Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

This is a list of films based on the manga and anime series Dragon Ball.

Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies
Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies, (ドラゴンボール 神龍の伝説, Doragon Bōru: Shenron no Densetsu) originally known as Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenron, is the first movie in the Dragon Ball franchise, first premiering on 20 December 1986 in Japan. The movie is an alternate retelling of the events of the Emperor Pilaf saga from Dragon Ball, retelling the meeting of Goku and Bulma and their encounters with Oolong, Yamcha and Master Roshi. Emperor Pilaf and his gang, however, are replaced with the evil King Gurumes and his subordinates Bongo and Pasta.

Dubbing History
Curse of the Blood Rubies was first dubbed by Intersound, Inc. for Harmony Gold alongside the first five episodes of the series. It was edited together with the third film, Mystical Adventure, with dialogue rewritten to closer link the two films. The Harmony Gold-dubbed double feature was aired on various TV channels in the United States in a limited run in late 1989.

The movie was then dubbed in 1994-1995 by BLT Productions in association with FUNimation. The movie was dubbed first as a test to serve as a pilot for the series for TV stations. Much like the TV series, the movie was censored for content (scenes such as Roshi requesting to see Bulma's breasts in exchange for the Dragon Ball, and Oolong transforming into Bulma and showing him them). Two versions of this dub were made of the film, one using Harmony Gold's names, and the other using the names closer to the Japanese version eventually used by FUNimation. The version with Harmony Gold's names appears to have been a test and was never publicly released, but it was eventually found by the Twitter user Tanooki Joe in 2019. When later aired, in order to pad out the running time and the gaps left by the cuts, scenes from BLT's dub of Episode 2 of Goku and Bulma getting to know each other were spliced into the film. As with the BLT-dubbed TV Series, the movie featured a new score composed by Peter Berring.

In Europe, the film was presumably dubbed by Chinkel Post-Production for AB Groupe (now known as Mediawan Thematics), using their limited France-based voice cast of five voice actors. (It is to be assumed Doug Rand was not cast in this film, nor the other two films, as his voice is not heard anywhere in the dub; he did provide voices for the later Dragon Ball Z films.) This dub aired on Toonami in the United Kingdom, under the original title The Legend of Shenron, though was never given a home video release like many of their dubs for the Dragon Ball Z movies.

For many years, the film was the only one left undubbed by FUNimation's in-house studio. This is mainly due to the licensing of the BLT dub of episodes 1-13 and the film by Trimark Pictures. This licensing agreement would end up being extended with the acquisition of Trimark by Lionsgate in 2001. The license finally expired in 2009, allowing FUNimation to finally release the film with their own dub.

Unfortunately many years had passed since the dubbing of the original Dragon Ball series, and many voice actors, such as Stephanie Nadolny (Goku) and Tiffany Vollmer (Bulma), had since left FUNimation. Thus characters were recast with the dub cast utilized for Dragon Ball Z Kai, which was currently being dubbed. The script was mostly recycled from the 1995 script, which itself was based on the 1989 script, only reverting the characters' changed names back to their originals. The censorship of the Harmony Gold and BLT dubs were not retained, and thus contains the inappropriate moments and profanity of the Japanese version.

Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle
Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, (ラゴンボール 魔神城のねむり姫, Doragon Bōru: Majin-Jō No Nemuri Hime) also known as Dragon Ball: Sleeping Beauty in Devil Castle is the second animated film adaptation of the Dragon Ball manga and anime, released on July 18, 1987 in Japan. The movie is a direct continuation of the previous film, and an alternate retelling of Goku meeting Krillin and their initial training.

Dubbing History
Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle was the first in-house dub of an anime done by FUNimation in Dallas, Texas. According to Mike McFarland, roughly 150 actors auditioned to voice act in the special in 1997. In the end, only eight actors were chosen for the entire English voice cast of the project. With the success of the video release of the dub, FUNimation would continue to dub anime with their own talent pool based in Texas, finishing Dragon Ball Z on their own after the dub of it by Ocean Productions was cancelled. While their dub was mostly uncut, the opening was replaced with the Dragon Ball theme from the BLT dub, composed by Peter Berring. This would later be removed for the remastered DVDs.

In Europe, another dub was produced for European English-speaking areas by the AB Groupe with a France-based voice cast, airing on Toonami in the United Kingdom.

Video Releases
* Release was part of 4-pack with the other Dragon Ball movies

Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure
Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure (ドラゴンボール 魔訶不思議大冒険, Doragon Bōru: Makafushigi Dai-Bōken) is the third movie based on the Dragon Ball series, released on July 9, 1988. The movie is an alternate retelling of the "Tien Shinhan Saga" along with the "Red Ribbon", "General Blue" and "Mercenary Tao" sagas, with the characters of Chiaotzu and Tien Shinhan being changed into Emperor and servant rather than martial-artist students. Notably, this film does not have any new characters, but minor characters in the series appear in different roles.

Dubbing History
The movie was first dubbed by Harmony Gold to extend Curse of the Blood Rubies into a double feature. Creative re-writing was done to merge the two movies closer together. An example of this being dialogue implying the Pilaf, Mai, and Shu (called Oculi, Feminah, and Chao in their dub of the TV series) were all former servants to King Gurumes from the first movie.

The movie was later dubbed by FUNimation using their in-house dubbing cast in Dallas, Texas. Compared to their Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle dub, the casting was more reflective of the final casting choices made during Dragon Ball Z.

Video Releases
* Release was part of 4-pack with the other Dragon Ball movies

Dragon Ball: The Path to Power
Dragon Ball: The Path to Power (ドラゴンボール 最強への道, Doragon Bōru: Saikyō e no Michi), also known as The Way to the Strongest, is the 17th film based on the Dragon Ball manga and anime series, and the 4th in the Dragon Ball movie series. Made in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the series, it was released in theaters in Japan on March 4, 1996. It is a retelling of the initial meetings of Goku, Bulma, Yamcha and Oolong, as well as Goku's battle against the Red Ribbon Army.

Video Releases
* Release was part of 4-pack with the other Dragon Ball movies