Thoughts on DBZ Movie 1

[Commander_Red]

I think it has one of the best BGM scores and placement out of all of them.

I can't quote anything out of the movie at the top of my head, but I do have fond memories of the 'Goku skidding on the floor' sound effect when he runs into the castle.

[Son Edo]

Funniest part of the movie, in my opinion was Jr's face when becoming immortal.

[coola]

One of my favorite DBZ Movies, it was nice to see Dr.Slump type of humor (Drunk Gohan and him peeing on Kuririn) last time until Majin Buu Saga, i also liked how Ocean Dub maked Piccolo more evil (To Garlic "You would be useful ally to me, but your strength is pathetic compaed to mine)

[Cursed Lemon]

For me, it's difficult to separate the movie and the main series arc from each other, even though the movie is obviously a well-done production and the series is a bunch of tripe.

I can say that movie #1 is in all possible objective ways a great feature, but every time I watch it I'm just like, "I hate you Garlic, and not in the good way."

[Looneygamemaster]

I haven't seen the movie in forever, and I've never seen the Japanese dub (only Ocean), but my memories of it are quite good. Let's face it--Shonen manga movies are really just excuses for awesome fights with high-quality animation, and any plot they try to do is usually...not very good, to put it nicely. One thing I like about DBZ movies (at least the ones I've seen) is that they at least seem to admit this--there's very little plot, just cool fighting.

Chiba does great as Garlic in the TV show.

Eh, he does okay. Just...okay. Nothing special, but at least for the show, Garlic Jr is such a nothing role that it's hard to blame him for not really trying.

[Dr. Machismo]

I thought it was great, particularly the Ocean dub. I wonder if it would have been better if we got a Garlic Jr. saga instead of the Saiyan saga.

[Storm]

Eh, he does okay. Just...okay. Nothing special, but at least for the show, Garlic Jr is such a nothing role that it's hard to blame him for not really trying.

Well, Shigeru Chiba's performance as Garlic Jr. is one of the few highlights of that arc for me.

[RandomGuy96]

Either my favorite or second favorite of the films. The fights aren't stomps, the supporting cast has a role to play, Piccolo is still a badass, the fights are conservative in their use of beams, the villain actually has a backstory, the film has a unique atmosphere, and, this is a big, one TEAMWORK IS EFFECTIVE. Too often we see the villains invoke the conservation of ninjutsu, so it was incredibly refreshing to see the henchmen take down Piccolo and Piccolo and Goku take down Garlic Jr.

[Gyt Kaliba]

It's not my favorite movie probably, but it's definitely done with more care than a lot of the later films were done with, IMO. And Garlic definitely stands out as a villain from most of the rest of the movie villains, because he actually comes with a bit of a backstory that's not just 'so-and-so's brother' or 'the strongest saiya-jin EVA'. The whole thing with Kami and Garlic Sr.'s past history was pretty interesting, and it was cool to actually see Kami get to fight a little bit.

Also, this is during that short period of time (basically from the Goku V.S. Piccolo fight at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, through the fight with Raditz) where the fighting of the franchise is at it's absolute best, IMO. There's big energy beam battles but they are used more sparingly, and there's still great choreography for the hand-to-hand fighting. It's all around just good stuff.

As far as the voices go, I've always liked Huber's Garlic Jr., though it comes off a little too much like his Pilaf (though the role would come later for him) now that I think about it...so overall I probably prefer Akira Kamiya, since Chiba also has the same issue there - though by a lot less in comparison. I love Chiba's pilaf, but looking at Garlic Jr., it's almost too...expected, for a guy like him to voice the character. Kamiya is a bit more unexpected of a voice, which works in a way.

[Pretorious]

One of the best openings (Piccolo's scream), excellent fight choreography, and music (placement). Anti-climactic ending, but awesome to see Gohan (or anyone other than Goku) beat the bad guy.

The Ocean dub is better in some parts: Goku to Kami: "This is NONE of your business!" and Ocean's ADDED sound effects are sometimes an improvement. The quality of the acting is fantastic.

But the Japanese version is (subtly) better in other ways. Garlic's henchmen repeating "Return Gohan!" when Goku first shows up is funnier in Japanese. The part where Goku is talking to an injured Chi Chi is better too. In the Ocean version Goku (insensitively) yells "WHEEERE?!" at her, but in Japanese he says "Chi Chi!" which is way better because it shows he's concerned for her.

All in all, one of the best, if not THE best movie. English (Ocean version) or Japanese.

[Hellspawn28]

One of the first DBZ movies I saw back in 2001 on CN. The movie is a lot of fun and I personally like the Ocean voice dub the most. The 2005 Funi dub and the Japanese dub is not that bad neither in my opinion.

[Quebaz]

I love this movie for a couple of reasons
1st: The OST: man, I know most of this movie ost was overused in the Saiyan and Namek arcs but damn, I still love this piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_zVOvVoU-Q
2nd: The fights, every fight here is something worth to watch, I mean seriously, all of them.
3rd: The animation, man It's so, pre Z, the martial arts aspects of it shines so well.
(Also, Vitor Rocha's Garlic is awesome)

[CaBrPi]

I think this is my favorite DBZ movie. It's just so fun to watch. The fights are well-done, the music is great, the animation was decent...