History Trivia / DragonballEvolution

* CreatorsApathy: Writer Ben Ramsey admitted in a 2016 apology letter to have gone into the film "as a businessman" and "not a fan" of ''Franchise/DragonBall''; whether this means he was a fan and just didn't care or he was not a fan at all isn't entirely clear.

** Creator/AkiraToriyama first showed what could be read as professionally polite disappointment over the film, stating that it should be taken as an "AlternateUniverse" ''Manga/DragonBall''. However, after the film was released and by the time of ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', he had since clarified his stance: despite offering advice to the crew on how to adapt the series, they never listened to him, and thus the finished product was a disaster and something he couldn't call ''Dragon Ball'' at all. Ironically enough, the film that ''Dragon Ball'' fans love to hate was ultimately responsible for getting ''Akira Toriyama'', a ''notoriously'' apathetic creator, to actually care about the franchise he started. Had he not been so leery of other people's treatment of his work after ''Evolution'', he might never have taken charge of ''Battle of Gods'' after seeing the initial DarkerAndEdgier script treatment, and neither ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' nor ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' would ever have existed.

** A film so bad that Creator/JustinChatwin [[https://nordic.ign.com/dragonball-evolution/79949/news/live-action-goku-actor-pays-tribute-to-akira-toriyama-by-apologizing-for-dragonball-evolution apologized]] for it.

* StarDerailingRole: This film effectively killed Creator/JustinChatwin's film career, not just by being a disaster of a film, but because [[QuestionableCasting his]] [[RaceLift casting]] was and still is one of the film's most controversial elements.

* MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Even though Creator/ErikoTamura is Japanese, she doesn't do her own voice in the Japanese dub. Instead, she is dubbed by Creator/YukoKaida.

** When Creator/AkiraToriyama passed away in 2024, Justin Chatwin posted a brief tribute that ended with, "Sorry about that one adaptation."

* StarDerailingRole: This film effectively killed Creator/JustinChatwin's film career, not just by being a disaster of a film, but because [[RaceLift his casting]] was and still is one of the film's most controversial elements. While whitewashing the original manga's Asian-based lead for the film was already met with disdain upon its initial release, growing regard for representation in the years since has led the general public to accuse Hollywood of perpetuating a work culture excluding non-white ethnicities from appearing on screen. The fact that another manga-based blockbuster, ''Film/GhostInTheShell2017'', would later be criticized for making the same mistake by casting [[Creator/ScarlettJohansson a white actress]] as the explicitly Japanese lead, hasn't helped matters.

** A film so bad Creator/JustinChatwin [[https://nordic.ign.com/dragonball-evolution/79949/news/live-action-goku-actor-pays-tribute-to-akira-toriyama-by-apologizing-for-dragonball-evolution apologized]] for it.

* When Creator/AkiraToriyama passed away in 2024, Justin Chatwin posted a brief tribute that ended with, "Sorry about that one adaptation."

* RealLifeRelative: Carla Castañeda, the daughter of Goku's Latin American VA Creator/MarioCastaneda, provided the voice for Bulma in ''Evolution'''s Latin American Spanish dub.

* CreatorKiller: After the poor reception of this film, James Wong hasn't directed a single film since and has been relegated to producing television shows instead.

* OldShame:
** Creator/JamesMarsters admitted that he believed the final product wasn't very good.
** Likewise, Emmy Rossum also went on record bashing the film, saying that it's even worse when watching it stoned and that her only saving graces during production were meeting Creator/JustinChatwin and buying and watching the full series of ''Series/NipTuck'' on DVD.
** Writer Ben Ramsey went as far as [[http://thedaoofdragonball.com/blog/news/dragonball-evolution-writer-apologizes-to-fans formally apologizing for the film]], calling it a very painful creative point in his life.

** The English voice actors for the ''Dragon Ball'' anime series have also publicly denounced the film, accusing the filmmakers of having no knowledge of the source material whatsoever. Most notably, Creator/ChristopherSabat and Creator/SeanSchemmel [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9PM8kEr0xg spent almost three minutes poking fun at the movie]] at a convention, to the amusement of fans. Chris Rager (voice of Mr. Satan) also said the film felt like it gave him "ass rabies".

* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget: $30 million. Box office: $9,362,785 (domestic), $57,497,699 (worldwide). Being panned by critics and ''especially'' fans over [[InNameOnly being so far removed from the source material as humanly possible]], along with [[DumpMonths being released in April]] [[InvisibleAdvertising with poor marketing]], severely damaged its box office numbers.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: ''The Hollywood Reporter'''s review opened with the following informed lines.

* CreatorsApathy: Ben Ramsey admitted in a 2016 apology letter to have gone into the film "as a businessman" and "not a fan" of ''Franchise/DragonBall''; whether this means he was a fan and just didn't care, or he was not a fan, period, isn't entirely clear.

** Creator/AkiraToriyama first showed what could be read as professionally polite disappointment over the film, stating that it should be taken as an "AlternateUniverse" ''Manga/DragonBall''. However, after the film was released and by the time of ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', he had since clarified his stance: Despite offering advice to the crew on how to adapt the series, they had never listened to him, and thus the finished product was a disaster and something he could not see as anything ''Franchise/DragonBall'' at all. Ironically enough, the film that ''Dragon Ball'' fans love to hate was ultimately responsible for getting ''Akira Toriyama'', a ''notoriously'' apathetic creator, to actually care about the franchise he started. Had he not been so leery of other people's treatment of his work after ''Evolution'', he might never have taken charge of ''Battle of Gods'' after seeing the initial DarkerAndEdgier script treatment, and neither ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' nor ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' would ever have existed.

