Could a live action dragon Ball ever conceivably work?

Could a live action dragon Ball ever conceivably work?

absolutely not, it would be 90% CGI anyways. Same with that stupid live action pokemon movie

horrible idea

Trilogy of movies

Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z: The Frieza Saga

Have the first movie star a ~16 year old child actor to play young Goku and adapt the Demon King Piccolo Saga while including aspects of the Pilaf Saga and a light Red Ribbon side plot. Have Piccolo kill Shenron and Chiaotsu (maybe substitute him for Krillen) in the climax and finish it off with Goku blasting through Piccolo as he does in the show. Leave on a happy ending.

Dragon Ball Z takes place 5 years after and adapts the Saiyan saga. Start to hint towards things like Super Saiyans etc. If you have seen the Saiyan Saga, you can probably predict how this movie would go.
I think it's important to emphasize that this movie couldn't possibly be the first in the series. I know people love to pretend this saga is easy to adapt, but without prior knowledge of Piccolo, the Dragon Balls, Gokus tail, etc, a new viewer would be imediatelly lost.

maybe if it were a series that changed pretty much everything. dbz is stupid as fuck. there's nothing to make a movie of.

>Dragon Ball
Probably.
>Z and onward
Hell no.

Finally the final movie, Dragon Ball: The Frieza Saga.

Start with a flashback before the opening credits showing the important information from Bardock Father of Goku. Dont stray on it too long because we really only need to know the basics. Opening shot is Bardock sprinting through the halls to warn everyone that Frieza is going to destroy the planet (at this point dont show who Frieza is). Keep Friezas face hidden when he destroys Planet Vegeta and instead of Bardock having vivid visions of Goku fighting Frieza, instead show a flash of yellow hair, and Bardock seemingly finding comfort before being killed.
After the opening credits, adapt both the Namek Saga and obviously the Frieza Saga with elements and nods from sagas later in the series. Since this is the last in the trilogy, make it as much of a love letter as possible.
Keep the climax close to the original story. The Goku Vs Frieza fight should be the most visually and emotionally intense part of the whole trilogy. The Super Saiyan transformation should be truly amazing and what the whole trilogy has been leading up to.

As for non plot stuff:
Non ki effects should be done by the Jim Henson Creature Shop. Try to keep the trilogies asthetic as close to the source material as possible. Colorful, bright, etc. It's a weird thing to compare it to, but imagine something like the live action Flintstones movie or The Dark Crystal. (Pic related). Really advanced puppetry for most aliens.

Cast everyone as white except Chichi (full Asian), Gohan (half Asian), and Demon King Piccolo (Dwane Johnson).

Maybe tease the Cell Saga after the Frieza credits but never follow up on it. I believe Frieza, SS, and Namek are the perfect spot to end a 3 act trilogy.

shonen live-action will NEVER EVER work

>Dragon Ball Evolution

>Could a live action dragon Ball ever conceivably work?
Nope. I mean, there was a time to do stupid shit like this and that was the 80s and early 90s where you could get away with this goofy shit.

Or the 2000s.

It's possible if the costume designers, writers and graphic designers stay true to their source material.

I always thought of it more or less like you said it.

>Cast everyone as white except Chichi (full Asian), Gohan (half Asian), and Demon King Piccolo (Dwane Johnson).
Fuck off with this though. I want asian sayans, white and asian humans, black nameks. Piccolo should be more classy than Dwayne Johnson for fucks sake.

imagine the traps you'd need to support that fucking mess, christ

I don't remember as many goofy movies in the 00s.

>graphic designers stay true to their source material.
Which is shite to be honest.

asian males are ugly as shit an will make any move flop in the west, no one wants to see them. Just use whites.

February 2000

Yeah of course. As a long TV series.

Saiyans are white though.

