Customer Reviews

Dragon Ball Z Double Feature: Tree of Might / Lord Slug [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"TREE OF MIGHT/LORD SLUG", the third and fourth "DRAGON BALL Z" films are now out on Blu-ray featuring even more action-packed battles, both digitally remastered in 1080p High Definition.

VIDEO & AUDIO:
Video is presented in 1080p High Definition and 16×9. With the first two films, because of its age, the colors stood out but there were much more scratches and dust that were evident in the video presentation.

For "TREE OF MIGHT", the scratches and dust were minimal and "LORD SLUG", very little. So, this second volume of the "DRAGON BALL Z" film series definitely looks much better video-wise compared to the first volume.

With the 1080p conversion, the colors are vibrant for two films that are nearly 20-years-old and personally, this is probably the best we will ever see these two films on the Blu-ray format.

But the video quality is much better over the first two films and I was pleased with that.

As for the audio, audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD English 5.1 with Japanese Music (or with U.S. Music) and the original Japanese audio track. The Japanese audio is in its original presentation, and it's a version that I have seen multiple times of these films when they were shown on Japanese television. With that being said, you're not going to get much at all from your home theater system for the Japanese track. Now for the Dolby TrueHD English 5.1 track, oh my... you will hear the difference.

For "TREE OF MIGHT", you actually hear the forest ambiance as Gohan, Bulma, Oolong and others are going camping. You hear the sounds of the animals around you and especially the fire and the flames burning. I was very impressed by the sound distribution on each speaker channel for "TREE OF MIGHT" and "LORD SLUG". "TREE OF MIGHT" was the film that really surprised me by the amount of sound coming from the rear channels. For a classic film, it was great to hear these two films via Dolby TrueHD.

And although I typically watch a lot of my anime in Japanese, I feel that "DRAGON BALL Z" is one of the best well-casted, well-done English voice dubs for an anime series out there. Each character and their English voice talent do a tremendous job and although having watched "Dragon Ball Z" in Japanese when I was younger, the improved sound quality and very good voice acting for the English dubs has been my preference for viewing the films and TV series.

The digitally remastered high definition 1080p treatment for the film and it's TrueHD audio definitely made these two films much more enjoyable!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Surprisingly there are no special features included on the Blu-ray but there are a good number trailers for a lot of the recent FUNimation DVD releases.

As any "DRAGON BALL Z" fan can expect, you're going to get a lot of action and really awesome battles from these two films.

The earlier "DRAGON BALL Z" films tend to feature the dragon balls being used a lot, Gohan's unknown power and Goku being the person who typically would bring that 1-2 punch. For fans of the TV series, as mentioned earlier, Icarus makes his debut on the third film "TREE OF MIGHT" and so you can see how Gohan and Icarus became very close. The fourth film "LORD SLUG" pretty much answers the question for those wondering if a Saiyan can become a Super Saiyan, can a Namek become a Super Namek? And with "LORD SLUG", the answer is yes.

To watch these films on Blu-ray and to see how the color becomes much more vibrant and again, for a film of its age, nearly 20-years old, it's absolutely beautiful. And the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio and the use of the audio directed to the surround channels were well done. It really enhances your viewing of the two films. So, all in all, great treament by FUNimation for putting these two on Blu-ray, 1080p High Definition and Dolby TrueHD treatment but also giving fans a chance to own these two films for a low price.

Overall, if you are a big fan of the "Dragon Ball Z" series and own a Blu-ray player, then definitely start considering getting these films on Blu-ray! It's well worth it!

In recent years, FUNimation, who has begun to release countless anime titles spanning various genres, has gone back to the franchise that made them big - Dragon Ball Z. They have gone back and begun releasing the series and the films in inexpensive season sets and double features.

The newest double feature is this set, which combines the third and fourth movies of the Z series - Tree of Might and Lord Slug

Tree of Might features the Z-Fighters pitted against a group of space pirates destroying Earth with a tree that sucks the life force out of any planet it is grown on. The fighters go into battle with this new threat, only to find they may be powerless to stop it. If things weren't already bad enough, the leader of the space pirates is a Saiyan - even more powerful and heartless than the two our heroes fought against not so long ago. Through the tree, he aims to grow fruit, which he can eat, and become even more powerful - so powerful that he believes he will be invincible.

Lord Slug features an ancient, mutated evil Namekian coming to earth, hoping to use the Dragon Balls to wish back his youth (a Namek wishing back his youth... haven't we seen this somewhere else before?) He succeeds, and turns the Earth into an icy wasteland. Goku and company must wage war against this new force threatening the planet.

