My Specials and Movies Marathon

[Valerius Dover]

And now I've finished things up by seeing Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn and Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon.

Movie 12 Notes

-There aren't really that many villains from the series here. Frieza gets a scene, and a bunch of other characters cameo in that scene, but that's about it. This aspect was a little disappointing.
-The Dictator is just comedy gold! He gets an over-the-top German accent and pretty much talks blonde-hair blue eyes. They made no attempt to hide who this is supposed to be. He actually outlasts the movie's main villain, notably.
-Janempa is pretty wacky, and Janemba is another non-speaking villain.
-They actually have no problem calling Hell by its name in this movie, with 6 occurrences of the word, 3 of them from Vegeta in the same scene. A stark contrast to the Vegeta Saga where they got around it by saying "down below" or "the underworld" despite the word being written on Goz and Mez's shirts clear as day.
-Pikkon yelling insults at the barrier reminds me of Goku's teasing of Uub a lot!
-Nathan Johnson's music is great as usual, with Dave Moran's rock riffs being a wonderful supplement!

Movie 13 Notes

-OH MY GOD. This one exceeded my expectations! This has got to be my favorite of all the classic DB and DBZ movies! It has literally the best of everything!
-No Standard Opening. Honestly, I don't get why most of the Movies slap on the series opening with no changes. They should be more unique.
-Best Plot. This one actually has a plot. Yes, Movie 8 showed signs of that but didn't do as much as it could have. This one is fleshed out really well and paced perfectly!
-It's also one of the few, along with Movie 9, that can fit into the timeline with no problems whatsoever. Movies 1, 5, 6, and 8 could probably also fit with a little imagination.
-Tapion is a great character to have around, and it makes me wish this was an arc rather than a movie.
-Saiyaman and Saiyaman 2 get a good amount of screentime! (Though, her name was Saiyagirl in the late Buu Arc, that's minor)
-Music is fantastic! Easily the best of all the movies! Nathan Johnson really outdid himself with this one! This score is given an epic orchestral tone that really feels at home with the storyline! Tapion's Ocarina Melody is a standout, especially.
-Speaking of music, a remix of the opening theme is played during the hunt for the Dragon Balls and when Tapion leaves at the end. This orchestral arrangement inspired my brother to do his own take on it. I'll be sure to link it when he finishes it if anyone's interested.

And that covers all the classic movies. I don't have Movie 14 yet, I'm going to order it soon. Either way, I decided to see GT first before checking out the newer stuff. Since theoriginalbillis is interested, I'll go ahead and post thoughts on the DB Movies as well. It may have been over a year since I saw them, but my memory is good, so that shouldn't be a problem. If anyone wants to know what I thought of anything else in DB or pre-Buu Arc DBZ, just ask in my Buu Arc thread. I will make a GT thread next.

http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtop ... =7&t=27951

[voltlunok]

In recent years I noticed something with Movie 13, Tapion's appearance felt very DQ (Dragon Quest), same for Hirudagan (Sorry if I misspelled that) and I wonder if the world Tapion comes from is a DQ world! The last two are possibly my favorite movies, they're fun and enjoyable, with decent to great stories depending on your outlook. Glad to see such well done breakdowns of them, though I would like to know your opinion on Gogeta & Veku's scenes since you didn't mention them! Keep up the great work Dover!

[Valerius Dover]

Oh, yeah Gogeta and Veku. Veku's scene was really funny, even if the fart jokes were a little out of nowhere!
Gogeta's transformation is one of the more awesome scenes for sure. And here are some notes on the DB Movies that I saw a year ago and I attempt to recreate roughly what I was thinking then and still am thinking now. I'll use spoiler tags here to avoid having the post be too big.

Spoiler:

Movie 1

-John Swasey replaces Brice Armstrong as the Narrator
-King Gurumes, as a villain, doesn't get a whole lot of screentime.
-Pasta and Bongo are creative henchmen for sure!
-What kind of name is Pansy anyway?
-The character introductions in this are VERY rushed.
-The voice cast is way different from the series. They're good, but a little jarring after being used to the regulars. Colleen Clinkenbeard's Goku is good, but a huge departure from Nadolny's take. Monica Rial's Bulma sounds better than Vollmer's to me. Bryan Massey's Oolong is good, but he's no Brad Jackson. Chris Sabat's Yamcha sounds a little different here.
-Kikuchi's music is great as usual, and I recognize a fair amount of tracks that were later used in the series.
-Bouncy Bouncy, enough said.

Movie 2 Notes

-Chris Sabat narrates the prologue here.
-Title Card is in Japanese for some reason.
-Same with the Opening end Ending. In Japanese, and not the dubbed versions.
-Lucifer is a creepy villain, kidnapping Bulma like that. And that smile....
-The dub sounds like a fandub. It has a charm to it, but man has it not aged well. That's Ceyli Delgadillo as Goku, Leslie Alexander (who?) as Bulma, and Christine Marten and Monika Antonelli as Launch, in her blonde and blue haired forms respectively, rather than Meredith McCoy like in the series. Everyone else is the proper VAs, but they all sound very different, though it's still easy to tell it's them. Master Roshi is the only one who really sounds right.
-Kikuchi's music shines in this one, too. A choir peace not used in the series is heard in this one. An instrumental was used a couple times in the 22nd tournament, though.


Movie 3 Notes

-Opening features unique footage rather than the standard. Also, English OP used.
-Chris Sabat narrates just a single sentence here.
-No original villain, instead we get the characters in different roles.
-Lieutenant Blue is killed in his second scene, and he's not even a bad guy. Seriously, why not revive this guy, too?
-Voices are mostly fine, except Goku still has his Movie 2 voice, and the Pilaf Gang all have different VAs from the series, but they're very minor here.
-Arale calls Goku a stud.....yep.
-End credits play over the final scene, and they're in Japanese. As is the song Dragon Ball Densetsu, which was also used as an Insert Song in Episode 76.


Movie 4 Notes

-No Opening.
-Some characters look radically different in this one, such as General White.
-They have no problem calling Assistant Black by his name here, which they only did seconds before his death in the series.
-Voice Cast is the same as the series, though.
-Akihito Tokunaga's music is great, but it's too quiet and there's too much silence. Love the leitmotifs, though.
-Android 8 gets a bigger role, showing what could've been had the series not forgotten about him.
-Ending theme, the GT Opening, is in Japanese despite an English version existing. Also, the credits are in Japanese.

[clutchins]

Does the dub of Path to Power use the dub Dan Dan at the end? I haven't seen any of the DB movies yet.

[Valerius Dover]

Does the dub of Path to Power use the dub Dan Dan at the end? I haven't seen any of the DB movies yet.

Nope, as I said above, it's kept in Japanese. The English version didn't exist at the time of the original release, but it did by the time of the Remastered version, though.