Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Masako Nozawa, Toshio Furukawa, Yuko Minaguchi, Christopher Sabat, Johnny Yong Bosch, Kara Edwards (voices)
Intro:
… for a feature-length fight scene intercut with some hearty chuckles, it’s quite effective.
As ridiculous as its title Dragon Ball Super – SUPER HERO, it says something about how overblown the House of Goku has become when that isn’t even close to the biggest overuse of the word ‘Super’ in this franchise.
And yet, for a film that exists primarily for walls of flesh with arms to beat the Kami-forsaken hell out of each other, it’s at least descriptive of how much fun this is to watch.
Shifting from the CGI-assisted 2D animation of the last three Dragon Ball films to all-out cell-shaded 3D animation, this looks a hell of a lot better than it has any right to. Typically, this meshing of texture qualities can be conspicuous (doubly so when watching the English dub), but director Tetsuro Kodama finds a happy medium between the visuals of the TV series, and the graphics of video game entries like FighterZ and DBZ: Kakarot. The style can take a bit of geting used to, but once settled in, everything from the character models to the terrain-wasting energy blasts turn out super nice. That, and enough booty shots to make Sir Mix-A-Lot blush.
Like Broly a few years back, it’s all set up to be as casual-friendly as possible, getting into what modicum of backstory is needed to establish what’s about to happen right from the start (basically, ‘androids vs. martial arts aliens’). There are references that go all the way back to the very first, far-skeevier-than-your-nostalgia-might-recall Dragon Ball series, but it never feels like a member’s only feature.
The sense of humour is as left-turn kooky as ever, the voice actors give a lot of personality to the characters (Christopher Sabat in particular is a ton of green fun as Piccolo), and with the amount of clenched-fist energy-blast spectacle on offer, it’s easy to get swept up in the full-force machismo of it all.
For recent films that will give you chest hair just from watching them, this comes a solid second to The Northman.
Even the presence of ‘superheroes’ in the main story stays true to the franchise ethos, as it’s closer to Saiyanman than it is to anything MCU or even MHA related. It’s not especially deep, but it builds on the series’ history with androids, Super Sentai throwbacks, and pummeling bursts of one-liners to make for an entertaining addition to the larger tapestry.
The newcomers this development brings along include android crimefighters Gamma #1 (Aleks Le) and #2 (Zeno Robinson), along with their higher-ups in legacy villain heir Magenta (Charles ‘It’s-a me!’ Martinet) and child scientist/Oreo addict Dr. Hedo (Zach Aguilar), who all help sweeten the deal.
Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO shows Akira Toriyama going 4-for-4 in bringing his beloved creation to the big screen and finding new power levels to reach in the process. It’s not taking itself too seriously and the plot is held together with minced Senzu beans, but for a feature-length fight scene intercut with some hearty chuckles, it’s quite effective. And for the less violence-inclined, Jeannie Tirado as Pan is so freaking adorable that it’s still worth checking out.
