Is The Tree of Might Canon Or Not? | The Curry Review

Now that's what I'm talking about. I have a soft spot for this one, as I think it's the first DBZ movie I ever saw at my Grammy's house. It may have been the Ocean dub, but I'm not sure, it could have been Funimation, but this is a really cool one I'm excited to talk about. Tree of Might in and of itself is a really cool plot device that I hope is revisited someday as there's a lot of lore potential for the stories that are being told right now. So it may be a tad underutilized in its own movie, but it's a fairly novel concept. Turles is a super interesting villain that I'm glad is getting his due in other media like Xenoverse 2. He's the one that first represented the idea of Goku had he never become good, way before Goku Black. He's his own person with his own agenda. Some of that is lost in the dub, but the idea in other dubs and media that his end goal was to overthrow Frieza with the strength from the Tree of Might is incredible. It fuels his sense of Saiyan pride while encompassing evil for his agenda alone, but it's an understandable evil. I just wish his fights were a little bit more substantial as he's one of my favorites. Always has been. So that is a little bit disappointing, especially in his overall fight with Goku, it's kind of fast. Except for a very tense standoff moment near the end that feels kind of like a western moment in DBZ. And all the other fights are fantastic. It's one of those longer DBZ films, closer to an hour, maybe a little over an hour, but it feels more full due to taking his time to get going, but using that time to establish character in Gohan's relationship with his dragon, Icarus. I really enjoy that downtime. And that brings me to my next point. Now the video games universe 2 claims that all the other movies are in another universe or another timeline. And that's fine. If not, a little bit of a cop out. We didn't have that as a kid, so it doesn't quite work for me as much as I want it to. With all the Z fighters alive and Goku having K.O. Ken, the placement doesn't make sense in the official timeline. And that placement is set right before Frieza while they're all supposed to be on Namek or dead. So when we're taking all that into consideration, the most likely place again that it could be is the three year period while they're waiting for the androids training. Funimation dub smartly avoids power levels, so that doesn't really matter here. Icarus is introduced and he's in the anime, so it's at least partially canon to that. And Lord Slug, the next movie, references this movie directly, even though that's a little beside the point. And character designs are all done with the Frieza saga in mind having happened. So does it have to be that then? But the biggest problem with making it canon here is that Goku doesn't go Super Saiyan. Call it training, call it he hasn't mastered the form yet, or he was too beat up before he could, wouldn't be the first time. But Icarus is introduced here, and he appears in the Garlick Jr. saga. So after the first 15 minutes, when Goku gives Gohan this cave for Icarus, it's possible that you can head canon a significant time jump as Turles travels to Earth. It can be head canon explained away even if it's messy because Goku doesn't go Super Saiyan. Which is a consistent problem here. But seriously though, Tree of Might is underrated. Turles should be made canon, or at least reintroduced in the Super continuity, because there's so much potential. And even in early Dragon Ball magazines, they were saying that he was actually Goku's long lost brother. The explanation that they look alike is actually given that they're all lower class Saiyans, and lower class Saiyans there's not a lot of different genetic makeup between them. Which is interesting, and a little bit of a cop out to use that. But he's got Goku's face, and hair, and Raditz's legs, but he's got the skin tone of their mom that we see later. I'm okay with the fact that he's not Goku's brother, and he's just someone that potentially is a reflection of Goku. This one does take place while Goku is on planet Namek in the rejuvenation chamber after fighting Captain Ginyu. And the idea is that while Goku's in there, he has this dream. He's found out his Saiyan heritage, he's found out about Frieza. He's found out all these things, and Ginyu just tried to take his power, take his body. So that could manifest itself as the tree of might. And Goku's ideas with what the Saiyans are, and Vegeta, and everything he's encountered can manifest itself as Turles. So it's a dream that Goku has, dealing with everything he's experienced, and kind of expressing that self in his subconscious. That's my personal theory, that's just kind of fun, while making a canon without hurting anything else. But the other ones, it just gets messy either way. But Tree of Might, it's so good. I give Dragon Ball Z, The Tree of Might, 4 out of 5 stars. If you ever go back to watch through these, it's important to note so many different things. And they're all going to work with you based on nostalgia, an absence of nostalgia, the kind of music you like. Just as you're doing it, remember, always look for the good.