Curse of the Blood Rubies is the first movie spin-off of Akira Toriyama's beloved Dragon Ball TV and manga series, and is in the same comic vein as the first few episodes of the Dragon Ball series. However, the plot, while loosely based on the opening story line of the series, departs from it radically in places. As such, Toriyama purists are likely to abhor the film.
Those less concerned about purism might enjoy the film. After all, if the big budget Batman and Superman films had nothing to do with the continuity of the DC comic characters, why should the Dragon Ball series fare any better? Most of the charm of Curse of the Blood Rubies derives from the film's simplification of several key Toriyama episodes: the duel with Yamcha, the defeat of Oolong the Pig, Goku's precocious mastery of Master Roshi's Kamehameha technique. The film's animation is slightly better than that of the TV series, and a few of the sequences are lifted from the TV show almost without rewriting. It's unlikely to turn anyone into a rabid fan of Japanese animation, but its also unlikely to turn anyone away from anime, either.
The early episodes of Dragon Ball are very silly and are geared towards a younger audience than the later Dragonball Z in much the same way that Tolkien's The Hobbit is a good natured and gentle prelude to the serious Lord of the Rings. In these early episodes Goku is a friendly bumpkin whose innocence is matched only by his appetite and martial arts ability. The same is true for Curse of the Blood Rubies. However, the film's plotline is even more kiddie-oriented than the Dragon Ball series. It revolves around a tiny girl's quest to enlist aid to battle an evil ogre who wishes to enslave the entire kingdom in search for Blood Rubies and Dragon Balls. Master Roshi declines the tot's invitation, and encourages her to enlist Goku, a brave young warrior with amazing skills and a pure heart. Essentially, its a simple children's fable about the destructiveness of greed. As such, Curse of the Blood Rubies may be particularly good entertainment for the younger set, for whom the story is obviously aimed, although some parents may object to the level of violence in the video. Perhaps the highest recommendation that can be made to parents about Curse of the Blood Rubies is that it is of a comparable quality to the better installments of the Disney Afternoon.
My chief gripe about the film is its running time. Despite the video box's claim that Curse of the Blood Rubies is a full-length feature, a 48 minute film is not what most people would consider to be feature length.
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