Customer Reviews

Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's tough to review movies because you don't want to give away too many details. But at the same time, with Dragonball Z movies, they all seem to follow the same pattern (A *monster* comes or is formed, is dealt with, then powers up to a level beyond the heroes, but the heroes somehow band together and find a way to win, etc.) anyway. This one to me was one of the best DBZ movies. In a nutshell, the movie's about a mistake taking place in the underworld by a bit of a slacker that has dire consequences, bringing the dead back to life while combining loads of negative energy into one being named Janemba (or Janempa - can't remember which form was the fat one vs. the sleek one). After the fat one is dealt with, the sleek one's more than a match for the powered up Goku and Vegeta sucker punches the villian to save his life, etc. etc. (you've seen it before). This time, Fusion's the only thing that may be able to save the day. It was interesting though - you even get to see Freiza & the Ginyu force come back to life in this one, along with another movie villain (albeit briefly... if you blink you miss it) - Bojack and some of his minions.

This movie lines up with the Buu saga and as such, some of the same concepts take place (Fusion, Saiyaman, etc.) So you know what relative power the villain would have - although this one had a sort of teleportation power that was pretty neat, and that it would take a Fusion of Goku and Vegeta to stand a chance. The action was pretty good and I really liked how unlike previous movies, this time the powered up villian didn't spend 50% of the movie beating up the heroes and Goku/Vegeta got a few shots in - leads more to the imagination - I liked that Goku did somewhat okay against the monster before the sword was deployed.

There were a few negatives though to the movie. As for the movie, I wish they didn't worry so much about time, as they couldn't done a few more interesting things with Freiza coming back or Cell or whoever. 2, I like how funimation does voice-overs. But in this movie in particular, they changed the dialogue a bit too much from the original japanese version. You can tell in the end of the movie - the Japanese/American version had Trunks/Goten joking about completely different things. And then at the end of Fusion, the dialogue between Goku/Vegeta, which wasn't fitting to Vegeta's personality. Throughout the argument with Goku/Vegeta - the USA version took away from Vegeta's dejection, eliminating a pretty important piece of their relationship which would eventually close the series, let alone when Janempa's sword crumbled and why (which stems from that). Finally, funimation did a pretty lousy job at distributing this to outlets.

Still, it's a good movie that I definitely recommend for any and all Dragonball Z fans - maybe the very best (not sure if there's another one left), and Funimation was smart to include the Japanese version. Check it out!

I've looked through the other reviews for this movie and I can't help but be disappointed. This movie owns. Since I watched the english-subtitled version two years before I've been dying to get my hands on this movie in english and even though there are a few script changes, I was thoroughly satisfied with the outcome. As for the Bojack thing. If you pay very close attention you will see most of the villans from the series and previous 11 movies fly up. Including the Ginyu force, cell, buu, Lord Slug in his basic form and his goons, Cooler in his basic form, and even Broly in his basic form(far right). If you like the movie in English, I recommend watching the Japanese version in English Subtitles. While you'll be laughing for the first ten minutes because of Goku's high japanese voice, the final attack scene is like a boost of NOS. Beginning with the quote "I am not Goku, nor Vegeta, I am the instrument of your defeat."

Many DBZ are pretty boring, far inferior to the anime and manga. Fusion Reborn is far from this. It is quite possibly the best DBZ movie. A great plot, an epic fight, and some very funny lines.

Story: 5/5
Most DBZ movies have weak plots, but Fusion Reborn's story is well worked out. After the soul clensing machine breaks, the gates of hell open to the real world, and while Gohan, Trunks and Goten fight old enemies on earth, Goku faces off against a monster named Janemba who seems innocent at first, but is deadly.

Animation: 5/5
It looks better than most DBZ movies. The best thing about the animation is the differention between the real world and the other world. When you see Goku and Vegeta fighting Janemba, its classic anime. While Goten and Trunks face off against a cartoon Hitler, it looks like an american cartoon, and is fun to watch.

Music: 5/5
The music for both the dub and original japanese is good as always.

Sound: 4/5
While the english dub sounds great in stereo or 5.1 surround, the Japanese remains in Mono. This should be in stereo at the very least.

Dub: 4/5
No FUNI dub is perfect, but the Fusion Reborn dub is very close to perfection. The script, while it deviates from the original Japanese sometimes, is mostly accurate and achieves humor. Much of the humor tried in previous movies has been lame, but I laughed quite a few times during this movie. Sean Schemell's Goku and Christopher Sabat's Vegeta play off each other better than ever.

