Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, also known by its Japanese title Dragon Ball Z: The Decisive Battle for the Entire Earth (ドラゴンボールZ 地球まるごと超決戦 Doragon Bōru Zetto: Chikyū Marugoto Chōkessen) or Toei's own English title Super Battle in the World, is the third Dragon Ball Z feature film. It was originally released in Japan on July 7, 1990, between episodes 54 and 55 of DBZ, at the "Toei Anime Fair" film festival, where it was shown as part of an Akira Toriyama-themed triple feature titled Toriyama Akira: The World (the other two films were anime versions of his one-shot stories Kennosuke-sama and Pink).
It was first dubbed in English by Funimation Entertainment in association with Saban Entertainment and Ocean Productions, and was edited into a three-part television episode, which first aired in English-speaking countries in November 1997. Funimation later sub-licensed the home video rights to the movie to Pioneer Home Entertainment who, also in association with Ocean Productions, re-dubbed the movie and released it uncut on VHS and DVD on March 17, 1998, featuring the then-current English voice cast from the TV series, dialogue closer to the original Japanese script, and the original Japanese background music. On November 14, 2006, the movie was re-released on DVD, dubbed by Funimation's in-house voice cast as part of a movie box set titled "First Strike," also containing Dead Zone and The World's Strongest. It was later remastered and released in a Double Feature set with Lord Slug on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 27, 2008. The film was released to DVD again on November 1, 2011 in a remastered box set containing the first five Dragon Ball Z movies.[1]
Plot[]
In the movie, the Z-Fighters face a new threat that starts with the burning of a forest, in which Gohan and Krillin rescue the forest animals and a small dragon named Icarus (in the Japanese version, Higher Dragon). Although they are able to restore the forest to its normal state with the Dragon Balls, Icarus doesn't return and stays with Gohan, much to Chi-Chi's fury. Goku then shows a nearby cave to let Gohan keep the dragon with him. Later, the Earth is visited by an unfriendly group of aliens under the leadership of a Saiyan. Upon arriving, they plant a seed which grows the Tree of Might, a plant that sucks the life of the planet on which it was planted and leaves it a desert. At King Kai's request, Goku, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu investigate and try to destroy the Tree, but are unsuccessful. They are then confronted by the aliens whilst their leader watches from inside the spaceship. Eventually, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu are defeated by the aliens, with only Goku remaining as the one who can hold his own against them.
During the ensuing battle, Chiaotzu is rescued by Gohan, who had just arrived, and demonstrates his incredible fighting skills by easily taking out the two identical aliens. He is then encountered by the aliens' leader Turles, a Saiyan who bears a striking resemblance to Goku. Turles gives Gohan a choice to either join him or die. Gohan refuses to join Turles, and is saved in time thanks to the arrival of Piccolo. However, Turles defeats the both of them and creates an artificial moon, turning Gohan into a Great Ape and sets him on Goku, who is almost crushed to death in Gohan's hand until Icarus arrives and calms Gohan down. But when Turles attacks Icarus, Gohan is angered and turns on Turles, who fires an attack at Gohan. Before the attack can make contact, Goku manages to cut his son's tail off and restore him to normal. Cradling the little one in his arms, Goku threatens Turles. Angry and impressed at the same time, Turles sets his henchmen on Goku, who uses the Kaioken attack and makes quick work of them while Piccolo unsuccessfully fights Turles again. Goku and Turles then fight, with Goku having the upper hand, until Turles pushes his power further by eating a fruit from the Tree of Might. With his new power, Turles dominates Goku and beats him to the point that he is no longer able to fight, even with the use of the Kaioken x10 (x20 in the funimation dub).
Slowly recovering while Turles is distracted by the rest of the Z-Fighters, whom he brutally dispatches, Goku decides to use his Spirit Bomb. Despite gaining energy from the living, he is not able to attack Turles as he counterattacks with a blast of his own, neutralizing Goku's Spirit Bomb. Unable to gather more energy from living beings, Goku decides to steal energy from inside the Tree of Might itself. Eventually successful in creating the Spirit Bomb, Goku sees his opportunity, and fires it straight into Turles, who is carried up the trunk of the Tree of Might and destroyed along with the Tree when the Spirit Bomb explodes. With the terror now over, the Z-Fighters return to their normal lives once again.
Turles[]
Turles (ターレス Turtle) is the featured supervillain in Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might. He is a high class Saiyan with somewhat grey skin and bears a striking resemblance to Goku, and can be considered an alternate version of Goku if he had never found peace on Earth, however, his in-universe story has varied from dub to dub. In some dub their resemblance to each other is because when it came to identifying the lower class breed of saiyans many of them would look alike (Not all, as Bardock's team didn't look the same, and Gohan does not have the same look as Goku, although his brother, Goten, does), yet, on others dub, Turles is simply the long lost twin brother of Goku sent on a mission like Goku was before the fall of the saiyan planet by the hands of Frieza. In the German dub of Bardock The Fathcer of Goku. Bardock mentions Turles is HIS brother. Rather than Turles being Goku's brother, and he is his uncle instead.
