Dragon Ball Z: Bardock the Father of Goku

A low-class Saiyan and his team are destroying the planet, Kanassa. After the battle, Bardock, the leader of this squad and his men are sitting around enjoying their victory. All of the sudden, a Kanessan comes out of nowhere and wishes to give Bardock the “gift” to be able to see the future. Passed out, his men bring him back to Planet Vegeta, the Saiyan home world, to recuperate. During this time, Bardock has a newborn son who is preparing to get sent off to Earth; to destroy the inhabitants. Eager to get back with his squad, Bardock heads off without seeing his son, Goku. When he gets to the planet he realizes that his squad is all dead, at the hands of Lord Frieza’s men. Just then he gets hit with another vision: one of grave danger. Bardock rushes off to warn his fellow warriors of the impending danger.

“Bardock the Father of Goku” is one of my favorite Dragon Ball Z films. It has a great storyline, decent action, and has Rise Against as a artist on the soundtrack. Not only is it one of my favorite films, Akira Toriyama himself said that it is his favorite. The film takes place 12 years before the start of Dragon Ball and is meant to be a precursor to the events of the whole story from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball GT. There are some inconsistencies though with the film and the anime, like in one of Bardocks premonitions he sees his son face to face with Frieza in his first form, something that Goku never did. Those are minor things though, since the story is great. This film has high replay value not only because we are introduced to Bardock, but we get a glimpse of what it was like to be a Saiyan before the planet's destruction. Also, this film is completely different from most of the others because Goku has only a minor role in the film. He is only seen as a baby and in premonitions, he doesn’t even have a speaking role, which is a nice change in pace. All in all, “Bardock the Father of Goku” is a must see for any true DBZ fan and is a film that the person who has not followed the anime can hop right into and enjoy. 

Good:

-Amazing story

-Decent fight scenes

-Good Soundtrack

Bad:

-Inconsistent with the anime in parts

Scully Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Watch "Dragon Ball Z: Bardock the Father of Goku" at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8lDZdqlLOc