With production on Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the next anime film for the Dragon Ball franchise currently in the works, the future of Akira Toriyama's evergreen manga/anime franchise remains bright. The upcoming film also serves as a reminder that, as long-running as the property's various anime series were, it also inspired a wave of anime side-story movies starring Goku and the Z Fighters throughout the franchise's extensive history. With close to two dozen Dragon Ball anime films, ranging from the original series to Dragon Ball Super, there are even more adventures for fans to dig into, with most of them fortunately available online. Here's which Dragon Ball anime movies are the best and where to find them.
While the various series are available on a number of streaming sites, the go-to digital platform for those looking to find all of Dragon Ball is Funimation. A premium subscription to Funimation gives access to the company's English dubs of the franchise, including all four Dragon Ball films and seven of the Dragon Ball Z movies. However, presumably because of the music licensing used for the English dubs, six DBZ films are currently absent from the app. For those not looking to stream Dragon Ball, many of the titles have been released on DVD and Blu-ray, both individually and in combo packs. All of the Funimation dubs, starting with 2013's Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods through to 2018's Dragon Ball Super: Broly, are available to purchase or rent on many VOD platforms, such as VUDU.
In regard to what Dragon Ball anime film is the best, there's a reason that Dragon Ball Super: Broly is the highest-earning anime movie in the franchise to date, as well as one of the highest-earning anime films of all time. With the last two acts packed with wall-to-wall action, along with the canonical debuts of Broly and Gogeta in addition to a new animation style by Naohiro Shintani, Broly has much of what fans love about the franchise concisely presented in a single feature film. Broly itself is available on VOD, including the option to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video.
Prior to the upcoming Dragon Ball Super, there are plenty of stellar Dragon Ball anime films available to stream through the Funimation app. Of the four Dragon Ball films, 1987's Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle is one of the most imaginative titles in the series, taking advantage of Dragon Ball leaning more into fantasy than science fiction. 1990's Dragon Ball Z: Tree of Might is among the strongest of the early DBZ films, while 1992's Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13! splits the Super Saiyan action well between Goku, Vegeta and Future Trunks. One of the biggest omissions in the Funimation app as it currently stands is 1995's Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, which is available to rent on iTunes.
Fans will have to wait until next year to see the latest Dragon Ball anime film, but there's plenty of material for them to revisit in the meantime, or perhaps experience for the very first time. While some of the Dragon Ball films are not considered canonical to the main anime series, many of them remain fan-favorite installments and another opportunity to see Goku and his friends in hard-hitting action. Although some of these movies are not currently available to stream via the Funimation app, there are other ways to view them, either through physical media or alternative platforms.