The Path to Power Movie - Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball: The Path to Power is a Japanese animated fantasy and martial arts film that originally released on March 2nd, 1996 and is based on Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga. The Path to Power adapts the Red Ribbon Army and Dragon Ball Search Arcs of the original story. The release took place at the Toei Anime Fair for the 10th-anniversary commemoration of the Dragon Ball anime series. It was produced and distributed by Toei Animation Company and made 600 million yen in the box office.
Summary
The Path to Power begins with the introduction of Goku, a young boy with a monkey tail that possesses superhuman strength and martial arts skills. On one beautiful day, he goes fishing, catches a fish, and almost gets hit by a car driven by a girl named Bulma. Goku thinks that the car-like a monster and throws it sideways, Bulma shoots him in return. Goku also thinks that she is a demon, but she manages to convince him that she isn’t.
Goku invites her to his house, as his Grandpa Gohan always taught Goku to treat girls nicely. Bulma agrees to visit Goku’s home and, once inside, he shows Bulma an orange ball that glows, a sign that makes Goku believe that his grandpa’s spirit is inside of it. Suddenly, Bulma asks if she can have the orange ball. Goku denies the request, which causes Bulma to show him two Dragon Balls of her own, which she claims she got from her uncle.
She convinces Goku to go on a journey with her after telling him the story about the Dragon Balls granting wishes (with the ulterior motive of making Goku her bodyguard). She says that she would use the Dragon Balls to find a perfect man for herself. At first, Goku disagrees, but Bulma convinces him by saying that finding the Dragon Balls will make him strong.
They hop onto Bulma’s bike and, while traveling through the forest, they are stopped by a bull that tries to scare Goku, though he doesn’t budge. The bull then turns into a robot, tries to scare Goku again, but he remains unfazed. After this, the creature tries to get away by turning into a bat. After five minutes, the transforming monster turns back into his original form, a pig and introduces himself as Oolong. Yamcha then attacks the party, demanding capsules and money. Puar then recognizes Oolong and scolds him for using perverted antics during shapeshifting school. Yamcha attacks Goku and was about to defeat him, but Bulma wakes up, causing Yamcha to become paralyzed with fear. Both Yamcha and Puar retreat.
On their journey to find the other Dragon Balls, they find Muscle Tower, which is filled with soldiers that attack as soon as they detect them. Goku charges inside the tower until he encounters the robotic Major Metallitron, which Goku knocks the head off quickly. General White from the Red Ribbon army gives orders to all his forces to attack Goku and unleashes their deadliest weapon, Android 8.
Android 8 is a robot that looks just like Frankenstein’s monster and, at first, charges right at Goku, but when ordered to kill Goku, he refuses. This led to White’s decision to self-destruct Android 8. Goku kicks the controller away and saves Android 8, after which they became friends. They bid each other farewell before continuing on their journey.
While on the road, Oolong is driving the house wagon and has to swerve around a sea turtle on the road to avoid hitting it. The sea turtle explains that it is lost and wants to go back to sea. The group helps him get to the sea and the turtle promises them to reward the next day. They spend their night on the beach and when the turtle returns, he brings Master Roshi with him. Master Roshi summons an Immortal Phoenix. Unfortunately, the mythical bird had apparently died at some point. As such, Roshi summons the Flying Nimbus. Goku is the only one who can ride it, making him its new owner.
While Goku is off flying the Nimbus cloud, Bulma discovers that Roshi also has a Dragon Ball. Master Roshi agrees to only give it to her if she shows him her underwear. She goes to change in the wagon, but General Blue and the Red Ribbon army attacks them in battleships. Roshi decides to stand and fight with a Kamehameha wave, but the rest of Goku’s friends end up getting captured by Blue’s soldiers and sent to prison in the Red Ribbon Headquarters.
Goku wakes up alone on the beach and finds that the others are held captive. He goes to save them, find the other Dragon Balls, and fight the Red Ribbon soldiers. While Goku fights a bunch of soldiers, Red Ribbon’s Commander Red and Officer Black escapes with the six Dragon Balls. However, Black hears Red wish to become taller, which infuriated him enough to shoot the Commander, swearing that he wants the Red Ribbon army to rule the world.
Officer Black then summons a giant robot that almost destroys Goku. As Goku struggles for survival. Android 8 shows up and saves Goku, allowing him to defeat the giant robot. Unfortunately, Android 8 is shattered in the process, however. Goku finishes of Officer Black in despair about Android 8. Bulma then summons the Dragon Shenron, Bulma and the rest allow Goku to make the wish since they are already content. Goku wishes for Android 8’s revival without a bomb inside of him.
Music
The ending theme “Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku” is performed by Field of View and features lyrics written by Izumi Sakai, music from Tetsuro Oda, and an arrangement by Takeshi Hayama.
Releases
A release of the film was originally launched on VHS and Laserdisc in 1998. In 2009, a DVD version of the film was released. The Funimation English dub received praise from fans for its well written dialogue. The English dub version was released both on VHS and DVD in April 2003. A four-disc remastered box set was also released in North America in February 2011.
Links
Dragon Ball Series
Dragon Ball Z Series
Dragon Ball Kai Series
Dragon Ball Super Series
Dragon Ball GT Series
Super Dragon Ball Heros
Akira Toriyama