Kotaku: dragon ball

How's That Dragon Ball Online MMORPG Coming Along?

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:00:00 MDT

Well, it's got a soaring theme song, that's for sure. Bulma in a bikini, too.

Dragon Ball Online takes place 200 years after the manga's end, when an organization has divided up the world, which players set out to reunite. What's more, players start off as kids, grow into adults and can select any of the major races - Saiyan, Nameks and Humans. Just as you'd expect with any MMO, players can also make their own avatars.

Artist Akira Toriyama is lending a hand to design characters, backgrounds and generally make sure the game looks all Toriyama-ey.

Originally announced for 2008, the game is going into closed beta testing next month. It is announced for release in South Korea this year.

Namco Bandai Locks Down Dragon Ball License For America

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:40:50 MDT

If you live in the lovely continent of North America, expect all Dragon Ball games you buy (or your parents buy you) over the course of the next five years to have a Namco Bandai label on them.

The publisher has secured exclusive rights to the franchise, it announced today, granting it the power to publish Dragon Ball games "across all major consoles and hand held platforms." Prior to today's announcement, the license was handled by both Namco Bandai and Atari in the Americas. The latter had a dispute with rights holder FUNimation in 2007, with the former already responsible for publishing Dragon Ball games in its native Japan.

Atari's loss of the license can't be good revenue news for the company, which has been giving signals of financial shakiness all year.

The first three games to ship after the Namco Bandai deal are Dragon Ball: Raging Blast for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo for Wii, and Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans for Nintendo DS.

With the Dragon Ball saga spanning "11 years of manga, over 500 television episodes, [and] 23 feature films," according to the publisher, we envision a long, rich history of dude's with bad hair and hideous character designs punching each other in the sack for decades to come.

Dragonball DS And Dragonball Wii Art Look, Um, Different

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:00:00 MDT

A new year brings one thing: More Dragon Ball. You know what that means? More Bulma.

The Xbox 360 and the PS3 are getting a Dragon Ball Z title called Raging Blast that appears to be a sequel to Dragon Ball Z Sparking! The Nintendo Wii is getting a Dragonball action game, which doesn't appear to have a subtitle.

It does have Bulma character art that seems different from how see appeared in last fall's Dragonball DS (Dragonball Origins in the West). See comparison.

AH HA! She has a name tag on the DS version. We knew there was something off.

バンナムはドラゴンボールのゲームをいくつ出したら気がすむの？ [はちま起稿]

Dragonball: The Movie: The Game: The Trailer

Mike Fahey — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:40:00 MST

IF you thought the screenshots of the PSP video game based on the live-action catastrophe Dragonball Evolution were bad, wait until you see the game in motion.

Now to be completely fair, Namco Bandai didn't have a whole lot to work with when tasked with coming up with a video game based on the live-action adaptation of the popular Dragonball manga and anime, so they did the best that they could, I'm sure. The result seems to be a game that takes the "realistic" characters from the movie and puts them in places only cel-shaded anime models should go.

Now take a deep breath, and brace yourself before clicking play on the trailer below.

Dragonball Evolution pictures and trailer [Gamekyo - Thanks a lot, SinfulKnight]

Dragonball Origins Recalled In Australia

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:30:00 MST

Whoops! Atari are recalling every single copy of Dragon Ball Origins in Australia, after it was discovered the rating handed out to the game didn't quite match some of it's naughtier moments.

Seems that, while every other Dragon Ball game Atari have released in the country was rated a deserving PG (Parental Guidance recommended), Origins - also rated PG - contains a few sexual references, including a pants-down scene that's one layer of cloth away from giving you an eye-full of Goku wang.

So the game's been recalled, and will be back on store shelves once it receives a newer, more mature classification.

Dragonball: The Movie: The Game: The Screen Shots

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:40:00 MST

Dragonball's anime to silver screen transition looks... rough. Not that the source material was that spectacular to begin with, but it's sure to send fans into a frenzy. How bout the movie-based video game?

The good news is that the PSP-bound video game based on Dragonball Evolution looks yards better than the game based on Street Fighter: The Movie.

The bad news? There's nary a hideously bright costume or outrageously bad spiked hairstyle to be seen in new Dragonball Evolution screens. There are just men in khakis and women in sensible shoes. But it has Dragonball in the title and it will likely sell in the tens of thousands.

Set expectations to "Movie based video game."

Dragonball Movie Trailer Is A New Kind of Stupid

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:30:00 MST

Look, I don't even like Dragonball. But still, I know enough about it to know this trailer will make people upset.

Dragonball Movie Title Evolves

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:00:00 MST

Everyone's favorite upcoming goofy Hollywood flick Dragon Ball is apparently getting a slightly reworked title: Dragonball Evolution. This isn't yet confirmed by studio 20th Century Fox, but URL DragonballEvolutionmovie.com redirects to FoxMovies.com.

The movie, based on the popular Dragon Ball manga/anime/video games, will be in theaters April 8. It stars Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Chow Yun-Fat, Ernie Hudson and whatever the hell is in that picture.

Update: Dragonball Gets a New Title? [ComingSoon via Dragonball The Movie]

Dragonball Movie Gets Another Release Date

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:00:00 MST

The movie event of next year, Dragonball: Goku Freakazoid Face, will be getting a slightly earlier release: Wednesday April 8, 2009. Nothing like a mid-week release to beat the weekend release rush. This comes after the movie was pushed from its original release date of August 15, 2008 to April 10, 2009. Re-shoots and post production caused the 2009 delay, and fingers crossed it has ample Goku Freakazoid Face. We love GFF!

Dragonball Moves Up [IGN via ANN]

What The Hell Is This Goku Monster?

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:00:00 MST

This mysterious still from the Dragonball movie popped up online, but Fox Studios has been trying to erase it. (No wonder — look at it!) The image shows Goku in his freakazoid monster form. But the make-up reminds all of something else entirely... That, after the jump.

ハリウッド実写版｢ドラゴンボール｣はどこに向かっているのだろう… [はちま起稿]

A 16 Second NHK Clip of Dragonball Movie (Very Boring)

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:00:00 MDT

It's not the movie's fault. This is simply a super short clip from Japanese TV network NHK that shows off...not much of anything. (At least the dragonball looks decent!) The movie is getting released in Japan next spring. The country's reaction to Hollywood's interpretation should be interesting, but it should do decent enough here. Some people in Japan are more impressed with Hollywood doing a big budget adaptation than with Hollywood doing a good big budget adaptation.

Dragonball Clip! Dragonball Clip! Dragonball Clip! [Latino Review]

First Dragonball Movie Review: "Not A Disaster"

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:00:00 MDT

Hollywood is bringing manga/anime Dragonball to the silver screen. Early peeks haven't exactly been promising, leading a general feeling that the rot has already set in. Website Ain't It Cool News was a sent a review from a reader who claims to have seen 95-100 minutes of the film, minus the credits, missing the score and lacking finished special effects. According to the reader, "Overall, I would give the movie a 6.5/10 simply because i was expecting disaster but it turned out better... I am glad it aint the disaster I thought it would be." The reader even went on to call the movie "solid." Not sure if this is a plant or not, but hit the jump for a breakdown of the movie's positives and negatives. There are spoilers.

Positives
• Action - I wasn't expecting the action scenes to be as awesome as they were. Simply put the best thing about this movie. The last action scene of Goku vs. Picollo are simply amazing... This fight scene was around 13-15 minutes long. There are other small action scenes that are fun and entertaining with slo mo but nowhere as good as the picollo vs. goku scene.

• James Marsters as Picollo was awesome. He was perfect as picollo... Oh and Picollo transforms into a light greenish color picollo towards the end of the movie.

• Justin Chatwin as Goku. This guy surprised me a lot. I really didn't like him when they casted him as goku but he did a damn good job in the acting department and he nailed the KAMEHAMEHA line.

Negatives
• Story - Dragonball fans will be dissapointed with some of the changes they have made with stories and characters etc... High school setting for the first 22-23 minutes was so not needed but ah well typical hollywood garbage of adding bullshit like that.

• Chow Yun Fat as Master Roshi - I was dissapointed with this. I wanted the fucking perverted roshi who fucking grabs breasts and asses like in the anime but alas all of that is fucking gone. Also he acted like Mr. Kesuke Miyagi. You know what I mean. The lines he spoke were fine but I felt he was uncomfortable in the movie. Very dissapointed.

• Shenron the dragon - Ah another huge dissapointment... FUCK FUCK FUCK you fox. So ya they get all the dragonballs and the dragon appears but the dragon is hiding behind fucking clouds and you only see his shadow. The voice of the dragon was provided by none other than Christopher Sabat who provided the voice for the dragon in the american version of the anime. When the dragon spoke it was chilling but damnit it was hiding behind clouds. One can hope they will fix this but chances of that are very slim.

There's more in the link below. If you're interested.

Presenting AICN's First Review Of DRAGONBALL... [Ain't It Cool News] [Pic]

Crummy-Looking Dragonball Movie Getting Reshoots

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:00:00 MDT

That Dragonball movie trailer didn't exactly set the world aflame. The frosty reaction that the trailer got might have caused FOX movie execs to order reshoots, and the filmmakers are looking for folks between 20-70 that are fluent in Nepalese or Tibetan. The reshoots start October 30th in Los Angeles. Though, this reshoots just might be pickup footage or insert footage and not remaking the bad. Who knows. FOX does, that's who. (But for goodness sake, some please tell these Hollywood people that Piccolo should be green.)

DB Reshoots [Actors Access via Dragonball - The Movie via i09]

Live Action Dragon Ball Trailer Successfully Fails

Mike Fahey — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:00:00 MDT

Someone at the Brand Licensing Expo Europe 2008 managed to catch this cam footage of somewhat less-than-eagerly anticipated film adaptation of the popular manga/anime/video game series Dragon Ball. As was expected, it looks relatively hideous, from Chow Yun-Fat's hideous costume to James Marsters reprising his role as Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Spike, who in turn tries to portray Lord Piccolo. Don't worry about the sound, there is none in this early preview trailer. Somehow I think we're better for it.

Dragonball Teaser Trailer [Trailer Addict - Thanks wwm0nkey!]

Dragonball The Movie The Game

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:00:00 MDT

Like most big Hollywood movies, the makers of the Dragonball flick are planning a video game... based on the movie. But there are already tons of good Dragonball games that are, you know, based on the anime/manga. Regardless! Twentieth Century Fox has a new Senior Vice President of New Media Licensing who's drawing up a list of Fox flicks that could turn into video games. Included in that list is apparently movies like the upcoming Avatar from James Cameron along with Dragonball from some dude. If you think actor Justin Chatwin looks strange as Goku just wait until he's mocap'd for your 3D gaming pleasure.

Fox taps THQ vet for video game post [Playthings via Dragonball - The Movie]

Oh Hollywood, What Did You Do To Dragonball?!

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:30:00 MDT

Manga Dragonball has been adapted into anime and countless video games no problem. Turning it into a Hollywood movie seems to pose more of a problem, though. It's not easy! Early images of the movie, which stars Justin Chatwin from War of the Worlds and Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat, didn't exactly set the world afire. While the filmed-in-Mexico Hollywood flick has been repeatedly delayed, there have already been talks about doing a sequel. Anyway, what's reported to be images from the movie trailer below. No surprises here, really. Well, save for that albino vampire Piccolo thing. Maybe the actual trailer is better. But probably not.

Dragon Ball | ¡Nuevas imágenes del apocalipsis! [Nerd Drama via Dragonball Movie Blog via ANN]

Dragonball Movie Cast Pictures

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:00:00 MDT

Yes, yes. We've already seen the Hollywood Dragon Ball movie's Goku Justin Chatwin. Now, we can see the other people as other people, too! Scans of Japanese movie mag Roadshow Magazine have high quality pics of Bulma (Emmy Rossum), Yamcha (Joon Park), Chi Chi (Jamie Chung) and Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat). Even if this movie sucks, the on-screen hair looks amazing.

More Scans [DB The Movie]

First Official Dragonball Movie Promo Image

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:00:00 MDT

Maybe we've been a little harsh. Maybe Hollywood's Dragonball movie will actually be good. Maybe not! Without an official trailer, all we've had were some crummy quality on-set images. Now we have a somewhat crummy quality scan! Here's the first official promotional image for the DB. It appeared in manga Shonen Jump, where the original Dragonball manga appeared. (Hollywood got that right!) A translation of text that appeared on the promo:

I’ll grant you a wish…!!

Rumor after rumor but [now] Dragonball live action movie finally comes true!
Director James Wong of Final Destination, and producer the revolutionary film maker Stephen Chow of Shaolin Soccer. Remarkable casts are Son Goku is Justin Chatwin who played Tom Cruise’s son in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, and Master Roshi is Chow yun-fat of Pirates of the Caribbean.

All Dragonball fan’s wish are granted now ! We will continue to offer new information to you on Jump Cinema Island !

Another thing they got right: Justin Chatwin's Goku-hair. It's spectacular! Hit the jump for the full image.

Justin Chatwin as Goku [Dragonball The Movie]

Have A Look At The Dragonball Movie Teaser Poster

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:00:00 MDT

Here it is! What's apparently the English-language Dragonball poster, which has the tag:

The Legend Comes To Life 2009

It's not terrible. Maybe the trailer won't suck! Maybe this will be a decent movie!! Who knows?

Dragonball Teaser Poster [/Film via Dragonball The Movie]

Goku Will Die In Second Dragonball Movie (Huh?)

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:00:34 MDT

Sigh. Producer of the Dragonball movie Tim Van Rellim has revealed that Goku will apparently die in the next Dragonball flick adapted by Hollywood. (Bwah? Mistranslation?) Oh, m'kay, sure, whatever! War of the Worlds actor Justin Chatwin is filling out the orange training suit in the upcoming movie. While originally thought the film was pushed back to next year, the producer now says they're gunning for a late summer or October release. About shooting the flim in Mexico, Van Rellim says:

Durango has been a phenomenal place to shoot. We had many sets and the truth never felt paparazzi or harassment of the press and elsewhere and in other productions. It is a very quiet place, we were treated very well.

Because no one cared and those who did wanted you all to stop? No! We kid.
Goku Dying, Dude [El Siglo via Dragonball: The Movie]