Dragon Ball has always been made up of four main components: The manga, the series’ original source material; the anime, the main adaptation and what most fans know; the video games, which were incredibly popular during the franchise’s golden years; and the movies, comp🔴anion pieces to the anime which often had their own self contained storylines. In the series’ decades long run, the films have remained one of the few constants. Before Battle of Gods came around and made the franchise mainstream aga𝔉in, animated specials would pop up every now and again to remind everyone t🎶hat Dragon Ball was far from dead.

With Super at its most popu💫lar and Toriyama working on a brand new film chronicling the life of the very first Super Saiyan, there’s never been a bet☂ter time to reexamine Dragon Ball’s long history of feature length films.

25 Episode Of Bardock

What do you get when you mix one of the franchise’s most tragic characters and toss him into a time travel plot that turns him into the legendary Super Saiyan? Nothing ཧgood, that’s what. Episode of Bardock tꦕakes fan favorite Bardock and murders his character for half an hour so when he turns Super Saiyan at the end of the special, the audience can at least pretend like this development makes any sense whatsoever. The worst part about Episode of Bardock, however, is that it’s actually niceꦡly animated.

If the story were competent and Bardock wasn’t character assassinated, the staff on the special could have easily worked on something entire💎ly worthwhile. Instead, Goku’s dear old dad was whitewashed, flung back in time instead of tragically dying, and ruined the Super Saiyan lore that defined the Namek arc.

24 Plan To Eradicate The Super Saiyans

Bundled in with Raging Blast 2, Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans is a remake of the 1993 OVA, Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans. This animated short, whileᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ an interesting part of Dragon Ball history, is seriously lacking in movie-li🗹ke elements. The Z films have always been light on giving the characters🃏 arcs and imparting a message, but Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans doesn’t even try. There’s some element of revenge at play since the story revolves around a Tuffle trying to get revenge on ꦇthe Saiyans, but it never goes anywhere, instead meandering for 20 minutes before the real main villain shows up for Goku to beat. The only reason PtEtSS isn’t dead last is becaಞuse it doesn’t tarnish an🐼y legacies in its messy half hour run.

23 Bio-Broly

Broly is not a good villain. He’s an even worse villain when you remove the minutiae of personality he has and cover him꧂ in brown sludge. Bio-Broly, names after♋ the unfortunately named titular villain, is🎃 the third film in the Broly and easily the worst of the bunch. Instead of focusing on the rivalry between Goku and Broly, focus is instead shifted to Goten and Trunks goofing off while 18 tries to hustle money out of Mr. Satan.

The sad thing is, this prem✃ise is actually great! Goten and Trunks leading a film on their own is a refreshing change of pace, and 18 is a criminally underused Harare i⛦n the franchise. Sadly, the premise never gets a chance realize its full potential as crummy Broly slapstick dominates the rest of the film. Throw in some shoddy animation and a sequel hook that goes absolutely nowhere, and you’ve got one of the messiest films in the franchise.

22 A Hero’s Legacy

Repeat after me𒉰, “Dragon Ball GT is✱ a bad show.” Very good! Now repeat, “As a result, we can deduce that Dragon Ball GT: A Hero’s Legacy is just as bad, it not worse.” Fantastic! Dragon Ball GT: A Hero’s Legacy is an epilogue film for GT that released before GT even ended. Taking place 100 years after the end of the series, the film follows Goku Jr. in his quest to find a Dragon Ball so h♎e can make a wish to cure his grandmother, Pan.

Nevermind the fact that a single Dragon Ball can’t grant a wish rendering Goku Jr.’s entire quest null, this is just a boring movie. Goku Jr. is not an interesting character, he’s just a cowardly version of Goku who learns to be brave🍸 by the end of the film. The idea of a personal story ജserving as an epilogue is nice in theory, but it doesn’t land when the character the epilogue is about has nothing to do with the series.

21 Lord Slug

How you feel about this film is going to depend entirely on how you feel about the King Piccolo arc. Do you♊ like it? Then you’ll hate Lord Slug for making a mockery of the arc. Do you hat𝄹e it? Then you’ll ha𓂃te Lord Slug for literally just retelling the Ki🅠ng Piccolo arc in 40 minutes. Chances are you’re going to hate t✃his film.

