Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might
Film poster
Directed by	Daisuke Nishio
Produced by	Chiaki Imada Tamio Kojima (production supervisor)
Written by	Takao Koyama (screenplay) Akira Toriyama (original series author)
Starring	Masako Nozawa Naoki Tatsuta Hiromi Tsuru Mayumi Tanaka Toshio Furukawa Mayumi Shō Tōru Furuya Naoko Watanabe Hirotaka Suzuoki Hiroko Emori Kouhei Miyauchi Kenji Utsumi Joji Yanami
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Release date(s)	July 7, 1990
Running time	61 min.
Language(s)	Japanese/English

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (ドラゴンボールZ 地球まるごと超決戦, Doragon Bōru Zetto: Chikyū Marugoto Chōkessen; lit. "Dragon Ball Z: Super Showdown for the Whole Earth") is the third Dragon Ball Z movie. It was originally released in Japan on July 7, 1990, between episodes 54 and 55 of Dragon Ball Z. It was translated into English by FUNimation Entertainment in 1998.

SummaryEdit

In the movie, the Z Fighters face a new threat that starts with the burning of a forest, caused by the impact of a cosmic object, in which Gohan and Krillin rescue the forest animals and a small dragon named Icarus. Although they are able to restore the forest to its normal state with the Dragon Balls, Icarus does not return and stays with Gohan, much to Chi-Chi's fury. Goku then shows a nearby cave to let Gohan keep the dragon with him. Later, the cosmic object that crashed and caused the forest fire earlier reveals itself to be a probe, and shortly thereafter, the Earth is visited by an unfriendly group of aliens under the leadership of a Saiyan. Upon arriving, they plant a seed which grows the Tree of Might, a plant that sucks the life of the planet on which it was planted and leaves it a desert. At King Kai's request, Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, and Chiaotzu investigate and try to destroy the Tree, but they are unsuccessful. They are then confronted by the aliens whilst their leader watches from inside the spaceship. Eventually, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu are defeated by the aliens, with only Goku remaining as the one who can hold his own against them.

During the ensuing battle, Chiaotzu is rescued by Gohan, who had just arrived, and demonstrates his incredible fighting skills by easily taking out Lakasei. He is then encountered by the aliens' leader Turles, a Saiyan who bears a striking resemblance to Goku. Turles gives Gohan a choice to either join him or die. Gohan refuses to join Turles, and is saved in time thanks to the arrival of Piccolo. However, Turles ambushes and blasts him from behind, having Gohan where he wants him, he notices Gohan's regrown tail and creates an artificial moon, forcibly turning Gohan into a Great Ape and sets him on Goku, who is almost crushed to death in Gohan's hand until Icarus arrives and calms Gohan down. But when Turles attacks Icarus, Gohan is angered and turns on Turles, who fires an attack at Gohan. Before the attack can make contact, Goku manages to cut his son's tail off and restore him to normal. Cradling the little one in his arms, Goku threatens Turles. Angry and impressed at the same time, Turles sets his henchmen on Goku, who uses the Kaio-ken and makes quick work of them while Piccolo unsuccessfully fights Turles again. Goku and Turles then fight, with Goku having the upper hand, until Turles pushes his power further by eating a fruit from the Tree of Might. With his new power, Turles dominates Goku and beats him to the point that he is no longer able to fight, even with the use of the Kaio-ken x10 (x20 in the FUNimation Dub).

Slowly recovering while Turles is distracted by the rest of the Z Fighters, whom he brutally dispatches, Goku decides to use the Spirit Bomb. Despite gaining energy from the living, he is not able to attack Turles as he counterattacks with the Calamity Blaster, neutralizing Goku's Spirit Bomb. Unable to gather more energy from living beings, Goku decides to steal energy from inside the Tree of Might itself. Eventually successful in creating the Spirit Bomb, Goku sees his opportunity, and fires it straight into Turles, who is carried up the trunk of the Tree of Might and destroyed along with the Tree when the Spirit Bomb explodes. With the terror now over, the Z Fighters return to their normal lives once again.

Timeline placementEdit

The movie takes place after Goku, Krillin and Gohan returned from Namek, in the three years the Z Fighters are training to prepare for the Androids. All the Z Fighters are alive, with Yamcha's gi back having the King Kai symbol to support that they were killed during the Saiyan Saga and resurrected at the end of the Namek Saga. Also, Goku is able to increase his Kaio-ken up to 10 fold, which was not possible until he got to planet Namek to defeat Frieza.

