For some reason, I've always really liked this movie. It's almost got a different feel from the rest of the DBZ movies, and I think the almost sci-fi horror vibe it has going is a major part of that. The bio-warriors themselves don't have a lot going for them other than unique designs (barring the obvious Saibamen clones
), but Wheelo himself is a really interesting villain - even if I'm still convinced now that he's basically a port of Mamo from the Lupin the 3rd franchise - and Kochin makes a fun enough right-hand-man for him.
What really makes the movie fun though is the setting. There's a bit of action in ice-covered, snowy mountains, which we hadn't seen since the Mucle Tower material, and then a lot of stuff in a laboratory, which we hadn't had at all before then. And this movie also gives us our last Goku V.S. Piccolo fight, something I've always liked, even if it ends up coming short.
Really there's only two things about this movie that I don't like, and only one of them exists in the original version. Firstly, the Gohan insert song. The one in movie 1 was cutesy too, but it fit a lot better into the film, given the circumstances around it's appearance. With this one though, it just feels shoehorned in IMO, never been a fan of it really. It also played havoc on my young brain when I would play the 'try to put the movies where they'd go in the series!' game, due to the brief shot of Piccolo's sacrifice against Nappa. Gah. Secondly, is the FUNimation re-dub of the film. I love having everything with it's consistent cast now, and for the most part I prefer FUNi's cast over the Ocean one - but there's three roles present in this film that I feel Ocean nailed a lot better. First would be Oolong, who actually sounds close to his Japanese counterpart instead of a chain-smoker; mainly though, it's Wheelo and Kochin. Kochin's Ocean voice actually sounds like a despicable-yet-decrepit old man, something Troy Baker didn't quite manage in the re-dub (and he'd already used the voice for Hoi in movie 13 as it was). And as much as I like R. Bruce Elliot, he just didn't have the same gravitas as the Ocean VA in the role.
I'd probably put this one in my top 5 of the DBZ movies, but I'm not really sure where for sure.
Wow. I love that idea. Also, I never noticed the magic shirt-begone dealie. I will watch for that next time.
