Movie 1

The list of authors can be seen in the **page history** there.

* Bongo
* Bulma
* Gurumes
* Muten Rōshi
* Oolong
* Pasta
* Penny
* Pu'ar
* Shenron
* Son Gokū
* Yamcha
* Kamehameha
* Wolf Fang Wind Style Fist
* Blood Ruby
* Dragon Ball
* Dragon Radar
* Kintoun
* Hoi Poi Capsule

***Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenron*** (ドラゴンボール 神龍の伝説, *Doragon Bōru: Shenron no Densetsu*), originally known as simply ***Dragon Ball***, and known in English as ***Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies***, is the first overall film based on Akira Toriyama's *Dragon Ball*. It was originally released in Japan on December 20, 1986 at the "Toei Manga Matsuri" film festival.

## Plot

*Curse of the Blood Rubies* is a modified adaptation of the initial story arc in the *Dragon Ball* manga, with the original character Gurumes substituting Pilaf's role as the main antagonist. Like in the manga, *Curse of the Blood Rubies* depicts how Gokū meets up with Bulma. During their travel Gokū meets Oolong, Yamcha, Pu'ar and finally Muten Rōshi during his first search for the Dragon Balls.

The movie starts with King Gurumes’ soldiers destroying the homes and lands of farmers within his kingdom to look for blood rubies. His two main enforcers are Pasta and Bongo, whom he has also tasked with finding the Dragon Balls. Since finding the blood rubies, King Gurumes has fallen under a curse that makes his hunger insatiable. He hopes to wish the curse away with the Dragon Balls. A little girl named Penny decides to go and find help.

A teenage girl named Bulma is also searching for the Dragon Balls with the help of a device called a Dragon Radar. Before she can reach the next ball, she runs into Son Gokū (a young boy with a tail) while he’s carrying home a giant fish. Gokū tells Bulma that his grandpa gave him a Dragon Ball before he died. Pasta and Bongo arrive at Gokū’s home and steal his Dragon Ball. They flee in a fighter jet and Bulma and Gokū give chase in Bulma’s jet, But they are shot down by Pasta. Later that night, Gokū and Bulma are looking for food in the forest when they find Penny, who is being accosted by a large monster. The monster flees when Gokū proves his strength by destroying a large tree. Gokū chases the monster and it finds its true form to be a shape-shifting pig named Oolong. Oolong freaks out when he realizes they have landed in the Desert Bandit Yamcha’s territory. Yamcha and his sidekick Pu'ar attack the duo. Gokū battles Yamcha but their duel is cut short when Bulma arrives. Yamcha flees because he has a paralyzing fear of beautiful women. Penny tells the others about her people’s plight and how she must find the great Muten Rōshi.

The next day, the team arrives on Muten Rōshi’s island, but Yamcha has arrived first and tricked Rōshi into thinking Gokū is there to steal his shell. To find out who’s telling the truth, Rōshi summons the Kintoun, which only an honest person can ride. Gokū successfully rides it and clears his name; Yamcha flees again, vowing that he will be back. Muten Rōshi also says he will give Bulma his Dragon Ball, but only if she shows him her boobs. She uses Oolong to transform into her in order to trick Roshi, and it works, but Pasta and Bongo arrive in a submarine and attack the island. One of Bulma’s two Dragon Balls is stolen and Rōshi’s house is destroyed. Angered by the destruction of his house, Rōshi uses the Kamehameha to destroy the submarine. Pasta and Bongo flee in an escape jet. Penny asks Rōshi to help her defeat King Gurumes, but he declines, saying that he is an old man, and assures Penny that Gokū and Bulma will be all the help she needs. They journey to King Gurumes’ castle and are immediately attacked by the king’s air force. Bulma is shot down while Gokū has an aerial duel with Bongo, in which Gokū destroys Bongo's hovercraft. Yamcha and Pu'ar also arrive and infiltrate the castle, where they meet up with Bulma, Penny, and Oolong. Yamcha is attacked by Pasta but is unable to fight back because of his phobia of beautiful women, so they flee. Gokū defeats Bongo by knocking him through a wall with his power pole. They all end up in King Gurumes’ throne room. King Gurumes’ curse has turned him into a large, purple monster. He attacks Gokū to get the last Dragon Ball. Gokū tries the Kamehameha, but it fails. Bulma realizes the other six Dragon Balls are inside Gurumes’ stomach, so she throws her Dragon Ball into his mouth. The Eternal Dragon, Shenron, erupts from his mouth and offers to grant one wish. Penny wishes for her land to be peaceful and beautiful again. The dragon, saying: "*This land cannot be beautiful if the riches are what caused it to be this way.*," then removes all the blood rubies and makes the land fertile again. After granting the wish, the dragon vanishes and the Dragon Balls are scattered across the Earth again.

King Gurumes’ curse is lifted, as he is reduced to a small, bald man, Yamcha and Bulma decide to date, and Gokū heads off to Muten Rōshi's island to train with the Turtle Hermit. At the end, the land is shown to be fertile and beautiful again, as above the picture is the Japanese word for "The End."

### Original Score

The opening theme for the movie was *Makafushigi Adventure!* (魔訶不思議アドベンチャー!,  *Makafushigi Adobenchā*; "Mystical Adventure!") by Hironobu Kageyama, while the ending was *Romantic Ageru yo* (ロマンティックあげるよ, *Romantikku Ageru yo*; "I'll Give You Romance") by Ushio Hashimoto.

## Reception

The film holds a 7.1 on IMDb, based on 988 votes. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 62% based on 391 votes, with an average rating of 3.6/5. The film was an immense success, generating a total of ¥800 million at the box office.

## Trivia

* This movie takes place in place of Emperor Pilaf Saga, in an alternate timeline of *Dragon Ball* original series.
* The original 1995 dub of the film had some questionable name changes for certain characters, referring to Pasta and Bongo as Raven and Major Domo, King Gurumes as Gourmeth, and Pansy as Penny.

## References

1. ↑ Doragon bôru: Shenron no densetsu (1986) on IMDb
2. ↑ DRAGON BALL: CURSE OF THE BLOOD RUBIES (1986) at Rotten Tomatoes
3. ↑ Akira Toriyama Super Interview