''Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge'' is a 1991 Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

martial arts film Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expression a ...

and the fifth ''

Dragon Ball Z ''Dragon Ball Z'' (''DBZ'') is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 ''Dragon Ball'' television series and adapts the latter 325 chapters ...

'' animated feature film, originally released in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

on July 20 at the Toei Anime Fair. It was preceded by '' Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug'' and followed by '' Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler''. Set in an alternate continuity to the main story, the movie introduces

Cooler A cooler, portable ice chest, ice box, cool box, chilly bin (in New Zealand), or esky (Australia) is an insulated box used to keep food or drink cool. Ice cubes are most commonly placed in it to help the contents inside stay cool. Ice packs ...

, the estranged older brother of

Frieza , also spelled as Freeza in Funimation's English subtitles and Viz Media's release of the manga, is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists of the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise created by Akira Toriyama. He makes his debut in Chapter ...

, who travels to Earth to challenge

Goku Son Goku is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is based on Sun Wukong (known as ''Son Gokū'' in Japan and the Monkey King in the West), a main character of the cl ...

Plot

Cooler watches as his younger brother Frieza destroys the Saiyan home world. His

henchmen A henchman is a loyal employee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organisation: minions whose value lies primarily in their unquestioning ...

prepare to destroy a space pod fleeing the doomed planet that is transporting a Saiyan infant to Earth. Cooler allows it to go, accounting that it is Frieza's responsibility. More than twenty years later, this Saiyan, Goku, defeats Frieza. After learning of his brother's death, Cooler takes his men – Salza, Neiz, and Dore, on a mission to reclaim his family's honor. On Earth, Cooler's forces ambush Goku and his friends while they are on a

camping Camping is a form of outdoor recreation or outdoor education involving overnight stays with a basic temporary shelter such as a tent. Camping can also include a recreational vehicle, sheltered cabins, a permanent tent, a shelter such as a Bivy bag ...

trip. Goku is badly wounded when he protects

Gohan is a fictional character in the Japanese franchise '' Dragon Ball'' created by Akira Toriyama. Gohan is the son of the protagonist Son Goku and his wife Chi-Chi and made his appearance in chapter #196 "Kakarrot", published in ''Weekly Shōnen ...

from Cooler and goes into hiding.

Krillin (known as Kuririn in Funimation's English subtitles and Viz Media's release of the manga, and Klilyn in Japanese merchandise English translations) is a fictional character in the '' Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is int ...

and

Oolong Oolong or Wulong (, ; ; , "black dragon" tea) is a traditional semi-oxidized Chinese tea (''Camellia sinensis)'' produced through a process that includes withering the leaves under strong sun and allowing some Enzymatic oxidation, oxidation to ...

find shelter in a cave with Goku, while Gohan travels to obtain the magic Senzu beans that can heal his father. Cooler orders his men to completely obliterate the forest in an effort to locate Goku. After obtaining the beans, Gohan is ambushed by Cooler's men before

Piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

arrives to save him. Piccolo kills Dore and Neiz, but Cooler arrives and incapacitates him. Salza tracks Gohan to the cave and destroys the Senzu. However, Gohan successfully heals Goku with a spare one. Krillin and Gohan are quickly defeated by Salza but Goku emerges. Cooler taunts Goku by further injuring Piccolo; Goku incapacitates Salza and attacks Cooler. After Goku proves to be a worthy opponent, Cooler reveals that he discovered a new transformation above Frieza's capabilities. They fight, and Goku is pummeled by Cooler. However, after Goku reflects on the well-being of his loved ones and the danger Cooler poses, he transforms into his Super Saiyan form. Cooler finds himself grossly outclassed by Super Saiyan Goku. Cooler powers up an enormous ki sphere and launches the attack with the hopes to destroy Goku and the Earth along with him. After Goku manages to resist and overpower the attack, he sends it hurdling toward Cooler who is launched into space and collides with the sun. As he is incinerated, Cooler realizes that Goku was the Saiyan infant he spared decades ago. As he laments over his mistake, he is disintegrated. Goku, drained after his victory, is found by his loved ones. They celebrate and search for Piccolo when Salza reappears and prepares to kill them, but he is killed by Piccolo.

Cast

Cast notes

A fourth English version released exclusively in Malaysia by Speedy Video features an unknown voice cast.

Music

*OP (Opening Theme): **"

Cha-La Head-Cha-La is a song by Japanese musician and composer Hironobu Kageyama, released as his sixteenth single. It is best known as the first opening theme song of the ''Dragon Ball Z'' anime television series. Columbia released the single on vinyl, cassett ...

" *** Lyrics by

Yukinojō Mori , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese lyricist, composer and poet who is affiliated with Amuse, Inc. He has written over 2,500 songs for numerous artists such as Kyosuke Himuro, Takuro Yoshida and Junichi Inagaki and theme songs ...

