Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug (ドラゴンボールZ 超サイヤ人だ孫悟空, Doragon Bōru Zetto: Sūpā Saiyajin da Son Gokū; lit. "Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiyan Son Goku") is the fourth Dragon Ball Z movie. It was originally released in Japan on March 19, 1991, between episodes 81 and 82, and later released in America by FUNimation Entertainment in 2001. Bridge Entertainment's title is Super Saiyan Son Goku. It is the first Dragon Ball Z movie (not counting the later Ultimate Uncut edition of the previous movies), but the third feature (the Bardock - The Father of Goku and History of Trunks specials were dubbed a year before), to be dubbed with FUNimation's English in house voice cast.
- 1 Summary
- 2 Timeline placement
- 3 Releases
- 4 Characters
- 4.1 Heroes
- 4.2 Villains
- 5 Major battles
- 6 Trivia
Summary[]
An asteroid alert is wreaking havoc all over the planet as it is going to destroy the entire Earth. Goku and Krillin go to deflect the asteroid off course so it does not hit Earth. They have been told they cannot destroy it because it is inhabited, and at the time they do not know who inhabits it. They attempt to move it using a combined Kamehameha, but apparently miss and are blown away by the fierce winds produced by the near-clash of the asteroid with Earth.
The asteroid passes near Earth but misses the crash, exploding soon afterward. However, a spaceship from the asteroid lands on Earth, full of soldiers who serve Lord Slug. Along with his crew of vicious fighters, he has travelled from planet to planet wreaking chaos, and Earth is his new target. The way they dominate a planet is to literally change its atmosphere, Terra-freezing the planet. By conforming it to their liking, they make it more suitable for themselves and almost unbearable for any other people, including the native occupants of the planet. Later they transform the planet into a giant spaceship, and move on to find a new planet to conquer.
Upon their landing, a nearby Gohan attempts to stop Slug's soldiers. Slug notices the Dragon Ball Gohan has on his hat. After reading Bulma's mind, Slug learns about the Dragon Balls and how to get them. Lord Slug has by now aged hundreds of years and is rapidly approaching the end of his life, so he sends his minions to gather the Dragon Balls, and uses them to restore his youth and health; like King Piccolo before him, being fully restored gave him a far greater power.
Goku, along with his son Gohan and Piccolo, arrive and square off against Slug's team and manage to defeat them all. The final battle against Slug is left in the hands of Goku. Goku is able to take Slug on in an incredibly fierce battle. Slug gains the upper hand with his Power of Darkness technique and pummels Goku around. As Goku is on the verge of giving up, Slug's taunts combined with the sight of such pointless slaughter pushes Goku over the edge and he transforms into a False Super Saiyan. With his new power, Goku easily dominates Slug and destroys one of his arms.
Now, Slug reveals his Namekian nature by regrowing his arm and removing his helmet, and transforms into a giant version of himself. King Kai reveals that Slug was one of the rare Super Nameks, who began to misuse their power to the point that the Nameks used Porunga to banish them from Namek forever. In his new form, Slug turns the tables on Goku again.
Piccolo intervenes and attempts to fight Slug but is easily beaten. In a surprising move, Piccolo tears off his ears and tells Gohan to whistle. Exploiting a weakness of all Namekians, their extremely sensitive hearing, Gohan's whistling is able to bring Slug to his knees.
Piccolo gives what little strength he has left to Goku in his battle against Slug. Thanks to Piccolo, Goku is able to use the Kaio-ken, and manages to punch a hole through Slug's stomach, weakening the Super Namek severely. Goku flies up above the clouds to deliver the final blow to Slug with a Spirit Bomb powered-up from energy taken from the sun. The Spirit Bomb heads straight into the freezing generator, taking Slug with it and destroying him.
Following Slug's defeat and the end of the threat, the friends reunite and are given Senzu Beans by Yajirobe. The final scene involves Master Roshi waking up from his nap which he started before the aliens landed, and he wishes that something interesting would happen.
Timeline placement[]
The movie may take place in the three years the Z Fighters are training to prepare for the Androids. Goku is seen driving a car with Krillin in the credits, and he got his license during the three-year preparation for the Androids. Also, this film takes place at least one year after the events of Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might; when Lord Slug is reading Bulma's mind, one of the images is Krillin, Bulma, and Oolong summoning Shenron with the outfits they wear at the beginning of The Tree of Might.
Releases[]
The movie was originally released on both VHS and Laserdisc in Japan. They were in a 16:9 format, cropped from its original 4:3 format. It was then released later in Japan as part of the well-known Dragon Box sets, remastered from its original film masters and in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen format. There was much controversy from fans over the decision to crop the movies from its original 4:3 format. The controversy died down when Toei announced that the films were originally animated for widescreen viewing. The boxed set was released (containing all four Dragon Ball and all thirteen Dragon Ball Z movies) with great critical and audience reception.
In the United States, it was released in August 7, 2001 by FUNimation, in VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD. It was released in a 4:3 format. The movie was later re-released on October 15, 2002, bundled with Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge and Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler.
FUNimation re-released this film in September 16, 2008, alongside the third movie, Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, digitally remastered and in a 16:9 format, as a "Double Feature" DVD and Blu-ray.
FUNimation also released Lord Slug with Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone, Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest, Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, and Cooler's Revenge on November 1, 2011. These are the same disks on the double features, however.
Characters[]
Heroes[]
- Goku
- Gohan
- Piccolo
- Krillin
- Chi-Chi
Villains[]
- Lord Slug
- Wings
- Medamatcha
- Angila
- Commander Zeeun
Major battles[]
- Gohan & Chi-Chi vs. Lord Slug Soldiers
- Piccolo vs. Wings
- Gohan vs. Medamatcha
- Piccolo vs. Medamatcha & Angila
- Goku vs. Medamatcha & Angila
- Goku & Krillin vs. Slug
- Goku vs. Slug
- Goku (False Super Saiyan) vs. Slug
- Goku vs. Slug (Giant Form)
- Piccolo vs. Slug (Giant Form)
- Goku vs. Slug (Giant Form)
Trivia[]
- Two of Slug's henchmen, Angila and Wings, are modeled after, and strongly resemble Zarbon and Dodoria respectively.
- In the scene where Chi-Chi realizes Gohan has disappeared from home, a poster of Arale from Akira Toriyama's previous hit series Dr. Slump can be seen in Gohan's room.
- A McDonald's fast food restaurant can be seen in the background of Iguana Street.
- It is the second time that a Namekian wishes for eternal youth, as well as the second time that a Namekian transforms into its Giant Form.
- The movie reveals that Namekian ears are sensitive to certain sounds, like whistling.
- Lord Slug is killed in a similar manner to Turles from the previous movie, The Tree of Might. Both are hit by Goku with a Spirit Bomb and knocked into their device used to do evil things to the Earth (Tree of Might for Turles, and Terra Freeze machine for Slug), destroying it as well.
- The sun plays an important role, its light is shown to be harmful to an exposed henchmen of Lord Slug and it is where Goku gathers the energy to make the Spirit Bomb.
- Based on the shocked reaction of King Kai to Goku's "Super Saiyan" form, it does not appear that Goku assumed the "true" Super Saiyan transformation within this film's past. Created for the movie, this Super Saiyan form (known as "False Super Saiyan" among fans) is a supposed prequel to the actual Super Saiyan form. It was more than likely an attempt to show what a Super Saiyan looked like (due to its mention by Vegeta during the Captain Ginyu Saga), but without the knowledge of its appearance since the movie was released before the true form was introduced to the manga/anime.
