After it's massive theatrical success in Japan 2 years ago, the latest chapter in the DBZ saga hits American shores with an English dub and an Extended Cut! Does FUNimation's dub hold up as well as their previous work on the property or is this one battle worth skipping? Let's find out!
Set after most of the events of the "Kid Buu" arc from the series, this latest finds Goku and company facing off against a new enemy: Beerus, the God of Destruction. Having learned of Goku's many victories in the past, Beerus challenges him to fight him, but this new foe is too strong for the legendary Super-Sayan to defeat with his current abilites. If Goku is to stop this latest threat, he must get his friends help in taking on a powerful new transformation previously unheard of: the mythical Super Sayan God form!
Clocking in at 85 minutes (105 in the Extended Cut), this is probably one of the best DBZ tie-in movies to date. The action scenes are exciting as ever, the English dub is, as always, very well-handled, and the occasional humor is unexpectidly hillarious! In short, it's FUNimation's usual brand of excellent dubbing that remains true to the original Japanese dialogue. As for series newcomer Beerus, he's not exactly evil, but he's still pretty damn powerful as a fighter. Without spoiling anything major, there's plenty of different paths we might see this character take in future stories!
The Blu-Ray combo pack comes with both the Theatrical and Extended cuts on Blu-Ray and DVD, but sadly, not much to note bonus features aside from a few featurettes and trailers. Overall, despite the slight lack of bonus features, the US release of DragonBall Z: Battle of Gods is absolutely worth the 2-year wait and a real treat for American DBZ fans! I'm glad to see the franchise return with fun new material like this and I hope to see more of these projects get ported to English in the future!
Score: 9/10