Dragon Ball: The Return of Son Goku and Friends! (2008 Video) User Reviews

Highly anticipated Dragonball flick lives to its expectations

[kkumar181286 · 8/10 · 26 July 2009]

Nearly a decade after the last Toei animated anime comes a new anime of the title "Yo. Son Goku and His Friends Return." A really mesmerizing concept in its own respect, the youngest of the DBZ movie lives up to its hype and expectations. Not an extremely serious kind of movie like others, it was rather on the merrier side.

Vegeta softened up beyond belief, the only villains in the movie not stronger than the kids Goten and Trunks, Vegeta's brother visits earth out of nowhere and King Kai visiting earth for the first time are some of the highlights of this movie.

This movie is possibly one of those which concludes an immensely huge series with the title "And they happily lived ever after."

Not hugely epic as far as DBZ goes, but a lot of fun.

[wolfordjesse · 7/10 · 24 November 2008]

Two years later after the Buu saga, the story revolves around Goku and company get invited to Mr Satans (Hercule if you've only seen the dub)banquet to have them all celebrate the defeat of Majin Buu. Later, Vegetas younger brother Table, and his wife (can't remember the name, sorry),warn Vegeta and Goku that a Brother Duo they fought is coming to Earth. When the villain duo arrive they are paired up against Goten and Trunks who are pretty much beating them, the Brothers then merge into a huge villain and Goten and Trunks have to fuse to beat him. Later the villain unleashes a deadly attack but it is stopped by all the Z Warriors (even Roshi and Yajirobe helped), and eventually the villain is defeated. All in all not one of the best things of the DragonBall franchise, but if you're looking forward to seeing something new at least, then give this film a watch. Hopefully this gets dubbed in time for the live action film, yeah yeah I know how much you all hate how it's looking.But I think it would be good marketing for the film if they did so.

7/10

Wait vegeta has a brother???

[ffaass-24151 · 6/10 · 15 September 2021]

While this special absolutely was powered by nostalgia for the sayan arc but still as a kid and watching this special was so funny!! But yeah but the fact that vegeta little brother appear in it is pretty lazy from akira toriyama like what's for him? Also how trunks and goten can't win I mean for their high power level the friza men don't have any chance to fight back.

A great way to revive an excellent anime

[pinguino260 · 10/10 · 23 November 2008]

I had been looking forward for watching this since it was announced,i was amused and surprised when i heard that a new ova was going to go out after 11 years of dragon ball lack,well i can say after watching this that this special didn't disappointed me.It was interesting watching the great old dragon ball with new animation techniques,brighter colors and higher detailed scenarios.

The plot isn't too deep or original,but dragon ball had never been too deep,so i had no problem with that.A bunch of characters from the series appear and there are new ones,that i liked a lot.

The only complaint i have is the duration,i felt it was too short,but i hope this isn't the last dragon ball material we see.

in conclusion if you're a dragon ball fan you should watch this,you won't be disappointed.

Returning Dragon Ball to what it used to be

[mbucic · 10/10 · 28 November 2008]

The movie is set 2 years after the defeat of Majin Buu. Mr. Satan is planning a banquet for everyone who helped in the fight against Buu and he's also celebrating the opening of his new hotel. The banquet is suddenly interrupted by a strange person wearing a Saiyan armor. It turns out that this young man is actually Vegeta's little brother Tarble. When he was little, he was sent to a distant planet because he was too weak. He came to planet Earth seeking help from his brother Vegeta in order to defeat the evil duo Abo and Cado who are terrorizing his planet. But the evil duo followed him to Earth and a fight is inevitable!

I think the fans won't like this special like the rest of the series because Dragon Ball Z is the most famous part of DB, and the reason why it is so popular is mostly the fighting, which isn't the important thing in this special. Humor is. This movie does have a lot of fighting, and the fighting scenes are great, but there are also Roshi's perverted jokes, funny villains, great dialogues (especially when Goku an Vegeta are arguing) and much more. I for one, liked Dragon Ball more than Dragon Ball Z, and this special was just perfect for me. In the beginning, Dragon Ball was all about the humor, not fighting, and later it became a fighting manga/anime with almost no humor at all. I liked the combination of old-school animation with the latest 3D CG graphics and colouring techniques. And it is great that all the voice actors are present even after 12 years. But for some reason Tien is missing...

To sum it all up, this is a great movie that is definitely worth watching. More than once.

10/10

Waste Of Time Don't Believe The Hype

[Adam_venedam · 1 September 2011]

Watched it because Dragonball and DBZ is my favorite anime but after watching this its just so lame, its cheap and Goten and Trunks only fight really, Goku just shoots one damn kamehameha and Vegeta doesn't get anything in there, the whole story was stupid about Vegetas brother and the fight scenes were crap, every random character that has ever been seen except for a lot of the fighters were there even showed some for a couple seconds which was stupid, basically just a very VERY bad filler episode like terrible, It was cool to see the old music used for this and actually at first I thought it was gonna be good all the Z warriors fight a nice big battle a huge boss or something but the bad guys were lame as hell and they sucked, and also other than that its just mr. Satans hotel and they eat in it and nothing else

Worst Dragonball Movie.

