Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might

Dragon Ball Z the Movie: The Tree of Might
Film poster
Film information
Directed by	Daisuke Nishio
Produced by	Chiaki Imada Tamio Kojima (production supervisor)
Written by	Takao Koyama (screenplay) Akira Toriyama (original series author)
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Language	Japanese/English

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, known in Japan as Dragon Ball Z: Chikyū Marugoto Chōkessen (ドラゴンボールZ 地球まるごと超決戦; lit. "Dragon Ball Z: Super Showdown for the Whole Earth") is the third Dragon Ball Z movie. It was originally released in Japan on July 7, 1990, between episodes 54 and 55 of Dragon Ball Z. It was translated into English by FUNimation Entertainment in 1998.

Summary

Krillin, Roshi and Bulma camping in the woods

In the movie, the Z Fighters face a new threat that starts with the burning of a forest, caused by the impact of a cosmic object, in which Gohan and Krillin rescue the forest animals and a small dragon named Icarus. Although they are able to restore the forest to its normal state with the Dragon Balls, Icarus does not return and stays with Gohan, much to Chi-Chi's fury. Goku then shows a nearby cave to let Gohan keep the dragon with him. Later, the cosmic object that crashed and caused the forest fire earlier reveals itself to be a probe, and shortly thereafter, the Earth is visited by an unfriendly group of aliens under the leadership of a Saiyan. Upon arriving, they plant a seed which grows the Tree of Might, a plant that sucks the life of the planet on which it was planted and leaves it a desert. At King Kai's request, Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, and Chiaotzu investigate and try to destroy the Tree, but they are unsuccessful. They are then confronted by the aliens whilst their leader watches from inside the spaceship. Eventually, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu are defeated by the aliens, with only Goku remaining as the one who can hold his own against them.

Goku using the Kaio-ken in front of the Tree of Might

During the ensuing battle, Chiaotzu is rescued by Gohan, who had just arrived, and demonstrates his incredible fighting skills by easily taking out Lakasei. He is then encountered by the aliens' leader Turles, a Saiyan who bears a striking resemblance to Goku. Turles gives Gohan a choice to either join him or die. Gohan refuses to join Turles, and is saved in time thanks to the arrival of Piccolo. However, Turles ambushes and blasts him from behind, having Gohan where he wants him, he notices Gohan's regrown tail and creates an artificial moon, forcibly turning Gohan into a Great Ape and sets him on Goku, who is almost crushed to death in Gohan's hand until Icarus arrives and calms Gohan down. But when Turles attacks Icarus, Gohan is angered and turns on Turles, who fires an attack at Gohan. Before the attack can make contact, Goku manages to cut his son's tail off and restore him to normal. Cradling the little one in his arms, Goku threatens Turles. Angry and impressed at the same time, Turles sets his henchmen on Goku, who uses the Kaio-ken and makes quick work of them while Piccolo unsuccessfully fights Turles again. Goku and Turles then fight, with Goku having the upper hand, until Turles pushes his power further by eating a fruit from the Tree of Might. With his new power, Turles dominates Goku and beats him to the point that he is no longer able to fight, even with the use of the Kaio-ken x10 (x20 in the FUNimation Dub).

The energy absorbed by the Tree of Might returns to Earth

Slowly recovering while Turles is distracted by the rest of the Z Fighters, whom he brutally dispatches, Goku decides to use the Spirit Bomb. Despite gaining energy from the living, he is not able to attack Turles as he counterattacks with the Calamity Blaster, neutralizing Goku's Spirit Bomb. Unable to gather more energy from living beings, Goku decides to steal energy from inside the Tree of Might itself. Eventually successful in creating the Spirit Bomb, Goku sees his opportunity, and fires it straight into Turles, who is carried up the trunk of the Tree of Might and destroyed along with the Tree when the Spirit Bomb explodes. With the terror now over, the Z Fighters return to their normal lives once again.

Continuity

The movie could be placed in the three years the Z Fighters are training to prepare for the Androids; all the Z Fighters are alive, with Yamcha's gi back having the King Kai symbol to support that they were killed during the Saiyan Saga and resurrected at the end of the Namek Saga.

