Dragonball Evolution Script Review

WARNING: The following review/preview contains MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS. It is based on a late script draft of the film, but NOT the absolute final version. A few changes were made to later drafts but most of what is said will be in the movie. A few additions, apparently, will also be added to the script increasing its page length.

PART 1: HIGH SCHOOL
(the following is not word for word for legal reasons)

From the very first page the evolution is clear. The script starts off with Grandpa Gohan training Goku on the laundry lines like it was shown in the trailer. What is not shown in the trailer is Grandpa Gohan teaching Goku about Ki after using it against him while training. “Your ki is your best defense and your greatest weapon,” he explains. “Can you feel it? It’s all around you. The energy of life. Gather it. Focus the power.” Goku tries but unsuccessfully focuses his ki.

“Someday, I’ll beat you,” he says. Grandpa Gohan then responds humorously (our first glimpse of humor), “Yes, it will be something to tell your friends. Beating a seventy year old man.”

This Dragonball-esque exchange then makes way for something exclusive to the movie: high school student Goku. Luckily, we don’t get much of it.

“What friends?” he replies. “I don’t fit into any group.”
“You’re special, Goku,” Gohan explains.
“Sometimes… they push me so far I want to explode. I could tear them apart with one hand.”
“I don’t train you to fight with boys.”
“Then why am I doing this? Teach me something useful. Teach me how to be normal.”
“You have to have faith in who you are.”

This surprising exchange for Dragonball fans quickly turns into something familiar.

Gohan tries to cheer Goku up. “Happy birthday. Thought I forgot?” He reaches into his pocket and hands him a package.

Goku smiles then eagerly tears open the small brown paper wrapped present.

“Suushinchu is yours.”
“What is it?” Goku says intrigued.
“It’s a Dragon Ball.”

He then goes on to explain a little bit about it. It’s explained basically like the anime. 7 Dragon Balls, when gathered together, will summon Shen Long the Dragon God and he will grant you the perfect wish. “Thanks Grandpa,” Goku nods, honoring Gohan.

“After school we celebrate. I’ll cook all your favorites!”

The school scenes. They are, in actuality, not that bad. The rumors circulating this part of the movie have been greatly exaggerated. It really only exists to showcase Goku’s difference. It is also home to the first glimpse of the Oozaru (granted, all that happens is his eyes turn red, but it’s foreshadowing to the rest of the movie).

It starts off with Goku riding his scooter through the parking lot, weaving his way through traffic, showing part of his power. This doesn’t last long when two bullies squeeze into a parking spot with their car and crush Goku’s bike while he barely manages to dive out of the way.

The following is a simplified version of the exchange:

“Hey! you just wrecked my bike! You’re gonna pay for that.”

The camera drops down to Goku’s fist. He squeezes it in anger.

“You start it, I’ll end it,” Fuller mocks.

Goku holds back punching the bully, knowing he’s not allowed to fight.

“Nothing. I knew it. There better not be a scratch on my car from your piece of shit.”

They leave. Goku drops his head swallowing his anger. The camera pushes in on his rage, his eyes appear darker and tinged with red. The class bell rings snapping him out of his daze.

When everyone in the parking lot is gone, Goku takes a breath and gathers his strength. He secures his grip on the car and lifts it. He is trying to get the bike. A high-tech car alarm goes off so Goku leaves the scene.

There is only one scene of actual classes, and Goku is anything but smart. The whole time he appears bored, uninterested and the one question he is asked he answers in a very stupid way.

The entire class is about the solar eclipse, which is foreshadowing to later parts of the movie. It’s not a terrible scene, just not very Dragonball-esque. But, after all, we all kind of knew the high school scenes would be different from the anime.

Luckily, though, Goku acts like I think a modern Goku would act throughout these scenes. He daydreams at one point about being in a meadow full of juicy strawberries and Chi-Chi is there and they are happy together. Yeah, obviously there’s gotta be a romance. It isn’t very cliche, though.

There’s a couple good lines from Goku in this scene but I won’t spoil them.

