Dragon Ball Z: Tree of Might
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Dragon Ball Z: Tree of Might, released in Japan as Dragon Ball Z: Chikyū Marugoto Chō-kessen (ドラゴン ボール ゼット 地球 まるごと 超決戦, Doragon Bōru Zetto: Chikyū Marugoto Chō-kessen; Literally meaning "Dragon Ball Z: Earth Whole Super Decisive Battle") released in Japan on July 7, 1990 between "Guru's Gift" and "Piccolo vs. Everyone". It was dubbed into English by FUNimation in 1998.
This film, along with Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone and Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest, was released in a DVD box set from FUNimation on November 12, 2006. It was later released in a double feature DVD and Blu-ray Disc with Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.
Contents
Synopsis
The Z Warriors faced a new threat that started with the burning of a forest in which Son Gohan and Kuririn rescued the forest animals and a small Dragon named Icarus. Although they were able to restore the forest to its normal state with the Dragon Balls, Icarus did not want to stay and followed Gohan hime much to Chichi's fury. Son Goku showed Gohan a nearby cave where Icarus could live. Later, Planet Earth was visited by an unfriendly group of aliens under the leadership of a Saiyan. Upon arriving, they plant a seed which grows the Shinseiju, a plant that sucks the life of the planet on which it was planted and leaves it a desert. At King Kai's request, Goku, Kuririn, Yamucha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu investigate and try to destroy the Tree, but are unsuccessful. They are then confronted by the aliens whilst their leader watches from inside the spaceship. Eventually, Kuririn, Yamucha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu are defeated by the aliens, with only Goku remaining as the one who can hold his own against them.
During the battle, Chiaotzu is rescued by Gohan, who had just arrived, and demonstrates his incredible fighting skills by easily taking out Rasin and Lakasei. He is then encountered by the aliens' leader Turles, a Saiyan who bears a striking resemblance to Goku. Turles gives Gohan a choice to either join him or die. Gohan refuses to join Turles, and is saved in time thanks to the arrival of Piccolo. However, Turles defeats the both of them and create an artificial moon, turning Gohan into a Great Ape and sets him on Goku, who is almost crushed to death in Gohan's hand until Icarus arrives and calms Gohan down. But when Turles attacks Icarus, Gohan is angered and turns on Turles, who fires an attack at Gohan. Before the attack can make contact, Goku manages to cut his son's tail off and restore him to normal. Cradling the little one in his arms, Goku threatens Turles. Angry and impressed at the same time, Turles sets his henchmen on Goku, who uses the Kaio-ken and makes quick work of them while Piccolo unsuccessfully fights Turles again. Goku and Turles then fight, with Goku having the upper hand, until Turles pushes his power further by eating a Fruit of the Tree of Might. With his new power, Turles dominates Goku and beats him to the point that he is no longer able to fight.
Slowly recovering while Turles is distracted by the rest of the Z Fighters, whom he brutally dispatches, Goku decides to use the Spirit Bomb. Despite gaining energy from the living, he is not able to attack Turles as he counterattacks with a blast of his own, neutralizing Goku's Spirit Bomb. Unable to gather more energy from living beings, Goku decides to steal energy from inside the Tree of Might itself. Eventually successful in creating the Spirit Bomb, Goku sees his opportunity, and fires it straight into Turles, who is carried up the trunk of the Tree of Might and destroyed along with the Tree when the Spirit Bomb explodes. With the terror now over, the Z Fighters return to their normal lives once again.
Characters
Major battles
- Tenshinhan and Chaozu vs. Razun and Lakasei
- Kuririn vs. Amond
- Yamcha vs. Cacao
- Goku vs. Daiz and Cacao
- Gohan vs. Lakasei
- Great Ape Gohan vs. Goku
- Great Ape Gohan vs. Turles
- Goku vs. Amond, Daiz, Cacao, Razun, and Lakasei
- Piccolo vs. Turles
- Goku vs. Turles
- Piccolo, Kuririn, Yamucha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu vs. Turles
- Goku vs. Turles
Voice cast
Music
Opening theme (OP)
- "Cha-La Head-Cha-La"
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
Ending theme (ED)
- "Marugoto"
Continuity
As with many Dragon Ball Z films, this film was intended as an alternate scenario for the series. This movie was probably intended as an alternate battle from the battle with Vegeta and Nappa, as the theme of Saiyans is carried into this movie. It may also take place in an alternate time line where Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, and Chaozu all survived the Nappa/Vegeta encounter and the trip to Namek never took place.
The movie may be placed in the three years the Z Warriors are training to prepare for the Androids - Yamcha's gi back having the King Kai symbol supports this. In that case, however, there would be some minor inconsistencies, such as Goku not turning Super Saiyan when it was needed, and Gohan not knowing Icarus, which had already appeared in the Garlic Jr. Saga. Yamcha's hair is too long (it was cut around his ears during the Trunks Saga), Vegeta is nowhere to be seen, and Frieza is already killed (Amond mentions that with the fruit of the tree they would be able to defeat Frieza).
Releases
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The film was originally released on both VHS and Laserdisc in Japan. They were in a 16:9 format, cropped from it's original 4:3 format. It was then released later in Japan as part of the well-known Dragon Box sets, remastered from it's original film masters and in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen format. There was much controversy from fans over the decision to crop the movies from it's original 4:3 format. The controversy died down when Toei announced that the films were originally animated for widescreen viewing. The boxed set was released (containing all four Dragon Ball and all thirteen Dragon Ball Z movies) with great critical and audience reception.
