In a heartfelt tribute to the late Akira Toriyama, Canadian actor Justin Chatwin, known for his role as Goku in Dragonball Evolutionthe film adapted from the manga Dragonball of Hollywood in 2009, sorry for spoiling the movie.
“Rest in peace, brother. And sorry, we screwed up the adaptation so badly,” Chatwin wrote in a tribute to Toriyama shared on his Instagram story.
Chatwin’s message reflects widespread frustration among fans and creators alike with the manga adaptation Dragonball of Toriyama incorrectly.
Dragonball Evolutionproduced by 20th Century Fox, faced backlash for departing from the source material, including poor writing, acting, and production values, among other things.
Notably, the film chose a modern American high school setting over the fantasy/sci-fi elements integral to the original story, leading to accusations of cultural whitewashing and insensitivity.
Toriyama himself expressed dissatisfaction with the live-action adaptation in an interview with Asahi Shimbun Digital, saying, “In addition, at the time the Hollywood film, Dragon Ball live-action, the script there was so little understanding of the world and its characteristics, and on top of that, it had conventional content that I didn’t find interesting so I warned them and suggested changes; but despite that, they seemed to have a strange confidence and didn’t really listen to me. In the end, what came out was a movie that I really couldn’t call Dragon Ball the way I expected it to be.”
Toriyama’s message in the 30th Anniversary Dragon Ball Superman History Book further confirmed his displeasure.
“I’ve put Dragon Ball behind me. But seeing how much that live-action movie excited me, as well as how I revised the script for the anime movie and complained about the quality of the TV anime, I assumed that somewhere, it had become into a series that I liked too much to leave. alone,” he said.
Source: TwitterKanzenshu (1, 2), CBR