Goku does not turn Super Saiyan, although he did not end up needing it, and he may not have been able to transform into a Super Saiyan at will, as in the Trunks Saga he mentions not being able to control it at first. Gohan does not know Icarus, who had already appeared in the Garlic Jr. Saga. Lakasei mentions that with the fruit of the tree they would be able to defeat Frieza although Frieza is already dead, though it is possible that, like Cooler for King Cold in Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, they did not know that Frieza was dead.

Releases

Poster for the festival in which The Tree of Might, Pink and Kennosuke-sama were first shown

The film was first shown as part of a triple feature with two other adaptions of Akira Toriyama's manga, Pink and Kennosuke-sama, at the 1990 Toei Anime Fair (a semi-annual convention featuring Toei Animation's OVA and film adaptations of more or less known manga). The movie was later released on both VHS and Laserdisc in Japan. They were in a 16:9 format, cropped from its original 4:3 format. It was then released later in Japan as part of the well-known Dragon Box sets, remastered from its original film masters and in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen format (there was much controversy from fans over the decision to crop the movies from its original 4:3 format, which died down when Toei announced that the films were originally animated for widescreen viewing). Containing all four Dragon Ball and all thirteen Dragon Ball Z movies, the boxed set was released with great critical and audience reception.

In the United States, it was first released by Funimation as a three-part television episode that aired on November 17 and 22, 1997. This version was dubbed by the original Ocean Group voice cast and was edited for content, just like their dub of the series. The film was later released on a bilingual DVD by Pioneer on March 17, 1998. The DVD version of the film was uncut, and featured a few voice cast changes, dialogue much closer to the original script, and the original Japanese background music. It was also released for the first time in a 4:3 format. There was some slight controversy over this dub's audio track, because despite being advertised as "uncut," many sound effects were added or replaced in the dub. Visually, however, there were was no editing whatsoever, and the audio track for the Japanese dub does not contain these sound effects. The film was later later re-released, along with the first two movies, by Pioneer on October 9, 2001, in a three-movie boxset, called "Dragon Ball Z - Movie Boxed Set".

Double Feature

After FUNimation acquired the exclusive DVD rights for the first three movies from Pioneer in 2004, it released The Tree of Might in November 14, 2006, along with the Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone and Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest movies, in a DVD boxset titled "First Strike." It contained a brand-new in-house dub (without the added sound effects from the Pioneer release) and the original Japanese dub. However, the new in-house dub did not use the original Japanese background music, instead opting for a replacement score. It also contained a new script that, while not too far away from the original Japanese script, was not quite as loyal to the original script as the Ocean Group dub's script had been.

Five movie pack

FUNimation re-released this film in DVD and Blu-ray in September 16, 2008, alongside Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug, digitally remastered and in a 16:9 format, as a "Double Feature" DVD. For this release, three audio tracks were included: the original Japanese dub, the new in-house dub with the replacement musical score, and the new in-house dub with the original Japanese music. Neither of the dub tracks have the added sound effects from the Pioneer dub, and only use the sound effects found in the original Japanese dub.

On November 1, 2011, FUNimation released it along with Dead Zone, The World's Strongest, Lord Slug, and Cooler's Revenge. However, these are the same disks found in the double features.

