Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenlong (Movie 1) Synopsis: The story opens on a small village being bulldozed and destroyed right in front of the villager's eyes. A small girl named Pansy tries to fight back the soldiers, ending up having to be rescued by her father, but the soldiers call in their boss, Bongo, who explains why the king has ordered their ground to be dug up: He wants the precious rubies, Rich Stones, pulled out of the ground. The father insists that the soldiers leave, and Bongo says they will if they can beat him, before promptly beating up Pansy's father with a series of cheap shots. With the villagers dealt with, Bongo returns to a car with a driver and another female soldier and leaves. While Pansy's mother attends to her husband, Pansy herself swears that the evil soldiers won't get away with this. In the king's castle, the shadowy, monstrous figure of King Gurumes is distraught as none of his food tastes good to him anymore. Bongo and the female soldier, Pasta, arrive and report that they've located a Dragon Ball, much to Gurumes' delight: he must have the Dragon Balls so that he can use the wish to sate his hunger, and if the soldiers will help him gather them all, he'll give them anything they want. In another corner of the world, Son Goku and Bulma end up meeting for the first time much as they did in the main series. This time however, their meeting is interrupted by Bongo and Pasta who have come to take the four-star Dragon Ball from Goku's home. They take the ball and leave behind a Gurumes coin as 'payment', but Bulma and Goku chase after them in a plane of their own. Bongo questions if they should really give something as valuable as the Dragon Balls to Gurumes, but Pasta says that for them the Rich Stones are far more valuable. When Bongo asks where Gurumes has hidden the balls they've already gathered, Pasta remarks that they'll find out when all of them have been gathered. When Bulma and Goku catch up to the plane, demanding Goku's Dragon Ball back, the two planes end up in a shoot-out, during which Bulma is able to destroy the soldiers' in-plane Dragon Radar. Pasta is eventually able to blow Bulma and Goku out of the sky however, forcing Goku to use his nyoibo to save Bulma from falling. Goku and Bulma continue their pursuit through the night and into the next morning, where they come across Pansy who has become lost in the woods and is being harassed by the transforming Oolong. Goku is able to scare Oolong into running and has to chase after him while Bulma remains behind with Pansy. Once Goku catches Oolong, Oolong realizes they've come to the hideout of the notorious bandit, Yamcha, who reveals himself by opening fire on them from above. Oolong cons Goku into fighting Yamcha, and the two throw down before, ultimately, Goku is the victor of the fight and Yamcha is forced to flee when Bulma arrives due to his fear of girls. That night, Oolong joins the group as Pansy explains why she was in the woods: she'd gotten lost on her way to an island far to the south, where she wanted to meet Muten Roshi. Bulma says they're heading in the same direction, and Pansy begs them to let her travel with them so she can ask Roshi to save her village. She explains that the soldiers are bullying the townsfolk while destroying their land to dig up Rich Stones, which Bulma explains are the most valuable jewels in the whole world. Once the Rich Stones were discovered in their area, their once kind King Gurumes began to change into a monster who could only eat fancier and fancier things, thus needing more and more Rich Stones to be able to afford even fancier things, leading to an endless loop of gluttony for both food and Rich Stones. As such, he's had the soldiers destroying all the land to find more of the Stones, including the villager's homes. The king's army is strong however, and the villagers are powerless to stop him. Pansy has even heard that the king is now looking for the Dragon Balls to have a wish granted, which catches Bulma's attention immediately – it must have been some of the king's soldiers that attacked them and took Goku's Dragon Ball! Yamcha overhears this by lurking outside, and decides to head to Roshi's first to convince him to take out Goku for them, and then they can steal the Dragon Balls for their own wish. Back in his castle, King Gurumes regurgitates the five Dragon Balls he already has back out of his stomach and comments that he only needs two more, then he can finally wish for a food so good that it will forever sate his hunger. Goku and Bulma take Pansy to Roshi's island, where the old man mistrusts them immediately, accusing Goku of being out to kill him and make a name for himself. Pansy insists that's not why they're there and that Goku even saved her life. Roshi calls out to Yamcha, who's hiding behind his house, that this group doesn't seem that bad at all, but Yamcha insists that they're just trying to fool him. Yamcha is scared back into hiding by Bulma's attentions however, and Roshi decides there's an easy way to see whose story is true. He calls down kinto'un, and Goku proves himself as trustworthy by being able to ride it. With his plan ruined, Yamcha flees. It's then that Bulma notices the Dragon Ball around Roshi's neck and begs him for it, with the old man only agreeing if he gets to touch her chest. Like before, Bulma makes Oolong do the deed for her. Things are looking up again as the gang now has two Dragon Balls, but Roshi's island is suddenly attacked by Bongo and Pasta, who manage to