ReleasesEdit

The film was first shown as part of a triple feature with two other adaptions of Akira Toriyama's manga, Pink and Kennosuke-sama, at the 1990 Toei Anime Fair (a semi-annual convention featuring Toei Animation's OVA and film adaptations of more or less known manga).^[1] The movie was later released on both VHS and Laserdisc in Japan. They were in a 16:9 format, cropped from its original 4:3 format. It was then released later in Japan as part of the well-known Dragon Box sets, remastered from its original film masters and in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen format (there was much controversy from fans over the decision to crop the movies from its original 4:3 format, which died down when Toei announced that the films were originally animated for widescreen viewing). Containing all four Dragon Ball and all thirteen Dragon Ball Z movies, the boxed set was released with great critical and audience reception.

In the United States, it was first released by Funimation as a three-part television episode that aired on November 17 and 22, 1997. This version was dubbed by the original Ocean Group voice cast and was edited for content, just like their dub of the series. The film was later released on a bilingual DVD by Pioneer on March 17, 1998. The DVD version of the film was uncut, and featured a few voice cast changes, dialogue much closer to the original script, and the original Japanese background music. It was also released for the first time in a 4:3 format.^[2] There was some slight controversy over this dub's audio track, because despite being advertised as "uncut," many sound effects were added or replaced in the dub. Visually, however, there were was no editing whatsoever, and the audio track for the Japanese dub does not contain these sound effects. The film was later later re-released, along with the first two movies, by Pioneer on October 9, 2001, in a three-movie box set, called "Dragon Ball Z - Movie Boxed Set".^[3]

After FUNimation acquired the exclusive DVD rights for the first three movies from Pioneer in 2004, it released The Tree of Might in November 14, 2006, along with the Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone and Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest movies, in a DVD boxset titled "First Strike."^[4] It contained a brand-new in-house dub (without the added sound effects from the Pioneer release) and the original Japanese dub. However, the new in-house dub did not use the original Japanese background music, instead opting for a replacement score. It also contained a new script that, while not too far away from the original Japanese script, was not quite as loyal to the original script as the Ocean Group dub's script had been.

FUNimation re-released this film in DVD and Blu-ray in September 16, 2008, alongside Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug, digitally remastered and in a 16:9 format, as a "Double Feature" DVD. For this release, three audio tracks were included: the original Japanese dub, the new in-house dub with the replacement musical score, and the new in-house dub with the original Japanese music.^[5] Neither of the dub tracks have the added sound effects from the Pioneer dub, and only use the sound effects found in the original Japanese dub.

On November 1, 2011, FUNimation released it along with Dead Zone, The World's Strongest, Lord Slug, and Cooler's Revenge. However, these are the same disks found in the double features.

CastEdit

MusicEdit

• Opening Theme (OP)
  1. "Cha-La Head-Cha-La"
     • Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
       • Song Lyrics

• Ending Theme (ED)
  1. "Marugoto"; まるごと (The Whole World)
     • Lyrics: Dai Satō, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama & Ammy
       • Song Lyrics

CharactersEdit

HeroesEdit

• Goku
• Gohan
• Piccolo
• Krillin
• Yamcha
• Tien Shinhan
• Chiaotzu

VillainsEdit

• Turles
• Rasin
• Lakasei
• Daiz
• Cacao
• Amond

Supporting CharactersEdit

• Bulma
• Oolong
• Icarus
• Chi-Chi
• Puar
• Master Roshi
• King Kai

Major battlesEdit

• Tien & Chiaotzu vs. Rasin & Lakasei
• Krillin vs. Amond
• Yamcha vs. Cacao
• Goku vs. Daiz & Cacao
• Gohan vs. Lakasei
• Great Ape Gohan vs. Goku
• Great Ape Gohan vs. Turles
• Goku vs. Amond, Deiz, Cacao, Razun & Lakasei
• Piccolo vs. Turles
• Goku vs. Turles
• Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu vs. Turles
• Goku vs. Turles

