By | Published December 10, 2008

Update: The international, English trailer for DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION has been added to this post along with the Japanese-language trailer.

I just know everyone has been waiting breathlessly for more footage from Fox’s live-action adaptation of DRAGONBALL and here it is, the full Japanese trailer for the movie starring Justin Chatwin (pictured) as Goku and Chow Yun-fat (pictured) as Master Roshi.

Previous footage found on the internet has largely consisted of unauthorized behind-the-scenes video and a leaked tradeshow trailer not intended for wide consumption. This new trailer with full digital effects in play which makes the film look better but it still has a TV movie of the week vibe. I also notice that the film now has the title of DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION, at least in Japan. It isn’t clear if that title will be used elsewhere yet.

In recently talking to MTV, Jamie Chung, who plays Chi Chi, states that all the main actors have already signed on for two sequels, assuming the movie does well enough for Fox to greenlight them. She also confirmed that the end fight between Goku and Piccolo (James Marsters) is being reshot. This could be seen as a troubling sign although late reshoots are common in the movie biz.

DRAGONBALL is scheduled for worldwide theatrical release beginning April 8th.

Thanks to Peter for the tip.

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  • Hiro

    I say this is EPIC FAIL. Haha

  • douglas ferguson

    what a total waste of a 100million dollars,boooo!!!!!this shit is whaCK

  • WEJ

    The only good thing I take from this is the news that the end fight is being redone. Here’s hoping that the cast and crew have picked up on all the NEGATIVE feedback from that first dismal teaser, and they know they gotta give the fans a real fight to watch

  • Vahag

    I hate when a white guy allways plays the good guy. This is going to be a bullshit movie

  • disappointed

    Poor actor choices, and looking more and more like mortal combat than dragonball, wtf it even reminds me of street fighter, where’s the dragonball universe and such, i had high hopes for this film till i saw the crappy trailer.

  • Hervey

    Looks like a piece of trash! I hate when Hollywood takes a “Japanese” original classic and makes “their vision” of it, then it turns out to be screwed up. Kind of like Godzilla with Broderick was totally lame and not true to the King of the Monsters

  • CONCEPTVILLAIN

    THIS IS COMPLETE BULLSHIT… ISNT THAT THE GUY FROM TWILIGHT? NO? WELL IT MUST BE SOME OTHER DORK… LOL

  • LOVEKUNGFU

    First, I thought Goku was Asian. Who is this guy? I am so upset. People, leave a good thing along. Thank you!!!!!

  • GrandMaster T

    That was quite possibly the gayest thing I have ever seen. Like WTF were they thinking. Goku’s a f**ckin American teenager and Piccolo looks like make up disaster from The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers set. I wasn’t expecting high art here, or even the remotest amount of respect for the source material but honestly. I defy anyone else in the world to be handed one of the most revered TV licenses on the f**ckin planet and the equivalent of Iraqs war debt to fund it and make anything near the cinematic abortion that just assailed my eyes. A pox on any and all involved in the making of this affront to the Dragonball name.

  • ChehTinKang

    oh this is epic alright haha. actually for those of you whose not familiar with dragonball, goku is a saiyan. for the anime, he has black hair, so you could say he’s asian or whatever, but follow the dragonball storyline here. he’s a saiyan. all saiyans have black hair, and they have tails. they’re basically monkeys or apes lol when they look into the moon and transform. call them monsters, cuz they are not human. that must be the excuse of having a white guy as goku. oh for piccolo, hmmm remember jim carrey’s the mask? i kinda thought he looked like that 1 bad guy who puts on the mask at the end. it doesn’t look too bad. umm lol thats really funny, a white guy as goku doing the kamehameha haha. look at the fights people… even jackie chan at his old age can fight better than that. omg, i can’t believe stephen chow and chow yun fat are involved with this project. u know whats really pathetic? if the movie does well, they’re gonna do sequels!!! we all better not encourage them to make 2 more sequel to is disgraceful dragonball attempt… lol. Akira Toriyama, the original creator of dragonball, is probably laughing his ass off to this crap of a film. funimation probably wanted to make a dragonball movie after gaining profit from selling their english versions of the db/z/gt series and movies. thats where the money came from i’m sure. what a waste making this movie, stephen chow should of just left this crap behind. i thought he had good taste, i guess not… or maybe he’s just getting old lol. we all know the film is gonna flop, but fox got a nerve… ohhh just in case the movie does well, they’ll make sequels…. ohhhh please.

