Dragonball Evolution

Dragonball Evolution is a 2009 American science fantasy action film directed by James Wong, produced by Stephen Chow, and written by Ben Ramsey. It is loosely based on the Japanese "Dragon Ball" manga and anime series created by Akira Toriyama, and stars Justin Chatwin, Emmy Rossum, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Chow Yun-fat, Joon Park, and Eriko Tamura. In "Dragonball: Evolution", the young Goku reveals his past and sets out to fight the evil alien warlord Lord Piccolo who wishes to gain the powerful Dragon Balls and use them to take over Earth.
The film began development in 2002 and was distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the first official live-action adaptation of the "Dragon Ball" manga. Both Toei and Funimation stated that they have no involvement with the live action film adaptation of "Dragon Ball".
"Dragonball: Evolution" was released in Japan and several other Asian countries on March 13, 2009, and in the United States on April 10, 2009. The film received negative reviews by both critics and "Dragon Ball" fans, particularly for its script, cast, and unfaithfulness to the source material. The film performed poorly at the box office, grossing only $9.4 million in North America and a worldwide total of $58.2 million against a budget of $30 million. The film was meant to be the first of a series, though all subsequent films were canceled.
Plot.
Two thousand years ago, the demon Lord Piccolo came to Earth, wreaking havoc along with his minion Ōzaru the Great Ape. Seven mystics created a powerful enchantment called the Mafuba and used it to seal Piccolo away; however, he breaks free in the present day, and with his ninja henchwoman Mai, begins to search for the seven Dragonballs – each one marked with stars numbering between one and seven – killing anyone in his path. He finds the first Dragonball in the possession of a peasant woman named Seki in an impoverished village. She relinquishes the Dragonball to save her daughter’s life, and Mai seemingly kills her.
On his eighteenth birthday, martial artist and high school senior Son Goku is given the four-star Dragonball by his grandfather, Gohan. Returning home from a party hosted by his crush Chi-Chi, Goku finds his home destroyed and his grandfather near death after Piccolo's failed attempt to acquire the Dragonball. Before he dies, Gohan tells Goku to seek out martial arts master Master Muten Roshi, who holds another one of the Dragonballs.
Goku then meets Bulma of the Capsule Corporation, who was studying the five-star Dragonball until it was stolen by Mai and has invented a locator for the Dragonballs. Goku offers Bulma his protection in exchange for her help in finding Roshi. They ultimately track him down in Paozu City, and he joins them in their search. Under Roshi's wing, Goku begins training his ki, knowing that they must get all the Dragonballs before the next solar eclipse when Ōzaru will return and join forces with Piccolo. In the midst of the group's search for the six-star Dragonball, they fall into a trap set by the desert bandit Yamcha, but Roshi convinces Yamcha to join by promising a portion of the royalties for Bulma's invention. Together, the group fight off an ambush by Mai and successfully acquire the next Dragonball.
As the group continues their quest, they visit The World Martial Arts Tournament where Chi-Chi is competing; she fights Mai in a match, and Mai uses the match to steal a sample of her blood. Chi-Chi briefly joins the group as they travel to a temple where Roshi consults his former teacher Sifu Norris and begins preparing the Mafuba enchantment so he can reseal Piccolo, while Chi-Chi helps Goku in his training to learn the most powerful of the ki-bending techniques: the Kamehameha Wave. During the night, Mai – having disguised herself as Chi-Chi using her shapeshifting abilities and the blood she stole earlier – steals the team's three Dragonballs, adding them to the ones that Piccolo already acquired. Chi-Chi is knocked unconscious in the fight, while Goku, Bulma, Yamcha, and Roshi go in pursuit of Mai and Piccolo.
With the Dragonballs successfully united, Piccolo arrives at the Dragon Temple and begins to summon Shenron the Eternal Dragon, but is stopped by the timely arrival of Goku's team. During the ensuing battle, Piccolo reveals to Goku that he himself is Ōzaru the Great Ape, having been sent to Earth as an infant to destroy it when he grew older. As the eclipse begins, Goku transforms into Ōzaru while Roshi attempts to use the Mafuba on Piccolo, but he doesn't have enough energy to finish the enchantment and Piccolo breaks free. Ōzaru chokes Roshi to death, but Roshi's dying words snap Goku back to his senses; he reverses his transformation and engages Piccolo in a final battle, seemingly defeating him with the power of the Kamehameha Wave. Goku then uses the Dragonballs to summon Shenron and requests that he restore Roshi back to life.
