James Marsters on the Changes in Evolution
IGN interviewed James Marsters (Piccolo) who talked about everything Dragonball: Evolution, including how faithful the movie is to the source material. Read the full interview on IGN.com.
IGN: You knew Piccolo very well going in. What is the take on him like in the film versus what most people know from Dragon Ball Z and other source material?
Marsters: This character is nothing like you’re going to recognize from Dragon Ball Z because this is a story that happens before Dragon Ball Z. In the actual source material that we were adapting, we were only dealing with Dragon Ball. In Dragon Ball, Lord Piccolo is a very old, kind of shriveled Namic. This green guy who has to walk with a walking stick, he’s so old. And at the very end of the season, when he finally fights little Goku – and Goku in the manga is only 7 years old – he throws off his coat and it’s actually kind of surprising he has a body left at all. So, my kind of template to do this Piccolo was, “Let’s make him as old as possible.” We don’t want to make him as decrepit as the manga because he is the only villain for this part of the story of Goku, so we should make him maybe a little more powerful. But let’s not give the audience the young Piccolo yet, because in the story, Lord Piccolo comes back to the Earth to get the Dragonballs to wish himself young and then take over the Earth. And if we started Piccolo being young, there would be no reason for him to get the Dragonballs in the first place.
IGN: I’m very impressed talking to you about your knowledge of the source material. I’d assume some of your costars might have been a lot more unfamiliar with it all. Did anyone ever come to you for some advice?
Marsters: [Laughs] I think that if any of them didn’t know the source material going into the project, they certainly started reading it and watching it to prepare for the shoot because I didn’t really get the sense that anyone was behind the ball. We didn’t really talk about the plotline in Dragon Ball Z. There’s enough plotline to be talking about in Dragon Ball. But I didn’t start talking to them about Vegeta or Bojack and all of that – or Boo. [Laughs] I just kept my mouth shut about that because that’s just too complex.
IGN: Fans are always concerned when there’s an adaptation that it holds true to or respects the source material. As a fan yourself, can you speak to that?
Marsters: Well, that’s the thing, man. I think that we have made an artistic risk because we have decided to be very respectful of the source material. I think Akira Toriyama – I hope, I haven’t talked to him about it – but I suspect he would be pleased that we didn’t start this movie with Dragon Ball Z. That the first shot of our hero is not blond Goku firing a massive energy blast and wiping a mountain out. That would be very cool, but that’s not the beginning of the story. The beginning of the story, for the manga, is a 7 year old kid fighting midgets. He starts it way more on a smaller level and builds it up. And then by the time that Goku is that massive guy with the blond hair, then we’re more invested in him. And so, we have decided not to do Dragon Ball Z, but to do Dragon Ball.
Instead of having Goku as a 7 year old fighting midgets, we take him at 17, just on his 18th birthday, so thematically, we’re in the same ball park, but we get to push it a little more towards Z. But still doing justice to this character of Goku and where he starts. Remember in the first Spider-Man movie, everyone was like, “Where are all the special effects? Where is all the big stuff?” And Sam Raimi was like, “We’ve got to start this dude at the beginning. This is what we’re doing.” And I think it would have been easier money if we would have just blown it out with Dragon Ball Z right from the beginning. But I don’t think that would have been as true to the story and to the source material. I’m kind of proud that we’ve taken the risk in trusting the audience and that they’ll want to see the beginning of this character. In that way, when he is more massive, it’ll be way cooler.
So I don’t know, man. People that only know Dragon Ball Z and only want Dragon Ball Z, they’re going to have to get used to this. But people that really know the material, they’re going to be well pleased.
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http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/dragon_kai/
HAHAHA Blackguy you make me laugh!!
i’ve heared about Dragonball Kai … do you know when it comes out ????
and is Dragonball Kai only going to be made in the Japanese language???
comes out april 5th its bound to be available on megaupload so u can just download it from there it could be uploaded on this website im not sure but check this site out nywayz
http://www.anime-plaza.nl
but is DB KAI in english or Japanese?