Cast

Character Name	Voice Actor (Japanese / Toei Animation)	Voice Actor (English / Ocean Group)	Voice Actor (English / FUNimation)
Goku	Masako Nozawa	Ian James Corlett (TV) Peter Kelamis (VHS/DVD)	Sean Schemmel
Gohan	Masako Nozawa	Saffron Henderson	Stephanie Nadolny
Krillin	Mayumi Tanaka	Terry Klassen	Sonny Strait
Yamcha	Tōru Furuya	Ted Cole	Christopher Sabat
Tien	Hirotaka Suzuoki	Matt Smith	John Burgmeier
Chiaotzu	Hiroko Emori	Cathy Weseluck	Monika Antonelli
Piccolo	Toshio Furukawa	Scott McNeil	Christopher Sabat
Bulma	Hiromi Tsuru	Lalainia Lindbjerg	Tiffany Vollmer
Chi-Chi	Mayumi Shō	Laara Sadiq	Cynthia Cranz
Oolong	Naoki Tatsuta	Alec Willows (TV) Doug Parker (VHS/DVD)	Brad Jackson
Puar	Naoko Watanabe	Cathy Weseluck	Monika Antonelli
Master Roshi	Kōhei Miyauchi	Dave Ward (TV) Don Brown (VHS/DVD)	Mike McFarland
King Kai	Jōji Yanami	Don Brown	Sean Schemmel
Shenron	Kenji Utsumi	Don Brown	Christopher Sabat
Icarus	Naoki Tatsuta	Cathy Weseluck	Christopher R. Sabat
Rasin	Kenji Utsumi	Ward Perry	Robert McCollum
Lakasei	Kenji Utsumi	Don Brown	Robert McCollum
Daiz	Yuji Machi	Scott McNeil	Mark Lancaster
Cacao	Shinobu Satouchi	Alvin Sanders (TV) Don Brown (VHS/DVD)	Jeff Johnson
Amond	Banjō Ginga	Alec Willows	Paul Slavens
Turles	Masako Nozawa	Ted Cole	Chris Patton
Great Ape Gohan		Don Brown	Shane Ray
Narrator	Jōji Yanami	Doc Harris	Kyle Hebert

Music

• Opening Theme (OP)
  1. "Cha-La Head-Cha-La"
     • Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
       • Song Lyrics

• Ending Theme (ED)
  1. "Marugoto"; まるごと (The Whole World)
     • Lyrics: Dai Satō, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama & Ammy
       • Song Lyrics

Characters

Heroes

• Goku
• Gohan
• Piccolo
• Krillin
• Yamcha
• Tien Shinhan
• Chiaotzu

Villains

• Turles
• Rasin
• Lakasei
• Daiz
• Cacao
• Amond

Supporting Characters

• Bulma
• Oolong
• Icarus
• Chi-Chi
• Puar
• Master Roshi
• King Kai

Major battles

• Tien & Chiaotzu vs. Rasin & Lakasei
• Krillin vs. Amond
• Yamcha vs. Cacao
• Goku vs. Daiz & Cacao
• Gohan vs. Lakasei
• Great Ape Gohan vs. Goku
• Great Ape Gohan vs. Turles
• Goku vs. Amond, Deiz, Cacao, Razun & Lakasei
• Piccolo vs. Turles
• Goku vs. Turles
• Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu vs. Turles
• Goku vs. Turles

Trivia

• The power levels reported by Turles' scouter are: Gohan - 10,000, Piccolo - 18,000, Goku - 30,000. They are a lot higher than the power levels reported by Vegeta's scouter in the Vegeta Saga (see List of Power Levels).
• The animation in the opening theme is part of the movie itself, as it shows the gathering of the Dragon Balls by Gohan and his friends to restore the forest. The "Rock the Dragon" opening for the FUNimation Dub of Dragon Ball Z uses footage mostly from this movie.
• This is the first theatrical appearance of King Kai in a movie, though his techniques (Kaio-ken and Spirit Bomb) debuted in the previous movie.
• This is the first appearance of Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu in a Dragon Ball Z movie; though Yamcha had appeared in all three Dragon Ball movies, and Tien and Chiaotzu also had first appeared in the third Dragon Ball movie.
• This is the only movie (and only time in the entire series, for that matter) in which Yamcha wears a gi with the turtle symbol on the front and the King Kai symbol on the back. His gi of choice after being resurrected in the series is the opposite (Kai front, turtle back - and he is the only character to wear a gi of this style).
• In one scene of the movie, there is a Ferris Wheel that says D.B.Z.
• In the Ocean dub and Japanese version, first mentions of Frieza are made precluding to later fights with Frieza in the television series.
• In the edited dub of this movie, Turles' hands holding Gohan's eyes open are moved to Gohan's shoulders, despite the fact that his hands were clearly visible on Gohan's face in "Rock the Dragon".
• In the edited Ocean dub, the scene where Gohan is falling nude is edited using digital light covering him up. The scene where Icarus wakes up a nude Gohan is edited using a digital bush, also covering Gohan.

Link

DragonBall Z Tree of Might - Full Movie 3