[morphixx · 2/10 · 30 November 2008]

This was an awful special. I'm glad to see that they are trying to revive Dragonball Z. But, this was a mess. What were they thinking giving Vegeta a brother? What kind of wife does he have? (She better be able to transform or something) Honestly, they could have just made something like an evil kai attacks earth, or something..

Some issues were: -Tarble could not be that young. It's impossible. He would have to be as old as Gohan, at least.

-Tarble wasn't even surprised when Goku turned super saiyan.

-Android 18 cannot sense power levels. She states this many times in DBZ, and GT.

Dragonball Forever!

[halobluecat · 9/10 · 11 December 2008]

I have been watching Dragonball since it first aired in the U.S. back in the 90's and Its my favorite show of all time. I have every episode of Dragonball, Dragonball Z, and the not so good Dragonball GT. I have been waiting for something new in Dragonball for 11 years now and I was not disappointed.

The new special is just what the Dragonball Fans have been waiting for. It has good old humor between Goku and Vegeta that I loved.

The movie is a special on Akira Toriyama's view on what happened after Majin Buu was defeated. It introduces some new faces such as vegetas brother tarble and the evil duo Abo and Cado. A Dragonball style fight occurs and all is well in the end. The animation is all up to par with the newer animes today and it just has a great feel to it.

I was only disappointed in the length of the special, It is only about 33 min long. But hopefully this is the start of some new Dragonball to come from Toriyama.

I give it a 9/10 and recommend it to any true Dragonball fan!

Newer Dragonball not too good

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 March 2016]

"Doragon bôru: Ossu! Kaette kita Son Gokû to nakama-tachi!!" or "Dragon Ball: Hey! Son Goku and Friends Return!!" is a more recent entry compared to the old Dragon Ball short films and the series, even if this one is also already 10 years old. Unfortunately I did not see this as a worthy revival of the franchise. The action was fairly random and the story as well as comedy didn't really do too much for me. I hoped this could have been better. Then again, I have never been the biggest DB or DBZ fan, so this is not really a big surprise. There were still moments I liked, but I don't think it should have run longer than 24 minutes max, the usual runtime for shows like this, maybe even only 21. I do not recommend it unless you are really a hardcore Dragon Ball" fan.

useless special

[erminahotmail · 5/10 · 11 February 2024]

Then this special that was created in 2008 to bring back Dragon Ball Then two years have passed during the defeat of Majin Buu and all the characters are going to the opening of the new Mr satam hotel but in the meantime a new character has landed or a Saiyan by nameTarble is he is Vegeta's brother a moment moment moment moment moment since Vegeta a brother we begin to understand one thing that is during the explosion of the planet the Saiyan Vegeta was a child for how long known in the existence of a brother He didn't do not even mentionnot even half of this character is he says that our father had sent him to another planet because he didn't know how to settle into life Saiyan it could also be like that but it still doesn't even mention it but the problem if several years have passed How come Tarble appears like achild I understand that it is not a Saiyan characteristic to never grow old but to grow yes this special one really has foul deeds In fact embolism came to earth to warn that two former followers of frieza to invade the earth and our friends must stop them So Thatwhat do you think of this special which is another completely useless one I didn't like this one then it left you what I already talked about Tarble but the use is what I say that this was truly a useless character the same thing also applies for the two villains of this special That isI don't even know very powerful enough that everyone says they're in rapalli di frieza And then because all the characters don't fight they're only born fighting trunks and gohan But then in the end it's Goku who knocks the floor and is bad and there's always the usual window that everyone stuffs themselves with foodThen this special was of no use at all. If you agree with me, avoid it to conclude the vote 5.

Hanging Out with the Characters

[JayWolfgramm · 5/10 · 31 March 2023]

The key to Dragon Ball's success isn't the over the top fight sequences or the ki blasts or insane power levels. At its core what has made this series so beloved for generations, are the characters. And here in this movie we have our favorite heroes and anti-heroes just hanging out and having a good time. It is what later episodes of Dragon Ball Super would figure out, just having these characters living their life can lead to some fun storytelling possibilities. The whole universe doesn't always have to be at stake.

Of course, a villain to fight does pop up eventually. It is a pair of villains so weak compared to our heroes that the fighters draw lots to see who will get to fight them.

As of right now, to the best of my knowledge, the movie hasn't received a Funimation English dub. So, be prepared to read subtitles if you don't speak Japanese.

The story does introduce a few things into continuity that I am not a fan of. Once the fight begins the story does lose some of its initial charm. The new characters this movie introduces aren't all that interesting, and they take time away that could be spent on the characters we came to see. At the time this came out, the world was hungry for some DragonBall content. All we had at the time was a couple episodes of Dragon Ball Z Abridged.

If you are a big fan of these characters and are excited about the prospect of Goku and Vegeta arguing over who gets the last bit of sushi, then this is the film for you. If that sounds boring, then you can go ahead and skip this one.