If you grew up in the '90s, you probably rented a VHS tape with a questionable cover featuring Goku fighting a villain you never saw on TV. Dragon Ball isn't just the most important shonen anime of all time; it's a money-printing machine thanks to its feature films. But here's the headache: where does the Cooler movie fit in? Why does Goku use the Kaio-ken if Yamcha is alive? (Spoiler alert: it doesn't make sense.).
How many Dragon Ball movies actually exist? To date, we have 21 official animated films for theaters (4 from the original series, 15 from DBZ and 2 from DB Super under that brand, although Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F' started as Z and became part of the Super canon). To this we add 3 essential TV specials, 4 cult OVAs (Original Video Animation), and live-action adaptations.
The only strictly canon (approved and guided by the official timeline of Toriyama's manga) are those belonging to the modern era: Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, Broly and Super Hero.
Get comfortable, boost your ki, and let's review the complete catalog.
The Myth of Canon (And why Toei fooled us all)
The truth is that Toei Animation, the studio behind the anime, didn't give a damn about "canon" in the 90s. The Z-era films were produced to be shown at spring and summer film festivals in Japan.
The goal? Throw the most popular characters into a blender with a villain who used to be a reskin of the series' antagonists (Turles is Vegeta, Slug is Piccolo Daimaoh, Cooler is Frieza), and make them fight for 45 minutes. These stories take place in parallel dimensions. If you try to fit them into the official anime timeline, your brain will short-circuit.
Dragon Ball (The Classic Era): Where it all began
Before Super Saiyans and destroying planets with a finger, it was all adventure, Dragon Balls, and martial arts comedy. These movies are basically "What if…?" rewriting the original story.
The Legend of Shenlong the Dragon (1986): A reboot of the first arc. We meet Goku, Bulma, and Oolong, but instead of Pilaf, the villain is King Gurumes, a disgustingly rich and gluttonous guy.
Sleeping Princess in Evil Castle (1987): Change the training of Goku And Krillin with Roshi. They have to rescue a "princess" from the clutches of Lucifer (literally a generic vampire).
Mystical Adventure (1988): A hodgepodge where Chaoz is the emperor of a country and Ten Shin Han his bodyguard, while Master Shen and Tao Pai Pai conspire.
The Road to Power (1996): Produced for the franchise's tenth anniversary, it's a spectacular remake (with the animation quality of Dragon Ball GT) of the Red Ribbon Army arc. Visually, it's insane.
Dragon Ball Z: The Golden Age of VHS
This is where the franchise of Dragon Ball It exploded worldwide. These 15 films defined the aesthetics and hyper-violence of the 90s.
Give Me Back My Gohan (1989): Garlic Jr. kidnaps Gohan. The only movie whose villain has a filler arc in the official anime.
The Strongest Man in the World (1990): Dr. Wheelo, a brain in a giant jar, wants Goku's body. Highly underrated for its hand-to-hand combat.
The Greatest Battle in the World Is About to Begin (1990): Enter Turles, the Saiyan deserter who plants the Tree of Might. Literally Goku versus his evil twin before Goku Black even existed.
Goku is a Super Saiyan (1991): Lord Slug, a giant Namekian. The movie that lied to us with that fake Super Saiyan (Goku with a golden aura but black hair).
The Most Powerful Rivals (1991): Cooler, Frieza's older brother, arrives on Earth to avenge his family's honor. An instant classic.
The Mightiest Warriors (1992): Metal Cooler. The first time we see Goku and Vegeta fight together as Super Saiyans.
The Fight of the Three Saiyans (1992): Androids 13, 14, and 15. If you like watching Goku suffer a low blow (literally), this is your movie.
The Invincible Power (1993): The legend of Broly is born. The Legendary Super Saiyan on steroids with an irrational hatred for Goku's baby-like whining.
The Galaxy is in Danger (1993): Gohan Super Saiyan 2 vs. Bojack. One of the few where Goku is dead and not the final savior (until he breaks the rules from beyond the grave, of course).
The Return of the Legendary Warrior (1994): Broly returns and is defeated by the "Family Kamehameha" of Gohan, Goten and the ghost of Goku.
The Final Battle (1994): Bio-Broly. The black sheep. Broly made of toxic mud fighting against Goten, Trunks, and Krillin. I wish he'd never existed.
The Fusion of Goku and Vegeta (1995): Janemba unleashes chaos in Hell. Visually, it's perhaps the best-animated film of the '90s, and it gives us Gogeta destroying his enemy in 30 seconds.
The Attack of the Dragon (1995): Hildegarn and Tapion. It explains (non-canonically) how Trunks gets his sword. It has a melancholic tone very different from the rest.
Battle of the Gods (2013): The rebirth. Toriyama returns. We meet Beerus and Whis, and the Super Saiyan God is born.
The Resurrection of F (2015): Frieza returns with gold paint. The CGI animation is questionable in some parts, but it laid the groundwork for the Super anime.
TV Specials and OVAs: The Lost Jewels
Many people call them movies, but technically they're specials created for Japanese television or direct-to-video releases. That's where the real magic lies. lore dark side of the saga.
| Title / Year | Guy | What's it about? (And why does it matter?) |
| The Father of Goku (1990) | TV Special | Bardock's tragic end against Frieza. So good that Toriyama included Bardock in the official manga after seeing it. |
| The Two Warriors of the Future (1993) | TV Special | Trunks and Gohan, both one-armed, in a post-apocalyptic future dominated by Androids. It's raw, sad, and masterful. |
| 100 Years Later (1997) | TV Special | The epilogue to Dragon Ball GT. Goku Jr. searches for the Dragon Balls. A direct hit of nostalgia. |
| The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans (1993/2010) | OVA | Originally created as a guide for a Famicom video game, Hatchiyack is the villain. It had a remake excellent in 2010. |
| Goku and Friends Return! (2008) | OVA | Tarble, Vegeta's younger brother, arrives on Earth. It's pure comedy and served to test the franchise's return. |
| Bardock episode (2011) | OVA | Absurd spin-off where Bardock travels through time and becomes the first Super Saiyan in history. |
Dragon Ball Super: The Consolidation of the Canon
After absorbing the 2013 and 2015 films into the TV series, Toei decided that the following films would continue the official story of the manga/anime directly.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018): Toriyama takes Broly and Gogeta, cleans them up from the narrative mess of the '90s, and makes them canon. Tatsuya Nagamine's direction and Naohiro Shintani's character designs delivered the greatest spectacle of frenetic action ever seen in the franchise.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022): A total risk. 100% CGI animation, focused on Gohan and Piccolo, leaving... Goku and Vegeta in the background. It introduces the Gohan Beast and Orange Piccolo forms. Despite initial doubts about the 3D, the fluidity and homages to the Android era won over the fandom.
The Corner of Shame (Live-Actions and Bootlegs)
We can't talk about all the movies without mentioning the radioactive elephant in the room.
Dragonball Evolution (2009): Hollywood destroying your childhood. Justin Chatwin as a teenage Goku going to high school. Fox didn't get it at all. The only good thing about this movie is that it offended Akira Toriyama so much that it motivated him to come out of retirement to create The Battle of the Gods.
The Magic Begins (1991) and Fight Son Goku! (1990): Unofficial films from Taiwan and South Korea, respectively. They are low-budget, pirated productions that adapt the first few volumes. Watching a guy dressed as Oolong with a plastic pig mask fighting with cheap wires is a psychedelic trip that every fan should experience at least once in their life.
Tell us, have you seen all the movies in this Dragon Ball universe? How many are you still missing? There are quite a few movies, but far fewer than Marvel.
Image: Geekine
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