People that know there stuff will be pleased? Wow James… The reason this movie is failing is because of the way it was made…not because people “just don’t know” about the beginning…in fact the majority of people that I see that actually dislike the direction of this movie are the people that very very well versed on the Dragon Ball universe.
I like that this movie was made…but it could have been done a lot better.
@Flexinator: it seems it’s only in japanese as there seems to be no preparation to gather an english- american cast for a dubbed version again. looks like you might have to listen to the sqeaukly annoying japanese voice of Goku. why is a woman the japanese voice of goku?
@BlackGuy: where did you get your sources from?
People who pirate the movie have absolutely no right to complain. It’s like if you stole a chocolate bar then complained that it tasted bad.
You stole it. It doesn’t owe you anything.
@flexinator: yeah goku does do the kamehameha to kill piccolo, in the manga/anime he uses to propel himself up by shooting it at the ground, then punchs a whole in piccolo.
I like how everyone seems to ignore everything that’s wrong with Marsters’ descriptions on the backstory and characters. Goes to show how many cockeyed optimists we have in this site.
For starters, the old Namekian with a walking stick is Kami-sama, NOT Piccolo Daimao. Piccolo’s a lot more nimble than Kami is, despite being so old at first.
Second, Goku is not 7 years old. Dragon Ball did not start the series with him being 7, either. At the start of the series, he claims he’s 14 but then learns to count and turns out to be 12 (being 11 around the start of the series). By the time he confronts Piccolo Daimao, he’s already 16 years old. Yes, he looks short for his age, but it also helped in his sudden shift in height when everyone saw him again at the later Tenkaichi Budokai after his training with Kami-sama.
As for Goku fighting midgets…what midgets? Kuririn? Goku mostly fought with full grown adults in Dragon Balls. In fact, Kuririn is the only one Goku ever fought that was the same size as he was. Everyone else was far taller than he was.
Also, just because Daimao was old, didn’t mean he wasn’t strong. He nearly killed Goku prior to getting his youth restored. He also killed Chaozu and Shenlong. So that shows he was far more than capable of more than what Marsters suggested.
His analogy about Spider-Man is also terribly flawed. The Spider-Man movie faithfully re-enacts how Peter Parker goes through being a student who then gets powers and wrestles to earn extra cash, only to let some mugger get away, which ends up resulting in Uncle Ben dying, which causes Peter to decide to go into crime fighting.
DBE, however, does the exact opposite. Goku’s a highschool kid that hates being different from other people (how he’s different from the way he acts or looks is never explained because the high school scene becomes irrelevant later in the movie) and seems to only train for the sake of doing it. Goku’s entire background story and who he is is COMPLETELY different from the source material.
Spider-Man, on the other hand, was practically as close as possible.
Wow, Marsters actually knows his Dragonball… Makes me wonder what the heck happened… I mean the movie… uugh…
@b-: Goku did NOT kill Piccolo with the Kamehameha, he punched him with Oozaru fist …….. the Kamehameha was only used to get Goku airborne.
@flexinator: that’s what i said
unfortunatly i dont think funiamtion will do an english dub of DB Kai but i am nt an expect on this issue so i might be wrong but it is definatly being made in japan so look out for it april 5th!
