How Dragonball Evolution, Hollywood’s worst ever manga adaptation, made a mockery of Akira Toriyama’s iconic series

The 2009 movie adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga was made on a shoestring, despite Jackie Chan warning the special effects required a huge budget

Laughable CGI and writing abounded in this whitewashed film that left fans of the Japanese manga confused, and those involved feeling the need to apologise

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Justin Chatwin and Emmy Rossum in Dragonball Evolution, the laughably bad 2009 movie adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s iconic Dragon Ball manga series.

Matt Glasby

Published: 4:15am, 11 May 2024Updated: 5:38am, 11 May 2024

In the 2000s, Hollywood studios decided there was money to be made from manga. But not only were they awfully late to the party, the results were uniformly terrible.

From the Wachowskis’ Technicolor car crash Speed Racer (2008) to M. Night Shyamalan’s manga-influenced clanger The Last Airbender (2010), the films upset diehard fans, casual viewers and critics alike.

Yet only Dragonball Evolution (2009) was so bad that those involved felt the need to apologise.

Beginning in 1984 and expanding to include television series, toys and anime, Akira Toriyama’s all-conquering manga franchise (styled Dragon Ball) was loosely inspired by the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. It followed the adventures of Son Goku, a monkey-tailed martial artist.

Dragonball: Evolution | Trailer | 20th Century FOX

When asked who he envisioned in the role in 2013, Toriyama said, “If it were back when Jackie Chan was still young, I suppose I would have thought nobody could play Goku but him.”