Summary
A live-actionDragon Ballmovie would be devilishly difficult to get right, and one of its trickiest obstacles would be deciding how to approach Goku’s childhood. Not so long ago, the phrase “bestlive-action anime adaptation” was the equivalent of saying “best way to pull out your own teeth.” Mercifully, Netflix’sOne Piecedemonstrated that, with the required love and attention, even the most fantastical anime can translate into worthy live-action productions. With Hollywood remakes ofNaruto,One Punch-Man, and various others on the horizon, another stab at live-actionDragon Ballseems inevitable.
Hollywood has, of course, been there before. The abject disaster that was 2009’sDragonball Evolutionmisunderstood the source material on almost every level, from casting and characterization to the action sequences and lore. One of the many decisionsDragonball Evolutiongot wrong was picking which chunk of Akira Toriyama’sDragon Balltimelineto adapt. Hoping to avoid getting caught in the same choppy waters, any future adaptation would likely skip Goku’s first 194 chapters.
Every Single Dragon Ball Movie (In Chronological Order)
With more than 20 entries, viewing the Dragon Ball movies in order is a big experience, and keeping track of them all can be difficult.
Any Future Live-Action Dragon Ball Movie Would Probably Skip Goku’s Childhood
Dragon Ball Can’t Put Off Adapting Its Best Stories Yet Again
Dragon Ballis a rare example of an anime franchise that enjoyed its biggest popularity boom many years after debuting. The most recognizable, iconic version of Goku that remains burned into the cultural consciousness is the grown-up warrior who battled Frieza on Namek, turns into a Super Saiyan, and bickers with Vegeta. The first 194 manga chapters in Akira Toriyama’s manga, however, follow the adventures of Goku as a young child, and the concept of Saiyans is wholly absent.
In order to capture the most famous and beloved aspects of theDragon Ballfranchise,a live-action movie would need to skip over Goku’s childhood entirely - almost 200 chapters - and jump straight into the Saiyan saga, which marked the dawn of theDragon Ball Zera. Doing so would allow the live-action movie to introduce all elements one expects aDragon Ballstory to deliver: the sci-fi overtones, the flying martial arts battles, Goku as a grown man, and vital supporting characters like Vegeta and Gohan.
I’ve Found Dragon Ball’s Perfect Live-Action Goku Actor After Watching Their 2 Biggest Roles
Any talks about a new live-action Dragon Ball should look to this TV star to play Goku, with his biggest roles proving why he’d be ideal for the part.
To make aDragon Ballmovie without those fundamental ingredients would feel odd indeed, and partly explainswhereDragonball Evolutionwent so spectacularly wrong. James Wong’s live-action effort attempted to condense Akira Toriyama’s initial 194 chapters into a single movie, introducing an adolescent Goku who was older than the child protagonist fromDragon Ball’s early volumes, but not yet the fully-grown father fromDragon Ball Z. The resulting mess did justice to neither era and only loosely resembled the legendary Toriyama story loved by so many.
Why A Future Dragon Ball Adaptation Must Still Adapt Goku’s Childhood
The Early Dragon Ball Sagas Still Deserve To Be Adapted
Cutting Goku’s formative years from a live-actionDragon Ballmovie presents two problems. Firstly, those chapters contain vital backstory details, including the first meetings between Goku and many of his friends, as well as an introduction to the Dragon Balls themselves. Secondly,Dragon Ball’s early chapters, while not as action-packed and intense as later sagas, are still very enjoyable. The problem, as demonstrated byDragonball Evolution, is thatnone of the sagas starring Goku as a child are epic or substantial enough to sustain a feature-length blockbusteras effectively asDragon Ball Z’s Saiyan saga or Frieza saga.
A 15 or 20-minute prologue summarizing the story so far would at least acknowledge that the Saiyan saga doesn’t represent Goku’s first saving-the-world rodeo.
Any future live-actionDragon Ballmovie would, therefore, face the dilemma of how to convey the necessary essentials from those first 194 chapters without spending too much time dwelling upon Goku’s past. The obvious solution would be to include a short prelude at the beginning of the movie. The next live-actionDragon Ballmovie could begin with a flashback where Goku and Bulma meet each other as children, and this would be followed by a rapid-fire montage that briefly covers the Emperor Pilaf, Red Ribbon Army, and King Piccolo sagas before the movie begins properly with Raditz landing on Earth.
An introduction sequence covering Goku’s battles before he became a father would deliver a pleasant middle-ground, skipping to the exciting part but still honoring the full breadth of Goku’s journey. A 15 or 20-minute prologue summarizing the story so far would at least acknowledge that the Saiyan saga does not represent Goku’s first saving-the-world rodeo. If alive-actionDragon Ballmoviewere to ignore Goku’s past and act like the Saiyan saga marks the very beginning of his story, that could only be interpreted as an insult to the source material.
Goku’s Childhood Years Would Make For A Great Dragon Ball TV Show
Streaming Makes A Dragon Ball TV Show Possible
A better solution would be to adaptDragon Ball’s first 194 chapters via a totally different medium. With the rise of streaming, successful movie franchises are increasingly branching out into TV shows, andSonic the Hedgehogcoexisting alongside Paramount+‘sKnucklesTV show presents a prime example of how this phenomenon can work in practice. If a live-actionDragon Ballmovie covering the Saiyan saga proved successful, a TV series could then cast a younger actor as Goku and chronicle his efforts collecting the Dragon Balls, competing in the Tenkaichi Budokai, bringing down the Red Ribbon Army, etc.
Goku’s childhood exploits are far better suited to the TV format than a 2-hour movie, but more importantly, a “Young Goku” spinoff would have a better chance of faithfully honoring the whimsical, lighter tone that dominated that early era of Akira Toriyama’sDragon Ballmanga. A movie adaptation, on the other hand, would face pressure to adopt the action-based philosophy that madeDragon Ball Zso popular, which would risk repeating the mistakes ofDragonball Evolutionall over again.
