How Dragon Ball Evolution should have been like

[Lord]

No, i'm not going to say how i think it should have been like, instead i would like to know what the rest of you think that could have made it better.
How should it have been like? Should it have started with Picolo as the villain?

Was it even suited to be a franchise to begin with?

 

[Thundercrack85]

I actually thought it turned out a lot better than it could have. It wasn't good, but it wasn't godawful.

Really, I would focus more on DBZ's stories / elements, since that's what was so popular with an American audience.

 

[Victarion]

Its suited to a franchise--it just needs a load of worldbuilding to get it done right.

The opening would be a large battle between monks, warriors from the Kings (Ox King plus any others made up for the movie's sake) against Piccolo and his lieutenants. Again to sow seeds for the future, we could see Baba-Di and Garlic among his lieutenants. The four sages are the ones who deal with them and seal away Piccolo.

The anthropomorphic animals from the manga could've been retained. They could have been experiments from a defunct branch of the Red Ribbon Army that were liberated and given citizenship status.

Piccolo could've been freed by the Red Ribbon Army and used them to gather the dragon balls. In order to use them, he'd need to make creatures like Tambourine etc. from the manga that could shapeshift to assume the identity of the head officers of the Red Ribbon Army. This would require all of his strength and leave him weak. Hence using the RR as his personal army.

Goku could've met Chi-Chi at a regional tournament held by the Ox King to find someone fit to marry his daughter and take his place when he passed on.

 

[Lord]

I actually thought it turned out a lot better than it could have. It wasn't good, but it wasn't godawful.

Really, I would focus more on DBZ's stories / elements, since that's what was so popular with an American audience.

Actually, Dragon Ball Z is more known in the world than by just American Audiences, what they should try is to distance themselves from the Dragon Ball Evolution movie.

I would leave the DBZ elements for the sequels, if there were sequels of course. I like DBZ more but to reach there you have to make the characters power levels evolve a little during the movies and there's actually more plot in the original show.

Maybe Picolo should be left out of the first movie, i think that Goku needs grow a little during a journey to the west type of film where he and Bulma go search for the Dragon Balls and the audience can enjoy the ride, maybe even have red ribon as the villains, and then if more movies were made they could be more about prolongued fighting and Goku becoming more and more powerful.

 

[Lencho01]

I thought it should've been fun.

I was exposed to DBZ first and then saw DB. I like DB a lot more due to its adventure aspect. I think they could've started with a condensed DB story for the first film. Jump a few years to Vegeta and co. for the next film. Last film with Goku "dying" after "defeating" Frieza.

 

[bullets]

I didn't look anything like DBZ and you could tell it was cheaply made.

 

[Octoberist]

Evolution was just..a guilty pleasure. It's a big mess that it ends up being kinda fun, kinda like The Legend of Chun-Li (God bless you Chris Klein). But I won't justify it's sheer mediocrity either because, like many have said here, it looked cheap and it was a disservice to the core fans.

 

[Project862006]

i just hate movies like chun li and DBE that dont embrace it's fantasy elements and just ground it

it just does'nt work

 

[Octoberist]

Chun Li was horrible but Chris Klein was ironically good/bad in that one.

Street Fighter (as a film) should have a Scott Pilgrim style.

 

[Lencho01]

Yeah, something like this...

[YT]i3Sm444_zOw[/YT]

 

[jacobed]

I can forgive bad acting, poor story and bad effects in a movie like this if the hand to hand action is good. Which that last fight between Piccolo and Goku should have been epic, just an all out hand to hand brawl. It wouldn't even cost that much to do but nope we got crap. The action as a whole was just crap and soo disappointing. I would have changed a few things around in the story but as a whole I didn't mind it that much but I would have made Piccolo a bigger threat, no Yamcha, and I would have had the last fight be a long brutal one on one battle between the two.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Actually, Dragon Ball Z is more known in the world than by just American Audiences, what they should try is to distance themselves from the Dragon Ball Evolution movie.

I would leave the DBZ elements for the sequels, if there were sequels of course. I like DBZ more but to reach there you have to make the characters power levels evolve a little during the movies and there's actually more plot in the original show.

Maybe Picolo should be left out of the first movie, i think that Goku needs grow a little during a journey to the west type of film where he and Bulma go search for the Dragon Balls and the audience can enjoy the ride, maybe even have red ribon as the villains, and then if more movies were made they could be more about prolongued fighting and Goku becoming more and more powerful.

I must concede, I barely remember the movie. Which is good, by bad movie standards.

Having said that, you need a pragmatic adaption. From what I recall, DBZ had a rather strange world. Which really didn't make much sense. Floating talking animals, dinosaurs everywhere, people without noses, etc. And that's before the aliens and androids from the future show up.

Really, simply focusing on Goku and the Saiyans would be the best way to go. Perhaps tying that into Piccolo's alien origins. Vegeta as villain, coming to Earth for the dragonballs. And then throw in a hint of Freeza for a potential sequel.

