Dragonball Z: The Live-Action Movie

[Nathander]

Originally Posted by Mr. Marshmallow

2. Your already negatively calling the film trash and not even giving it a benefit of a doubt so that already is a step backwards.

As I've said before, I have a hard time seeing them reasonably pull it off. If you could provide me an actual list of the actors and director for the film, I would appreciate it. I will concede that I may be quick in my put down of the film; at the same time, however, I have little to go on other than you telling me it's being done by an American group, which I can't honestly see doing Dragon Ball Z.

3. I never said they couldn't blow it, I said they couldn't blow it as bad as the Japanese movie. This movie will be far from boring no matter what they do.

And, again, I said that they have a much more likely chance of blowing it worse then the Japanese film, which is true because it's an adaptation of a series that originates from a completely different culture. Whether or not it's boring has little to do with it's genuine quality.

4. I HIGHLY disagree to GT being a bad series, I've been to several cons with people saying they liked it and I consider that a gross missassumption that American consumers like "bad taste" when what is considered bad is debatable.

I'm sorry, but I have a hard time comparing GT to the original series, especially because of how it destroys what Toriyama wanted to do with his own creative property. There's a fine line between taking "creative liberties" when working on a series by someone else and "being insulting to the material". By completely disregarding Toriyama's wishes concerning the series, that alone shows that they were (perhaps unintentionally) being insulting to the source material in the way they took it, as well as the fact that GT was only created to keep the money train coming that the series had started, though this backfired due to the fact of how badly the majority of the Japanese hated it.

Also for the record, I never found any record Toriyama saying he personally disliked GT, just that he didn't want to be involved.

I can't remember which one it was, but I recall reading in a DBZ magazine years ago (the one by Beckett, I think) that Toriyama disliked GT because he never even wanted the series to be created. They should have at least honored his wishes and allowed him to end the series in the way he wanted, instead of flat out refusing this.

Finally in regards to the villains, that one I do want to talk about because I love any talk about villain related issues. DBZ villains are not the same nor do they desire the same thing. Frieza was a monster who enjoyed killing everything that existed, he was a sadistic abomination who enjoyed that.

The idea of destroying everything was also shared by Buu and his various forms as well. Also, Frieza wished to gain immortality through the Dragon Balls, which was also Vegeta and Nappa's wish. Vegeta and Nappa, when introduced, also went on slaughtering anything they came across for the sheer fact that it was something they were able to do due to their power.

Cell acted quite different, he didn't mercilessly kill everyone he met nor did he originally desire to take over the world. If you recall, Cell's only mission in life was to become perfect, after that his programming came to an end and he could choose his own life. Gero never told him what to do after that.

None of the villains except Bibidi ever showed real interest in ruling the world, except possibly Gero though we never knew his full desires. However, Cell did slaughter basically everyone he met in the fact that he kept absorbing everything until he ran into 17 and 18. After becoming perfect, he decided he would simply kill everything in order to show his perfection. The outwardly stated reason for his evil is different then Frieza's, but his actions are still basically the same and, really, his outwardly stated reasons are just a slight cover to otherwise hide the fact that he's basically the same villain.

The Ginyu Force alone are unique, original villains.

Bumbling sidekick villains were hardly a new or unique character type in manga.

Villains don't need a reason to be evil, evil never did nor has it needed a reason to be evil. There are plenty of shows that have villains that don't explain how there evil or why they do it, in fact, majority of all villains are like that.

In shows aimed at a young audience? Yes. However, villains in these shows tend to be fairly shallow, one dimensional characters except that they're usually given a form of wit or one other personality trait in order to offset them being seen as utterly shallow, one dimensional characters.

In actual literature and most animes aimed at an older audience (and more recent anime aimed at younger), villains are often given a motive and a reason, thus making them actual characters instead of vague obstacles the heroes ultimately overcome. All I'm saying is that the villains are often used only as motivational factors for the heroes to fight against instead of actual characters with genuine or differing personalities in most anime aimed at younger audiences.

Trigun, Sailor Moon, Digimon, Ah My Goddess, Tenchi Muyo, Sonic the hedgehog, Slayers, Blue Seed. All of those shows and more have villains who have no explanations why they are evil.

Have you ever read any of the manga those series were based off of? They are, in fact, given reasons and explanations as to why they are evil, though these backstories were usually cut in the anime in order to save time and under the belief that the viewers were familiar with the source material. The exception here is Sonic, but considering Sonic was initially a video game series before being adapted, and villains in games those days were purposely only used as obstacles, the fact that reasons are not give can be forgiven.

Explanations are overrated anyway. Not everything needs a desire or a special origins to explain why its evil.

I agree. However, I think that while it can be good to have villains who don't have an explanation for simply stories, I don't think it can be denied that giving an explanation can improve the story at times, as it makes the villain more of a character that people can get to know instead of just viewing him/her as some obscure obstacle.