Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound (1993) Review:

There’s nothing ever wrong with expanding a roster of characters or expanding the realm of a particular universe. This kind of world building goes back decades and not just at the start of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. The way it is done though should be gradual and over time. Having new characters inserted into a story with no particular background or context is usually a bad idea. For the Dragon Ball Z world, Akira Toriyama did a fairly decent job of doing this kind of foundation laying so that there was a real solid base behind the story being told. However, that doesn’t mean it was always on point. A good example of this is this feature film entry. Out of all other entries to be released, this one perhaps has the most disappointing of stories.

The plot to this entry is about Mr. Satan (Chris Rager), the supposed world champ holding another fighter tournament where whoever wins will go up against him. Little does the man know that Goku’s son Gohan (Stephanie Nadolny) and friends consisting of Krillin (Sonny Strait), Trunks (Eric Vale) and Tien (John Burgmeier) have all entered too. Midway through the tournament, the Z fighters are interrupted by Bojack (Bob Carter) and his goons looking to destroy earth. Why? Because apparently King Kai (Sean Schemmel) and the other Kais had banished this villain long ago. The only reason why Bojack has returned is due to Goku (Schemmel) blowing up King Kai’s planet, which is what kept Bojack locked away. Convenience! That is literally why this film exists and for no other reason.

The writer behind the screenplay was again Takao Koyama, the same for all previous film entries. Yoshihiro Ueda served as the director to this feature who surprisingly headed the History of Trunks film which was much better. What doesn’t work here is the blatant blank slate backstory used to explain who Bojack is. Unlike Dead Zone (1989) or many other stories, the villains there at least got some kind of visual throwback to their run-in with the protagonist who knows them. Instead viewers will just get an exposition dump from King Kai with no further explanation to anything else. The character of Bojack is the laziest form of “new villain, insert here” writing. But this isn’t the most surprising aspect of this feature. It’s actually one thing that has been pointed out for almost every other entry.

Believe it or not, the writing decides to acknowledge the TV shows continuity. Why now of all times? It never seemed to matter before, but now the movie’s acknowledging timelines? This time, the characters properly refer to events like the end of the Cell games and all relevant characters are properly available? Shocker! When it comes to lineup of between the shows seasons it seems to work well as a one off story that happened in between major events. So this proves it can be done, but for whatever reason this is not preferred. The voice acting to this feature is always good to hear though with the funimation voice cast. For Bob Carter, this was his first time working a major film villain role and he sounds good. Although Bojack is not a well-developed character, his voice sounds cool.

The action and animation work well together. Having Tadayoshi Yamamuro as the animation director helped, seeing that they’ve helped animate the franchise going years back to the beginning. Much of the movements are fluid and the character designs are much more detailed. The action is also well mixed. The music for this entry was a little better but still not by a long shot. Returning to compose the new film score to this feature was Mark Menza. The tracks heard throughout work better than just random dated hard metal band music tracks, but nothing will beat the original score from Shunsuke Kikuchi. Much of Menza’s score sounds anonymous with no real signature. It’s weird because Mark Menza isn’t even credited on imdb but is in the film version release that he worked on.

Aside from the standard top notch voice acting, animation and surprisingly accurate continuity this entry is average. There’s no plot and there’s no development for Bojack as a stock rando villain. The US musical score still doesn’t come close to the JP original music either, despite not including outdated tracks.

Points Earned --> 5:10

Mermaids (1990) Review:

There’s a lot of factors that go into what attracts a viewer to a movie. It could be the visuals, it could be the premise and the cast. Sometimes within the cast it’s just a single person that makes people want to see it. For this particular movie it seems at the time of its release, the main attraction to this feature was Cher. Although she was not unknown at the time and had been in several productions before, she still hadn’t headlined too many movies. And being that Cher has been looked up to by so many for her ambitions and beauty, seeing her name and the title of the movie looks like it would be some kind of a unique fantasy any young girl would look at, thinking it would be for them. Cher and mermaids sound like they would go hand in hand.

The premise for this film is about Mrs. Flax (Cher) and her two daughters Charlotte (Winona Ryder) and Kate (Christine Ricci) finding a town they can call their home. The problem is, Mrs. Flax is not one to stay too long for commitment reasons. That it is until she meets Lou Landsky (Bob Hoskins) who happens to show Mrs. Flax that he’s not like other men she has met. Meanwhile Charlotte is trying to find love among strangers and wants to be a good daughter. The original story came from a novel by Patty Dann of which this is her only work that’s been adapted to film. Adapting this novel was done by June Roberts who had only wrote for one film almost a decade before. Directing this feature came under Richard Benjamin, a veteran of the classic Hollywood era who acted in Westworld (1973) and even directed other films like City Heat (1984).

When it comes to the plot, the execution makes sense. However, if one is expecting some type of fantasy element revolving around mermaids, viewers will be sadly mistaken. Other than a visual reference to the title during a New Year’s Eve party, nothing else really is said about the title. Maybe the meaning behind it is about how mermaids are eternally single? As they are typically creatures that lure men to their deaths as oppose to the family friendly version presented by Disney. But this is never made clear though, so it can definitely confuse some viewers. Other than that, everything about the story is okay. The characters are written where the viewer can understand their opinions on things. Charlotte wants to be nothing like her mother, who is clever, sassy and attractive for all the wrong reasons.

