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Dragonball Evolution

  • 2009
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 25m
IMDb RATING
2.5/10
84K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,805
1,948
Chow Yun-Fat, Emmy Rossum, Justin Chatwin, Eriko Tamura, and Jamie Chung in Dragonball Evolution (2009)
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.
Play trailer1:56
3 Videos
99+ Photos
Martial ArtsSuperheroActionAdventureFantasySci-FiThriller

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.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.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.

  • Director
    • James Wong
  • Writers
    • Ben Ramsey
    • Akira Toriyama
  • Stars
    • Justin Chatwin
    • James Marsters
    • Chow Yun-Fat
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    2.5/10
    84K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    4,805
    1,948
    • Director
      • James Wong
    • Writers
      • Ben Ramsey
      • Akira Toriyama
    • Stars
      • Justin Chatwin
      • James Marsters
      • Chow Yun-Fat
    • 663User reviews
    • 139Critic reviews
    • 45Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination total

    Videos3

    Dragonball Evolution: Trailer #2
    Trailer 1:56
    Dragonball Evolution: Trailer #2
    Dragonball: Evolution -- Trailer #1
    Trailer 1:52
    Dragonball: Evolution -- Trailer #1
    Dragonball: Evolution -- Trailer #1
    Trailer 1:52
    Dragonball: Evolution -- Trailer #1
    Dragonball Evolution: Grandpa (Exclusive)
    Clip 1:04
    Dragonball Evolution: Grandpa (Exclusive)

    Photos140

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    + 134
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    Top cast22

    Edit
    Justin Chatwin
    Justin Chatwin
    • Goku
    James Marsters
    James Marsters
    • Lord Piccolo
    Chow Yun-Fat
    Chow Yun-Fat
    • Roshi
    Emmy Rossum
    Emmy Rossum
    • Bulma
    Jamie Chung
    Jamie Chung
    • Chi Chi
    Joon Park
    • Yamcha
    Eriko Tamura
    Eriko Tamura
    • Mai
    • (as Eriko)
    Randall Duk Kim
    Randall Duk Kim
    • Gohan
    Ernie Hudson
    Ernie Hudson
    • Sifu Norris
    Texas Battle
    Texas Battle
    • Carey Fuller
    Megumi Seki
    Megumi Seki
    • Seki
    Ian Whyte
    Ian Whyte
    • Oozaru
    Richard Blake
    Richard Blake
    • Agundes
    Jon Valera
    Jon Valera
    • Moreno
    Rafael Valdez
    Rafael Valdez
    • Butler
    Mike Wilson
    Mike Wilson
    • Hildenbrand
    Freddy Bouciegues
    Freddy Bouciegues
    • Palmer
    Shavon Kirksey
    Shavon Kirksey
    • Emi
    • Director
      • James Wong
    • Writers
      • Ben Ramsey
      • Akira Toriyama
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews663

    2.583.5K
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    Featured reviews

    1TheLittleSongbird

    A contender for the worst live-action film for an animated TV series

    As bad as Inspector Gadget and The Last Airbender are, they look like masterpieces compared to Dragonball Evolution. The TV series was very, very good, the movie was half-baked and bland. The only good thing was James Marsters, while he mayn't look exactly like Piccolo he at least tries to capture the essence of the character. Just a shame he isn't in enough of the movie to elevate it even more.

    Why do I say that Dragonball Evolution is a contender for the worst live-action film for an animated TV series? The scenery and costumes are nice to look at, but the cinematography does nothing for me, the editing is shoddy and the lighting is dull. The special effects don't impress either, they do distract rather than enhance and it doesn't help that some of them are half-baked.

    The film is also too rushed, and in all honesty I was left bored by the end, nothing really interesting in my view happens. The story is juvenile and predictable, the dialogue is terrible either being cheesy or due to the delivery very rarely ringing true and the direction is bland. The acting is nothing to smile about, Goku and Yamuka especially are complete disasters and show a complete lack of acting ability. Not only that, the characters here are treated in the most banal way possible and are difficult to like as a result.

    Overall, a very poor movie. 1/10 Bethany Cox
    1vas_deferens

    For the love of god, if you respect the original series at all, do NOT pay to see this crap!

    Let me just start off by saying that there are no redeeming qualities to this movie at all. The multi-million dollar budget has amounted to a teen drama mixed with power rangers. The final product is insulting, to say the least.

    The creators of this horrible, horrible adaption should take a good long think about what they have done and why they should have just followed the source material instead of taken it for granted. Do they really think that the entire Dragonball fan-base is this stupid? Akira Toriyama probably has a noose around his neck right about now.

    To finish this off: The acting is atrocious, the butt-rock scattered through the soundtrack will make you want to punch the guy running the theater in the face, and the story is basically the manga's, but cut up, put into a blender, stuffed into sausage skins, and stitched back together with an American flag tied around it.

    If you want your Dragonball fix, just buy dvds of the show instead, skip the movie, and if you don't skip it, then at least don't pay for this thing. I heard that a sequel is already in the works, and we don't need a trilogy, that would be three of these movies too many.
    1scorpionlgr

    Overall F grade or 0/10, Save your money! wait until you can watch it online for free!

    This Movie plain and simple insults our intelligence, I mean I'm no Geek, but tham they were way off!, this should not even be called dragonball, because of stupid 20th Century Fox, now dragonball is ruined, if someone wanted to make a better movie with the real story that Akira Toriyama made, they made so many changes and mistakes that the dragonball that we know is gone forever, on Watchmen they made some changes but only so the essence of the show could be shown on film, but Dragonball is dead they killed it, I'm sorry Akira Toriyama they ruined your work and about every Anime , and dbz fan out there, like my Grandfather just to say "there's cheese all over that movie" It is illogical to spend the money on copyrights if you're not even going to use the story.

    Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network, originally disgusted at Otaku decrying the film via leaked set shots and trailers even before the movie was released, gave the movie an overall F grade, admitting that "The fans were right." Criticizing the films lack of explaining plot elements to its hackmead storyline and lackluster effort by the actors, he suggested that the film "Might be fun when you're hammered and surrounded by friends. Or suicidal, and need something to push you over the edge."
    2Monsoon77

    The perfect movie for anyone who hates Dragonball Z

    Watching DBE i can immediately tell the directors and everyone else involved have not watched more than a few episodes of the entire Dragonball series. The characters are only similar in name and the story feels like they chewed it up and spit it out and whatever stuck to the storyboard they went with. I wont ruin the story but its nothing like the anime, as i said before the characters are only similar to the anime by name. It almost seems like they wanted to make this movie as bad and as far away from the original story as they could. The only time an actor or actress acts like their anime counterpart is when they are first introduced speaking mainly about Master Roshi and Yamcha.

    For one of the most action packed animes around they sure did the opposite with the movie. I can count the number of fight scenes with one hand and count how long they lasted with two hands. Its pretty pathetic when the first fight scene with Goku and the "bullies" is the best and he never threw even threw a punch. The big screen debut of the Kamehameha is sad and pathetic and all the Ki blasts look like different color fire balls. They don't look pure energy (like they are in the anime) but just like slow motion fire.

    I could go on for hours about what they did wrong. If you have never seen the anime series don't watch the movie. The story is probably too confusing for anyone who doesn't know the entire back-story of the anime. The movie only gives you the who and the what but no why. In fact i think why sums up the entire movie. Why did they do this and why did they do that is all i was thinking during the entire movie. At the end of the movie all i could do was ask "Why did they make this movie and who did they make this movie for?" This is not a movie for the fans or anyone who has never seen the anime. It feels like they made this movie for the people who hate the anime.

    As a fan of the series I will award this no points and may god have mercy on their souls.
    1robin_dhanju-1

    A beyond Sub-par interpretation of Dragon Ball onto the big screens.

    This is a total butchering of what I had held great hopes of seeing. The movies attempts to follow the dragon ball story line, meanwhile adding a "modern" spin on it (ie. chi chi's castle, and Master Roshi lives in a regular semi whats up with that?). What the viewers want to see is a storyline that follows the cartoon series without any changes, and additions. Overall, the plot is weak, the characters do not look like the cartoons (ie. Yamcha, Master Roshi), the 2D cartoon series had better special effects than the movie (and the series had NO special effects, thats how terrible it was). I created an IMDb account JUST to comment on how they butchered Dragonball for me and I hope that Hollywood is smarter next time as to when they bring such a strong fan based series onto the big screens or they will only infuriate more of the audience.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      "Dragon Ball" creator Akira Toriyama was initially supportive of the announcement of a live action adaptation and asked fans to treat the film as a different interpretation of his work, but after watching the film he was so horrified at this adaptation of his work that he decided to revive the series with the animated film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013). He later revealed that he wasn't allowed to have any creative input on the film and all of his suggestions were rejected.
    • Goofs
      Piccolo can destroy a house with telekinesis, but he can't lift the Dragonball that falls off the stone mount back up to him at the end scene of the movie.
    • Quotes

      Chi Chi: Just because my name is Chi-Chi doesn't mean I'm an idiot.

    • Crazy credits
      SPOILER: There is a scene in the closing credits: Piccolo is revealed to have survived, and is in the care of the woman he spared in his first scene.
    • Alternate versions
      The UK release was cut, this film was originally shown to the BBFC in an unfinished version. The BBFC advised the distributor that the film was likely to receive a 12A classification but that the requested PG classification could be obtained by making changes to a number of scenes. In particular the BBFC suggested that gun threat to, and violence against, a woman should be reduced; a close-up and slow-motion impact shot in kick to face should be removed; a leaping kick to face in a fight scene should be removed; dismembering of fantasy creatures in fight scene should be made largely indistinct; the 'horror' effects in the transformation of the hero into a creature should be reduced; and the focus on throttling of a character should also be reduced. When the finished version of the film was submitted, amongst other limited changes, all these reductions had been made satisfactorily and the film was classified PG.
    • Connections
      Edited from Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)
    • Soundtracks
      Rule
      Lyrics by Ayumi Hamasaki

      Music by Miki Watanabe

      Performed by Ayumi Hamasaki

      Arranged by Hal

      Produced by Max Matsuura

      Courtesy of Avex Entertainment Inc.

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    FAQ28

    • How long is Dragonball Evolution?Powered by Alexa
    • Is "Dragonball Evolution" based on a book?
    • What is the history of the making of this movie?
    • Does Justin Chatwin wear a wig to play Goku?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 1, 2009 (France)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • United Kingdom
      • Mexico
      • Hong Kong
    • Languages
      • English
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • Dragon ball evolución
    • Filming locations
      • Sierra de Organos, Sombrerete, Zacatecas, Mexico(location)
    • Production companies
      • Twentieth Century Fox
      • Dune Entertainment
      • Star Overseas
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $30,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $9,362,785
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $4,756,488
      • Apr 12, 2009
    • Gross worldwide
      • $55,720,772
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 25m(85 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby
      • DTS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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