So...no lie here...I dreamt about Dragonball: Evolution last night.

Yeah.

This is odd because A) I haven't seen it B) I don't dream a lot, and when I do, it's usually something completely *****ed up and random or influenced by whatever video game I've been playing recently (I've had many dreams based on Paper Mario and The Legend of Zelda in particular >.>; ). So...it was really strange waking up throughout the night and realizing what I was dreaming about.

I'm something of an insomniac, as well - have been since I was little; I've never really slept well. I rarely get tired unless I'm sick, and I get by just fine on 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night, if that - I tend to go to bed around 3 AM, and I have to be up at 6 every morning to go to school. In addition to this, when I do get to bed at night, I wake up at regular intervals on most nights and tend to do this...I dunno, after about 30-45 minutes of being asleep. Not always, but most often, this is how I sleep.

And every time I woke up last night...I had an odd sort of 'wha...?' reaction when I realized what I was dreaming about.

Now, the first thing I did when I got out of bed was to type this up so as to remember as much of it as possible. I'm going to share with you what I remember from the contents of this dream, and try to make it as understandable as possible - of course, mind you, I am trying to transcribe a dream, and dreams are typically unusual and difficult to remember clearly, so don't expect this all to make perfect and coherent sense. Also keep in mind that I have NOT seen this movie for myself (reeeeally don't want to, but on some level, I feel I should, like it's my duty as a DB fan... *shudder* ), but I've read plenty of reviews, detailed synopses, discussed it with friends who have seen it, and have been keeping track of the various threads on Daizenshuu EX sporadically for the past year. Got it? Here we go.

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For some reason, despite just coming out, the movie was on TV. My father was in the living room with me and it had just come on whatever channel he was watching - for the record, my father moved out of our house a year and a half ago, and I don't exactly make a habit of talking to the bastard, so this was strange was well. But anyways, knowing I like Dragonball, he made a remark on the film, and I started going on a tirade ranting about it. I guess in this dream, I took the knowledge I have of the movie from all the reviews, and that amounted towards the dream me having actually seen it...but whatever, the channel was not changed. I watched 'DB:E', which involved starred Chatwin as Gokou and what's-her-face as Bulma, but the similarities, for the most part, ended there. The story certainly wasn't the story of the real DB:E, but it wasn't exactly like the real DB in live-action either...it was kinda like...the style reminded me of your generic sci-fi original series, if that makes sense. It was a lot more like what DB:E should have been; loosely based on DB, but...well, not retarded. It FELT like it deserved the branding of 'adaptation', whereas DB:E...doesn't.

As I watched, I didn't really think of Chatku as being Gokou, but I wasn't repulsed by him, either. The story was more focused in the Pilaf arc of the original DB, and the way they went about finding the DB's was almost identical, only with some more fighting (all martial arts, no Ki or anything), and Oolong wasn't some freakish anthropomorphic CGI pig (which I would have expected if he were in the real DB:E), he was just a lecherous human (maybe demon? I dunno, looked human, whatever) guy who could shapeshift...there was no Piccolo, no Mai, and Yamcha actually looked like his DB counterpart (with the headband and short hair he had in the 21st Budoukai, though; not the long-haired Yamcha when he's first introduced). Dream live-action Yamcha was actually kinda hot, and he was pretty cool - not based on his atrocious dub counterpart that the DB:E version was apparently based on (you know, surfer accent and mannerisms, all that *****; this was the real Yamcha, only a little stronger, and his personality was closer to Tenshinhan's).

Also, Gokou wasn't a child, nor was he an angsty high school loser like in the real DB:E...he was just a guy who grew up in the mountains (alone? With grandpa? My dream didn't really sweat these details, he was just a 20-something mountain hick), and he looked like Chatku (with a similar dogi, too, but done by a better costume designer). There was no Roshi, no Pu'ar, and Pilaf was a little more frighteningly demonic-looking (average human height, BTW)...but he was still a ridiculous comic-relief type of villain. Chatku didn't become an Oozaru, either the original DB style or the DB:E style...the dream just didn't get that far in the story. As I said, the 'story' was pretty much a mirror of the original DB hunt, but not exactly event-by-event the same as it happened in the original Manga...there was a lot of what I guess you'd call 'filler' if it was in the original Anime. That 'filler' was reminiscent of, as I said, a sci-fi original series, or dare I say...Power Rangers/a Super Sentai show. They did go to Mount Frypan to find a DB, as well, but I don't think Gyuumaoh was there, and I know there was no Chi-Chi, it was mostly just an issue of braving a volcano-type place and fighting a few monsters and getting the DB.