 

[Lord]

I must concede, I barely remember the movie. Which is good, by bad movie standards.

Having said that, you need a pragmatic adaption. From what I recall, DBZ had a rather strange world. Which really didn't make much sense. Floating talking animals, dinosaurs everywhere, people without noses, etc. And that's before the aliens and androids from the future show up.

Really, simply focusing on Goku and the Saiyans would be the best way to go. Perhaps tying that into Piccolo's alien origins. Vegeta as villain, coming to Earth for the dragonballs. And then throw in a hint of Freeza for a potential sequel.

I can understand what you're saying but in order for them to successfully start with the Sayans sage they need to already have a lot of past events and things extablished or else to completelly change the past events.

Not to mention that the Sayans saga was an invasion on earth, not search for the Dragon Balls, which makes a first film having Dragon Ball in the title make no sence. Not to mention that while it was the first saga in Dragon Ball Z, as a whole it only started in the 17th volume of the manga.

Another thing that must be tought of the series to become a film franchise is wether to plan it as a Trilogy or a film series of 4-8 movies where they can take more time with the original saga of the manga. One thing that i can agree is that while i also liked the other later sagas, the Freeza arc may be the best way to end.

 

[Lord]

Seems like even Toriyama was displeased with the film and even suggested some ideas they didn't go with:

http://kotaku.com/didnt-like-hollywoods-dragon-ball-movie-well-neithe-465066558

In my opinion they should get the the basics, when it started Dragon Ball was a comedy manga, therefore if they made another film it should be as much comedy as action, instead of trying to be too serious.

I would delete the talking animals, since in later parts of the manga they Basically disappeared, but it would still be a weir world, not on the scale of Oz: The Great and Powerful but it should still be fun and entertaining. And the people doing it should think of it as an all family movie, not try the "gritty" and "grounded" look of the last one.

The story should be simple and straightforward, a road movie, the characters meet and go collect the Dragon Balls, there are problems on the way, they meet people and in the end reach their goal. I even suggest not to use Picolo in the first movie, keep it simple and fun, if you get a sequel you get one, if you don't there's no problem since it's still a contained story.

 

[Project862006]

a dbz film needs a zack snyder type director not final destination director lol

 

[Victarion]

My idea for a Dragon Ball film involved King Piccolo returning from the captivity, weakened, and forced to rely on Dr. Gero and the Red Ribbon Army to gather the dragon balls. The talking animals would be from an old line of research the RR Army was conducting; they were subsequently liberated and given the same rights as humans.

Goku would kill Gohan will in the Oozaru state and be unaware of it. Bulma would be looking for the Dragonballs to free her father from the Red Ribbon Army's forced employment. Yamcha would be the head of a gang of desert raiders who're being attacked by the minions Piccolo spawned; his motive in joining Goku and Bulma would be getting help for his people.

I'm not sure about Tien or Krillin.

 

[chelo248]

The best thing about this whole project was the DBE subforum in this board, it was very fun and with very cool people.. sadly the movie was a letdown.

 

[Lencho01]

Seems Toriyama is still being nice by not completely bashing the film.

 

[Project862006]

james marsters was the only thing i liked about dbe

 

[Lord]

a dbz film needs a zack snyder type director not final destination director lol

For the fight scenes and not being afraid of over the top action, yeah, but i would probably go for Sam Raimi, his style is more like Dragon Ball, Zack Snyder can be a little too "dark" when it comes to the tone of his movies, while Sam Raimi allways keeps the fun part and magic in his movies

 

[DirtyHarry]

a dbz film needs a zack snyder type director not final destination director lol

Stephen Chow

Edit: Zack is an overrated director imo

 

[Lord]

Zack Snyder isn't that liked, many even consider him a joke but after the Man of steel i'm sure he could make a Dragon Ball film very successful, and along with the Washowisky (not sure this is the way it's written) siblings he's the one who has come the closest to making a cinematic fight the most similar to DBZ's, and those 2 candidates are both very unlikelly.

Stephen Chow, never saw any film done by him, but he directed the recente Journey to the West adaptation, which has done more than 200 million dollars, without the film even being released in the USA, and ironically enough Journey to the West is what inspired Dragon Ball in the first place.

Their biggest mistake may have been trying to ground DB in order to sell it to the USA, but considering the money some films are making worldwide they shot themselves in foot, it could have been a major success if it had apealed more to Japan by simply being closer to the manga/ anime.

 

[DirtyHarry]

Watch Kung Fu Hustle, Lord. Stephen can not only do action (with a smaller budget), but also character, comedy and badass-ness t:

 

[chelo248]

At the beginning they wanted Stephen Chow to direct the movie but he ended just as a producer, but with 0 involvement in the movie i believe, just his name.

 

[DirtyHarry]

I heard it was because of his schedule and he wanted Asian actors in the movie but of course we can't have that