This is Dragon Ball stripped down to pure movement and light. The 1996 animation still outpaces what came before it, every fight staged with clarity and weight that the TV series could never afford. It trades the original's sprawling comedy for something leaner, the Red Ribbon Army saga told at a sprint, Goku and Bulma introduced the way they should have been from the start, with real chemistry instead of contrivance. The pacing costs you jokes, but it buys you a film that knows exactly what it wants to be in 74 minutes.

Dragon Ball: The Path to Power is a 1996 action adventure film that retells the origin of Dragon Ball. It offers a different version of how Goku first meets Bulma and Kame-Sen'nin. It also revisits the Red Ribbon Army storyline with one change: rather than Goku coming across the army, the army comes looking for him. The film mixes comedy and science fiction elements into its adventure.