Ending: 4.5/5
The ending of a DBZ mvoie is usualy sub-par, like Goku beating Broly with a wimp punch. But the movie builds up to the ending cclimax throughout, and its great to see. My only gripe with the ending is that once Goku and Vegeta become Gogeta, the fight is pretty much over, and could have been longer.

DVD: 4/5
Like I said earlier, the lack of a Japanese stereo track is missed on the DVD, but the 5.1 english sounds incredible. THe movie looks good, and has accurate subtitles. I do wish we could get some more extras than just some character profiles.

Overall: 5/5
A truly great DBZ movie. Love it.

OK, I am completely baffled by all the positive reviews on this. This has to be one of the worst DBZ movies. Ever. I won't rehash the story but focus on my major gripe: screentime. We all know that the "cool" part of anything DBZ is where Goku & Co hit some new power level. Now, we've seen Gogeta before, but never as a result of the fusion dance, so we'll consider that the "new power level" here. OK, out of 50 minutes, how much time to do you think is given to SSJ2 Gogeta? About 30 seconds. I'm dead serious about this. Pikon screaming insults at a big yellow bubble enveloping Grand Kai's palace gets more time than Gogeta. In fact, the failed fusion of Goku and Vegeta (Vekku) gets more time than SSJ3 Goku and Gogeta combined. If you like a fat, failed fusion running around farting, then this is for you. Otherwise, this is the worst ever. The first 25 minutes is devoted to a fast, silly development of the story. The last 20 minutes (aside from some solid SSJ3 action for a few minutes) are devoted to the build-up to Gogeta. The fusion happens (after 5 minutes of Vekku running around) and then Gogeta multi-punches the bad guy once, knees him, kicks him, shoots him with rainbow energy and then watches him dissolve. Then queue everyone else happy about how it turned out and roll credits. Just. Terrible. I honestly can't understand how this is 4.5 stars unless the mere presence of Gogeta automatically = 5 stars for most people. Avoid this one like the plague (and if you MUST see it, rent it for sure).

PS This only gets the single star because the SSJ3 action is solid (about 3 minutes). It's the most enjoyable part of the movie after the huge letdown that is Gogeta's blink-and-you-miss-it appearance. Otherwise, it'd be zero stars.

Yes it's me the guy who saw it in theaters. About the movie it rocked it was full of mega viloince,blood,crude humor,and action! But I was tierd after beacuse the movie started at 10:10 and we came out at 12:37AM(Beacuse reaturn of cooler was with it) I don't want to spoil to much but anyway the best fight was when gogeta fights janemba.

this was a great movie but gogeta isnt in the movie for more than 40 seconds that is th only bad thing this is a totally awesome movie for dbz fans of all kinds

I love this dbz movie. It has good action in it, but also really funny situations, like goku trying to get vegeta to fuse with him, and other awsome parts. But of course funimation's overdubs aren't as good as the original, i recomend you set the audio to japanese with subtitles.

I love this one. Maybe because it has gogeta in it or veku but its really good. I wish they had the fight with gogeta a little longer and showed more of his abilities. Other than that it was a really good movie, if only it was longer..

Ok I rented the uncut and it was awsome!
Basically its about I guy in the underworld whogot in-fused with evil energy thus creating Janemba!Goku and Vegeta make Super Gogeta and its totally radical!Buy it,rent it.Whatever just watch.

Yea like the title says, this movie does a good job of building up the intesity in the beginning of the movie. It also does a good job of keeping everybody in action instead of just sitting there and stating the obvious like always. There were two parts in the story that were a huge huge letdown though. When Frieza comes up and starts calling out Gohan, and Gohan kills him just like that. I was really looking forward to seeing a good and challenging fight between Frieza and Gohan and it would've definetaly been a good touch to the movie. The second letdown was the ending. So far, of all the DBZ movies I've seen they all end the same. The climax builds up and up and up and up, and im guessing it builds up too high because the enemy is always beaten by a single blow. We need a little barbaric violence here, i mean u know its a monkey...and monkyes dont hold back, TRUST ME. But all in all the movie is pretty good, so i would definetaly recommend this movie to any DBZ fan out there...ENJOY!