These are two decent movies, though not the best in the series. Tree of Might has some decent battle scenes, but it's basically an hour of everybody getting beat up and Goku coming to the rescue. Yawn. Though Turles is an interesting villain, he doesn't really get the character development he should, and that as a whole makes the story weaker. Lord Slug is a marginal improvement, with better fight scenes and more scenarios that let the whole Z-Team shine - but the story feels plagiarized from the original Dragon Ball's King Piccolo Saga. They're good movies for the Dragon Ball completists, though not the best in the series by any means.

I want to clear something up for some of the confused fans - while these "Double Features" crop the movies, this was always the intention. These movies were made with cropping in mind, so as to fit them on Japanese cinema screens. So you're actually seeing the movies in the aspect ratio Toei intended (this does NOT apply to the cropped Trunks/Bardock set from a few months back, though - those were made for TV, and were indeed cropped without it being the intention.)

Also, for anyone who cares, like the recent series season sets, here you can watch the English dialogue with the Japanese background music. Of course the dub sucks, so do yourself a favor and stick with the original Japanese.

And now for the all-important question - should you get this set if you already own FUNimation's older DVDs of the movies? My answer is no, there just isn't reason enough to replace your older DVDs with this set. Additionally, you can get the older versions of the movie (which have more of the picture on them, as opposed to the Jap theatrical aspect ratio) for VERY cheap from Amazon's independent sellers. But if you can't find the older, cheaper issues, this makes for a fine alternative. You DO get 2 good movies for a good price.

Final verdict? Get it if you're a DBZ fan, but not if you already have older DVDs of the movies.

i've been a fan of dragonball z now for about ten years and after buying these steel book sets of the movies i now own every movie and every episode of dragonball z. i used to buy just about every vhs that came out when i first started watching dragonball z and i'm very impressed with how these newly remastered sets look, as an added bonus they are farely inexpensive. great buy for any and all dragonball z fans.

Love these movies, a simple time in DBZ. If you have blu ray buy these, you wont regret it.

this moive is pretty good i did not like the tree of might but lord slug was great
this company that sell's this moive ship's fast but is good.

my bf and i are really big DBZ fans and we have searched all over stores trying to find these two movies and when i saw it on here i HAD to order it, it came in like 5 days later and we watched the movies and they were awesome! only thing is make sure you go to settings and put it on american music because the japanese music plays if you dont lol

I must say this Bluray transfer of the 2 DBZ films included looks really good even if it is going on 20 years old. The colors are really rich and bright. They cleaned up the animation a lot to. Very smooth lines and very little to no artifacts or blurring. Sound quality was superb on my 5.1 surround. Nothing like hearing Goku get mad in TrueHD Audio. Would have gave this a five star rating except for the fact that the special features on this Bluray are Casper, so to speak.

This is the 2nd and third movie of DBZ. It doesn't really follow the series, but its still a good DBZ movie. Now the picture on the BD version is a tiny bit better than the dvd at the most. The only really reason to get the BD insted of the DVD is the audio is a little better and/or if you are a very sirius Dragonball fan. The reason I give it 5 stars is that it is the best version their is, unless they re animated it which is very unlikly, and the price is not bad for a BD (blu-ray).

The Steelbook collection has been a great thing for me, who has only in the past had access to these movies from old VHS recordings from CN. I have not yet been able to compare these to the Blu-Ray versions, but the quality of picture is still pretty high up there on the DVDs. I also love the ability to watch these with the original Japanese audio, even though it is significantly lower sound quality (Mono).

One additional note for online pruchasers, since the cases are metal they do run the risk of being permanently dented while shipping. While no damage to the discs themselves was incurred, I did receive some of my Steelbooks with minor case damage.

I remember watching these as a kid in the Cantonese dub, and loving it. All these years later I can re-watch them in the original Japanese dubbings and it is still a lot of fun. I found after watching the entire series, that I infinitely enjoyed the movies more than the TV episodes themselves, because they more quickly got to the point and the plot wasn't massively drawn out(something I think they are rectifying in Dragon Ball Kai). These two are no different, but what I liked was the content itself.

What made these two movies stand out was the fact that it didn't just take brawn to beat the villain, it took brains...particularly in the case of Lord Slug. While fun, it gets a little cumbersome to have to watch them just butt heads for about 2 hours when they do so much of that in the series anyways. I appreciated the better use of characters like Piccolo(one of my favorites), when the show itself is usually so centralized on Goku. These two movies are before Goku could turn Super Saiyan, and if you like Vegeta and Trunks, this is before their time. Compared to the other movies like the Broly saga, these movies were more satisfying to watch than just the average Dragon Ball fare.