Best looking Dragon Ball movie: The Path to Power or Super Broly?

[JohnnyCashKami]

These two movies are a work of art and saying which one is better than the other, that's kinda hard 'cause they're more or less at the same level.

Still, I'd probably pick Dragon Ball's Movie 4 - The Path to Power.

[MasenkoHA]

Aw come on you can’t just pick one over the oth- Path to Power.

[eledoremassis02]

I like some of the throwback look to broly, but I'm not a fan of the overall art direction or cinematography so I'll have to go with path to power, tho I think movie 13 is my overall favorite

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I think Path to Power was very distinct from the other movies owning to the fact that it came out just after Dragon Ball GT had started it's run on television, and likely due to a lot of the same staff working on the series on the same time the connection relative to the then contemporary product at that point is clear. There's also the fact that Goku starts wearing his blue-yellow GT gi a quarter of the way instead of his original one, which shows that perhaps it was a subtle reference or somewhat small advertising of sorts for the then new series.

I can definitely say that the GT animation style really makes for a unique look that sets the film apart from the original three DB films and 13 DBZ movies.

[sunsetshimmer]

DBS Broly has good animation but art in this movie isn't anything special and it's sometimes actually ugly, especially in last act.
Also tons of unnecesary visual effects and 'camera' shakings that are probably meant to mask low quality drawings. And with CG, there was one scene that looked very realistic which felt completely out of movie, like it was borrowed from live action movie. It was after lava scene i think.

Path to Power is still the best looking movie, it has really great art. I admit it's been a while since i watched this movie, but i don't remember it having any downsides if we talk about visuals alone.

DBS Broly has interesting artistic style that is kinda retro, but i wouldn't consider this movie as even the second best looking movie.
Just Battle of Gods and Ressurection 'F' looked a lot better, although it might be my personal taste.

[MajinMan]

DBS Broly has interesting artistic style that is kinda retro, but i wouldn't consider this movie as even the second best looking movie.
Just Battle of Gods and Ressurection 'F' looked a lot better, although it might be my personal taste.

You’re crazy if you actually think that. A lot better than Broly? How?

On the topic of the thread, I think DBS Broly looks better. Path to Power is also great, but Broly set a new benchmark.

[Metalwario64]

Broly is the most well animated, and best looking Dragon Ball product to date, without question (minus the CGI, which I'd probably still take over Yukio Ebisawa's animation at least, and is still better than the previous films' CGI).

Not only does it showcase many different animators and their individual styles (minus Takahashi Yamamuro-izing the animators he supervises, albeit in a much better way than Yamamuro does it these days), but the storyboarding, choreography and overall fluidity of the animation throughout the entire film.

Path to Power was when the franchise's art had started to decline, and had that overly shiny look that GT had, and while it did have some very nice cuts of animation, the overall product just doesn't compare to Broly in my eyes.

DBS Broly has interesting artistic style that is kinda retro, but i wouldn't consider this movie as even the second best looking movie.
Just Battle of Gods and Ressurection 'F' looked a lot better, although it might be my personal taste.

You’re crazy if you actually think that. A lot better than Broly? How?

I agree. BoG and RoF looked terrible, and the storyboarding and Yamamuro's corrections and conveyance of choreography in RoF made it one of the worst, and most bland Dragon Ball products visually.

I still can't see how people like Yamamuro's modern, bubbly, plastic looking poorly and inconsistently proportioned, as well as incredibly repetitively posed and laid out artwork. Like, it has so many things objectively wrong with it.

[KBABZ]

This is tough because there are pros and cons to both.

Path to Power benefits from classic Dragon Ball nostalgia: it's traditionally animated in the era we all remember Dragon Ball from, so there's a lot to like there. At the same time, the art is based on Yamamuro, and by this point in the GT era his art starts getting a little overly-geometric and the "GT corner smile" starts getting particularly invasive in the character expressions. The actual pose-to-pose flow between key frames in the animation is also particularly obvious in this era of animation.

With Super Broly, the egregious CG and use of textured backgrounds brings it down a bunch, but there's so much appeal and flow to the animation that there's a lot to love about it, and the willingness to stretch and distort the faces really works to convey the emotions of the story and characters. Picking between one is ultimately how you determine the beauty: still or in motion. Path to Power wins in stills, while Broly wins in motion. At least for me.

[The Tori-bot]

The 10th anniversary movie has very very pretty individual frames, but seeing as it's called animation and not still life...the Super Broli movie. For my money the best, most dynamic animation DB has ever had and it's not even close. The sheer thrill that comes with its sense of motion alone is breathtaking and makes the 10th anniversary movie look like watching paint dry in comparison.

Path to Power benefits from classic Dragon Ball nostalgia

No kidding. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason why this is even a question.

(Also I hadn't seen your post when I started replying so thanks for making me feel validated in my opinion. )

[KBABZ]

The 10th anniversary movie has very very pretty individual frames, but seeing as it's called animation and not still life...the Super Broli movie. For my money the best, most dynamic animation DB has ever had and it's not even close. The sheer thrill that comes with its sense of motion alone is breathtaking and makes the 10th anniversary movie look like watching paint dry in comparison.

Path to Power benefits from classic Dragon Ball nostalgia

No kidding. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason why this is even a question.

(Also I hadn't seen your post when I started replying so thanks for making me feel validated in my opinion. )

No problem! I'm an animator myself (CG though, not drawings) so I love Super Broly for actually taking animation seriously in a non-Ghibli anime for once.

[sunsetshimmer]

DBS Broly has interesting artistic style that is kinda retro, but i wouldn't consider this movie as even the second best looking movie.
Just Battle of Gods and Ressurection 'F' looked a lot better, although it might be my personal taste.

You’re crazy if you actually think that. A lot better than Broly? How?

-More consistent and overall better quality drawings
-CG effects do not look like garbage borrowed from live action movie but actually still fit anime style and you don't get feeling that you watch 2 different movies mixed together

[jjgp1112]

I'm not a huge fan of Path to Power's character designs despite the fluid animation and solid artwork. On the flipside, I'm not a fan of Broly's visual inconsistency - just a pick a style and stick with it instead of jumping all over the place from scene to scene. Neither am I much of a fan of the chaotic, rollercoaster-esque style of fight scenes. But I think I'd go with Broly.

DBS Broly has interesting artistic style that is kinda retro, but i wouldn't consider this movie as even the second best looking movie.
Just Battle of Gods and Ressurection 'F' looked a lot better, although it might be my personal taste.

You’re crazy if you actually think that. A lot better than Broly? How?

-More consistent and overall better quality drawings
-CG effects do not look like garbage borrowed from live action movie but actually still fit anime style and you don't get feeling that you watch 2 different movies mixed together

I'm gonna have to stop you right there, chief:





Broly didn't have the greatest CGI by any stretch, but at least the scenes looked like something out of FighterZ and thus much more translatable into 2D, as opposed to RF's janky Xenoverse cutscene-tier garbage.

[Shaddy]

Broly, hands down. Path to Power has good animation, but it's got the same design sense as GT (ie. giant chins and the start of excessive highlights) that I just don't like very much, and the sheer volume of animation in Broly is unbelievable. I don't think there's a single scene without a little bit of life and movement injected that was never there in any previous production, and I'm not sure there's a drawing in the whole thing that doesn't have some amount of charm to it.

Also LOL Battle of Gods and Resurrection F. Yamamuro's designs at their shittiest, lame color design, literally broken character CG, the flattest composition possible and obsessive corrections homogenizing the whole thing in RoF, the only half-decent things about either film's aesthetics are the cuts that are animated personally by animators that are already good on their own, and even then most of them one-upped themselves in the Broly movie itself.

[TheBigBoy]

Broly.

I might be a bit biased because I can't stand the GT-era art.

[KBABZ]

Path to Power has good animation

I mean, as an animator, I really disagree. It isn't bad or janky, but it has that same problem bits of the Kai opening has where you can REALLY tell was the key drawings were and then they just blended between that mathematically.

[MasenkoHA]

Path to Power just had really good art direction.


All those reflection shots were gorgeous.

[Dbzfan94]

DBS Broly has interesting artistic style that is kinda retro, but i wouldn't consider this movie as even the second best looking movie.
Just Battle of Gods and Ressurection 'F' looked a lot better, although it might be my personal taste.

You’re crazy if you actually think that. A lot better than Broly? How?

-More consistent and overall better quality drawings
-CG effects do not look like garbage borrowed from live action movie but actually still fit anime style and you don't get feeling that you watch 2 different movies mixed together

We normally agree on things but in this case cant disagree more.
BoG and RF look pretty awful overall from a pure art point of view. I mean yeah, it's more consistent. Consistently looks poor quality.

Meanwhile DBS Broly looks amazing.

[Big Boss]

No Love for Movie 12?

[Lord Beerus]

Dragon Ball Super Broly, and it's not even up for debate.

The Path To Power has some great moments and the art direction is stunning more consistent than Dragon Ball Super Broly, but Dragon Ball Super Broly just succeeds so much in fluid animation, fight choreography, direction and storyboarding to such a degree that it really is in a league of its own. It really is the best animated Dragon Ball produced ever made. The only blemishes that Dragon Ball Super Broly has is the CGI; and even that's a noticeable step up from Battle Of Gods and Resurrection F.

[Luso Saiyan]

Path to Power.

I'm no fan of GT and its amber tone that the movie inherits, but other than that, it looks great and is visually consistent throughout.