Now let’s get on𒉰e thing straight- very few, if any, films🍬 in this franchise are actually original. The problem with Lord Slug is🥀 that it doesn’t even try to pretend it’s a novel idea. Everything in the film has been done before, and better, in the actual series. False Super Saiyan is an interesting idea, that said, though it still falters thanks to an unimpressive display of power.

It also just looks like a gross Kaioken.

20 Broly - The Second Coming

The sequel🀅’s never as good as the original. With Bro♔ly, that’s a given. Broly - The Second Coming is the second installment in the epic “Irrationally Upset Super Saiyan Trilogy.” Taking place early in the Buu saga, it’s up to Gohan, Videl, Goten, and Trunks to stop this unstoppable monster. You’ll find hit scenes such as random characters trying to sacrifice children, Trunks mooning Broly, and Goku inexplicably showing up to hel🍷p defeat Broly in a fam🙈ily Kamehameha.

Okay, that last one is actually super cool.

To be fair, Broly - The Second Coming isn’t all bad. It has a solid enough ending that acknowledges the Son leg꧙acy and seeing Videl in a legitimate lead role is refreshing. Sadly, Broly is characterized worse than he ever was in his first film and the action pal𓆉es in comparison to most of the other films in the franchise.

19 Sleeping Princess In Devil’s Castle

Believe it or not,💝 Lucifer exists as an actual character in Dragon Ball. Granted, he exists as a non-canon character in a non-canon film but par🥃ticipation trಌophies never hurt anyone. Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle is the second of the OG Dragon Ball films and the only one that doesn’t adapt an entire story arc. Instead, it zones in on the training portion of the 21st Budokai arc. As a result, the movie is a bit limited w🌳ith how much story it can actually tell.

To its credit, this movie does have some of the most creative visuals in the franchise. There’s a very clear🅷 horror movie aesthetic and Lucifer’s design stands out quite well amongst the other villains. Its biggest downfall is simply that it’s dull. It locks itself into a very limited era and, as a 🏅result, the story can’t experiment as much as it needs to.

18 The Return Of Cooler

What Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle is to horror, The Return of Cooler is to sci-fi. The second Cooler movie takes us to New Namek where a recently revived Cooler has enslaved the Namekians for… some reason. Conceptually, this movie has some of the best visuals in the franchise. Toei constantly pays homage to science fiction classics resulting in an atmosphere that is wholly unique to this film𒈔.

Unfortunately, mos𒅌t of the artwork is fairly sloppy. Fights lack in engaging choreography and🍒 character models are often ugly. Throw in some choppy animation and Return of Cooler comes out a mess. An interesting mess, but a mess𝄹 noඣnetheless.

Of note, this was the first movie Vegeta was in!

17 The Tree Of Might

The Tree of Might did Goku Black before Super ever thought up the idea. Unfortunately, it left out all the nuances, tension, mystery, and drama tha♚t made the Goku Black arc so memorable. Instead, Turles and his bland henchmen try to tend to their new garden while Goku and company ruin their lovely Sunday afternoon. The film actually does have some nice down to earth moments and all the Z-fighters get a chance to shine, but the super interesting evil Goku concept is never fully utilized. When the most interesting thing about your evil clone is that he looks like you. It might be time to find a new doppelganger.

16 Mystical Adventure

The third, and last, of the original Dragon Ball movies, Mystical Adventure is easily the most creative of the three. While it does adapt a part of the series like the other two, 22nd Budokai with some Red Ribbon elements this time around, it adapts them the loosest leading to a fairly interesting narrative. Inst♉ead of a proper tournament like the Budokais, the tournament in this film is held by Chaozu, a prince in this retelling. Tao Pai Pai is also used as the Red Ribbon Army influence, but he leads to the biggest downfall in the movie.

While Tao Pai Pai is the main RRA carryover, his story isn’t similar to how it was in the original manga. Instead, he takes Blue’s role after he and Goku fight. Thi♛s, sadly, forces Goku to abandon the main plot of the first two acts so he can hang out with Arale from Dr. Slump for far too long leadi⛦ng to a baffling underwhelming last act. 

Those first two acts are great, though!