Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure

For Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series, the set of films to be released during its run hasn't been the best. Curse of the Blood Rubies (1986) was more or less a summation of the first season despite it leaving out some key elements. Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle (1987) was more of a recap of the first few episodes of the second season. So to expect this film to follow any kind of order for the third round would be improper. This third film was released towards the end of the eighth season. With that said, the alignment of how this story sits is going to be all kinds of jumbled parts thrown together. Is it better than the others before it? That's debatable as there are parts that still don't make a lot of sense.

The story is like the other films where the characters known from the show are in an alternate timeline. This time Chiaotzu (Monika Antonelli), Tien's (John Burgmeier) loyal companion now acts as an emperor. Tien, Mercenary Tao (Kent Williams) and Master Shen (Chuck Huber) serve under his wing. Their goal is to locate all dragon balls so they can find Chiaotzu's long lost wife. Meanwhile, Bulma (Tiffany Vollmer), Yamcha (Chris Sabat), Krillin (Laurie Steele) and Goku (Ceyli Delgadillo) are working to collect the dragon balls too. Along their travels they encounter Upa (Kara Edwards) and his father Bora (Dameon Clarke). Together they help Goku and friends to help collect the mystical items to help make their wish come true. Directing this feature goes to Kazuhisa Takenouchi who has also worked on the show and the Sailor Moon series.

Writing the original script for Japan goes to Yoshifumi Yûki who also wrote for the previous two films as well as two Dr. Slump movies originally created by Akira Toriyama. Working on the English version of the script is Neil Bligh who also worked on Curse of the Blood Rubies (1986). From an English dub cast perspective, the people attached are the preferred among many. All actors listed are the ones who voiced their characters throughout the series, that is except for one. Again as to why Stephanie Nadolny was unavailable considering she voiced Goku in the show doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Ceyli Delgadillo who also played Goku's voice in the previous film Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle (1987) just doesn't cut it. From a storytelling angle the amount of coverage this movie tries to cover is too way long a span.

There is no consistency as to how the stories are being readjusted. Curse of the Blood Rubies (1986) seemed like it had an idea by condensing a season into one movie. Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle (1987) didn't even try for the whole season two. The story here is now trying to cover everything that happened from season three to season eight. That's a lot to cram in and the bulk of it really covers parts of season four, five and seven. Making things even more random is that Arale from Dr. Slump appears in this movie as an easter egg so to speak. The inclusion of the character is played just as a comic relief foil to Mercenary Tao. Obviously it was put there for a reason but it wasn't necessary.

Visually speaking, the animation looks as good as always. Although every decade has its moments of strangeness and wonkiness, anime in the 80s and 90s are quite appealing. Also as expected this movie has Motoaki Ikegami as the credited cinematographer. The question of why, remains to be answered. Motoaki Ikegami also did the same for work for the last two films. Lastly the music once again supplied by the talented Shunsuke Kikuchi knows no faults. The music seamlessly blends with the scenes show on screen and it's all fun to watch and listen. This is also one the rare cases where themes from the show are recycled in for the feature bears no issue. It's not always a good thing but Kikuchi's music really doesn't need a substitute for the work.

The look of the film, the sound and majority of the US voice acting are now where they should be. Yet the actor for Goku still couldn't be nabbed. Additionally, the writing to this feature is just very bloated with multiple scenes and characters that are trying to recap highlights fans remember from the show.