshifter), and it seems they worked some elements from other characters into her. She's been made a powerful, confident assasin in the vein of Tao Pai Pai, and had shapeshifting powers tossed in there, not only because they're cool and fitting for a ninja (ninjas are shapshifters? Mai's a ninja?), but since without animal-people, we won't see Oolong or Puar doing it. Because having talking anthropomorphic animals would be too fantastical.
  
  - Piccolo uses a sword. Kick. Ass. It's about the only way the character (EITHER version) could be made any more bodacious. I'm expecting a "Goku w/ Nyoi-Bo" vs "Piccolo w/ sword" battle out of this. Please don't disappoint me, Mr. Wong. This could be awesome. But he still won't be green.

On the fence / Unknown

• - Goku undergoes some sort of quasi-Ozaru transformation at some point. We haven't seen images of it, nor do we have enough details to draw any conclusions about it. We also don't know when or how it factors into the story. All we know for sure is that it's not as physically large as the original Ozaru. We haven't seen any shots of Goku with a tail, and I doubt we will because of the more 'realistic' tone of the film thus far. I'm not even going to go into why Goku having a tail is essential.
  
  - We have two vague new story elements:
  1) An eclipse. This may have something to do with releasing Piccolo, or it may have a more "traditional" role as far as lunar activity is concerned in DragonBall and have some effect on Goku. We don't know yet. "Holy shit! The sun's been eaten by the moon-demon!" Lame.
  2) Some "prophecy." Again, we don't know who made it, when it was made, or what it refers to. Odds are it has to do with Piccolo, since if he gets released, it's almost guaranteed to be the end of the world. In which case it might not end up being so much a prophecy as a "warning" from back when Mutaito sealed ol' pointy-ears away. If it's ever called a "prophecy": lame.

[Kaboom]

Why anyone would go to such lengths just to justify hating something is beyond me. I'm done with this topic before it gets messy; anyone who wants to read my list with an actual open mind is welcome to. I'll just address one or two specific things first that actually merit responses.

but there's nothing to suggest dinosaurs, demons, martial art hermits, budokais, super-advanced tech (capsules, flying cars), etc.

Dinosaurs I forgot about (shows just how important they are, I guess), but everything else we've got or can expect. There's demons (Piccolo's spawn, and arguably Piccolo himself), martial arts hermits (What would you call Roshi and Gohan?), a Budokai (We've got pictures and videos of the arena and one of the matches), and we haven't seen too much "tech" aside from that one car which seems to be such an obsessive subject. What we've seen Bulma using is pretty high-tech though, like her 3-wheeler motorcycle, and she's got her Dragon Radar.

We've seen one Dragon Ball and only on a poster. There's no information on how, or even if they'll be in the film (notice how there's been no information about Piccolo wanting the Dragon Balls?)

Have we had any conformation about the use of Dragon Balls to restore youth?

Every promo picture we've seen of Goku with a DragonBall, it's been the 4-star. Even the leaked promo said "seven Dragon Balls must be found..." As for the nature of Piccolo's wish, James Marsters told us about it himself in a recent interview. He also provided that the reason he pressed for the "older" makeup was so that the transformation would be more distinct and memorable.

and was Grandpa Gohan's master (do we have any conformation on that?

Recent plot synopsis: http://dbthemovie.com/2008/08/26/roadsh ... er-part-2/

Where have you heard about his death?

In those very first character synopses that started this whole thing. In the promo, he's also seen emitting a green, swirling ki technique that's most likely the Mafuba.

He gets romantically involved with Bulma. Have we had any information that even remotely suggests this?

EDIT: I knew I'd seen it somewhere. Yamcha's original character description.

Yamcha joins Goku, Bulma (with whom he becomes romantically involved) and Master Yoshi on their quest to find the seven Dragon Balls before Piccolo

Because having talking anthropomorphic animals would be too fantastical.

Yup.

Original manga is definitely a classic. Due to time constraints, I’m sorry I can’t adopt all the wonderful things from the original, but I’m happy I’m involved in this movie and I think it turned out well. I think the manga readers will find [many] things they have liked in the manga, that is, the spirit of the original.

