Dragonball: Evolution
by James Wong
List Price:
Our Price: $5.75
You Save: $9.23 (62%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.00 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Emmy Rossum, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Justin Chatwin, Yun-Fat ChowDirector: James Wong
Brand: Fox
Producer: Jose Ludlow
Producer: Rich Thorne
Producer: Rodney Liber
Producer: Stephen Chow
Producer: Tim Van Rellim
Writer: Akira Toriyama
Writer: Ben Ramsey
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
Published: 2009-07-01
DVD Release Date: 2009-07-28
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Dragonball: Evolution
Movie Review: HEADLINE: FAN BASE IN A BLIND RAGE MISSES THE POINT.
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie has been judged unfairly against an epic three series whimsical drama done in a wacky animation style. The vast majority of judges are a group of loyal fans who want nothing less than recycled episodes fleshed out in live action with identical scripting and casting. Every deviation is scrutinized and ridiculed. Mixed in with this crowd are avid haters of the overall original cartoon concept who serve as prosecutors, many of them not even gathering evidence by seeing the movie. And what is the crime? The crime is making a PG rated kids movie (much of the ridicule and disdain points to the fact that the movie script is neither intense nor shocking.) What these fans seem to miss is that the cartoon creator developed this concept himself. It is all over the style of the movie that HE (Toriyama) co-wrote/co-produced this movie. Adapted from early tales of the cartoon of the "child" Goku and abridged to temporarily exclude some characters and to fast-track plot development, Dragonball Evolution is actually an innovative and original refashioning of the long-winded cartoon stories of Dragonball into something more cinematic.
Of course for mass appeal, the producers were supposed to follow a recipe similar to Transformers where a perfectly innocent kid's show was refashioned into an edgy, somewhat nightmarish and sometimes inappropriately sexy... adult nostalgia fan flick. That's how you make big bucks. Do we care how "kid" movies impact kids?
But these producers chose a different path. Assuming corporate risk on a questionable project, FOX kept it toned down, more familiar and low budget. The results were not Dragonball (Z) enough to please the bulk of the support base and the marketing budget for the movie was kept too low to really draw a larger audience. Blockbuster-wise, the movie collapsed on itself.
None of this makes Dragonball Evolution a bad movie. As a fan of Dragonball the cartoon, I enjoy this video thoroughly. It is a whimsical tale of mystical peculiarity and adventure. I also enjoyed it as a movie that doesn't follow a standard mass market recipe. Some criticism about the way action sequences were shot and edited would be better understood in context of the vast material that would be yet to come. To fans of DBZ I would hint: consider future conflicts (especially Frieza battle) and the time factors involved. The criticisms of special effects do not take into consideration that everything in this scenario is ridiculously over-the-top and that is part of what is supposed to make it fun to watch. It SHOULD look surreal fake, like nothing ever seen before.
Bravo, Fox. A clever consolidation of several seasons with first season character intros. As a tribute to the original material (popular or not) Dragonball Evolution performs well. Like much of its cartoon legacy, the script is peppered with scenes of pop culture parody. Perhaps misunderstood to be content lifting (i.e. Karate Kid and Lord of the Rings) these scenes become more whimsical upon further examination and reflection. Toriyama loves to scene borrow as a tribute to pop culture. Actors were permitted room to define their characters, rather than climb into the "Theme Park Costumes" of the well-established animated icons. Much was thematically accurate about the characters, though there is room for criticism on the motivations and behaviors of Goku. A minor issue that could disappear as future story-lines would develop. Somewhere people wrongly got the idea that Dragonball is a martial arts tribute that should accurately depict exclusively oriental heritage. The cartoons as often as not lampooned traditional fighting technique and the heroic fighter Goku was regularly mistaken for an undisciplined weakling.
The scenes were familiar enough to recall the cartoon tales, but different enough to fashion a new drama with different variables. Some of the action scenes were almost frame by frame the cartoon segment they represented. Other scenes were like undiscovered country just beyond the pen and ink of the animated tales from which they borrow. The characters are about as whimsical and eccentric as in the cartoon, which could always tend toward the embarrassing and the cheesy. (I think the way Piccolo creates his evil henchmen in the movie is less ridiculous than in the cartoon version.)
The Movie backdrop is very much upscale Southern California, and yet somehow otherworldly with unexplained eccentricities (appropriately) at times futuristic and other times starkly barbaric. There is little familiarity with the characters, who are comfortable in this odd environment, but since it is an adventure tale based in a strange mystic globalism, you just follow the plot and hope to learn more along the way. Some of the variations in the tale confound everyone, but the movie begins the task of building the themes of heroic purpose that could draw a future project closer to the source material, if you care about that.
