While some things differ from the first "Dragon Ball" saga, there's enough of the show's charm to carry it. The voice actors are slightly different, with only Chris Sabat reprising his role, but they're similar to the ones I'm used to so it's not that big of a fault. Condensing the first 13 episodes into just 50 minutes was actually pretty successful. There's next to no filler, and the movie flows great from one moment to the next. While I wish the climax was a little longer, and I'd probably choose to watch the episodes individually than watch this as a replacement, it still delivers on the action, comedy, and memorable characters that the show introduced in the first season.

An alternate storyline of the origins in the Dragonball series. The plot and characters are the same. The story is the only thing made different for this movie. Bulma, a girl searching for the seven dragon balls has come across Goku who owns one of them. After they got acquainted with each other, they decided to set off on a journey to search for the other dragon balls.On the way there are plenty of new friends who have their own reasons for searching the dragon balls. And soon enter a kingdom which is facing it's own depression. Lead by a Gourmeth who has been cursed by the Blood Rubies which changed his personality. Gourmeth is also trying to collect all 7 dragon balls for his own reason. Will Goku save the Kingdom and cure Gourmeth's curse? The introduction and flow of this movie is very different compared to the TV series. And features several characters you won't see anywhere else. Despite it being only being less than an hour, and containing some similar moments from the earlier part of the TV series. Curse of the Blood Rubies is good for Dragonball's first movie.Even One Piece has a lot of alternate movies made of the series.I only saw the edited version of this movie. And yet to see the uncut version of it, which is the only uncut Dragonball movie to not have an Uncut DVD. And might be seeing one sometime.

I thought this movie served as an excellent introduction to the series, and because it's a semi original plotline, those who have seen the series will enjoy another outing with Son Goku.The animation is good, and (while I prefer the japanese) the english dubbing isn't half bad. The story line is simple, involving basically the dragonball gang looking for the something while a giant army does the same, resulting in a multitude of exciting (and never repetitive) fights. Lots of humor, lot's of action, and excellent characters, what more could you possibly ask for?I definately give this movie an A+!

This the first movie released during the Japanese TV run of Dragon Ball. Basically, this movie is a re-telling of how the main characters (Goku, Bulma, Oolong, Yamcha, Puar, and Master Roshi) of Dragon Ball meet. In the movie, however, as they meet, they help a farmer's daughter named Penny save her village from its wicked king, Gurumes, who's seeking the Dragon Balls to wish for lots of food to eat to satisfy his hunger. The movie re-creates some rather hilarious sequences from the Pilaf Saga episodes of Dragon Ball, giving it a generally family-friendly atmosphere. In the U.S., this movie, re-titled "Curse Of The Blood Rubies", was released on syndicated TV as a 2-part series pilot, but the editing and dubbing was done well enough that much of the movie mirrors its original Japanese counterpart.GRADE: 4 out of 5 stars