Dragon Ball, le film - La légende des 7 boules de cristal

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...

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....

THE PLOT:

When beautiful Bulma searches for the mystical Dragon `BALLS'. She meets young Goku, who was chasing after the goons who kidnapped his Grandfather Gohan for his 4 star Dragonball. Joining forces Goku, Bulma, Yomcha and Oolong vow to collect the remaining Dragonballs and rescue Gohan from the forces of the evil King Horn.

THE OPINION:

This has got to be the WORST dubbing in the history of foreign films. Like they changed easily pronounced named like Goku and Bulma. Plus they changed the name of the Dragonballs to Dragonpearls. What the hell was that for? Did the American movie company the American people are that stupid to think of live Dragon Testicles? Aside from the bad dubbing, the original makers blew it big time on several key points. Like Goku's Grandfather Gohan was dead when he meets Bulma. Plus he was called `MONKEY BOY' because he had a tail. Plus for 1989 the creature effects could have been allot better, even for a Chinese film. I GIVE IT (4 STARS) ****

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE (+HITS)

+FLYING (The overall combat scenes were very good)

+ENERGY WEAPONS (They didn't forget the Kamahamaha wave)

+LOOK (The Dragonballs looked just like the cartoon)

ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE (-MISSES)

-BAD DUB (The VO was just awful, Monkey Boy instead of Goku, and the Turtle Hermit instead of Master Rôshi)

-PLOT HOLES (Goku's Granpa Gohan was dead)

-NO TAIL (What happened to Goku's tail? It's not like a tail is a hard effect. They did it in the Wizard Of Oz)

and finally two words:

-DRAGON BALLS (When did Dragonball become a bad word? It's in the freakin' title for crying out loud)

Live action take on the enormously popular Japanese cartoon series, Dragonball. Many of the original characters are present, including Gokou, Kame-sennin (Master Roshi), Yamu-cha, Bulma, and Oolong, although they are given different names. The story more or less follows the original introduction to the characters in the series (ie. meeting each other by chance while searching for the Dragon Balls/Pearls). Low budget (at least after spending so much on explosions), but enjoyable if you like cartoonish kung fu movies and Dragonball!

Man, I have never laughed at any one single movie before than the way I laughed at this one. It was absolutely ridiculous. Was the movie bad, no doubt, but it had every person I showed it to nearly crying in laughter.

There are a lot of miscommunication here though. In the English, Dubbed version, there are numerous name changes. The real, original names are followed by the movie names:

Monkey Boy - Goku Sparkle - Father Gohan Seito (i'm sure thats the name) - Bulma Piggy - Oolong Mrs. Knowitall - Puar Lord Horn - Pilaf Mr. Westwood - Yamcha Turtle Man - Master Roshi I can't remember chi-chi's name, but it doesn't matter

Anyway, there is a good reason the names are translated so poorly. This is Japenese being translated into Chinese. Monkey Boy makes perfect sense. DB is based off of a Chinese legend of a Monkey-like boy named Goku after all. No one really wanted the names to be that dumb, but I'm sure there was a good reason for it.

The effects are hilariously awful. Strings are very visible. Grenades are no-more than rubber balls. Westwood's sword seems to be rubber (lol). The Velcro on Monkey Boy's and Sparkle's outfits are visible. When sparkle is shot out of the well, the body is a stationary doll of some sort. When Lord Horn's mouth moves, the face seems like it is falling off. When Lord Horn releases the spell on all of the citizens, they are all supposed to fall, but a whole group of people can be seen standing up, looking very confused.

The sound effects are also hilarious. It seems as though the production team was running out of money. Pac-Man noises can be heard everywhere.

Anyway, I can't really bash this movie. I love it. It is so bad that it can make me laugh, just by thinking of it. Every time I think about the bad animations and paper airplane attacks, I can't help but crack a smile.

I'll give it a 5 on a completely objective point of view. I would give it a 10 because I love it so much.