New 'Dragonball' Trailer Arrives Online

No... Dragonball Evolution makes Super Mario Bros. and Streetfighter look comparable to Braveheart and Highlander (the first one, of course).

or
What if "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were made by Uwe Boll.

...It is based off Dragon Ball. Based off the King Piccolo arc/saga.

While I could agree that certain anime should never be seen in a live action format, to say that no anime should be interpreted through live action is a little strong don't you think. I loved Jackie Chan as City Hunter, I thought Speed Racer was great, and I've heard really great things about Death Note. I think the real problem is similar to the problem with video game movies. There aren't many talented people who know how to translate them into live action. Think about how long it took for comic book movies to truly start doing well. The main reason I see DB doing poorly is simply a severe lack of talent involved, but maybe that's just me.

I'm sorry, I need you to say that again. For a second there I thought you said you liked Speed Racer?

I agree with Herff.

It wasn't too long ago that people said the same thing about comics-to-live-action translations.

Luckily, we have Bryan Singer and Christopher Nolan who proved it could be done.

These things take time, who knows when there will consistently be more directors and production companies that know how to make above average films based on anime.

Maybe there's a cinematical reader out there, right now, reading this and saying themselves "I can do better."

And maybe they can.

lol, yeah Bryan I liked Speed Racer, just like a lot of other people who liked Speed Racer who were able to actually see it for what it was. I'm not expecting you to understand. I read your article. If I read correctly, you think that anime has no need for realism where as all live action should be realistic. This is far from the case.

Even before CGI people have been making movies using special effects to defy the natural laws of physics. Many fantasy and science fiction films and occasionally other genres break these laws regularly.

Anime on the other hand definitely has an advantage in breaking these laws, but there are some anime that painstakingly create a realistic world for the viewer, and often times it is beautiful. Check out Jin Roh if you don't believe me. It's one of my favorite anime films and it has a beautiful real world feel.

Anime is not it's own world, it is part of the world of storytelling, just like film, videogames, literature, comic books, etc. Which means that it can cross over just like anything else. You may not see it, but many of us do. The only reason I'm saying all this is if you want to be taken seriously as a movie reviewer, especially if you are going to talk about anime, you need to know what you are talking about, before you talk about it.

What exactly don't I understand about Speed Racer? That the acting was as 3rd grade cheesy as it gets? That the action was so off the map that you couldn't even for the tiniest fraction of a second take it seriously? The thing about good anime, science fiction, fantasy, etc. that employ special effects to craft the impossible is that as absurd as it might be, you can still on some level see yourself in that situation, imagining the possibilities and feeling the thrill. Speed Racer was as fake as they come, and I suspect Dragonball will be the same.

Excuse me, it may be a little extreme to say adaptation from anime to film is impossible, but I have not yet seen it done successfully, and the point is that it should not be a transposition like Racer, which appears to be largely what Dragonball is doing. I am all for adaptation but simply transposing a work, from whatever medium it might originate, into a new one rarely if ever works out appropriately. Different techniques work in different medium, and trying to replicate them tends to have disastrous results, i.e. Dragonball and in my opinion at least, Speed Racer.

I would strongly suggest you avoid accusing people of not understanding or not knowing what they're talking about, simply because their opinions differ from yours. I have watched a great deal of anime, and I was in fact talking about the anime specific to films like Dragonball, citing another anime that tries to remain realistic and comparing it to something like Dragonball or another show is a classic case of apples and oranges.

Are you honestly going to tell me the laws of anime didn't lend itself hugely to audiences accepting the absurdity of Dragonball? What's going to happen when they watch something that was once easily drawn and see the huge amount of CGI and wirefu and are automatically disconnected by that which was held by a few pencil strokes?

Bryan, awesome reply. Forgive me for coming at you so hard, but I found your original article lacking and your reply so aloof, I had to see if you actually had a good point to make. I agree that we cannot compare different types of anime, but your original comments led me to believe either you didn't know what you were talking about, or you were generalizing to save space/time.

Your reply is ten times better than your original article. While I respectfully disagree that there hasn't been at least a few good adaptations from anime to film, I'm glad we can agree that it is not impossible. Let me know when you do see an anime adaptation you deem successful as I'm sure it will be even better than those I already see as successes. Until then, you've earned another reader. Just do me a favor and avoid those generalizations ;-)