Dragonball Evolution: Z Edition (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Action Adventure	Main Menu Audio & Animation Deleted Scenes Outtakes Featurette-Goku's Workout Featurette-Making Of-Making a Scene Interviews-Cast-Justin Chatwin Music Video-Worked Up
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	81:54
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (69:37)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	James Wong
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Justin Chatwin Yun-Fat Chow Emmy Rossum Jamie Chung James Marsters Joon Park Eriko Tamura
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Brian Tyler

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Finnish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Hebrew Icelandic	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Dragonball: Evolution is a big budget live-action Hollywood action flick based on the popular manga & anime Dragonball, which also incorporates elements of the subsequent Dragonball Z.

    The film sees a young lad named Goku (Justin Chatwin) go hunting for seven "dragon balls", which when brought together at a particular location will grant their holder one wish, after his father is killed by a rather unpleasant green demonic chap named Piccollo (James Marsters) who is also after the dragon balls. Along the way, Goku reluctantly teams up with a foxy young bounty hunter named Bulma (Emmy Rossum) who is trying to retrieve a particular dragon ball that was stolen from her family's high-tech business, and a crazy desert bandit named Yamcha (Joon Park).

    Whilst Goku was always bullied at school, he was well trained in all manner of martial arts by his father but also taught not to use his skills on anyone less powerful than himself. Goku recruits his father's old trainer, a crazy old man named Master Yoshi (Chow Yun Fat) to complete his training - and provide all manner of PG-rated dirty-old-man jokes for some welcome comic relief. Also conveniently slotting into the plot is the fact that a the location the dragon balls need to be brought together at is the location for one of the world's toughest fighting tournaments, in which Goku's high-school crush is competing.

    The film has come under a fair degree of criticism for many of the casting choices in the film, particularly the casting of Caucasian Justin Chatwin as Goku and Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshi (who is a little old man in the original source). Whilst it is true that many of the characters do not cosmetically resemble the cartoon versions of themselves, the characters and script have been respectfully adapted to fit these cosmetic differences and in its own way it works. Whilst there really are not any standout performances in the film, each of the actors are decent enough in their part. Likewise for the story, many elements have been Westernised to an extent, although none of the changes are entirely painful, even the over-simplification of much of the films mysticism, and the changes work well enough in the context of the film.

    Despite the allegedly high production price-tag the feature carried, Dragonball: Evolution looks and plays out like a corny B-movie. Anyone that goes into the movie looking for a traditional, serious $100 Million Hollywood action movie will be disappointed. The effects are cheesy, the story frequently corny and the acting over-exaggerated. Then again, that is exactly the same way the original Dragonball series played out. Dragonball: Evolution is a lot of fun provided it is taken in with reasonable expectations. The main target audience of the film, primary school aged boys, will love it.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video is clear and sharp, but marred by excessive edge enhancement. There is a mild level of grain present throughout. The video looks a little dark throughout, but still manages a decent level of shadow detail.

    The colours in the video are bold and feature a good level of contrast, however the palette is rather dark and too pink. Skin tones, in particular, have an unnatural pinkish-orange glow about them.

    Very mild macro blocking and colour banding is present in a few of the backgrounds, however the video is generally free from noticeable artefacts. There is no sign of film artefacts in the transfer

    This is a RSDL formatted disc with the layer break occurring mid-scene at 69:37, although the transition was not noticeable on my equipment.

    The film features English subtitles for the hearing impaired. Based on the portion I sampled, the subtitles look to provide a reasonable translation of the dialogue and effects and are well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    English and Finnish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kbps) audio tracks are available for the film.

    The audio is clear and crisp. The dialogue is well placed in the mix and easy to understand. The audio and video appear to be well synchronised, although minor ADR is occasionally noticeable.

    The film features an aggressive surround mix that really explodes in the action sequences. The Subwoofer gets a decent workout to boot. Spot on what the film needs in the audio department.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The disc opens with a couple of skippable ads, one an anti-piracy clip and the other touting the awesomeness of Blu-ray, before opening to an animated menu.

Deleted Scenes (10:42)

    Eight deleted or extended scenes. These include a couple trimmed to lessen the impact of the violence in the film, though most look to have been trimmed for pacing considerations. Worth a look

Goku’s Workout Featurette (4:50)

    A fun featurette, pitched at kids, in which two of the film's fight choreographers demonstrate how to do a number of Goku's moves - ideal for perfecting the play-fighting that is bound to follow when anyone under 12 watches the film.

Fox Movie Channel Presents: Making a Scene Featurette (9:27)

    A moderately interesting "making of" featurette that walks the viewer through the production of one particular action scene from the film. Reasonably interesting and does not overstay its welcome.

Fox Movie Channel Presents: Life After Film School with Justin Chatwin Featurette (24:57)

    Two vapid hosts interview the star of the film Justin Chatwin. This is a surprisingly interesting interview with a young actor who hasn't let his moderate fame go to his head. Chatwin talks reasonably frankly about getting into the acting business as well as his involvement with the film itself.

Worked Up music video by Brian Anthony (3:21)

    A painfully over-produced pop/rock number that already sounds out-of-date. Pass.

Gag reel (2:23)

    A couple of minutes worth of un-funny bloopers. Maybe the kids will get a kick out of them, but that's a big maybe!

    The Region 1 edition is identical to the Region 4 edition, save for PAL/NTSC formatting, the language tracks and subtitles available. The Region 1 edition misses out on the Finnish 5.1 audio, instead featuring French, Portuguese and Spanish 2.0 tracks. The Region 1 edition features subtitles to match its languages, and misses the Hebrew, Finnish and Icelandic subtitles found on the Region 4 edition.

    The Chinese Region 6 special edition purportedly includes an English DTS 6.1 (1536Kbps) track, as well as all the same extras found on the Region 4 edition, which would make it the version of choice for anyone willing to shop internationally - but Caveat Emptor, as the Region 6 "standard" edition is a bare bones DVD-5 edition.

    A fun family-friendly action romp that does a decent job of bringing the classic Dragonball universe to life.

    The disc features a solid video transfer, excellent sound and a worthwhile swag of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall