Bola de Dragón: comienza la magia

Live action movie based on Akira Toriyama's well-known Dragon Ball manga and anime.

While it's overall appreciation by many doesn't seem anything to write home about, I would like to note that, while some changes were obviously made, it is actually very close to the spirit of the original Dragon Ball manga as well as the original TV series, which itself often got quite silly indeed.

Sure, things got a bit more serious in the DBZ follow-up series, but most of the film's main characters are close to their manga origins, and some of the events in the film are close to the original as well.

That said, this film will probably never win any movie awards, but it is a lot of fun, and a curiosity for all the Dragon Ball fans out there.

For those who whine about it being bad, just watch them other live action and tell me if you still think it's bad....it's dragon ball, its supposed to be comedy action packed with a bit of kinky adult stuff....

Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins is a live-action film made in Taiwan that is basically an unauthorized adaptation of Dragon Ball.

In this movie, King Horn, an evil alien, leads an army to take the seven Dragon Pearls, causing destruction and even death where he and his minions go. In the mountans, a girl names Seetou is searching for a Dragon Pearl, and meets Monkey Boy, a young boy who lives with his grandfather, Sparkle. After his home is attacked, Monkey Boy and Seetou goes on a journey to stop King Horn, who seels the Dragon Pearls to conquer the universe.

Okay, I get a lot of people are hating this, but I am not one of them. In fact, I think this is a better adaptation than what Hollywood would make 18 years later with Dragonball Evolution. Here, the movie stays true to the anime, as it keeps some of the characters accurate, despite the name changes to avoid legal trouble with Toei, the company who made the Dragonball anime, and kept the absurd humor it is know for. It does have some things I do not like (like Yamcha, a desert bandit, being turned into a cowboy from the West named Westwood, and replacing Puar with a talking cockatoo named Miss Knowwhat, as well as the fact that the only version watchable is the Ultimate Edition, which basically adds cheesy CGI effects), but this is live action adaptation that is close, as the story is a good mix of action and cheesy comedy, an it's closer to the anime it is based on.

First of all leave your brain at the door for this low budget adaption of the original DragonBall animated series. The film is obviously a homage and isnt meant to be taken seriously. For those who would call the overacting (if you can call this acting) and insane gestures ludicrous, I remind you that these people are portraying cartoon characters and frequently (especially in the original DB cartoon) Japanese animation goes overboard with insane, silly nonsense. The story is basically pretty faithful, we have different heroes banding together to regain the Dragonballs and summon the Eternal Dragon. We meet various incarnations of Goku, Master Roshi (who is really quite faithful to his animated counterpart), Bulma, Yaumchau, and Oolong. The names are changed but this was probably because of copyrights. If youre a diehard DB fan and would like to see a live action effort then by all means here you go. I was surprised at the number of sexual innuendos and use of profanity tho. Of course Japanese cartoons are filled with such things as the standard is different. Not for young kids but the 12 and up set will be in hog heaven.

Ron Nanney

Mr. Brento wonders if this movie was produced by the same who produced the Dragonball Z TV series. Of course not.

This is a Hong Kong real action movie based on the first episodes of the Japanese original cartoon (which was also based on a comic book series). And I really don't know if it was produced under the license of the Dragonball creators...

However, the story of the monkey-boy with special powers is an ancient tale known all over Asia (in Japan, the name of the boy in the tale is Songoku; in China, it is Sunwukong; in Korea it is Sonogong; etc) and the story in Dragonball has much to do with that tale.

By the way, as I said, this movie is based on the first episodes of the Dragonball series (which was followed by Dragonball Z, although I think the US version had a different airing order). And all the scenes related to sexuality were also contained in the original cartoon series (without so much overacting and so much insistence on it!), but because of your comments I may suppose they were completely removed in the American dubbing.

Anyway, I agree with you about the overacting in the film and about how poor this adaptation of the original cartoon is. But maybe because of that nobody can forget it after watching it...