Dragonball Evolution
Dragonball Evolution is a low budget 2009 American live-action movie based on the Dragon Ball franchise being made by 20th Century Fox. The story follows the adventures of the lead character, Son Goku, around his 18th birthday. The movie began being made in 2002, and is directed，produced and written by James Wong. It was first released in Japan and several other Asian nations on March 13, 2009, and later released in the United States on April 10, 2009.
| Dragonball Evolution | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | James Wong |
| Produced by | James Wong Stephen Chow |
| Written by | Screenplay: James Wong Ben Ramsey Manga: Akira Toriyama |
| Starring | Justin Chatwin James Marsters Jamie Chung Emmy Rossum Joon Park Eriko Tamura Randall Duk Kim Texas Battle Ernie Hudson Chow Yun-Fat |
| Music by | Brian Tyler |
| Cinematography | Robert MacLachlan |
| Edited by | Chris G. Willingham |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date | Japan March 13, 2009 Australia April 3, 2009 United States April 10, 2009 |
Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country |  United States Hong Kong Mexico |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million[1] |
| Box office | $57,497,699[2] |
Justin Chatwin was cast as Goku, and James Marsters is Lord Piccolo, the antagonist of the movie. A video game of the movie, with the same name, will be released in March/April for the PSP.
Reception
Since its release, Dragonball Evolution was universally being rated and commented as the most poor manga adoption ever. On Rotten Tomatoes it scored 15% based on 55 reviews, while on Metacritic it received a rating of 45 out of 100 based on 10 reviews.[3]
The original creator Akira Toriyama felt surprised of this live-action film and suggested to treated it as a different work form his manga.
Japanese: 脚本やキャラクター造りは原作者としては『え?』って感じはありますが、監督さんや俳優の皆さん、スタッフなど、現場は超優秀な人達ばかりです。ボクやファンの皆さんは別次元の『新ドラゴンボール』として鑑賞するのが正解かもしれません。もしかしたら現場のパワーで大傑作になっているかもしれませんよ! おおいに期待しています!!
- translation
As the original creator, I had a feeling of "Huh?" upon seeing the screenplay and the character designs, but the director, all the actors, the staff, and the rest are nothing but "ultra" high-caliber people. Maybe the right way for me and all the fans to appreciate it is as a New Dragonball of a different multiverse and dimension. Perhaps, this might become a great masterpiece of power! Hey, I look forward to it!!
References
- ↑ "James Marsters Monster Mania Q&A (Part 2)". August 23, 2009. Retrieved May 21, 2011.
- ↑ "Dragonball Evolution (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
- ↑ "Dragonball: Evolution" – via www.metacritic.com.
Other websites
- Official website Archived 2009-01-17 at the Wayback Machine
- Official Fox Japan Dragonball Evolution site Archived 2016-07-14 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
- Dragonball Evolution on IMDb
- Dragonball Evolution at AllRovi
