DragonBall (2009) Live Action Film: Makes Super Mario Bros Seem Oscar-worthy

I bet a lot of you have heard about this. James Wong is directing a live action version of DragonBall (and probably going to ruin his career in the process, though there isn’t much to ruin when you directed Final Destination 3). Not since Ramen Girl has anyone tried to ruin a perfectly good Japanese story so unforgivably. Though, I suppose, at least Dragonball will have that potential to become a good drinking game. It has that going for it. Erin brought this to my attention a while ago, when it was still in rumors-ville, but recently, when a trailer actually came out, I decided that it needed a little more attention. We’ll be showing you the trailer a little further down. But first, we have to show you the cast. Try not to throw up in your mouths.

Goku: Justin Chatwin

Okay, so Goku had dark hair back in the day, so Justin’s got that part right. After that, he’s got absolutely nothing. Nothing. He’s a skinny little knee-biter, and if you’ve seen the original Japanese version of DragonBall, his voice isn’t a girl’s voice. Someone should kick him between the legs. Steve Buschemi would have made a better Goku than this guy. Who did the photoshopping on his hair, btw? A monkey?

Piccolo: James Masters

First off, Piccolo is not white; he is green. Secondly, what’s wrong with the dude on the right? Does he not make it outside very often? Is he part fish? Is he trying to learn Japanese from anime? All I know is I’d never let my child hang out with Uncle Piccolo if he looked like that. My pick? Probably that green dinosaur that was on Barney.

Bulma: Emmy Rossum

Ugh, now I’m getting frustrated. I didn’t realize Laura Croft was making an appearance.

Master Roshi: Chow Yun-Fat

Okay, so finally there’s a decent cast member. Not the best actor in the world, but at least I’ve heard his name before…but wait, where’s the beard? I wish Mr. Miyagi was still alive.

Yamcha: Joon Park

This almost feels accurate, actually. Too bad they didn’t manage to get anywhere near this with the actual main characters of the film.

Mai: Eriko Tamura

Alright! Someone who’s actually Japanese. Wait a sec. Who is this? “She is a chief enforcer of Piccolo’s and a shape shifter.” Whhaatt?

So you have the cast, now, so why don’t we find out what the plot is:

Goku (Justin Chatwin) goes on a journey to find Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat) and gather the seven mystical Dragon Balls before the evil Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) can. Along his way, he meets Bulma (Emmy Rossum) who then joins him to help him in his mission. When arriving at Roshi’s place, he is not welcomed with embrace but he has to fight Roshi. Roshi soon learns that Goku is the grandson of Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) and thus trains him to prepare him for the ultimate battle with Lord Piccolo to prevent him from collecting the powerful orbs.

And now, what you’ve all been waiting for: The trailer. I think April is when they restart the Large Hadron Collider back up. Hopefully it brings an end to the world first, before this movie can do something much much worse to us.

So there you have it. The end of the world as we know it. You thought Super Mario Brothers the movie was bad. You thought Mortal Combat was bad. You thought Street Fighter was bad. Oh no. This is going to be much, much worse. I’d rather get kicked in the DragonBalls than sit through this thing.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtfKlv0G_G8']

Tell me what you think? Think it’ll be good? Who should be playing these characters instead of the ones chosen above? Steve Buschemi FTW?

  • WOTDsctoo

    Welllll, I never really watched Dragonball (only seen a few episodes here and there…I thought piccolo was a good guy…?), and I think I'll go see it. :P

    I don't know…either I have no taste or I just don't have high standards for Dragonball since I didn't watch it…but I think going to the movie will be fun. (although…I have to admit that even I can tell that the casting is rather off… >.>).

    But I showed the trailer to my friend this morning and she was really dissapointed. :/

  • WOTDsctoo

    Yea, no kidding. I never really watched the show much…but Krillin was a w e s o m e. XD

  • Zuzu

    I remember when I was like five and watched this ~
    but then I got to scared of the guy that had a stinger and made people dissapear. so I stopped

    And they can't make this movie, because there is no way they can't include the talking pig and the mouse-totoro looking thing the can turn into things (my favorite chars)

    thank you hollywood for killing a classic. thank you

  • Maciel

    hahahahaha! i love that video! or i barely started uhh loving it? lol well its a nice song and dance

  • http://omareduardo.com/blog/ omareduardo

    so i read your post and saw your video before watching the trailer and I thought you were exagerating… but now that i watched the trailer… what were they thinking?!
    知りませんけどその映画は見ませんよ。

  • Maciel

    ummm seriously if goku was getting trained by roshi shouldnt he be a kid? and then train with king kai as an older guy?
    and does yamcha have puar (the blue cat thingy) with him??
    and that would be hilarious if Yajirobe came out with sensu beans and a sword running away from something strange

  • Tonio

    ….. i cannot believe this. I heard about it before, but didn't think they were serious.
    I laughed at jokes before, but now the jokes look better than the real thing –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VBNE5Rs4lg

  • BAO

    looked gay D::

    jesus christ may that video never make it to the big screen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    if so….. the movie industry will come to an end D:

  • http://www.thegue.com Captain_Ron

    I'm sure most would disagree, but with a big enough budget… a good director, and the original writers of Cowboy Bebop, it could actually work…

    Much better then Dragonball at least… especially since its based in a much more realistic world…

    I'm in NO way implying they should do it… but if they did I wouldn't get my pitchfork and torch right off the bat

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    They are making one (see link above your comment), and it's with Keanu Reeves!

