4/5 The final two "Dragon Ball Z" films arrive in the US in High Def and these two films are awesome!
  by Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California)
The final two "DRAGON BALL Z" films get their Blu-ray High Definition release and showcases two adrenaline-pumping, action-packed films that includes Goku Super Saiyan Level 3, Gojita and more enemies that will test the Z Warriors even further.

DBZ MOVIE #12: FUSION REBORN

The twelfth "DRAGON BALL Z" film was released in theaters back in March 1995 and also became the first "Dragon Ball" film released in theaters in the United States over a decade later.

The timeline of this film takes place during the Buu saga and Goku is fighting in another Other World Tournament. The finalists once again are Goku and Pikkon who are happy to be fighting each other again.

Meanwhile, King Yemma is busy at the gate assigning the souls to Heaven or Hell. While everyone is busy, a delinquent employee in Hell who rather enjoy his rock n' roll music instead of working, disregards his job and in the process, the evil purification machine overfills and breaks. This allows all dead to return back to Earth alive and suddenly Frieza, the Ginyu Force and Adolf Hitler to arrive and create havoc in the world.

Fortunately, Gohan, Vedil, Trunks and Goten are able to defend the cities against the evils but in another dimension, Goku and Pikkon must fight one of their toughest enemies, a big monster known as Jamempa who has the ability to split himself into more evil beings like himself and the ability to bend reality and therefore his attacks are unpredictable.

With Goku and Pikkon having the odds against them in battle, a familiar face arrives in time to lend some help against the evil being.

DBZ Movie #13: WRATH OF THE DRAGON

The 13th and final "DRAGON BALL Z" film was released in July 1995. The film takes place around the time of the Buu Saga and features a story about an old alien being Hoi who tries to get Gohan to open up a music box. Supposedly, the music box contains the legendary warrior named Tapion who fought off a major evil. Now the evil has returned and the only way to defeat the evil is by releasing Tapion from a music box. Gohan tries to open it but its not possible.

By visiting his father Goku, Bulma and the team, they decide to find the Dragon Balls and hope to avert disaster by releasing this Tapion.

After finding all Dragon Balls and making their wish to Shenron, Tapion is released but is shocked that the Z warriors helped Hoi in doing so. Tapion leaves to be alone and Trunks and Goten try to be friendly be giving the warrior some food.

Meanwhile, the attacks begin with a huge monster tearing up the city. We see two figures, one dressed in a disguise and the other blowing an ocarina to stop the evil monster from further destruction. Gohan and Vedil see Tapion coming from the destruction and both think that they may have released an evil being to the planet.

We eventually learn that Tapion is actually a good guy from the planet Konack and he and his young brother Minosha have been sealed two halves of an evil monster in order to prevent the black magic alien race known as the Kash-Par from obtaining the monster ever again.

The monster Hirudegarn nearly obliterated their whole race and because of how destructive this monster is, a wizard has sealed the upper half of the monster into Tapion (the other lower half to Minosha) and sealed himself in the music box in order to prevent the Hoi and the Kash-Par to extract Hirudegarn and make him whole. The weakness of the monster is the music that comes from the ocarina and the magical sword given to him by the wizard.

Meanwhile, Trunks persistence in befriending Tapion seems to work and the two become like brothers. But unknown to them, Hoi has a plan to extract the monster right out of Tapion. Now the Z Warriors must do all they can to prevent Hoi from extracting the monster from Tapion.

VIDEO & AUDIO

Both "DRAGON BALL Z" films are featured in 1080p, High Definition (16×9). FUNimation Entertainment remastered the films in High Definition and also had these two films digitally restored. The widescreen transfer is from the original Japanese film and because these two films were the latest, final two films from "DRAGON BALL Z", they are the most colorful of the DBZ films and also feature the least amount of dust and scratches. With that being said, both films look absolutely vibrant on Blu-ray as the oranges and reds look fantastic and the blacks are much deeper.

As for the audio, like the previous Blu-ray releases of the DBZ films, you can watch the film in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 in English with the Japanese or U.S. music. The Japanese audio is presented in its original format.

For the Japanese audio purists who wish FUNimation Entertainment would give a lossless Japanese track, unfortunately, I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon.

