The enduring and endearing power of Dragon Ball cant be
understated by this point. Since it
debuted in 1986, the Dragon Ball franchise has spawned 4 TV Series, 20 movies,
3 TV Specials and at least 2 OVAs, insane for a franchise coming up on its 40th
anniversary in a few years. Speaking of
Movies, after debuting earlier this summer in Japan, the next chapter of Dragon
Ball Super, Super Hero, is about to arrive stateside this weekend. They’ve advertised the heck out of it and I’m
sure the powers are be are hoping it will replicate the same success Demon
Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and even the last Dragon Ball Super Movie achieved at
the US Box Office. To celebrate the
arrival of a brand new Dragon Ball movie, I’m doing a special Top 5 this week
and it’s a bit of a Redux. A few years
back I did a list of my Top 5 Dragon Ball Z Movies (and you can find that here:
). But not only have opinions changed
and new movies have arrived, I haven’t touched on the Dragon Ball films I don’t
particularly like. So, it’s a double
sized Top 5 Wednesday as I look at the Top 5 Best (and Worst) Dragon Ball
Movies. To be clear, this spans the
entire franchise including Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super (GT
never had a movie, just one special).
#5 Worst-Dragon Ball Z: Tree of Might This was actually the first DBZ movie I ever saw but didn’t
know it at the time.
Back when syndication
only ran the first two seasons of the show, they threw in a three part
rendition of Tree of Might to fill some time before they started the Namek Saga
all over again.
No matter the case, Tree
of Might’s biggest issue with me is that it’s the only DBZ movie to feature the
original team of Z-Fighters (Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu)
in a movie together and everyone gets laid out pretty quickly.
The Villains are too OP unless they go up
against Goku and the only notable thing about Turles is he looks like an evil
Goku and they don’t do nearly enough with that concept.
Overall, they had a chance to show the OG
team take on a potentially big threat together and they messed it up badly.
#5 Best-Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest
Until the rest of the DBZ movies made their way stateside
in the early 2000s, this was my favorite of the first three Z movies
released.
The action is so epic and hard
hitting.
Master Roshi gets some moments
of bad assery, something he never got to show off in the show.
Plus there’s a brief rematch between old rivals
Goku and Piccolo, granted Piccolo is being mind controlled but its still an
awesome fight.
The series was on the
cusp of the Age of Super Saiyans, so The Worlds Strongest is an excellent
example of showing Z didn’t always need them to be an amazing action series
(same goes for its predecessor, Dead Zone).
You just needed Goku unleashing his Kaio Ken against three monstrous
looking Bio Warriors and their Boss, who happens to be a brain inside of a
Giant Robot Body…because Anime lol.
#4 Worst-Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug
This movie ranks pretty low in the eyes of Z fans but to
me, there are a lot worse movies.
I can
still see why Lord Slug doesn’t measure up.
Besides some cool moments for Piccolo (payback for how they treated him
in Tree of Might?), Lord Slug feels totally forgettable.
The Villain is a retread of King Piccolo from
the original series and, once again, Goku has to be the one to defeat everyone.
Not only that, the Japanese title for the
film is “Super Saiyan Son Goku” but Goku never goes Super Saiyan.
He goes some weird high level Kaio Ken and everyone
thinks its Super Saiyan but it isn’t and it doesn’t even last very long.
We wouldn’t get proper Super Saiyans until
the following movie “Cooler’s Revenge”.
That’s just bad marketing there.
#4 Best-Dragon Ball Z: Broly, the Legendary Super
Saiyan
Most Dragon Ball movies suffer in the villains department.
Their either too shallow or one note.
Broly, however, broke the unmemorable
villains curse by being an actual threat to the Z-Fighters.
When a guy is able to walk right through
Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Future Trunks (all Super Saiyans) and Piccolo without
breaking a sweat, you know it’s time to panic just a little bit.
While the movie is a little on the longer
side, it makes up for it with a pretty bad ass final battle that gives most of
the spotlight to Broly, who is truly the star of his own film.
He was such a hit that he has been brought
back for multiple movies…two of which we all wish didn’t happen, and a third we’ll
get to later on this list actually.
#3 Worst-Dragon Ball Z: Broly-Second Coming
And now we reach the era of Z where I kind of stopped watching
the show.
