Dragon Ball Z: Movie 12 Fusion

Produced by Toei Animation Co. Ltd.
Directed by ?

The story begins in the other world, near the planet of Dai Kaioh-Sama. Whom organises the prestigious tournament of martial arts that will decide the strongest fighter in the Milky Way Galaxy among the warriors who were allowed to maintain their body after death in order to keep on training.
While North Kaioh-Sama laughs at the low power of the fighters from the other galaxies, as expected, have reached the final match Goku, for the North Galaxy, and Pai Ku Han, for the West Galaxy. 

In the realm of King Enma, who takes care of the order in the Afterlife, due to the negligence of the young Oni who controls the Spirit's Laundering Machine, which contains the negative energy from the soul of the evil beings, explodes and all the negative energy is absorbed by the Oni who turns a giant evil creature, very strong and funny-looking, who continuously repeats "Janenba Janenba" (hence his name)!

Janenba erects a dimensional shield of sorts around King Enma's palace who now cannot control the flux of souls in the Afterlife anymore. So it happens that the realm of the living merges with the realm of the dead, bringing such characters back to life as Freeza and his minions and all of the other dead warriors Son Goku and Co. had defeated over the years...

In the meanwhile, on the Earth, Son Gohan and Son Goten stuff themselves with a lot of food (this is typical of all Saiyans) under Videl's astonished gaze and the resign of Chichi, who, while looking at the amount of dishes she will have to wash, envies Goku believing he's resting in the Afterlife!

Suddenly Videl receives a call from the police telling the city is in panic because of the ghosts who have taken control of the city. 

Back at the tournament Dai Kaioh-Sama becomes aware of the troubles at King Enma's palace, so he asks Goku and Pai Ku Han to go and investigate. The two warriors stop the fight and Goku teleports with Pai Ku Han to King Enma. Here they try to destroy the shield, where Enma is trapped, using their energy beams but it's useless. Informed by King Enma that the being responsible for the barrier is the giant monster on the roof, Goku tries to face him in a quite ridiculous fight and he soon realizes that his opponent, although very clumsy is also very strong! 

In the meanwhile Pai Ku Han is trying to make a break in the barrier.

The Earth is in complete chaos. Masses of undead zombies, Dracula, some of the old enemies of Goku and the Z warriors, now walk the planet, including a guy who looks like Hitler and his army of tanks! Gohan, Videl, Goten and Trunks decide, that since they cannot kill all of the ghosts, they should gather the Dragon Balls and ask Shenlong to solve the problem. But the Dragon tells them he cannot do anything since the destiny of the dead is in King Enma's hands.

So they try to face the enemies by themselves: Gohan immediately defeats the revived Freeza and the little Saiyans are taking care of "Hitler" and his army!

In the other world, while Pai Ku Han discovers that the barrier, apparently unbreakable, breaks into pieces when he insults it, Goku is forced to turn SSJ3 in order to fight against Janenba. But his attacks do not obtain the hoped results and Janenba himself, instead of being destroyed, turns into an even stronger and better looking warrior and not even the SSJ3 is able to face him anymore. And when the demon attacks him with a sword, Goku falls out of SSJ3 and collapses. He almost killed when unexpectedly appears Vegeta who, even if he was bereft of his body after death, now he has got it back so that they can defeat Janenba! He attempts to fight Janenba but unfortunately even in SSJ2 is no match for him. So Goku suggests Vegeta and him should perform the Fusion dance; but the proud Prince of Saiyans doesn't like this idea! So at first he refuses and, only when he realizes that there is no way to beat the monster, he accepts, preferring the Fusion with Goku to Goku having sympathy for him because of his pride. 

Goku shows him the correct moves of Metamora dance but Vegeta (disconcerted by these ridiculous moves) makes a mistake during the last part, keeping his hand closed instead of pointing his finger and the result is a fat and not very smart creature!

Fat Gogeta (Vekuu) is able to survive against Janenba for 30 minutes, thanks to his own unpredictability.

When the time for the Fusion is up, Goku and Vegeta split, but they prepare for the Metamora dance again (North Kaioh-Sama has informed Goku of Vegeta's mistake). Even Pai Ku Han arrives to help the two Saiyans by distracting Janenba as they perform the Fusion again. This time they do it correctly and the aura of Gogeta, the strongest warrior ever, is so huge that even Goten and Trunks can feel it from the Earth! So the little Saiyans decide to follow their fathers' example by performing the same technique themselves too and fuse into Gotenks.
Gogeta easily defeats Janenba who, hit by a very bright and powerful Ki Ball, disintegrates, setting the poor Oni free from Janenba's possession, that before turned him the evil demon, and returning King Enma's realm back to normal. 

In the meanwhile, on Earth, Gotenks, performing his Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack, creates 100 ghosts and gets rid of "Hitler's" army. While all the spirits go back to the Afterlife, Vegeta says goodbye to Goku and tells him he never will perform the Fusion again. Goku smiles and then the body of the Prince of Saiyans turn smoke.

The Earth is peaceful again and only Goten and Trunks have realized that it has been thanks to their fathers.

I must say this movie is just plain incredible. This was the first dbz movie to use computers to help in its animation. This explains why some scenes have exaggerated 3-D effects. Not to mention it's just a weird movie (in a good way) the animators must have either started to run out of ideas for movies are they have got an amazing imagination. 

There are just many enjoyable scenes. Like Freeza who comes back to life and Gohan takes him out with one punch. Or Goku going Super Saiya-jin Level 3. You get to see "Fat Gogeta" when Vegeta does the fusion dance improperly. That'll give you more than enough laugh's to last the entire movie. And not to mention the well-done Gogeta. He's a vast improvement over Vegetto, as he isn't as silly. Don't forget about the battle between the devil form Janenba and Goku SS3. The animation is done so well you'll wonder if this is really Dragonball Z. 

The music is done very well. There is no music when it's not needed and the music comes in just when something cool is happening which adds to the effect 100%. For instance during Goku's main fight with Janemba there is almost pure silence besides the sounds of grunts, hits, etc. Then just as Goku is about to blast Janemba the music comes in and Janemba dematerialises and Goku get very badly beaten (To put it mildly). 
In the end. Incredible movie, amazing animation, and more. Just wish the Gogeta battle would have lasted a little bit longer. It's only a few punches, a kick and a blast. I loved the ending scene with Goku and Vegeta talking to each other and saying goodbye. The music is very quiet and tragic but has finality to it. Although Goku says he will see Vegeta again you kind of get the feeling they both know he won't.
On the downside, you might feel that Janenba is beaten rather quickly after Gogeta forms but the writer's wanted this to be the case for the reason given at the start.

A few things are well.... kind of stupid such as Goten and Trunks fighting scenes with the returned "Hitler" the animation suddenly becomes extremely poor from what seems like a flawless movie. The lines around characters etc. are just huge thick black lines. Or how somehow Vegeta gets in the exact same condition (hurt wise) in 40 seconds in what took Goku a lot longer. It makes Vegeta seem weak although they were most likely just conserving on time. Though I suppose Vegeta was only in SSJ2 and Goku was in SSJ3.  Although I thought it was a good movie, if you're not a Dragonball Z Fan don't even consider it.

Six out of Ten