Category Archives: Film

August 13, 2018

Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan

By Joe

Dragon_Ball_Z_Broly_–_The_Legendary_Super_Saiyan_(Movie) Japanese Title: Burn Up!! A Close Fight – A Violent Fight – A Super Fierce Fight

Original Release Date: March 6, 1993

English Release: August 26, 2003

Directed by: Shigeyasu Yamauchi

Screenplay by: Takao Koyama

Running Time: 72 minutes

If there is an MVP of the Dragon Ball Z movies then it might be Broly by default. Starring in a record three films, Broly is the most over-exposed of the movie villains. Thankfully, he doesn’t appear in three consecutive films and there’s a film in between this one and his second appearance as three in a row really would have felt like overkill. Probably owing to his exposure, Broly has become a some-what polarizing villain among DBZ fans. He’s very recognizable and his appearance is striking so he has a tendency to show up across all media related to the franchise. He’s featured prominently in video games, toys, and other merchandise though he’s been kept out of the main series as well as Dragon Ball GT (or at least he was, until it was announced in July that he’ll be the featured villain in the upcoming Dragon Ball Super movie due to hit theaters in Japan this December). His status as the Super Saiyan of Legend gives him instant credibility to go along with his menacing appearance. He’ll never be as overpowered as he is here, nor will he ever be as interesting, but for a first appearance this one is pretty good. This is also the longest DBZ film thus far and will remain so until Battle of Gods. Most of these movies are kept under an hour, but this one is over 70 minutes and it feels pretty long as a result. Is it too long? Maybe, but we’ll get to that.

Master Roshi enjoying himself during a picnic.

The film opens with King Kai (Sean Schemmel) sensing the destruction of a planet in the south galaxy. It’s an ominous piece of foreshadowing and I think it’s safe to say we’ll unravel the mystery of who’s responsible in short order. He reaches out to Goku (Schemmel), who is preparing for a school interview with his wife Chi-Chi (Cynthia Cranz). Chi-Chi is trying to enroll Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) in a fancy school and needs Goku to be on his best behavior during the interview process in order to get him in. Goku has been forced to put on a suit and is clearly out of his element as Chi-Chi coaches him on the right things to say. She’s more than a little annoyed when King Kai starts butting in to fill Goku in on what’s transpiring in space.

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Paragus, along with his son Broly, claim to be among the few remaining Saiyans to survive the destruction of their home world.

Elsewhere, the rest of the Z Warriors are enjoying a picnic. Master Roshi (Mike McFarland) is looking pretty toasted as he makes a fool of himself. A spaceship touches down and a Saiyan male named Paragus (Dameon Clarke) emerges and immediately swears fealty to Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) who apparently wears his battle armor when attending a picnic. Paragus claims to be one of the last remaining Saiyans and informs Vegeta that they’ve settled on a new planet Vegeta (not to be confused with our Saiyan prince), and he wants Vegeta to rule them. There’s also a problem as the Super Saiyan of Legend has emerged and is wreaking havoc across the galaxy. Paragus needs Vegeta to take care of him, and Vegeta is ready to go. Vegeta, surprisingly, buys the story hook, line, and sinker and doesn’t even question how Paragus could be alive. The others are skeptical, and Gohan, Trunks (Eric Vale), Krillin (Sonny Strait), Master Roshi, and Oolong (Bradford Jackson) decide to board the spaceship and tag along.

The quiet and docile son of Paragus – Broly.

Paragus takes the group to New Vegeta, a ruinous planet where the others await. Paragus introduces his mostly mute son Broly (Vic Mignogna), and Vegeta decides to take Broly with him to look for the Legendary Super Saiyan as he’s grown annoyed by his own son, Trunks, who has voiced his doubts about Paragus. Broly is a tall, somewhat lanky, black-haired man with a soft expression. Paragus seems to suggest he’s not very powerful, but we’ve seen the title of this movie and we know better. As Vegeta and Broly search for the Legendary Super Saiyan, Trunks, Gohan, and Krillin explore the rest of the planet. They soon encounter the other inhabitants of the planet, a cute, small, race of creatures who have been enslaved by the forces of Paragus. They’re horrified by what they see, and Gohan jumps in to fight the slave masters. During the fight, Goku arrives via his instant transmission technique as he’s interested in meeting this Legendary Super Saiyan.

When Broly powers up his hair takes on a purple, and eventually a blue, hue.

Back at the palace, Vegeta and Broly return empty handed. Vegeta is a bit annoyed to see Goku, but it’s Broly who really seems agitated. He begins to grow angry at the sight of Goku, forcing Paragus to raise his hand upon which a golden gauntlet shines. It seems to react with a tiara that Broly wears and the boy is soon calmed while Goku is puzzled. That night, Goku is attacked in his sleep by Broly. The two trade blows until Paragus arrives, calming his son once again with the device on his hand. As he leads Broly away, Goku begins to suspect that it’s Broly who is the Legendary Super Saiyan.

Paragus returns to his room and questions if his mind control device is malfunctioning, or if Broly is just becoming too strong. We’re then shown the origins of the two. Broly and Goku were born on the same day and were placed beside each other in the nursery. It was obvious to all that Broly possessed incredible power from birth, but the constant crying of Goku beside him basically drove him mad. King Vegeta, fearing what Broly would become, ordered the execution of both him and Paragus, but Broly proved hard to kill. He saved his father, and the two were exiled following the destruction of the original planet Vegeta. Paragus has been using his mind control device ever since to keep Broly’s power in check, as without, he becomes lost in his own power.

The Legendary Super Saiyan revealed!

Goku confronts Paragus about Broly, while Vegeta has decided he’d rather just head back to Earth. Paragus denies the accusations, but eventually the slaves see Broly and confirm that he is indeed the Legendary Super Saiyan for he’s the own who destroyed their home planet. At the sight of Goku, Broly is unable to control his rage. He breaks free of the mind control device and his power is unleashed. He bulks up to an outlandish size as his hair takes on the traditional Super Saiyan look and his eyes go completely white. A green aura envelopes him, giving his hair a slightly different tint to what we’re accustomed to seeing from the other Super Saiyans, and the battle is on.

Probably the film’s most famous shot.

Goku and Broly battle, but Goku is overmatched. Trunks and Gohan join the fray, but Vegeta is too paralyzed with fear to do the same. He’s spent a lifetime hearing about the Legendary Super Saiyan, and views him as unbeatable (why he was so eager to find him early in the film isn’t explained, maybe he just doubted that the being could possibly exist). Paragus sees this as an opportunity to taunt Vegeta and fill him in on he and Broly’s backstory. This is Paragus’s way to get revenge against Vegeta’s father for nearly killing he and his son years ago, and as icing on the cake he reveals that a comet is heading straight for New Vegeta and will destroy them all.

Vegeta finally enters the fray, but is just as helpless as the others.

The other Saiyans are having no luck against Broly, until Piccolo (Sabat) shows up with some senzu beans. Adding Piccolo to the mix changes the outcome little, as Broly is still just too powerful. Piccolo realizes they’ll need Vegeta’s help if they’re to have any chance, and he basically shames the proud warrior into action, though he’s just as successful as the others. Paragus tries to escape in a Saiyan Space Pod, feeling it’s probably best to let the comet kill his son, but Broly catches him. He kills his father by throwing the pod into the incoming comet, and he’s now free to set his sights on the others.

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A powered-up Goku and Broly clash.

Goku realizes the only way to destroy Broly is for the others to lend him their power to concentrate it into a super attack. I suppose it’s the same concept as a spirit bomb, but instead it requires the others to just give them his power directly. They all do as requested, even though they’ve all been beaten to a pulp themselves, but Vegeta is the lone holdout. Goku still doesn’t have enough power, and eventually Vegeta relents. Bathed in a tremendous glow, Goku is finally able to go toe to toe with Broly. The fight is brief, and he concentrates his attack into a single punch aimed at Broly’s abdomen. It was there Broly was stabbed and left for dead as an infant, and the impact of Goku’s fist causes the old wound to reopen. Broly explodes, and the remaining warriors round up the slaves and pile into the spaceship Piccolo used to reach New Vegeta. They all escape before the comet’s arrival. Goku teleports he and Gohan home, where an angry Chi-Chi awaits. Goku is able to recite his scripted interview responses, causing Chi-Chi to faint and allowing our film to end on the usual humorous note.

Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan makes good use of its long run time by bringing us along slowly. If not for the film’s title, the mystery of the Legendary Super Saiyan would probably be more satisfying, though it would probably still be fairly obvious that Broly is connected to the figure of legend. It’s an interesting setup though, and it’s different from what we’re used to as the heroes are whisked away to a new world and new location instead of having some alien invader come to Earth seeking Goku or whatever. I like the tragic backstory of Paragus and Broly, though the trauma inflicted upon Broly of a crying baby Goku is pretty stupid. I don’t know if Toriyama came up with that as it’s kind of in-line with his brand of humor, but it misses the mark. If they wanted a comical reason for Broly to hate Goku I feel like they could have come up with something better. If they wanted it to seem sincere, then they really missed the mark. The film also largely looks awesome, with some different backgrounds to take advantage. In particular, I really enjoyed setting of the picnic at the beginning of the movie with all of the cherry blossoms in the background. It would have been neat to see a fight unfold there.

This movies takes an interesting look at Vegeta, that works in some ways and doesn’t in others.

The portrayal of Vegeta feels inconsistent and kind of off. Vegeta has always been the proud warrior, so it made sense to me why he would want to seek out the Legendary Super Saiyan. He welcomes a challenge, but he apparently also has respect for the myths and legends of his deceased people. He’s unusually quiet, and just goes along with Paragus, when I feel like he should have been more cocky and proclaimed himself the actual Legendary Super Saiyan. When Broly’s power is revealed, seeing him a puddle is really bizarre. I have no problem with exploring a different side of Vegeta, and in fact it’s something I really like about our next movie, but I think they took it too far and it feels like too much of a betrayal of who Vegeta is.

Trunks_Preparing_to_Fight_Broly_Alongside_Goku_&_Gohan

This one features the film debut of Super Saiyan Gohan as well as Trunks’ long-haired look.

These movies have a hard time coming up with unique ways to end the conflict. It’s disappointing that this one basically utilized the same method as our previous film, Super Android 13!, with Goku borrowing a bunch of power in order to deliver a killing blow. The problem with this movie is that we have no even fights at all, save for maybe the very first, brief, encounter between Goku and Broly. A large portion of the film’s run time is devoted to the fight with Broly and it’s mostly a slaughter. He’s so effectively violent though that it remains engaging watching him decimate the heroes. It’s just disappointing that when Goku does power-up, he basically ends the fight with one blow. I would have preferred to see a more even matched confrontation that lasted some length of time, but oh well. The side-story with the enslaved race also felt rushed. It’s crazy that with the film running as long as it did that some stuff still felt under-developed, but I guess that’s what happens with a more ambitious plot.

Even with its problems, I still came out of this one really enjoying it. It’s one of the better Dragon Ball Z movies, and say what you want about Broly, he comes across as a legitimate villain with a cool design. He resembles the bulky Trunks from the main series, only he’s even bigger and isn’t penalized in the speed department by his massive physique. It’s kind of a novelty to see Goku dominated so convincingly, though the final outcome was cheap. As a result, it’s not surprising that the films would want to revisit Broly even if his demise seemed pretty damn final. It’s just too bad that the rematch is going to be a pretty underwhelming affair.

Leave a comment | tags: akira toriyama, broly, dbz, dragon ball z, funimation, gohan, goku, legendary super saiyan, toei, vegeta | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film

August 8, 2018

Ranking the Many Versions of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

By Joe

Turtles in Time With Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hitting the airwaves, it felt like a good time to sit down and take a look at the various incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As you are likely aware, the TMNT got started back in 1984 when writer/artists Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman created their debut comic. Since then the four have become international superstars and seen their likeness adapted for television, film, a stage tour, and other comics over the years. Across these many mediums we’ve seen the four brothers sport many different looks, display different personality traits, while mostly adhering to the core of being mutated turtles that practice ninjitsu taught to them by their surrogate father – a rat named Splinter.

Whenever a new show based on an old property is unveiled, there’s almost always an immediate backlash by a certain portion of the fan base. It doesn’t even matter if the fanbase is inconsequential or even non-existent, as was seen recently with the She-Ra images unveiled, there will always be those who hate the new and prefer the old. And who am I to say they’re wrong? Hate it all you want, but you’ll always have what came before. I draw the line when folks say “they’re ruining my childhood” because that’s preposterous. Your childhood came and went, it’s history, there’s nothing to ruin. I’d encourage everyone to be open-minded and don’t be a slave to nostalgia because you’ll ultimately find more things in life to enjoy with such a mindset, but to each their own.

For this ranking, I am weighing the general design heavily above all others. This ranking is subjective and largely about how appealing I find the design of the four turtles to be. I am also giving a little added weight to the quality of the medium as well – does it hold up? Is it entertaining for children? All ages? And so on. I’m also just sticking to the comics, television, film, and stage show and not video games or toys. Most of the video games were based on one of those other things or strongly resemble another and the same is true for the toys. I don’t want things to get too unmanageable, so some of this may feel a little condensed, but you’ll see what I mean when we get to each one as I’ll note if there are any deviations. With that said, most of these all have some aesthetic charm to them, with only the very back-end of this ranking being particularly poor. Let’s get to it then, shall we?

