As someone just recently getting in to dragon ball, I was quite shocked when I reached the Garlic Jr saga (incredibly important piece of the story btw) in DBz only to learn that this movie existed.
A lot of the discourse online often ignores this movie or simply writes it off as filler garbage, but I think that’s an incredible disservice. Sure, the story has problems and inevitably is just backstory for a filler arc, the first 10 or so minutes don’t matter really at all, and Krillian, piccolo, and Kami all just kind of show up without a lot of reason to fight Garlic Jr. They are real and can be considered legitimate problems with this film.
But through and through this movie is a short and fun 420 romp. You get good action, minor psychadelic visuals (in meaningless first few minutes I mentioned), and a story you really don’t need to think all that hard about.
This movie is NOT going to fundamentally shift how you view dragon ball, but is well worth the short 40 minute run time. It’s especially valuable if you watch it in line with dragon ball z, as it’s one of the only movies with tangible reference in the show.
