DragonBall
Z Movie # 3
"Chikyû
Marugoto Chô-Kessen"
("Super Deciding Battle
for the Entire Planet Earth")
"The
Tree of Might"
Basic
Synopsis
Oolong,
Kuririn, Bulma, and young Gohan are on a camping
trip when a spy satellite crashes into the forest
and starts a raging fire. Kuririn and Gohan battle
to put out the blaze, then gather the Dragon Balls
to wish for the forest to be restored. One of the
animals they save is "Haiya Dragon,"
who follows Gohan home to become his pet. The two
of them (and Goku) play together and have a lot
of fun, but Chi-Chi wants the dragon sent back to
its mountain so it'll stop disrupting Gohan's studies.
Meanwhile,
a Saiyan fighter, Tullece, and his minions are scouting
Earth to locate Kakarrot. Tullece wants Kakarrot
and/or Gohan to join him to go trash planets (Tullece
is presumably still working under Freeza at this
point, although comments from him and his crew lead
us to believe they're ready to rebel against Freeza,
just as Bardock and King Vegeta had done... and
failed). The minions plant a seed for an energy-eating
tree ("Shinseijû," or "Tree
of Godly Might," which is described by Kaiô-sama as a tree that bears fruits for the gods) near the
restored forest -- Tullece plans on eating the fruit
of the tree to get a "power up." The tree
grows quickly and threatens to destroy Earth. Kaio-sama
alerts Goku to the danger, and everyone (Chi-Chi
prevents Gohan from joining in, but Haiya
Dragon kidnaps the boy to take him to the battle)
goes to fight Tullece. Piccolo joins in to save Gohan,
but the demon still plans on killing Goku later
on. Goku denies his Saiyan heritage, claiming that
he's happy to have been hit on the head as a child,
rather than growing up to be like Tullece. There's
a major battle, and Goku uses a Genki Dama to kill
Tullece and destroy the tree. Afterwards, the Genki
Dama breaks up, and the lifeforce energy repairs
the damage from the tree.
[
paraphrased
synopsis courtesy Curtis Hoffman's movie descriptions
]
Special
Notes
DBZ
Movie Three is the only time in a DBZ movie where
the opening theme ("CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA")
had completely new animation produced for it. It
showcases the DragonBall gang searching for the
Dragon Balls and gathering them together.
This movie had a very special release in North
America. It originally premiered on television during
season two of the dub's original run in syndication.
When dub episode # 35 ("Immortality Denied")
ended, we all presumed that the next regular episode
would follow it (during season two's original run,
DBZ was on for a full hour in the morning: two episodes,
one after another). What happened, however, was
the premiere of DBZ movie three, which was split
into three parts (part one played 15 November 1997,
while parts two and three played the following week,
22 November). No indication was made that the movie
was a special presentation, not part of the regular
continuity... even that it was a movie!
This
original dub of the movie was held up to the same
"standards" as the TV series at the time,
being distributed by Saban Entertainment. Dialogue
was heavily censored (and often completely changed), visuals
(such as Tullece holding Gohan's eyes open so he could see the light of the Power Ball) were digitally edited out
or covered up, etc. The Ocean Group was still being
used at this point, and the movie marked the last
time fans would hear Ian Corlett voice Goku (as
well as Kame-Sen'nin).
When
FUNimation began the dubbing of the DBZ movies in
1997, this movie was completely redubbed, and was
released both dubbed and subtitled on VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD à la Movies
One and Two. This version was completely uncut, and featured a very accurate dub script, and even the original music score.
Peter Kelamis took over as
Goku (as he had done in the TV series as well), and Dave
Ward took over to voice Kame-Sen'nin. A new voice
was heard for Oolong, as well, but other than these
changes, the entire Ocean Group cast remained as-is
(for the first two movies, as well). Note that this
movie was released BEFORE Movie Two in North America,
for some reason, but it is indeed Movie Three.
Release
/ General Information
| Japanese
Premiere Date: |
7
July 1990 |
| Japanese
Premiere Location: |
Toei
Anime Fair; Akira Toriyama - The World |
| Japanese
Availability: |
VHS
LaserDisc |
| Domestic
Broadcast Dates: |
15
November 1997 (Part 1)
22 November 1997 (Parts 2 + 3) |
| Domestic
Release Date: |
17
March 1998 |
| Domestic
Availability: |
VHS
(English Dubbed, Uncut)
VHS (Japanese Lan., English Subtitled, Uncut)
LaserDisc (Hybrid English / Japanese, Uncut)
DVD (Hybrid English / Japanese, Uncut) |
| Opening
Theme : |
"CHA-LA
HEAD-CHA-LA"
[ Lyrics
] |
| Ending
Theme: |
"Marugoto"
("The Whole World")
[ Lyrics
] |
Main
Staff
| Executive
Producer: |
Chiaki
Imada
Tamio Kojima (Shueisha) |
| Original
Story: |
Akira
Toriyama (Weekly Shônen Jump Serialization) |
| Planning: |
Kôzo
Morishita
Kenji Shimizu (Fuji TV)
Weekly Shônen Jump |
| Production
Supervisor: |
Kazumasa
Horikawa
Matsuji Kishimoto |
| Screenplay: |
Takao
Koyama |
| Background
Music: |
Shunsuke
Kikuchi |
| Art
Direction: |
Yûji
Ikeda |
| Animation
Director |
Minoru
Maeda |
| Director: |
Daisuke
Nishio |
Principal
Cast
