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?

  • http://stshores24.com stshores24

    I think their pairing was more believable than in Speed. You should watch it! It's well worth the rent…or the download… :)

  • http://db-lam-protest.forumotion.com/ Kame

    I'm boycotting this crap. If it's a financial success Fox said they'd make more.

    The petiion against the movie and it's sequels can be found here:
    http://db-lam-protest.forumotion.com/

  • Maciel

    ummm i thought u forgot all about the movie when u bumbed ur head
    so why is there a PS about the movie after the story?

  • Maciel

    haha i wanna see ppl with dog heads and pig heads and lizard heads and all of that good stuff u know what im talking about right??
    oh and ppl from planet Namek i think thats what its called
    nvm scratch that
    cause piccolo doesnt look like himself so the ppl from planet namek would not look like themselves and ruin the film even more lol

  • Crystal

    But James Masters is a bisexual time agent! How can anyone NOT love him?

  • monty

    some things just have to stay the way the are…

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

    Good point…. *jumps off roof of house again*

  • naj

    People, just don`t watch it…Anyway… the “Final Fantasy” Movie was also crap.

  • loreador

    I had heard about this a while ago before casting and was apprehensive. Now I know why. I feel you are completely justified in your opinion and keep them coming.

  • Vicky

    Hahahahahahahahaha, oh they're serious? Who on earth thought that this feeble offering of an action film would be worth the money to make it?

    Where's the comedy? All the actors look like they are taking themselves too seriously! The trailer looks the same as any other 'martial arts' style movie made in Hollywood to me, and that just spells instant boredom.

    I certainly won't be rushing out to the cinema to catch this turkey before it flops into the bargain bin at Woolworths!

  • Vicky

    *after thought*

    I am probably going to be shouted down for this (which is why I left it out of my original post) but…

    I always felt that dragonball was a poor imitation of Monkey anyway. But there doesn't seem to be anything of Monkey in this film either.

    And for anyone who has ever read Monkey, it isn't much like the TV series, but I liked both for different reasons.

    I just feel that Hollywood is getting more and more unimaginative with it's offerings lately.

  • josh

    this film luck suckworthy lol i luv the cartoon, these damn americans always ruin things lol

  • Sam_watashi_wa

    even the ninja turtles movie is better
    the cast is atleast in costume xD

  • StarblazeX

    This is the worst ever. Just like Jet Li and Jackie Chan movie, that was supposed to be epic!!
    -_- they ruin it with a lil american kid. (Sighs)

    Why do Dragonball anyway? In America they dragged out DragonballZ…make a movie outta that.

    Stormriders 2 has taken too long to come out also..

    A good movie to do would be Blade of the Immortal. (my opinion)

  • drummerboy0186

    where the hell is the rest of the cast like vegeta and trunks, tien, the androids, krillin, gohan, chi chi. come on, these are all main characters but theyre nowhere to be seen. so stupid.

  • wayne

    they have one with real people in it

  • the_true_Gohan

    i cant wait to see this movie i know it will be good for me because i know im going to need the laugh. my goal is to laugh so hard that i can cry a lake lol this will be the worst this ever and plz dont get me wrong the show was and i think it still is the best thing ever!11

  • son2380

    yes you are totally justified in calling this movie complete Garbage. If your going to make a martial arts movie at lease get a main character that knows martial arts.

  • son2380

    What are your thoughts about Goku being something other than Asian, since Goku is suppose to be the Japanese vers of Superman.

  • BkoMel

    Hey Koichi! I'm going to start taking a college course on japanese, and wanted to start now by finding some sort of info now. (so I can walk into class all cool and all). I also saw you're youtube vids, and kinda checked your page here also. Keep it up!

  • http://spacejay4000.livejournal.com/profile spacejay4000

    ok, i just found that an american death note movie remake is in the works!! does the injustice never end?!?!? is hollywood determined to ruin everything that is good and sacred and japanese??? cant hollywood come up with their own ideas for movies that they need to make crappy versions of japanese movies?? this really needs to stop!

  • http://spacejay4000.livejournal.com/profile spacejay4000

    could not agree more. and it really needs to stop! if they really want to introduce these great things to the american public, they could just take the original and show it instead of always creating their own crappy version. cuz these crappy versions just make people want to see the original japanese version anyway. *sigh*

  • http://spacejay4000.livejournal.com/profile spacejay4000

    is there a petition against hollywood making any movies that are anime-related or not from america originally? this is getting retarded.

  • Pizzaparty

    There already is a live-action Cowboy Bebop!

    It's called Firefly. :(

  • Sensus

    I know , Piccolo looks like Garlic jr.

  • Sensus

    He looks like Garlic jr.

  • Sensus

    They are in dbz , this is a db movie

  • Nelore

    Haha! Yeah…he does. O_O;;

  • Nelore

    Lies! D:

    Hollywood is so freaking evil…oh my god. D':

  • lisa lisa

    ToT god nooo00oo i loved dragon ball . its the anime i watch when i was a kid every weekendsss. gaahh i hate you… er… hollywood?

    T^T thanks for the cast update… ill distance myself from the movie places around august 09 now…

  • http://martinkart.deviantart.com/ Melissa

    WOW! ummm…..I wished holly wood would have WAITED for a dragonball movie for like another 5 or 10 years…..YEAH, It maybe an interesting movie but my goodness it looks crappy. The characters and etc just don't look like any of the Dragon ball characters.

