Dragon Ball in Hollywood. What could've been...

[Eddie]

I actually think the closest thing in a Hollywood movie that I've seen to a "Dragon Ball"-style fight was the last fight in the movie, "Chronicle." And that movie was done on a (by Hollywood standards) nearly non-existent budget of 12 million.

With "Evolution," they all but completely disregarded the source material, with only names and vaguely similar concepts making it through to the final product. In the end, I couldn't help but wonder why this movie was made. Why was it made so late? Who was it supposed to appeal to? Why did the studio bother to make a "Dragon Ball" movie that had so little to do with "Dragon Ball"? Why did they not just make their own story, in effect saving money and time?

......I'm sorry to say, but there simply wasn't much logic in the production of "Evolution," and that's typical of the Hollywood studio system.

I'm inclined to disagree. I think if anything they tried too hard to incorporate too much of the source material within the format they went for. Essentially we ended up with a rushed, perplexing and ham-fisted re-telling of the entire of Dragonball crossed over with a high-school karate flick set in a contemporary Western world setting.

I'd argue that it tried to do too much and tick too many boxes in the hope of transliterating Dragonball to a Western audience, when in reality the only audience they were ever going to sell tickets to were the ones who were already well acquainted with it. Throw in Ben Ramsey's piss-poor screenplay, unenthusiastic direction from Wong, bad acting and a slashed budget and the result is Dragonball Evolution.

I just thought I'd point out that the script used in Dragonball Evolution was not Ben Ramsey's. James Wong rewrote the script.

[theoriginalbilis]

I don't think having a large budget would help much. There's something about Dragon Ball that just can't be translated to live-action (even though it's influences are based in martial arts cinema), I feel it's the sheer scope of the story at large, and the fact that the characters are so over-the-top and well... so animated. Dragon Ball and the 2D medium are made for one another; the same thing goes for One Piece. I can't ever see a "live-action" One Piece... though some folks have brought the idea up.

[DoomieDoomie911]

It's a shame that we can't get something like that with Dragon Ball... If they were to stay faithful with the story and actually get some good fighting scenes in there, they could make a very decent Dragon Ball movie. Let's just hope someday something like that happens...

[WesMan23]

I don't think having a large budget would help much. There's something about Dragon Ball that just can't be translated to live-action (even though it's influences are based in martial arts cinema), I feel it's the sheer scope of the story at large, and the fact that the characters are so over-the-top and well... so animated. Dragon Ball and the 2D medium are made for one another; the same thing goes for One Piece. I can't ever see a "live-action" One Piece... though some folks have brought the idea up.

You have a good point there. It does seem that it should only exist in animated form. But filmmakers love to look for ways to translate animation into live action. Sometimes it works, others not so much, Dragonball Evolution being a great example of that second category. Like I said, I think it can be done well. But, I don't have faith that it ever will be done well. If it does, I'd be quite pleased, but I'm not holding my breath for that sort of thing. I have hope, but I don't have real confidence for it. Maybe with Battle of Gods coming out, along with the recent specials in the past few years, it can re-ignite some passion in the franchise for some people, maybe then, it will be looked into again, hopefully by a more competent group of people. It's proven right now that the franchise is not dead. There are new games constantly coming out as well. Kai came out, and it did pretty well over here, despite some apparent indifference in Japan. I don't see how it's not still profitable. Maybe not as much as ten years ago, but the franchise has been around for nearly 29 years. I do not think it will go away anytime soon.

But if and when we get another LAM, I think Dragonball will still be around enough to be profitable. It just needs to be done well enough so it doesn't cause an E.T./Atari type crisis for the franchise.

[Hellspawn28]

I do agree that a 35 - 40 million did not work for Dragon Ball, but you can give good looking effects with a low budget. District 9 had a budget around DBE and came out four months later which looked awesome. Too bad DBE had CG that looks like it was made in the 90's. The lava scenes in DBE looked so terrible, it remind me how bad the Hell scenes looked in the Spawn movie. I think 100 million would work for a Dragon Ball Z movie. Just don't go over board with it and don't make it look like a cheap Transformers clone like Battleship was.

[Blade]

I actually think the closest thing in a Hollywood movie that I've seen to a "Dragon Ball"-style fight was the last fight in the movie, "Chronicle." And that movie was done on a (by Hollywood standards) nearly non-existent budget of 12 million.

