Dragonball Evolution
12.02 AM, Saturday, 18th April, 2009 - by Asha

I was a huge fan of the anime when I was younger, so when this came out recently I felt rather obligated to see it, even though by all accounts it looked a bit... shit. Having seen it the other day, I have to say I was actually quite pleasently surprised. It's not great by any means, or even very good, but it's an enjoyable enough hour and a half.
 
It was actualy quite a bit more faithful to the source material than I was expecting, the only change that really bothered me was the whole Ozaru thing. The main problem I had with it was that while it was relatively respectful to the original series, it just wasn't a very good movie.
 
Casting for the most part was surprisingly good. I thought Emily Rossum was great as Bulma, and while the guy playing Yamcha was a bit annoying, it was a fairly faithful take on the character. I actually liked Chi Chi far more in this than in the actual anime, and Master Roshi, while being quite different in appearance, was well translated to screen as well - I loved how they kept elements like his dirty magazines and trying to feel up Bulma.
 
Justin Chatwin as Goku I wasn't so keen on. He's a good actor, and I liked the character he was playing a lot but... it just wasn't Goku. Goku is naive, humble and not very bright - this character was cocky, angsty and street-smart. He would have been perfect if he was cast as Trunks or Gohan or something, but he just doesn't work as Goku. Nonetheless, he does make for a charismatic lead, and does the best with what he's given. Although the bit where he summons the dragon is pretty cringeworthy.
 
The problem is the film is just so damn short. There's very little room for character development, and everything is so rushed (wow, I never thought I'd be saying this about something based on Dragonball Z). Piccolo in particular is given precious little screen-time, and no motivation besides "RAR I AM EVIL". I've actually seen very little Dragonball, and nothing with Piccolo Daimo in it, so I can't really judge Scott Marsters' performance, but he did a pretty good job with what little he's given. Also it's never explained how he actually escaped in the first place.
 
I dunno... while it's enjoyable enough, the fact it's so rushed means there was little tension or danger, and in particular their search for the Dragonballs seemed so easy, as did Goku learning the Kamehameha. On the whole, better than I thought it would be, and there was definitely a certain fanboy glee at seeing these characters I love on the big screen, but there's an overwhelming sense that it could have been a lot better.

Also, Episodes 5 and 6 of Pete the Puppet are online. I meant to put Episode 5 up on this page ages ago, but I kind of forgot about it after I uploaded it to YouTube.