Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree Of Might
Japanese box art
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 (1990-07-07) 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.

Plot

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.

Setting

It seems to be set sometime after the fight with Vegeta and Nappa, and before Gohan, Bulma, and Krillin left for planet Namek, despite the lack of preparation for leaving. It has to be after the fight with Vegeta and Nappa because Goku is alive, and has use of the kaioken and spirit bomb techniques, and there are appearances from King Kai as well. It has to be before they left for Namek, as Goku doesn't have the ability to become a super saiyan. The confusing part is that Goku uses the Kaioken x10, which he used to deal a significant blow to Frieza, but in his fight against Vegeta, he was only able to use the 3x kaioken. To add to this, Goku is barely a match for Turles, a lower-class saiyan, at the exposition of their fight. Yet, earlier, he was able to take on Vegeta, a super-elite. Additionally, following the fight with Nappa and Vegeta (prior to Goku's arrival), many of the Z fighters were dead (i.e. Tien, Chiaotzu, Yamcha and Piccolo). Because Piccolo was killed by Nappa, the Dragon Balls should have disappeared from Earth. However, they are used in the opening of the movie. This would indicate that the movie takes place after Goku's fight with Frieza and the destruction of Namek. 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

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. It is revealed that the reason they both resemble 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, although his brother, Goten, does. ). During the destruction of Planet Vegeta he was on another mission and therefore was not caught in the fall of the saiyan planet by the hand of Frieza. He then roamed the universe assembling a band of rebels who had terrorized several planets before coming to Earth. Upon arriving he planned to plant the seed of The Tree of Might, capable of taking away the planets energy to supply power to the fruit it grows, able to enhance ones own strength exponentially. 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 gained from The Tree of Might and uses this to kill Turles. In Tenkaichi 2 and 3 he is given an exclusive Oozaru form for the game. Turles's seiyu is Masako Nozawa, Ted Cole in the Ocean Group English dub, Chris Patton in Funimation English dub.

Cast

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

Censorship

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:

• In order to spread time for the movie to be a three-part episode; several scenes from the series were added, such as when the Eternal Dragon is summoned, when Turles, his henchmen, and Piccolo make their first appearances in the film, and most of King Kai's scenes.

• Blood was completely edited out in the movie and the violence was toned down as well. For example, scenes where a character was punched or kicked hard were blocked by flashes of light.

• The scene where Turles forces Gohan to transform into an Oozaru by holding his face and forcing him to keep his eyes open was edited so that Turles held him by his shoulders instead.

• The scene where Turles has his foot on top of Goku was edited so that Goku's face under Turles' foot wasn't shown.

• The scenes where Gohan is nude, following his Oozaru detransformation, were edited so that he was covered up by some means, such as adding extended lighting to the scene where Goku catches Gohan after cutting off his tail or adding a digital bush in front of him during the scene where he is awakened by Icarus. They did, however, forget to remove or censor a shot when Gohan is lying naked in Goku's arms, but it is barely noticeable.

Music

• OP
  1. "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA"
     • Lyrics: Yukinojo Mori, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
       • Song Lyrics

• ED
  1. まるごと (Marugoto, (The Whole World^?)
     • Lyrics: Dai Sato, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama & Ammy
       • Song Lyrics

References

1. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HVWW3K

External links

• Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might at the Internet Movie Database