steal one of the Dragon Ball. Enraged at the destruction of his house, Roshi bulks up and fires a Kamehameha, destroying the villains' submarine and forcing them to quickly escape by plane. Goku picks up the Kamehameha just by seeing it, resulting in Roshi telling Pansy that she doesn't need his help at all, she already has a fine hero by her side. With that, Goku and the others head towards Gurumes' castle with Pansy to save her village and get the Dragon Balls back. When Bongo and Pasta tell Gurumes that the last Dragon Ball seems to be heading towards them, he's overjoyed, and Pasta says they'll claim it for him in no time. As soon as Bulma's plane enters the castle's airspace, the army goes on the assault, led by Bongo himself. Goku fights Bongo who has a flying device of his own, while Pasta and other soldiers shoot down Bulma's plane. In his throne room, Gurumes grows ever more impatient. Goku is able to destroy Bongo's vehicle, but the villain uses a chain to drag Goku down with him. Just at things are looking bad, Yamcha suddenly appears and begins attacking the soldiers as well, finding his way into the castle (and even stealing an armful of Rich Stones while he's at it). Infiltrating the castle, Bulma has Oolong turn into a gigantic monster to scare away the soldiers, eventually running into Yamcha who was using the same tactic with Puar. The group is suddenly attacked and Yamcha is shot down by Pasta, but his life is saved by all of the Rich Stones in his shirt. Yamcha attacks Pasta, but becomes frozen in place when he realizes she's a woman, allowing her to defeat him easily. The group runs from her as she tosses explosives at them, with Yamcha saving Bulma's life as they flee. Goku continues his fight with Bongo back on the ground, eventually crashing through the wall to join Pansy and the others as they come to Gurumes' throne room. Driven insane and more monstrous than ever before by his hunger, Gurumes crushes Bongo beneath his feet and attacks Goku, who is hungry and weakened by his fight with Bongo. Goku fights back Gurumes as best as he can, even launching a Kamehameha at him, but the king is unfazed. A glow from his stomach causes Bulma to realize the other Dragon Balls are in Gurumes' stomach, so she tosses the last one into his mouth when he roars and calls forth the dragon. Shenlong appears above the destroyed castle, and Bulma and Yamcha both vie for their wish, but Pansy speaks up first and asks Shenlong to get rid of the Rich Stones and return her home to how it once was. Shenlong grants her wish, and all of the Rich Stones in the ground begin to float up out of the Earth, and as Shenlong leaves and the Dragon Balls scatter, the land is shown to be green and healthy once again. Gurumes crawls out of the rubble of his castle, returned to his original human form but still starving. Pansy hands him an apple that fell from a tree, and he eats it only to find that it's delicious. Pansy's father comes over and tells the king that such things are what he almost destroyed, and the king seems horrified. Goku walks over and gives back the golden Gurumes coin to Pasta, before calling down the kinto'un to leave and look for the Dragon Ball, while leaving behind his friends and the now peaceful village he helped to save. Review: Right away, you may have noticed I sort of breezed through the stuff that was already covered in the manga in the synopsis. That's because, well, we've already covered that, so there's not really much else to talk about in regards to it. The same will be true here in the review, I'll mainly be focusing on the new material as presented to us in this film. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the movie's story itself though, seeing as this is the first piece of the Dragon Ball anime I'll be covering, I wanted to talk very briefly about the anime, as well as why I've chosen to review this movie here, after the first arc, rather than further down the line when it would have originally come out. The anime for Dragon Ball is definitely a mixed bag in terms of animation quality, that's no secret for long time fans. What is not a mixed bag however is it's overall enjoyability. When the animation is good, it's great, but even when it's bad, you've still got the AMAZING orchestral score by the late Shunsuke Kikuchi to bless your ears, just as you've got an amazing cast (while I do enjoy the English dub cast for the most part, I'm speaking of the original Japanese cast here). Masako Nozawa and the late Hiromi Tsuru are at their absolute prime here, and it's so wonderful to hear them bring these characters to life with such flourish. There's also the amazing opening theme, 'Makafushigi Adventure' by Hiroki Takahashi, which for my money is the best opening theme Dragon Ball has ever had. It perfectly encapsulates not only the era for which it was used, but also the world of Dragon Ball itself, and it's an absolute joy every time I get to hear it. As for why I'm reviewing this movie now rather than later, there is a reason for it. Something else that longtime fans will already be very familiar with is how the Dragon Ball movies don't really fit in with the overall story from the manga. That's hardly a unique situation for Shonen Jump properties or even anime films in general. While most of the DB movies can be placed somewhere that they could maybe happen, there's always one issue or another to prevent them really fitting there. In the case of the four original Dragon Ball movies, that's even more-so the case, since they all use plot from