Dragon Ball Z Movie 01: Ora no Gohan wo Kaese!!

The first Dragon Ball Z movie.

Each character follows the same personality they have in the series, holding every grudge, knowledge, technique, etc., they had up to the release date of this movie. It develops the pre-existing characters very well. However, most of the characters that were introduced exclusively for this movie are not developed.

The story revolves around the Dragon Balls, just like everything else related to this series; some evil character appears and tries to grab a hold on the Dragon Balls in order to rule/destroy the world. It's not unique or original, but it at least entertains.

The art remains the same as the one ... employed in the series, with the same buffed up muscles we're all accustomed to see. The fight scenes remain as thrilling as they were in the series, too. Art and animation, overall, was pretty good.

I happened to watch the movie already dubbed in English. I guess the voice acting was just alright, but I prefer the original japanese voice actors, the ones that did the voices in the original 291-episodes series. Opening and ending songs are the same as the series' japanese version ones.

If you're a Dragon Ball fan, you're definitely going to enjoy watching Goku and company get into some new fights, just like I did.

When I look back on the very first DBZ movie, I always find it ironic how it's actually among the best in the line up. Each of the following movies venture the exact same path, which is to provide the viewer with low brow entertainment through lots of action and comedy. I have no beef with this. The problem is, once you get pass the first batch of movies, you start to sense the lack of innovation and even creativity. They become unbelievably gimmicky and that feel of a cash in is all over the place. Dragon Ball Z is definitely an anime series you ... must be a die hard fan of to consistently enjoy.

Dragon Ball Z: The Dead Zone is a pretty fun title. It feels a lot more like the Dragon Ball series, as it takes the viewer on a near non stop action-filled ride. Almost from the very beginning, the action begins and rarely lets up, and it's actually a real joy to watch. The production values pretty much delivers; the battles do utilize that boring reused cel format, but the energy attacks and minimum choreography provide the fun. Especially during one of the moments when Goku is dodging and blocking various attacks from the combined might of the main villains goons.

There are also some nice background shots of the palace they battle in, and later on in the destroyed ruins of the place. The battles at different points takes place during the evening under an orange sun set that looks really nice. Now normally when it comes down to voice acting, I prefer to watch the dub because that way I can focus better on animation and music without having to look down at subs. This is one of those rare moments I can't tolerate the dub though. The voice acting itself isn't the problem, but there's this one musical scene that takes place with Gohan that is far better in the sub, because it actually contains the song. While in English, the entire scene feels bland. On top of this, I do believe the sieyuu is far better, with the legendary Kamiya Akira voicing lead villain Garlic Jr and Masako Nozawa voicing Goku. They had some really good chemistry going here.

The plot follows Goku as he tracks Gohan to the villain Garlic Jr. Garlic gathers the Dragon Balls to make a wish, and from here fist start flying again. During the later movies, characters will appear only to be taken down in record time. Here, characters like Piccolo and even Krillin are used pretty well.

One of the main problems I've always heard about this movie was the 45 minute length. When looking at the fact this is a franchise flick that rarely has a good plot to work with anyway, and a majority of the time the action scenes aren't breaking any new ground. I just can't see length as a problem. If anything, Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone feels too ordinary even for that time.

Overall, this is a solid movie that actually fits into main continuity, something you won't see often in the later movies. The action scenes do depict character deaths yet it's nothing over the top. The movie feels child friendly for the most part. Fans of the series will more than likely enjoy this. Newbies really shouldn't start here since character development is non existant. For them, I recommend coming into the first season of the main series. If that piques your interest enough to move further, then go ahead and give this a shot.

Highs: Short and to the point, knows what it wants to be

Lows: Average at best, mainly for fans of franchise

The movie was just bad. First of all the movie was way too short for the events happening in there like there was so much room for more. Second of all the movie is a typical non-canon anime movie so pretty much nothing special. Like you see some events in DBZ and wonder: But that already happened in the movie so why is Son Goku surprised? Third of all the movie didn't really explain the new character (Garlic Jr.). He just appeared out of nowhere kidnapping Son Gohan and then a little 1 minute backstory about Garlic Jr. Including... literally nothing about him in it. ... So the movie was pretty bad in my eyes.