These films were mostly alternate retellings of certain story arcs involving new characters or extra side-stories that do not correlate with the same continuity as the manga or TV series. These films have a running time below feature length (around 45–60 minutes each) except for the 1996 film, at 80 minutes. Seventeen films were produced during this period-three Dragon Ball films from 1986 to 1988, thirteen Dragon Ball Z films from 1989 to 1995, and finally a tenth anniversary film that was released in 1996 and adapted the Red Ribbon arc of the original series.
Since 1986, there have been 24 theatrical films based on the franchise, including 21 anime films produced by Toei Animation, one official live-action film, and two unofficial films.īackground Original run (1986–1996) Theatrical event circuit films (1986–96) 1986ĭuring the franchise's original broadcast run (1986-1997), Toei produced Dragon Ball films rapidly, in some cases twice per year, to match the Japanese spring and summer vacations. Dragon Box: The Movies, a DVD box set that includes the first seventeen animated films, released by Toei Video on April 14, 2006.ĭragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984.
