Watch Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins For Free

Simply Perfect

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I think it's fair to say that by now most of the world knows about DRAGON BALL, the action-comedic anime about the adventures of a dim but noble warrior, Goku, and the various fighters he encounters and battles. Most probably know that in 2009 there was an American film released, DragonBall EVOLUTION, that proved to be an utter failure and a sterling example in how to not adapt a cartoon well. But I think not many people know of this film, The Magic Begins. Made in Taiwan, it was an unofficial adaptation of the series and takes certain liberties: the character names are changed (one character is changed from a pig to a fat man), and a major character gets to live. However, it still retains the sense of adventure and humour that made the original work so wonderful and enjoyable, which reflects on this film and improves it considerably (unlike DBE mentioned above). While generally it's a lighthearted adventure, it's got enough serious moments to enhance the danger and risk, and thus intensifies the fight between the heroes and villains. (I was watching the English dub of this film, which additionally gives it an old-style kung-fu film vibe. If you liked that kind of film, you'll enjoy this one as well)The film needs to be watched in the context of its era, which I think improves it considerably. It's a 1980s piece; back then feel-good fantasy adventures were very popular at that time (as someone from that era, I can say this film had a distinct 80s atmosphere). Also, back in the 1980s it was common to employ non-digital VFX: trick camera-work, careful editing and prosthetics are the main effects employed, and even though they look painfully obvious today, they add a vintage charm to the film and make it look closer to the cartoon it was based on.The cast is fairly standard; they overact a little, but are mostly reliable in their roles. The Goku actor looks a little feminine, but that's a first impression that fades when he starts to kick serious butt. The show stealer is the Master Roshi actor, who is so shamelessly funny that he ends up owning every scene he appears in.At this point, this is the best ever live-action adaptation Dragon Ball can get. Until Hollywood can make a decent production, treat yourself to this and enjoy yourself!

Live action movie based on Akira Toriyama's well-known Dragon Ball manga and anime.While it's overall appreciation by many doesn't seem anything to write home about, I would like to note that, while some changes were obviously made, it is actually very close to the spirit of the original Dragon Ball manga as well as the original TV series, which itself often got quite silly indeed.Sure, things got a bit more serious in the DBZ follow-up series, but most of the film's main characters are close to their manga origins, and some of the events in the film are close to the original as well.That said, this film will probably never win any movie awards, but it is a lot of fun, and a curiosity for all the Dragon Ball fans out there.

Man, I have never laughed at any one single movie before than the way I laughed at this one. It was absolutely ridiculous. Was the movie bad, no doubt, but it had every person I showed it to nearly crying in laughter.There are a lot of miscommunication here though. In the English, Dubbed version, there are numerous name changes. The real, original names are followed by the movie names:Monkey Boy - Goku Sparkle - Father Gohan Seito (i'm sure thats the name) - Bulma Piggy - Oolong Mrs. Knowitall - Puar Lord Horn - Pilaf Mr. Westwood - Yamcha Turtle Man - Master Roshi I can't remember chi-chi's name, but it doesn't matterAnyway, there is a good reason the names are translated so poorly. This is Japenese being translated into Chinese. Monkey Boy makes perfect sense. DB is based off of a Chinese legend of a Monkey-like boy named Goku after all. No one really wanted the names to be that dumb, but I'm sure there was a good reason for it. The effects are hilariously awful. Strings are very visible. Grenades are no-more than rubber balls. Westwood's sword seems to be rubber (lol). The Velcro on Monkey Boy's and Sparkle's outfits are visible. When sparkle is shot out of the well, the body is a stationary doll of some sort. When Lord Horn's mouth moves, the face seems like it is falling off. When Lord Horn releases the spell on all of the citizens, they are all supposed to fall, but a whole group of people can be seen standing up, looking very confused.The sound effects are also hilarious. It seems as though the production team was running out of money. Pac-Man noises can be heard everywhere.Anyway, I can't really bash this movie. I love it. It is so bad that it can make me laugh, just by thinking of it. Every time I think about the bad animations and paper airplane attacks, I can't help but crack a smile. I'll give it a 5 on a completely objective point of view. I would give it a 10 because I love it so much.

When you first sit down to watch this movie, keep in mind that you are about to see something you've probably never seen before. Keep in mind that this is a movie where they obviously spent INSANE amounts of cash on explosions and not enough on acting or anything else for that matter. The crazy thing I noticed is that every character is completely over-portrayed, and it seems (most of the time anyhow) that the film had been 'sped-up' to make the characters move faster! (I wonder if the Hong Kong version was dubbed too?) I understand the cartoon had this, but it doesn't work for live-action. It just looks odd... as if the camera crew decided to act because they couldn't afford real actors.The English version is horribly dubbed, and the character's words do not match the mouths at all. I would have preffered subtitles, but since this is a kids movie, and since some kids cannot read well, I'll let it go. But there is something extremely odd about this movie. It's supposedly a kids movie, but there's a lot of material about SEX, RAPE, and STRIPPING which isn't exactly for young Western audiences. (In the Orient, they have different laws and sexuality in children's movies is much more accepted). But parents be warned! There is a scene where two characters talk about rape, multiple scenes where people say 'sex maniac' and a scene where this insanely young japanese girl does a sexy dance for one of the 'sex maniacs' and shows him her breasts! Who was this movie made for anyway?Oh, and the special effects are laughable. You can tell the spaceship-like things that bomb the village are cardboard cutouts (or animation, I wasn't sure) that look unconvincing, even to a kid. The makers of this movie left out a lot of cool things from the cartoon, simply because they couldn't budget the kind of money they'd need. I didn't like how the names of all the characters were changed... it made me wonder if this movie was made by the same people as Dragon Ball Z.I don't really recommed this movie to anyone. Kids, adults, or Dragon Ball Z fans. It's just a poor representation of the cartoon, and obviously, one will be able to tell that this movie was rushed and no care whatsoever was put into it. I won't even get into the camerawork... just wait until the end credits at the still picture that sits there for 2 minutes... most of the shots are not framed correctly AT ALL and the movie just seems made by amateurs. Grainy film quality too.Just all around horrible!!!!