She also wants to remain celibate before getting married, which her mother thinks is preposterous. The one person Charlotte has her sights set on is Joe (Michael Schoeffling), a simple town guy who everyone respects, likes and works with nuns, mainly mother superior (Jan Miner). The only thing that can get on some viewer’s nerves is that Charlotte is always in her head monologuing, which can be a bit tiresome to hear her thoughts. Cher as Mrs. Flax plays her role almost like one would expect her to play as described before. She is her own woman, ain’t no man is going to tell her what she has to do, and she can get any man she desires. There are a few interactions that she has with Lou and her daughter Charlotte that show how her attitude impacts others. Bob Hoskins plays Lou like the guy who would ground Mrs. Flax, although he does look a little too old for her.

Christina Ricci as the youngest daughter is cute in her own way. This was her first theatrical debut and really seems like she was given permission to do whatever she liked. When it came to the camerawork, Howard Atherton was the designated cinematographer. For this picture much of what shot looks okay, but nothing that stands out either. Atherton would later shoot for Bad Boys (1995) and Deep Rising (1998). Lastly the film score behind the music was composer Jack Nitzsche. Probably best known for his work on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Starman (1984), the work behind here feels a little underwhelming. The main theme sounds like what could’ve been the start of The Entertainer song but then quickly moves to other notes. There doesn’t seem to be an album available either so maybe it wasn’t a very notable effort on his part.

The story and acting are all fine. It’s just the confusing title along with average camerawork and music that makes this Cher film rather uneventful.

Points Earned --> 5:10

Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan (1993) Review:

As it has been quoted by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, the power level gimmick used in the Dragon Ball Z series was never meant to become a mainstay for the franchise. However, because of how it made fans latch onto the story, it was something he had to continue going with. The unfortunate thing is, because every new villain had to one up the previous, the ability to quantify the topic at hand just loses all of its heft. With every successive antagonist Toriyama’s hero Goku (Kakarot) was able to knock down, there’s always someone else that needed to fill that void. Although becoming a Super Saiyan was supposed to be it in terms of power limits, many forms came after. However, this particular entry was to bring in the real original.

The plot is about another Saiyan prodigy who was forgotten just like Goku (Sean Schemmel). This one was named Broly (Vic Mignogna) of which his father Paragus (Dameon Clarke) did his best to convince his king that Broly would become the legendary super saiyan. His efforts fell on deaf ears. As time passed, Paragus would find his way to Earth where in order for Broly to claim his right as the only title, Goku would need to be defeated. Written by Takao Koyama who has been penning the script since the first Dragon Ball Z film and directed by first timer to the franchise Shigeyasu Yamauchi, this duo makes this feature interesting for its contextual background. It seems as though that is one of the stronger traits to this franchise despite how good the action is.

Whenever it comes to giving background to certain characters, there’s always something new a fan didn’t know about. Similar to how Goku’s father encountered Frieza, and Cooler could have almost intercepted Goku’s pod flying to Earth. This time, Broly was the one who missed being decimated. This just gives the character of Goku far more depth than any character introduced before and the scope of his impact continues to increase. As usual though, timelines do not fall into place for when this entry takes place in the shows chronology. It’s just a big mess. Trunks is still around, and again Goku is alive as well. So, did this all happen before the androids even made their appearances? But that’s the whole reason why Trunks came to Goku’s timezone. Seems like there’s a lot of things going on before the meat and potatoes of the cell saga even starts.

When it comes to the voice cast, everyone on board now is pretty much solidified their parts where nothing is questioned. If there was anything to callout on it, there would be something said about it, but that’s not the case for this entry. Dameon Clarke as Paragus is no stranger to the series and plays Paragus fine. For Vic Mignogna as another first timer to the franchise, he would also cement his place as Broly with a fairly intimidating voice. Everyone else still has a voice cameo here and there. The main voices to be prominent in this feature though are Sean Schemmel, Eric Vale, Chris Sabat, Dameon Clarke, Vic Mignogna and Stephanie Nadolny. For the action, the fights between the heroes and Broly is pretty intense. As the original super Saiyan, Broly has no cares on how low he goes.

The fights are well staged and choreographed fluidly. This goes hand in hand with the animation which continues to have the well detailed drawings of the characters and backgrounds. Credit to animation director Tadayoshi Yamamuro for keeping things looking good. Sadly, for the musical end, the original American release of this feature has the dated mix of new instrumentals from Mark Menza and Bruce Falconer along with inserted tracks from Pointy Shoe Factory, Tendril, Pantera and others. For those whole love heavy metal, have at it. But Dragon Ball Z properties are not the right avenue to have this kind of music overlaid in the scenes. They just don’t match and only further date the production of what studio producer said would be the “in” thing to have at the time.

Aside from the story not finding any real place where it falls within the timing between the show’s episodes, this is a fair entry. The story gives another interesting aspect of the main protagonist, with entertaining animation and voice acting. The contemporary music again used is less than to be desired.

Points Earned --> 6:10