  • Zepp

    wtf is this?! Goku is suppose to be a CHILD in dragonball!? Japan is stupid for selling the rights to the states n allowing this sorry excuse for a movie to be released… if they did this properly they would of made millions of dollars…

  • Gooner4life&beyond

    I had a good laugh at this trailer, haven’t laughed so hard in a while in fact. You thought Elton John was gay? Boy George? Graham Norton? George Takei? They are straight compared to this, this is officially the GAYEST thing ever!

  • R.O.

    I hate 2 bring race into this but Hollywood always has to sell these types martial art films with a white lead who has never taken a martial arts lesson in his life.When u cast Tom cruse as “The last Samurai” that’s when u know racism is alive & well.Jim Kelly once said that while he was in Hollywood they never gave him the push like they gave to Chuck Norris,that’s why he traveled to Hong Kong to make “Tattoo Connection”.That’s why David Carradine took the role from Bruce Lee for Kung Fu because he’s “White”.Don’t be surprised if they remake “5 Deadly Venoms” with half of the cast being of european descent.

  • Big Laef

    Are you kidding me? Did you even watch “The Last Samurai”? There’s a reason the main character is white, it’s a little thing called storyline. Also, are you all just looking for something to bitch about? Do you not go to movies to have enjoy yourself? You will all go see this movie, and you know it, I’m gonna go see it, regardless of how horrible it is. Just like we watch all the remakes of all the stuff we used to enjoy or still do? Godzilla starring Broderick? Not a GREAT movie, but still enjoyable. C’mon, lighten up. Don’t sit around looking for things to ruin your day.

  • GrandMaster T

    Big Laef, far enough call on the Last Samurai thing. But honestly, if you don’t think that trailer was the precursor to possibly the GAYEST looking cinematic perversion in the history of like FOREVER, then you should seriously check to see if your testicles are still attached. It features a truly bastardized storyline, laughable performances, cookie-cutter action sequences and casting decisions that would force even the staunchest religious advocate into questioning the existence of god. I don’t think anyone was holding their breath for high-art here, but this abomination looks like its pitched at a younger audience than the original anime. I will under no circumstances pay money to watch this film.

  • WOORO

    I RATHER WATCH A BOOTLEG COPY OF POOTIE TANG ON A VCR.

  • ansatsusha_gouki

    hahahaha….I knew DragonBalls was gonna be horrible as soon I saw the first pictures for it.See the thing is I always have low expectations when Hollywood does remakes of anything Asian.

  • BruisedLo

    in the chinese adaptation of dragonball, the guy playing goku isn’t a kid like this justin fella either. he’s some asian actor who looks about maybe 17 years old or so.

    i believe funimation came to the japanese owners with a offer. they weren’t the ones selling dragonball. since they own the rights to it for some long ass time now, they can do what they want, like this live version movie.

    there is no proper way of bringing this anime to life. its too extremely different and you know it! if you seen the tv series and the movies you know what i mean. the dragonball world is too weird and bizarre, and it shouldn’t be brought to life or even touched, enough said. do you think seeing this white guy as goku going super saiyan, if that ever happens, would be like super awesome or super gay? how would the gold hair look? thinking about it, is just a good laugh.