@Tsukento: you are completely right i keep saying it. goku was 16. lets lists all ther midgets he faught. kullilin…now lets list all the non midgets he faught
yamucha
roshi
tien
mercenary tao ( the strongest person in the world at the time)
king piccolo
piccolo jr
king chappa
a dinosaure in the first tournament
The very first person u see him fight is a huge fucking bear with armor and a sword
and of course A WHOLE FUCKING ARMY
and many more
i liked the movie as a fun movie good jokes characters were good,as a dragonball movie it was half assed and americanized ( yes i have seen it) tho apparently the american release is longer why? i dnt know ud think thy would make the asian version longer.
masters has revealed tht he knows about dragonball,and he did admit he dsnt know tht much cos he hsnt saw all of it. but all the bug supporters are just giving him props for knowing the names of the characters.
u will see some dragonball in this film but ull also see a lot of not dragonball. like goku skipping out on his grandpa to go to a party – that would never happen- . He chases after chi chi – tht never would happen – . Hes always moaning and doubting him self – That never happened – . And chi chi was his main insparation and she taught him how to use ki – WHAT THE FUCK.
some of the stuff is in there just to be in there. like the high school scene means absolutely nothing,they just wanted a cool fight scene in there. Luckily it was cool and i liked the high school scenes. cos goku was funny in them. but thts just retarded and unnecessary.
If Dragonball Kai comes out in only Japanese then it won’t be shown on TV in the UK or the US. -_-
This movie looks great. I’ve seen DB DBZ and DBGT. The fact that this movie has a lot of the same elements yet a different story is shows freshness. Bulma packing heat, thats makes it more interesting than her just being a tech wiz. The action movies can twist the stories around or make new stories and it would be killer. Why make an action movie that follows the script of the cartoon. Everyone has seen the cartoon, lets get something somewhat new.
why can’t everyone think like James Marsters and let them make us [hopefully] a series of movies that at the very least will be interesting and worth 2 hours of our previously lacking DBZ movie lives?
@Nick: First, let’s get someone who can actually write a script with proper time for character development, background story development, plot development and not making several scenes and characters irrelevant with the rest of the film. THEN, we can worry about a new Dragon Ball movie with a twist.
@carrie: Because there are far better action movies out there that have more to offer than this film, which apparently suffers from a multiple personality disorder; it tries to be everything else but itself (various other movies and franchises) while also having a terribly written script that jumps around too often without explaining anything in any kind of great detail.
I CANT WAIT I SAW IT ALREADY AND I STILL AM GOING TO SEE IT ON THE TENTH
This DB Movie has been LONG OVERDO……My best friend never made it long enough to watch this movie…he taught me all that I know about ( Dragon Ball )…he passed away from cancer in 1998,he was 21. HERES FOR YOU JAY. Lets all support this movie in hopes of gettin the 1’s that’ll follow.
Awsome i completely agree with starting from the beginning even though im more of a Dragon Ball Z fan and making Goku older from the start is a great move to bring more audience than a 7 year old kid
yea i dont disrapt james but ant goku gots a tail and why dose it say earth was almost destroy and 7 mistics made the dragon ball’s?
and the way it’s PG lil kids can watch it that havin’t seen any DB DBZ DBGT…the lil kids well have the worng idea of DB seires.and + that ant the bigieng thats the end of DB saga.what about the Red Ribin Army. Thay is what
i mean why who almost deysrot the earth frizza? and 7 guys? look
the movie was shity Because DB is the key to DBZ with out DB whats DBZ if you guy Fxck with DB you Fxck with DBZ Big Time.
i mean why change what we watch since childhood Why change what we grew up with Why? i know every DB saga DBZ saga DBGT saga and hope AF
DB-DBZ-DBGT the RRA never went away RRA is what the cell game made RRA is the reason why goku fight in the frist place RRA! and please dont fxck up with DBZ movie’s please
@Joshua: it says that in the anime about mystics(or something) having a dragonball the put it in the mouth of a dragon then the dragon split it into seven, and if you look on the walls you can see dragons with a sphere in there mouth and the movies not shitty and it sounds like you just heard of it so don’t judge it. anyway
Bullshit Kaime made the dragon balls. AND HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU TURN INTO AZARU WITHOUT A TAIL AND DURING A SOLAR ECLIPSE?!?!?!?! AND WHO THE FUCK WAS THE OTHER SIAYEN HELPING KING PICCALO THAT TIME???
