AKA Dragon Ball Z Movie 03: Chikyuu Marugoto Choukessen (The whole earth super decisive battle)

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (1990) – Movie Review

I used to live in a small town that, during the 90’s and early 2000’s, had an atrocious cable television provider. I recall at one point one channel was VH1 for half of the day, then at 7:00 PM it would switch to The Comedy Channel (Comedy Central), just as a prime example of their shenanigans. One of the more egregious things they did was wait until something like early 2001 to have Cartoon Network available, a channel that was pure heaven to somebody my age craving the likes of Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing. When the channel finally landed, I recall immediately watching a marathon of five or six episodes of Gundam Wing and an airing of the subject of today’s review – Dragon Ball Z – Movie 3 – The Tree of Might. This wasn’t even a premiere or anything, Tree of Might was on all the time and I even caught part of it on VHS years before at a friend’s house, but it stuck with me for some reason. In hindsight, it’s not a particularly great film, but it’s one of those core memories you just can’t shake for me.

“A mysterious device crashes on planet Earth, causing a wildfire near where Gohan, Krillin, Bulma, and Oolong are camping. Unable to fully save the forest, they decide to use the Dragon Balls to restore it to its previous condition. A few days later, a group of unknown warriors plant a seed where the mysterious device had crashed, sprouting a colossal tree that destroys the forest and neighboring cities in the process. If left unchecked, it will eventually destroy the entire planet.”

Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, released in 1990, is the third film in the Dragon Ball Z film series. Directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi, this film answers the question of what it would be like had Goku not fallen on his head as a baby and turned out just like most of his people on his home planet were – ruthless warriors. The plot begins with a mysterious tree, known as the Tree of Might (or “Shinseiju in the sub version”), being planted on Earth by a group of space pirates led by the Saiyan warrior Turles. Turles, despite being of no relation, bears a striking resemblance to Goku, thus upsetting Gohan quite a bit. The tree drains the life force from the planet, producing fruit that grants immense power to those who consume it. Goku and the Z Fighters must confront Turles and his henchmen to save their world from destruction.

While Turles is a formidable foe, his inclusion and storyline beats are somewhat redundant considering Dragon Ball Z started out with the inclusion of the character Raditz, a man that actually was Goku’s older brother and already showed how awful most Saiyans could be. I will say, kudos to the staff not making Turles Goku’s secret twin brother or something, because if there’s anything we’ve learned for the near forty years of Dragon Ball’s run, Akira Toriyama and Toei’s other staff LOVE the idea of an “evil Goku” and have revisited that many times already, especially in recent years. With that said, this is just a fun non-canon movie and trying to go too heavy on continuity here is a fool’s errand.

I mentioned in my last review that the first three films in this series all cover almost the same story beats, a fact that would likely not be too crazy had I watched these months apart, but since I’ve been doing these every few days, it sticks out. Those plot points are – A villain has kidnapped Gohan, this angers Goku so he shows up to fight him. He has to take on the henchmen first, but thankfully no evil Piccolo this time. Goku has to fight all the adversity eventually leading to a 1 on 1 with the big bad. There’s a lot of talk about just how powerful Gohan actually is, and Goku kills the villain with a Spirit Bomb.

The film excels in its action sequences, which are dynamic and well-choreographed, showcasing the unique abilities of each character. Goku, Piccolo, Krillin, and the rest of the Z Fighters each get their moments to shine, battling Turles’s minions in fast-paced, explosive fights. I always look out for episodes or films in this franchise that aren’t just Goku and somebody else locked in a singular battle for weeks, so seeing everyone help out was cool. The animation quality is solid for its time, and so far each movie keeps looking better and better than the last as the budget is obviously increasing.

One of my favorite parts of this movie is the Japanese opening which abandons the classic introduction video for a modified one involving the characters scouring the world for the Dragon Balls in order to “wish back” the forest that had just been laid waste due to the aforementioned forest fire. I can’t help but mention that even though I watched this show almost entirely in English in the past (I’m no sub elitist), and enjoy some of the Bruce Faulconer music, but you really can’t beat how catchy the song “Cha-La Head-Cha-La” is. After watching a few of these, I can’t help finding myself humming it sometimes.

Another strong suit is the titular Tree of Might itself. While a lot of these movies involve the villain trying to destroy the planet for some reason, see Lord Slug for example, the concept of a tree that saps the planet’s life force adds a sense of urgency and high stakes to the story. Nobody really has time to dilly-dally around and try to reason with the pirates, they have to almost immediately start fighting them off. The imagery of the massive, otherworldly tree dominating the landscape is visually striking and serves as a powerful symbol of the threat Turles poses.

Despite the film’s shortcomings, Dragon Ball Z Movie 3 – The Tree of Might succeeds in delivering the excitement and intensity that fans of the series expect. The showdown between Goku and Turles is memorable, featuring some spectacular early 90’s animation and a satisfying conclusion that reinforces Goku’s traits of immense heroism and strength. Seeing two men that appear to be twins, but on the polar opposites of the morality scale, is interesting and I low-key wish Turles would have been used more than this one-off.