DRAGON BALL SUPER: Super Hero
NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Steve K
NOTE: The following summary is of the English dub of the movie, so only the English voice actors will be mentioned. Also, flashbacks are shown in 2D, while the rest of the movie is CGI with 2D cell-shaded layering.
The movie starts off with a history of the Red Ribbon Army told in narration. The Red Ribbon Army, then led by the dwarf-sized Commander Red, sought to conquer the world but were defeated during the events of the original DragonBall series by a young Goku (the recap leaves out that Commander Red was killed by one of his own men in a knee-jerk reaction over the revelation that he wanted to use the Dragon Balls to make himself taller). Their head scientist and sole survivor, Dr. Gero, escaped to continue his android designs. Gero later returned in DragonBall Z in an android body to take revenge on Goku as Android 20, only to be killed by his own creations, Androids 17 and 18 (the latter voiced by Meredith McCoy, as she shows up later in this movie), who later turned good. However, Gero’s final creation, a powerful android creature called Cell, soon emerged to challenge Goku and his friends. Cell was later defeated by Goku’s son Gohan (Kyle Hebert), but at a great personal cost (Goku died during the conflict but later returned to life; it’s a long story).
Cut to the present day. In the years since the Cell Games, the Red Ribbon Army returned under the guise of a pharmaceutical company called Red Pharmaceuticals. They’re now run by Commander Red’s son Magenta (voiced by Charles Martinet, the long-time voice of Mario for Nintendo!), who seeks revenge on Goku (Sean Schemmel) for his father’s ruin all those years ago. Magenta discovers Dr. Gero has a grandson, Dr. Hedo (Zach Aguliar), who is about to be released from prison. Magenta and his bodyguard Carmine (Jason Marnocha) arrive to pick up Hedo and offer him a job working for his company. Hedo, a brilliant scientist with a fascination for superheroes, is initially uncertain, as he’s aware of the Red Ribbon Army’s past. Carmine threatens to shoot him if he tries to back out, but Hedo counters with 2 details: bullet-proof skin thanks to a special formula he developed and used on himself and an android wasp he controls that can kill a man with a poisonous sting in a matter of seconds. Magenta eventually convinces Hedo to work for him with all the funding he needs, as well as tricking him into thinking Bulma Briefs’ (Monica Rial) company Capsule Corp is secretly funding an alien invasion and that both Goku and Bulma’s husband Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) are the advance agents of said invasion.
Sometime later, Piccolo (also Christopher Sabat) is seen training Gohan’s daughter Pan (Jeannie Tirado). He training is going well, and Pan is eager to learn Ki blasts, but Piccolo refuses due to Pan having difficulty learning to fly. Pan leaves to go to school, while poor Piccolo is badgered by Gohan and his wife Videl (Kara Edwards) with errands. Visiting Gohan, Piccolo is annoyed at Gohan seemingly letting his skills go slack and wasting his potential on scientific studies. Gohan brushes off these comments, and Piccolo leaves in a huff. While meditating, Piccolo is ambushed by a new android named Gamma 2 (Zeno Robinson). After some banter, the two fight briefly, ending with Gamma 2 seemingly disintegrating Piccolo with a powerful laser blaster. Piccolo secretly escaped the blast unharmed and tails Gamma 2 back to the Red Ribbon Army’s base.
Once inside, Piccolo knocks out a RR goon and steals his outfit as a disguise to spy on a meeting with Hedo, Magenta, Gamma 2, and his brother Gamma 1 (Aleks Le). In addition to the two new androids, Magenta has commissioned Hedo to make a new version of Cell called Cell Max (Dameon Clarke), using Gero’s old Cell schematics. Hedo is reluctant to use the schematics, let alone create Cell Max in general. Even then, the android isn’t even fully ready yet, despite Magenta insisting on using him. Disturbed by these revelations, Piccolo sneaks out and goes to contact Bulma about the situation, asking her to both contact Goku and Vegeta for back-up and to see if the DragonBalls are gathered and ready for use. Bulma confirms the latter, as she has been on top of keeping track of the DragonBalls in order to wish on occasion to keep her looks good, much to Piccolo’s annoyance. Piccolo first stops to visit Dende (Justin Cook) to upgrade the DragonBalls so that Piccolo can wish to unlock his potential, as Dende is too young to do it himself (his predecessor Guru was able to unlock Gohan and Krillen’s potential on Namek back on DBZ).
