IMDb > Dragonball: Evolution (2009)
Dragonball Evolution
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Dragonball: Evolution (2009) More at IMDbPro »Dragonball Evolution (original title)

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Dragonball: Evolution -- The young warrior Son Goku sets out on a quest, racing against time and the vengeful King Piccolo, to collect a set of seven magical orbs that will grant their wielder unlimited power.
Dragonball: Evolution -- We find all seven Dragonballs in under five minutes. And review the film.
Dragonball: Evolution -- Movieplayer.it - Featurette (Flash)
Dragonball: Evolution -- The young warrior Son Goku sets out on a quest, racing against time and the vengeful King Piccolo, to collect a set of seven magical orbs that will grant their wielder unlimited power.
Dragonball: Evolution -- A young warrior must save the world from magical villains

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Overview

User Rating:
3.3/10   20,980 votes »
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Director:
Writers (WGA):
Ben Ramsey (screenplay)
Akira Toriyama (novel)
Contact:
View company contact information for Dragonball: Evolution on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
10 April 2009 (USA) See more »
Tagline:
This Easter the legend comes to life. See more »
Plot:
The young warrior Son Goku sets out on a quest, racing against time and the vengeful King Piccolo, to collect a set of seven magical orbs that will grant their wielder unlimited power. Full summary » | Full synopsis »
Plot Keywords:
User Reviews:
A Nutshell Review: Dragonball Evolution See more (435 total) »


Additional Details

Also Known As:
"Dragonball Evolution" - USA (original title)
"D.B.E." - USA (promotional abbreviation)
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MPAA:
Rated PG for intense sequences of action/violence and brief mild language.
Runtime:
85 min | 100 min (uncut version)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 See more »
Sound Mix:
Certification:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
James Marsters discussed the look of Piccolo during the Grand Slam 2008 convention. He said the producers wanted to make Piccolo "more beautiful" than James wanted him to be. Since the producers weren't around when filming started, James and the make up artist changed the character's look to make him ugly, which would reflect Piccolo's rage from being imprisoned for so long. James said, "It would be better to be fired than mess up Piccolo."See more »
Goofs:
Continuity: During the martial arts tournament, Chi Chi receives a cut to her lower right arm. In the temple when she fights the copy of herself, you see it again. But at the end of the film when Goku goes to see her, there is no sign of a cut or even a scar. This is strange due to there not very long between these events.See more »
Quotes:
[first lines]
Grandpa Gohan:In a time before many can remember, our planet faced its greatest challenge. A warlord named Piccolo camed from beyond the stars, bringing darkness and chaos to our once peaceful world. Aided by his disciple Oozaru, the evil pair brought the human race to the brink of annihilation. Cities and countries crumbled beneath them. Countless lives were lost. But...
See more »
Soundtrack:
RuleSee more »

FAQ

Will Goku turn to his oozaru form?
Why is Piccolo light instead of dark green at the beginning of the film?
Will Justin Chatwin wear a wig to play Goku?
See more »
191 out of 255 people found the following review useful.
A Nutshell Review: Dragonball Evolution, 12 March 2009
Author: DICK STEEL from Singapore

Hollywood plundering Japanese pop culture isn't something new. From "Americanizing" television series for the kids from Power Rangers to Ultraman, and adapting famed characters from Japanese film, games and manga to frequent disastrous effect, it still wouldn't stop the studios from going after one property after another. This time round it's the long running Dragonball series, because the assumption is that the built-in fan base would translate to instant dollars at the box office. Not.

You have to give the filmmakers a little bit of credit though, being either foolhardy, or just plain ballsy. It's a given that they cannot condense and distill the rich content into a surprisingly less than 90 minute movie, and live in the hopes of producing a sequel, or to generate a franchise (i.e. don't leave the cinema hall when the end credits start to roll). But what they successfully do, is to super-summarize the entire mythos by throwing out everything except the main gist of the entire manga, making it extremely simplistic in poor lazy-man standards in adaptation.

For the uninitiated, the film would serve as a quick launchpad to the original manga. For those with a wee bit of knowledge of what it's about (like myself), the film just treads along the same lines and doesn't offer you new information. For the fanboys, I guess you'll only get some kicks at seeing some of your favorite characters come alive, only that they look more Caucasian, and have a head full of hair when they're not supposed to (someone forgot to insist that in the contract?) That's all you're gonna get. Period.

As far as film-making and story-telling techniques go, you can see cliché after cliché being thrown at you, with the poorly and cheaply rendered special effects offering no consolation. Justin Chatwin's Goku is your typical teenager who possesses innate potential yet to be realized, and in his frustration he gets treated by peers as a loser geek. He lives with his grandpa Gohan (Randall Duk Kim in stereotypical know-it-all like in Kung Pu Panda), and develops a crush on school hottie Chi Chi (Jamie Chung). Goku's calling in life is to prevent an apocalypse from happening with the return of chief cardboard baddie Lord Piccolo (an instant shoo-in as one of the worst cinematic villains, ever!) and his temporary sidekick Mai (Eriko Tamura) who attempt to collect 7 dragonballs to fulfill an ancient myth. And of course Goku needs a Fellowship, in the form of irritating tech-wizard Bulma (Emmy Rossum last seen in the sinker Poseidon), mercenary Yum Cha (Joon Park who probably copied Rain's uninspiring cinematic turn in Speed Racer to a T) and Chow Yun-Fat the biggest name of them all here trying his darnest best to act cute as Master Roshi, who imparts skills in double quick time to Goku.

Speaking of time, or the lack thereof, everything is compressed. From two weeks to two days and the day of the blood moon shielding the yellow sun (OK so I made that up), everything moves at so fast a pace, that all you get are cheesy lines of dialog, and an excuse to paste some action sequences together. And James Wong certainly can't direct action (despite being at the helm of Jet Li's The One, which was of course bland and bad), opting to pay homage to Zack Snyder's slow-mo technique, and midway changing the style to having the camera being too close to the action, in the dark, coupled with quick MTV cuts that you don't get to see a thing.

And the rush job just doesn't stop at the narrative or the action. Special effects wise, they look really cheap, and I wonder whether Producer Stephen Chow would roll his eyes at what would be extremely pale when put side by side with his Kung Fu Hustle done many years ago. Ayumi Hamasaki's contribution of the theme song Rule sounded really bad as well (I may get flak from her fans), and I guess having some Asian participation doesn't legitimize what is essentially a poorly done movie. Not even Chow Yun-Fat's star status could save this, and you wonder what figured when this is the movie that he gave up Red Cliff for.

This is basically a movie that only children below the age of 5 will enjoy tremendously, despite having to see 6 half-balls, contributed courtesy of the 3 lead female characters, being continuously flashed on screen, thanks to some neck plunging wardrobe (where's that malfunction when you need one?) Totally bland and really uninteresting, I would suggest sticking to the manga instead.

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It's not a Racial Issue, it's an Authenticity issue. dgk-all-day
US$ 100 million? Really? SandroTheMaster
Anyone else felt emberessed? andretvhead
Goku should have been played by... lurkerlordx
Irony people are offended Goku is white hanlintayport
The Dragon ball radar Rett_Mikhal
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