TriviaEdit

• The power levels reported by Turles' scouter are: Gohan - 10,000, Piccolo - 18,000, Goku - 30,000. They are a lot higher than the power levels reported by Vegeta's scouter in the Vegeta Saga (see List of Power Levels).
• The animation in the opening theme is part of the movie itself, as it shows the gathering of the Dragon Balls by Gohan and his friends to restore the forest. The "Rock the Dragon" opening for the FUNimation Dub of Dragon Ball Z uses footage mostly from this movie.
• This is the first theatrical appearance of King Kai in a movie, though his techniques (Kaio-ken and Spirit Bomb) debuted in the previous movie.
• This is the first appearance of Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu in a Dragon Ball Z movie; though Yamcha had appeared in all three Dragon Ball movies, and Tien and Chiaotzu also had first appeared in the third Dragon Ball movie.
• This is the only movie (and only time in the entire series, for that matter) in which Yamcha wears a gi with the turtle symbol on the front and the King Kai symbol on the back. His gi of choice after being resurrected in the series is the opposite (Kai front, turtle back - and he is the only character to wear a gi of this style).
• In one scene of the movie, there is a Ferris Wheel that says D.B.Z.
• In the Ocean dub and Japanese version, first mentions of Frieza are made precluding to later fights with Frieza in the television series.
• In the edited dub of this movie, Turles' hands holding Gohan's eyes open are moved to Gohan's shoulders, despite the fact that his hands were clearly visible on Gohan's face in "Rock the Dragon".
• In the edited Ocean dub, the scene where Gohan is falling nude is edited using digital light covering him up. The scene where Icarus wakes up a nude Gohan is edited using a digital bush, also covering Gohan.
• Gohan does not know Icarus, who had already appeared in the Garlic Jr. Saga before Goku returned to Earth.
• Lakasei mentions that with the fruit of the tree they would be able to defeat Frieza, although Frieza was already dead, having been killed by Future Trunks before Goku returned to Earth. Though, it is possible that, like Cooler for King Cold in Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, the Turles Crusher Corps. did not know that Frieza was dead.

GalleryEdit

Gohan saves Icarus Krillin uses a Kiai to repel a forest fire Gohan uses a Kiai to repel a forest fire Shenron is summoned Animals in the restored forest Turles' spider-like pod Turles' spider-like pod Turles and the Crusher Corps. arrive on Earth Goku and Gohan Gohan drawing breath Gohan back at home Chi-Chi scolds Gohan Gohan with Icarus Goku, Gohan, and Icarus in a cave Amond prepares a Planet Bomb Amond fires the Planet Bomb The Seed of Might Gohan plays with Icarus Gohan baths Icarus Gohan and Icarus in a field Bulma yelling at Yamcha Goku with his friends Gohan at home Chiaotzu firing a Dodon Ray Tien fires the Tri-Beam Krillin's Kamehameha fired at the Tree of Might Yamcha's Kamehameha fired at the Tree of Might Goku's Kamehameha fired at the Tree of Might Z Fighters firing energy attacks at the Tree of Might Turles' henchmen Chiaotzu and Tien preparing a combined blast Rasin and Lakasei split when hit with the combined blast Amond spins on himself Amond launches an energy disk Amond launches an energy disk Amond's orange disk struggles with Krillin's yellow disk Krillin gets his disk back Amond gets his disk back Yamcha controls a Spirit Ball to attack Cacao Goku Goku uses an Energy Shield against Daiz and Cacao's attack Goku confronts Cacao and Daiz Goku blasts Cacao and Daiz Daiz hit by Goku's Double Kamehameha Cacao is hit Goku's Double Kamehameha Gohan fires a Masenko Gohan headbutts his opponent Piccolo arrives Turles holds Gohan Turles throws Gohan at Piccolo Turles about to blast Piccolo in the back Turles before blasting Piccolo in the back Piccolo getting hurt protecting Gohan Goku faces off against Great Ape Gohan Goku almost gets crushed by Great Ape Gohan Icarus confronts Great Ape Gohan Goku blocks an attack Goku uses the Kaio-ken Goku uses the Kaio-ken Turles attacks Piccolo confronts Turles Goku uses a Kaio-ken Turles dodges one of Goku's attacks Turles bashes Goku Goku is knocked out Turles crushes Goku Piccolo fires a Special Beam Cannon at Turles Turles blasts Piccolo Turles defeats Piccolo Goku uses the Spirit Bomb D.B.Z Ferris Wheel Goku The Tree of Might's energy The Tree of Might's energy Goku's Spirit Bomb Turles destroyed along with the Tree of Might Gohan with Icarus Add a photo to this galleryAdd a photo to this gallery

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

• Watch Dragon Ball Z - The Tree Of Might