Meanwhile, out in space, Goku and Vegeta are training on the home planet of Beerus, the God of Destruction (Jason Douglas), and his assistant Wis (Ian Sinclair). With them is the Legendary Super Sayan Broly (Johnny Yong Bosch), who is staying on Beerus’ planet for safety from Freeza after the events of the last movie, “DragonBall Super: Broly,” and to train to learn how to control his powers. Beerus allows Broly to stay due to having a crush on Broly’s friend Cheelai (Erica Lindbeck). When Vegeta gets annoyed at Goku over how training is being handled, Wis suggests a match between the two, and they fight. During what little we see of the match, we cut twice to Bulma back home, searching for her communicator to contact Wis (complete with a fanservice-y shot of her thick ass as she’s bent over looking for it). She finds it, but Wis doesn’t hear it go off due to everyone being distracted. Piccolo arrives, and he and Bulma summon Shenron (Christopher Sabat yet again). Piccolo wishes to have his potential unlocked, which Shenron does while including “a bit extra” (keep this in mind). Bulma then uses the remaining 2 wishes to pretty up her looks a bit, which are granted before the Dragon Balls scatter as usual. Bulma then suddenly realizes she could’ve used a wish to bring Goku and Vegeta home and tells Piccolo she couldn’t get ahold of Wis. Piccolo realizes he’s on his own with this fight, for once.
Later, Piccolo sneaks back into another meeting with Magenta and company. Magenta decides to kidnap Pan in order to lure Gohan into a fight. Piccolo volunteers to go on the kidnapping mission with another RR goon. When the two arrive at Pan’s school as she’s waiting to be picked up, Pan sucker-punches the goon into unconsciousness. She recognizes Piccolo through his disguises due to sensing his energy, and he asks her to pretend to go along with the kidnapping. She agrees and returns with him to the base. Magenta records a message of Pan begging for help (which she fakes as part of the ruse) and sends it to Gohan. Enraged, Gohan beats the attempt to capture him and flies off to confront the RR Army.
As soon as Gohan arrives and activates a previously unseen “Ultimate” form, Piccolo ditches his disguise and fights Gamma 2 while Gohan takes Gamma 1. Piccolo is on the ropes for a while until the “bit extra” Shenron gave him comes into play: a brand new power-up form dubbed “Orange Piccolo,” which is a bit taller, bulkier, and of course, has slightly orange skin. Piccolo reveals Magenta lied about Capsule Corp or any such alien invasion and that the Red Ribbon Army is the real bad guys, causing Dr. Hedo and the Gammas to switch sides. Magenta runs off to activate Cell Max. Hedo follows and uses his android wasp to fatally poison him. Magenta dies, but not before activating and releasing Cell Max. The gargantuan android bursts from the ground, and the resulting rubble knocks Hedo out. Unlike the original Cell, Cell Max is nothing more than a mindless, violent beast that can only roar (this might be why Hedo said he wasn’t ready yet). It looks like everyone is outnumbered, but Bulma arrives with back-up in the form of Android 18, Krillin (Sonny Strait), Goten (Robert McCollum), and Trunks (Eric Vale). Krillin hangs back to protect Bulma and Pan while everyone gangs up on Cell Max. Cell Max gives them a hell of a fight, while the Gamma revealed that Hedo did not include a regenerative ability and his weak point is on the top of his head. Goten and Trunks try to fuse into Gotenks, but the fusion is botched due to not remembering the Fusion Dance properly. The botched fat form is still able to damage Cell Max’s head which causes Cell Max to go berserk and launch a massive laser attack in retaliation. Pan is nearly hit but is able to activate her flight for the first time in order to get to safety.
Gamma 2 launches a suicide attack to try and bring down Cell Max as penance for his earlier actions and dies in the process. However, Cell Max blocks the attack and loses his left arm. Piccolo then comes up with an idea: while still In Orange form, he also activates his old “Great Namekian” form (used only once before against Goku at the end of the original DragonBall series back when he was still evil) to grow to the same size as Cell Max to try and level the playing field. Unfortunately, Cell Max is able to overpower him, enraging Gohan to the point of activating a brand-new form of his own: ”Beast Gohan,” with spiked, long dark hair. This turned out to be part of Piccolo’s plan all along, as he gets up and restrains Cell Max long enough for Gohan to hit the weak spot with a super-charged Special Beam Cannon. This finally destroys Cell Max, and everyone evacuates to safety as the enormous android explodes, taking the rest of the Red Ribbon Army base with it.
When the dust settles, everyone gets their bearing, with Piccolo reverting back to his normal form. Dr. Hedo, ashamed of his involvement in the chaos that happened, volunteers to turn himself in to the police, but Bulma offers him and Gamma 1 jobs at Capsule Corp in exchange for information on his skin formula in order to use for herself. The film ends with Pan flying around everyone as everyone celebrates their victory.
After a short credit sequence, we cut back to Beerus’ planet as Goku and Vegeta’s fight ends, with Goku losing after he collapses, exhausted. An equally tired Vegeta boasts about his long-overdue victory over Goku, while an annoyed Cheelai watches on despite Broly enjoying it, and Whis returns Bulma’s call.
