Doragon boru Z: Chikyû marugoto chôkessen

What I have grown to love about Dragon Ball is that all the stories tend to lead to something big happening at the end. When i started watching this movie I assumed the same would be true. We learned about what the Tree of Might can do to planets and its purpose. We are introduced to a few new Saiyans, one of which has a rather familiar face! The characters involved get into some pretty epic battles and we even get to see the Big Ape come out.

It was all looking like it was going to lead to something huge happening. However, when the big reveal and final battle were revealed I felt somewhat deflated. I don't know if it is just me, but this is not what I had grown to expect from Dragon Ball. This movie is great for fans of the series, but don't expect great things.

While whatever little happens in this movie is top notch and nothing less than spectacular, it only lasts for 1 hour and ends up less than satisfying especially after the screwed up ending. The fight scenes are the best of any DBZ episode and the special effects are superb. However, there's really not much story and too much time is wasted on the usual 'staring' present in DBZ. To illustrate how good the few scenes and action are, take note that the majority of the scenes in the DBZ series title song are from this movie. The animation standard is much better than the average DBZ episode. A major shortcoming is that Turles and his team spend too little time fighting. They should have had much longer fight scenes when it came to his team and they were too easily defeated. However, I prefer this to the Brolly movie any day. There is very little in this movie but that little is top notch stuff. Definitely a must see. Is it a must purchase? I really can't say the same.

A Saiyan named Taurus has invaded Earth in order to plant a tree that will both destroy the planet and give Taurus strength a hundred-fold. Goku and the Z fighters aren't going to let this happen and duke it out with Taurus's group for the sake of the Earth.

This movie has more alternate storytelling than the previous movie did. As the movie went, it has little connection to the anime series than the whole meeting Icarus part in the movie, who only appears during the Garlic Jr. Saga.

That and the introduction of Taurus who only appeared in this movie and was never mentioned during the first 3 seasons of the anime. As he and his minions wear the same uniform for Frieza, but they never mentioned their leader even though it's obvious who they work for.

So in short, the Dragon Ball fans will enjoy this title for an alternate storyline movie.

This is another good "Dragonball Z" movie, but I don't think it's one of the best. I think it's mostly because of the villain. He looks just like Goku and I kind of think that was a bit too obvious to represent as an evil counterpart to him. He doesn't have much depth and I felt like they could have done more with him. Hey, we get an environmental message in the series! It's kind of weird to see the Dragon Balls being used for something like that. Besides this, it's still quite watchable.

This introduces Gohan's pet dragon, Icarus. Alright, I'm not sure if he appears in the later movies, but it's interesting to meet this character. I think it's a good idea to have a main character with a pet. There really is something you could do with that and it works here. At first, I thought they wouldn't go all the way and make Gohan the great ape, but they did! The plot is also pretty cool. I like the idea of a giant tree, especially with all the details with the roots. It's a pretty original idea. Turles (I thought his name was pronounced "Turuls" and not "Tur-less") has some colorful henchmen too. ***

Although I gave this movie an 8/10, I didn't like it quite as much as the other Dragonball Z movies. The whole reason was the ending. I don't want to give anything away, but it seemed like they got 45 minutes of the movie done and said "Uh-oh, we made this movie too long! We have to think of some way to end it, fast!"... The final battle was somewhat of a disappointment. If they would have spent a little more time and made a really excellent ending to match the rest of the movie, it could have been so much better. Still a must see for any DBZ fan.