  • KristOmerta

    As far as I'm concerned, things that come from Japan should not arrive at the States altogether. All they happen to do is make shitty ripp-offs thinking they can always do better. Let it be anime, let it be videogames-to-movies, let it be japanese horror films (we all know which ones (リング?)). And oh, now they've done the same with a Spanish horror movie too (renamed Quarantine)…
    I call it lack of ideas!!
    [I hope your predictions come true... specially the Buscemi part xD]

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    I saw the Spanish trailer for the movie Quarantine was “based” off of. It was really creepy. I wonder how the American version compares…

  • KristOmerta

    So I've seen, it's EXACTLY the same. Different actors, different language, the same film. They were too good to just dub it, they had to REMAKE the whole thing. I suppose because they thought they acted alot better (I call it vanity). But, never know… I may be wrong…

    By the way, I saw the original in the cinema… and it WAS creepy. One of the best horror movies I've seen in a long time (just an opinion, alot of people I know said it was crappy xD).

  • http://kriffix.deviantart.com Kriffix

    Actually i quite enjoyed the SMB movie hahah.

    Perhaps if we keep putting this movie down and expect the worst we may actually enjoy it when we see it. One things for sure, its not the dragonball we once new and loved.

  • vinteb

    wow, an American Death Note.
    x_x

  • Aquavibe1

    wow thats sooooo typical i would make a midget play picolo at least

  • http://www.tofugu.com/2008/10/07/dragonball-live-action-movie-film/ Bloood4x

    this movie is gona sucks hard!!

  • <.> >.< L=3 ;3

    Lol this movie gawna suck Dragon Nutz i should hit the director with a banana to knock sence into him :P

  • Miyavi

    Wth O.0 this suck they should only add japanese people to the movie it look's so low budgit like if they make a naruto movie they better use the Cosplayer who look's like naruto and sasuke only the japanese's can play a charecter they created goku outfit look's so shity excuse my lanuage as a half japanese i wanna do Harakiri on myself or assassin the dam maker's of this movie and he caster where's trunks or gohan vegeta man this should we underground movie or cancel it and put japanese's producer's into the room we only need one to make a master piece not three dum as ppl who never watched the anime and just said lets make it caster's look ugly not even bulma is hott this really make's me mad boo to the caster's

  • http://www.myspace.com/omertaes KristOmerta

    Once upon a time, Goku transformed into a giant Gorilla… We all remember that…
    So…
    WTF IS THIS:
    http://www.blogdecine.com/2008/11/10-dragonball… ????
    Goku now transforms into a… SUPERLIZARD???
    This only gets worse…

  • http://www.myspace.com/omertaes KristOmerta

    The whole text reads:
    “Incredible. When we thought the DragonBall movie couldn't get worse, the image above is revealed. What is it? Supposedly Goku, after suffering a transformation. Into what? That's the mistery. What the hell is that? A fish? A lizard? You tell me what YOU see. 'Cause it is definitly NOT a giant ape, which was what Goku transformed into (and all the people from his planet) the nights of full moon…
    The image is so comical (to call it something), when it appeared many thought it was a fake, something created by a fan just for laughs. But to our disgrace that is not so, as the 20th Century Fox quickly asked for the image to be erased… bla bla bla…”

    In short…. this will SUCK HARD

  • Shiva

    You know, stuff like this makes me want to direct. I know I could do so much better. Anyone could.

    Anyway, to the actor choice!

    Goku: Hiroyuki Narimiya.

    Krillin: Hayato Ichihara.

    Chi-Chi: Rinko Kikuchi or Ziyi Zhang.

    Bulma: Ryoko Hirosue.

    Master Roshi: Shunji Fujimari.

    Piccolo: Ryohei Matsuda.

    Yamcha: Fujiwara Tatsuya.

    All of them, great actors, who could do a way better job. This movie is going to make me cry, and not in a good way.

  • Shiva

    Oh, and I typo'd Master Roshi's. They actor's last name is Fujimura. Anyway, I'm still sad. This movie is going to be so horrible.

  • http://www.youtube.com/shikasclouds ShikasClouds

    I no most people are mad about whats going on here, but if your a crazy dragonball z fan and no matter wat u say , good or bad, sooner or later you will end up watching it, FACT.

  • lolita

    yea buddy thats not a lamborghini its a dodge charger

  • gyoong~

    Oh wow. After I saw this trailer I kinda just sat back and whimpered to myself for a bit. My mom tried to console me with, “Oh honey, it's -DragonBall-! Not everything will be the same…” That kinda just echoed in my head for a bit. How about, “NOTHING IS THE SAME.”

    All though, no matter how bad this might turn out, I will see it. Maybe it won't be so bad??

  • Morgoth1990

    Oh my jesus-christ-monkey-balls!!!! That's all I can say. I could spend hours talking about how this movie is gonna be one big heaping plate of massive horribleness, but that'd be a waste of time.

  • Care

    Well at least he looks… Fairly decent… Not like Goku's hair or “character”. xDD

  • fox

    first off Speedracer was baller, Emile Hirsch is a fantastic actor. The world of dragonball is such an unrealistic world and it looks like the director is trying to put it in his own realistic image.. whatever give it a chance, from chatwin's previous roles he doesn't really seem fit for Goku butttt he could pull it off…. look at a guy (his name is too holy to speak) who went from starring in a chick flick (10 things i hate about you) to playing the most baddass villian of all time (Dark Knight)