The Tree of Might Movie - Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might is a Japanese animated fantasy and martial arts movie that was released in 1990. It is the third Dragon Ball Z film and was premiered at the Toei Anime Film Fair Festival as a triple feature that was named Toriyama Akira: The World. The film was produced by Toei Animation Company and composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi while cinematography and editing were handled by Motoaki Ikegami and Shinichi Fukumitsu respectively.
Summary
One day, Gohan, Oolong, Bulma, and Krillin spend some time camping in a forest. That night, a fire begins to spread through the area, causing Gohan and Krillin to focus their efforts to rescue the local wildlife. The next day, they begin searching for the Dragon Balls with Bulma’s Dragon Radar in the hopes of summoning Shenron and wishing to revive the burnt forest. During that time, a small, purple dragon named Icarus befriends Gohan.
What the group didn’t know, however, was that the fire was started by a space probe sent by a Saiyan named Turles, who chose to plant a Tree of Might on the Earth. The Tree of Might is a powerful, mysterious tree that can absorb the energy of a planet and store said energy in its fruit. Those that eat these fruits will gain an incredible amount of power.
Turles’ subordinates planted the seed on Earth, which then began to grow. King Kai manages to detect the tree, causing him to warn the Z Fighters about the impending doom the Earth is about to face. When the group finds the plant, they try to use energy blasts, though they seem to be completely ineffective. Shortly after, Turles’ henchmen appear and engage with the heroes. Though they struggle in the beginning, they eventually manage to defeat their opponents.
Later on, Gohan and Icarus join the battle, but Turles then begins to realize that Gohan is a Saiyan. Turles asks Gohan about “Kakarot” and proposes that Gohan join him and conquer the universe together. Of course, Gohan declines the offer and attempts to fight Turles, though this only puts the young half-Saiyan in danger. Piccolo attempts to save Gohan but is only blasted away shortly after arriving.
After noticing Gohan’s Saiyan tail, Turles is suddenly inspired to have a bit of fun and creates a Power Ball to mimic the full moon. He then forces Gohan to look at it, causing him to turn into a Great Ape. Goku takes notice and attempts to find a way to turn Gohan back, but is quickly overwhelmed by Great Ape Gohan. Icarus finds his way to the Great Ape in an attempt to calm the raging giant.
Turles, taking notice of the dragon, shoots it from the sky, further enraging Great Ape Gohan. This, however, creates an opening for Goku to launch a Destructo Disk at Gohan’s tail and forcing Gohan to revert back into his regular humanoid form.
Goku, now incredibly upset, swiftly takes care of Turles’ underlings and begins to approach Turles himself. At first, Goku seems to have the upper hand, though conveniently enough for the antagonist, the Tree of Might has begun to bear fruit, allowing Turles to eat one of them and gaining an incredible amount of power. Goku’s friends then come to help, despite being exhausted after dealing with Great Ape Gohan.
The group takes on Turles long enough for Goku to charge a Spirit Bomb. Because of the Tree of Might, however, the Earth has very little energy to spare, resulting in a rather weak attack. Turles takes care of the remaining Z Fighters, deflects the Spirit Bomb, and knocks out Goku. However, to everyone’s surprise, the energy from the Tree of Might begins to flow into Goku, re-energizing him and creating another, much more powerful Spirit Bomb in the process. In this final, all-out attack, Goku launches the second Spirit Bomb and overwhelms Turles with it, sending him into the Tree of Might. The impact destroys the tree and all of the energy that it had absorbed is returned to the Earth once again. After the battle was won, the group returns to their camping trip.
New Characters
- Turles (sometimes called Tullece) is the main antagonist of the film. Turles shares a striking resemblance with Goku, to the point of them nearly looking like twins. The only main difference in their appearance is that Turles has darker skin than Goku’s. Various kinds of media say different things about the relationship between Turles and Goku. Some say that they are long-lost brothers while others say there is no relation whatsoever. Turles was once a part of Frieza’s planet trading organization, but later defected after finding the seeds of the Tree of Might. He went on a mission to harvest the energy of various planets using these seeds and making that energy his own. Shortly after, he created the Turles Crusher Units, which was comprised of rebels that were known for terrorizing planets. Together, they conquered various planets as they made their way to Earth, where Turles planned on finding Kakarot (Goku), the Saiyan originally sent to Earth.
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