Image courtesy of Funimation Films
“Dragon Ball Super: Broly” is directed by Tatsuya Nagamine, is written by series creator Akira Toriyama and stars most of the longtime English voice cast you are familiar with, led by Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat as Goku and Vegeta. That combination gives this film a great combination of nostalgia along with creators and actors who have been making Dragon Ball great for decades
The film also brings back another familiar face, Broly, the wild, powerful Saiyan warrior that became a fan favorite villain after his first film appearance in 1993 and in subsequent appearances in 1994. However, the character is familiar in name only this time around, as Toriyama has completely revamped his motivations, origins and even his personality in some ways.
We open with King Cold and his army descending on Planet Vegeta 41 years in the past. This scene serves not only as a re-introduction to King Vegeta and the Saiyan home-world, but also an introduction to Frieza from the Saiyans’ perspective. From there, we move on to King Vegeta observing his son, the Vegeta we all know and love, as a small child and noticing another infant Saiyan near him, Broly. After discovering Broly’s enormous fighting potential, the king sends him to a remote planet in the far reaches of space where he would either die or be too far away to harm anyone. Broly’s father, Paragus, chases after his son before crash landing on the deserted planet, leaving him stranded with a young Broly.
We then jump to the present day where Goku and Vegeta are sparring with Whis and Beerus eating nearby. In this scene, Toriyama makes it clear that this film takes place immediately after that latest events of “Dragon Ball Super” on television, referencing the tournament of power and Frieza’s most recent resurrection. If you’re a Dragon Ball fan, you’ll have fun whether you’ve been keeping up with the show or not but it definitely helps you better understand how strong the characters are and why some of them are still alive. Meanwhile, Broly and his father are discovered by a pair of Frieza Force soldiers and brought to Frieza for questioning. Upon discovering Paragus’ hatred for King Vegeta in the past, Frieza offers him a chance for revenge against his son.
Without getting into spoiler territory, the film shifts into an entirely new gear once the main conflict begins. In terms on animation and production quality, Dragon Ball has never looked better than it does here. The battles are done with so much speed, precision and color that it can be tough to follow the fighting between these super-powered warriors. That is definitely the strength of the movie and you can see how much work went into crafting the action. There are moments where they combine hand-drawn animation with CGI elements that can be jarring and there is a brief sequence in the battle in which the visuals are a little overbearing, but this is still some of the best action Dragon Ball has ever done.
The other strength this film has to lean on is the characters. All of our main characters that we already know are great and they introduce new characters like Cheelai and Lemo that you want to see more of. Broly himself is practically a new character this time around but the MVP for me might be Frieza. Ever since his return to the show for the tournament of power, Frieza’s character has been changing. When we met him on Planet Namek in the original Dragon Ball Z anime, he was a cold, heartless dictator. He is still all of those things but now he takes himself less seriously, has learned to love fighting and provides some of the best comedic moments in the film as well as some of the most frightening.
The only real criticism I could find in a movie like this is that the story portion of the film and action portion of the film seem to split evenly between the first 50 minutes and the last 50. The epic marathon of fighting that we get in the second half of the move is very satisfying but the character moments we had in the first half were great as well. It would’ve been nice to see that spread across the runtime a bit more evenly but at this point that’s just nitpicking.
Overall, “Dragon Ball Super: Broly” is one of the best Dragon Ball films ever made and for many it may be the best. The character of Broly has been infused with enough humanity, intelligence and empathy that you are much more interested in the outcome when the fighting begins. This movie is not showing in Cullman but is enjoying a limited run in theaters in Decatur. If you’re a casual Dragon Ball fan that can wait to see it at a later date it may not be worth the trip for you but for hardcore fans, the drive is absolutely worth it. Seeing Dragon Ball on the big screen isn’t a chance that we get very often, and this is a great opportunity to do just that.
Griffin’s Score: 9/10
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