Live-Action movie and Godzilla

[Kendamu]

I can just imagine a cartoony Dragon Ball movie with a live-action Bulma hitting Roshi in the head with a giant hammer.

That alone would make a movie worthwhile.

That's what I've been saying all along! Go the Speed Racer and Tokusatsu route!

[Kingdom Heartless]

The Cutie Honey movie was good fun.... and very cartoony!

[Olivier Hague]

Then again, despite their obvious excesses, both Cutie Honey and Mach GoGoGo are more grounded in reality than Dragon Ball, and that already makes them better candidates for a live-action adaptation...

[Kendamu]

Then again, despite their obvious excesses, both Cutie Honey and Mach GoGoGo are more grounded in reality than Dragon Ball, and that already makes them better candidates for a live-action adaptation...

So you're saying that the fight between Agent Smith and Neo at the end of Matrix Revolutions wouldn't look good if there was more color added to it?

I'm tired of going to the movies to see reality. If people want reality so badly, FOX just needs to give me $100-Million to spend on making a movie about me sitting at Books-a-Million reading comics for two hours.

[Acid_Reign]

There's nothing stopping a good (and accurate) Dragon Ball LAM from being made.

20th Century Fox.

Ha ha. Well, yeah, for the time being.

Like I said, I don't think so. The "cartoon style" makes the whole thing work. Without it, it's a bit of a mess, in my opinion. The story isn't that great, the characters lack depth...

But those are the very things that could be improved upon in an adaptation.

The fact that Speed Racer, an movie adapted from an anime series, that was done in a cartoony style, was an expensive box office blunder. That is what is stoping a cartoony DragonBall LAM. Toei making a Japanese movie isn't going to be able to afford to pull off Speed Racer's visuals. And very few American studios are going to go gagga for that idea when they've seen how movies like that tank.

This is absolutely true, and would be a major obstacle if a more accurate DB LAM were to be made. But that certainly doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

So you're saying that the fight between Agent Smith and Neo at the end of Matrix Revolutions wouldn't look good if there was more color added to it?

I'm tired of going to the movies to see reality. If people want reality so badly, FOX just needs to give me $100-Million to spend on making a movie about me sitting at Books-a-Million reading comics for two hours.

My sentiments exactly.

[Olivier Hague]

So you're saying that the fight between Agent Smith and Neo at the end of Matrix Revolutions wouldn't look good if there was more color added to it?

I wasn't that impressed, sorry.
Not to mention it would have made for a pretty braindead movie if those two were just martial artists.

The story isn't that great, the characters lack depth...

But those are the very things that could be improved upon in an adaptation.

But would it still be Dragon Ball?

[Kendamu]

So you're saying that the fight between Agent Smith and Neo at the end of Matrix Revolutions wouldn't look good if there was more color added to it?

I wasn't that impressed, sorry.
Not to mention it would have made for a pretty braindead movie if those two were just martial artists.

The color would make it more impressive. Plus, if it's Dragonball, there'll be other plots and characters on that'll keep it from being braindead.

[Acid_Reign]

But would it still be Dragon Ball?

Why not? Are the darker, more intricate Batman installments any less “Batman” because they deviated from their campy roots?

[The Tori-bot]

But would it still be Dragon Ball?

Why not? Are the darker, more intricate Batman installments any less “Batman” because they deviated from their campy roots?

Well, Batman didn't exactly start off campy...

[Kaboom]

Now I'm just confused. Do we actually appreciate the characters being given a little more emotional depth now? Last time I checked, those changes, i.e. the characters displaying anything other than their typical behavior from the series, were the reason everyone was lambasting it. For example, if Goku being somewhat stoic and depressed for a while after Gohan is killed is the reason for things such as his unenthusiastic "cool" line, that would be okay?

[Olivier Hague]

Now I'm just confused. Do we actually appreciate the characters being given a little more emotional depth now? Last time I checked, those changes, i.e. the characters displaying anything other than their typical behavior from the series, were the reason everyone was lambasting it.

Yeah, you appear to be confused, indeed.
Emotional depth? In the trailer?
...
Seriously?

[Kaboom]

Emotional depth? In the trailer?
...
Seriously?

I didn't say the depth was IN the trailer (no, not much of that), I said certain things in the trailer might be indicative of or stem from characters having more emotional range during certain parts of the movie.

[Olivier Hague]

'Just looked like we were in for the usual US-teen-action clichés...

[Acid_Reign]

Well, Batman didn't exactly start off campy...

Well, maybe not from the very start, but Batman from the 40s to the early 60s was much campier than its successors; for example Batman had a tendency to rattle off cheesy one-liners (like “Quiet or papa spank!”), while fighting very black-and-white struggles against crime, with Batman unquestionably on the side of justice and his adversaries opposite. This was due in part to post-World War II America that sought escapism in media; as a result, comics were produced with idealized scenarios rather than intricate plot lines.

Nowadays, the Batman stories tend to be much more serious: they consist of complex arcs steeped in symbolism, the subject matter is noticeably grittier than before (although again, perhaps not as gritty as the initial installments, which would actually feature Batman killing his opponents), and the characters posses more facets as exemplified by their oft-questioned position in regards the moral spectrum.

Whether these changes are to be taken as improvements or not will of course depend upon whom you ask, but the point is that multiple interpretations of the same source material can exist and be successful without becoming two completely separate entities, and I believe the same concept could apply easily to Dragon Ball.

Now I'm just confused. Do we actually appreciate the characters being given a little more emotional depth now? Last time I checked, those changes, i.e. the characters displaying anything other than their typical behavior from the series, were the reason everyone was lambasting it. For example, if Goku being somewhat stoic and depressed for a while after Gohan is killed is the reason for things such as his unenthusiastic "cool" line, that would be okay?

The characters possessing more layers than their manga counterparts and bearing no resemblance to them are not the same thing.

If the “cool” line is really supposed to show Goku being depressed it wouldn’t be smack-dab in the middle of a clearly action-themed trailer; it’d be out of place and if we take it as such it completely disrupts the flow of the advertisement, which is not meant to be depressing but to entice you into buying a ticket (during a recession, I might add). No, it’s evident from the ridiculously-intricate expansion of the bike that his anti-climactic reaction is meant to be ironic, but Chatwin emotes it so flatly that it’s comedic, but for the wrong reason.

But more importantly, Gokū would not respond in that fashion regardless of inflection. That is why it’s “not okay” to most of us.

[GI_Judd2287]

But more importantly, Gokū would not respond in that fashion regardless of inflection. That is why it’s “not okay” to most of us.

Sorry, my bad.

[Super Sonic]

I kind of look at the movie as being how the Addams Family movies were different than the tv show. Aside from making it a bit darker, there were quite a few changes to certain characters and their relationships with each other.

And on the mentioning of the 60s Batman. Despite what's not cool about it, a lot of folk still say that show is what saved the comic and its franchise. Also the big four villains were true to their characters in the comics at that time.