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Copyright © Bird Studio/Shueisha *
Toei Animation
Bilingual Laserdisc
PILA-0110A $29.98
English Dubbed VHS
PIVA-0110D $19.98
English Subtitled VHS
PIVA-0110S $24.98
DVD
PIDA-0110V $29.98
60 min |
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—by Charles McCarter
Bulma, Oolong, and Kuririn (or Krillin, or whatever) take little Gohan
camping in the forest. While enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, a
fire erupts, threatening the forest. Gohan and Krillin use their Ki power
to put out the fire, and while their efforts are successful it is a Pyrrhic
victory as the forest is destroyed. Gohan is upset that the animals are now
homeless, so they borrow Bulma's Dragonball detector and go after the
Dragonballs.
They gather all seven Dragonballs over the opening credits, and after they
end, the group summons the dragon Shen Long, who restores the forest to its
former beauty. Everything is peaceful and life is good.
Until a band of warriors lead by the Saiyajin (or "Sayan" for you dub
followers) Turles arrives on Earth and decides it is the perfect place to
grow the Tree of Might. This tree leeches all the energy from a planet and
stores it in its fruit. Thus, eating these fruits makes one incredibly
powerful, which is what all aspiring evil warriors desire. Unfortunately,
it leaves the host planet barren for hundreds of years, unable to support
even a single flower. And of course, if the planet can't support plant
life, it certainly won't be able to sustain anime life either. Earth always
gets the short end of the stick in these deals.
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Gokuu learns of the Tree from Kaioh, and the fun begins as the Z Fighters,
including Gokuu, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, Piccolo, Yamcha, and Krillin set out to
destroy the Tree before it saps all energy out of Earth. Of course, they
have to deal with Turles's troops before they can accomplish this goal.
As is typically the case for the DRAGONBALL movies, the plot is somewhat on
the simple side. But what helps to make up for this is the quality of the
animation, which is superior to the television series. Fight scenes are
choreographed with attention to detail and move quickly, communicating the
intensity of the battle.
The dubbing will be familiar to those watching the television series on the
air in the U.S., which I suppose is a good thing. The most distracting
thing about the dub in this particular film is the corny-sounding translated
names of the Z Fighters' special attacks; for example, "Destructo Disk." I
guess it's just one of those things that sound better in Japanese.
In this movie, the viewers start to learn more about Gokuu's race, the
Sayajin. Turles is a Sayajin and recognizes Gokuu as one as well. We also
start to get a glimpse of the true power that these beings wield. It is
also nice to see some of the earlier characters are still around before they
become totally powerless and obsolete, as they do further on down the line.
This movie is the third DRAGONBALL Z movie; its original title is "Chikyuu
Marugoto Chokessen," which translated as "Ultimate Deciding Battle for
Earth," and it was released in the summer of 1990. Pioneer is set to
release the second movie (English title "The World's Strongest") next.
After that, there are about ten more movies left to go. DRAGONBALL Z fans
will be in heaven as long as this schedule
continues.  |
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