| NOTE: This article explicitly details the Dragonball Evolution counterpart of Goku, as his mainstream counterpart is a highly well-received character, even after his character derailment in DBS. |
Goku is the main protagonist of the heavily critically panned 2009 live-action film Dragonball Evolution, an adaption of the Dragon Ball manga and anime franchise.
He was portrayed by Justin Chatwin.
What Makes Him a Scrappy?[]
- He lacks any of the charisma of the original Goku.
- The original Goku in Part I was a twelve-year-old boy who lives in the mountains alone with no access whatsoever to education or the outer world, and as a result became very chaste due to there being no women living near him. However, now he is a teenager who lives at a location which gives him access to education, and develops a crush on Chi-Chi (while in the anime it is the opposite).
- Goku's personality in general was also ravaged upon too. As he was originally a happy-go-lucky boy who picked fights with his foes, but now, he is a arrogant, moody boy who doesn't use his martial arts skills at all on anyone before Gohan's death, even his bullies (until the party).
- Justin Chatwin, although he claimed to read all the manga and even Journey to the West for the character, still gave him a mediocre-to-wooden performance, not to mention he looked nothing like Goku aside from his black hair.
- Unlike the original Goku, who killed his grandfather by accident in his Oozaru self before the series, this Goku ended up not only having him alive when the movie started, but also lost him to another man. This ends up not only being a total Uncle Ben cliche that only existed so people would take King Piccolo as a serious threat, but also undermines Goku's tragedy in the original series.
- Even though he did kill Master Roshi in his Oozaru form in this film, it still does not give off the same vibe as it did in the original series.
- His fights were pretty awful and all his techniques were completely ruined.
- His Ki blasts were turned into air condensed in one's palm rather than the balls of energy in the original series.
- He randomly flies up into Lord Piccolo for some reason when doing the Kamehameha (which he, somehow, also takes a long time to master, instead of a runaway mastery like in the original series)
- Unlike the original Goku, who could survive entire rounds of guns, this one ends up getting injured when he got shot once.
- Due to his lack of a tail, it is unexplained how Goku can turn into a Great Ape. And he also does it at a solar eclipse rather than a full moon.
- To add insult to injury, he mentioned airbending at one point, which is a complete disregard to not only Dragon Ball, but also ATLA.
- His hair, although spiky, is more like the type of hair you'd see at a rock concert rather than the bunches of spikes of a Saiyan. Not to mention there were tons of Goku cosplayers who managed to have more accurate wigs.
- The ultimate middle finger to Goku's character, was the fact that he revived Master Roshi with the Dragon Balls rather than Gohan, when he only just met him. While it is considered a bad move on Goku's part, it also undermines Shenron's power, as in the original series, Shenron could revive millions of people at ease.
- While Goku did fail at reviving Gohan in the original show, he at least wanted to do so, and only didn't go through with it because Gohan reached out to him and said he preferred being deceased.
- Overall Goku was turned from a cheery, combative boy who lacked knowledge on human conventions (including the original Chi-Chi's crush on him) due to having no contact with the outer world, to an angsty, teenaged Spiderman wannabe, and was the first person to develop feelings for the other in his relationship with Chi-Chi.
- Even his actor hated playing this character, with him apologizing for the existence of this movie when Akira Toriyama unfortunately passed away.
Trivia[]
- Ironically, Goku is considered less of a scrappy to Chinese audiences due to his dubbing and the casting of Justin Chatwin not being seen as that much of a deal.
External Links[]
- Goku on the Dragon Ball Wiki
[]
 Scrappies
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Animated Films Other Live-Action Films Animated Television Family Guy and The Cleveland Show American Dad! Bob's Burgers Other Live-Action Television Shorts See Also | ||