DEAD ZONE is one of several "Dragon Ball Z" short theatrical features based on the long-running Japanese animated comic fantasy TV series (which appeared on the Cartoon Network in the late 1990s), and the first to be released on video in the US.
The pastoral bliss enjoyed on earth by alien superhero Goku, his wife Chi-Chi, and son Gohan, is interrupted by the emergence of a band of aliens, led by Garlic Jr., who abduct Gohan to gain possession of the magical dragon ball adorning the boy's hat. With the dragon balls now in his possession,
Garlic Jr. is able to ask the Eternal Dragon to grant him his wish for immortality.
Goku invades Garlic Jr.'s palace, joined by his sidekick Krillin and sometime opponent Piccolo. A massive destructive battle ensues. Only when Gohan joins in with his own unleashed powers is the team powerful enough to defeat Garlic Jr. and trap him in his own creation, the Dead Zone.
"Dragon Ball Z" and its predecessor, "Dragon Ball," were popular animated series which ran on Japanese television from 1986-1996 and which spun off a host of short theatrical features, beginning in 1990. All were based on a long-running manga (comic book) series by Akira Toyama. In 1996, "Dragon
Ball Z" came to US television in an English-dubbed version, with the casual nudity and off-color humor cleaned up.
The series offers a motley crew of bizarre characters who traverse a fantasy earth and other planets in battle with each other and various alien interlopers. The goal of the characters in the first series was to locate and retrieve the seven dragon balls. This aspect of the narrative drew on the
famed Chinese literary texts, Journey to the West (the story of the Monkey King) and The Water Margin, both of which have been adapted by more high-minded Chinese and Japanese filmmakers and animators.
DEAD ZONE has plenty of action to satisfy the series' adolescent (and younger) fans, but offers little focus on the characters. Of this lively group, only Gohan has funny moments; when he eats a piece of forbidden fruit in Garlic's palace (in a scene deliberately recalling the antics of the Monkey
King), he behaves as if stoned and, when his rescuers arrive, proceeds to urinate on Krillin's bald head. (Violence.) leave a comment