I try to watch as many anime in its original Japanese presentation but "DRAGON BALL Z" is an anime series in which I found the English dub to be very well done. I felt that the casting of each character has been spending and the fact that the audio is lossless in English, it's really hard for me to go back and watch the films again in Japanese without any improvement to the audio.

The two films feature optional English subtitles if needed.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are no major special features included on this Blu-ray disc but the FUNimation Entertainment trailers.

JUDGMENT CALL:

It's been nearly 15 years since I've seen these two films but I have to admit that I was very excited to watch both "FUSION REBORN" and "WRATH OF THE DRAGON" on Blu-ray in High Definition. For one, both these films feature Goku Super Saiyan Level 3, Gojita and Gotenks. Characters that I absolutely have enjoyed watching on the "DRAGON BALL Z" TV series but also two films that would feature tougher enemies and more hardcore action.

For those familiar with the "DRAGON BALL Z" films, not all films fit into the DBZ TV series timeline that smoothly but for those who always wanted more battles with enemies aside from Frieza, Cell and Buu, the films do provide that antagonist. And instead of watching dozens of episodes dedicated to that arc, these enemies are self contained to one film (with the exception of Broly who appears in three films).

Also, both of these films are interesting in the fact that they include a protagonist other than the Z Warriors taking on the enemy as "FUSION REBORN" brings back Pikkon and "WRATH OF THE DRAGON" features Tapion.

"FUSION REBORN" was quite interesting because we see both Goku and Pikkon trying to fight another enemy that is cute and nearly as brainless as Buu but is quite deadly. It was also interesting to see how the animation would utilize a larger, black stroke around the character in certain scenes and definitely gave "DRAGON BALL Z" a slightly different look than previous films. But it was the humor in the film that was quite fun to watch. To see Trunks and Goten fuse to become Gotenks and take on Hitler and the guys, to see a Frieza who meets a grown up Gohan to watch Goku and Vegita get their fusion wrong and become an overweight character instead. A much more humorous film compared to previous releases.

As for "WRATH OF THE DRAGON", fans of Trunks, especially Future Trunks may have wondered where Trunks's sword came from and finally, all is revealed in this film. What I loved about this film is that we get to see Bulma's concern for Trunks, especially without his father and how Trunks looks up to Talpion as a big brother. We rarely get to see these type of personal moments since the films are action-based but whenever the writers could fit in any type of character development scenes, I enjoy them.

If there was one thing that I wished the Blu-ray would have (and this is me being nitpicky) special features. To see the Japanese teaser or theatrical trailers for the film would have been nice and of course, a lossless Japanese audio track that would have been nice as well. But nevertheless, this release is another film collection worth having in your DBZ collection.

Although I tend to recommend all DBZ films to all hardcore fans, for those who are on a budget and really need to pick and choose, I definitely recommend "DRAGON BALL Z - FUSION REBORN/WRATH OF THE DRAGON". Both films feature a good combination of humor, action and everything you come to enjoy about "DRAGON BALL Z".

Note: As much as I would love to give it a 5-star, as a complete product, I gave it a 4-star due to the lack of special features! Original Japanese trailers for the films would have been nice.

4/5 Great double feature - worth buying if you missed these movies the first time around
  by A Customer
In recent years, FUNimation, who has begun to release countless anime titles spanning various genres, has gone back to the franchise that made them big - Dragon Ball Z. They have gone back and begun releasing the series and the films in inexpensive season sets and double features.

This feature combines the twelfth and thirteenth movies of the Z series - Fusion Reborn and Wrath of the Dragon.

Fusion Reborn is set in a time period in which Goku is dead and Vegeta has apparently also died. An accident in Otherworld results in one of the ogre employees being transformed into a mindless, destructive being. The afterlife is distorted, and the dead begin roaming the Earth. While the still-living Z-Fighters set out to deal with zombified villains, Goku and Vegeta (who has gotten his body back due to the strange circumstances in the afterlife) join forces to deal with one of their toughest and strangest foes yet - and Fusion may be the only way to win.

Wrath of the Dragon is the thirteenth and final Dragon Ball Z film. The Z-Fighters are tricked by an evil wizard into freeing an ancient hero from inprisonment - and unknowingly unleashing an evil monster on the city. It's up to the Z-Fighters to join forces with the ancient hero and put an end to a strange new threat.

Of all the DBZ Double Features of the theatrical films, this one is by far the best. Every one of these features has two entertaining films, but these are easily two of the best. Fusion Reborn is the one DBZ movie that manages to combine fast-paced action and humor alike. You'll love it for the battles, and the more comical scenes will have you in stitches. Wrath of the Dragon is a more serious affair, and it has some classic moments as well - the scenes with Trunks and Tapion, the legendary hero, are great. They must be seen to be appreciated.

I want to clear something up for some of the confused fans - while these "Double Features" crop the movies, this was always the intention. These movies were made with cropping in mind, so as to fit them on Japanese cinema screens. So you're actually seeing the movies in the aspect ratio Toei intended (this does NOT apply to the cropped Trunks/Bardock set from last year back, though - those were made for TV, and were indeed cropped without it being the intention.)

Also, for anyone who cares, like the recent series season sets, here you can watch the English dialogue with the Japanese background music. Of course the dub is still hit and miss in places (though these revised dubs are better than what FUNimation has done in the past), so do yourself a favor and stick with the original Japanese. I only wish They had remastered the Japanese audio.

And now for the all-important question - should you get this set if you already own FUNimation's older DVDs of the movies? My answer is no, there just isn't reason enough to replace your older DVDs with this set. Additionally, you can get the older versions of the movie (which have more of the picture on them, as opposed to the Jap theatrical aspect ratio) for VERY cheap from Amazon's independent sellers. But if you can't find the older, cheaper issues, this makes for a fine alternative. You DO get 2 good movies for a good price.

Final verdict? Get it if you're a DBZ fan, but not if you already have older DVDs of the movies.

5/5 GREAT BLU-RAY TERRIBLE SERVICE
  by R.S.
DBZ Fusion/Dragon Blu-Ray combo is by far one of the better Blu-Ray movies out there in the DBZ Movie lineup. The graphics are phenominal and on a Samsung 750 series 52" LCD TV it was mind blowing in 1080 =)! I would recommend this blu-ray to any DBZ fan!

As for where to purchase it, this was my first and only purchase that will be from Amazon.com. I pre-ordered this blu-ray over a month in advance and it took 13 days to arrive here from KY (a 5 hour drive). It was an incredibly frustrating and nerve racking experience as nobody knew where it was, then was told to wait for the estimated delivery date, still didn't show up, then the only solution I was told was to wait until a week AFTER the estimated delivery date and if it didn't show up then, then they'd try to figure out what was going on. (which by the way 7 days after it shows as "shipped" is the estimated delivery date! How does it take a week to get 400 miles anyways?) After about 11 days, I stopped receiving any emails/help at all (I am sure it had to do with me wanting my money back as it was already 4-5 days after the estimated delivery date) and just had to hope and pray it would show up. I could have pre-ordered this from my local MovieStop and had it the DAY it came out for within $3-5 of the same price.. all in all, this was a terrible buying experience, but great blu-ray movie... Next time I will know better than to try and save a few bucks and will just pre-order it locally.

3/5 Double Feature = Better Value
  by ONENEO (Buffalo, NY)
Dragon Ball Z fans have a lot to be exited about in the month of May as Funimation is releasing the complete 9th season of the television series and a double feature movie pack (reviewed here) on the same day (May 19th). As has been the case with the past few Dragon Ball Z feature films, Funimation is re-releasing a pair of movies and packaging them together in an ultra-cool steel book set.

In this case, the two films contained are Fusion Reborn and Wrath of the Dragon. Coming at a total runtime of a 105 minutes (52.5 minutes x 2), the steel book contains a pair of discs wearing a TV PG rating (due presumably to the cartoony violence and slightly adult (morality/ mortality) themes).

Language options include an English vocal track with the original Japanese music (5.1 Surround sound), English voices with US music score (5.1 Surround), and Japanese voice work with original music (stereo) with English subtitles as an option over any of them.

Interestingly enough these movies are the twelfth and thirteenth animated films of the Dragon Ball Z franchise respectively. I personally found the second movie (Wrath of the Dragon) to be the superior of the two, but that isn't to say fans of the show won't enjoy the other just as much.

