'Astro Boy' vs. 'Dragonball': Should Cartoon Adaptations Be Animated, or Live Action?

Depends on the cartoon. But out of those two. Astro Boy has my vote.

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I agree you have to take it case by case.

Anime or animation based on Asian culture is tough to do for Westerners. A lot of things get lost in translation resulting in a Chun Li or Dragonball or, at best, a Forbidden Kingdom ( Another film based on the Chinese fairy tale of Gokou. I could have just enjoyed a Jet Li/Jackie Chan movie, to be honest)

You cite Batman: TAS, (Which was a great show. It got me into Batman.) but Batman Begins and TDK are brilliant. What I think the creators managed to do was take advantage of the huge wealth of mythology Batman has and take it seriously.

Something like Dragonball, Avatar: The Last Airbender, or any other anime could make for a very good live action movie provided you select the right people to create it and don't hamstring them.

Imagine if Dragonball or Avatar were directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger) or John Woo (Red Cliff).

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To say just how much more excited I am for the animated "Astro Boy" than the live-action "Dragonball": I got a whole lot more giddy over this new "Astro Boy" trailer than I did all the clips, tv spots and trailers for "Dragonball Evolution" combined. Now that's saying something.

So, a movie released by a small and upcoming movie company (Summit) which has had a pretty good track record so far ("Twilight" notwithstanding).

Or one of the longest running companies in the movie industry (20th Century Fox), which managed to almost drive itself into the ground in the mid-to-late 70's, was reinvigorated due to the success of George Lucas' "Star Wars" movies, only 30-odd years later managing to drive itself into the ground again due to crappy studio management and Tom Rothman (*shivers*).

The only reason 20th Century Fox lasted as long as it did was because it used the success of the "Star Wars" prequels as a crutch. Since George stopped making movies for them, they haven't produced and released anything good. Seriously, they're like the lemmings of the movie industry, and sooner or later, they're going to run themselves off a cliff. Fox should just quit while they're ahead.

On second thought, just let them run off the cliff. At least it would be more entertaining to watch than their movies.

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unless studios stop making these terrible live action adaptations such as Dragon Ball up there, (and the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender live action movie) where they mess everything up and seem to purposely piss off the original fan base (a white Goku??? COME ON!) then just stick to animation.

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Yeah, it all depends, but on different factors. The type and style of movie, the story and of course whether or not the production company just want to use the popularity of the "name."

Astroboy gets my vote on this one too.

On a related note. I'm very interested how the "Blood the Last Vampire" live action adaptation does.

UK Trailer:
http://onlinemoviepromo.com/newplayer.php?id=2934

Japan Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRNM2krf45c

Of course it helps, if it had a U.S. release which it does not.

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off course dragonball evolution is bad... but its bad beacuse the direction is bad, the argument is bad, the dialogues are bad, and the actors are not extraordinary.. Dragonball would make a fantastic live action movie if they do it right. A good director and a good arguementist would help, and probably to be more faithfull to the series would help too.. Look at Transformers, Batman, Incredible Hulk, IronMAn tey all made good movies out of that animated series so why not dragonball??

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I work in animation, but I'm game to see adaptations in every form: animation, live-action, even theater. The thing is you can't be too literal in the translation. Cartoon proportions are different from live-action, but if you make the right transition, it works.

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I don't really care if Goku is being played by an American and I don't get why it's such a big deal...he's an Alien. As for it being live action I think its great. Having the same story I've seen as a cartoon have its characters become real people on the big screen just makes me giddy. Watching it as a fancier more expensive cartoon wouldn't do it for me

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I agree with Evernorton! I personally saw Dragonball Evolution, gave it every benefit of the doubt. After the movie I had to watch some episodes of DB, DBZ just to restore my faith. As a huge fan of the series I believe it could of been a good movie depending on who was behind on making the transition. Fari warning if your a fan rent it! Don't waste your $$

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"...loud, dumb fantasy-action..."
This is regarding Dragon ball? Now, I only saw a few episodes of Z, but It's stories wern't exactly deep plots.

I do get the point, that why go Live action when there's animation that can do it gracefully? To counterpoint, though, that may require out-animating Japanese animators in their own creations, and isn't that an even worst offense? Imagine if Disney decided on a CG version of Bambi.

Oh, yeah, let's make a Dragon Ball movie, but in CG. It's gonna look exactly like the original designs, with teleport-fights and energy beam Mexican standoffs and all, but in computer animation. Why would one? It is already done, and I doubt making a CG version of it is any more endearing than just doing it in live action. Of course, as with anything, there are cases for both. Rorouni Kenshin/Samurai X could be cool as live action. And Astro Boy, here does seem nice in CG.

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They should be in whatever format is going to treat them how they should be treated. A cartoon can easily be made into a live action and there is nothing saying that it shouldn't be other than mediocre film makers getting the job. If you take someone who understands the source material (Where it needs to be changed etc), and find someone that has a inch of talent in his body WITH A VISION, anything can be done and done well. However, You take someone who directs a comedy like Final Destination and give them a IP that is either seen as action or way deeper than people give it credit for, and you will get a comedy thats suppose to be taken seriously and that also falls short of all of the above. There are plus's and minus's to every medium and everything can be made to look good in all of them. People just have to be willing to care enough about the project to do it right. I for one think this is shown best by the original ninja turtles movie. I dont know if this site was around when that came out, but no one expected it to be so good. Doesn't matter if you thought the costumes were corny or cheesy. It had a great late 80s early 90s vibe and it clicked with people. It was a well done movie. The argument to me isn't whether or not comics and cartoons should be made into live action, its simply when will the bureaucracy of the film industry either learn to stop abusing great ideas for a quick buck, or learn that caring more about the IP will make them more money than they thought without having to sift through tons of hate mail. Everything can be made into everything. Caring just helps the equation.

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Animated or live action? hmmm....how about NOT SUCK to start..

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Dragonball Evolution and Mortal Kombat should not be written in the same sentence because MK looks way better than this crap. I can't believe they are going to ruin Dragonball like this. I was happy when I heard they were making Dragonball into a movie. Now, I am having seconds thoughts about even renting it when the movie come out on DVD. I actually like Chatwin in the movie Invinsible but in Dragonball he just look corny.

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Case by case basis. I think more "mature" anime probably suits the live-action medium more. The more child-like stuff can be animated... some exceptions though like the all CGI Battle Angel James Cameron will make after Avatar.

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