Dragon Ball Z : Wrath of the Dragon

Reviewed by Lawrence Cicchetti
September 20, 2006

Studio: Funimation MPAA Rating: Not Rated Website: Click Here Review Rating: 8 out of 10

This is the last installment of the Dragon Ball Z saga. It starts off with Saiyaman #1 and Saiyaman #2 (aka Gohan and Videl) saving an old man from falling off a building. The man shows them a music box and tells them that inside is a great hero and that an evil monster is coming to Earth. The only person who can defeat him is Tapion, the man in the music box. They collect the seven dragon balls and wish the box open. When it opens a man appears and scolds them for awakening him. That night a monster attacks the city, but the thing is, it's only the bottom half of a monster. Gohan defeats the evil legs.

Trunks became good friends with Tapion, and the old man tries to steal the magic ocarina that Tapion uses to trap monsters but Trunks intervenes and stops him. Tapion explains that the reason that he was trapped in the music box is because half of the monster was sealed inside of him and the other part was sealed inside of his brother. The thing is that his brother was killed, and the half of the monster inside of him was let loose. But, when Tapion sleeps, the monster can escape. Bulma makes a box similar to the music box, but big enough so Tapion can sleep.

That night, the old man comes with the bottom half of the monster knowing that the other half is sealed in Tapion. The two halves attack the heroes and they have to discover the monster's weakness, especially when the two monsters turn into Hirudegarn, the great monster. When Gotenks attacked him, he was enclosed in stone. They thought that it meant he was a goner. But, he emerged into another form. Hirudegarn knocked everyone out, except for of course, Goku. Goku uses a new attack that shoots flames in the shape of a dragon that wraps around Hirudegarn and the day is saved.

The movie has the usual outcome of Goku turning super saiyan and saving the day. These kinds of stories are kid friendly and are only contain cartoon violence. It has a better plot and it featured a new character But it still needed a bit more of a creative ending. This movie put a smile on my face when they ended it. Keeping this in mind, the Dragon Ball Z movies are fairly inexpensive now and definitely worth keeping in the collection for all generations.