As many of my closer friends may know, I was deeply disappointed by the new live-action “film” that only promised itself some-what of an audience of very, very loyal fans by slapping the name “Dragonball” on it. The film I’m talking about, of course, is James Wong’s Dragonball Evolution which devasted the souls of Dragonball fans everywhere. The movie was a colossal failure and possibly the greatest troll Hollywood has thrown out to movie-goers everywhere. Many audience members were disturbed at the lack of quality given to film. Reviewers even went far enough to call Dragonball Evolution one of the worst movies of the year. Unfortunately, I was one of the loyal fans who hoped, prayed, and wished that this movie would not crash and burn. Sadly, that’s just what it did.
So what exactly caused Dragonball Evolution to crash and burn as it did? A lot of things: a poor script, terrible FXs, etc. However, many believe that one of the keypoints for the massive failure was due to the inadiquate casting. I mean Justin Chatwin as Goku? Come on! Honestly, the entire movie was a simple low-key and poorly executed attempt to exploit a loyal audience to the Dragonball franchise and take their money.
Anyways, one of my goals that I have set for myself before I die is to punch this excuse for a movie in the nuts. (How hard should that be?). I will write and cast thee perfect movie ever to give the name “Dragonball”.
Here’s the plan:
- 1: Familiarize the new viewers to the Dragonball franchise with the characters, environments and so on. How do you do that? You start with the saga from the cartoon/manga that’ll be the easiest to transfer into film. I personally believe Dragonball Z’s Buu Saga is the easiest. Who made it a rule to start exactly from the beginning? Isn’t the Buu Saga right one of the LAST sagas for Dragonball? Personally, I believe that saga offers a lot more substance than others, yet it remains a simple storyline. It begins with Gohan in high school (boom already people relate to the characters) and integrates themes of family and teamwork. The storyline doesn’t carry the whole “Saiyan” backstory that Saiyan and Frieza sagas would have, and it doesn’t have complex plot structures like in the Cell Saga (e.g. time travel, Red Ribbon, etc.). The story–for the most part–is simple.
- 2: Focus each movie on one character. Let’s face it, the original Dragonball Z anime had incredibly poor dialogue (mostly because characters needed to pour out the entire complex plot that was easy enough for 7 year old boys would understand). In a movie, however, dialogue between characters is key to keeping the movie filled with substance. A technique I would use if I ever got around to writing a fantasy script for Buu Saga would be to have on character narrate throughout the story. For Buu Saga, I would choose Gohan to give a first person narration throughout the entire show. Imagine Gohan riding on the Nimbus and then turning Super Saiyan 2 with the simple narration “Yeah… this is one of our family traits.” Boom, simple! You just established that this WHOLE family (Gohan, Goku, Goten) all have the ability to turn Super Saiyan. The fans familiar with the story will get it, and it’ll be easy for the new audience to understand.
- 3: You don’t have to follow the series scene by scene! When going into a new film that remakes a series, a comic, or some other old movie you don’t want to see the same exact thing on screen. You want something new, yet familiar. For example, Watchmen was one of the coolest movies I’ve seen this year, and I enjoyed it, however, a lot of my interest in the movie was lost when viewing it because it was so exact to the source material I began to think “hey, I didn’t pay to reread a comic I have at home!” I believe that the film should contain something new and fresh, yet still remain loyal to the source material. This can help evade episodes that are “boring” on film.
- 4: Probably one of the best rules. Have a good cast. We’re trying to appeal to fans of the source material.
Here’s my cast list (it is still kind of in the works so feel free to comment if you disagree or agree on this!):
Tournament Announcer | Matthew Broderick
Videl | Undetermined
Trucks | Undetermined
Goten | Undetermined
Chi-Chi | Undetermined
That’s pretty much what I’ve got so far, leave comments about the characters I’ve assigned actors too, and help my quest on finding those undetermined guys!
lawlnick's Blog 