As the group celebrates, they realize the Dragonballs have now scattered, and Bulma declares that they must search for them again. Before they head out, Goku meets with Chi-Chi to apologize for knocking her unconscious and get to know her better, and they begin a sparring match to see which of them is stronger.
In a mid-credits scene, Piccolo is shown to have survived Goku's Kamehameha and is being cared for by the villager Seki, revealed to have been spared by Mai.
Production.
Development.
In 1995, Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan, who was a fan of the series, had expressed some interest in adapting "Dragon Ball" into a live-action film. However, he said it would require "a lot of amazing special effects and an enormous budget."
In 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired the feature film rights to the "Dragon Ball" franchise. In the same year, Stephen Chow was approached to direct the film, and although he said he was deeply interested because he is a fan of "Dragon Ball", Chow declined the chance to direct. He, however, accepted a role as a producer via his company Star Overseas. Robert Rodriguez, Mark A.Z. Dippé and Zack Snyder were offered to direct but passed. 20th Century Fox then went on to send the script to writer/director James Wong who accepted. In 2007, James Wong and RatPac-Dune Entertainment co-founder Brett Ratner were announced as director and producer respectively, and the project was retitled "Dragonball". Ben Ramsey's first draft was deemed too expensive to shoot, and in the end, he wrote about five different drafts of the script following notes from the studio. James Wong wrote the last draft, again according to notes from the studio, but decided to remain uncredited as the co-screenwriter. Chow was a "Dragon Ball" fan, citing its "airy and unstrained story [which] leaves much room for creation", but explained he would only serve as a producer because he believes that he should only direct stories he had created.
Differing costs to produce the film have been reported. In January 2008, Marsters spoke to "TV Guide" that he was told the film had a budget of approximately $100 million. In April 2009, the Spanish television station Telecinco reported that the budget was $50 million.
Marsters would later claim that the film in fact was produced for $30 million.
Casting.
Justin Chatwin was selected to play the film's central character Goku. Ron Perlman was originally offered the role of the villain Lord Piccolo, but turned it down to work on "". James Marsters, who accepted the role, noted he was a fan of the original anime series, describing it as "the coolest television cartoon in the last 50,000 years [because] it's got a Shakespearean sense of good and evil." Summarizing the original concept of his Piccolo, he said the character was "thousands of years old and a very long time ago he used to be a force of good, but [he] got into a bad argument and was put into prison for 2000 years. It got him very angry, and he finds a way to escape and then tries to destroy the world." Originally, Piccolo was going to be depicted as a handsome creature, but Marsters and the make-up artist chose to give him a decrepit complexion to reflect his having been trapped for thousands of years. The first time the make-up was applied, it took seventeen hours and left Marsters with difficulty breathing. In subsequent applications, it generally only took four hours.
Stephen Chow originally wanted to cast Zhang Yuqi, with whom he worked on "CJ7", for the part of Chi Chi, but the role eventually went to Jamie Chung.
Filming.
Principal photography began on December 3, 2007, in Mexico City, Mexico. Locations included the Universidad Tecnológica de México.
From January 2, 2008, the crew shot at Sierra de Órganos National Park. The crew moved to Estado de México in March of that year for some shots at Nevado de Toluca. Shooting has also been scheduled at Los Angeles, California.
In adapting the "Dragon Ball" manga, the futuristic cities and flying vehicles were kept; however, the anthropomorphic creatures and talking animals (such as Turtle, Oolong, Puar,Shu, and Korin) were dropped.
Many of the locations are very Oriental, and there was some Aztec influence too, particularly from their temples.
It was thought that Rossum would wear a blue wig to resemble her anime counterpart, but it was ultimately decided that such a look was too unrealistic. Instead she had her natural brown with blue streaks. Chatwin did not wear a wig as the director felt Chatwin's hair resembled Goku's.
A large amount of "Dragonball Evolution" was shot in an abandoned jeans factory, also located in Durango, Mexico.
"Dragonball: Evolution" special effects were done by Amalgamated Dynamics, while the visual effects were done by Ollin Studios, Zoic Studios, and Imagine Engine.
Music.
On December 9, 2008, it was confirmed that the theme song would be "Rule" by Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki. Also featured on the film's soundtrack is American pop artist Brian Anthony, whose remixed song "Worked Up" was released as a single in English territories, and is included on the home video releases as a bonus feature.