In Summary, if Fox Studios were more daring, the movie would perhaps have been more a fan tribute but not necessarily any more successful a mass-market movie. A fan driven tale would likely be over-run with characters and plot points that would need at least three movies' worth of time just to credibly justify to a new audience. Weighed down by plot and character baggage, the fan approved movie would fail. The verdict is still out on this scenario as a live action production and potential franchise. For those of us who found entertainment value transferring from cartoon to live action, it's a must have DVD with a few fun extras. But though I rate this movie high and recommend it, rent before you buy. The wacky zany World of both the cartoon and the movie is a hard sell... but, in this reviewer's opinion, pays dividends as you delve into it.
By the way. This is not a movie review site. Mine is a product (and content) review. Though I saw the movie in theaters I waited until I got the DVD to review. People who abused this forum by posting reviews for a product that hasn't even come out yet should have the review removed. This could perhaps be the first true PRODUCT review of this item, since I reserved my comments on Amazon until I got the product and used it. Amazon is not a movie review site. It is a place to rate PRODUCTS FOR SALE. As far as I can tell, all of the reviews of this DVD to date are not DVD reviews at all.
UPDATE
Responding to a comment below I reaffirm the notion that the Live action movie is a less edgy movie (Rated PG) than the unedited anime videos (13 UP) or Transformers (PG-13.) As to the rest, the ticked off fan reviewers continue to show their tendencies to demand almost religious adherence to the anime script (as they understand it.) The movie formula is still being developed (albeit out of sequence) so that future parts of the epic MIGHT play out closer to fan expectations.
Toriyama is listed as an executive producer in the credits at the end... so if he had some rumored tantrum (which I doubt) he must have gotten over it to allow being associated with the final project. I am not saying that all of the themes are fleshed out as well as the anime. In the movie, it is building characters up from different origins and introducing them at different times. I find much to agree with in the critical reviews, HOWEVER I resent preempting the right for other people (non-fans included) to find entertainment in this movie.
Summary of Dragonball: Evolution
DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION:Z EDITION - DVD MovieCo-produced by Hong Kong legend Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle), Dragonball Evolution is an agreeable if low-wattage live action adaptation of the iconic manga and anime series Dragon Ball. Director James Wong fuses the series? fantasy-based characters and devices with a somewhat lackluster storyline involving average teen Goku (Justin Chatwin), who breaks from his wholesale pining for classmate Chi-Chi (Jamie Chung) to that he?s at the center of an intergalactic search for the all-powerful Dragonballs by evil warlord Piccolo (Buffy?s James Marsters). With the help of master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat, who backburners his stoic screen image in favor of some God of Gamblers/Once a Thief-level hamminess), Goku develops his fighting skills to take on Piccolo and save the Earth. The film?s abundance of martial arts should please younger and less discerning viewers, but its hackneyed dialogue and sluggish pace (especially in the fight scenes, which stutter where they should flow) may disappoint longtime fans of the book and television adaptations. The CGI effects, which labor mightily to reproduce the source material?s eye-popping look, also fall short, though the cast is game, especially Marsters and Chow. -- Paul Gaita
Stills from Dragonball: Evolution (Click for larger image)
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Similar DVD Movies
Real Steel HDJumpgames Pvt. Ltd; Jumpgames Pvt. Ltd; Jumpgames Pvt. Ltd; Release date: 2011-09-29; App; Mobile Application
Best price: $0.99
ZENONIA 2GAMEVIL, Inc; GAMEVIL, Inc; GAMEVIL, Inc; Release date: 2011-06-01; App; Mobile Application
Best price: $0.99
Glow Hockey 2 ProNatenai Ariyatrakool; Natenai Ariyatrakool; Natenai Ariyatrakool; Release date: 2011-02-04; App; Mobile Application
Best price: $0.99
Street Fighter (Widescreen Extreme Edition)Universal Studios; Release date: 2009-02-10; DVD
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn / Wrath of the Dragon (Double Feature)Funimation; Release date: 2009-05-19; DVD
Best price: $12.94
Price in other shops:
Real SteelRelease date: 2012-01-24; DVD
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops:
Kung Fu Panda 2DWA; Release date: 2011-12-13; DVD
Best price: $11.75
Price in other shops:
Naruto Shippuden, Vol. 1Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-09-29; DVD
Best price: $2.92
Price in other shops:
MAD: The Complete Second SeasonRelease date: 2012-02-16; Amazon Instant Video; TV Series Season Video on Demand
Best price: $41.99
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun LiKREUK,KRISTIN; Release date: 2009-06-30; Published: 2009-06-01; DVD
Best price: $4.84
Price in other shops: