| Dragon Ball Z: The Tree Of Might | |
|---|---|
Japanese box art |
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| Directed by | Daisuke Nishio |
| Produced by | Chiaki Imada Tamio Kojima |
| Written by | Story: Akira Toriyama Screenplay: Takao Koyama |
| Starring | See Cast |
| Music by | Shunsuke Kikuchi |
| Release date(s) | Japan: July 7, 1990 United States: November 15/22, 1997 |
| Running time | 60:01 |
Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, also known by its Japanese title Dragon Ball Z: The Ultimate Battle for the Entire Earth (ドラゴンボールZ 地球まるごと超決戦 Doragon Bōru Zetto: Chikyū Marugoto Chōkessen) or Toei's own English title Super Battle in the World, is the third Dragon Ball Z feature film. It was originally released in Japan on July 7, 1990, between episodes 54 and 55 of DBZ, at the "Toei Anime Fair" film festival, where it was shown as part of an Akira Toriyama-themed triple feature titled Toriyama Akira: The World (the other two films were anime versions of his one-shot stories Kennosuke-sama and Pink).
It seems to be set sometime after Vegeta and Nappa were on Earth, but before Bulma, Gohan,and Krillin left for Namek, although Vegeta isn't even discussed in the movie. It was first dubbed in English by Funimation Entertainment in association with Saban Entertainment and Ocean Productions, and was edited into a three-part television episode, which first aired in the United States in November 1997. Funimation later sub-licensed the movie to Geneon Universal Entertainment who, also in association with Ocean Productions, re-dubbed the movie and released it uncut on VHS and DVD on March 17, 1998, featuring the then current English voice cast from the TV series, dialogue closer to the original Japanese script, and the original Japanese background music. On November 14, 2006, the movie was re-released on DVD, dubbed by Funimation's in-house voice cast as part of a movie box set titled "First Strike," also containing Dead Zone and The World's Strongest. It was later remastered and released in a Double Feature set with Lord Slug on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 27, 2008. The film will be released to DVD again on November 1, 2011 in a remastered box set containing the first five Dragon Ball Z movies.[1]
An English dub produced in Malaysia, and an English dub produced by AB Group in France, were also created. The Malaysian English dub was released on VCD in Malaysia and AB Groupe's English dub aired on TV in the Netherlands, the UK, and Ireland, as well as saw a release on VHS and DVD in said countries. The two alternate English dubs were released under Toei's official English title.
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In the movie, the Z-Fighters face a new threat that starts with the burning of a forest, in which Gohan and Krillin rescue the forest animals and a small dragon named Icarus. Although they are able to restore the forest to its normal state with the Dragon Balls, Icarus doesn't return and stays with Gohan, much to Chi-Chi's fury. Goku then shows a nearby cave to let Gohan keep the dragon with him. Later, the Earth is visited by an unfriendly group of aliens under the leadership of a Saiyan. Upon arriving, they plant a seed which grows the Tree of Might, a plant that sucks the life of the planet on which it was planted and leaves it a desert. At King Kai's request, Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu investigate and try to destroy the Tree, but are unsuccessful. They are then confronted by the aliens whilst their leader watches from inside the spaceship. Eventually, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu are defeated by the aliens, with only Goku remaining as the one who can hold his own against them.
During the ensuing battle, Chiaotzu is rescued by Gohan, who had just arrived, and demonstrates his incredible fighting skills by easily taking out the two identical aliens. He is then encountered by the aliens' leader Turles, a Saiyan who bears a striking resemblance to Goku. Turles gives Gohan a choice to either join him or die. Gohan refuses to join Turles, and is saved in time thanks to the arrival of Piccolo. However, Turles defeats the both of them and creates an artificial moon, turning Gohan into a Great Ape and sets him on Goku, who is almost crushed to death in Gohan's hand until Icarus arrives and calms Gohan down. But when Turles attacks Icarus, Gohan is angered and turns on Turles, who fires an attack at Gohan. Before the attack can make contact, Goku manages to cut his son's tail off and restore him to normal. Cradling the little one in his arms, Goku threatens Turles. Angry and impressed at the same time, Turles sets his henchmen on Goku, who uses the Kaioken attack and makes quick work of them while Piccolo unsuccessfully fights Turles again. Goku and Turles then fight, with Goku having the upper hand, until Turles pushes his power further by eating a fruit from the Tree of Might. With his new power, Turles dominates Goku and beats him to the point that he is no longer able to fight, even with the use of the Kaioken x10 (x20 in the funimation dub).
Slowly recovering while Turles is distracted by the rest of the Z-Fighters, whom he brutally dispatches, Goku decides to use his Spirit Bomb. Despite gaining energy from the living, he is not able to attack Turles as he counterattacks with a blast of his own, neutralizing Goku's Spirit Bomb. Unable to gather more energy from living beings, Goku decides to steal energy from inside the Tree of Might itself. Eventually successful in creating the Spirit Bomb, Goku sees his opportunity, and fires it straight into Turles, who is carried up the trunk of the Tree of Might and destroyed along with the Tree when the Spirit Bomb explodes. With the terror now over, the Z-Fighters return to their normal lives once again.
It seems to be set during the three years the Z Fighters are training to prepare for the arrival of the Androids; all the Z Fighters are alive, with Yamcha's gi back having the King Kai symbol to support that they were killed during the Saiyan Saga and resurrected at the end of the Namek Arc.
However, Goku does not turn Super Saiyan when it was needed (possibly, he could not transform into a Super Saiyan at will, as in the Trunks Saga he mentioned not being able to control it at first), and Gohan does not know Icarus who had already appeared in the Garlic Jr. Saga. Yamcha's hair is longer than it was during the Trunks Saga, Vegeta does not show up, and Lakasei mentions that with the fruit of the tree they would have been able to defeat Frieza although Frieza is already dead (it could be possible, like Cooler in Movie 5, that he did not know that).
Some Dragon Ball Z sites say that Turles had somehow gotten his hands on the Tree of Might seeds, and was planting them on other planets before Earth and had been eating the fruit from the Tree for quite some time, just on different worlds. Earth is full of life, which is why he seeks out Earth, to gain more power than ever from a fruit from the tree that was planted on Earth. This is never explained fully, however. His overwhelming power over Goku could also be explained by the ability of saiyans to become much stronger after being beaten to near-death (Bardock, Goku's father, was a lower-class saiyan as well, was able to take on Frieza's elite fighters before he died). Another notable aspect of the movie is that Gohan's haircut was the same as just before he left for Namek.
Turles (Tururesu) is the featured supervillian in Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might. He is an upper class Saiyan with somewhat grey skin and bears a striking resemblance to Goku, and can be considered an alternate version of Goku if he had never found peace on Earth, however, his in-universe story has varied from dub to dub. In some dub their resemblance to each other is because when it came to identifying the lower class breed of saiyans many of them would look alike (Not all, as Bardock's team didn't look the same, and Gohan does not have the same look as Goku, although his brother, Goten, does), yet, on others dub, Turles is simply the twin brother of Goku sent on a mission like Goku was before the fall of the saiyan planet by the hands of Frieza.
He roamed the universe under the planet trade organization, but went defunct after discovering the Tree of Might seeds, which are capable of taking away the planets energy to supply power to the fruit it grows, able to enhance ones own strength exponentially. He quickly assembled the Turles Crusher Corps, a band of rebels who had terrorized several planets before, and began to conquer planets for himself.
Upon arriving on Earth, he planned to plant the seed of the Tree of Might, but finds resistance from the Z Fighters. While fighting Goku, Turles eats one of the fruits and he greatly overpowers him gaining the upper hand, even able to destroy a Spirit Bomb. With the planets energy slowly deteriorating, Goku creates another Spirit Bomb from the immense energy of the Tree of Might and uses this to kill Turles adn destroy the tree. In Tenkaichi 2 and 3 he is given an exclusive Oozaru form for the game. Turles is voiced by Masako Nozawa, Ted Cole in the Ocean Group English dub, Chris Patton in Funimation English dub.
| Character Name | Voice Actor (Japanese) | Voice Actor (English / Ocean Group Studios 1997) | Voice Actor (English / Geneon) | Voice Actor (English / FUNimation 2006) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goku | Masako Nozawa | Ian James Corlett | Peter Kelamis | Sean Schemmel |
| Gohan | Masako Nozawa | Saffron Henderson | Saffron Henderson | Stephanie Nadolny |
| Krillin | Mayumi Tanaka | Terry Klassen | Terry Klassen | Sonny Strait |
| Yamcha | Toru Furuya | Ted Cole | Ted Cole | Christopher Sabat |
| Tien | Hirotaka Suzuoki | Matt Smith | Matt Smith | John Burgmeier |
| Chiaotzu | Hiroko Emori | Cathy Weseluck | Cathy Weseluck | Monika Antonelli |
| Piccolo | Toshio Furukawa | Scott McNeil | Scott McNeil | Christopher Sabat |
| Bulma | Hiromi Tsuru | Lalainia Lindbjerg | Lalainia Lindbjerg | Tiffany Vollmer |
| Chi-Chi | Mayumi Shō | Laara Sadiq | Laara Sadiq | Cynthia Cranz |
| Oolong | Naoki Tatsuta | Alec Willows | Doug Parker | Bradford Jackson |
| Puar | Naoko Watanabe | Cathy Weseluck | Cathy Weseluck | Monika Antonelli |
| Master Roshi | Kōhei Miyauchi | Dave Ward | Don Brown | Mike McFarland |
| King Kai | Joji Yanami | Don Brown | Don Brown | Sean Schemmel |
| Shenron | Kenji Utsumi | Don Brown | Don Brown | Christopher Sabat |
| Icarus/Higher Dragon | Naoki Tatsuta | Cathy Weseluck | Cathy Weseluck | Christopher Sabat |
| Rasin | Kenji Utsumi | Ward Perry | Ward Perry | Andy McAvin |
| Lagasin | Masaharu Satou | Don Brown | Don Brown | Andy McAvin |
| Daiz | Yūji Machi | Scott McNeil | Scott McNeil | Mark Lancaster |
| Kakao | Shinobu Satouchi | Alvin Sanders | Don Brown | Jeff Johnson |
| Armond | Banjo Ginga | Alec Willows | Alec Willows | Paul Slavens |
| Turles | Masako Nozawa | Ted Cole | Ted Cole | Chris Patton |
Funimation's first dub of The Tree of Might was heavily edited for content and length, just like their original dub of Dragon Ball Z:
deftones- hole disturbed - down with the sickness linkin park- crawling breaking point-27 saliva- ladies and gentlemen skillet- earth ivasion linkin park- breaking the habit finger eleven- one thing linkin park -one step closer
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