When I was in highschool, Dragonball Z was immensely popular, especially under the “cool” non-geeky kids. In part, that is one of the reasons I never got into it; why bother myself with something everybody was already a fan of? It’s way geekier to like and know things about the things nobody else likes, right? Besides I’ve never really gotten the whole shifting hair colour thing anyway.
Skip forward to the present day where rumours about a Dragonball Z live action movie are slowly spreading. So what’s the scoop? Apparently Stephen Chow from Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer fame is producing the DBZ movie and James Wong (Final Destination) is directing it based on a script he wrote. Meaning cool writer/director/actor guy is this time only providing the money (=no real creative input) and the “genius” (please don’t overlook my sarcasm here) behind a teen horror movie with Death as the slice&dicer has all the reins of control.
Add to that mix, Justin Chatwin as Goku and James Marsters as the villain Piccolo and I’m not sure what to expect. To be honest, I’ve only seen Chatwin as Tom Cruise’s son in War of the Worlds and that entire movie was quite forgettable. Judging on looks only, he could pass for a Goku, I guess. James Marsters as Piccolo though worries me. Are they going to keep the white turban? As much as I love Spike, I’m not really sure how they are going to pull this off. Hell, I’m not even sure how they’re going to pull this entire movie off!
(Side note: Wouldn’t James Marsters and David Anders (Sark in Alias, Takeshi Kitano in Heroes) just be perfect as brothers? They both have that same bad-guy-you-hate-to-love-love-to-hate-have-to-have attitude.)
I haven’t seen much of the tv show, so I can’t really determine the wowness/bleghness of it all. To me though, Dragonball Z just doesn’t seem one of those cartoons that would be easily translated to the big screen. Any old fans out there?
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April 5th, 2008 at 15:43
I enjoyed your post on anime, keep up the good work!
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:38
Man. . . I am so waiting for ths. I think James would pull off this role pretty well since he does look like an unpainted Piccolo. And what about the other characters? Is this about the world Tournament where Piccolo is still evil? Gohan and all.
July 1st, 2008 at 17:47
I watched a few episodes when I was younger. This show is actually pretty good, but there is some dragon ball z videos that cannot be played in America -_-.
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:41
very cool pics.sexyyyyyy,kachhao
September 5th, 2008 at 23:54
A DBZ movie would be awesome! I’m not that surprised now that the special effects are up to speed. I pretty much grew up on Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, it was immensely popular in France when I was a kid! That said, I’m not too confident about the director from Final Destination, which I considered one of the worst movies I’ve seen… Think what you may but given the action potential for this movie, it could be a Michael bay jobbie.
Cheers!
September 5th, 2008 at 23:55
I’d clicked randomly on this post, and just realised it’s from last year, lol Oh well, no worries
September 9th, 2008 at 17:08
It is an awesome cartoon.I have seen many episodes.it looks like many things are going real in this universe unknown. This cartoon is really loved by many people who have watch this cartoon.
October 6th, 2008 at 22:24
A DBZ movie would be awesome! I’m not that surprised now that the special effects are up to speed. I pretty much grew up on Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, it was immensely popular in France when I was a kid! That said, I’m not too confident about the director from Final Destination, which I considered one of the worst movies I’ve seen…
November 7th, 2008 at 13:45
After seeing the live action Dragonball movie…I think this is looking to be an epic fail. Like you said, some things just don’t transfer well. As much of a fan of DBZ that I am, I just don’t see it going well.
February 9th, 2009 at 17:03
I never really got into DBZ either, the closest I knew about it was a character called ‘Piccolo’ looks like a Dezorian from the old Phantasy Star games. Maybe it’ll be like all those people that saw Serenity before the Firefly series…..?