The film's soundtrack, "", was released in the United States on March 17, 2009 by Varèse Sarabande.
The score was composed by Brian Tyler, who recorded the score with an 82-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox. The score was met with positive reviews from music critics, who drew comparisons to Tyler's previous works.
Tie-ins.
The July 2008 issue of Jump Square published a manga inspired by the film by Daisuke Kadokuni.
Release.
Though an American film, "Dragonball: Evolution" was released in Japan and Hong Kong on March 13, 2009, nearly a month before its American release.
It was released in Australia on April 2 and in the United Kingdom on April 8.
Its release in its home country changed dates many times. Initially scheduled to be released in North America on August 15, 2008, it was later moved to April 2009 to allow time for additional filming and post-production work. The specific date then changed back and forth between April 10 and 8, with the final release date being April 10.
The marketing of the theatrical release included a viral "personal expressions" campaign created by digital agency Red Box New Media that ran on the Windows Live Messenger application. Alongside that campaign, Fox hired Picture Production Company to develop a PC/Wii flash game under the name "Can you Ka-Me-Ha-Me-Ha?"
This game was released just prior to the film in conjunction with another viral campaign that encouraged fans to send in their renditions of the fighting move.
Home media.
The film was released on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray Disc in North America on July 28 and on Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom on August 31. The Region 4 DVD and Blu-ray Disc was released in Australia on November 18.
Reception.
Box office.
On its opening weekend in the United States, the film grossed $4,756,488 from 2,181 sites. Box Office Mojo described this a "paltry", and noted that it was less than earned even though "Dragonball Evolution" opened at many more screens, and the gross was smaller than similar martial arts action films such as The Forbidden Kingdom or Bulletproof Monk. It also grossed far worse than Speed Racer and landed on 8th place at the box office behind , Fast & Furious, Monsters vs. Aliens, Observe and Report, Knowing, I Love You, Man, and The Haunting in Connecticut. In its second weekend, it dropped to 11th place. By the end of its run the film had a gross earning in the United States and Canada of $9,362,785 and an international gross of $48,865,675 for a combined worldwide box office gross total of $58,228,460.
Critical response.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 15% approval rating based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 3.60/10. The site's consensus states, "Executed with little panache or invention, "Dragonball Evolution" lacks the magic that made the books on which it was based a cult sensation." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade C+ on scale of A to F.
Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network, who was initially annoyed at fans of the franchise who criticised the film via leaked set shots and trailers before the film's release, gave the film an overall failing grade and stated "the fans were right." He criticised the film's lack of explaining plot elements, its hackneyed storyline and lackluster effort by the actors. "Variety"'s Russell Edwards found the film "passable", "pleasing if paint-by-numbers", noting it "doesn't take itself too seriously, but avoids campiness", that "the climactic clash between Piccolo and Goku offers a faithful CGI representation of the ethereal powers as drawn in the original manga" and that the climax offers an "impressive character twist for Goku that will warm the cockles of every young Jungian's heart." Luke Thompson of "E! Online" referred to the film as a "surreal mess" that would only make sense to fans of the original series. He questioned the use of a Caucasian in the main role and felt Chow Yun-Fat was "overacting like never before", but did consider it "fun in a train-wreck kind of way" and that while it was never boring it was also never "logical, coherent [or] rational".
Christopher Monfette of IGN gave the film a positive review, stating that it "is perhaps the most successful live-action film to date to utilize costume, production and audio design—not to mention some inspired fight choreography—to provide the flavor of anime without becoming overly cartoonish". He praised the main cast for "creating characters the audience can actually care about" and felt Chatwin was particularly likeable as Goku. "Slant Magazine"s Rob Humanick considered the film "uninspired" and implausible with an "aimlessly hyperactive construction and complete lack of substance" and "cobbled-together FX fakery". Reviewing the film for Australia's ABC Radio National, Jason Di Rosso stated the film was "lacking the visual panache of recent graphic novel adaptations". He agreed the film was uninspired and also felt it had dull "high school movie banter" dialog and was "cliché-ridden". "The Village Voice"s Aaron Hillis called the film a "loony live-action adaptation", but felt it was "more entertaining than it deserves to be" and would likely appeal to ten-year-old boys. Alonso Duralde of MSNBC found the film to be "both entertainingly ridiculous and ridiculously entertaining" and noted that "kids will have such a blast that you can turn this movie into the gateway kung-fu drug that makes them want to watch the earlier work of Stephen Chow and Chow Yun-Fat, that is if Stephen Chow and Chow Yun-fat had a Caucasian actor in the starring role." Jeffrey K. Lyles of "The Gazette" found the film to be "a fairly entertaining martial arts adventure for the younger audiences" and tolerable to adults. He felt Chatwin was ill-cast as Goku, and that director Wong failed to capture the "frenetic sense of the anime" in the action scenes, leaving them an effort to understand.
