Dragonball Z - Movie Special 1: Son-Gokus Vater (Das Bardock Special)

Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku (1990) is a wonderful story of Goku's father. I love the concept and the fact that it fits PERFECTLY in the DBZ Universe. Its problem is that it's too short. 48m is NOT enough!

I wanted to see MORE! I'm sure if this movie was longer it would have been ONE OF THE BEST DBZ movies!

Still, nevertheless, I'm sure you'll enjoy the movie!

One of the best Dragon Ball Z movies. Most like canon though it is not. Interesting story about Goku's father, full of interesting plot twists. It describes how it all began. The first four movies (Z series) I didn't like, but this one is great and I recommend it to everyone. Definitely the best of the first 5 DBZ movies.

Originally broadcast almost 11 years ago, this tv special shows how advanced japanese animation is, nowadays people have jumped on the DBZ bandwagon.

This special "Story of Bardack" reveals Goku's father and his battle with Freeza, who would become a familiar character to DBZ fans.

Freeza would die and later get resurrected numerous times as well as Goku.

The story mainly is about Freeza killing of of Bardack's friends when he finds out Bardack is a super saiyan.

Bardack has dreams that he will have a son who is a mighty warrior. Soon he realizes this dreams are real when Freeza target s him. Bardacks knows he has to protect his futher son, and so like in the movie "Superman" Goku is sent in a space pod, to live on Earth and avenge his father Bardack.

Great DBZ special.

Normally, Dragonball Z movies have weak plots, horrible dubbing, censorship up the wazoo, and pretty useless fighting. However, this one is an excellent example of what the movies SHOULD have been like.

Bardock is a saiyan who, like everyone else on his home planet Vegeta, works for Freeza. One day, his team of low-level soldiers take out a planet that was giving even Freeza's highest elite teams a run for their money. However, the last survivor curses Bardock by giving him the power to see the future.

Bardock begins to dream about Goku's future back on Vegeta, while the rest of his team is sent to another planet on Freeza's orders. Bardock dreams that Goku will become a great warrior, but thinks nothing of it. However, as the plot unfolds, and he learns what Freeza is planning, he realizes that Goku will be the only hope for the universe someday.

The stuff I can't give away is what really makes the plot so wonderful. There are only a few fights, but that's to be expected; the plot is the main focus here. However, two fights do stand out: a little Vegeta destroys a bunch of Saibamen, and Bardock's final confrontation with Freeza. Overall, I recommend that any moderate to hardcore DBZ fan get this movie sometime. Trust me, you won't regret it.

Really enjoyed this one. It piqued my curiosity about Goku's history and the destruction of Vegeta. Bardock getting clairvoyance early on gave way to some great scenes and storylines. I especially liked the conversations Bardock shared with his son. There is a great similarity between Bardock and Goku's rage after losing their teams at the hands of Frieza. This set the stage for Bardock's redemption and an absolute badass final push to end Frieza. The animation during that final push was awesome and the destruction of planet Vegeta was just straight up beautiful. Baby Vegeta and Bardock's crew fighting as apes were my other highlights.