Has to be a tv show on Netflix or other prime time HBo/Showtine station

>series based off Dragon ball made in an adventure mystical king fu style similar to enter the Dragon, Big Trouble in little China
>1st season based off Goku meeting Bulma and going on the adventure to find the dragon balls encountering Yamucha, Master Roshi and competing with the Red Ribon army to get the Dragon Balls
>finale is goku transforming and crushing the last of the RR army, Bulma, Rossi and Yaumcha team up with brain and brawn to figure out how to stop Gokus Oozaru rampage
>end scene is Goku and Yamcha going to train with master roshi and finding Krillin waiting at the island to also train
>season 2
>first half of season focuses on the worlds martial arts tournament, establishing Tien, Chaotzu, & turtle hermits rivalry with the Crane school
>Tien barely wins tournament
>2nd half is King Piccolo
>krillin and chaotzu murdered forcing Tien and goku to come together
>finale is Tien and Goku teaming up to end King Piccolo in a similar fashion with goku punching a hole through him and some egg laying
>all the dead wished back at the end
>season 3 opens with Goku approached by Kami to train in preparation for piccolo Jr. Tien is to impure to train with Kami/still an asshole
>early season episodes is training including Tien finding his center
>later and majority of the season episodes is the tournament ending with Goku victorious over JR
>goku gets married to ChIChi

Z obviously comes in later.

Shit writes itself. Just fucking put together a team that loves dragon ball and old mysticism/king fu movies.

Because hollywood always make sure to hire ugly male asians.

Yep.

Netflix series.

Season 1: History of Trunks

Season 2: Androids

Season 3 and Finale: Cell.

Most of the fighting in DBZ is guys flying around faster than you can see and blasting energy at each other.

Live action Dragonball movies might work though.

They keep hiring the same ugly accountant hongkong guy from the dark knight and the ugly guy wong from dr. Strange.

Saiyans are aliens, they should be white

Starting with DB instead of Z is the smart choice. We don’t want another Dune adaptation where the audience is left confused except for the fan base.

Part of the charm is the character designs, that gets lost in live action.

user, Skipping from the end of the King Piccolo Saga straight into the Saiyan Saga completely cuts out the introduction of otherworld, Kami and Kami's lookout, the connection between Piccolo and Kami, and The Tournement where Goku Meets Chi-chi, Tienshenhan defeating Mercenary Tao once and for all, and the climactic battle between him and Piccolo Jr setting him up for the next movie.

Saiyans are clearly white. Universe 6 Saiyans are the Asians.

Which is why they're clearly inferior

Dragon Ball could easily work.
Post Dragon Ball would be basically impossible. Especially since mostly white casts are frowned on now and CGi would have to be groundbreaking work. I think it could be done but every single aspect of the movie would have to be done 100% or else it would fall apart. Casting would probably be the hardest part desu

Holy shit! Your retarded ass is still around!???!

Cast them

Oh man true. I forgot a lot of that came so late in the series.
Maybe condense it. Put some exposition in DB and some in Z where necessary. I don't see why Goku couldn't meet Kami at the beginning of Z instead of the end it DB

Anyone who's ever thought "I wanna see a live action DBZ movie" should probably kill themselves. There is a reason you are not in charge of making movies. Fucking retards.

i can see this working
but in this version they kill goku to stop vegeta and not raditz

Mr. Bigglesworth as beerus

Well played

Black is just whoever plays Goku in a pink wig with a slightly evil tone

>Could a live action dragon Ball ever conceivably work?

Maybe in the early 2000s when the property was still hot and CGI overcompensation wasn't the default for all blockbusters.

In theory it could be done, but I really don't think it'd be practical. The way I see it, you'd need a trilogy for Dragon Ball (Pilaf -> Red Ribbon -> King Piccolo), and then a separate trilogy for DBZ.(Saiyan Saga -> Namek -> Freeza). Dragonball may not have the most complex plot, but its nature as a long-running series means that it's built up quite a bit of lore over the years. It's been mentioned earlier in the thread, but just to understand what's going on in the Saiyan Saga, you'd need to establish the series' afterlife, Kami and Piccolo, ki, the Dragon Balls, etc. If you wanted to do it in any reasonable number of movies, you'd have to change the plot considerably, which I could potentially see working as long as you actually tried to maintain the spirit/feel of the franchise.

Nah, you just need a team that has the balls to actually commit to it. Look at the live action Speed Racer movie. They might not be as stylized as the ones in DB, but the characters in Speed Racer have a very distinctive look that was captured very well because the Wachowskis weren't dead set on keeping the movie "grounded".

