BUZZ OVERLOAD

In this live-action film adaptation of the Dragon Ball Z animé series, Goku (Justin Chatwin) sets out on a journey to find Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat) and gather all seven mystical Dragon Balls. He needs to have the Dragon Balls before Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) does.

With the help of Master Roshi and his friends, Goku prepared for the ultimate battle against evil Lord Piccolo to prevent him from succeeding in obtaining these Dragon Balls and using them to take over the world.

Taglines:
- The legend comes to life.
- Master your destiny.

Starring: Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Joon Park, Eriko Tamura, Randall Duk Kim, Texas Battle, Ernie Hudson, Chow Yun-Fat

Running Time: 1 hr. 40 min.

Release Date: April 8, 2009 (USA); March 13, 2009 (Japan & Hongkong); April 11, 2009 (Philippines)

MPAA Rating: Rated PG for intense sequences of action/violence and brief mild language.

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Trivia:

• It was suggested to give the entire cast special wigs of different colours, to keep the essence of the “Dragon Ball” animé, but James Wong vetoed this idea to make the film more realistic. However, Emmy Rossum (The Day After Tomorrow, Phantom of the Opera, Poseidon) had a blue streak dyed in her hair and Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds, The Invisible) had his hair touched to make it spiky so that their respective characters possessed a classic yet distinctive look.

• James Kyson Lee (Heroes Tv Series) auditioned for the role for Yamcha – a desert bandit that aids Goku and Bulma on their quest.

• Ron Perlman was offered the role of Piccolo, but turned it down to work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) instead.

• Producer Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle) is a big fan of Dragon Ball, and signed on to the film immediately. He was deeply interested in being the director, but decided to just serve as producer because he believes in directing only his own original stories.

• The cities in the film have been designed to be futuristic, as seen in the cartoon, but there will also be Oriental and Aztec influences in the designs. This is due to the film being set in Asia but being shot in America and Mexico.

• During the early days of filming pictures were released to a Mexican newspaper called “Record”. In that paper a full run down of what Dragonball was to be about as well as information on its director James Wong were given. However the pictures labeled as “the Director” and “actors” were nothing more than simple extras, in fact the picture of the supposed director was that of a chubby, white, blond haired extra, a huge contrast to James Wong who is of course a slim, Asian man.

• According to the film’s make-up expert Ed French, it took four hours to apply the prosthetics to James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville) to change him into Piccolo. At first it took 17 hours, but Marsters had difficulty breathing and Piccolo’s look also seemed overdone, so some prosthetics were removed, thus shortening the time to 4 hours.

• Director James Wong personally asked Japanese pop musician Ayumi Hamasaki if she could compose and sing the film’s theme song. Since Dragon Ball was created in Japan, he felt that the song should be by a Japanese singer and in Japanese. Wong was so impressed with Hamasaki’s song “Rule” that he ensured that the song would appear for all international releases of the film.

• Tom Welling (Smallville) was considered for the role of Goku.

• To prepare for his role as Son Goku, Justin Chatwin read all the Dragon Ball comics and “The Journey to the West”, the Chinese literary classic which inspired the Dragon Ball saga; he practised martial arts and acrobatics; and to get into Goku’s character (a likeable child-man), he told jokes to fellow cast members between filming breaks to increase the rapport between them/their characters.

• “Dragon Ball” creator Akira Toriyama is a big fan of Jackie Chan and very much tried to cast him in the film as Master Roshi who at one point in the saga had taken the alias of Jackie Chun), but Chan was unavailable due to conflicts with other films.

• Bulma is dressed in black and purple clothes; the very colours worn by her son Trunks in “Dragon Ball Z: Doragon bôru zetto” (1989).

• While filming a fight between Son Goku and Mai, Eriko Tamura (Heroes, Reaper) accidentally injured Justin Chatwin by striking his face a little harder than intended. She apologized over and over, but eventually they both laughed it off and went on filming; Chatwin claims that this incident enabled the fight to very powerful and intense, which fit the tone of the film.

• When Bulma’s capsule converts into a cycle, the famous sound from “Transformers” (1984) (another fan favourite alongside “Dragon Ball: Doragon bôru” (1986) in Japan) is heard.

• The film’s title was originally going to be simply “Dragonball” in homage to the title of the original series, but the word “Evolution” was added to show that this would be a more different and advanced version of the saga.

• In “Dragon Ball: Doragon bôru” (1986), Goku was an 11-year-old, but in order to make the film’s story more plausible and dramatic he was made a teenager. Any “Saiyan” characteristics will be seen in sequels.

• Goku is famous for wearing orange robes, but in the film he wears the traditional dark robes a martial arts student would wear in Japan, thus keeping some realism.

• James Marsters considered a double role in the film as Kami the Earth Guardian (Piccolo’s alternate persona). However, he felt Piccolo would be a more interesting and challenging character standing by himself.

• Goku is seen in a poster wearing a sweatshirt with Japanese characters on them. These characters (actually the same one repeated over and over) are the Japanese character “kame,” which means “turtle.” This was the symbol any student of Master Roshi (who is also known as the Turtle Hermit) would wear.

• For the desert shots of a traveling Bulma to be perfect, Emmy Rossum had to ride the motorcycle in 4-foot sand drifts at a speed of 40 mph. It was an arduous experience (”40mph over bumpy sand dunes that is enough to make anyone a little queasy”), especially since filming would start at sunrise, and the bike would stall a few times and had to be dug out often; however, the cast and crew would assist in each other and put everyone at ease for filming to continue well.

Watch Dragonball Evolution official movie trailer