Fusion Reborn was originally broadcast in Japan in March of 1995 and actually enjoyed a limited theatrical release here in the US in 2006. The story goes something like this:

Goku happens to be partaking in an Other World Tournament (against Pikkon) during the Buu saga while a teenage ogre happens to get distracted from his duty of manning an evil-purification machine thanks to his music-wailing headphones (yes kids, this was pre iPod). Long story short, the machine overloads and explodes, releasing evil energy across the universe (who knew that a single machine being watched by a goofy kid could be so critical?)

Earth floods with zombies, the Other World has been transformed into a colorful psychedelic drug trip (complete with what can only be described as floating gumballs), King Yemma has become imprisoned in a barrier, and the teenager who caused all this trouble has been mutated by the energy overload into a big ugly monster that's equal parts Genie from the Lamp and Pikachu named Janemba.

Wrath of the Dragon hit Japanese airwaves a little later that same year (July of 1995) and unlike Fusion Reborn, never benefited by a US theatrical release. The story with this one focuses more heavily on Trunks and his relationship with Tapion.

Tapion's tale of the destruction taking place begins thousands of years earlier on a planet called Konack where a group of evil magicians (the Kash-phar) cast a spell on a statue to bring the monster it represented to life (probably not a good idea, looking back). The monster, (named Hirudegarn) clearly upset with being given life, goes on a rampage and destroys everyone and anyone who tries to get in its way. Naturally it isn't long before the entire planet is devastated.

Two young heroes, Tapion and his brother Minosha, manage to freeze the monster in his tracks by playing their divine ocarinas, which distracted the creature long enough to be sliced. The catch is that Hirudegarn can't be killed by such means so instead his upper-half becomes sealed in Tapion and the other half in Minosha. However, fearing that the monster might reappear someday, the brothers are separated and each is sealed in a music box then fired off into opposite ends of the galaxy. The music box holding Tapion lands, you guessed it, on Earth, which is a good thing since Hoy (one of the Kash-phar) is doing all he can to resurrect the Hirudegarn here.

In all the pair of movies are entertaining in the quirky, often-humorous means as only Dragon Ball Z could attempt. The video, as was the case with the movies, offers up smoother animation than the television series and a slightly richer color pallet. Like the series, however, the movies benefit from remastering in High Definition and digital restoration processes.

Where this package really shines though is in the presentation department as Funimation's fantastic steel-book sets are a handsome addition to just about any DVD shelf.

4/5 Im ONLY commenting on Fusion Reborn!
  by Son Of The King
This movie was good in such a weird way!! Some might not like it, but I think it was cool. It gets a little cartoonie & "candish" haha don't know how to explain it.....good movie, wouldn't watch it a second time, unless for the fighting scene with Vegeta.....



-The thing I love the MOST about DB/Z/GT is that it is like a Christian show!!
Goku is the one who always leads everyone the correct way, He is the savior of the world! (Symbolic to God leading us the right way & being our Savior!)

Goku trains & helps his friends to become good fighters (Symbolic to God "training" us in His Word)

Goku trusts in his friends knowing they will do the right thing. (Symbolic to God trusting that His true followers will obey Him & go His way)

Goku always shows love & mercy even to his enemies & evil people. (Symbolic to God showing all us people, whom have broken His Perfect Law -The Ten Commandments- and yet He still gives us Mercy to flee from sin & follow Him)

Goku believes anyone can change their life from bad, to good. (Symbolic to fleeing from our sins & following the Will of God)

Goku was like a father, always protecting people from evil (Symbolic to how God protects us from evil & when the storms comes, He's still with us)

Everytime it seems hopeless & like evil will prevail & there is no way out, Goku is always there to help! (Symbolic to no matter how strong the temptation or urge is, God always provides a way out for us because He is with us)

When the Saiyans or other fighters feel like there is no hope, they go into a new level of strength (Symbolic to when you are weakest you are strongest)

Like with us when we feel we can't resist the temptation or do the Will of God, we still press on and reach a new level or strength.....haha, like a Spiritual Super Saiyan, being much stronger into & with God then we were before.

When the fighters are fighting & they feel there is no hope, someone else usually comes to the aid (Symbolic to God will never leave us & He always provides help)

DBZ is not only a great show but I look at it through a Christian sense, look at it as a Christian sense, it's symbolic, it'll make it 10x better! I know it did for me!