Jackie Chan’s 2008 fantasy movie was a much better live-action Dragon Ball adaptation than the famous Dragonball Evolution film, and it was released just 1 year before it. The Forbidden Kingdom is a fantasy movie starring Jackie Chan, which follows modern-day American teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) as he discovers the Monkey King’s magical staff, transporting him back to ancient China. The Forbidden Kingdom grossed $128 million against a $55 million budget with favorable reviews, making it a critical and commercial success, and it’s come to be regarded as one of the best fantasy martial arts movies of all time.

In contrast, 2009’s live-action Dragonball Evolution movie is widely considered Shonen Jump’s worst failure. Dragon Ball is one of Japan’s most successful franchises and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. Therefore, one would expect a live-action adaptation to similarly take the world by storm. Unfortunately, Dragonball Evolution became a historical flop, grossing $56.5 million, with extremely critical reviews. However, strangely, Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom offers itself as a replacement live-action Dragon Ball movie.

Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom Is Based On The Same Story As Dragon Ball

Journey To The West (Or “Monkey”) Was An Inspiration For Both

The unforeseen connection between Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom and Dragon Ball lies in its Journey to the West source material. Journey to the West is a 16th century Chinese novel which has been described as one of the great Chinese novels, and most popular literary work in East Asia. Journey to the West follows a fictionalized account of the pilgrimage of Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who journeyed to India in the 7th century to collect Buddhist scriptures (sūtras). While the novel retains the outline of Xuanzang’s own original account, it embellishes his story with fantasy elements and folk tales.

Dragon Ball was inspired by Journey to the West and Hong Kong martial arts films. This is evident by Son Goku’s quest to search for seven Dragon Balls, and his commitment to training in martial arts. However, The Forbidden Kingdom was also inspired by Journey to the West, having been loosely based on the novel, as Jason sets out on a quest to return the Monkey King’s magical staff. As a result, Dragon Ball and The Forbidden Kingdom have a lot in common, which is even stranger when you factor in that Dragon Ball was also inspired by Jackie Chan.

The Forbidden Kingdom Released 1 Year Before Dragonball Evolution, And Is Considerably Better

Dragonball Evolution Was Famously Critically Panned

The Forbidden Kingdom released 1 year before Dragonball Evolution, and it is considerably better on all fronts. Dragonball Evolution’s live-action movie has been regarded as a mistake, as it disregarded a lot about the popular franchise. The unfaithfulness to the source material was not the movie’s only downfall, as fans and critics alike felt the script was lacking, and the casting was off, causing Dragonball Evolution to face accusations of whitewashing. Its impact was felt across the anime genre as a whole, and Dragonball Evolution’s failure left a mark on the future of live-action anime adaptations for a long time.

While the movie only sports a 63% Rotten Tomatoes score, with some critics claiming there was too much filler, The Forbidden Kingdom had a much more positive reception than Dragonball Evolution – which has made a name for itself as the worst live-action anime adaptation – and was even nominated for Best International Film at the Saturn Awards. Interestingly, 2008’s The Forbidden Kingdom seemed to thrive in ways Dragonball Evolution did not, despite them both being based on the same source material. As a result, you could call Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom a somewhat spiritual live-action adaptation of Dragon Ball.

I Still Think A Proper Live-Action Dragon Ball Movie Could Work

The Forbidden Kingdom Showed The Story Wasn’t The Problem

Despite the stain of Dragonball Evolution’s historical failure, a proper live-action Dragon Ball movie could still work. The Forbidden Kingdom’s success showed that, if done correctly, the story has potential to be a hit among a wider Western cinema audience. In fact, although 2009’s movie was a mᴀssive flop, the Dragonball Evolution movie actually helped the franchise to become even better, as creator Akira Toriyama worked hard to make sure that the movie’s failure would not happen again in other Dragon Ball projects, particularly in the Dragon Ball Super show, the first all-new Dragon Ball TV series in 18 years.

While anime continues to thrive in both Japan and the Western world, there has yet to be another attempt at another Dragon Ball live-action movie, with worries about the technicalities of translating anime’s physics-defying actions into real life. However, if nothing else, One Piece has proven that Hollywood can do better live-action anime adaptations now. Therefore, if the right people were able to come together, a faithful Dragon Ball live-action movie could be quite an exciting concept, erasing Dragonball Evolution’s past failure, and producing something which could even trump Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom as a spiritual “Dragon Ball adaptation.”