the manga itself rather than ideas or themes from it. So that left me with a couple of options: I could review the movies where they roughly seemed to take place, which is how I often watch them, but that seemed off for review purposes. I could review them roughly where they came out in regards to the manga, but that seemed counter-intuitive in it's own way, and besides, that's already how MistareFusion does his videos for the most part. So instead, I've elected to review them where they seem to fit thematically in some way, in places where everything we'd really need to know for the movie is already in place. In this film's case, we only really needed to know the original core cast and how a Dragon Ball hunt ends (ie, a wish is granted, the Dragon Balls scatter, etc.). So looking at it from that point of view, the best place to cover the movie was right after the end of the very first arc of the manga. Hopefully that makes sense to more than just me. Before we move to the story of the film proper, I do want to make at least one comment on the material pulled right from the manga for this movie – re-used here as it is, most of it just isn't very enjoyable, sadly, at least not in comparison to it's original version. It's still entertaining, but less so as so much of it is forced into such a short run time that none of it really gets to shine the same way it did originally. A perfect example of this is both Oolong and Yamcha's introductory scenes. We've just come off of Goku and Bulma's first meeting, which to it's credit did include a good bit of movie original material. From there though, we're barely re-introduced to Pansy before we get a super shortened version of Goku's “fight” with Oolong, the chase, meeting Yamcha, Goku V.S. Yamcha, Yamcha's fear of girls revealed, and then Yamcha fleeing. I didn't exactly pull out a clock and time it, but this all happens over the course of five minutes or less I'd swear, and it's just far too much crammed into far too little an amount of time. It's just not enjoyable in it's own right, not when you have both the original manga and the original anime to enjoy these scenes much more properly with. It's not all bad though, as at least the opening scenes with Goku meeting Bulma, and everyone going to Roshi's, both have enough new things added to them to at least keep your attention a little better. If all of the re-told material had that same level of care put into it, I don't think I'd have as much issue with it, but it is what it is. Let's finally talk about the new characters and story though, as they're the real reason I wanted to re-watch and review the movie. Character-wise, most of the characters don't really have much going on for them admittedly. Pansy is mostly just there to give us plot as needed, and both Bongo and Pasta don't really do much more than get the job done in terms of giving our heroes someone to go up against. Gurumes himself though? For the short amount of time he's onscreen overall, he's definitely an interesting figure. There's not a lot said, but it seems like he was a good king until they started to find the Rich Stones. It was only at the point that he seemed to acquire a taste for fancier foods, leading to his ultimate downfall here. It's not really made clear why this greed and gluttony turned him into an actual, literal monster, but one's not really needed either – it's all about the message here about how those are bad things, especially in excess. It's not the most original idea for a villain or a story, but it serves well enough as a way to spice up a story that otherwise was just the first arc of Dragon Ball told once again. The idea of having a king the one after the Dragon Balls this time around does make some sense too. Partially it's a rip-off of Pilaf, who wants to be a king, but the backstory of the Dragon Balls does include a bit saying the last person to gather them used them to become a king. So sure, why not, have a greedy king be the one that's after them this time around. Having an obsession with wealth as a factor as well basically shows off the other 'expected' wish you'd see come up in a story that involves wish-granting. The theme of wealth and the pursuit of it runs throughout as well, with Yamcha even trying to steal a bunch of Rich Stones despite himself claiming not to have much interest in such things. It comes full circle when Goku makes it a point to return the coin that was left to him at the film's start – like Pansy, he has no interest in wealth, not when there are things much more important and fun to pursue in the world. Once again though, the wish at the end is taken by someone who was never truly after one at all. Compared to Oolong's panties though, Pansy's wish is much more pure. She's too good for our group of heroes really, no wonder we never hear from her again. That about wraps up all there really is to say about the original Dragon Ball movie. As the film series goes on, it begins to incorporate more and more new ideas, even the remaining DB films that largely pull wholesale from the manga, so there will no doubt be more for me to talk about with each of them. Until next time! Favorite Scene: The whole opening sequence describing the legend of the Dragon Balls is absolutely beautifully animated, arguably more so than anything else the franchise has ever received. The movie peaked early, what can I say? Next Time: Goku's going off on his own storyline, so THERE!
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
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