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Of all of the Dragon Ball movies this one does by far the best job of adapting elements of the TV show into a new version of the story and is the best at capturing the feeling of the TV show, but does so without feeling too beholden to it.

It is also the first movie and one of the few across Dragon Ball, Z, GT, and Super, to introduce darker and more emotional moments and themes which I think is a great descion and really helps make Mystical Adventure feel like a more fleshed out experience rather than just some light-hearted fun.

That's not to say ... the movie doesn't have those aspects, it is still very fun and for the most part light-hearted, but with just enough darker moments to feel like there are genuine stakes, which is something sorely lacking in the previous 2 Dragon Ball movies and most of the 26 movies and specials in the overall Ball/Z/GT/Super franchise.

Mystical Adventure also really benefits from the fact that the Red Ribbon Army arc it's pulling a lot of elements from is far too drawn out and has a lot of weak parts in its TV show form, so setting it in an alternate universe/timeline and distilling the arc to 45 minutes of its best moments works really well.

This is still going to mostly be for people who are already fans of the series, but if you have some basic knowledge of the franchise and what dragon balls do I think you'd be able to understand and enjoy the movie enough that I'd still say it's worth giving it a chance.

While it's starts of similarly to the first Dragon Ball movie in that it's a semi retelling of part of the TV show set in an alternate universe and has a similar issue of not having enough explanation to stop newcomers from being confused, Sleeping Princess makes much better use of the concept with the vast majority of the movie being completely original rather than simply retreading old material like in Curse of the Blood Rubies.

While the plot is mostly a very basic affair with a similar charming and light-hearted vibe to the previous movie and TV show, the Gothic style of the setting the ... movie takes place in the design of all of the creatures is excellent and different from the typical Dragon Ball style. I think that really helps the movie stand apart from others in the franchise give it a very unique feel, which to me made it much more interesting and entertaining.


I doubt it would convert anyone who hates Dragon Ball or be a great jumping off point for people just getting into Dragon Ball, but if you're a fan it's definitely worth the time and despite its rating, in my opinion it is one of the better movies in the whole franchise.

A pretty charming and inoffensive little adventure, but it movies a such a rapid pace and has so little time devoted to introducing and developing the characters that I imagine anyone without at least some prior Dragon Ball knowledge would be pretty lost, and because of that its probably only enjoyable as a companion piece to the TV show rather than a fully stand alone movie.

Also, while it is pretty entertaining it's hard to rate the movie too highly when it is essentially just a very highly condensed retelling of the first Dragon Ball arc, with a few minor changes and with Pilaf, Mai, and ... Shu replaced a different trio of villains.

The plot and dialogue are below mediocre, but the monster design and gore scenes were excellent and that along with some ok action was good enough to just barely drag the movie over the line from mediocre to enjoyable. I do really hate the unnecessary nudity and sexualisation of female characters that was much too common in anime from the 80's and 90's though.

The characters themselves were also pretty bad for the most part, and didn't have much in the way of personalities, or characterisation, and felt more like they were created to seem cool and serve the progression in very specific ways, rather than ... feeling like they were fully fleshed out at all.

Also, that end credit song was an absolute banger