Bad writting dude.. BAD WRITTING
Those who havnt watched the movie yet.. be prepared for bad acting from Yun Fat.. He tottaly lost the plot, oh god and Yamcha aswell. That guy was like forced into the roll
To tell you the truth im a big fan of DB but dont like about the movie i think its really gonna suck ass and dont like wut they did to my favorite manga it would of been really awesome if they did it differently but everything looked so fake and at least they should of taken there time to make it better instead of making a crapy movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAxFHKvzEQo&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulma.nl%2Fen%2Fmain.php&feature=player_embedded
New Dragonball Kai just aired in Japan
The animation is freaking Awesome
There is the Opening, I’m crying T_T cnat wait for gohan SSJ2.
Wow really DB/DBZ could read thisbecause honestly when i first saw the movie trailer i was soo hyped for it!!!!!!! the i watch a longer trailer and was thinking damn it doesnt look very good.
Then i heard alot of (bad) comments and some (good) comments and woznt what to think.
But ow reading this it has put my mind to rest now i understand that this 17 year old is the 7 year od it makes alot more sense.
thank you dbthemovie.com
I’m a fan of the whole Dragonball Z thing. Dragonball all the way to Dragonball GT. So I know the story all the way through. The movie kind of disappoints me because of the story line. Its not the same as the tv show. I mean its a 17 year old dude instead of a little kid coming to earth, sent to destroy it and hitting his head. Maybe its just me but I like it when the movie sticks to the story that it originated from.
I still hope the movie does well though!
omg ive seen trailers of this and its not like the anime and im a big fan of dragon ball z i already dont want to see it all the things goku went thru is suppose to prepare him to fight piccolo plus his best friend isnt even there and befor goku fights him he fights chi chi his future wife. and wheres yamcha and tien theres ppl who shap goku and makes him who he is and there not there
i like the movie but i especthed more fighting between goku en piccolo i meen goku fights him en he shouts 1 kamehameha wave en piccolo is dead en i especthed a bigger dragon but for the rest its a cool movie i dont care if they change the story its stil cool
I was not sure that Justin was the right guy to embody Goku. I had trouble disconnecting from the last image i saw of Goku and embracing the new younger Goku but then it hit me…. younger. So Justin then fell into place and i started seeing all the little Quirks Goku has e.g sense of humour. Now my issue is that you guys have introduced the young Goku in DB but are now forced to move into DBZ where we are looking to see the muscle already developed, not as super saiyan but as an adult male. Will this kid be able to portray that?
I also have more faith in this project now than before i read Marsters interviews. I was worried that people who did not know,understand,connect,relate or even just loved DB would hold the reigns and run the Saga into the ground but with Fellow DB Follower Marsters there to keep them within the realms i feel that i can just sit back and enjoy watching the movie(s) more than waiting to see flaws in the storyline or visual effects.
I can see that Marsters will be running the show for two or three movies but when Goku becomes the hero we all know… lol … even Harry Potter fans will have to swear a new oath.
shit! is very , very bad that movi.
well im a fan of dragon ball and dragon ball z but that story was so wrong …. so dont say its not dragon ball z and its dragon ball cuz its not any of the 2 series…. its just a director with a minimal sence of what is dragon ball… if u want to change something try to keep it like it doenst notice… but everything was wrong… the oozaru changin tru eclipse… mai working with piccolo…goku dont have a tail to change into oozaru… master roshi didnt have his shell…. it didnt have dinosours… or monsters.. everything was wrong ….
EVERYTHING WRONG
Goku’s Grandpa killed by Piccollo?
Goku in High School?
Bulhma with brown hair?
Oozaru 2 metres tall?
Piccollo was Goku/Oozaru master?
Chamcha blonde?
Where’s Krillin? Ten shin han? Pilaf?
Master Karin was a cat, not an afroamerican human.
The story was not taken seriously at all.
If you wanted to invent something, you shouldn’t have used an existent Saga, like Piccollo’s..