 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 4:3 FULL SCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH DD 5.1 / JAPANESE MONO | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 745 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | TV 14 | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 09/15/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 09/14/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | DAVEY C. JONES |
SYNOPSIS:
Goku may be small, but this fearless warrior packs a punch as powerful as any on the planet. Left alone after his grandfather’s death, this unusual boy is happy to spend his days hunting and eating and eating some more. But all that changes on the day he meets Bulma – a bossy, blue-haired beauty with boys on the brain. Together, they set out to track down the seven magic Dragon Balls and make the wish that will change their lives forever. And that’s just the beginning! Goku also spends sometime on Turtle Island where he and Krillin study martial arts under the legendary Master Roshi. The old hermit may not look like much, but if his new pupils can find him a woman, he’ll make sure they’re ready to rumble at the upcoming World Martial Arts Tournament!
Contains episodes 1-31 on 5 action packed DVDs!
REVIEW:
Uncut at last! The digitally restored original Dragon Ball series is here on DVD crisper, cleaner and more vivid than ever before! The first season contains the entire Emperor Pilaf Saga, Tournament Saga, and the very beginning of the Red Ribbon Army arc. It begins with young Goku, still with his cute tail, out fishing one day when a girl named Bulma crosses his path. She’s looking for the legendary Dragon Balls. With all of them, a person can be granted one wish. He decides to hook up with her to search for them. And it’s a good thing he does because she’s gonna need his mighty little muscles when the villain appears. The evil scheming emperor Pilaf wants the Dragons Balls and that wish for himself. He’s sent his henchmen Shu and Mai after them. Mai is tricky and she’s a rival to Bulma in techno-gadgetry making. It is here that Goku meets his soon to be martial arts teacher, Master Roshi. Goku proves he is pure of heart by being able to master the Nimbus Cloud riding and so gains that ability and a Dragon Ball. Bulma and Goku have all kinds of adventures in search of the balls, including tangling with the double dealing Oolong, facing the Ox King, and a monster rabbit that can turn people into giant carrots! The race for that wish is tight. When the balls get scattered again, Goku and his friends are in big trouble. They’re imprisoned in Pilaf’s stronghold facing a gruesome death…until Goku goes through a startling transformation. Before you can say “King Kong”, the little tyke has gone giant rampaging ape and is demolishing everything in his path. By the end of the first arc, Goku has lost his tail, the balls have disappeared, and he’s on a new path to get major training by Master Roshi. Thus begins the Tournament arc. Training with Master Roshi is a hard core yet wacky undertaking. It also has Goku meeting his first fist fighting buddy – Krillin. Master Roshi will only agree to train the boys if they bring him a beautiful woman to be his bride. When they bring back the lady Launch, it is one zany match made in heaven. With training underway, the boys are plowing huge fields, doing insane milk delivery runs, out-swim angry sharks (or at least pretend to), dodge angry bees, and do everything with heavy turtle shells on their backs! After months of preparation, the World’s Martial Arts Tournament has arrived. Goku is reunited with Bulma, Oolong and others that he met during his adventures searching for the balls. The arc goes through the elimination rounds all the way to the final fight which is between Goku and veteran fighter Jackie Chun (an obvious nod to Jackie Chan), but who is this great fighter really? It’s a big battle to the last man standing and it helps mold Goku into the great warrior he will one day become. The last three episodes on this disc introduce the Red Ribbon Army Saga. After the tournament, Goku parts ways with his pals and goes in search of the four-star Dragon Ball. He ends up helping a town suffering from drought, meeting up with some familiar faces from the tournament. Things get really screwy after that with Goku chasing down Pilaf and his minions who have what everyone thinks is the four-star Dragon Ball. The story goes round and round until Goku and the rest end up back at the mountain of the Ox King (seen in the first arc) and his daughter Chi Chi who is gaga for Goku. There is an attack by a mysterious military group (the Red Ribbon Army) that is also looking for the Dragon Balls, a king gets abducted, a real Dragon Ball is stolen, and a village may be in flames! What a way to leave viewers excited and hanging! What is so great about Dragon Ball is that although it may have less intensity than the DBZ series, it instead has a ton more fun and overall adventure. Young Goku is cute and the wacky adventures he gets up too are unique and engaging. It is a lot of fun for those who remember the original anime, reliving their childhood, but it is also a great jumping on point for new viewers to the genre and the fantastic world of Dragon Ball. Toei Animation has done a slew of notable projects such as One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, Xenosaga, Clannad, and Air among many and it is the same production company that has done all the Dragon Ball series. It does a super job of capturing original creator Akira Toriyama’s manga designs. It’s like the characters leapt off the page onto the TV screen in full color glory. It has a great sense of frisky color for the energetic little heroes and villains in the series. The action is as kapow-tastic as ever. Plus this has the same remastered treatment as the uncut DBZ set releases. The video has been transferred from the Japanese originals for crisper and cleaner images than ever before. And the sound gets the digital treatment and is offered with the English dialogue and American music soundtrack now in Dolby Digital, English dialogue with original Japanese music, and the original Japanese dialogue with original Japanese score.
EXTRAS:
Extra goodies include FUNimation trailers, textless songs, and a 24 page booklet that has profiles of the heroes and villains, background info, and summaries of all the episodes in season 1. Plus there’s the Marathon Feature option to watch it all with just the opening at the very beginning and the credits at the very end with all the episodes on the disc in between with no opening and closing to worry about in between the middle eps.
IN SUMMARY:
It’s the beginning of the Dragon Ball saga. This is where the awesome action adventure all started! And it is here uncut and digitally remastered! More kapow-tastic than ever before! |