Yeah, but most of the characters in the series itself can't even see what the high tier fighters are doing. The action is "slowed down" for the benefit of the viewer, and that seems easy enough to communicate in live action.

Perfect casting. The Rock as Piccolo... Intersting. How do you go around Demon King Piccolo into the Piccolo we all know and love though? I feel like it would be hard to gloss over the tournament where he is introduced.

Kek. I just realized they probably explained who Black is to hope people don't bitch about three Gokus

Much like real life, they win on average. While they will likely never have SSJBs or likely even many 3s, most U6 saiyans likely have the ability to turn SSJ, where as most U7 saiyans who aren't part of Goku or Vegeta's bloodline are weaker than the average frieza solider.

SS3 is a waste anyway. It drains the user in a few minutes and leaves them exhausted. Better to master SS1 - 2.

K now I want it.

>Maybe in the early 2000s when the property was still hot
But DB is still hot

I don't think you guys understand just how muscular the actors would need to be for the casting to be perfect.

For DBZ, you'd need about 20 actors completely roided out of their minds. I'm talking near bodybuilder level. Goku would need to look like Arnie in his prime.

>Goku Vs. SHITren
>Not posting based Toppo instead

>I don't think you guys understand just how muscular the actors would need to be for the casting to be perfect.
That shit was dropped long time ago

...

Everyone is still roided out of their minds during the tournament.
Early Super everyone looked like lanklets.

>current year
>superhero final form is becoming blonde and blue eyed
this is too problematic

>ywn attain Ubermensch Gott Ubermensch form

Poor Freezer

>bragging about destroying planets when literally anyone can do it

>blonde
Blue

>ssb
>final form

>ssb
>good in any way

did he ever won a fight with that form? As stupid as SSG was atleast it managed to impress a god enough to have him not kill everybody

This is pasta, but mostly good. Only thing I would change is Goku’s age in the first movie. He should be like 8, 10 at the oldest.

He beat Golden Freeza in that form, after that all we saw was Goku Black who has a similar form and the no killing tournaments.

Snoop as Beerus.

Yes, but it would have to be changed so much to the point it isn't even Dragon Ball anymore.

Gintama was pretty gud.

>He should be like 8, 10 at the oldest
He was 12-14 in the first episode

yeah but sayians age slower
so he still looked younger than he was

>Asian sayians
WINDOWS
P
E
A
K

But he was built like a kindergartener. An impossibly buff kindergartener.

>starting with DB instead of Z

it's like you people hate money. Nobody wants to see Goku fight the fucking Red Ribbon army or that Carrot Cuck. You start with the Sayian saga.

He wasn't buff in DB

>dragon ball
>failing

brand loyalty is a bitch, even the dragon ball movie that we got made a shit ton of money

Literally impossible. There is no way to do Z without exposition from DB

Yeah he was just stocky.

It has to start with DB to establish the world and lore. People will see it, like they will see anything DB related.

Also RR Army is kino.

If you have never watched the show or read the manga, you’ll have no idea of what the fuck is going on. Granted, they make a joke about that in the movie so whatever.

King piccolo onward is basically just dragon ball z. Hell, the second tournament arc with Tien is, too

Has anyone seen Hero or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon ?

I think DB could be filmed like those. DBZ is a clusterfuck that cannot be adapted though.

It's easy to do DBZ without DB. Here in America, most people didn't see the original. I can't see why people would need to see DB movies to understand the Sayian saga. Dangerous Aliens come to earth and challenge the world's strongest martial artists.

It would be fucking kino

I didn't get who the fuck Goku was or why this green man seemed to be his rival.
Like half the story is missing.

I watched it because I was 10 and had never seen anime before.

yeah the fact that nobody knew dragon ball before hand was the main reason they made goku into a asshole version of superman in the dub

Three Gokus?

Goku even said Vegetas SS2 was as strong as SS3. Goku has more ki to expend in a short time but if he makes a mistake(kinda like kaioken) he is fucked. If I was Goku I would never leave SS3 to build stamina for it like he did with SS