What have we unleashed upon the world?

13. Coming Out of Their Shells Turtles

I ended up with 13 distinct flavors of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and by far the most dreadful would be the stage show Turtles from the Coming Out of Their Shells Tour. If you weren’t alive in 1990, basically the brand was on fire. No one could really explain it, and still can’t since the premise is so preposterous, but everyone was pretty sure it wouldn’t last much longer. Anyone with a financial interest in the TMNT was rushing product to shelves to capitalize as quickly as possible and someone thought a live show was a worthwhile endeavor. Utilizing two sets of costumes, the Turtles would appear on stage in some radical threads and would sing, dance, and mime fights with the bad guys from the cartoon. There were also backstage segments that were pre-taped featuring more conventional play style sequences for plot points. These costumes weren’t really meant to be seen up close since they were for the stage, and it shows. There’s no nuance to their mechanical mouths which just flap around. They have these crazy wide-eyed expressions and the added clothing items just look dorky, to put it simply. What was crazy though, is that these costumes weren’t confined to a live show. They had them appear on Oprah and in home videos so you could see just how terrible they looked. The home video and Christmas Special probably came out after the money had been made on the actual tour, but the Oprah thing still blows my mind.

These guys smell.

12. The Michael Bay Turtles (2014 Film)

I know I look like some old curmudgeon for sticking one of the most recent incarnations in the 12th spot, but I can’t help it – I really hate these guys. It wasn’t a surprise to see the newest films opt for CG over costumes, even if it was still disappointing, nor was it a surprise to see a new look for the gang green. However, could they have made these guys look any uglier? They’re a monstrous mess, just a pile of weapons, belts, and clothing. They embody the same personalities we’ve known for years and yet feel so lifeless. Even only four years after the first film, and a mere two after its sequel, these guys already feel forgotten and that doesn’t bother me one bit. I really have nothing nice to say about them. I guess Bebop and Rocksteady were cool?

Talk about a downgrade.

11. All Effects Turtles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III)

The third film in four years for TMNT was the abysmal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. I liked it well enough as a kid I suppose, though it definitely was my least favorite of the trilogy. As an adult I find it mostly unwatchable. I suppose it can be laughed at in a manner befitting only bad movies, but my word do those costumes look awful. The first two films featured costumes designed by the Jim Henson Company and were remarkable for the time. For the third film, Golden Harvest and New Line Cinema contracted All Effects and the results were less than spectacular. The main bodies of each turtle looks fairly similar, but with less texture. They clearly looked like rubber suits. The heads though were awful. The dynamic expressions of the earlier costumes were gone replaced with something more static and soulless. I am not certain, but my guess is All Effects just went with one head design for its costumes as opposed to Henson’s multi-head approach. These ones are a bit more frog-like and just off-putting. Making these worse, the personalities of the Turtles were also less defined. Corey Feldman reprised his role as Donatello from the first film and apparently was considered the star as his character had way more lines. Everyone was kind of jokey and just along for the ride with only Mikey displaying much range. A very unsatisfying end to the trilogy. The feudal costumes at least looked kind of neat.

They kind of look like they’re melting.

10. The Saban Turtles (The Next Mutation)

It feels like I’m picking on the live-action costumes in the early going, but I guess it’s to be expected with such outlandish characters that originated in print. And it also has to do with money. The third Turtles film was produced on the cheap, and the stage show certainly was as well relative to a film budget, and if you know much about TV cartoon development in the 90s then you know Saban is notorious for being cheap. Saban is most famous for bringing us Mighty Morphin Power Rangers which took film from the Japanese show Super Sentai and dubbed it for American audiences as something different. That’s about as cheap as it gets for show creation. It’s actually a surprise that the company even wanted to do a live-action series of TMNT in 1997 well after the franchise’s peak years. Titled Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, it required all new costumes and sets and must have been rather expensive relative to other Saban entertainment. Even so, there was no way it was going to match the costumes from the film series, and while you could argue these are worse than what All Effects gave us, at least they tried to change things up. This show also famously added a fifth turtle, Venus de Milo, and it sort of followed the continuity of the other live-action heroes. It was pretty hokey and more than a bit cheesy, but I suppose it has its fans.

Passable, but also forgettable.

9. Imagi Turtles (TMNT 2007 film)

In what was a bit of a surprise, Warner Bros. tried bringing back the Turtles with a CG sequel to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III 14 years after that film had been released. In truth, audiences didn’t need to know much about those previous movies to see this, just a general knowledge of who the Turtles were since a lot of time had passed in universe as well. The movie was okay, not bad but not exactly good either, and the CG was befitting that of a major studio. The characters mostly embodied the archetypes established in the first film, but the visual style was very different. The Turtles were more rounded with squished faces. Their skin was smooth and mostly free of any texture. They looked slippery and ever more frog-like than what we saw in the third film. It animated well, but the stills are some-what lackluster. It’s not the design I would have picked, but it was fine and not really noteworthy as this film is easily the most forgettable of the first four.

I don’t hate this.

8. The Flying Bark Turtles (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

It seems premature to even include the newest version in these rankings, but here we are. I said a lot about them in my write-up for the first episode, but as designs go I don’t hate these. I appreciate the willingness of the producers and the animators at Flying Bark to try something pretty new. There are elements of the older designs in the new ones, but with this show the brothers are, for the first time, different subspecies of turtles. Even though I didn’t much care for the show, I can at least appreciate what it’s trying to do. And if we’re just going by looks, it’s definitely got more personality than what was ranked behind it.

A lot more menacing than that old cartoon.

7. The 4Kids Turtles (2003 Cartoon)

We have arrived at what is perhaps our first controversial ranking. The 2003 series produced by 4Kids Entertainment is well-regarded. It came at a time when the kids who had grown up on the TMNT were willing to embrace something that had grown up with them while a new generation was also willing to dive into a show about mutated ninja turtles. The show was a back to basics, taking a lot of the material from the original Mirage Comics run and adapting it for television in a kid-friendly manner without pandering. The old chunky designs were replaced with sleek, muscular, frames and the skin tones of the old Playmates toy line was essentially made canon as each turtle was a slightly different shade of green. The personalities were a bit of an amalgamation of the old cartoon and comic, with Raph, Leo, and Donatello being pretty close to the source while Mikey was a bit more like the old cartoon character. Where this one sort of stumbles for me is with the decision to go with the blank eyed look from the comics and toys. It makes the characters look pretty cool in a still frame, but when they had to emote it looks awkward. A future series would integrate this better. Don’t mistake this ranking as an endorsement of the 87 cartoon over this one as I’d much prefer to watch this series over that one any day.

Regardless of your feelings on this show, you can’t deny this is still what most folks picture when you say Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

6. The Fred Wolf Turtles (1987 Cartoon Series)

Here is where we get to the big one, the most recognizable brand of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the one most responsible for the popularity of the franchise. These turtles actually had four some-what distinct looks, but we’ll get to that. In general though, the makers of the cartoon took the designs from Mirage and mostly added color and personality. The Mirage TMNT looked cool, but aside from Raph they didn’t offer much personality. They also looked the same and had those blank eyes which wouldn’t play well on television. To make up for that, the cartoon introduced the colored bandanas and pads unique to each turtle while also giving them actual eyes. Raph was toned down from a hot-tempered malcontent to a sarcastic prankster while Leo mostly retained his super serious persona. Donatello was made a genius, and Mikey a surfer dude. Oh, and they all loved pizza. Like, really loved pizza. It’s stuff you know all about now, and even though the cartoon basically existed to sell toys it at least looked pretty good. The first season, at least. In that one, the Turtles were a more muted shade of green with more musculature and a hint of a beak. Come the second season they were a bit brighter and more rounded. Weapons were de-emphasized and animators saw little need in actually showing their weapons holstered and so forth. By the final season though, they received a fairly radical redesign that introduced more blacks and a more angular shape. It was trying too hard to make the Turtles seem “dark” and “cool” and didn’t really play well. In Japan, a pair of OVAs were released that mostly featured the standard look of this serious, but gave the Turtles crazy transformation powers. You may remember seeing the toys for these on store shelves and wondered where they came from, well there’s your answer. I didn’t think either was really worth devoting a separate ranking to, but felt they were worth mentioning.

The storylines in the pages of Archie’s TMNT weren’t much better than the cartoon, but the artwork was a ton of fun.

5. The Archie Turtles (Archie Comics)

Alongside the original cartoon series was the Archie Comics series. This series basically captured the look and feel of the cartoon, but did at least experiment with making things a little more mature. I basically only decided to give the Archie Turtles their own entry because of what they did with Raph. Still keeping him mostly in-line with his cartoon counterpart, he was also made the loner or black sheep of the family and he wore all black for a while. It was confusing for me as a kid and I probably didn’t care for it, but now I look back and give Archie credit for not just adapting episodes of the cartoon into printed form.

I’m guessing you’ve seen this image before, and probably not on the cover of a comic book.

4. Mirage Comics

All style, no substance. That’s pretty much the Mirage Turtles in a nut-shell, or should I say half-shell? While they did get better, initially the four characters were interchangeable. Chunky, but muscular, they were depicted in black and white and were only distinguishable by their weapons. Eventually, the personality of Raphael would be added and he was given a foil in Leonardo and a kindred spirit in Casey Jones. Leonardo would be made the stoic leader, while Donatello the introverted tech-nerd. Mikey never really morphed into the character we’ve seen elsewhere and he’s kind of hard to get a read on. Eastman and Laird’s artwork also improved along the way and their version of the Turtles from say issue 4 on is pretty damn good. Eventually, other artists were brought in to work on the books and you could do a separate listing on the various different takes they had on the characters, but for the purpose of this ranking I’m basically just going with the Eastman/Laird take. The peak of their art is probably best reflected, and most can recall it from the cover art to the first NES game. It confused the Hell out of me to see all four of the Turtles wearing red, but I sure thought it looked pretty bad ass.

The show that made April and Casey adolescents and made it work.

3. The Nick Turtles (2012 TV series)

It took some time, but the 2012 version of the characters seen in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did eventually grow on me. As far as personality and so forth was concerned, I was pretty much hooked from the start. The same archetypes were followed that we’re used to, but they felt more malleable and sincere. Leonardo wasn’t just some goody-two-shoes, he often struggled with being a surrogate Splinter when out on the town. Raph was a bit of a hot-head, but he didn’t strike me as being confrontational just for the sake of it. Donatello was a brain, but an insecure one. Mikey was still juvenile and mostly care free, but without being too over-exposed. This show pretty much nailed it as far as that goes. From a looks perspective, they basically went with the first movie, but with colored masks. The Turtles also featured three toes for the first time, an odd choice, but largely inconsequential. They wore wraps on their feet too which was different, but it made sense (those other turtles must have had some serious blisters) and added a little personality. About the only thing I didn’t like was the sometimes boxy-looking anatomy. Their shoulder muscles looked practically square, but it became less noticeable the more I was exposed to it. I loved that each turtle had his own body type and you could tell them apart by that alone. I also liked the little touch of making their eyes go blank when in combat. Definitely a move that’s all style and has no practical explanation in-universe, but it’s a cartoon so who cares? Have fun with it! This television series should be the new measuring stick for any future incarnation of the TMNT. That doesn’t mean they all should take the same approach, but strive for the same level of quality.

Maybe the coolest looking version of the TMNT yet.

2. The IDW Turtles (IDW Comics)

Alongside the 2012 reboot came a reboot in printed form. Kevin Eastman returned to the franchise alongside IDW Comics and presented a new version of the TMNT. It basically takes the tone of the original Mirage Comics, while also adding in the more developed personalities that would follow. The artwork is largely great, and the Turtles are back to wearing all red (they would eventually gain some color). If you’re an adult fan still mad about the new cartoon, well just head to a comic shop and read this series. This is the version of the TMNT made for those who out-grew the franchise, and from that perspective it’s pretty good. The Turtles will never be high art, and there’s tons of fan-service plots in this series, but in general it’s what most TMNT fans over 30 probably want.

I love these guys.

1.The Henson Turtles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze)

Could there be anything else? The 1990 movie is still the best adaption of any kind of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Taking the Mirage look, adding in the colored masks from the cartoon, and also its own creative liberties resulted in a near perfect take on this green team. The four brothers all look different, all act different, and all go through their own ups and downs along the way. They have distinct personalities and challenges to face, and most of all the costumes created for these two movies are fantastic. I prefer the more realistic approach of the first film. That one was less intimidated by showing these characters for what they are, while the second one brightened things up and made them a little more appealing to look at from a practical sense. In other words, the Turtles of the first film looked like they lived in a sewer, while the ones in the second looked like they lived in an upscale apartment in Manhattan (which they did for a time). The first film is also very different in terms of style and tone, but the Jim Henson Company worked on both. The costumes received mostly minor tweaks between films, though Donatello looks almost completely different (he also had the biggest personality change as well, I guess because Feldman left the franchise). Both films entertained me a lot as a kid, but of the two, only the first one actually holds up. The second is basically a live-action version of the cartoon, though Raph still gets to inject a bit of conflict into the group dynamics. That first film is the best though. It hits the sweet spot between the gritty violence of the Mirage source material and the playful banter of the cartoon. It’s unlikely we’ll ever receive a better version of these characters, but maybe someone out there is just waiting to prove me wrong. I hope they’re successful.

