Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

King Gurumes wants to gather the dragon balls and have his wish granted. The balls are scattered and others are after them too: Goku, living alone in the mountains, Bulma, who finds him, Yamcha out in the desert, and Oolong in the shape of a pig. Along the way they find each other and head for the same goal. The subject is not adventure but meeting. The film compresses and retells the opening of Dragon Ball, so encounters that ran for many chapters arrive here one after another. The form is eighties television animation: limited movement, strong colour, fast cutting. The fights are short and mixed with jokes, a long way from the extended power battles of the later years. It is the first Dragon Ball theatrical film, released in the same year as the television series. Rather than following the show it rearranges it: a new villain in the king is added and the order in which some characters meet is changed. Masako Nozawa, who voices Goku, has been doing so for more than forty years. Daisuke Nishio directs. Who it is for: anyone curious about the beginning of Dragon Ball and looking for short, light adventure. Who it is not for: viewers expecting the scale of the later series; everything here is smaller and the comedy dominates.