Dragon Ball Z Return My Gohan!! (ドラゴンボールZ オラの悟飯を返せッ!!) is the first Dragon Ball Z film.
It was release in theaters in Japan on July 15, 1989. It was release in between DBZ episode 11, and 12. This film premiered in Japan at the 1989 Toei Cartoon Festival along with three other movies from the Akuma-kun, Himitsu no Akko-chan, and Mobile Cop Jiban series. FUNimation Entertainment released it in English in 2005. In the English version, the film is just call Dragon Ball Z The Dead Zone. The film centers on Goku and Piccolo teaming up in not only saving Goku's son, Gohan but stopping Garlic Jr. from killing Kami. At first Goku was fishing in the lake. He was unaware that his wife and father in law were being attack until he sensed Chi-Chi's ki. While being informed that Gohan was kidnapped, Goku takes Bulma's dragon ball locator to find Gohan. While battling the henchmen, Kuririn comes to help out. However Kuririn is told to make sure that Gohan doesn't get hurt. Piccolo also battles the henchmen in order to make sure Goku doesn't get injure. But Gohan unleashed his hidden power to seal away Garlic Jr. While going home, Goku is amaze by his son's power. While Piccolo still vows to defeat Goku.
Plot
The movie features the villain Garlic Jr., who seeks revenge for his father who wanted to become the Guardian of Earth and he himself wants to become ruler of the Earth. In order to have his wish fulfilled, his servants kidnap Son Goku's son Gohan to get the Dragon Ball he is carrying. Garlic Jr. then summons Shenron using the Dragon Balls and wishes for eternal life. Goku must combine forces with his archrival Piccolo in order to save the world. With Piccolo, and Kuririn's help. Goku is able to defeat Garlic Jr.'s evil servants and rescue Gohan.
But suddenly Kami arrives and confronts him. However, he is unable to defeat him, and in a last ditch effort Kami decides to sacrifice himself to kill Garlic Jr. However, Piccolo and Goku arrive in time to take on Garlic Jr. When they seemingly defeat Garlic Jr., Piccolo wants a rematch with Goku. However, the immortal Garlic Jr. emerges again & opens a Dead Zone portal in order to trap everyone within.
With time running out, and with moments away from being sucked into oblivion, Gohan's hidden power appears, and he sends Garlic Jr. into the portal, trapping him inside, and saving everyone. Remarkably, in the end of it all, Gohan doesn't remember a thing of what happened, instead believing that his father defeated Garlic Jr., and with amazement, Goku figures his son is no ordinary boy, but one with a great hidden potential. While going home with Gohan on Flying Nimbus, Goku remarks that he'll tell Chi-Chi about Gohan's hidden power when Gohan is older. At the end of the film, Piccolo is seen from above, looking down on Goku and his friends and vows that one day, he will defeat Goku.
Voice Cast
- Japanese
- Masako Nozawa as Son Goku & Son Gohan
- Toshio Furukawa as Piccolo
- the late Hiromi Tsuru as Bulma
- Mayumi Tanaka as Kuririn
- the late Daisuke Gori as the Ox King
- Mayumi Sho as Chi-Chi
- the late Kohei Miyauchi as Master Roshi
- the late Takeshi Aono as Kami
- the late Kenji Utsumi as Shenlong
- Akira Kamiya as Garlic Jr.
- Koji Totani as Ginger
- Yukitoshi Hori as Sansho
- Shigeru Chiba as Nicky
- the late Joji Yanami as the Narrator
- English
- Sean Schemmel as Goku
- Stephanie Nadolny as Gohan
- Christopher Sabat as Piccolo, the Ox King, Kami & Shenlong
- Tiffany Vollmer as Bulma
- Sonny Strait as Kuririn
- Cynthia Cranz as Chi-Chi
- Mike McFarland as Master Roshi
- Chuck Huber as Garlic Jr.
- Troy Baker as Ginger
- Eric Dillow as Sansho
- Doug Burks as Nicky
- Kyle Hebert as the Narrator
Trivia
- The movie had aired on Toonami with a few commercial promos. It aired on Toonami on February 12, 1999.
- Flashbacks in the Dragon Ball Z episodes "The Heavens Tremble" including "Black Fog of Terror" and "Fight with Piccolo" feature animated footage from Dead Zone.
- This is the only movie to feature the ending theme song from the TV series ("Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power!"). All other movies feature original songs as the ending themes. However, the animated sequence at the end is slightly different from the one in the series: this is just Gohan running around on the planet, and features none of the "cutaway" scenes from the series (Yajirobe with Kami, the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, etc.). Gohan dressed as the Monkey King at the end is still there, though.
- This is one of the only post Dragon Ball entries in the series where Goku uses the Power Pole in combat, along with The World's Strongest.
- Despite being released under the Ultimate Uncut Special Edition line, the FUNimation version is actually more edited than the original Pioneer Entertainment release.
- While the movie itself was fully uncut, the Special Edition version used the wrong opening animation. This was corrected in the double feature release.
- In the Remastered edition of this movie, the insert song was replaced in the English audio while in earlier FUNimation releases of this movie had kept it in. *This also goes for The World's Strongest which also had its insert song replaced in the remastered uncut English version. Though if using the audio for English with Japanese score, then the songs are there.
- Garlic Jr. and cronies try to kill Piccolo and know that doing so will kill Kami as well, but they do not seem to know that killing them will cause the Dragon Balls (which Garlic Jr. needs to be immortal) to vanish.
- There are a few discrepancies. For example, Krillin was introduced to Gohan in the movie, yet he did not know who he was at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. Additionally, in "Unlikely Alliance" ("The World's Strongest Team" in the original dub), Goku comments on his discovery that Piccolo trains with weighted clothes; however, he makes the same comments in Dead Zone.
- The 10th Shunsuke Kikuchi music package for the franchise starts here. The cues were designated "M8XX" codes, and this package would make its series debut in "Counting Down".
- This is the only version ever to be shown in 4:3, in both the United States and Japan. Every other release, including Japanese releases were cropped to 16:9
- In the Remastered Uncut edition of this movie, the insert song was replaced in the English audio while in earlier FUNimation releases of this movie had kept it in. This also goes for The World's Strongest which also had its insert song replaced in the remastered uncut English version. Though if using the audio for English with Japanese score, then the songs are there.
- all information on Dragon Ball Z movie 1 came from http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball_Z:_Dead_Zone