| Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest | |
|---|---|
 Geneon DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Daisuke Nishio |
| Screenplay by | Takao Koyama |
| Based on | Dragon Ball byAkira Toriyama |
| Starring | Seebelow |
| Cinematography | Motoaki Ikegami |
| Edited by | Shinichi Fukumitsu |
| Music by | Shunsuke Kikuchi |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Toei Company |
Release date |
|
Running time | 58 Minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Box office | ¥1.70 billion (est.) |
Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest (Japanese:ドラゴンボールZ この世で一番強いヤツ,Hepburn:Doragon Bōru Zetto: Kono Yo de Ichiban Tsuyoi Yatsu)[a] is a 1990 Japaneseanimatedscience fictionmartial arts film and the second feature film in theDragon Ball Z franchise. It was originally released in Japan on March 10 between episodes 39 and 40 ofDBZ, at the "Toei Manga Matsuri" film festival along with the secondAkuma-kun film (Welcome to Devil Land) and the 1990 film version ofSally the Witch. It was preceded byDragon Ball Z: Dead Zone and followed byDragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might.
Gohan andOolong search for themagical Dragon Balls and theirradar shows them that the orbs are being gathered by another, unknown party. They investigate near a large wall of ice wherePiccolo is training. Meanwhile, themad scientist Dr. Kochin, having successfully gathered all of the Dragon Balls, summons the eternal dragon Shenron andwishes for Dr. Wheelo and his lab to be released from the ice. The ice breaks away as a building emerges, and Gohan and Oolong are attacked by Dr. Kochin's "bio-men". Piccolo saves them, but is overcome by three mysterious warriors while Gohan and Oolong escape.
Dr. Kochin and his bio-men soon present themselves toMaster Roshi, who refuses to accompany them to Wheelo's lab and defeats the bio-men. Dr. Kochin kidnapsBulma to force Master Roshi to pursue them. At Wheelo's lab, Master Roshi is forced to fight three "bio-warriors" but is swiftly defeated. Bulma discovers that Dr. Wheelo's mission is to obtain the body of the strongest warrior on Earth to become the host for his brain, which is currently separated from his deceased body and kept alive by his advanced technology. Bulma informs him thatGoku will undoubtedly be coming to rescue them and that he is much stronger than Roshi.
Meanwhile, Goku learns of the situation, arrives at Dr. Wheelo's lab, and is confronted by Mikokatsun, Kishime, and Ebifurya – Dr. Kochin's three bio-warriorhenchmen. Goku defeats Mikokatsun but is frozen by an ice-like attack launched by Ebifurya. Gohan andKrillin arrive to help, but are no match for Kishime. Goku breaks free from ice with his Kaio-ken technique, defeats the two remaining bio-warriors, and confronts Dr. Wheelo. Piccolo, who Dr. Wheelo has brainwashed, attacks Goku. Gohan tries to stop Piccolo but fails, causing his anger to explode and shatter Dr. Wheelo's brainwashing device. Dr. Wheelo is stunned by Gohan's power and desires to steal his body instead. He breaks hisrobot body free from the ice wall, subsequently knocking Dr. Kochin down a shaft, which kills him.
Dr. Wheelo attacks and overwhelms the fighters, leaving only Goku and Piccolo to oppose him. Goku knocks Dr. Wheelo into the atmosphere and begins to form a Spirit Bomb attack. Wheelo interrupts him before he can finish gathering theenergy, requiring Goku's allies to distract Him. Goku successfully launches the bomb, and Wheelo is killed.
Although the Ox-King does not appear in this film, the 2008 "remastered" version of the Funimation dub miscredits him as voiced byChristopher Sabat.
A fourth English dub, produced and released exclusively in Malaysia by Speedy Video, features an unknown voice cast.
The Toonami version replaced "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" and "Ikusa" with Jeremy Sweet's "Rock the Dragon" but kept the original Japanese background music, including the insert song "I Lo~ve Mr. Piccolo♡". Home video releases of the Pioneer dub left "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" and "Ikusa" intact.
The score for the 2006 English dub's composed byNathan Johnson. The Double Feature release that came out 2 years later in 2008 contains an alternate audio track containing the English dub with original Japanese background music byShunsuke Kikuchi and the original ending theme, "Ikusa".
At the Japanese box office, the film sold2.7 million tickets and earned a netdistribution rental income of¥1 billion.
Overseas in Europe, the film grossed $1,009,767 in Germany, Austria and Poland during 2002–2003.[2]
It was released onVHS andDVD in North America on May 26, 1998, with an English dub, produced byPioneer Entertainment in association withFunimation. Pioneer's dub used the originalOcean Productions voice cast of the TV series. Since then, Funimation was released the Ocean dub of the film on theRock the Dragon Edition DVD set on August 13, 2013, it has 53 edited episodes of the TV series, plus two edited films ofDead Zone andThe Tree of Might as they aired on Toonami.
Once their sub-license expired, Funimation also released the film toDVD in "Ultimate Uncut Edition" on November 14, 2006 as part of a film set subtitled "First Strike", also containingDead Zone (1989) andThe Tree of Might (1990), with completely new dub done by Funimation's voice cast. It was later released in Double Feature set along withDead Zone (1989) forBlu-ray and DVD on May 27, 2008, both feature full1080p format inHDremastered16:9 aspect ratio and an enhanced5.1 surround mix. The film was re-released to DVD in remastered thinpak collection on November 1, 2011, containing the first 5Dragon Ball Z films.[3]
Outside of the United States, there have been two other English dubs of this film: one in Malaysia and one byAB Groupe in France. The Malaysian English dub was released toVCD in Malaysia, while AB Groupe's English dub aired on TV in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, as well as seeing a home release to VHS and DVD in some of the formerly mentioned countries. Both dubs use Toei's official English title rather than Funimation's title, and until recently, the voice cast of the AB Groupe dub version was unknown, but then it has been determined that they used voice actors who were involved in French TV shows likeCode Lyoko, while the Malaysian dub's cast remains unknown.
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