    Big Laef, i don’t know if you come to this site often. but we martial art fans respect and support the good martial art stars, movies, eastern cinema, asian actors/actresses, etc. i’ve notice over the years that a lot of the fans or people here are very loyal. we know when its not a good movie, period. i would rather pay real money to go watch Ong Bak 2 in theaters than this Drag Blah. the only way i’ll watch dragonball is if i download a crappy version of it on the internet, and i don’t care if the quality is bad, the film looks bad enough already. even akira toriyama’s new dragonball ova special is better.

    whats really sad is that goku is played by a white guy, and we see asians in the film. talk about no respect to the japanese. the name goku has asian written all over it, and look at him on a the anime. if you’re not a fan, you probably think he’s a asian animated character. if you hear someone with that name, would you think it be a asian or a white guy?

    since its a US adaptation, they should of just cast all whites. it don’t matter cuz it looks horrible already. this film looks more like a high school play than a movie. everyone and everything looks so exaggerated that we don’t even recognize who is playing who. its so pathetic. i’m sure you know what i’m talking about dbz fans.

    i dunno why all of sudden you guys are bringing ‘the last samurai’ into the subject, but i don’t think that film is racist. with a big star like tom cruise taking pure white american audiences, who are probably racist, into a oriental world. isn’t that a good thing? because i felt like they were trying to give asians a good image, show how beautiful japan is, how hardworking japanese/asians are and all of that. some people have a hard time accepting other race, and if a big star can change their minds… whats wrong with that? we know who the last samurai is, and its not tom cruise, its ken watanabe. on the ending credits ken’s name is first. cruise gets his ass whipped by da man Hiroyuki Sanada. what else u want? geez. i kinda think this film is trying to break that racial barrier.

    hollywood is still racist… and if you heard past news about asian american actors who are trying to get a job, thats what i’m talking about. no matter if our international asian stars, who don’t speak english well, takes hollywood by storm, they still wouldn’t accept the asian american actors who do speak english well. sad huh?

    u want racism? ok, japanese create a video game. streetfighter. successful. hollywood does a adaptation. lead – guile – played by van damme. film flops. japanese does a animated movie of the video game. lead – ‘ryu’ and ‘ken’. successful. see? hollywood is too racist to put their money behind the japanese hero who is the lead, and their film flopped letting the all-american guile lead. its quite clear whose the pwner here.

    look at dragon: the bruce lee story. i’m glad they hired a asian to play bruce. what if it was a kung fu tv series david carradine rip off again? right? and they hired some white who looks asian to play bruce… my asian community would be so mad, and so would the millions of fans. bruce lee is a icon, and we only want to see a asian play him. its kinda the same for goku.

  • http://www.petitiononline.com/dblam444/petition.html Son Goku

    WHEN THIS MOVIE COMES OUT *DO NOT GO SEE IT* I REPEAT *DO NOT GO SEE IT* I UNDERSTAND IF U WANT A QUICK LAUGH AT IT, IF SO THEN FUCKING SEE IT ONLINE OR ON A DOWNLOAD. CAUSE IF YALL ALL GO SEE IT AND IF IT MAKES GOOD MONEY, WE *WILL* SEE A SEQUEL(S) AND CONTINUE THIS HORRIBLE HOLLYWOOD TREND. STAND TOGETHER DRAGONBALL FANS. PLEASE. LETS NOT GIVE THEM MONEY FOR THEM TO COME OUT WITH A SEQUEL. SEE THE FILM ONLINE IF U WANT. PLEASE SPREAD THESE NEWS. IM SICK OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO BITCH AND WHINE ABOUT HOLLYWOOD RUINING MARVEL, ANIME FILMS OR ETC. REASON WHY IS CAUSE YALL SUPPLY THEM. SINCE SPIDERMAN 3 I HAVE NEVER WENT TO GO SEE A MARVEL OR SUPERHERO MOVIE. CAUSE THEY ARE KILLING COMIC BOOKS. BUT MOST COMIC READERS LOVE THE MOVIES SO THATS ALREADY A LOST CAUSE. BUT I KNOW U ALL ANIME FANS LOVE AND WANT TO PROTECT THE DRAGON BALL SERIES FOREVER FROM THESE CORPORATE MONEY HUNGRY BASTARDS.

    IT IS SIMPLE…DO NOT GO TO THE MOVIE THEATER TO SEE DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION, WATCH ONLINE OR DONT WATCH IT AT ALL.
    SPREAD IT TO ALL YOUR TRUE DRAGONBALL FANS, OR JUST ANIME FANS IN GENERAL. PLEASE I CARE ABOUT DRAGONBALL TOO MUCH TO GO DOWN IN A STUPID TRILOGY WERE IT ENDS WITH BULMA MARRYING GOKU OR SOME RETARDED SHIT.
    STAY STRONG DRAGONBALL FANS SPREAD THE NEWS.

  • http://www.petitiononline.com/dblam444/petition.html Son Goku

    IF YOU CARE ABOUT DRAGON BALL! SIGN THE DRAGON BALL MOVIE PROTEST!

    http://www.petitiononline.com/dblam444/petition.html

  • jiku

    GAY

  • http://penis-penis-penis.com MArtin PEnis

    this movie will suck dragon balls

  • Kuo

    To begin with, Goku is the name from the most famous Chinese novel – “The Journey to the West.” The first couple volumns do intend to go that route. Therefore, the name Goku belongs to Asian. To have a random white dude playing Goku is totally racist and a slap in the face to the Asian community. How do the white people feel if we use some random asians to play Harry Potter or Captain America?

    Hollywood has always been producing racist movies, from the most recent “Street Fighter,” which uses a half asian to play Chun-Lu, to “Fast and Furious – Tokyo Drift,” which tells how a white dude dominates what asian is good at, drifting. I am not going to watch any of this movie.

  • remo

    “Hollywood has always been producing racist movies”

    And Hong Kong hasn’t? Aren’t whites usually portrayed as either bumbling fools or vicious villains? It’s just human nature to see the outsider as something different/threatening; the practice is certainly not limited to Hollywood.

  • manny0677

    remo,
    You’re comparing Hollywood with Hong Kong Cinema wich have nothing to do with this movie, Dragolball is to the Asians what G I Joe is to the Americans, now imagine if they pick a randon asian actor to play General Hawk and then twist the story around, how you feel if you are a big fan of the original source, all we’re saying is, Fox has no respect for the fans of DB, all they care is about making money wich they will because DB has strong fan base all over the world and most of the fans will go the theaters to see it, it’s sad but true.

  • sHoot2KiLL

    all the updates on this sites are really annoying.

    Hollywood racist? yes. Hong Kong? no. Whites usually portrayed as a bumbling fools or villains? What’s your point? You’re talking about the minor roles. Whose the main character? What’s the story about? If its about a white hero in real life, or a fictional comic character, made by HK, you think they’ll be dumb enough to use a Asian to play that person?! Look at guys like Jason Statham, Van Damme, Kurt Mckinney etc. I don’t see Corey Yuen trying to make them look bad with their fights. And look in the popular Japanese video games of today. Some of which are white leads! Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil… and there is a heck more. I don’t see the Asians portraying Americans as fools.

    Nothing wrong with comparing Hollywood with HK Cinema, because Asia has done their own live Dragonball adaptation long ago, and now a US version is gonna be out soon. Crap if HK ever decide to make a movie about G.I. Joe, like that will ever happen, it sucks, anyway they would use the right people. Unless HK do their own version, and use only Asian actors/actresses, they wouldn’t call it a adaptation, it wouldn’t be based on the cartoon or what ever, rather it be more like a inspiration, so it be ok to see the characters all Asians in different scenarios. Look at the film Future Cops, HK takes characters from the Japanese video game Streetfighter II, Mario Bros., and even Goku from Dragonball. Why no one complain who was playing who right? SF is international, with fighters from all over, and in this film, all Asians play them. Why no complaints from the fans? Well because the title is not even Streetfighter II, and its not based on the game at all. HK just took these video game characters and made their own movie, thats why. Now with Drugged ball Evolution, it is based on the Anime! with some white-ish british dude playing Goku! …The new Tekken movie, whose a fan? Who knows Jin is Japanese? Jon Foo is gonna play him. That douche is not even Japanese I think. The new King of Fighters movie, whose a fan? Kyo Kusanagi…. Sean Faris is gonna play him. I mean WTF! This white piece of trash is gonna play Kyo who is Japanese.

    You must be on crack to think that the largely amount of DB fans are gonna go support this wasted film. You don’t know how many people walked out of Rush Hour 3 in theaters. For this Dragon ball movie, I never in my life thought someone would actually start a petition to try to stop it from being made. It has gone too far, but its a big statement from the fans. So this should say something to you, if you think most fans are gonna go see it in theaters wasting real money. I ain’t gonna go see it, I rather get a ticket to see Ong Bak 2, or save my money for the new Resident Evil 5, or the new Tekken 6 coming in the fall.

  • littleaj_09

    Thats bull shit but This is going to be a good movie and I cant wait to see it because I loe dragon ball z and gt and I cant wait to see it and u all are stupied its going to be bad ass

  • sHoot2KiLL

    it’s people like you who support crappy hollywood movies. look at streetfighter: the legend of chun li, bad reviews already, i didn’t even see it yet, because i knew it was gonna be bad. i’m a db/z/gt fan, i’ve seen it all, and have it all. explain to me why should i see evolution?! american filmmakers sure know how to poison your kiddie minds. stupid you say? is that all you got? how weak. go to the premiere, and i want you to see if every seat in the theaters full. if anyone dares to walk out, you make sure to staple their butt’s to their seats. =.=

  • Sweetcc

    wtf is this?! Goku is suppose to be a CHILD in dragonball!? Japan is stupid for selling the rights to the states n allowing this sorry excuse for a movie to be released… if they did this properly they would of made millions of dollars…

    Excuse me if you do recall n remember dat Goku was also a teen bout da age of 18, during da tym of da piccolo jr saga so technically goku bein a teen in dis movie is quite rite n dnt start judgin da film n 20th Century Fox b4 u actually seen it. in my opinion i think it iz goin 2 du well.

  • Sweetcc

    To begin with, Goku is the name from the most famous Chinese novel – “The Journey to the West.” The first couple volumns do intend to go that route. Therefore, the name Goku belongs to Asian. To have a random white dude playing Goku is totally racist and a slap in the face to the Asian community. How do the white people feel if we use some random asians to play Harry Potter or Captain America?

    if u hav any sense da actual character “Goku” is nt even asian, he iz a alien frm space, da planet called Vegeta jus lyk superman is nt a white american bt frm planet Cyrpton. so i dnt think da americans r bein racist- any1 lite skinned cn play Goku. plus da examples of other characters u r usin is totally ridiculous bcoz dey already hav deir race n heritage, in other wrdz dey could hav made the character of harry potter a black, asian or any other races. so dere u go dey could nt b racist. jus bcoz Goku woz brought up in a asian environment doesnt make him asian.

  • sHoot2KiLL

    if i wasn’t a fan i wouldn’t known that goku’s a alien. if you were a real fan, you would say, he’s a saiyan, …from vegeta. the first excuse is since he’s not human, thats why they use a british dude, who can’t even fight. anyone can play goku??? yes. BUT THERE’S ASIANS IN THE FILM! who knew goku was british, and some of the others are asian. if the movie cast only whites and blacks, no body would bother, because it is a u.s. version. master roshi is old bald turtle hermit, who knew chow yun fat was gonna play him, with that thick hair. talk about less effort for a film, like streetfighter: the legend of chun li.

    what’s ridiculous? the characters of jin and kyo are both japanese, and if you dig in, caucasians are gonna play them.

    just cause he was brought up in a azn environment doesn’t make him asian? you wanna know what’s funny? no body american goes by the name goku. have you heard of any white dong who goes with that name? or any whites who goes by a asian name!. goku is a oriental name!!!! the real fans should just remember who goku is from the japanese anime, and not some british punk whose just gonna destroy his image.

  • Bruce Lee

    They should’ve casted JON FOO as SON GOKU because he is 100x much better than Justin Chatwimp. And he’s a real Martial Artist too.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6w5ZLlVjd0
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo8HVJ5vNJI

  • BruisedLo

    Jon Foo wouldn’t do either.

    alrighty, i saw this piece of crap… but u know what… it wasn’t as bad as the legend of chun li haha. with this film, they actually have a better screenplay. it did seem like they had a vision. the only problems are that, there is a lot of bad acting, but i dunno, some of it, worked for the film… lol yeah.

    there was talk about the film being the king piccolo saga, which is not. the movie has its own completely different story. its a re-teling of the beginning of dragonball, but goku is not a kid, he’s in high school… that should say enough. in the anime, goku don’t do school. he eats, he fights, he saves the planet. so since its a different story, they should of added like other villains.

    the film does suck, and there is so many lame little things you’ll see. what’s nice is that, the movie is very short, just 1 hour to 10-15 minutes, and they manage to get from point A to point B, in such a litte time, that it wasn’t too boring.

    the fights were as bad as the legend of chun li, and since they lack the martial arts, there is less fighting. when they do fight, its so terrible, that i would take a fight scene from charlie’s angels.

    the special effects…. well, they were so-so. they made the stars in the dragonballs move. the ki and all the energy blast looked alright. when geeko does go ape, it looked ok, but he’s still in his outfit, and he’s not as big as godzilla. they just made him look buff when he transformed. what’s gay is that, he doesn’t have a tail, and he doesn’t look at a full moon to change. for shenglong, the eternal dragon, he’s suppose to be gigantic, but with the good editing they did, they kept the dragon with very close tight shots, so you don’t know how big it is. a lot of people said that the dragon looked very small, and they’re pretty much right, just that, he was so zoomed in, that we don’t know. something the movie did, that i don’t think any hollywood film has done before, is when goku fights piccolo. they do trade blast, kinda like how you would see it in the anime. that really is a first, i never seen a hollywood film where 2 guys fighting eachother shooting fireballs constantly. maybe in big trouble in little china, but its not like they’re shooting energy.

    for the characters, they’re really kinda more appealing than everyone in the legend of chun li. the only complaint is.. bad acting, and over acting. i mean talk about bad timing at some parts.

    would i watch this film again? no. 1 view is enough. i’ve been watching people reviewing or ranting about this movie on youtube… and some people actually liked it. so as i was watching evolution, i wanted to see the positive. there is none really…. maybe only the idea of boy meets girl in high school and fall in love. goku and chi-chi kiss twice in the movie, where in the anime, we dont see any kissing at all. so i dunno why they didn’t just turn the film into a porno, the movie might of worked that way. because chichi and bulma are too hot…. it should of been a hentai live version of dragon ball lol.

  • Gen

    Goku is an Asian Icon, Asian Legend & Asian Superhero. Dragon Ball is one of the most FAMOUS Japanese Manga out there.

    Dragon Ball and the character named Goku is heavily influenced on Asian Culture. Goku is named after the Monkey King Sun Wukong(a Chinese Mythical Hero) and his character is also influenced by the Chinese Actor named Jackie Chan. Their GI(Uniform) is based off on the Shaolin Monks of China.

    Yeah I know that Goku is an alien a Saiya-Jin. But so is Superman a Kryptonian. So if they really respect Akira Toriyama and his Dragon Ball creation, then they should have casted an Asian actor for the role.

    Because casting a white boy like Chatwin is an INSULT and very INSENSITIVE to all the Asian Fans of Dragon Ball.

  • Gen

    Goku is an Asian Icon, Asian Legend & Asian Superhero. Dragon Ball is one of the most FAMOUS Japanese Manga out there.

    Dragon Ball and the character named Goku is heavily influenced on Asian Culture. Goku is named after the Monkey King Sun Wukong(a Chinese Mythical Hero) and his character is also influenced by the Chinese Actor named Jackie Chan. Their GI(Uniform) is based off on the Shaolin Monks of China.

    Yeah I know that Goku is an alien a Saiya-Jin. But so is Superman a Kryptonian. So if they really respect Akira Toriyama and his Dragon Ball creation, then they should have casted an Asian actor for the role.

    Because casting a white boy like Chatwin is an INSULT and very INSENSITIVE to all the Asian Fans of Dragon Ball.