A Dragon Ball Hollywood reboot HAS to be inevitable now

[mecha3000]

In 1993, Super Mario Bros. The Movie came out and was HATED by critics and even fans (despite gaining a cult following) for being unfaithful to the source material. 30 years later, The Super Mario Bros. Movie comes out and CRUSHES IT at the box office, eventually becoming 2023's first 1 billion dollar movie.

I bring this up because Dragon Ball's cinematic history is VERY SIMILAR to Mario's. At least, in the sense of having an initial terrible big screen attempt (2009's Dragonball Evolution) before getting an eventual successful reboot, hopefully for Dragon Ball one day. Look, I understand many fans hate it when I bring up the possibility of a reboot (viewtopic.php?t=47525), but Mario is a Japanese property and I'm aware Japan is very protective of their brands. But Shigeru Miyamoto was willing to give Hollywood another chance and look how well it turned out! Just imagine if Nintendo listened to the naysayers and didn't try again. And now, Dragon Ball fans won't even ENTERTAIN the idea of a new movie adaptation.

I would hope Akira Toriyama, Toei, and Shuiesha are willing to give it one more go after seeing how well Super Hero did last year (beating Idris Elba's Beast) and how well Mario did this year. Dragon Ball is one of the world's biggest brands and as I've frequently said, I feel like a live-action movie franchise akin to Marvel and Star Wars is really the next logical step for it. Or maybe, even an animated movie reboot done in the style of Spider-Verse/TMNT Mutant Mayhem/Mario (since so many of you are against a live-action version)???

2009 is fourteen years old at this point and Hollywood was not ready to tackle anime movies back then (They were barely able to handle superhero movies honestly). But with manga and anime becoming mainstream now, there's no doubt in my mind that with the right creative and marketing team (and Toriyama being somewhat involved), this movie would break box office records. So can we all move on from Evolution's failure and accept the possibility of a success?

[LordCrumb]

So you're asking for a Live Action movie 'reboot, rather than a reboot of the Anime...

Dragon Ball just does not work in Live Action imo, no matter how 'good' fan made YouTube videos are reported to be. Stick with Animation. No reboot required.

[mecha3000]

So you're asking for a Live Action movie 'reboot, rather than a reboot of the Anime...

Dragon Ball just does not work in Live Action imo, no matter how 'good' fan made YouTube videos are reported to be. Stick with Animation. No reboot required.

Well, if you read my whole post, I also said the reboot can be animated like Spider-Verse or Mario. And also, you're kind of proving my point. Dragon Ball fans are so close-minded to the idea that there can one day be a successful Dragon Ball movie series, live-action or animated.

[LordCrumb]

Your post is a bit of a mumbled rant if I am honest.

Why reboot anything that is still very and currently successful. Super Hero proved that too.

[mecha3000]

Your post is a bit of a mumbled rant if I am honest.

Why reboot anything that is still very and currently successful. Super Hero proved that too.

You're misunderstanding my post. I'm not saying reboot Dragon Ball as a whole, or even reboot the current line of movies like Super Hero. I'm saying reboot the atrocity that was Dragonball Evolution and have the movie reboot series run ALONGSIDE the rest of the franchise (like Marvel does with the MCU, comics and cartoons).

[Cure Dragon 255]

Your post is a bit of a mumbled rant if I am honest.

Why reboot anything that is still very and currently successful. Super Hero proved that too.

The Mario video games are extremely successful and the Movie universe still got a much needed reboot. Mecha did not say at any time the Anime should be rebooted AND EVEN THEN your premise is flawed since Dragon Ball COULD USE a reanimated reboot anyway.

[Dbzfan94]

There's so much context missing here.

The 90s movie was live action and pretty far removed from source material all things conisdered. The animated one did so well because it was faithful, helped heavily by Nintendo and well, animation.

Evolution bombed for similar reasons. There's 0 reason why Toriyama and Toei would allow another Hollywood movie, when they can just make their own anime movie and make way more money.

[MasenkoHA]

I think people who say Dragon Ball won't work in live action lack imagination. What they really mean is "a literal adaptation with Goku's hairstyle and the animal people won't work in live action". And yeah changes would have to be made but Dragon Ball's DNA is baked into live action films and works that have been been adapted into live action. It would absolutely work with the right writer, director, special effects team, cast, stunt team, art design, etc etc.


However...

There's so much context missing here.

The 90s movie was live action and pretty far removed from source material all things conisdered. The animated one did so well because it was faithful, helped heavily by Nintendo and well, animation.

Evolution bombed for similar reasons. There's 0 reason why Toriyama and Toei would allow another Hollywood movie, when they can just make their own anime movie and make way more money.

..all of this is 100 percent on the money

[Hellspawn28]

The 90s Mario movie grown to have a cult following over the years. DBE on the other hand, not so much. Even almost 15 years later, people still hate it. I thought back in 2009 that the film would have a cult following over the years similar to how the 1994 SF live action movie did. But, nope.

[MasenkoHA]

The 90s Mario movie grown to have a cult following over the years. DBE on the other hand, not so much. Even almost 15 years later, people still hate it. I thought back in 2009 that the film would have a cult following over the years similar to how the 1994 SF live action movie did. But, nope.

I remember the 90s Mario movie got semi regular play on the Disney Channel in the early 2000s. I imagine that might have somewhat helped boost it's nostalgia property value.

I don't think Dragon Ball Evolution got much tv play on kids programming blocks to get that benefit. Plus Dragon Ball Kai was still airing so even kids had better options. Back in the early 2000s that Mario movie was the only Mario show/movie since the old DiC cartoon was off the air by then iirc.

Another example is Batman and Robin. Before Batman Begins came out that movie was on TNT like once a month and I know people who don't hate that movie because they remember seeing it a lot as kids and usually either have fond memories of Ahnold as Mister Freeze or recall Chris O'Donnell's Robin being an awakening for them

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

True, and even if the Bob Hoskins/John Leguizamo/Dennis Hopper Mario film still isn't a great movie (and also doesn't really work as an adaptation of SMB) in of itself at least it has that cult following to it's name despite being a box office flop back in 1993. DB Evolution doesn't even have such a benefit and even 14 years later it still remains this obscure anomaly in the larger Dragon Ball franchise.

[DragonBallFoodie]

A Hollywood reboot... let's not pretend Evolution wouldn't ever get a reboot.

But it's all up to Toriyama and Toei to give the green light. Which most likely they won't, being burnt by Evolution and not willing to risk repeating that fiasco (not for now anyway).

Maybe with the more outlandish elements of comics and manga coming into play currently (talking animals, mystic kung fu, a generally more faithful approach in writing/designs to incorporate realism, but only up to a point) there may be a time when DB can get a chance for another attempt and it can be faithful enough to make fans happy and be a hit.

[dragonmagico]

why would anyone want that? even if it could be done decently why would anyone want hollywood to get their hands on more anime properties again? just so we can go to "le normies" and say "ha our stuff is popular and not just for losers?" i'll never understand it

[TheGreatness25]

I really don't think Evolution needs a reboot because nobody cares about that movie. It's not like that was Dragon Ball's one true chance to make it mainstream. It was a bad movie and we all just kind of moved on from it.

[Majin Buu]

Why reboot Evolution when the name has so much baggage attached to it?

[Cure Dragon 255]

I think mecha3000 mispoke but his logic is sound. Making a new film in Live Action that genuinely listened to Toriyama is a sound idea. Not necessarily rebooting Dragon Ball Evolution as much as it is not giving up on Live Action Dragon Ball.

[WittyUsername]

I don’t think there’s likely to be one anytime soon.