Celebrity Measurements

Dragonball Evolution! KAME-HAME… huh?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkweFekdpmo

In this very special “Viewer Request” episode of Awfully Good Movies, we’re finally tackling what could well be the worst live-action anime adaptation that Hollywood’s ever made, with 2009’s Dragonball Evolution! When 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to Akira Toriyama’s beloved manga, which became an even more popular anime TV series with Stephen Chow, the producer of Kung Fu Hustle, DBZ fan were both skeptical and hopeful about the Americanized results. The final product, which was made by a director and writer who did not know anything about anime and a reported budget of $100 million that was reduced to $30, caused both

Dragonball enthusiasts and casual viewers to explode with anger, much like Son Goku. The casting of the film is baffling. From the whitewashed casting Justin Chatwin, as a decidedly geeky Goku, the legendary Chow Yun Fat, as the slovenly master Roshi, and James Marsters, as Piccolo, wearing cheap-looking makeup that looks even stupider than the spiked hair of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With seasons worth of exposition from the show shoved down into an 85-minute movie, and special effects that make Quantumania look like Endgame by comparison, Dragonball Evolution is truly a de-evolution in the art of cinema that would put even Martin Scorsese into an existential crisis, as well as a spit in the face to the anime’s fanbase. Kame-Hame-Ha? More like Kame-Hame-Nuh-Uh.

Previously on Awfully Good Movies…

SUPER MARIO BROS. (1993)

MOVIE 43

TOP 10 WORST MOVIES OF 2022