Dragon Ball Z Movies

Dragon Ball Z - The Movies

Like DB, the DBZ series inspired short theater movies shown in Shonen Jump Anime fairs. To be more precise : 13 Movies (!!!), a number unequalled by any other anime series. 2 new movies by years were shown at the same time DBZ ran, from 1989 to 1996 (No DBZ movies in 1996).

Notice : The DB and DBZ movies are often mistakingly called OAV. This term is wrong as they were shown in theater, so they are not "Original Animation Videos". On the other hand, all the movies are later issued on video tape and laserdisc, so they could be mistaken for animation released only on video.

C18, Piccolo, Gohan, Chichi, Goten, Trunks, Krilin, Vegeta, Bulma, Goku, Videl and Marron

The format of each movie is the same : it take the DBZ "formula". That means : A evil enemy show up with his henchmen, our Z-warriors battle them, beat all the henchmens but all get beat up by the boss, but in the end Gokuu use one of his ultra-powerful attack to defeat him. Each movie takes the character at the point they were in the anime back then, and pits them against new foes that have usually a link to the original storyline, but not really part of the storyline.

The Dragon Ball Z movies are not part of "real" DBZ universe and are generally regarded by fans as side-stories, or alternative stories. The story is not directly from Toriyama, although the enemy design are directly from him.

On the other hand, the 6th DB Coffee-table books listed the place of each movies chronogically. This is rather strange since most of the movies COULDN'T happen in the chronology, because the events happen one after each other in the real timeline.

The good points of the DBZ movies is the very high quality of the animation and realisation. For most the movies, the design is flawless, the battles are lightning fast and the scenario (always simple) is entertaining. Also, the movies can constitute a very good introduction to the series for new fans.

The bad points is the lack of link with the real serie, and some very repetitious effects. For example, Vegeta repeat the same line in many movie: "Don't take me wrong Kakarotto, I'm not here to help you. But I am the only one who can defeat you"...or Piccolo saving Gohan (it happens in almost all of the movies. The endings are also ALL quite lame except the one for movie 1. There is also some disgressions that will horrify hard-core fans, for example, check my comments on movie 8!

In conclusion, the DBZ movies are extra eye-candy and enjoyable, but must not be taken for part of the real DB universe. For information on the plot of the movies, I recommend the summaries of Curtis Hoffmann.

The high popularity of DBZ in the France enabled them to have the movies dubbed there. Most of them where translated and issued on video, and Movies 12 & 13 were also shown in theaters as "Dragon Ball Z - Le Film". Movies 10 & 11 will also be shown in Theater there and also in Portugal as "Dragon Ball Z - O Filme".

Dragon Ball Z Movies Info