ANIME

Dragon Ball Movie Box Set (2, 3, 4) dvd review

Movies: 2-4
Genre: romance, comedy, action

Greg’s back with yet another anime review. Looks like this will be the second ever Dragonball article to be featured on Dreamlogic. I guess, if you’re reading this, and are a fan, you might want to also check out a few stills from the American Dragonball Movie [via]. That is, after you finish reading Greg’s review.

In an effort to provide hungry Anime fans with a complete Dragonball viewing experience, Funimation has released a collection of the second, third, and fourth Dragonball movies, all of which have never been seen by American television audiences. Having seen the whole series on TV many years back and being a huge fan of the series, I was excited to check these movies out, but the movies overall turned out to be fairly underwhelming and this box is probably for serious fans/collectors only.

Mystical Adventure (3rd movie)

The first one I watched was also the shortest. In less than an hour we are introduced to most of the major characters from the series there is a tournament, the heroes thwart the evil plans of Master Tao and Master Shen, and they manage to find all of the Dragonball s and save the day. Even though this story happens outside of the normal continuity and really provides nothing new, it is still a fun short trip back to the world of Dragonball , with slapstick comedy, adventure, and epic martial arts battles.

The Path To Power (4th movie)

After that, I decided to watch the really long one, The Path To Power, and it lacked the compact appeal of Mystical Adventure. The Path To Power was basically a retelling of the series from the beginning to the saga with the Red Ribbon Army and managed to take about 50 episodes of the anime and condense them into an hour and a half. While I believe this approach would probably be a good idea for some of the more long-winded parts of the later series’ (Z and GT), with Dragonball it takes some of the fun out of the story. This is one I would avoid unless you are a Dragonball completes and even if you are, it might prove to be tedious.

Sleeping Princess In Devil’s Castle (2nd movie)

Of the three movies in the box, Sleeping Princess In Devil’s Castle is easily the most interesting for fans of the series, as it actually features a new story with new villains and environments. Right off the bat, you are treated to a gloriously 80s theme song with wailing guitars and priceless lyrics like “Goku! (shouted like a chant) He’s gonna show you!” and “the greatest test of all is to find the 7th ball”. The basic idea of the movie is that Goku and Krillin show up on Master Roshi’s island and he decides that before he can accept them as students, they must rescue a fabled sleeping princess from a place called Devil’s Hand. Goku and Krillin have some classic scenes of one upsmanship on their way to Devil’s Hand and along the way, a lot of the characters from the series (Yamucha, Pu-erh, Oolong, Bulma, and Lunch) show up and they discover an evil plot by Count Lucifer, the ruler of Devil’s Hand, which involves destroying the sun.

The set up to this is great and I was fairly excited, but unfortunately the movie ended up falling a little flat. The evil plot by the villains felt rushed so there wasn’t really any suspense. There was no real epic fight with the main villain and instead there was a somewhat short fight with one of his henchman and a bunch of weaker monsters. Also, there were different voice actors for Goku and Bulma, and while they did a decent job, those voices are very iconic to longtime Dragonball fans in the US, so it wasn’t the same. The Devil’s Hand environment was cool and I enjoyed how they tried to bring a little classic horror into the world of Dragonball , especially Igor, the no-nonsense hunchback butler…but it just didn’t quite work for me.

If you haven’t checked out the series, I would start at the beginning. Dragonball is one of my favorite anime series ever, what with its perfect blend of humor and action and adventure. If you are a die hard fan of the series looking to check out some of the movies, you should get this, but be aware that there might not be too many new revelations.

About the Author:

Gregory Masaki Jenkins is in a few bands himself and knows all about the politics that go along with it — but very little about the fame. He would like to think of one of his bands as the Greek folk music equivalent of “The Band”. His favorite anime is currently Bleach and is known to enjoy a little bit of J-Rock in his spare time.

Tags: ANIME, Dragon Ball, kids show, moneybags