While it still had some great
and epic action, DBZ also introduced Kid Trunks and Goten at this point and
their childish slapstick is always going to be bottom of the barrel for
me.
How many times has the world almost
come to an end because these two wanted to show off rather than do their job?
Broly-Second Coming is half a boring and
rather stupid Dragon Ball fetch quest with the two brats (plus Gohan and Videl,
the latter of whom gets woefully underutilized) and the second half features a rather
lackluster second outing for one of DBZs best villains.
The fact that Broly cant kill Goten and
Trunks in a matter of seconds after he laid waste to Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta
and Future Trunks all at once is total BS too.
#3 Best-Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn
Dragon Ball Z was always at its best when Goku and Vegeta
are fighting side by side, Vegeta bickering with Goku like theyre married.
And when you put them both together,
literally, the most powerful and bad ass warrior in existence, Gogeta, is
born.
But even before that awesomeness,
you’ve got one of the best looking movies in the series and some pretty cool
looking CG effects for the main villain, Janemba, who thankfully evolves from a
Majin Buu like playful version into a more menacing foe who looks pretty cool.
Fusion Reborn also pulls the rare feat of
giving Goten and Trunks something meaningful to do and a foe they can actually
defeat…after all if they couldn’t beat Hitler of all people they deserved to
fail at life.
#2 Worst-Dragon Ball: The Path to Power
Released in 1996, this was supposed to be the big 10
th
Anniversary celebration of the entire Dragon Ball franchise…and yet it’s not
even really a Dragon Ball Movie, it’s a Dragon Ball GT movie.
The character models and outfits are all GT.
The poorly paced and at times boring action
is GT.
The need for Goku to inexplicably
go Super Saiyan and break continuity in a big way, that is 100% GT.
Path to Power is less a love letter to the
franchise as a whole and instead an encapsulation of how bad things had gotten
for the franchise by this point in its history, marred by the irredeemable quality
of Dragon Ball GT.
Thank God things have
gotten so much better since this trainwreck.
#2 Best-Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F
While I was pretty let down at DBZ: Battle of Gods, Resurrection
F felt like the proper epic return of one of my flagship Anime series.
Even decades after they fought on Namek,
getting to see Goku and Frieza square off once again is even more amazing than
ever before.
I also really like that
despite their ferocity, they still have good banter, almost like they have a
bit of a friendly rivalry going on at times.
It really does feel like a reunion with an old friend and there’s even
some good crowd pleasing moments like leaving Goten and Trunks at home and giving
Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Master Roshi and Tien a chance to get in on the
action.
Plus, how cathartic is it that
Vegeta finally gets to pummel the crap out of Frieza as a Super Saiyan like he
always wanted?
This is epitome Z right
here.
#1 Worst-Dragon Ball Z: Bio Broly
This is it, the lowest of the low, so bad it was the
first title I reviewed to get a 0/10.
Bio Broly takes the greatest threat Goku and company ever faced and
makes a farce out of him with a terrible, TERRIBLE redesign whose origins make
no sense.
Once again, Goten and Trunks
are the stars and unbelievably, their goofball, potty joke antics are even
worse here than in the previous movie, Broly-Second Coming.
Plus, Android 18, one of the best female
characters in the franchise, gets a sizeable role but it never feels that way
because she’s laid out pretty quick just so Goten and Trunks can kid around with
Broly and kill him in the most embarrassing way.
Also I think one of them pees on him in this
movie too…like I said, this is the bottom of the barrel for not just Dragon
Ball Z but Dragon Ball in general.
#1 Best-Dragon Ball Super: Broly
Whereas Resurrection F felt like a good reunion movie for
Dragon Ball Z, Broly is the film that shows Dragon Ball has kind of grown up
along with its fan base.
It’s both a
film for the incoming fans of Super and those who have been with the franchise
for a really long time.
Broly takes one
of DBZ’s legendary foes and gives him a depth that is surprisingly effective
and makes you kind of root for Broly at times.
Despite the amount of heart, which is good, the movie never skimps on
its trademark action, offering a nice mix of 2D and 3D animation as Goku,
Vegeta and even Frieza get to square off against the legendary Super
Saiyan.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly was
also the first wide released Anime film in a long time to break the US Top 5 on
its opening weekend (even taking the Top spot the Friday it was released before
ultimately losing to M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass).
It’s a testament to the staying power of
Dragon Ball and man is it still going strong.
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