Official Site Online
The official American website for Dragonball: Evolution is finally up! All it contains at the moment is the domestic trailer (posted yesterday), but hopefully more will be added in the future. Click the logo below to go to the site!

Action Figure News
Toywiz is now accepting pre-orders on a new series of action figures from Bandai for Dragonball: Evolution. There’s a wide variety of toys to choose from, including 4-inch Goku, Yamcha, Roshi, Piccolo, Bulma, Goku with Fangs and Fulum, 6-inch Goku, Yamcha, and transforming RX Trike, 8-inch Yamcha’s Off Road Vehicle, a life-size replica of Goku’s extending Bo Staff, the Dragonball Alter, Goku’s Kamehameha Shooter, and Oozaru the Big Monkey, all of which are expected to release in March. Prices range from $9.99 to $49.99.

Thanks to Manuel for the tip.

PSP Game Screenshots and Press Release
Bandai Namco Games and 20th Century Fox have officially announced the upcoming Dragonball: Evolution video game exclusively for the PSP. The game tie-in is set to release March 19th in Japan and sometime in April in North America. We’ve included a snippet of the press release and screenshots below.

Gary Rosenfeld, Senior Vice President, New Media for Fox L&M, added, “Dragon Ball is one of the most successful manga series of all-time and the upcoming film and videogame will only build upon its unprecedented popularity. I can’t wait for fans to get a taste of these latest installments to the franchise.”

In Dragon Ball: Evolution for the PSP system, ultimate powers collide as players match up against their favorite characters from the film release and battle for control of the seven sacred Dragon Balls that have the power to grant any wish. Dragon Ball: Evolution employs an easy-to-learn yet difficult to master fighting system which provides everyone the power to pull off stylish and dynamic attacks. Ki (energy) management will be essential to gain the upper hand and unleash a devastating attack on their unsuspecting opponents.

Game Screenshots in V-Jump
V-Jump magazine has new screenshots of the recently announced PSP-exclusive game from Bandai Namco. We’ve got scans of the magazine thanks to our source in Japan.





In addition, V-Jump and other Shueisha publications will be giving away pre-screening tickets to 7,000 people. The pre-screenings will be held March 10th across 8 theaters in Japan. That’s 3 days before the Japanese premiere.

We’re (Almost) Last
It’s been confirmed by Fox that France will be getting Dragonball: Evolution a full week earlier than the U.S. on April 1st, 2009.



Now wait a minute… I can understand Japan, but France? South Korea is also snatching Evolution earlier, the same day as Japan on March 13th. So why are we stuck with April 8th?

This isn’t the first time Fox has pulled something like this. And because of this decision, the film will undoubtably suffer from piracy and thus lose money. As someone who is legitimately excited to see the movie, I just don’t see the reasoning. What do you think?

Emmy Rossum Interview
MTV sat down with Emmy Rossum (Bulma), who spoke with them about what she has in common with her character in Dragonball

“She honestly believes that she’s smarter and can do everything better than everyone else…which means we have a lot in common,” laughed Rossum about her character, Bulma.

Set Photos
A little birdie sent us these “new” set photos for Dragonball: Evolution. Enjoy.








In unrelated news, Shonen Jump magazine has a page devoted to Dragonball: Evolution in their March issue. Check out a scan here.

Evolution in Studio
Bulma.nl found new photos online that apparently came from a Fox employee who was working on Evolution in studio at the time. Thanks to their mistake we get to see some scenes in action.

March Shonen Jump
DBMB has high quality scans of the March issue of the American Shonen Jump magazine, which contains 2 pages of advertising for Dragonball: Evolution.

The Action of Evolution



Badtaste.it posted a preview on what you can expect from the action scenes of Dragonball: Evolution. In it are quotes from the director, cinematographer, Justin Chatwin and the stunt team. We’ve translated the article (to the best of our abilities) from Italian.

“How do you make sequences of action different from what the public has seen so far?” This was the first question that [director] James Wong placed on his team when he started to reflect on what people expect from a movie like Dragonball.

The answers arrived from acclaimed stunt team 87Eleven, as the director of photography Robert McLachlan and the visual effects supervisor, Ariel Shaw, have certainly pleased Wong and they promise to delight not only fans of the series, but also fans of action films.

The visual effects supervisor (Ariel Shaw) took what Wong defines as “fist-cams” using the renowned company Iconix, cameras so small that they can be linked to the hand of an actor and that allows the stroke of a character’s [fist] to go directly to the [audience].

“It’s kind of a point of view of the fist,” says Wong. McLachlan [the director of photography] suggested that the use of new digital cameras (the high-speed Phantoms) to create super-speed in major action sequences. “We have done a lot of research and development tests with chambers Phantom,” says McLachlan, who discovered this system of photography, then experimental, on YouTube.

Indeed, in a video that appeared on the famous site, a balloon filled with water is blown up, while the action is taken at 1000 frames per second. McLachlan and Wong were impressed by the results. “The most spectacular [thing] was that the water retained the shape of the balloon as it came out,” recalls Wong.

Less advanced from a technological point of view, but equally important to the action scenes, have been training and supervision by stunt company 87Eleven, as well as from the stunt coordinators Jonathan Eusebio, Julian Bucio Montemayor and Jared Eddo.

Their first task was to bring in the cast, and then work with them in an intensive program of action choreography and, finally, make the players feel at ease in working with major wire and acrobatic sequences. It was definitely a rigorous program, which, as revealed by Eusebio, “when the actors did not work, [they] trained.”

The young cast had to each follow specific training, because there weren’t any cast members with an identical style of combat. They also had special diets to maintain their strength and energy during production.

In the history of Dragonball, Goku is the greatest warrior on the planet. And so Justin Chatwin took very seriously the responsibility to capture the qualities of the character. Before the start of filming, he faced six weeks of nutrition guide, as well as training for the stunt and martial arts with 87Eleven and continuing this challenging regime during shooting. “The adrenaline is still flowing,” says the actor, who also appears to have eliminated sugar, wheat and pasta for the film. Chatwin spent every day at least five hours to train, studying karate, kung fu and a form known as Brazilian capoeira, encoding the movement of martial arts and dance.

For more extreme acrobatic movements, Jackson Spidell was the stunt double of the actor. The main move characteristic of Spidell was jumping in the air, making a half turn and, during the spin, hitting an opponent.

Music News
20 seconds of Ayumi Hamasaki’s “Rule,” the theme song for Dragonball: Evolution, has made its way online. The single is set to officially release February 25th.




Brian Anthony also sent us an email letting us know that a version of his song “Worked UP!” will be used in the movie.

The mix in the movie is the CHRIS NOXX DOWNTEMPO REMIX at iTunes:
Click here to listen.

I would really appreciate everyone’s support on this song and the video. Hope everyone likes this mix in the club scene.

Been reading the blog comments and - trust me, this movie will be AMAZING!

The Beginnings of Evolution



Bloodtrail sent us the official pressbook for Dragonball: Evolution. The “first” part of the kit, “The Action of Evolution,” was posted by Badtaste.it on Wednesday (although they left out information), and now we’ll be posting the rest of it in parts. Enjoy the “second” part (it’s actually the first), in which a detailed synopsis of the film is given, as well as history on how it all got started.

Dragonball Teaser
Our source in Japan sent us this old teaser trailer for Dragonball that was shown in select theaters in Japan around the summer and fall of 2008. There’s no new footage, but it’s certainly epic.