1 Comment | tags: 4kids, IDW, kevin eastman, michael bay, mirage comics, new line cinema, nickelodeon, ninja turtles, peter laird, saban entertainment, teenage mutant ninja turtles, the next mutation, TMNT | posted in Comics, Film, Television

August 6, 2018

Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13!

By Joe

DBZ_THE_MOVIE_NO._7 Japanese Title: Extreme Battle! The Three Great Super Saiyans

Original Release Date: July 11, 1992

English Release Date: February 4, 2003

Directed by: Daisuke Nishio

Screenplay by: Takao Koyama

Running Time: 46 minutes

The 7th Dragon Ball Z feature film boasts another famous debut, that of Future Trunks, to the world of DBZ films. The last film brought in his father, Vegeta, which kind of played up the notion of there being two Super Saiyans. Well, what’s better than two Super Saiyans? Three, obviously! Even the Japanese title for this film goes right for that little tidbit, while the English version is once again content to just tell us who the villain is going to be. And since this film came out during the heart of the Androids/Cell Saga, it’s probably not surprising that the villain is going that route. Since the anime gave us an Android 20, the inventor Dr. Gero himself, without listing every android between 1 and 20 it left Toei with a lot of room to make new characters following that numeric assignment. I believe the regular series only gave us androids 8 and 16-20, though I could be forgetting some from the Dragon Ball era. This film is going to present to us Androids 13, 14, and 15 and they’re certainly different in terms of styling, which we’ll get to. Let’s get down to business though.

Goku out of his element.

The movie opens with a flashback to the murder of Dr. Gero (Ed Marcus) at the hands of Android 17. It’s re-animated and not just the same footage we’ve already seen from the show and it’s slightly more graphic. As Dr. Gero’s blood oozes into the floor the camera pans below to reveal a hidden super computer buried under the laboratory. Three nearby, human-sized pods emblazoned with the numbers 13, 14, and 15 are shown and it’s more than a little ominous. After the opening credits, Krillin (Sonny Strait), Oolong (Brad Jackson), Master Roshi (Mike McFarland) and Trunks (Eric Vale) are shown standing in line for a beauty competition in a super mall. They’re the only ones in line, and Trunks, dressed in his debut Capsule Corp jacket complete with sword, is kind of just along for the ride. Oolong and Roshi are quite eager to see some babes, while Krillin is at least trying to play it cool, but he’s not fooling anyone. Goku (Sean Schemmel) is there shopping with Chi-Chi (Cynthia Cranz) and Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) and having a pretty miserable time of it, until they decide to get some lunch.

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The somewhat problematic Androids 14 and 15.

Once seated, they’re joined by the others who were previously waiting in line, but found out they were there on the wrong day and wasted their time. While the heroes dine, two individuals enter the city and start calmly strolling through while also blasting everything in sight. They’re an interesting pair. One being, a short guy with purplish skin and an outlandish outfit and a tall guy with pale skin who has kind of an Indigenous American look to him. They’re silent, and head straight for the restaurant the main characters are dining at. Eventually, the commotion reaches them and Goku and his friends are forced to evacuate all of the patrons and waitstaff as they initially think a mega earthquake has just struck. They soon encounter the ones responsible who introduce themselves as Androids 14 (Ed Marcus) and 15 (Paul Bandey). Like the other androids, they exist to kill Goku due to Dr. Gero’s vendetta against our hero. Goku, never one to back down from a fight, invites the duo to follow him to a more remote location away from all of the innocent people.

This movie marks the film debut of Trunks.

Goku leads the androids to an arctic area. Trunks follows and Gohan and Krillin aren’t far behind. Goku and Trunks pair off against the two androids and they more than hold their own without having to even resort to their Super Saiyan states. That is, until Android 13 (Doug Rand) shows up. Sporting a mullet haircut and a trucker hat, 13 introduces himself and explains how the trio came into existence. He has a bit of a righteous tone, while speaking with an American southern accent (Trunks even refers to him as a redneck) and vows to kill everyone. Outnumbered, Trunks and Goku find themselves struggling until Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) decides to show up. Citing his now tired explanation of wanting to be the one to end Kakarot (Goku), he goes after Android 15 while Trunks takes on 14 and Goku 13. Eventually, all three power-up to their Super Saiyan forms and immediately the tide begins to turn. 14 and 15 appear to be no match for a Super Saiyan, but 13 is still able to put up some resistance against Goku. Gohan tries to get involved, which just necessitates a rescue from his guardian angel Piccolo (Sabat).

Android 13 sees the value in wearing a vest, but apparently not shirts.

Trunks and Vegeta are able to defeat and destroy their opponents, leaving only 13. Goku and Piccolo have teamed up and are beating him down, but 13 has an ace up his sleeve, or he would if he had sleeves. Components from the defeated 14 and 15 float up and merge with 13, causing him to transform into Super Android 13. His skin takes on a purplish color, while he gets orange Super Saiyan-like hair while significantly increasing in mass. Vegeta tries to arrogantly take him on solo and is dispatched rather quickly. The others give it a go, but Android 13 is just too powerful in his new form.

Behold! Super Android 13! He kind of looks like a rejected Blanka design.

You probably know what that means. Goku is going to have to power-up a Spirit Bomb attack if they want a chance at defeating 13, which means the others will have to stall for time so Goku can properly form the attack. That’s how the rest of the film unfolds, with the others being severely out-classed by 13, but still finding enough resolve to keep him away from Goku. Toei does introduce a little wrinkle this time into the Spirit Bomb attack, one that kind of goes agains the canon rules of the attack, but it’s not really a big deal. It’s not enough of a swerve to prevent the maneuver from feeling tired at this point, but it’s an ending.

Ouch.

Super Android 13! is basically just one long fight. Most of the films are light on plot, and there’s something to be said for just getting to the action as quickly as possible, but this one may be too focused on that. The designs of these new androids feel very “ethnic.” Japan doesn’t have the same racial hang-ups America does so they probably don’t care, but it is weird to see this white, redneck guy bossing around what looks like an African American pimp and Native American. Not only does he boss them around, he’s demonstrated to be superior to them in design. It’s an uncomfortable observation to make, though I honestly don’t think it had any impact on my enjoyment of the film.

Even ignoring those racial implications, the designs of the androids are kind of lame. 14 has little character, though 15 is definitely a sight. He has a loud design and his giant hat and sunglasses are kind of in-line with Akira Toriyama’s sense of humor, which makes sense since he designed them. Android 13 is kind of just stupid looking, and his super version is arguably dumber, but at least it’s intimidating. The arctic setting is a welcomed return though as I enjoyed it way back in the second film, The World’s Strongest. Here they don’t really play up the elements much, but it looks nice.

Looks like our heroes will need to find a quick way to power-up if they want to defeat this guy. Gee, I wonder what that means?

For this dub, it feels like Funimation took more liberties than usual. 13 mocks Trunks’ haircut as a “$30 haircut,” which doesn’t make sense since there’s no such thing as dollars in DBZ. He has a righteous attitude, as opposed to just wanting to kill Goku, and mocks humanity’s abuse of free will. In his powered up form, he’s prone to cursing when in the Japanese dub he mostly just growls. There’s also the previously mentioned “redneck” line and an instance where dialogue was added in place of silence. It’s during the closing moments when Piccolo and Vegeta are seated on a floating piece of ice. I’m actually not complaining because their brief exchange is kind of funny. This isn’t the last time those two will share a scene to close out a feature.

Since Trunks is in this one with his sword, that means they have to do that delayed split-in-half thing after he charges at an enemy.

Ultimately, Super Android 13! is not one of my favorites. The action is just okay, there’s not a lot here we haven’t seen before, and the pacing of the fight is quite redundant with other movies. The setup is even less interesting, though at least the brief moments with our resident perverts is kind of amusing, and it’s always enjoyable to see Goku living a more suburban life and reacting to it. Visually the film is fine and it’s on par with the better movies. There aren’t many animation shortcuts and the picture is bright and vibrant. The snowy landscape helps to make the fighters stand out against the backdrop, though there is an absence of really big, flashy, attacks outside of the underwhelming conclusion. In short, it’s fine, but Toei can do better.

Leave a comment | tags: akira toriyama, android 13, android 14, android 15, dbz, dr. gero, funimation, goku, super saiyans, toei, trunks, vegeta | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film

July 30, 2018

Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler

By Joe

Japanese Title: Clash!! The Power of 10 Billion Warriors

Original Release Date: March 7, 1992

English Release Date: August 13, 2002

Directed by: Daisuke Nishio

Screenplay by: Takao Koyama

Running Time: 46 minutes

Movie six, The Return of Cooler, is our first instance of a repeat villain and not the last. I suppose you could consider it the second, since by the release of this one Garlic Jr. had made his second appearance by showing up in the actual anime series. For the movies though, this is the second appearance of a villain. Cooler, fresh off of his defeat in movie five, is back for revenge and this time he’s joined by a star. And by star I don’t mean someone famous or important, I mean an actual star: The Big Gete Star. Set on the planet New Namek, The Return of Cooler marks the movie debut of everyone’s favorite Saiyan asshole: Vegeta. Since this one takes place during The Imperfect Cell Saga, Vegeta is in his Super Saiyan form so I guess he was just sitting out these movies until he was appropriately powerful. It was a bit odd seeing him left out of Cooler’s Revenge, given his history with Frieza, but I suppose it was better than seeing him pop-in just to get his ass handed to him (like Piccolo often does). Not to be overlooked is the film debut of Dende, the newly appointed Guardian of Earth. Strangely, this film premiered before Dende assumed that role in the series. It’s not a particularly huge plot point in the show, and it was being adapted from a manga anyway, but it’s still kind of odd to see that plot “spoiled” by a movie.

The film opens on New Namek where the Namekians enjoy a peaceful existence, much in the same way they did before Frieza’s arrival on their former home. A colossal, mechanical looking planet then comes into contact with the world. It grips it like a parasite, and the people of New Namek are helpless to do anything about it. On Earth, Dende (Laura Bailey) can sense what is happening to his former home, and not knowing what else he could do, he turns to Goku for help.

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This is the rare movie where Piccolo actually doesn’t get his green ass handed to him.

Goku (Sean Schemmel) is always willing to help out, and he and his friends hop into a Capsule Corp spaceship and head for New Namek. Apparently they do not anticipate there being a huge problem as joining Goku is Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny), Krillin (Sonny Strait), Piccolo (Christopher Sabat), Oolong (Brad Jackson), Yajirobe (Mike McFarland), and Master Roshi (McFarland). No explanation is given why such a large contingent needed to go, and they don’t offer up an explanation for why Goku didn’t just teleport to New Namek, but it helps to keep the comic relief on-hand, I suppose. Though Yajirobe? That guy never likes to leave his tower.

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A rather interesting crew.

When they arrive on Namek they find all of the people there have been enslaved by an assortment of robots. It’s not clear initially what it is the robots want from the Nameks as they’re just sort of being marched along, but obviously it can’t be anything good. The heroes spring into action, but find the robots are all pretty tough on their own. Goku goes off to confront their leader, leaving the others to take care of the underlings. Only Piccolo seems capable of matching the robots, but with the numbers greatly at their advantage, they eventually overwhelm him and the others.

Cooler is back, whether you asked for it or not.

Goku is able to track down the leader and he’s shocked to find out it’s none other than Cooler (Andrew Chandler). When we last saw Cooler he was being blasted into the sun, which was apparently very successful as Cooler no longer has his body. Instead he’s a metal construct that takes on the form of Cooler’s fourth form, the one that resembles Frieza’s final form, as opposed to his more advanced form. As a cyborg, Cooler proves to be quite formidable. As Goku damages him, the Big Gete Star is able to repair him and even reforms complete limbs. Not only that, he learns from his mistakes and weak points in his body are further strengthened to prevent the same injury from occurring again.

That’s a neat little trick.

With Cooler being as powerful as he is, Goku is forced to go Super Saiyan. Adding further insult, Cooler even lets him know he can also utilize the Instant Transmission attack removing one of Goku’s new trump cards from his deck. He’s able to take control of the fight and when it looks like Goku is about to bite the dust, the prince enters the fray.

Goku is no match for Cooler on his own.

Vegetal (Sabat), claiming he’s here to make sure he’s the one who gets to kill Goku (or Kakarot, as he always refers to him as) so that we don’t mistake his appearance for charity. Despite seeing Cooler’s dismantling of Goku, Vegeta is still his usual arrogant self and he rushes headlong at Cooler. It doesn’t take much time for Cooler to demonstrate his superiority once more, and the two Super Saiyans are forced to do something neither ever wanted to do: team up.

Vegeta! This is no time for a nap!

On their own, Goku and Vegeta were unable to make much headway against Cooler and his new metallic form, but together they stand a chance. Knowing Cooler will just repair any real damage they inflict, they have no choice but to go all out and simply overwhelm Cooler with their combined attacks. It works, but the two warriors are totally spent and collapse onto the ground. To their horror, reinforcements arrive and dot the horizon around them. At first it’s just a few, then it becomes dozens, hundreds, thousands! And the reinforcements aren’t more of the robots that fought with Piccolo and the others, but copies of Cooler! Not ones to simply admit defeat, the Saiyans power-up as best they can, but predictably they’re defeated and taken as prisoners to the Big Gete Star.

A little teamwork goes a long way.

Inside the star, the mostly unconscious Super Saiyans are strung up by a series of wires deep within the core of the planet. The star needs energy to power itself and it intends to snack on a pair of Super Saiyans. Cooler appears and can’t resist the usual villain trope of explaining how this all came to be, and what he intends to do from here. The star had found Cooler in space following his defeat at the hands of Goku. When it initially found Cooler, the Big Gate Star was a mere microchip. It fused with Cooler and began to grow. The chip and Cooler became one, and the Big Gete Star is essentially Cooler, whose remains are still intact serving as the hive mind of the whole contraption. Having really no other alternative, Goku and Vegeta power-up from their positions and Cooler has trouble absorbing all of the energy being output by the Super Saiyans. It overloads the system, freeing not only Goku and Vegeta, but the others as well who had been captured. All except Piccolo, who has been making his way to the Big Gete Star and gained entry, only to be confronted by a Metal Cooler.

Eh, they’ve been in worse situations.

With the circuits overloading, Goku and Vegeta are able to attack the core of the star which is basically just Cooler’s mutilated head. He soon creates some giant monstrosity of himself and attacks. Vegetal slices off one of the Mecha Cooler’s arms, allowing Goku to unleash a mighty blast vanquishing Cooler once and for all. As the core dies, the Cooler attacking Piccolo explodes. He’s able to reunite with the others for an escape which needs to happen fast as the whole place is coming down. The whole planet disengages from New Namek and explodes in orbit. Before anyone has too much time to ponder their fate, Goku and Vegeta fall from the sky, a bit banged up, but alive. They’re able to revel in their victory while Vegeta makes a quick, offscreen, exit. He gets the last moment though as he’s shown fleeing in a space pod clutching the last remaining microchip from the Big Gete Star which he crushes in his fist.

Cooler’s one last trick is some sort of mecha-version of himself.

Like the first appearance of Cooler, The Return of Cooler is a pretty straight-forward and briskly paced film. Unlike that one, the action here is pretty consistent. Since it takes place on New Namek, it’s not all that visually interesting since the original Namek, which New Namek is apparently a carbon copy of, was a pretty boring looking place itself. The interior of the Big Gete Star is at least a different look for the series, and the new robot designs are unique to this film and not repurposed from the show. Cooler, in his resplendent new form, looks rather “cool” and you can tell Toei spent most of their budget on making him look nice and shiny. I’m torn on if I would have preferred he be in his fifth form or this one, but that one lacks a mouth and I’m guessing the animators find this one is easier to work with and convey emotion through. The other characters also look great with there seeming to be a strong effort to make Vegeta look impressive in his debut. Lots of straight lines help evoke the feel of the later stages of the manga and anime and everything looks rather sharp. Cooler’s regeneration abilities are also pretty damn neat to watch and much more visually interesting than say Cell’s ability to do the same.

Remind me again why Goku brought them along?

I’m on record as saying Cooler’s Revenge may have been my least favorite of the films so far. I didn’t find fault with the villain, Cooler, though in reaching that conclusion, I mostly just hated the execution. Even so, I wasn’t exactly eager to receive another appearance from Cooler. If we were going to repeat a villain though, he’s probably better than any of the ones that have come before him so far. A more popular repeat villain still to come is Broly, and he’ll even beat Cooler’s record by making a third appearance, and given a choice between those two I would probably give the edge to Cooler as being the better villain. It will be fun to revisit Broly in the coming weeks and see what my attitude towards him is now, but from what I remember I wasn’t super impressed.

All in all, a nice film debut for Vegeta who looks exceptionally bad ass throughout this one.

The Return of Cooler is a much better send-off for the character and helps soften the blow of Cooler’s Revenge. It wasn’t necessary that Cooler get another try, but it’s not as if these movies are filled with classic villains so I don’t think we really missed out on anything. It’s good to finally have Vegeta in these films, even if his role is somewhat small from a character perspective, he’s just there to beat stuff up. He’s mostly a glorified cameo in these movies, with perhaps one exception, but I’d rather he be in them than not. And since the anime resisted having Goku and Vegeta pair up it’s pretty neat to see it here in a movie. And that’s mostly what these movies do best is give us a taste of something the anime didn’t get a chance to do.

Leave a comment | tags: akira toriyama, big gete star, broly, cooler, dbz, dragon ball z, funimation, goku, toei, vegeta | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film

July 23, 2018

Dragon Ball Z: Cooler’s Revenge

By Joe

DBZ_Movie05 Japanese Title: The Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest

Original Release Date: July 20, 1991

English Release Date: January 22, 2002

Directed by: Mitsuo Hashimoto

Screenplay by: Takao Koyama

Running Time: 47 minutes

This seems as good a time as any to talk about the titles of these movies. The direct translation from Japanese is right at the top of each of these entries I’m making, and taken in that sense, they’re usually pretty crazy. They’re often very descriptive or kind of comical. This one, The Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest, is one of the more comical ones. When dubbing and releasing in English, Funimation basically gets to come up with whatever title it thinks makes the most sense. In this case they went with Cooler’s Revenge, which feels like one of the more boring titles they came up with. For one, we don’t know who Cooler is going into it so why in the world would he be out for revenge? I guess we’re supposed to watch and find out, but it just seems kind of lazy. In this case, the directly translated title sounds like something I’d want to watch! Incredibly Mightiest? – I want to know who that guy is. A cooler seeking revenge? Sounds like a beverage container got mad that it’s being used as a bait bucket on a fishing trip or something.

We get to watch poor Bardok get smoked again at the start of this one.

Anyways, if you didn’t guess on your own, Cooler is related to Frieza. He’s his brother, to be exact, and he’s come to Earth seeking a battle against Goku to redeem his family name. He has no love for his deceased brother making it clear this quest for revenge is more about honor than anything. This is also one of the few movies that could have conceivably been fit into the actual Dragon Ball Z timeline given that a lot of time passes offscreen between the Frieza and Androids Saga. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but it’s an interesting aspect of the picture.

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Cooler, who spends the bulk of the movie in his fourth form which resembles Frieza’s.

The movie begins with a recounting of Frieza destroying the Saiyan home world: Planet Vegeta. We’re shown the events from the perspective of Cooler (Andrew Chandler) and his small army of loyal men. He scoffs at Frieza’s (Linda Chambers) carelessness and at how childish he’s behaving. One of Cooler’s men, Salza (Michael Marco), picks up a Saiyan Space Pod on their radar escaping the destruction. He suggests they destroy it, but Cooler refuses saying it’s Frieza’s problem. They apparently have their own areas of the universe to dominate, and there’s an aspect to his personality that would probably welcome the destruction of his brother. We then jump forward for a quick recap of the Goku and Frieza battle and witness Goku, as a Super Saiyan, defeat the evil tyrant.

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Like most of the big bad guys on in this show, Cooler has a group of loyal henchman. Salza, pictured here, appears to be his right-hand man.

In the present, Cooler is on his way to Earth, like so many villains before him. On Earth, Goku (Sean Schemmel) and his friends are camping (this sounds really familiar) when Cooler and his men show up. Goku isn’t looking for a fight, but he’s obviously ready to defend his friends and family. Cooler and company obviously seek something else, and they begin their attack. They overrun the earthlings, and a blast intended for Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) is taken by Goku inflicting a near mortal wound on the warrior. They’re able to escape, and Krillin (Sonny Strait) sets Goku up in a cave to rest while Gohan agrees to head to Korin’s tower for some senzu beans. He takes Icarus so that he doesn’t have to expend any energy that would be picked up by Cooler, and off he goes.

Gohan is sent for senzu beans but runs into some trouble.

Gohan is able to make it to the tower without detection where he encounters Yajirobe (Mike McFarland) and Korin (Mark Britten). Korin tries to play a bit with Gohan while Yajirobe isn’t in the mood for games and orders the cat to just give up the beans. Gohan thanks them and takes off, but on his way back to the cave he is unable to avoid Cooler’s men. They shoot down Icarus and rough up Gohan, but just before they can deliver a mortal blow (and stop me if you’ve heard this one before) Piccolo (Christopher Sabat) shows up! He tangles with Cooler’s men, allowing Gohan to slip away. Piccolo takes care of two of Cooler’s men, Dore and Neiz, and seems capable of taking out Salza as well when Cooler arrives. He uses his Death Beam attack to neutralize Piccolo and orders Salza to track Gohan.

Piccolo gets a brief moment to shine in this one, emphasis on the word brief.

Gohan makes it to the cave, but before he can hand over the pouch of senzu beans Salza arrives and fries them. Krillin heads outside to buy them some time, when Gohan remembers that Yajirobe tossed him an extra which he stored in his sash. He gives it to his dad, who immediately starts to feel better. While his strength is returning, Gohan and Krillin team-up to take on Salza but find themselves overmatched pretty quickly. Goku emerges from the cave to even the odds, when Cooler shows up baring an unconscious Piccolo. He provokes Goku further by blasting Piccolo through the chest and letting his body fall to the Earth. Goku takes his anger out on Salza, sending him soaring out of the picture, and then turns his attention towards Cooler.

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Cooler – not a nice guy.

Goku and Cooler square off and the two appear to be evenly matched. That’s when Cooler breaks off from the fight momentarily to tell Goku his story, because that’s what villains do. Goku doesn’t really care, and then Cooler unveils one final trick – a fourth transformation! Cooler was in his fourth form, the result of his third transformation, as Frieza was when Goku killed him. Cooler long ago unlocked yet another form, and he’s more than willing to utilize it in order to destroy Goku. He goes through the process, which makes him bigger and results in lots of protruding spikes and a new grill for his mouth. He kind of reminds me of Super Shredder from the 1991 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II movie, but since they came out the same year he’s pretty clearly not influenced by that character.

Cooler’s Super Shredder form. It’s fine.

In his new form, Cooler proves to be Goku’s better. Everything Goku tries fails, and he soon finds himself getting beaten down. That’s when he resorts to his old motivation techniques – thinking of those who depend on him, recalling the bad deeds of his opponent, etc. Apparently, Cooler injuring a bird is his breaking point this time and Goku goes Super Saiyan. As a Super Saiyan, he proves to be Cooler’s better forcing him to resort to the same tactic his brother did by trying to destroy the whole planet with his Death Ball technique. Goku is able to counter it with his Kamehameha wave and literally blasts Cooler into the sun. As his body breaks apart, in one last bit of poetic justice, Cooler makes the connection between Goku and the fleeing Saiyan Space Pod thirty years ago. With Cooler taken care of, the only thing left is Salza, and a certain big green guy gets some momentary revenge and the last word in this one, which is kind of nice for a change. Though how he recovered from what appeared to be multiple mortal wounds is left unexplained.

Ouch.

Cooler’s Revenge is perhaps the simplest of all of the Dragon Ball Z movies thus far. It follows the exact same script as the past two movies essentially, with an evil invader coming to Earth seeking something and getting into a fight with Goku. In the case of the Saiyan Turles, he at least had the Tree o Might to add some spice to his invasion, while Lord Slug essentially sought the same thing as Turles, but found the Dragon Balls too. Cooler is just here to kill Goku, and in some respects I appreciate that the movie gets right to it, but then it betrays its fast start by taking Goku out of commission and forcing us to wait for his reentry into the fight. Because of its simple nature, this is the shortest film since Dead Zone and it would be even shorter if they took out the flashbacks to the main series.

The film debut of Goku’s Super Saiyan form.

The movie’s biggest strength is its reliance on the story began in the actual series with Frieza. Connecting Cooler to Frieza is a good move as it gives him credibility. And it’s not like Toriyama didn’t experiment with Frieza’s family history as well by introducing King Cold shortly after Frieza’s defeat. It’s conceivable that he could have had a brother roaming the galaxy as well, and also not surprising that they wouldn’t exactly have any strong affection for each other. It is kind of strange that he would have never been mentioned by anyone during the events of the show given that he’s apparently more powerful than his brother, but then again no one ever talked about King Cold either. That additional transformation is kind of the obvious move, but at least it looks a little different from the others and its visually interesting. Goku having to transform in a similar manner to how he did against Frieza was kind of tired, but when you consider that a lot of these films seem to exist to condense a main plot point from the show into a short run time then I suppose it’s more forgivable.

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The film ends with a classic beam struggle, which I’ll give it credit for doing so as I was getting really sick of the Spirit Bomb.

As one of the earlier Funimation dubs, the original version of this film’s English dub was full of terrible nu-metal music within its soundtrack. It’s actually kind of amazing Funimation fit so much of it into such a short film, but wow can I not recommend avoiding that initial dub strong enough. I guess if you enjoy bands like Disturbed and Drowning Pool you might like it, but I can’t think of worse torture. This one is also visually the most bland film so far as the settings are just boring planes and forests that offer little spice. The fight choreography is also less than stellar as it suffers from the same issue as Lord Slug in that seemingly every confrontation is between two individuals with vastly different power levels, and that’s just not entertaining. It would have been nice if Goku’s Super Saiyan transformation had put him on more equal footing with Cooler for a more interesting fight.

Cooler’s Revenge is a movie with a solid premise – the brother of an evil tyrant is out to avenge his family’s loss by confronting a man he allowed to live long ago. After that though it pretty much botches everything else. It takes one of the least appealing aspects of the show, waiting on Goku, and incorporates that into a movie. It also doesn’t offer any great action pieces, and it even lacks in another aspect of the series we’ve all come to enjoy – the humor. It’s a drab film, and as a cliff notes version of how Goku became a Super Saiyan I guess it’s fine, but it’s my least favorite Dragon Ball Z movie so far. Hopefully it stays that way.

Leave a comment | tags: akira toriyama, bardok, cooler, dbz, dragon ball z, Dragon Ball Z Movies, frieza, funimation, gohan, goku, super saiyan, toei | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film

July 16, 2018

Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug

By Joe

lord_slug2 Japanese Title: Son Goku the Super Saiyan

Original Release Date: March 9, 1991

English Release Date: August 7, 2001

Directed by: Mitsuo Hashimoto

Screenplay by: Takao Koyama

Running Time: 52 minutes

Going into this, I didn’t have the highest opinion of Dragon Ball Z movies. They’re good fun and all, but they’re so simple and derivative that they hardly seem worth praise. In spite of that though, I’ve very much enjoyed revisiting the first three films. They vary in quality to some degree, but all three have made for some good entertainment. When it comes to the fourth Dragon Ball Z feature, Lord Slug, I’m actually just now sitting down and watching it for the first time. Back in the Toonami days, the first three films were shown on Cartoon Network often so I saw quite a bit of them. It was a long while before Funimation resumed dubbing the films, so most fans outside of Japan had to resort to the dreaded fansub. Basically, fans would take episodes of anime and subtitle it themselves then hawk them on the internet for a not insubstantial sum. A kid in my neighborhood went through the effort of purchasing a VHS tape of Dragon Ball Z movies from one such source and was happy to share the wealth when it actually arrived. Most charged for the tape plus the movies, so the incentive was to cram as many movies onto each tape as possible. Lord Slug had a reputation online as being one of the worst Dragon Ball Z movies, so this kid didn’t include it and instead opted for the consensus better flicks. I borrowed that tape and watched the movies on it, and by the time Funimation actually put out the movies officially I had moved onto other things.

A new enemy for Goku – a runaway planet!

For this feature of mine, Lord Slug was actually a movie I was really looking forward to despite its reputation considering it would be entirely new to me. Even though it has a reputation, I didn’t really hold that against it. These movies may not be high art, but they’re so simple that it seems hard to totally botch it. Plus the villain seemed interesting to me considering his ties to Piccolo, one of my favorite characters. It was my hope going into it that because of that connection a certain Namekian might actually get to do something other than show up and get obliterated.

The others are forced to watch as Goku and Krillin go to work.

The movies opens in familiar fashion, perhaps too familiar at this point, with Piccolo (Christopher Sabat) quietly meditating by a waterfall. Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) shows up with his dragon pal Icarus (Sabat), making his second appearance, wearing his old school traditional attire from the very first movie and episodes of the show. Gohan is apparently excited to unveil some sort of song and dance routine he’s been working on with Icarus. It’s kind of cute to see Gohan acting like a child, even if it feels like an atypical scene for Dragon Ball Z. When Gohan starts whistling Piccolo starts to freak out. Apparently the high-pitched noise of Gohan’s whistling bothers Piccolo’s super sensitive ears. Oddly enough, Piccolo seems surprised by it so apparently he’s never heard a human whistle before (which is actually believable since he’s basically been a hermit his whole life).

Lord Slug begins he film as a pretty old, and decrepit looking individual, but he won’t stay that way.

After that episode is concluded, Piccolo notices something heading towards Earth. We get a cut-up of a bunch of folks picking up on the same thing. Instead of the usual, a super-powered being only the Z Fighters can sense, it’s actually a giant, frozen, planet that’s on a collision course with Earth. As the whole world prepares for Dooms Day, Goku (Sean Schemmel) and Krillin (Sonny Strait) fly up to meet it. They unleash twin Kamehameha attacks that entwine and then combine into one super Kamehameha wave, but it seems to have little effect on the onrushing planet. Goku and Krillin are thrust aside and it looks like the planet won’t be spared a direct impact. As the others at ground level take cover, the Earth’s atmosphere goes to work. The giant, ice ball is melted away revealing a colossal spaceship underneath that lands on the surface. Even though the majority of the planet melted away, it still caused a ton of damage.

Chi-Chi gets in on the action, for a moment.

Bulma (Tiffany Volmer), Oolong (Brad Jackson), Chi-Chi (Cynthia Cranz), and Gohan race toward the downed spaceship along with hordes of onlookers to see what happened. A bunch of soldiers emerge and declare that the Earth now belongs to Lord Slug (Brice Armstrong). Interestingly, everyone laughs at them except Oolong, who rightly identifies them as a threat. The soldiers inform the onlookers that Lord Slug intends to “terra-freeze” the planet to use as a new ship, the why of that is never really explained, and then they start firing on everyone. Gohan decides to spring into action and proves himself more than capable of handling these low-level grunts.

Random minions never fare too well in Dragon Ball Z.

Meanwhile, inside the ship Lord Slug and his handlers look on. We get the usual display of tyrannical power as Slug kills a few minions that displease him in some minor way. They watch what’s happening outside the ship via a video link and Slug notices the Dragon Ball atop Gohan’s hat and recognizes it for what it is. They head outside where Gohan is fleeing with his mother in his arms after she took a rather nasty gut punch. He lost his hat in the melee, and Slug scoops it up lovingly. Bulma stupidly comments on the Dragon Ball, and Slug realizes she knows more than she’s letting on. He grabs ahold of her and demonstrates one of his abilities – the power to read minds. In seconds he knows all and steals Bulma’s dragon radar. Without much of a time jump, Slug is shown on the roof of his ship with all seven dragon balls. Slug, who is green of skin and some-what elderly looking, summons Shenron (Sabat) and wishes for eternal youth. Shenron, apparently being kinder than most wish-granting beings in other media, restores Slug to his physical prime much to his delight. They soon begin the terra-freezing process and the Earth rapidly cools.

The henchmen of Lord Slug (left to right): Wings, Angila, Medamatcha

Back at their home, Chi-Chi prepares tea and soup for everyone to fight off the cold. She’s still a bit sore from the beating she took earlier. When she goes to give Gohan his soup she finds him gone, and he’s taken his Piccolo attire. The Gohan-Oolong team from The World’s Strongest has been re-formed, with Oolong even sporting the same outfit from their previous arctic journey. Icarus is along too, and they’re spying on the goings-on around Slug’s ship. They soon attract some unwanted attention from Slug’s men, and unable to escape, Gohan prepares for a fight. Per usual, his guardian angel of sorts, Piccolo, shows up to give him a hand just when it seems like he’s about to be bested. Piccolo squares off with a demonic looking henchman named Wings (John Freeman), while Gohan takes on Medamatcha (Kent Williams). Piccolo finds he’s much stronger than his adversary and kind of toys with him a bit, which ends up being a foolish move because Gohan has more than he can handle with Medamatcha, who has a unique ability to sprout four mini versions of himself that are capable of draining energy.

Piccolo finally obliterates Wings, just as Gohan looks like he’s about to go down for the count. As he rushes to help him, Slug’s other henchman Angila (John Burgmeier) takes notice. They try to finish Gohan off, but Piccolo is able to absorb their blasts. The two may be alive, but Piccolo is in bad shape. Without being able to muster a defense, they’ll soon perish.

Medamatcha is one of the crazier villains we’ve seen thus far.

Goku awakens somewhere nearby and is shocked to see the world is basically frozen. Yajirobe (Mike McFarland) had witnessed what happened from Koren’s Tower and brought some senzu beans to revive Goku and Krillin. They can’t waste time though as Gohan and Piccolo are in need of some aid and they rush to help out. Goku is able to prevent Medamatcha and Angila from killing his son and friends, and offers his usual warning to his foes before getting to it. Medamatcha and Angila at first appear to be doing well in their coordinated effort to take out Goku. Angila is able to stretch his arms out and grab ahold of Goku while Medamatcha sets his mini-me’s to work in draining Goku’s energy. It’s all for naught as Goku easily overpowers the duo forcing Lord Slug to come out and face him.

Goku taps into his rage to into Not-Super Saiyan mode.

Krillin is apparently unimpressed by the imposing looking Lord Slug and attempts to take care of him all by himself which just results in a comedic moment of Slug batting the fool away about 1,000 meters. Goku correctly notes that Lord Slug has tremendous power, and he even finds himself overmatched. King Kai, who has popped in here and there through-out the film with an anecdote or two, telepathically warns Goku about Slug. When things seem to be at their most dire, Goku is able to summon the strength to battle back. He tries to implore his friends to lend him their energy, but King Kai (Schemmel) lets him know they have nothing left to give. This causes Goku to transform – sort of. He acquires the yellow aura of a Super Saiyan, but nothing else. Since this film came out during the battle with Frieza, but before Goku entered the fray, he’s apparently not quite a Super Saiyan yet making this moment a sort of halfway point. It’s kind of silly, but his form is obviously effective in that he beats back Slug.

Slug turns the tables by making himself taller than a skyscraper.

Slug, fearing defeat, decides now is the time to unleash his full power. He tears off his arm, which had been broken by this enraged Goku, and regenerates it back confirming what most viewers probably already figured out – Lord Slug is a Namek. Not just any Namek though – a Super Namek! At least, that’s what King Kai calls him. He gives Goku a quick history lesson. Apparently Slug is an exclusive Namek in that he and a small number of others attainted this power. They were evil though, and the other Nameks used the power of the Dragon Balls to banish them from Planet Namek. Slug then grows to a gargantuan size, similar to what King Piccolo and Piccolo Jr. demonstrated in Dragon Ball. They fight, but Goku has seemingly lost the power surge from earlier, or he just can’t match Slug’s.

“Hey Goku, what do you think of my smile? That Eternal Dragon sure did a good job of restoring my grill.”

As Slug prepares to squish Goku like a bug, Piccolo pops in to grab Slug’s antennae. Echoing something Goku said to Raditz about Saiyan tails, Piccolo suggests grabbing a Namek by the antennae is especially painful. If so, it doesn’t appear to bother Slug a whole lot as he tosses Goku aside and grabs Piccolo instead. Piccolo then does an odd thing – he rips off his own ears. He calls out to Gohan to do his whistling from earlier. Gohan, still laying on the ground half-dead, hears Piccolo and does as he’s told. Slug’s gigantic, Super Namekian ears pick-up on the noise and he starts freaking out much like Piccolo did earlier. He drops Piccolo, who then transfers his energy to Goku, so he can finish the job. Just as he did as a boy to King Piccolo, Goku launches himself directly into Slug’s chest and then through it. Slug isn’t dead just yet though, as Goku flies into the sky to prepare a Spirit Bomb to destroy Slug’s ship, the Super Namek grabs him by the foot forcing Goku to instead use the bomb on him. No harm, no foul though as the bomb is able to take out both Slug and his horrible ship and the Earth is safe once again. The movie ends on a joke, as others have before it, only this one is pretty bad. I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it though.

Piccolo at least gets to play more prominent role in this one.

It would seem the consensus on the internet is actually right about this one, at least as it compares with the first three Dragon Ball Z films. Lord Slug is indeed the worst of the three. Alien invaders seeking to freeze the entire planet to use as some sort of vessel is pretty bizarre. Maybe if Toei could have come up with a valid reason for why this was necessary it could have worked, but instead they just let it hang in the air. Worse is the rather lazy writing. Goku and Krillin get taken out by Slug’s ship, but they’re out of action for way too long. At the same time, it takes Slug no time at all to amass the Dragon Balls. Way too much happens between Goku getting knocked out and returning to battle. Furthermore, the Super Saiyan transformation isn’t discussed as a possibility though-out the picture, so when Goku “transforms” it’s not earned. Instead, he just goes from getting pummeled to suddenly dominating.

The one-sided fights are too frequent in Lord Slug. There are basically no even matches. Either a hero is over-powered or a villain is, and there’s a seesaw effect at play. It makes for boring action sequences. I don’t mind seeing a couple instances of this, but it usually leads to a fight where both competitors are on relatively equal footing, at least it has in prior films so far. As a result, Lord Slug has some of the weakest action sequences so far, and worst of all it also doesn’t look so great in places. In particular, when powered-up Goku goes on the attack the effects look awful. Buildings look like they’re made of cardboard and the debris is all floaty. Even the big attacks aren’t particularly interesting looking, though I did appreciate the nod to Dragon Ball with Goku’s super headbutt attack.

The movie isn’t the best, but I don’t lay that on the massive shoulders of Lord Slug himself.

As a villain, Lord Slug doesn’t bother me much. He has a solid design, and the slow reveal that he’s a Namekian is kind of fun, though if you were paying attention you probably would have noticed the signs. He wears a helmet throughout the film leading up to the reveal, which is why it isn’t obvious. The whole Super Namekian is kind of cheesy sounding, but I like the little built-in lore, even if I find the King Kai narration bits intrusive. The whole high-pitched sound weakness thing though is pretty stupid. I guess it’s better than having Slug get dispatched in the same manner as so many other villains, but if Namekians really had such a weakness wouldn’t it show up more often?

Lord Slug was under-served by the movie that bares his name (in English anyway). It’s the first, and likely not the last, Dragon Ball Z film that really feels half-assed. Lord Slug is an interesting villain, and it wouldn’t have bothered me to see the other Super Nameks come into play in a future film, though it never happened. They probably would have used that silly whistle thing to topple them anyway, so maybe it’s good this is the last Super Namek we see. Lord Slug is a movie of recycled bits and half measures, it’s entirely forgettable. Is it actually bad though? I suppose it’s like a bad episode of the show – it’s not particularly memorable, and doesn’t have a signature dazzling moment, but it doesn’t feel like a total waste of time. You just likely won’t feel like watching it again for a long time, if ever.

Leave a comment | tags: akira toriyama, dragon ball z, Dragon Ball Z Movies, funimation, gohan, goku, lord slug, namek, piccolo, toei | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film

July 9, 2018

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might

By Joe

DBZ_THE_MOVIE_NO._3 Japanese Title: The Decisive Battle for the Entire Earth

Original Release Date: July 7, 1990

English Release: November 1997 (Broadcast of Pioneer/Ocean Productions), March 17, 1998 (Ocean re-dub for VHS), November 14, 2006 (Funimation)

Directed by: Daisuke Nishio

Screenplay by: Takao Koyama

Running time: 65 minutes

We have arrived at the last of the original trilogy of Dragon Ball Z films as American audiences knew them – The Tree of Might. This film was actually the first brought to America by Saban Entertainment and Ocean Productions and was first adapted for television as a three-part story arc and originally aired sometime in November of 1997. It was then re-dubbed with a more accurate translation again by Ocean and released the following March on VHS in an uncut format. When Funimation re-dubbed it again with its own talent for the 2006 release, it for some reason utilized the script from the 1997 broadcast version, thus making this arguably the worst translation for any of the 13 film dubs released by Funimation. Considering there isn’t a whole lot of important dialogue in a given Dragon Ball Z film, this may not seem like a big deal, but dubs for this movie are some-what important because of the villain: Turles.

Turles, or Tullece, is some sort of Evil Goku not to be confused with the more recently created Dragon Ball Super enemy Goku Black.

Turles (Chris Patton) is a Saiyan who leads a group of miscreants that seem to be some sort of intergalactic pirates. They travel the galaxy in search of a host planet for the Tree of Might – a massive tree that absorbs all of the nutrients in a planet to sustain it and bares fruit that, when consumed by mortals, bestows them with tremendous power. The confusion within many dubs is due to the fact that Toei decided to make Turles look identical to Goku (Sean Schemmel), save for a slightly darker complexion. Many dubs have tried different ways to explain it. In some he’s Goku’s brother, in at least one other he’s his uncle. In the first English dub, the character explains that he and Kakarot (using Goku’s Saiyan birth name) are from the same mold, but doesn’t elaborate further. In the re-dub, he explains that all lower class Saiyans tend to look the same. The truth seems to be less interesting and more of an artistic tool for Turles shares no blood with Goku and is merely a stand-in for what Goku could have become had he never grown up on Earth. Fair enough.

Meet Icarus. If you don’t like him then good news, you only have to deal with him a few more times after this.

This film also marks the debut of perhaps Toei’s most beloved addition to the Dragon Ball universe: the dragon Icarus. Icarus is a little, plump, purple dragon that is rescued by Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) early in the film and becomes his sort-of pet. He’ll show up in a few other movies, mostly ones where Gohan is still a child, before sort of fading away. He also jumps into the main series from time to time during some of Toei’s filler, like The Garlic Jr. Saga. For some fans, he’s kind of viewed derisively as some just look down on anything that was not in the original manga by Akira Toriyama, though I think most see him for what he is – a harmless, cute, animal companion for Gohan to bond with.

The film begins with a camping trip. Bulma (Tiffany Volmer), Krillin (Sonny Strait), Oolong (Bradford Jackson), and Gohan are going to spend the night outside not too far from Goku’s home. Camping doesn’t seem like the type of thing Bulma would traditionally go for, but we’ll go with it. While they sleep, a massive forest fire breaks out and Krillin and Gohan are forced to spring into action to put it out. Despite their best efforts, the forest is basically destroyed, but Bulma has the wise idea to gather the Dragon Balls to wish for Shenron to restore the forest to its former beauty. The next day, they do just that while Gohan also befriends the aforementioned Icarus (which just thrills his mother, Chi-Chi).

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The Turles Gang, who really deserve a better name than that.

Unknown to our heroes, is that the cause of the fire was a probe launched from space that touched-down on Earth. The probe was sent by Turles to scout the Earth as a potential host for the Tree of Might. Satisfied with the results, Turles’ men head down to the surface and plant the tree, which attracts the attention of King Kai (Schemmel). He quickly contacts Goku to let him know about the tree’s presence, imploring him to put an end to it right away before it kills the planet. Goku immediately springs into action, and together with most of his friends, they head out to crush the tree.

That’s a big tree.

Goku and his friends encounter the tree, which has already grown to a massive size and is visible from space, and give it all they have, but fail to so much as scratch it. Turles’ minions soon show up and a fight breaks out. A lot of the battle feels like a redux of the Saiyan conflict from the main series. Krillin breaks out the Destructo Disc while Yamcha (Christopher Sabat) uses his weird Spirit Ball attack. Most of them appear out-matched, leaving Goku to clean up most of the mess. Gohan, having snuck out of his house with Icarus, soon arrives to try and help out as well which attracts the attention of Turles himself.

Damn kids.

Turles confronts Gohan recognizing him to be a Saiyan. Turles is well-aware of the fact that Goku lives on Earth, but he did not know about his son. Gohan, frightened by the fact that Turles resembles his father, is at first hesitant to fight. Turles tries to win him over to his side, but of course that goes no where. When Gohan does finally attack he finds himself severely outclassed. Turles, apparently giving up on winning over the young Saiyan, opts to kill him instead, but good old Piccolo (Sabat) shows up to make the save. Using Piccolo’s affection for the boy to his advantage, Turles is able to quickly outmaneuver the Namekian and quickly lays him out. It’s at this point he notices that Gohan has regrown his tail, and deciding to have a little fun, he creates an artificial moon to bring out Gohan’s more primitive side.

I like this Goku. He’s plenty powerful without being over-powered making for more visually interesting action scenes than some of the “teleporty” stuff to come.

By now, the others have taken notice of this imposter Goku. Goku tries to come to his son’s aid, but the giant ape version of Gohan is pure rage unable to distinguish between friend and foe. The only thing that seems to quiet Gohan is Icarus, and once Turles’ fun is over, he decides to once again kill the boy. Goku, in a bit of gimmick infringement, creates his own Destructo Disc attack to sever Gohan’s tail and spare him from being blasted by Turles. Krillin weeps seeing his one, good attack usurped by Goku.

Pausing for a snack break.

With that out of the way, the stage is finally set for the confrontation the movie has been building towards: Goku vs Turles. First, Goku has to dispatch of Turles’ remaining men which poses no real challenge. Once confronted, Goku and Turles appear to be somewhat evenly matched, but Goku soon gains the upper hand. Unfortunately for him, the Tree of Might’s fruit has ripened and Turles is able to grab one and consume it boosting his power significantly. He trashes Goku and tosses him off the tree, forcing the other Z Fighters to step in. As they distract Turles, Goku concentrates on forming the Spirit Bomb once again. The only problem though is that the Tree of Might has taken almost everything the Earth has to give. Turles is able to swat the Spirit Bomb away and things look dire. Every Dragon Ball Z movie has a deus ex machina to play though, and Goku begins absorbing energy from the Tree of Might itself to create an even bigger Spirit Bomb – one Turles is unable to overcome. He and the tree itself are destroyed, and life returns to normal once more.

Since Goku and company are always eating those senzu beans, I guess it’s only fair Turles got to eat that weird fruit.

The Tree of Might is an odd one in retrospect. The general plot is fine and I actually kind of like it. It’s a little different from some guy just wanting the Dragon Balls or vengeance against Goku (a plot we will soon start to see in force). In some ways, the art style is peak Dragon Ball Z. It’s not as soft and rounded as the earliest stuff, or as simple and straight-lined as later sagas. There’s a lot of cool backgrounds as the Tree of Might saps the Earth leaving patches of dark, purple clouds. We get another Great Ape scene, and the designs on Turles’ gang are pretty fun, especially the weird cyborg goo-monster guy. I also like how the Spirit Bomb, often the last resort and trump card, fails initially, though the re-try is kind of lame.

Z Warriors – Assemble!

Where things aren’t so great is in how familiar a lot of the action feels. While the animation is great, a lot of the bits are lifted directly from the fight against Nappa from the main series. I even suspect some animation could have been reused, like Yamcha “piloting” his Spirit Ball attack. And structurally it’s similar with Gohan becoming an ape and Goku needing time to create the Spirit Bomb. The only thing that didn’t happen is Turles didn’t go ape as well. Worth noting is that this is the first movie to contain basically all of the “Z Fighters.” Making their Dragon Ball Z film debuts is Yamcha, Tien (John Burgmeier), and Chiaotzu (Monika Antonelli) though they don’t have a whole lot to do.

That Goku, always ruining his shirts.

This one feels some-what divisive for me. It might hold nostalgic value for a lot of folks in America because of its familiarity there. As I said, this might be the best looking of all of the Dragon Ball Z films, but like so many, it kind of botches the concluding moments. I’m also not sure how I feel about Turles looking like Goku. I think I get what Toei was going for with the character, but maybe it would have made more sense to just make him Goku’s twin or a clone or something. I think if the action bits had been a little more creative, and the conclusion more rewarding, The Tree of Might would be considered one of the best of the thirteen films, but right now it feels more middle of the pack.

1 Comment | tags: akira toriyama, dbz, dragon ball z, funimation, goku, saiyans, toei, tree of might, tullece, turles | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film

July 2, 2018

Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest

By Joe

t89266p8t02 Japanese Title: The Strongest Guy in the World

Original Release Date: March 10, 1990

English Release: May 26, 1998 (Pioneer/Ocean Productions), November 14, 2006 (Funimation)

Directed by: Daisuke Nishio

Screenplay by: Takao Koyama

Running time: 58 minutes

In some ways, The World’s Strongest is perhaps the most unique of the 13 original Dragon Ball Z movies. It has a very sci-fi feel to it with some obvious design nods to classic tropes of the genre like 2001: A Space Odyssey which gives the villains of the picture a very Dragon Ball feel to them. Think Red Ribbon Army era of Dragon Ball. It’s still also very much a DBZ film in how it’s setup and progresses. Released after the Saiyan Saga had just concluded on Japanese television (after episode 39, before episode 40), it contains a Goku who has been powered-up by King Kai and a battle-tested Gohan while Piccolo has also been softened and isn’t out to kill Goku any longer (though they’re still not exactly chummy). Like Dead Zone, The World’s Strongest was originally dubbed for english speaking audiences by Pioneer/Ocean and it was shown several times on Cartoon Network. Funimation re-dubbed it in 2006 without making any changes to the actual script, but at least it sounds like the rest of the series now.

Dragonball Z - Movie - 02 - The World's Strongest (11)

Oolong and Gohan are on a Dragon Ball hunt when our movie begins.

The film opens almost exactly like Dead Zone with Piccolo (Christopher Sabat) off by himself doing some training only this time we find him in an arctic climate. Meanwhile, Oolong (Brad Jackson) and Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) are apparently somewhere nearby as they’re scaling a snowy mountain. Oolong has coerced Gohan into coming with him to find the Dragon Balls. He had been messing around with Bulma’s dragon radar back at the Kame House and noticed a bunch of the Dragon Balls had already been collected. Eying an opportunity to swipe-in and make a wish for himself (for women’s underwear, of course), he somehow convinced Gohan into tagging along to help him get the last few, but while in the arctic, Oolong is able to see that someone beat them to it via the radar.

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Piccolo vs the Saiba-I mean, Biomen.

On old man (Troy Baker) is shown summoning Shenron (Christopher Sabat), The Eternal Dragon, in the same snowy, mountainous area as the others. He wishes for Shenron to release a lab containing a Dr. Wheelo (R Bruce Elliott) to be unfrozen and made accessible once again. The dragon does as requested and vanishes in a blaze of light as the ice begins to rumble and crack. Gohan and Oolong arrive to see the dragon leave and are soon attacked by the old man’s Biomen. The little blue creatures are basically Saibamen without faces (Toei probably saw an easy way to save a few bucks) and they swarm around Gohan and Oolong. Piccolo senses the fighting nearby and swoops in to dispatch of the little creatures in short order. Gohan, who adorably refers to Piccolo as Mr. Piccolo, is delighted to see his friend, but Piccolo sternly sends the two home while he plans on investigating what’s going on. As the two leave, Piccolo is confronted by three other fighters that must be working with the old man. Piccolo is overwhelmed and we’re kept in the dark as to how the fight unfolded.

After dispatching of the Biomen, Roshi is confronted by the old man who has a proposition for him.

Back at the Kame House, the little blue Biomen make another appearance along with the old man. They’re there for Master Roshi (Mike McFarland), who’s a bit confused but willing to fight. When the old man reveals that his minions have cornered Bulma (Tiffany Vollmer), Roshi is forced to go along with their wishes and accompanies them to the arctic. Oolong, who had already returned from his own little adventure with Gohan, saw the whole thing and feels pretty guilty. He and Gohan had agreed to not tell anyone about their unsuccessful Dragon Ball hunt, Oolong fearing retribution from Bulma for swiping her radar and Gohan fearing what his mother would do to him. Oolong now realizes that’s probably not realistic and he sets out to Goku’s house where the two come clean about what happened. Goku (Sean Schemmel) is concerned, and sets out alone to find Master Roshi and Bulma while Gohan is to be punished.

Goku fights the big, yellow, stretchy, scrotum monster.

At the lab of Dr. Wheelo, Master Roshi is forced to fight the same Biomen that apparently defeated Piccolo. He holds his own for a short while, but eventually they’re able to overwhelm him with their superior numbers. Roshi is defeated, but not dead, while Bulma is forced to look on. She lashes out at the old man, who finally comes clean about who he is. His name is Dr. Kochin, and he and his partner Dr. Wheelo were apparently some scientists known around the globe. Dr. Wheelo especially was considered brilliant, but they did some experiments considered unethical and were forced to retreat to the remote mountainous area they currently occupy where an avalanche apparently sealed their fate some 50 years ago. Bulma, being a scientist herself, knew of them and is astounded to see they’re still alive – sort of. Dr. Kochin appears to be just really old, but Dr. Wheelo’s body was destroyed. Kochin was able to save him by preserving his brain and placing it in a machine. He can communicate via traditional speech through the machine, despite having no mouth, and it’s revealed that they seek the strongest fighter in the world to place Dr. Wheelo’s brain in creating the ultimate being. Not surprisingly, they seek world domination, because who isn’t?

Dr. Wheelo’s existence seems pretty boring.

Unfortunately for them, their knowledge of the strongest fighters in the world is rather dated considering their 50 year exile. Bulma lets them know that Roshi has long been supplanted and spills the beans that Goku is the strongest fighter in the world. Conveniently enough, he happens to be on his way and Dr. Wheelo demonstrates that he can actually sense the approaching fighter. He quickly realizes that Goku possesses the body that he wants.

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Goku has some new moves to show-off in this one.

Goku finds the massive laboratory deep in the arctic. Even though he knew he was heading for a cold climate, Goku neglected to change out of his traditional orange gi and into something warmer. As he is confronted by a bulbous yellow Bioman, he finds it difficult to power-up due to the extreme cold. He flees into the lab, where he then takes on the monster who has a really stretchy exterior. Impervious to pain, Goku is forced to use his Kaio-Ken technique to blast right through him, similar to how he dispatched of King Piccolo. He heads into the next area, giving this progression a real video game feel, to take on the next foe. There’s a rather stylized and humorous confrontation that makes it seem like the battle will be brief, but Kochin’s bio-monsters apparently can take a beating. The remaining two gang up on Goku. One possesses a Superman like frost breath attack while the other, a demonic looking fellow with arms protruding wires, has an electric attack.

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Crap, looks like Piccolo is evil again.

When it seems like Goku might have a problem on his hands, the cavalry arrives. Gohan, who was actually shone leaving his home via airplane in defiance of his mother, arrives with Krillin (Sonny Strait) to help out. They’re able to take out the remaining bio-monsters only to find out that Dr. Kochin has a surprise in store for them – a mind-controlled Piccolo! We get a taste of the fight we were denied in Dead Zone as Goku and Piccolo duke it out. Gohan is really bothered to see his father and his mentor fighting each other and turns his attention to the brain in the wall. He has his meltdown moment, as he often does during this era of DBZ, and the force is enough to free Piccolo of the mind control device on his head and convince Dr. Wheelo that he needs to take care of things himself.

Dr. Wheelo’s surprise.

By now, Dr. Kochin has revealed he’s in fact a cyborg of some kind by transforming his arm into a canon to attack the heroes. Dr. Wheelo also reveals that his brain isn’t just fixed in some wall-mounted container, but actually part of a giant mech that emerges from the wall. Master Roshi, Goku, and Krillin combine to do a triple Kamehameha attack but it’s not enough. Dr. Wheelo is quite powerful, and it quickly becomes apparent it will take everything our heroes have to take him out.

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Well isn’t this cute.

The battle starts off as a collective effort, but it becomes a Goku vs. Dr. Wheelo battle soon enough. It becomes apparent to Goku that he’s going to need to use his newest technique, The Spirit Bomb, if he wants to defeat Dr. Wheelo for good. The Spirit Bomb makes its film debut, and it will become kind of a trope in subsequent films, but at least here it’s new and fresh. Forming the attack takes time, so the others have to help out if Goku is going to be successful with his attack. It’s a pretty spectacular battle that takes place in the earth’s atmosphere, with lots of effects and attacks with few false finishes, as those can get annoying. The film will actually end, after all is said and done with the enemies of the film, on a joke that actually lands. It’s at Master Roshi’s expense, and he’s always easy to craft jokes for. The film is a tidy 58 minutes, a great deal longer than Dead Zone and it makes good use of it.

As is often the case, it all comes down to Goku vs the big bad guy in the end.

Dr. Wheelo and Dr. Kochin are an interesting pair. They’re very different from the usual villains in design since they’re not super-powered beings. Instead their essentially androids, or cyborgs if you want to get technical, though they’re not really anything like the other androids from the show. Dr. Wheelo has a real Metal Gear vibe to him, and it’s just kind of cool seeing Goku and company battle a giant metal monstrosity like him. They’re so different though that it does make them feel less credible because it feels like Goku should be able to rip through a metal body. Ignoring that, it does end up being a satisfying confrontation, but I would understand if some don’t really care for Dr. Wheelo and Kochin.

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One of my favorite smaller moments from the film is this bit where Krillin runs along a wall to avoid getting whacked.

Aside from the “main event,” the other action bits throughout the feature are actually really fun. There seems to be a bit more money behind The World’s Strongest than Dead Zone and it shows in the fights. The icey landscape also looks great, and while the enemy designs aren’t as fun as Dead Zone, they’re still satisfying and at least each enemy has something unique to them that works in animation. I like that Goku has the King Kai insignia on his back and that Gohan is in his Piccolo attire as well and we even got to see Oolong, who I’ve always enjoyed. Some of the big moments from the concluding battle are a bit derivative of Goku’s battle with Vegeta, but it was probably a neat novelty to see it played out in a movie theater as opposed to a television set back in 1990.

So far, the Dragon Ball Z films are demonstrating a nice progression. Dead Zone was perfectly fine, but I do feel that The World’s Strongest is the better film. It’s longer, but well-paced, with some great action bits and a nice setting. I like the setup of a dormant, out of touch villain seeking out Master Roshi thinking he’s the strongest fighter in the world. The sort-of Dragon Ball feel the film possesses definitely appeals to me, though I bet the average Dragon Ball Z fan probably is a little down on the villains presented here. The formula for these films is also still young here, and eventually our characters are going to get quite super-powered and things will feel less fresh. I kind of wish we had more movies set before the Frieza Saga, but it’s also been about 20 years since I’ve seen these things so I’m curious to see how my opinions change as I re-watch all of these. For now, The World’s Strongest is the best of the Dragon Ball Z movies, but I suspect that will change.

Leave a comment | tags: akira toriyama, dbz movies, dr. wheelo, dragon ball z, funimation, gohan, goku, master roshi, ocean productions, piccolo, pioneer, toei | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film

June 25, 2018

Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone

By Joe

DBZmovie1_Japan Japanese Title: Return My Gohan!!

Original Release Date: July 15, 1989

English Release Date: December 17, 1997 (Pioneer/Ocean Productions), May 31, 2005 (Funimation)

Directed by: Daisuke Nishio

Screenplay by: Takao Koyama

Running Time: 42 minutes

For the very fist Dragon Ball Z movie I feel like we need to do a little house-keeping before we get into it. When Pioneer tried to bring Dragon Ball Z to North America, they contracted Ocean Productions to dub the first 100 or so episodes as well as the first three movies. As a result of many re-runs on Cartoon Network, English speaking fans are likely pretty familiar with the first three films: Dead Zone, The World’s Strongest, and Tree of Might. The original dubs were edited and contained some odd choices in terms of translation, though Ocean at least hired quality talent. They held the rights to the films long after Funimation started dubbing the episodes Ocean never tackled, and once the rights expired Funimation went back and re-dubbed the first three films with their own cast that fans are now likely more familiar with. In doing so, they also inserted a new soundtrack that was okay, at least it didn’t utilize a bunch of awful licensed music like their dub of the OVAs, but I’m sure it was frustrating for fans of the Japanese dub. When Funimation re-mastered and re-released all of the movies in 2011 they wisely restored the Japanese soundtrack (though oddly they went with their generic butt-rock opening theme instead of “Cha-la Head Cha-la” for the English dub with Japanese BGM. If you want the original opening music you have to watch the full Japanese audio) while still including the US soundtrack for people who wanted it. There’s also the option to listen to the Japanese audio with subtitles, something that’s pretty much a given these days, but once upon a time was not a guaranteed feature.

The dreaded Dead Zone, from which the English version of the film takes its name.

Dead Zone, or Return My Gohan!!, is basically set before the events of Dragon Ball Z. If not for the fact that Master Roshi and co. are unaware of the existence of Gohan to start DBZ then this film could be shoe-horned into the canon. It features the villain Garlic Jr. (Chuck Huber), and if you’re wondering who Garlic Sr. is and concerned you may have forgotten about him – don’t worry, he’s never existed in Dragon Ball. The film was originally released theatrically in Japan right after the conclusion of the Raditz conflict, and grossed around 9 million USD. I don’t know if that performance was viewed as positive or not, but for comparison 1988’s My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies is estimated to have grossed around 5 million, so it would seem this was pretty solid. Especially considering that Dead Zone is largely animated in the same manner as the anime series. There’s little in the way of extra flourishes, instead it just looks like Toei utilized their full budget and best team so it looks like one of the ‘A’ episodes of Dragon Ball Z. Stylistically, it also fits right-in with the style of the early episodes of the series with more curved lines and rounded musculature on the characters as opposed to the later, more straight-line heavy look of the series that’s likely the defining style of the show these days.

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Garlic Jr. is our featured enemy. He kind of looks like a cross between Piccolo and Emperor Pilaf (and basically sounds just like Pilaf in the Funimation dub).

Dead Zone has a cold open, a trend for the films, and starts on Piccolo (Christopher Sabat) quietly training on his own before he’s accosted by some shady characters. They mention Kami and it’s obvious they want to eliminate not just Piccolo but also the Earth’s guardian. Unknown to them, apparently, is that both are linked to the Dragon Balls because the characters mention them as well. Piccolo is overwhelmed and apparently left for dead. We’re then taken to Goku’s house where Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) is quietly studying in the woods nearby. When his mother Chi-Chi (Cynthia Cranz) calls him in, his Grandpa the Ox King (Kyle Hebert) pulls up and Gohan cheerfully greets him. The same shady characters that accosted Piccolo show up. They quickly dispatch the giant Ox King and Chi-Chi and make off with Gohan before Goku (Sean Schemmel) can return from fishing.

Garlic Jr.’s somewhat effective henchmen.

Our enemy is revealed to be Garlic Jr. and he has a gang of demonic looking underlings by the names of Ginger (Troy Baker), Nicky (Doug Burks), and Sansho (Eric Dillow). Garlic Jr. is collecting the Dragon Balls so that he may wish for eternal life. He also apparently has a score to settle with both Kami (Christopher Sabat) and Piccolo. The gang has kidnapped Gohan not because they have any interest in the boy, but because his hat bares the four-star Dragon Ball, as it does in the earliest episodes of the show. Garlic Jr. immediately notices the boy has hidden strength and decides to keep him on as a ward of sorts. When Gohan says his daddy Goku will rescue him, the gang is familiar with the name as Goku famously toppled Piccolo in the most recently completed World Martial Arts tournament.

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The sight of his defeated wife is enough to anger any man, even Goku.

Goku returns home to find his wife and father-in-law incapacitated, but Chi-Chi was able to tell him what happened. Goku then heads for Kame House where Bulma (Tiffany Volmer), Master Roshi (Mike McFarland), and Krillin (Sonny Strait) are hanging out. Goku needs Bulma’s dragon radar so he can track the Dragon Ball on Gohan’s hat to find his location. He retreves it, and Master Roshi gives him a warning to be careful as he takes off on the Flying Nimbus armed with his power pole to save his son. Along the way, he notices the tell-tale dark clouds forming in the sky indicating that all seven Dragon Balls have been united and Shenron, The Eternal Dragon, has been summoned.

There’s a very Dumbo-like scene of Gohan eating some kind of apple that is apparently not intended for children which causes him to act like a drunk.

Garlic Jr. is able to summon the dragon, and if you think one of the good guys is going to jump in just in time to prevent him from making his wish then you are mistaken. Garlic Jr. is granted immortality, and his path to ruler of the world appears clear. Goku shows up, unimpressed by the diminutive kidnapper and unafraid of his new power, and takes on all of Garlic’s fiends. Kami also arrives to challenge Garlic Jr. himself, the two apparently having a score to settle. Goku is overwhelmed by the multiple opponents, but luckily for him, Krillin apparently had followed him and shows up to help. Even more of a surprise for Goku, Piccolo comes strolling in and he too has an obvious score to settle (at this point in time, Goku and Piccolo are fierce rivals with Piccolo seeking to end Goku’s life) with Garlic Jr. and his gang.

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This team-up would have been a lot cooler if it hadn’t just occurred in the anime.

With their combined might, a final showdown is imminent and we also get an explanation from Kami about why Garlic Jr. hates him. Apparently his father, Garlic Sr., was a rival to Kami when he sought the role of Guardian of Earth. Kami was granted the title, having bested Garlic in some sort of a trial, and enraged, Garlic tried to take the title by force. Being some sort of demon ruler, he summoned hordes of fiends to aid him but was beat back by Kami and his predecessor and sealed away for eternity, apparently in the place our film is titled after, The Dead Zone. Garlic Jr., therefore wants to avenge his father’s defeat while also usurping Kami. He transforms and goes from being a small, goblin-like creature to a massive one who towers over Piccolo and Goku. He also has a trump card he can play if things go wrong for he is capable of opening a portal to the Dead Zone that once trapped his dear old dad.

1001_animations__dead_zone_by_regulas314-da0p6s8

Kami is not match for Garlic Jr.

The final 20 minutes or so of this rather brief feature is mostly fighting, and it’s a lot of fun to witness this old style of DBZ combat. This is before Goku could even fly so the action is quick, but there’s none of that cheap “teleporting” combat that can be rather boring to watch. Garlic Jr.’s minions also have this neat ability to basically pull blades out of their anatomy. There’s some nice swordplay and dodging on display, as the action builds. By comparison though, the actual fight between Garlic Jr. and the duo of Piccolo and Goku is quite short. The ending is a bit odd, and it’s actually better explained later in the anime during the Garlic Jr. Saga (Garlic Jr. being the only movie enemy who got to make a jump into the main series as part of some of Toei’s continuity-busting filler), though the general way it unfolds is somewhat expected.

In what is commonplace for DBZ, the once un-intimidating villain transforms into something more deadly. Of course, Frieza will eventually take this one step further by going from tame, to scary, and back to tame again.

Dead Zone is a perfectly solid way to kick-off the Dragon Ball Z movie franchise. The story almost fits in with the series, and it’s kind of like an alternate way to introduce the character of Gohan and bridge Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. I like how it tries to kind of upend the status quo by having the villain very early in the picture actually make a wish for immortality. It’s one of those wishes that has been teased and will be teased numerous times in the show, but never feels like something that will actually be attained. Garlic Jr. is also fine as a villain, and it’s nice seeing Kami get a chance to do something since he’s mostly a background character in the anime. It’s guilty of relying a little too much on characters just popping in at the right time to help out, which will become overplayed eventually, but with characters capable of moving at the speed of sound it’s not as glaring an issue as it would be for other franchises. There’s also some nice, very Toriyama-like humor, with Gohan and the bad guys. It is impressive how well Toei is able to maintain the tone of the show without input from its author proving that the company does understand the material quite well. Goku is also less of a doofus and it’s kind of refreshing to see him actually get pretty angry when he finds Chi-Chi defeated and his son missing.

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If you liked Garlic Jr., then I have good news for you! Unlike the other villains we’ll see in these films, he actually gets to appear in the anime series right after the Frieza arc and just before The Androids Saga.

Overall, I enjoyed catching up with Dead Zone after not seeing it for many years. Having previously only seen the Ocean version, it was nice to see some scenes restored (like a funny urination joke) and hear that the dub works well. Dead Zone is available on Blu Ray as a two-pack with the second film, The World’s Strongest, or as part of a five-pack on DVD with movies 2-5. I watches this on the remastered DVD, and it definitely shows its age. The picture is grainy and there’s some film burns here and there as well. I find that aged look, as long as it’s done naturally, kind of charming so it doesn’t bother me. I never saw the HD transfer so that might be superior, but the five-pack can probably be had for 20 bucks or cheaper which is hard to beat. If you only ever saw it on Cartoon Network, it’s definitely worth a re-watch.

Leave a comment | tags: anime, dragon ball z, Dragon Ball Z Movies, funimation, garlic jr., gohan, goku, ocean group, piccolo, pioneer, toei | posted in Dragon Ball Z Movies, Film

June 22, 2018

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

By Joe

220px-Movie_poster_who_framed_roger_rabbit Normally, I don’t like doubling-up on posts in a single day on this blog, and ever since last fall Friday has belonged to Batman. Well, I’m breaking my own self-imposed rule today, but it’s for a very good reason. Today is the 30th anniversary of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. On this day in 1988, the then most expensive movie in film history was released to the general public with a lot of buzz and a lot of trepidation. It was a collaborative effort between some of Hollywood’s hottest names; Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, and Walt Disney Studios. Adapted from the Gary Wolf novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, there was a lot of fear that the movie would be too “out there” for a general audience. So uncertain about how the film was to be received, actress Kathleen Turner, who voiced Jessica Rabbit, declined to be credited for her role in the film. There was some fear this thing would be received about as well as Howard the Duck, a notorious flop at the time, but it ended up being so much more.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is the story of a rabbit named Roger (voiced by Charlie Fleischer) who is framed for a murder he did not commit. Aside from the fact that he’s a rabbit, the plot sounds rather pedestrian at face value. What sets the film apart is its world and the world it shares with the “real world.” Roger Rabbit is a toon. He is a literal cartoon character. In the world created by this work of fiction, cartoons are just as real as you and me. They go to work, make cartoons, and go home. The toons behave like golden era cartoons – they’re wacky, prone to accidents, and always on the lookout for a laugh. At one point in the film, Roger is handcuffed and needs to get himself out. He ends up simply removing his hand from the cuff at one point, then putting it back. When his partner, Eddie, notices and gets furious with him for not just doing that to begin with, Roger explains he could only remove his hand when it was funny.

Bob Hoskins stars alongside Robert as private eye Eddie Valiant.

Roger works for R.K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) and is a star of Maroon Cartoons. Set in 1947, the film basically takes place during the waning days of the animated cartoon short. He is married to the impossibly attractive Jessica Rabbit, a buxom, hourglass figured toon who more or less resembles a human. The film starts out with Roger stressed out because there are rumors that Jessica has been up to no good with another man. Maroon wants private investigator Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) to do some digging to help his star out. The problem is, Eddie hates toons, but he loves money more. Eddie takes the job, and finds out that Jessica has actually been playing pat-a-cake with Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye), the owner of Toon Town. When shown the images of his wife playing such a lurid game with another man, Roger goes off the deep end and is plunged into a depression (pat-a-cake is serious business to a toon, apparently). Then things take a dark turn when Marvin Acme turns up dead, and Roger is suspect number 1. Roger proclaims his innocence to Eddie, and Eddie is forced to decide if he wants to help out the incredibly annoying, but likely innocent, Roger or just walk away from the whole thing.

Even humans are drawn to Jessica Rabbit.

The story unfolds like a classic mystery. You have the gruff detective, the innocent victim, and the femme fatale. Of course, nothing is ever truly what it seems. Shadowing the protagonists is the villainous Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) who too seems to have a hatred for toons. Eddie and Roger are going to have to do some sleuthing, and even take a trip to Toon Town where all of the toons reside, in order to solve this case.

Roger’s co-star, Baby Herman, is used sparingly, but he’s a scene-stealer.

The story is admittedly fairly simple. The character of Jessica Rabbit is the most intriguing, and not because of her figure, but because she is a femme fatale done well. She possesses an air of mystery and uncertainty, the fact that she is apparently the most attractive toon and is attached to the rather goofy Roger helps to play this up. What truly sets Who Framed Roger Rabbit apart is the presentation. Live actors mix with cartoon ones in truly spectacular ways. We’ve seen this before from Walt Disney with the likes of Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but not on this level. Those films merely feature a few sequences of cartoons and actors co-mingling, where as Who Framed Roger Rabbit is built around that dynamic, and it looks spectacular! When Eddie rides along in the toon cab, Benny, he looks like he’s really riding in it. When he wields a toon gun, it’s convincing. And the world of Toon Town is especially marvelous to look at with its impossible architecture and lavish color scheme. The movie is so visually stimulating that you could watch it in mute and still enjoy it.

Christopher Lloyd is appropriately sinister as Judge Doom.

Even with the flashy presentation, the film still needed true chemistry between its real-life lead Eddie, and it’s toon co-lead Roger. Hoskins is fantastic at playing the straight-man Eddie. He takes everything seriously and has explosive reactions to all of the nonsense around him, but not in such a manner that would break the film. Helping to make sure he was able to form good chemistry with Roger, voice actor Charlie Fleischer dressed up as the character and would voice it off-camera. Seth McFarlane utilized a similar method when filming the more recent Ted to similar effect. I suppose it’s impossible to say if this truly worked or did not, but the results speak for themselves.

who-framed-roger-rabbit-bob-hoskins-roger-rabbit-cab

Eddie and Roger go for a ride in Benny the Cab.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a unique looking film that was impossible to ignore when it was released, but it was still relying on a lead that had never been seen before in Roger. That’s why to help spruce up the film, Spielberg and Zemeckis wanted to make sure that Roger’s world was inhabited by recognizable cartoon characters. That ended up being the film’s strongest selling point as it promised, for the first time ever, that characters from both Disney and Warner Bros. would share scenes together. This leads to the wild team-up between Donald Duck (Tony Anselmo, with some archivable Clarence Nash) and Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc, in one of his last performances) who have a dueling pianos scene where the more outlandish Daffy seems to get on Donald’s nerves more and more as the scene goes on. Mickey Mouse (Wayne Allwine) and Bugs Bunny (Blanc) also get to share a brief scene, which contains an easter egg of Bugs flipping Mickey the bird (apparently, Disney was a bit of a pain to work with concerning how the characters could be portrayed and this was one way for the animators to have a little fun at their expense). Those represent the biggest cameos, but there are many, many more throughout the film from both companies, both major and minor. Part of the fun of watching the film is looking out for them and there’s always a chance that on re-watch you’ll see another you may have missed.

Toon Town is a rather chaotic place.

There are so many things to pick out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit that it’s way too much for me to cover here. Suffice to say, if you’ve never seen this baby then you owe it to yourself to check it out. Much of the effects still stand up today, and much of the credit is owed to animation director Richard Williams. The toons are two-dimensional, but a lot of effort is made to make sure they look like they’re really inhabiting this world in the manner in which lighting is utilized and how often the camera moves. Working on this film must have been exhausting, but oh so rewarding in the end. Due to the nature of the license rights, the complexity of it shots, and incredible of expense of animating over live-action, a sequel has never truly got off the ground. Author Gary West has returned to the character for his novels, and Disney and Spielberg would probably both love to cash-in on the brand, but there are just too many hurdles to clear. Zemeckis has campaigned for a sequel on multiple occasions, but he’s been less vocal about it in recent years. Additional Maroon Cartoon shorts of Roger Rabbit were produced after the film, but even that was a touchy subject as Spielberg wanted to run them alongside his films while Disney wanted them for theirs. And supposedly Disney wanted to create a television show starring Roger Rabbit for their Disney Afternoon block, but Spielberg who was working on televised cartoons of his own (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, etc) wouldn’t allow Roger to be utilized forcing Disney to create the character Bonkers the Bobcat. Roger has at least been allowed to live on in Disneyland’s Toon Town where he still has a dark ride to this day. Given that Disney has been replacing a lot of older dark rides to make way for more current franchises, one has to wonder if Roger’s days there could be numbered.

One of the more character-packed shots in the whole film.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is likely one of the most popular and successful films to never get a sequel. It took in around $330M in 1988 dollars, a pretty substantial haul, which more than covered its estimated $50M cost. Its story and presentation are both timeless and also proof that Tex Avery styled humor and gags may never truly go out of style. The rather manic Roger Rabbit can appear off-putting to some, especially younger folks who may not have grown up on Looney Tunes, but apprehensions tend to fade away once the movie really gets going. I’ve introduced this film to a few people that weren’t enthusiastic about giving it a shot, only to see them won over in short order. It’s really one of the best things the Walt Disney Company has ever produced, even if it was released on their Touchstone label. I know it’s a Friday, but if you don’t have plans tonight, you could do a lot worse than settling in on the couch with your favorite snack and beverage for a showing of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

1 Comment | tags: amblin entertainment, baby herman, bob hoskins, bugs bunny, charles fleischer, christopher lloyd, clarence nash, daffy duck, donald duck, gary wolf, jessica rabbit, kathleen turner, mel blanc, mickey mouse, robert williams, robert zemeckis, roger rabbit, steven spielberg, tony anselmo, touchstone, walt disney, warner brothers, wayne allwine | posted in Film

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