This is what I'm going by, and what I wish so many of you would also realize. The movie's creator knows exactly what this movie is supposed to be, but unfortunately, so much of the fanbase refuses to acknowledge it, and that disappoints me at every turn.

[fogdark]

According to a the Spanish website El Séptimo Arte, FOX has told James Wong to call the actors as well, for those re-shoots, because FOX is not to happy with the end result, and also because of all the bad critic the leaked videos had.
I don't know how accurate this info is since they don't tell were they got the info about Wong calling the actors back and I haven't heard this anywhere else so, don't know if this is true...

[Kaboom]

According to a the Spanish website El Séptimo Arte, FOX has told James Wong to call the actors as well, for those re-shoots, because FOX is not to happy with the end result, and also because of all the bad critic the leaked videos had.
I don't know how accurate this info is since they don't tell were they got the info about Wong calling the actors back and I haven't heard this anywhere else so, don't know if this is true...

Well that's interesting.

[NeptuneKai]

I love you desirecampbell...I really really do.

[fogdark]

OK, so the info comes from Europa Press but neither they tell where they got the info about Wong.
Also i just heard from a friend, that the bit about the actors been called back is not true, apparently some guy on a forum has been saying that, and Europa Press caught up on that..
But who knows....
....this movie just loves to give me headaches...

[GI_Judd2287]

Mainly the point that Spider-Man sucked.

You're in the minority with that one.

[omegacwa]

I am really disgusted by what information becomes "truth" on the internet.
Remember when someone made up that they were canceling the movie, you know, after it was filmed. That makes no sense, but some how that information got all over the net and people believed it. It is still brought up in articles like it was fact, when it was never confirmed information.

Unless we get an official statement from FOX saying that they are doing re-shoots do to the negative response to a promo no one was supposed to see anyway, then I will believe it, until then, I believe they are just doing some minor changes and additional scenes, like a lot of movie do before they are released.

Did you guys know that Daredevil was still being worked on up until a few days before it's release? I bet you didn't.

I really feel bad for this movie, as if it were a person, because most of the fans have already condemned it before it was even done filming, hell even before they started filming.

[bkev]

...Knowing Hollywood, they'll pry think that it wasn't received well because it wasn't "EXTREME" enough!

[Super Sonic]

Time Traveler...

...The ORIGINAL Transformers was just made to get kids to buy toys of it. It's probably the WORST example, since it was BORN to be whored out by marketing. xD

Original fans are fans of a shallow, 30-minute ad for toys. =p

Were you alive when the original Transformers were on? Also it became more than that. See the first movie that takes place in between seasons 2 and 3 with the final performance of Orson Welles. That movie's a cult classic even among non-Transformers fans.

[Tsukento]

- Piccolo uses a sword. Kick. Ass. It's about the only way the character (EITHER version) could be made any more bodacious. I'm expecting a "Goku w/ Nyoi-Bo" vs "Piccolo w/ sword" battle out of this. Please don't disappoint me, Mr. Wong.

Yeah, that is totally bodacious!

[Kaboom]

- Piccolo uses a sword. Kick. Ass. It's about the only way the character (EITHER version) could be made any more bodacious. I'm expecting a "Goku w/ Nyoi-Bo" vs "Piccolo w/ sword" battle out of this. Please don't disappoint me, Mr. Wong.

http://i37.tinypic.com/28s8rd5.jpg

Yeah, that is totally bodacious!

You don't hafta tell me twice! Where can I buy that totally tubular figure?!

[NeptuneKai]

- Piccolo uses a sword. Kick. Ass. It's about the only way the character (EITHER version) could be made any more bodacious. I'm expecting a "Goku w/ Nyoi-Bo" vs "Piccolo w/ sword" battle out of this. Please don't disappoint me, Mr. Wong.

*Bodacious snip*

Yeah, that is totally bodacious!

Does this mean if Kid Trunks ever makes an appearance he'll be sporting a bazooka?