The motion picture "DRAGONBALL: EVOLUTION" features a cast of rising young stars and veteran acclaimed actors. Justin Chatwin, who portrayed Tom Cruise's son in Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," takes on the role of the heroic Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the Earth from an endless stream of rogues bent on dominating the Universe and controlling the mystical objects from which the film takes its name. Emmy Rossum ("The Day After Tomorrow") is Bulma, a beautiful woman intent on retrieving the mystical Dragonballs for her own reasons; Jamie Chung ("Samurai Girl") is Chi Chi, a young martial artist who captures Goku's eye; and screen legend Chow Yun-Fat ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") is Roshi, the Master who guides Goku on the young man's epic quest to save the Earth from the forces of darkness.

James Marsters ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") is Lord Piccolo, whose return could signal the Earth's destruction; international performing sensation Joon Park is Yamcha, a charismatic "bad boy" whose schemes could thwart the heroes' journey; popular Japanese actress Eriko ("Heroes") is Mai, an assassin who works with Piccolo; Ernie Hudson ("Ghostbusters") is Sifu Norris, a Master and contemporary of Roshi's; and Randall Duk Kim ("The Matrix Revolutions") is Goku's grandfather Gohan, whose lessons for Goku begins to prepare the young man for the monumental tasks that lie ahead.


Dragonball Z has a lot to answer for. Especially if you’re a fan of what my friends tell me is the “good” anime out there. Personally I refuse to believe such a thing exists, because I’ve been scarred beyond recognition by Goku and his gang of halfwit thugs. It’s anime like Dragonball Z and Pokemon which represents the art form in mainstream pop culture, and it’s also anime like Dragonball Z and Pokemon which has kept the rest of it from making inroads into the mainstream at all.

Sure Dragonball is popular with 12-year olds and people who have been hit in the head by a brick (a surprisingly large number of Americans if the ratings of American Idol are any indication), but anyone else forced into watching it generally has the good sense to either commit suicide right then and there or to turn off the television and vow never to watch any sort of anime ever again. It’s those people who will now never give Akira or the work of Hayao Miyazaki a chance. Anime? Hell no man, thanks to Dragonball I’ve had more than enough of that.

So now anime’s biggest black hole is becoming a movie, and heaven help every anime to live action movie which hits theaters after. Making Dragonball into a financially successful box office phenom should be easy, after all people who watch Dragonball Z will clearly watch just about anything as long as it has guys with plastic hair standing around shouting and randomly throwing balls of energy at each other. With CGI, guys standing in empty rooms shooting frickin laser beams is pretty damn easy. Making a movie that won’t be hated by everyone with an IQ over 40, well with Dragonball Z as source material I’m pretty sure that’s impossible.

A prediction: Next up for the Apocalypse, movies based on card battling.

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