Chatku never learned a Kamehame Ha (no Roshi) or any sort of Ki technique; every bit of fighting was martial arts. OH!! The Nyoi-Bo wasn't an extending Bo Staff, either, but was a...I forget what they're called...those segmented staffs that the Gokou of Gensomaden Saiyuki (another series based on Journey to the West, the same legend as DB was based on) has, and it didn't extend, but he fought with it similarly to how you'd fight with nunchaku. Also, for the record, Chatku's personality wasn't really the same as the Gokou we know and love, nor was it that loser Chatku from the real DB:E...he was closer to the real Gokou, but since he was an adult, a little more confident and less 'stupid'; I guess you could call him 'cool', though he was still pretty clueless about technology and how to behave around the other characters with what we'd call 'manners', the way the real Gokou would be...but he was a little more clever at setting traps and reading his opponents than the early DB Gokou was (pre-DBZ).

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That's about all there was - I know it seems like a lot of info for what I said was a relatively short dream (we were watching this movie amidst the other dream goings-on), but it went by quicker in the dream itself than it took to describe it in text. Essentially, it was shorter than the actual first story arc/Pilaf arc of DB, just loosely (far less loosely than DB:E) based around it, with some 'filler' material in-between, and slight differences in the cast of characters.

Still - doesn't this sound like the type of DB:E you'd be able to get on board with?! No, it's hardly the Dragonball we know and love, but isn't it a little more reminiscent of it? No vague America-like story setting (most of the thing seemed to take place in and around the desert where Yamcha was found; kinda mountainous regions, like the rocky place where Gokou and Vegeta fought for the first time), no incoherent plotlines that were just kinda 'there', the characters were a little closer to the way we know them, even if they were modified to fit the movie a little better (most movie adaptations take such liberties, though; they're 'understandable' liberties), and having Pilaf as the villain - someone who doesn't require a backstory - seemed a little cleaner. I mean, from what I understand, Piccolo was barely in the movie at all, when the real Piccolo Daimaoh of DB was a little more worth taking seriously...Pilaf is a bit of a better choice for that 'throwaway villain' type, and though my dream didn't really get to a 'showdown' or anything, from what dream-Pilaf was like, he felt far more appropriate in the scheme of things.

The 'movie' didn't seem to take itself too seriously (DB:E trying to feel DBZ-esque), nor was it extremely cheesy and seeming like it was trying to be a 'comedy' for young children (which I've heard is how DB:E feels). It had a 'cheesy' feel to it, but again...in the style of Power Rangers or a sci-fi original series, that kind of 'cheesy', not the 'bad' kind of cheesy. It worked well, and it felt more like Dragonball, which was originally a silly little gag Manga story that was lighthearted and fun - though the 'dream DB:E' had some more fighting in it, it wasn't anything DBZ-caliber, and somehow, it felt... right. If there had to be a live-action DB movie, and it had to be modified a bit for the audience and the big screen, and even if we had to put up with Chatku...this is how it should have been done.

Anyways, I thought I'd share that before I forgot the dream - so to everyone reading this, I'd love you to tell me what you think of this. If this was how the live action DB movie was...would you want to see it? How would you feel about it if my dream was the actual Dragonball: Evolution? Personally, I think it's unrealistic to expect an absolutely perfect live-action adaptation to a wacky series like Dragonball, but this little experience put together by my subconscious is probably the closest thing to what I'd call a 'live-action Dragonball adaptation'. A little more modern, yes, without the classic Chinese feel the original DB had, but without trying to feel like it was taking place in 2000's America like DB:E...I dunno, but I feel like my 'dream DB:E' was pretty freakin' perfect, all things considered.

So...thoughts?