Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins

Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins (新七龍珠神龍的傳說, Xīn qī lóng zhū Shén lóng de chuán shuō, New Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenlong) is a Taiwanese live action film adaptation of Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies. The plot revolves around a rag-tag group of heroes, led by Son Goku (dubbed Monkey Boy in this film), trying to stop the antagonist, King Horn, from using the wish-granting "Dragon Pearls" (a rename of the artifacts know as Dragon Balls from which the manga takes its name) to rule the world.

Plot

In order to conquer mankind and rule the universe, King Horn set out to find all seven of the Dragon Pearls. With two of the seven already in the evil king's possession, it was now up to the remaining five owners of the Dragon Pearls – Monkey Boy (Sparkle is the actual owner and Monkey Boy is his adopted grandson), Piggy, Westwood, Turtle Man, and Seetoe – to destroy King Horn and his two powerful warriors, Zebrata and Malila, before it was too late.

Characters

• Monkey Boy: The main protagonist of the film, a happy go-lucky boy who claims to be the descendant of "the Monkey King." Based on Son Goku.
• Seetoe: A girl who nearly runs over Monkey Boy, she becomes a companion of him in hopes to acquire the Dragon Pearls while on his quest to rescue his grandfather. Based on Bulma.
• Sparkle: Monkey Boy's grandfather who is kidnapped by King Horn. Based on Grandpa Son Gohan.
• King Horn: The main antagonist, his sole mission in the film is to acquire the Dragon Pearls for world domination. Based on Gurumes.
• Zebrata: The henchman of King Horn who works as one of villains alongside Malilia in the quest to collect the Dragon Pearls. Based on Bongo.
• Malilia: The henchman of King Horn who works as one of villains alongside Zebrata in the quest to collect the Dragon Pearls. Based on Raven.
• Piggy: An overweight shape-shifting man who accompanies Monkey Boy and Seetoe on their journey to gather the Dragon Pearls after Monkey Boy defeats him in a short fight. Piggy claims to be a descendant of Zhu Wuneng, who accompanied the Monkey King in the Journey to the West. Through the course of the film they treat each other as "brothers". He is later revealed to be the owner of a Dragon Pearl. Based on Oolong.
• Westwood: A bandit who tries to loot Monkey Boy, Seetoe and Piggy, while they travel. While being scared of women, shown when he see Seetoe for the first time, he is the companion of Miss Knowwhat/Snowhite, a talking cockatoo. He proves to be a valuable rival and ally of Monkey Boy and the others when he helps to defeat King Horn and is proven to be the owner of a Dragon Pearl. Based on Yamucha.
• Miss Knowwhat/Snowhite: A talking, wise-cracking cockatoo, she is the companion of Westwood. Based on Puar.
• Turtle Man: A old man who lives a solitary life on an island, he is said to be one of the greatest fighters in the world. He gives Monkey Boy a magical cloud for transportation, which he claims he captured centuries ago, and which he summons through a use of comical dance movements. Based on Muten Roshi.
• Jade: A girls whose village was destroyed by King Horn, she sets out to obtain the Dragon Pearls to wish the damage away and along the way meets Monkey Boy and the others. She is based on both Chichi and Penny.

Trivia

• Contrary to popular belief, the villains are not Pilaf, Mai, and Shu. Instead, they are based on the villains from Dragon Ball Movie 1: Gurumes, Raven, and Bongo, respectively.
• The film takes place somewhere in Southeast Asia, most likely Thailand.
• Zebrata has a resemblance to Metallitron, as they both wear sunglasses. He may have been inspired by the Terminator as he exploded in the end, implied to have been a robot.
• Seeto changes clothes at the start of almost every scene.
• The Kamehameha attack appears in this film, but dubbed as Turtle Shot (as in the Chinese dub of the anime).

External links

• Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins at the Internet Movie Database.
• Anime News Network