Dragonball Z: The World's Strongest

DVD Features:
Audio: English, Japanese
Caption: English, Descriptive
Character Bio's with Video
'Battle Field' Video Library
Limited Scene Access

—by Chris Kohler

Since this is a DVD review, I'd like to cut to the chase and start talking about some of the features available on this release.
Most viewers are probably somewhat familiar with DRAGONBALL Z by now, so the usual introductions can be skipped. However, this movie, coming from a long line of DRAGONBALL and DRAGONBALL Z films, does not stand out as anything exceptional. In fact, if I had to use one word to describe this movie, that word would be: "predictable." Most of the movie was just a long, drawn out build up for something that you could tell was going to happen from the very beginning. Even the build up is predictable.
The basic plot is this: Characters are kidnapped by villains. Good guys must fight bad guys to rescue other good guys. Gohan even "surprisingly" saves the day, as he has done time and time again during the series. It left me with a feeling of "been there, done that." Bulma didn't do anything but get captured and don't even get me started on Gohan's little superdeformed music video tribute to Piccolo. It was so strange that it seemed like it didn't even belong in the movie.
There were some things I did like about this DVD. It does have some impressive fighting scenes which I enjoyed and at times the animation quality really shines. Most importantly, what I really liked about this disc was the stuff on it besides the movie.
For an anime DVD, it didn't contain the movie trailer (a semi-standard on most DVDs) nor did it have production notes sometimes included but it makes up for these with its extensive use of video clips. What I also personally like is that it's packaged in a CD jewel case, rather than the usual low-quality plastic/cardboard numbers used for other (non-anime) releases.
This disc contains tons of video clips from the series in the catalog section and also on the character bio screens. It also has a very nifty "Battle Field" section that let's you view brief segments of over a dozen battles from this movie as well as the movie TREE OF MIGHT and the TV series. Some of the clips are quite long too, lasting for several minutes.
If it wasn't for the DVD features, I would have very little to like about this movie. So if at possible, rent this DVD first to find out if you enjoy it before you go out and purchase it.. But DRAGONBALL Z: THE WORLD'S STRONGEST is a case where the DVD extras really do provide extra value not available on either VHS or LD format.