Class is over after a very short amount of time.

Goku sees Chi-Chi in the hallways struggling to get her locker open. He focuses his energy into a very small ki blast to try and open the locker, but he’s shocked to find out his small little push of ki knocked over every single locker in the hallway. “Oops.”

Chi-Chi looks over. “Did you do that?”
“Uh yeah. It was something my Grandpa taught me.”
“Ki?”
Shocked, he says, “You know about ki?”
“Just because my name is Chi-Chi doesn’t mean I’m an idiot.”

Chi-Chi invites Goku to a party at her house, ending the high school parts for good. It lasted about 12 or 13 pages but since there’s a few key scenes that take time to explain (the Oozaru daze for instance) it could translate into 15 minutes on screen.

What comes next is our introduction to Piccolo and the death of a major character. The real movie begins.

I really want to stress the high school scenes do not represent the other pages. It’s almost like a completely different movie tacked on to get mainstream audiences hooked. They handle it way better than “Transformers” did, I think, because it actually fits in with the story somewhat. It has foreshadowing. Glimpses of his power. Humor. Corny at times, but it’s a small price to pay, and maybe they changed some of the corny lines in a later draft. I will keep you updated if and when I know if any changes happen to the high school scenes.

Oh, and just to clarify one thing:

Weaver is not Krillin. He has 1 line. He’s not even a real character and he’s not even friends with Goku in this draft. Even the actor himself has said he was only on set for one day, and I’m guessing for only an hour or two. He has maybe 20 seconds of screen time.

PART 2: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
(the following is not word for word for legal reasons)

Gohan stands in front of a gigantic blazing wok as he cooks Goku’s feast.

Gohan yells for Goku: “I got fresh chicken feet! Couldn’t find good swallow’s tongue. You want those with or without the heads!?” He continues to cook disgusting things which is quite comical.

Goku gets ready for Chi-Chis party. His hair is sticking up like spikes. He grabs a bottle of hair gel and squeezes out a huge gob of gel and applies it. The hair springs back up like a porcupine’s spikes. He gives up on his hair and then leaves for the party.

Grandpa Gohan lights the last candle on the birthday cake. “Goku… happy birthday! Life is short, we eat dessert first!” But Goku has left.

Goku drops from the second story to the ground. He looks at Gohan holding the cake through a window. He considers. But he continues on.

At the party, music is blaring and cars start to pull in. Goku walks up.

This is just the typical bully scene that has to happen in pretty near every superhero movie. I don’t particularly like it, but I’ll wait and see how it plays out in the film. It really depends on the acting and directing.

Agundus, a bully, notices Goku: “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for the party,” Goku replies.

A bunch of bullies walk up joining Agundus.

“I was invited. I’m not looking for any trouble.”

Agundus retorts with “Turn around and walk away and no one will ever know you were here.”

Goku sighs. He turns back to the bullies.

“I’m not doing that anymore.”

The bullies get pissed.

“I made a promise I wouldn’t fight.”

A very comical Stephen Chow-esque fight happens next. The bullies actually attack Goku but he doesn’t attack back. He just dodges their punches and kicks, and the bullies hit each other by mistake.

“Missed.”
“Missed again.”

Some slow-mo shots. I don’t really want to describe all the action, but it sounds cool.

Eventually, all the bullies are on the ground, beat up by themselves. Carey Fuller walks out of the house and notices his friends beaten.

He comes at Goku with a pole but Goku uses the windshield of Carey Fuller’s car as his defense. Carey smashes his car trying to hit Goku. But eventually Goku wins this “fight” effortlessly.

Meanwhile, back at Grandpa Gohan’s house…

Gohan sits in the middle of the living area. His body is folded lotus style. Meditating.

There is an ominous force outside of the home. Gohan is waiting for Goku to return. He calls out his name, “Goku?”

The door bursts open revealing Mai. Like in the trailer, Mai throws half a dozen shuriken knives toward Gohan. Gohan picks up the bow staff as it becomes a blur in his hands. He deflects every single shuriken.