In the United States, it was first released by FUNimation as a three-part television episode that aired on November 17 and 22, 1997. This version was dubbed by the original Ocean Group voice cast and was edited for content, just like their dub of the series. The film was later released on a bilingual DVD by Pioneer on March 17, 1998. The DVD version of the film was uncut, and featured a few voice cast changes, dialogue much closer to the original script, and the original Japanese background music. It was also released for the first time in a 4:3 format.[1] There was some slight controversy over this dub's audio track, because despite being advertised as "uncut," many sound effects were added or replaced in the dub. Visually, however, there were was no editing whatsoever, and the audio track for the Japanese dub does not contain these sound effects. The film was later later re-released, along with the first two movies, by Pioneer on October 9, 2001, in a three-movie boxset, called "Dragon Ball Z - Movie Boxed Set".[2]
After FUNimation acquired the exclusive DVD rights for the first three movies from Pioneer in 2004, it released The Tree of Might again in November 14, 2006, along with the Dead Zone and The World's Strongest movies, in a DVD boxset titled "First Strike."[3] It contained a brand-new in-house dub (without the added sound effects from the Pioneer release) and the original Japanese dub. However, the new in-house dub did not use the original Japanese background music, instead opting for a replacement score. It also contained a new script that, while not too far away from the original Japanese script, was not quite as loyal to the original script as the Ocean Group dub's uncut script had been.
FUNimation re-released this film in September 16, 2008, alongside the fourth movie, Lord Slug, digitally remastered and in a 16:9 format, as a "Double Feature" DVD. For this release, three audio tracks were included: the original Japanese dub, the new in-house dub with the replacement musical score, and the new in-house dub with the original Japanese music.[4] Neither of the dub tracks have the added sound effects from the Pioneer dub, and only use the sound effects found in the original Japanese dub.
Trivia
- The animation in the opening theme is part of the film itself, as it shows the gathering of the Dragon Balls to restore the forest by the Z Warriors.
- This is the first Dragon Ball Z film to feature a Saiyan as a villain.
- In both the uncut Ocean Group dub and Japanese dub, first mentions of Freeza are made preluding to later fights against Freeza in the television series.
- This is the first film where a character's origin differs from their origin in the anime. Haiya Dragon appears in the anime (even if it is filler), but as The Tree of Might could not have happened in the timeline, Gohan must have met Icarus in the anime in a different way, possibly after the fight against Freeza. Some fans theorize that Gohan is simply pretending to not know Haiya Dragon to avoid getting into trouble with his mother.
- It is essentially impossible to tell if Tullece's henchmen really do die or are just knocked out. The appearance of some of them in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, however, seems to confirm their deaths.
- The battle powers reported by Tullece's Scouter are: Gohan - 10,000; Piccolo - 18,000; Goku - 30,000. They are a lot higher than the battle powers reported by Vegeta's Scouter during the Vegeta Saga (see List of battle powers).
- The Shinseiju is also seen in Sailor Moon and called the Makaiju. The Makaiju is the tree that Alan and Ann are born from and want to protect via using the energy they obtain from civilians by Cardians. It appears in the middle of the night in the form of a meteorite which crashes into Tokyo.
- In the edited dub of this movie, Tullece's hands holding Gohan's eyes open are moved to Gohan's shoulders, despite the fact that his hands were clearly visible on Gohan's face in "Rock the Dragon".
- The "Rock the Dragon" opening for the series uses footage mostly from this film.
- The scene where Gohan is falling nude is edited using digital light that covers him up in the edited Ocean Group dub. The scene where Haiya Dragon wakes up a nude Gohan is edited using a digital bush that covers Gohan.
- This is the second longest film in the series (61 minutes long).
- There is a Ferris Wheel that has 'D.B.Z.' written on it in one scene.
- The way the fruit are eaten resemble the story of Adam and Eve, who were said to have eaten fruit from a tree that would make them god-like, but it turns out to make them worse. This film seems to contrast that story as instead the fruit makes the consumer more powerful as the fruit was supposed to do to Adam and Eve.
- This is the first movie to have more than four named Henchmen working for one villain.
- This is the only movie (and only time in the entire series, for that matter) in which Yamucha wears a gi with the Turtle symbol on the front and the North Kaio symbol on the back. His gi of choice after being resurrected in the series is the opposite (Kai front, Turtle back - and he is the only character to wear a gi of this style).
- This is the first theatrical appearance of North Kaio in a film, though his techniques (Kaio-ken and Genki Dama) debuted in Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest.
- This is the first appearance of Yamucha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu in a Dragon Ball Z film, although Yamucha has appeared in all three Dragon Ball films and Tenshinhan and Chaozu first appear in Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure.
References
- ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Z-Movie-Might/dp/6304863853/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1241671842&sr=8-2
- ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Movie-Worlds-Strongest/dp/B00005NX1I/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1241652762&sr=8-8
- ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Z-First-Strike/dp/B000ION28A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1241653387&sr=8-1
- ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Ball-Double-Feature-Steelbook/dp/B001C4ZQD4/ref=pd_cp_d_2?pf_rd_p=413864101&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=6304863853&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1F8BV69JKF9C92KKB9MQ
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