** Creator/JamesMarsters has admitted that the final product wasn't very good.
** Likewise, Emmy Rossum has bashed the film, saying that it's even worse when watching it stoned.
** Writer Ben Ramsey has [[http://thedaoofdragonball.com/blog/news/dragonball-evolution-writer-apologizes-to-fans apologized for the film]], calling it a very painful creative point in his life.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Many of the changes were presumably added in due to Fox's meddling, especially considering their track record in other films. We'll never know how much was dictated to be there, and how much the writers came up with themselves though. One of the particularly nasty changes they wanted? To make Piccolo a handsome human man. Creator/JamesMarsters would not have this and demanded [[JustForFun/OneOfUs he'd be like the original]]. Fox tried to meddle with another film for ''another [[ComicBook/FantasticFour major franchise]]'' six years later, it... [[Film/FantasticFour2015 didn't work so well for them]].
* GenreKiller: While ''Film/SpeedRacer'' the year before wasn't very successful, this is the film that everyone pinpoints as the reason why Western adaptations of anime and manga are generally expected to fail at the box office nowadays (so it was a pleasant surprise when ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel'' became a modest box office success).

* NotScreenedForCritics: Both American and Japanese. Didn't matter though, [[LaserGuidedKarma it was panned by them anyway]].

* RecursiveImport: Believe it or not, the film did receive a Japanese release...which went as well as you would expect, but it does have the interesting note that Creator/AyaHirano would later join the cast of the actual anime as the [[TheOtherDarrin Kai voice of Dende]] and is the first time in a Japanese production where [[Creator/KappeiYamaguchi a male actor]] would voice Goku.

* StarDerailingRole: This film effectively killed Creator/JustinChatwin's film career, not just by being a disaster of a film, but because [[RaceLift his casting]] was and still is one of the film's most controversial elements. While whitewashing the original manga's Asian-based lead for the film was already met with disdain upon its initial release, growing regard for representation in the years since has led the general public to accuse Hollywood of perpetuating a work culture excluding non-white ethnicities from appearing on screen. The fact that another manga-based blockbuster, 2017's ''Film/GhostInTheShell'', would later be criticized for making the same mistake by casting [[Creator/ScarlettJohansson a white actress]] as the explicitly Japanese lead, hasn't helped matters.

** Wendel Bezerra, the Brazilian voice of Goku, said that when he watched the movie in his duties as dubbing director, his disappointment was as high as that of the fans.

* RoleReprise: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Creator/MarioCastaneda and Creator/CarlosSegundo reprise their respective roles as Goku and Piccolo.
** The Brazilian dub brings back just about everyone aside from Master Roshi, Mai and Grandpa Gohan.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: A review of the film opened with the following informed lines.

** The Brazilian dub brings back just about everyone aside from Master Roshi and Mai.

* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget, $30 million. Box office, $9,362,785 (domestic), $57,497,699 (worldwide). Being panned by critics and ''especially'' fans over [[InNameOnly being so far removed from the source material as humanly possible]], along with [[DumpMonths being released in April]] [[InvisibleAdvertising with poor marketing]], severely damaged it's box-office numbers.

-->''"Another Japanese manga bites the dust with its cinematic adaptation: in this case, the "Dragonball Evolution" series."''
* CreatorsApathy: Ben Ramsey admitted in a 2016 apology letter to have gone into the film "as a businessman" and "not a fan" of ''Franchise/DragonBall'' (whether this means he was a fan and just didn't care, or he was not a fan, period, isn't entirely clear).

* MoneyDearBoy: Ben Ramsey admitted as much and apologized to fans when reached by an interviewer. "So I’m not blaming anyone for ''Dragonball but myself''," he said. "As a fanboy of other series, I know what it’s like to have something you love and anticipate be so disappointing."

** In regards to a sequel, Creator/JustinChatwin was actually very enthusiastic in the plans for it would be far more faithful to the source material, even stating "Goku only really gets interesting in the second movie". As it would adapt the Saiyan Saga, it namely featured Goku and Chi-Chi getting married years later and having Gohan, Krillin being introduced as a new friend to Goku and Co. from the Tenkaichi Temple, and Vegeta and Nappa being the main villains when legend of the Dragon Balls reached out into deep space and they came to Earth in search of them. Piccolo would also return as an antihero, supposedly "purified" of his wickedness by the Kamehameha and would become an unlikely ally, something Creator/JamesMarsters was eager to see fulfilled. Unfortunately

* FanNickname: "Noku", "Ukog" and "Kaka-not" to distinguish Goku from his canon counterpart.

-->Another Japanese manga bites the dust with its cinematic adaptation: in this case, the "Dragonball Evolution" series.

* FanNickname: "Noku", "Ukog" and "Kaka-not" ([[WebVideo/HonestTrailers courtesy of]] [[WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged Abridged Vegeta]]) to distinguish Goku from his canon counterpart.

* StarDerailingRole: This film effectively killed Creator/JustinChatwin's film career, not just by being a disaster of a film, but because [[RaceLift his casting]] was and still is one of the film's most controversial elements. While whitewashing the original manga's Asian-based lead for the film was already met with disdain upon its initial release, growing regard for representation in the years since has led the general public to accuse Hollywood of perpetuating a work culture excluding non-white ethnicities from appearing on screen. The fact that another manga-based blockbuster, 2017's ''Film/GhostInTheShell'', would later be criticized for making the same mistake by casting Creator/ScarlettJohansson as the explicitly Japanese lead, hasn't helped matters.