Dragon Ball Z is complicated. There are some great moments that leave an impact and are well remembered and then their are moments that can be downright stupid. It is a usual with all long running anime. You remember when Cell made his first appearance because of the terror and build up, but the Garlic Jr. filler season is forgotten because of how ridiculous it was and treated itself. Seriously, Krillin's ex-girlfriend is the only memorable thing in that season. Why do I mention this with Tree Of Might? Because it also has both good and memorable moments, and moments that are downright stupid. It's not as bad as the Garlic Jr. filler season in the series, but it's not as good as the Cell season either.
Released in Japan in 1990, same year as World's Strongest, Tree of Might does a lot of good things with it's premise, but it also falters in many other areas too. Again, I am reviewing the Funimation dubbed version we got in 2006.
The Pros- Unlike the first two Dragon Ball Z movies, this one has all of the Z fighters that crossed over from Dragon Ball; Tien, Krillin, Chaozu, Piccolo, and everyone's favorite punching bag, Yamcha (seriously, he is always the first one down for the count). The action scenes are well down and we get to see what the fighters can do. The Tree of Might itself and the main villain Turles are both great in this movie and they do serve the purpose of being a great threat. You see the Tree of Might destroying the Earth from the inside and it gives a feeling of real terror that is taking place. Turles also makes short work of Piccolo before he even eats the fruit of the Tree of Might. Turles Being in this movie present something that even the later series and movies explore; the potential of more Saiyans in the universe. Dragon Ball Super (I'm not over that title!) explores this as well and so does future movies that I will get to. Turles was the first we see, since he doesn't seem to have ties to Frieza and he does not mentioned Vegeta (he's not in the movies, yet). It is something I'm glad was explored and I will share my thoughts on it more in the future.
The Cons- Outside of the designs of Turles' minions, they aren't memorable at all. They have no personality, no characteristic, and they don't present a threat (even after beating all the other Z Fighters). All five of them fight Goku by himself and he wipes the floor with them. You can always ask one question during the opening scene of the movie; Why don't they investigate what started the forest fighter at the beginning of the movie. Instead of investigating that and preventing the Tree of Might from happening, they instead collect Dragon Balls to restore the forest... Except the crater that the small drone created. Okay... Goku is the only one that does any kind of damage to the villains of the movie. The other characters should not be this weak. Unless all the villains are as strong as Nappa. Otherwise, it feels all these characters are wasted, especially Yamcha! He goes down first!Did Akira Toryama not like Yamcha after Dragon Ball? The ending feels like a total Deus Ex Machina. Goku focuses on the energy from the fruit of the Tree of Might and uses it to blast Turles and the tree out of existence. Was it a special type of Spirit Bomb or what was it?
Final Thoughts- I don't want to sound like I don't like this movie, because I like a lot of elements contained in this movie, but it has a lot that isn't remembered. It is good for the fans, but it isn't what I would show someone who is curious about the serious.
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