This article is about the character portrayed in live-action by Justin Chatwin. For the original character, see Goku.

Goku
悟空 Gokū
Alternate names	Geeko (by his classmates)
Debut	Dragonball Evolution (March 2009)
Appears in	Dragonball Evolution
Gender	Male
Family	Oozaru (original form) Grandpa Gohan (grandfather) Roshi (mentor) Lord Piccolo (former master of original form)

Goku (悟空) is a fictional character in the 2009 film Dragonball Evolution. He is an adaptation of Goku, the longest running protagonist of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball franchise, and is portrayed by Justin Chatwin.

BiographyEdit

After Lord Piccolo was sealed away by the mafuba, Oozaru escaped to Earth as a human infant. He was found and raised by Gohan, who gave him the name "Goku". According to a prophecy, on Goku's eighteenth birthday, he would be reborn as Oozaru.

When he is introduced in the movie, Goku is a regular teenager attending high school, and has trouble fitting in. He deals with bullies often and seems to be infatuated with the school's most popular girl, Chi-Chi. Although he has been trained in the way of martial arts by his grandfather, Gohan, he opts not to fight back or abuse the skills he has been taught. Grandpa Gohan gives the Four-Star Dragon Ball to Goku, shortly before being confronted by Piccolo. Goku decides to go to Chi-Chi's party one night, while Fuller's gang does not let him in, leaving Goku to fight. After Goku defeats Fuller's boys, Fuller grabs a piece of metal to attack Goku with. Goku jumps onto Fuller's car, making Fuller miss him and take off his own side view mirror. "Nice swing, good form!" Goku taunts. While making Fuller miss every swing and making him trash his car instead, Goku continues to taunt by saying "Close one!", "Doing good!", "Hey Fuller!", and "You got a couple of dings there you might wanna try buffing out."

After the death of his grandfather, Goku embarks on a journey with Bulma Brief, to locate the seven Dragon Balls before Piccolo, who plans to destroy the world using the artifacts. Goku finds Master Roshi's house, and he joins the journey. He also encounters Yamcha along the way, a desert bandit who joins the team. As Oozaru, he kills Master Roshi, but manages to gain control of himself and finally masters the Kamehameha attack which he'd been having trouble with. With that, he defeats Piccolo and uses the Dragon Balls to revive Master Roshi. Afterwards, he starts a relationship with Chi-Chi.

Techniques and special abilitiesEdit

• Kamehameha – An energy wave technique.
• Ki Blast – The most basic form of energy wave.
• Oozaru – An (initially) uncontrolled transformation into a large primate.
• Shadow Crane Strike – An agile martial arts technique Goku learns from his grandfather.
• Spirit Shot – Goku uses this in the video game adaption of the movie only.

Actor's insightEdit

• "First of all, it's an honor to play Goku, because he is a very important and epic character. He is always seeing the positive side of things, does good things, and always tries to help and take care of the weak, not only pursuing his power. He is a dependable and loving man as well as a boy. So I like Goku. In preparation for the role, of course I read the original manga (all of it), in addition, I read Journey to the West a little, because Dragonball is based on Journey to the West. And during the break time of shooting, I got into Goku's character, telling jokes with other cast in search of the real communication which can be used in acting. This is the most interesting movie for me. Because I have never fought with anyone though, I trained martial arts and acrobat, and then we shot it. That's fun as well as challenging. Fighting with Eriko (Tamura), she punched me in the face, actually she intended to hit lightly, but... it was a clean hit (laugh) She said "I'm sorry!" and apologized to me, but thanks to her, we could shoot very powerful action scenes. Through this work, I think I could learn a lot of things."^[1]

Comparison to the manga characterEdit

SimilaritiesEdit

• He has a bigger appetite than Bulma, briefly shown in the film.
• He performs a weaker version of the Kamehameha seconds after watching Master Roshi do it, however in the manga, it is more powerful and does not fall apart in the air.
• He is raised by Gohan.
• He is trained by Master Roshi.
• He is not exactly smart.
• He has spiky hair.

Differences to the mangaEdit

• Goku lives in the mountains, but (in the film) migrates into town very frequently.
• In the manga, he was isolated from modern civilization for most of his childhood. In the film, Goku is a typical teenager in high school and interacts with his peers frequently and uses electronic devices, and also has bullies.
• The romantic relationship between Goku and Chi Chi is reversed; Goku (in the film) has had a crush on Chi-Chi for some time.
• In the manga, Bulma is the first female he meets, and second human being, whereas in the film he knows many females and sees people a lot, long before meeting Bulma.
• In the manga, he gets his blue gi from Grandpa Gohan, and is never seen wearing anything else until Master Roshi gives him his trademark orange gi. In the film, he wears regular clothes, and Master Roshi gives him his blue gi. He finds the orange gi early in the film, supposedly taking it with him to put it on just in time for the final battle.
• The trademark orange gi is all orange in the manga, except for a black and white "turtle" symbol. In the film, it has navy blue pants, and undershirt with an orange shirt. In addition, Goku's wristbands, and belt, which were blue in the manga, are black in the film.
• When Goku is first introduced in the manga, he is 12 years of age; in the film he is 18.
• In the film, Goku transforms into his Oozaru (Great Ape) state during a solar eclipse, while this occurred during a full moon in the manga.
• In the manga, Oozaru, otherwise known as the Great Ape, is a Saiyan trait, as all Saiyans have the ability to transform into them. In the film, Oozaru was an ancient god who helped Piccolo destroy the earth, and is being reborn in Goku (as an adaptation of the notorious full moon transformation from the series) for unknown reasons.
• Goku's traditional, happy attitude is downplayed in the film. Instead, he questions his belonging on the Earth and wants to fit in, while in the manga, he never really cares to wonder who he was.
• In the manga, he masters the Kamehameha extremely quickly, after simply watching Master Roshi do it. In the movie, he has a great deal of trouble mastering it, but finally succeeds in the end, just in time to defeat Piccolo with the technique.
• In the manga and anime, even by the age of eighteen, Goku is capable of performing feats of strength, speed, agility, and ki power that are nearly god-like. In the film, while Goku's abilities are impressive, they are significantly less so.
• In the manga, Goku defeats Piccolo with Penetrate!, but in the film, Goku defeats Piccolo with a Kamehameha, flying towards Piccolo using the attack.
• In the manga and the anime, Goku's negative Saiyan traits are knocked out of him after a fall from a ledge. In the film, the incident never happened, as Gohan taught Goku the proper restraint himself. However, Goku does display some Saiyan-like behaviors such as arrogance (claiming Bulma was not even close to killing him after their initial confrontation), toying with the enemy (continually dodging Fuller's attacks, making him destroy his own car and knock himself out), and even sarcasm (directed towards Bulma when she was having trouble finding Roshi in Paozu's directory, claiming she should look up "Master" and then proceeding to spell it out for her).

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

• Justin Chatwin fansite