Directly from the script:

From behind Mai, another form appears. LORD PICCOLO moves out of the shadows into the room. His face is lined with bitterness and pain, but his travails have not diminished his awesome power.

CAMERA PUSHES IN on Gohan as a terrifying realization builds. Piccolo stares at the old man. He slowly shakes his head.

LORD PICCOLO
It’s not here. . .

CLOSE - PICCOLO’S HAND

The powerful fingers curl, closing…

GOHAN

CAMERA PUSHES IN on the old man, ready for battle. Suddenly, the house begins to shake.

Gohan drops to his knees, his body strains like he’s fighting an invisible force. Piccolo and Mai walk out of the house and Lord Piccolo clenches his fist and as if a powerful force had crushed it in the palm of its hand, the house collapses.

They walk toward the camera as the house implodes into a pile of rubble. MEANWHILE, at the party…

Goku is alone with Chi-Chi. They both talk about martial arts and they share a connection together or something. I really ignored this part. Chi-Chi leans in for a kiss, and Goku smiles. But suddenly, he leans back.

Goku breaks the moment, “Something’s wrong.”

He backs away from her.

“Something is wrong with my Grandpa.”
“What?”

He leaves the party and returns home. Goku runs up to the broken house in shock. “Grandpa!!!” Without worrying about his safety, he rushes into what’s left of the house.

He crawls along the floor making his way through the destruction. Gohan is hidden under trashed furniture. Goku throws the furniture back with great force.

Goku carries Gohan to their peaceful garden. “Grandpa, I’m getting help.” Gohan urges him to stay where he is, as “not much time is left.”

Goku apologizes for everything in a heartfelt scene, and he asks who did this. “Piccolo… Piccolo has returned.”

He looks into Goku’s eyes. “Suushinchu… is it safe?”

Goku takes the Dragon Ball out of his pocket and shows it to Gohan. The stars within the Dragon Ball begin to glow.

Goku has a vision. A quick series of shots. An asteroid totally engulfed in flame enters the Earth’s atmosphere. It burrows into the ground. In the cracked burning rock, a MONSTROUS RED EYE opens.

Startled by the images, Goku drops the dragon ball.

“Find Master Roshi… in Paozu… tell him Piccolo has returned. He will know what to do…”

His lungs fill with fluid and he breaks out into coughs.

As he comes closer to death, “Seven Dragon Balls must be found… for all man’s fate… will be bound… to battle forces of death… and compel Shen Long… to appear.”

“Grandpa, stop. You have to rest…”

Gohan looks into Goku’s eyes for the last time. “You must find the Dragon Balls before the eclipse. I’m sorry I cannot join you on this journey. Remember… always have faith in who you are.”

Gohan dies and it cuts to morning.

Another heartfelt scene occurs with Goku standing above Gohan’s grave with a special kind of tree he planted to “nourish life amongst the dead.”

Let’s fast forward to Gohan’s room. Goku finds an old, iron chest at the foot of Gohan’s bed. He opens it up to find a pristine orange gi. The trademark gi from the anime.

He pulls it out of the chest and touches the material as if connecting with his grand father again. He puts the gi back in the chest. He hears a noise in the house.

On the ground floor, Goku can feel a figure stalking him. He moves fast, trying to contain his rage.

Goku runs through the house until a bright red dot suddenly appears on his forehead. A futuristic pistol is followed by none other than Bulma!

“Where’s my Dragon Ball?” she says to Goku.

Without an ounce of fear, he confronts her.

“Are you Piccolo?”
“Just answer my question. I know it’s here.”

Goku is intensely confused.

“Did you kill my Grandfather?”
“Listen idiot, if I was a “Piccolo,” whatever that is, I wouldn’t tell you. And if I killed your Grandfather, I would have shot you by now. Somebody stole my Dragon Ball and I’m here to get it back.”

Bulma pulls out the Dragonball Energy Locator (Dragon Radar in the anime). It beeps and blinks wildly.