He roamed the universe under the planet trade organization, but went defunct after discovering the Tree of Might seeds, which are capable of taking away the planets energy to supply power to the fruit it grows, able to enhance ones own strength exponentially. He quickly assembled the Turles Crusher Corps, a band of rebels who had terrorized several planets before, and began to conquer planets for himself before along with his squad of henchmen, make their way toward Earth to check up on the Saiyan, Kakarot (Goku).
Upon arriving on Earth, he planned to plant the seed of the Tree of Might, but finds resistance from the Z Fighters. While fighting Goku, Turles eats one of the fruits and he greatly overpowers him gaining the upper hand, even able to destroy a Spirit Bomb. With the planets energy slowly deteriorating, Goku creates another Spirit Bomb from the immense energy of the Tree of Might and uses this to kill Turles and destroy the tree. In Tenkaichi 2 and 3 he is given an exclusive Oozaru form for the game. Turles is voiced by Masako Nozawa, Ted Cole in the Ocean Group English dub, Chris Patton in Funimation English dub.
Cast[]
| Character Name | Voice Actor (Japanese) |
Voice Actor (English 1997 / Saban) |
Voice Actor (English 1998 / Pioneer) |
Voice Actor (English 2006 / FUNimation) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goku | Masako Nozawa | Ian James Corlett | Peter Kelamis | Sean Schemmel |
| Gohan | Masako Nozawa | Saffron Henderson | Saffron Henderson | Stephanie Nadolny |
| Krillin | Mayumi Tanaka | Terry Klassen | Terry Klassen | Sonny Strait |
| Yamcha | Toru Furuya | Ted Cole | Ted Cole | Christopher Sabat |
| Tien | Hirotaka Suzuoki | Matt Smith | Matt Smith | John Burgmeier |
| Chiaotzu | Hiroko Emori | Cathy Weseluck | Cathy Weseluck | Monika Antonelli |
| Piccolo | Toshio Furukawa | Scott McNeil | Scott McNeil | Christopher Sabat |
| Bulma | Hiromi Tsuru | Lalainia Lindbjerg | Lalainia Lindbjerg | Tiffany Vollmer |
| Chi-Chi | Mayumi Shō | Laara Sadiq | Laara Sadiq | Cynthia Cranz |
| Oolong | Naoki Tatsuta | Alec Willows | Scott McNeil | Bradford Jackson |
| Puar | Naoko Watanabe | Cathy Weseluck | Cathy Weseluck | Monika Antonelli |
| Master Roshi | Kōhei Miyauchi | Dave Ward | Don Brown | Mike McFarland |
| King Kai | Joji Yanami | Don Brown | Don Brown | Sean Schemmel |
| Shenron | Kenji Utsumi | Don Brown | Don Brown | Christopher Sabat |
| Icarus/Higher Dragon | Naoki Tatsuta | Cathy Weseluck | Cathy Weseluck | Christopher Sabat |
| Rasin | Kenji Utsumi | Ward Perry | Ward Perry | Andy McAvin |
| Lagasin | Masaharu Satou | Don Brown | Don Brown | Andy McAvin |
| Daiz | Yūji Machi | Scott McNeil | Scott McNeil | Mark Lancaster |
| Kakao | Shinobu Satouchi | Alvin Sanders | Don Brown | Jeff Johnson |
| Armond | Banjo Ginga | Alec Willows | Alec Willows | Paul Slavens |
| Turles | Masako Nozawa | Ted Cole | Ted Cole | Chris Patton |
Censorship[]
Funimation's first dub of The Tree of Might done in association with Saban Entertainment was heavily edited for content and length, just like their original dub of Dragon Ball Z:
- In order to spread time for the movie to be a three-part episode; several scenes from the series were added, such as when the Eternal Dragon is summoned, when Turles, his henchmen, and Piccolo make their first appearances in the film, and most of King Kai's scenes.
- Blood was completely edited out in the movie and the violence was toned down as well. For example, scenes where a character was punched or kicked hard were blocked by flashes of light.
- The scene where Turles forces Gohan to transform into an Oozaru by holding his face and forcing him to keep his eyes open at the power ball was edited, but Turles held him by his shoulders instead. At the same time when Gohan looks at the power ball and begins to transform, no heartbeat sound effect were heard in the Japanese and English uncut versions, but were digtally edited in background in the English edited version
- The scene where Turles has his foot on top of Goku was edited, but Goku's face under Turles' foot wasn't shown.
- The scenes where Gohan is nude, following his Oozaru detransformation, were edited, but he was covered up by some means, such as adding extended lighting to the scene where Goku catches Gohan after cutting off his tail or adding a digital bush in front of him during the scene where he is awakened by Icarus. They did, however, forget to remove or censor a shot when Gohan is lying naked in Goku's arms, but it is barely noticeable.
Music[]
- OP
- "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA"
- Lyrics: Yukinojo Mori, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
- "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA"
- ED
- まるごと (Marugoto (The Whole World)
- Lyrics: Dai Sato, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama & Ammy
- まるごと (Marugoto (The Whole World)
The score for the English-language version was composed by Nathan Johnson; however the remastered release contains an alternate audio track containing the English dialogue and Japanese background music.