Anonymous asked: Hey, Mike, first time, long time. What do you think of Cooler’s Revenge? I wrote a thing in December of 2015 where I ranked all the DBZ movies, and I’m pretty sure Movie 5 was about midway on the list. But lately, I’ve been rethinking that, because I’ll go on YouTube and look up the part where Goku turns Super Saiyan, heals a bird, then Kamehamehas Cooler into the sun. I really dig the song they played on the American dub as Cooler realizes he’s doomed. It’s “Revelation” by American Pearl, and when I found out it was on iTunes I bought it and put it on my Luffa playlist. So I started to wonder what I thought was wrong with the movie, and it really comes down to a couple of trifling things: 1) It always irked me that Goku seemed unable or unwilling to transform, like he needed Cooler to provoke him the way Frieza did. 2) Cooler’s a pretty blatant retread of Frieza, and it’s a little ridiculous that he was co-ruling the universe all along and was never mentioned before. I went back and looked up the release date on the movie, and it was June 20, 1991. As it turns out, the manga was still wrapping up the Goku/Frieza battle around that time, which explains a lot of the continuity issues in the movie. Hypothetically, it’s set after Goku returned to Earth, by which time he’d learned to control his Super Saiyan form, but no one at Toei knew about that when they made the movie. They just assumed Goku would beat Frieza and escape Namek somehow, and I guess they figured Krillin would get wished back since they put him in the movie. That’s why no one mentions Trunks or Mecha Frieza or King Cold or the Androids, because none of that had happened yet in the comics. It’s probably also why Vegeta, Tien, and Yamcha aren’t in the movie, because Toei may not have known for sure that those characters were going to be on Earth. In that perspective, Movie 5 is kind of noteworthy. I always thought Cooler was an extension of the idea of King Cold, but it’s apparently the other way around. Maybe Toei wanted to do Frieza’s dad for the movie, and Toriyama already had plans. Either way, Cooler is the first villain to face Goku after the Frieza saga, so it’s not too surprising that Toei wasn’t clear on whether Goku could control his transformation or not. As for Cooler being a derivative concept, I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing for him, since he sort of embraces it in a way that other movie villains can’t. Turles is a lot like Vegeta, Lord Slug is a lot like Piccolo, but Cooler actually has a relationship with Frieza. He’s not just here to imitate things that Frieza did, he’s here to avenge Frieza’s defeat. It’s a nice touch, since it gives Cooler a much stronger background and motivation without dragging out the movie. The previous movie villains were just assholes, but Cooler’s mad because he didn’t like how events in the main story played out. And he’s conflicted. He never really liked Frieza, but he wants to avenge him anyway. As for the movie itself, it’s got a nice plot structure, with Goku getting ambushed early, forcing Gohan and Krillin to fetch senzu beans to heal him before the bad guys can finish him off. It’s a good change of pace, since a lot of the other movies just sort of have Goku and the bad guy run into each other and start fighting. It also helps cover Cooler’s credibility as a threat. I doubt anyone gave Cooler much of a chance against Goku, considering how he dominated Frieza. Mostly, though, I like the ending. I want to make some sort of Game of Thrones joke, but I can’t quite figure out how to put it together. All I know is there’s a little bird who didn’t do anything wrong, and Cooler keeps bragging about how he decides who lives or dies. I want to photoshop a beret and a Santa beard on him, but I don’t know how. Anyway, Goku heals and protects the bird, because he’s more than just a beefcake, and then he no-sells a punch to the ribs and goes “Why won’t you wake up?! You’re hurting innocent people! What have they done to you?” Then he tells Cooler he “can’t let him take his unhappiness out on others any longer.” This is the dub by the way. Funimation haters can whine about the script turning Goku into a western-style superhero, but that’s a load of bull. Goku’s always been about this sort of thing. He’s not going to beat up Cooler for the sport of it, or because he’s consumed with rage. He’s going to punish Cooler because he’s a threat to innocent life. Schemmel’s lines reflect that panel from the comic where Goku thought he’d killed Frieza. He doesn’t *want* to crush these fools, but they leave him no choice. And Cooler tries to spout all this strong-over-the-weak edgelord crap, and Goku’s like “Fine! We’ll play by *your* rules, Cooler!” and beats the crap out of him. I love that stuff. All these bad guys love their might-makes-right nonsense and then someone mightier comes along and eats their lunch. That’s what Super Saiyans are all about. You think you’re bad? Think again. Cooler tries that Supernova move that everyone spams in Xenoverse 2, but Goku just muscles it up and sends it back to him with interest. As he falls into the sun, Cooler *finally* realizes he messed with the wrong dude, and then he remembers that this only happened because he allowed Goku to escape the destruction of planet Vegeta, repeating the same error that killed Frieza. It’s really good stuff. Again, you don’t really get that with Lord Slug or Super 13. When those guys lose, they just squeal and explode. Cooler’s defeat is complete, because his final thought is that he was foolish to oppose Goku in the first place. So, I don’t know, maybe I should revise my movie rankings, but it is a pretty fun movie, regardless of how it compares to the others.