*** Music by Chiho Kiyooka *** Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto *** Performed by

Hironobu Kageyama is a Japanese musician, singer and composer. He is best known for his work on anime, video game and ''tokusatsu'' soundtracks. Kageyama first rose to prominence as a teenager in the 1970s as lead singer of the rock band Lazy. Following their br ...

*ED (Ending Theme): ** *** Lyrics by

Dai Satō is a Japanese screenwriter and musician. Having begun scriptwriting at a young age and writing scripts for various companies, Satō later focused his attention on writing for anime series. The first major series he worked on was the groundbreak ...

*** Music by Chiho Kiyooka *** Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto *** Performed by

and Ammy

English dub soundtracks

The following songs were present in the 2002 Funimation dub of ''Cooler's Revenge''. #

Drowning Pool Drowning Pool is an American rock band formed in Dallas, Texas, in 1996. The band was named after the 1975 film '' The Drowning Pool''. Since its formation, the band has consisted of guitarist C.J. Pierce, drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie ...

- "Reminded" # Dust for Life - "Poison" #

American Pearl American Pearl was a hard rock band from Los Angeles, California. They released one studio album through Wind-up Records in 2000 and toured internationally before disbanding two years later. History Formed in 1997, American Pearl started with ...

- "Seven Years" # Breaking Point - "Under" #

Finger Eleven Finger Eleven is a Canadian Rock music, rock band from Burlington, Ontario, formed in 1990. They have released seven studio albums (six as Finger Eleven and one as Rainbow Butt Monkeys), with their album ''The Greyest of Blue Skies'' bringing th ...

- "Stay and Drown" # Breaking Point - "Falling Down" # Drowning Pool - "Mute" #

Disturbed Disturbed may refer to: Books * ''Disturbed'', a 2011 novel by Kevin O'Brien (author) Film and TV * ''Disturbed'' (film), a 1990 film starring Malcolm McDowell * "Disturbed" (''Numb3rs''), a 2009 episode of ''Numb3rs'' * "The Disturbed", a 20 ...

- " The Game" # Drowning Pool - "Told You So" #

Deftones Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by frontman Chino Moreno, lead guitarist Stephen Carpenter and drummer Abe Cunningham, with bassist Chi Cheng and keyboardist and tu ...

- "

Change (In the House of Flies) "Change (In the House of Flies)" often referred to as "Change", is a song by the American alternative metal band Deftones, released on May 16, 2000, by Maverick Records as the first single from their third studio album, ''White Pony'' (2000). Wr ...

# American Pearl - "

Revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

" # Breaking Point - "Phoenix" The Double Feature release contains an alternate audio track containing the English dub with original Japanese background music by

Shunsuke Kikuchi was a Japanese composer who was active from the early 1960s until 2017. He specialized in incidental music for media such as television and film. Kikuchi was regarded as one of Japan's most highly demanded film and TV composers, working princi ...

and an ending theme of "The Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest". The 1996 dub made by Creative Products contained English versions of the Japanese opening and ending theme songs, performed by Gino Padilla along with a children's chorus known as the Age of Wonder. These songs were featured on the album ''Dragon Ball • Dragon Ball Z: Songs of a High Spirited Saga - Volume I'', along with other English versions of ''Dragon Ball'' and ''Dragon Ball Z'' songs.

Releases

It was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in North America on January 22, 2002. It was later released in Double Feature set along with '' The Return of Cooler'' (1992) for

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

and DVD on November 11, 2008, both feature full

1080p 1080p (1920 × 1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the sc ...

format in HD

remaster A remaster is a change in the sound or image quality of previously created forms of media, whether Mastering (audio), audiophonic, Cinematography, cinematic, or Videography, videographic. The resulting product is said to be remastered. The term ...

ed 16:9 aspect ratio and an enhanced 5.1 surround mix. The film was re-released to DVD in remastered thinpak collection on November 1, 2011, containing the first 5 ''Dragon Ball Z'' films.

Other companies

Creative Products Corporation made an English dub for the Philippines, combined with its follow-up film, to make a feature-length film titled ''Dragon Ball Z: The Greatest Rivals''. This feature was released in over 30 Metro Manila theaters on July 11, 1996. Later that year, on November 6, it received an extremely limited VHS release, only sold at ''Dragon Ball''-based promotional events that were hosted by Gino Padilla, who performed the theme music for this version.

Reception

Notes

References

External links

Official anime website
of

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

* * {{Toei Animation films 1990s 1991 films 1991 anime films Cooler's Revenge Funimation Animated films based on animated series Toei Animation films Films scored by Shunsuke Kikuchi Anime and manga about revenge