With "Evolution," they all but completely disregarded the source material, with only names and vaguely similar concepts making it through to the final product. In the end, I couldn't help but wonder why this movie was made. Why was it made so late? Who was it supposed to appeal to? Why did the studio bother to make a "Dragon Ball" movie that had so little to do with "Dragon Ball"? Why did they not just make their own story, in effect saving money and time?

......I'm sorry to say, but there simply wasn't much logic in the production of "Evolution," and that's typical of the Hollywood studio system.

I'm inclined to disagree. I think if anything they tried too hard to incorporate too much of the source material within the format they went for. Essentially we ended up with a rushed, perplexing and ham-fisted re-telling of the entire of Dragonball crossed over with a high-school karate flick set in a contemporary Western world setting.

I'd argue that it tried to do too much and tick too many boxes in the hope of transliterating Dragonball to a Western audience, when in reality the only audience they were ever going to sell tickets to were the ones who were already well acquainted with it. Throw in Ben Ramsey's piss-poor screenplay, unenthusiastic direction from Wong, bad acting and a slashed budget and the result is Dragonball Evolution.

I just thought I'd point out that the script used in Dragonball Evolution was not Ben Ramsey's. James Wong rewrote the script.

He altered it. Ben Ramsey's script was leaked onto the internet in its entirety in 2002, if you look for it you can find it fairly easily. The end result is pretty much the same.

[TheBlackPaladin]

OK, I take it back, the closest thing I've seen on screen to a DBZ fight would be the final battle between Superman and Zod in "Man of Steel," which I saw last night. I had my problems with the movie, but man, that last fight....after the movie was over, me and one of my friends that I saw it with both admitted that, when we saw that fight, we were like, "That fight was DBZ on film, minus a few kamehamehas."

[DBZ Mick]

I think a straight up adaptation of Dragonball wouldn't work.

Maybe if someone took the series and put their own spin on... Oh, wait that's what Evolution kinda did.

Well a bigger budget and better director would work.


I as a whole think Dragonball will never fully work live-action. Maybe a motion capture movie like Tintin though.

[penguintruth]

Some things are just better on the page or animated drawings.

Need I remind you that pretty much every Superman movie has sucked hard? Even the beloved original two, which are charmingly goofy at best.

(Actually, I liked Speed Racer.)

[Hellspawn28]

I still wonder today what the Dragon Ball Z live action movie would have been like if it came out in 2004 or 2005 based on the old Internet rumors like Hugh Jackman as Goku.

[Avenged]

I still wonder today what the Dragon Ball Z live action movie would have been like if it came out in 2004 or 2005 based on the old Internet rumors like Hugh Jackman as Goku.

I prefer the Brenden Fraiser as Goku rumor.

[Jackal puFF]

Ugh. I just don't know why the director didn't shoot more fight scenes.. It still drives me mad when I think about it. I remember watching this before the movie and thought the final battle with Piccolo and Goku was going to be the best.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eHIDkwTNt4

[Avenged]

The music is for sure the best thing about this movie.

[DoomieDoomie911]

The music is for sure the best thing about this movie.

I would almost go so far as to say the only good thing about the movie...

[Hellspawn28]

I like the set pieces that they made for the movie. They really try to make the world look like the world of DB in the manga with the mountains and futuristic city looking city. One of the person from ADI that I talked to said that they had a total blast working on the movie.

[DBZ Mick]

I kinda liked the look of the movie at times.

[Avenged]

I kinda liked the look of the movie at times.

Shots like these were ok, very colorful.

[Ringworm128]

Anything can work in live action with the right budget, direction cast etc. If they can get The Avengers to work they can do DBZ. Just look at the "Saiyan Saga" fanmade trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx-E9pzOFPM I know everyone on this forum hates it but keep in mind it was done on a very small budget by amateurs. Now imagine how it would look on a budget on par with Man of Steel with an experienced director, writer, actors etc. DBE didn't fail because it was live action, it failed because the crew had obviously NO respect for DB and they butchered the source material far worse then Funimation ever did. Not to mention they got people from the bottom of the barrel to work on it.

[Hellspawn28]

The action scenes in Man of Steel was epic, but I'm not sure if Hollywood would want to take a risk on making a 200 million DBZ live action movie. I do like how DBE took place on a fictional earth instead the world that we live in. Makes me wonder if a Dragon Ball movie taken place in the setting that we live in could work?

[hulkty]

There will never be a good live action Dragonball/Z/GT/Whatever related blockbuster movie ever. You guys should stop getting your hopes up all the time. You're just going to make yourself more disappointed.
Just watch and re-watch the anime over and over, but that's all the good stuff you'll get.



Someone had to say it...