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Actually, I kind of agree. It's just that all those things don't usually come together. I don't want to hope for much because then I'll be heartbroken. What I would love, though, is if Keanu Reeves would lipsynch Steve Blum throughout the whole movie ♥

  • http://www.thegue.com Captain_Ron

    I can relate to the feeling…

    Not exactly the same thing, but I have always been a HUGE fan of Garfield (ya know the fat orange cat from Sunday newspaper and the cartoon way back when)

    When I saw they made a movie for it I absolutely refuse to see it.. I know they ruined it…. I just can't bring myself to see it..

    And to comment on that, I thought it was a joke, but since its real, I have to say… I don't think Keanu is a good actor at all, but I always seem to love his movies (Action / Sci-Fi ones at least) I have been told his “Romantic” movies are bad… but I have no idea, I would have to be heavily bribed to watch one of them, haha

  • http://www.thegue.com Captain_Ron

    Perhaps they are trying to rekindle the style Hollywood used to make that Romeo and Juliet movie back in 96 with Leo DiCaprio: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117509/

    I would have hoped they learned their lesson back then though…

  • Brittni

    Oh, Yeah! I just looked~ it has 49 episodes *or acts…that is what the site i looked at called them* I wouldn't know though I never made it past the 1st video…but it looked half way decent…its just im not into the whole sailor moon thing anymore…

  • gummies

    lol wow looks lame, mai is that one chick from the 1st eps, there was a group of 3 a weird short dude a weird dog and her, xD

  • http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/?u=3165245 Yami123and4

    Okay let's see how bad this sucks. *Watches trailer* …..O_O *Run to nearest window and jumps*…DARNIT I'M IN THE BASEMENT!!! *Frantically find another window at a high level then jumps again. Happily she feel head first so all her memory of the trailer was erased. Now she thinks she a five year old ninja chipmunk named Wasabi Baka whose gaol is to rid the universe of evil*

    The End….

    PS this movie is going to be so bad that the makers and actors are gonna own the goverment and ever citizen in the world an apology and 50 mil in cold hard cash…Congress should be thinking about that XD

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    ha, that's great :)

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    I'm looking forward to The Day the Earth Stood Still (Keanu is in it). It's not coming out until December though.

  • 決まり文句

    In my opinion I do not believe they should turn any animated work into a live action movie. However… to make this live action movie able to be watched, the director and star should have been Stephen Chow(Kung Fu Hustle).

  • Mary

    *Groan*, why can't Hollywood just leave anime alone?

  • Nelore

    Wow–impressive!

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    You know, I think that putting out horrible remakes of anime will work out for Hollywood in the end. They'll have some people going to see it who have never seen the original series, and they'll have all of us disgruntled fans who have to go see it to find out how bad it is. Pretty tricky, movie guys!

  • Megan

    …If there are no dinosaurs I am storming 20th Century Fox….

    RAWR DINOSAURS RAWR!!!!

  • will

    please email me on youtube my name on there is wg8440. i am very vexed about this movie lol. need to vent frustration somewhere lol.

  • DZ

    Why is everyone blaming this on Hollywood? Not everything comes from Hollywood.

  • DZ

    I have to agree that this is a horrible idea, but why is everyone convinced that all movies come from Hollywood? Poor Hollywood takes the blame for all bad movies. :(

  • Ale

    i´m a big fan of DB.. and i agree, this film is going to suck..at least they could choose actors who looks like the caracters…i mean.. justin chatwin like goku?.. what they were thinking!!!…and piccolo oh my god.. i´m so sad =(

  • http://youtube.com/ch1ka ch1ka

    oh whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
    Your predictions will ALL come true
    but it might stay in the cinemas a bit longer than 1 week, as everyone will go to see how craaap it will be and not how good

  • Lelouch

    ughhhhh… what a horrible idea!!!!The japanese should stick with live action and american should stick with reality tv xDDD

  • http://www.sanokame.com Sano

    That's probably the worst trailer I've ever seen…

  • Wilbo T. Baggins

    Firstly, fucking wow. Hell yeah let's hope we all die before this comes out. Secondly, Chan-Li, THE ENTIRE WORLD IS RACIST. Get over yourself. Everyone hates everyone. That's life. Suck it up, and don't be a whiny homo about it. There that was sexist too.

  • Aaron Hart

    Well let's hope America doesn't ruin Akira either, also supposed to be released next year I think, the story is so good you it'd be hard to mess it up. Anyways I'd give Dragonball a download, or buy it on DVD, I like collecting bad movies like Battlefield Earth and In the name of the King, I think Dragonball will earn a place next to them.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    While I get your point, the isn't really the kind of site for that sort of wording, if you know what I mean. We try to keep things more or less civil and PG13 here, ok?

  • mekhie

    “or at least downloading it in the internet..”
    i think that's the best i can do… not gonna pay any cent for this movie. holy crap!!

    but anyway, isn't buscemi is too old if he is being offered to play in this movie?

  • http://wotakunow.blogspot.com/ Shirow

    Its a fairly safe bet to presume this film will be a complete failure, the best it can hope is to become so bad its good …
    And how DARE you say Mortal Komabt was a bad film!?! … pure blasphemy.
    Apparently Akira is next up for live action ….
    If they ever touch Ghost in the shell I'm going to self immolate.

  • kenny

    Its a fairly safe bet to presume this not so bad

  • danii

    I must admit, the guy that does Grandpa Gohan looks a lot like it, but that's probably the only good cast choice they made.
    I'm just waiting I can see it so I can have lots of arguments about how bad it is (right now, they are not enough to write a book, and that's what I'm aiming for) xD
    Let's all have a puke-party.

  • http://youtube.com/gxcad Ken

    The english version of the Dragonball anime was already bad. The Japanese don't even like that.

  • 13everly

    So liek, the guy who plays Goku plays the son in War of the Worlds.

    I noticed that right away considering I just saw that movie.
    Tripods scare the shit out of me …

  • http://shaolinrachel.deviantart.com/ Rachel

    0-o WHO ?! the heck decided to cast Justin as GOKU!?
    Goku – Sosuke Takaoka
    Bulma -Aki Maeda
    Piccalo – any one better then that…
    Master Roshi – Jackie Chan (he is used to playing a old pervy drunk XD)

    actually i don't think this movie will be that bad….
    just to the people that actually watch Dragon Ball….but they'll watch it any way because there obsessed haha…. T.T darn you Hollywood!!!!!! there always messing up movies!
    i swear if they make a Naruto movie it better be from Japan >o<
    awww i like Mortal Kombat =(
    I am going to watch this movie …. and i will bring a tissues because i am either going to laugh so hard i cry or i am going to cry because they casted Chow Young Fat as a perv.

  • http://x-aichaku.blogspot.com Mai

    I googled Steve Buschemi and he looks creepy.

    LOL @ doucheasaurus!

    Omg. The cast is actually REALLY bad (I don't watch movies much, so I can't name any actors D:!) The storyline is WAAAAY off and the trailer looks like its supposed to be a Chinese Kung-Fu Movie x Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift cross. Where is the flying?! The super Sayian? Nimbus?!

  • http://x-aichaku.blogspot.com Mai

    BTW, I liked the Super Mario Bros and Mortal Combat movies D:!!! I never saw the street fighter one though. And is Mai a new made up character for the movie?

  • http://www.vietamins.com Viet

    Mai is a character from the original Dragonball.

  • Chimiko

    An Americanized Akira eh? That'd be interesting.

    Another really great anime series getting a live-action movie is Monster, which is supposed to be released next year. I'm hoping it 'll be good.

  • http://x-aichaku.blogspot.com Mai

    Oh. Thats why I don't recognize her. I'm more familiar with Dragon Ball Z and beyond.

  • Carla

    Okay First off Goku needs to be asian and piccolo needs to be samuel L jackson. And maybe master Roshi to be i dont know…OLD!

  • Nahum

    I don't care what anybody says about this movie because i will give this movie a chance reguardless on what people say about this movie because i am a big Dragon Ball Z fan that's been waiting for a long time for this movie to finally be a live action film and now it's finally coming next year. I hate it when most People badly Judge this movie without even seening the whole movie first and people should stop judging a book by it's cover. I am very jealous of Justin Chatwin because he's the first actor ever who gets to play as my absolute favortie fictional character (Goku) ever in a real Motion picture live action movie. I wish it could be me that gets to play as goku in that movie. I hope this movie will be good.

    p.s The Dragon Ball movie trailer was kind of good. I can't wait to see Goku does his Kamehameha wave in the movie.

  • http://Wafukari.intothenew.net Wafukari

    The cast is pretty lame no matter how big of a DB/DBZ fan you are, and I have to disagree with you about the trailer. They are probably going to lose most of their fan base, like most of the people on here, with that really really really terrible trailer. Its okay though denial can be a close friend. :P

  • http://stshores24.com stshores24

    'The Lake House' was romantic, but it had a great sci-fi element to it. My wife and I both loved it, and I think Keanu was a good enough actor in that. I don't think the reviews gave it much credit, but we liked it. :)

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    I only saw about the last 10 minutes of the Lake House, haha. I liked what I saw, though I couldn't help feeling that the Reeves-Bullock pairing is a bit overrated. Or maybe I'm just jealous?