Creator response.
Before the film's release, "Dragon Ball" creator Akira Toriyama initially felt surprised by "Dragonball: Evolution" and suggested to his fans to treat it as an alternate universe version of his work. In an interview with the "Asahi Shimbun" on "", Toriyama revealed that he felt the Hollywood producers did not listen to him and his ideas and suggestions, and that the final version was not on par with the original "Dragon Ball" series, and felt the result was a movie he couldn't even call "Dragon Ball". When asked about the casting for Goku in 2013, Toriyama said that "nobody came to mind" for the role, but if "it were back when Jackie Chan was still young, I suppose I would have thought nobody could play Goku but him." Discussing the film in the 2016 "Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary "Super History Book"", Toriyama wrote: "I had put "Dragon Ball" behind me, but seeing how much that live-action film ticked me off..."
In 2016, writer Ben Ramsey apologized for the film, writing: "To have something with my name on it as the writer be so globally reviled is gut-wrenching. To receive hate mail from all over the world is heartbreaking. [...] I went into the project chasing after a big payday, not as a fan of the franchise but as a businessman taking on an assignment. I have learned that when you go into a creative endeavor without passion you come out with sub-optimal results, and sometimes flat out garbage. So I'm not blaming anyone for Dragonball [Evolution] but myself."
Accolades.
The film was nominated for a 2009 Spike TV Scream Award for "Best Comic Book Movie," but lost to "Watchmen". JoBlo.com nominated the film for its Golden Schmoes Awards in the category "Worst Movie of the Year" 2009.
Canceled sequels.
In an interview to "IGN", Justin Chatwin revealed that he signed for three films, though he expressed interest in making seven films. Chatwin also stated that Goku "only really gets interesting in the second film" and that the next films would feature elements from the "Dragon Ball Z" part of the franchise, likely delving further into his Saiyan origins, and incorporating his son Gohan and his arch-rival Vegeta, which he felt was "really exciting. It goes into the whole legend of "Dragonball"". A script for a sequel was being written before the film's release. Marsters said that he would have reprised his role in future films, having "every intention of fulfilling the arc of Piccolo in live-action", which he said it would feature Piccolo's reincarnation and redemption, which would merge Piccolo and his son Piccolo Jr. into one character. The film's poor commercial and critical performance caused any planned sequels to be canceled.
Disney obtained the international rights for the "Dragon Ball" franchise after acquiring 20th Century Fox, which reportedly includes the rights for a "Dragon Ball" live-action film.
Merchandise.
A film novelization, "Dragonball Evolution: The Junior Novel", was written by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon. Aimed at children ages 8–15, the novel was released by Viz Media on February 24, 2009. The same day, a series of chapter books for readers 7–10 was released.
The three volumes, subtitled "The Discovery", "The Search", and "The Battle" were also written by Deutsch and Cohan.
A 16-paged sticker book, "Dragonball: Evolution Sticker Book", followed on March 24, 2009. Released a week later on March 31, 2009 by Viz was a 22-page "Dragonball: Evolution Posterzine" featuring eleven posters, cast interviews, and merchandise previews.
On January 19, 2009, Namco Bandai Games and Fox announced a tie-in PSP video game, which was released in Japan on March 19 and North America on April 7. The game includes all of the major characters from the film and features various playing modes, including a local multi-player battle mode, production stills, and storyboards from the film.
The Hong Kong-based company Enterbay produced a 1:6-scaled line for "Dragonball Evolution". A 1:6 Goku figure was made along with Lord Piccolo. Bulma was planned to be the third figure of the series in addition to being the first female figure Enterbay has ever released. Prototypes of the Bulma figure were shown at Enterbay's blog but in November 2010, Enterbay confirmed that Bulma was canceled. Bandai America released a mass-market toy-line based on the movie in time for the theatrical release. The figures came in 4-inch, and 6-inch versions. Lastly, Japanese toy company MediCom created stylized Goku and Piccolo Be@rbrick toys to coincide with the release of the film.