Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might

Dragon Ball Z the Movie: The Tree Of Might
Japanese box art
Directed by	Daisuke Nishio
Screenplay by	Takao Koyama
Based on	Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
Starring	See below
Cinematography	Motoaki Ikegami
Edited by	Shinichi Fukumitsu
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Production company	Toei Animation
Distributed by	Toei Company
Release date	July 7, 1990 (1990-07-07) (Japan)
Running time	65 minutes
Country	Japan
Box office	¥2 billion (est.)

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, also known by its Japanese title Dragon Ball Z: The Decisive Battle for the Whole Earth (Japanese: ドラゴンボールZ 地球まるごと超決戦, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Zetto: Chikyū Marugoto Chōkessen) or Toei's own English title Super Battle in the World, is a 1990 Japanese anime science fantasy martial arts film and the third Dragon Ball Z feature film. It was originally released in Japan on July 7 between episodes 54 and 55 of DBZ, at the "Toei Anime Fair" film festival, where it was shown as part of an Akira Toriyama-themed triple feature titled Toriyama Akira: The World (the other two films were anime versions of his one-shot stories Kennosuke-sama and Pink).

Plot[]

A forest fire interrupts a camping trip enjoyed by Gohan, Krillin, Bulma and Oolong. Gohan and Krillin manage to put out the fire and use the Dragon Balls to restore the forest and the animals that were killed by the inferno, and Gohan befriends a small dragon he names Icarus. Unbeknownst to the group, the fire was started by a probe sent by a Saiyan space pirate named Turles who has chosen the Earth to plant the Tree of Might which absorbs the life of a planet and converts it into fruit that when eaten, gives the consumer a massive power increase. Turles' henchmen plant the seed and King Kai telepathically warns Goku of the danger. He, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, and Chiaotzu attempt to destroy the tree using energy blasts but fail and Turles' henchmen attack and overwhelm them. The Earth begins to feel the devastation of the tree's life absorption as water vanishes and plants and animals begin to perish.

Turles confronts Gohan after he realizes the child is part Saiyan and deduces that he is Goku's son, who he states is from the same class of Saiyan warrior and thus explains their strikingly similar appearances. Gohan impresses Turles with his power level and is invited to join his conquest but he refuses and attempts to fight Turles before Piccolo intervenes to rescue him. Turles forces Piccolo to protect Gohan and the Namekian is dispatched. Turles creates an artificial moon and forces Gohan to observe it, causing him to transform into a massive Great Ape, who attacks Goku but is calmed by the appearance of Icarus. Turles injures Icarus with an energy blast causing Gohan to go into a frenzy before Goku severs his son's tail with an energy disc, transforming him back to normal and saving him from Turles' incoming energy blasts. Goku kills Turles' henchmen and engages his evil doppelganger in battle.

Goku bests Turles until he obtains a fully grown piece of fruit from the Tree of Might and consumes it. With the sudden surge of power, Turles overwhelms Goku until his allies come to his aid. As they fight Turles, Goku begins to form a Spirit Bomb, but the Earth, having been drained by the Tree of Might, does not have the energy left to properly fuel Goku's bomb which Turles destroys. However, the energy from the Tree of Might begins to flows into Goku and this allows him to create another, more powerful Spirit Bomb. Goku's new Spirit Bomb ultimately kills Turles and destroys the Tree of Might. The Earth begins to heal as the heroes celebrate their victory.

Cast[]

Music[]

• OP (Opening Theme):
  • "Cha-La Head-Cha-La"
    • Lyrics by Yukinojō Mori
    • Music by Chiho Kiyooka
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Hironobu Kageyama
• ED (Ending Theme):
  • Marugoto (まるごと, "The Whole World")
    • Lyrics by Dai Satō
    • Music by Chiho Kiyooka
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Hironobu Kageyama ft. Ammy

Both songs were included on the 1990 compilation Akira Toriyama: The World.

English dub soundtracks[]

1997[]

• OP (Opening Theme):
  • "Rock the Dragon"
    • Performed by Jeremy Sweet^[2]
• ED (Ending Theme):
  • "End Title"
    • Performed by Jeremy Sweet^[2]

The score for the 1997 Saban TV version was composed by Ron Wasserman (although credited to Kussa Mahehi and Shuki Levy for contractual reasons).^[3] The background music and opening theme "Rock the Dragon" were recycled from his Saiyan / Namek Saga dub soundtrack.

2006[]

• OP (Opening Theme):
  • "Dragon Ball Z Movie Theme"
    • Performed by Mark Menza
• ED (Ending Theme):
  • "Dragon Ball Z Movie Theme"
    • Performed by Mark Menza

The score for the 2006 English dub's composed by Nathan Johnson. The Double Feature release contains an alternate audio track containing the English dub with original Japanese background music by Shunsuke Kikuchi and an ending theme of Marugoto.

The 1998 Pioneer release, 2003 AB Groupe dub and Speedy Video dub all kept the original Japanese songs and background music.

Reception[]

Box office[]

At the Japanese box office, the film sold 2.2 million tickets and earned a net distribution rental income of ¥800 million,^[4][5] equivalent to estimated gross receipts of approximately ¥2 billion^[6] ($15 million).^[7]

Content edits[]

The title card used for Saban's three "The Tree of Might" TV episodes from 1997.

Funimation's first dub of The Tree of Might done in association with Saban Entertainment and Ocean was heavily edited for content and length, just like their dub of Dragon Ball Z.^[8][9]

• In order to increase time for the movie to be a three-part episode, several scenes from the series were added, such as when Shenron is summoned, when Turles, his henchmen, and Piccolo make their first appearances in the film, and most of King Kai's scenes.^[9]
• Blood was completely edited out in the movie and the violence was toned down as well. For example, scenes where a character was punched or kicked hard were blocked by flashes of light.^[9]
• The scene where Turles forces Gohan to transform into a Great Ape by holding his face and forcing him to keep his eyes open was edited, having Turles hold him by his shoulders instead. At the same time when Gohan looks at the fake moon, no heartbeat sound effects existed in the Japanese and English uncut versions, but were digitally edited in background in the English edited version. During that same scene, when Gohan's tail grows out of his pants, the sound effect of it ripping through his pants were also edited.^[9]
• The scene where Turles has his foot on top of Goku was edited.^[9]
• The scenes where Gohan is nude after he reverts from his Great Ape form, were edited, but he was covered up by some means, such as adding extended lighting to the scene where Goku catches Gohan after cutting off his tail or adding a digital bush in front of him during the scene.^[9]

This dub edited the film into a three-part television episode, which first aired in North American countries during November 1997^[8] as part of the show's second season.

In 2013, Funimation released the edited movie on DVD of Rock the Dragon Edition, but instead of being presented in the episodic format in which it originally aired, it was presented as a stand-alone movie on the final disc of the set.

Releases[]

Funimation later sub-licensed the home video rights for the movie to Pioneer Home Entertainment who, also in association with Ocean Productions, re-dubbed the movie, and released it uncut on VHS and DVD on March 17, 1998, featuring the then-current English voice cast from the TV series, dialogue more accurately translated from the original Japanese script, and the original Japanese background music.^[8] Since then, Funimation released the edited movie dub of Rock the Dragon Edition set with Ocean dub on DVD on August 13, 2013, it has 53 edited episodes of the TV series, plus two edited movies of Dead Zone and The World's Strongest as they aired on Toonami.

Once their sub-license expired, Funimation also released the movie to DVD in "Ultimate Uncut Edition" on November 14, 2006 as part of a movie set subtitled "First Strike", also containing Dead Zone (1989) and The World's Strongest (1990), with a completely new dub done by Funimation's voice cast. It was later released in Double Feature set along with Lord Slug (1991) for Blu-ray and DVD on September 16, 2008, both feature full 1080p format in HD remastered 16:9 aspect ratio and an enhanced 5.1 surround mix. The film was re-released to DVD in remastered thinpak collection on November 1, 2011, containing the first 5 Dragon Ball Z Movies.^[10]

Other English dubs were also made by French company AB Groupe and Malaysian company Speedy Video. These dubs, which are notorious for poor voice acting, were never released in North America. While the Malaysian dub's cast remains unknown, it has recently been discovered that English-speaking actors living in France were involved in the AB Groupe dub (see above). Some of these voice actors were also speculated to have dubbed animated shows produced in France, such as Code Lyoko and Chris Colorado.^[11]

References[]

External links[]

• Official anime website of Toei Animation
• Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might at IMDb
• Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (three-part television episode) at IMDb
• Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia