There isnt really a whole lot you can say about this movie. Dragon Ball Z: Return My Gohan isnt a very interesting film. While colourful and well animated are two of its primary descriptors it doesnt really do much else for me or for Dragon Ball as a whole. It exists seemingly just to keep making more Dragon Ball films which is fine they look good and they do a good job at wasting 40 minutes. But I have to question why these movies continue to be talked about at all. Theres not much to talk about in fact a lot of that discussion I just mentioned could more accurately be described as discussion. All 13 of these movies with very few exceptions have the same discussions. Where could it fit in the timeline how big is Garlics power level why are certain characters around at this point in time or have knowledge of things they shouldnt know? These are the same questions that get tossed around and you invariably always see the same answers except the power level thing we wont talk about that. Beyond that the film is well dry. Im just going to stop procrastinating on this and get right to the point. This film is a blatant retread of the fight with Raditz from the first 5 episodes of Dragon Ball Z except with some added jobber side enemies. Now I like the fight with Raditz but thats because it has interesting reveals the Piccolo / Goku dynamic shows shades of character progression you get introduced to Gohan and see how the rest of the cast react and you get an amazing cliffhanger at the end. None of that is in this movie and obviously none of that could be in this movie. It cant be anything more than a showcase so to speak. It shows off the characters as they are at that current point in the anime or manga which is fine thats all it was meant to do. But the real question after that is what is left to say? To be less pretentious and wordy how am I supposed to write a review on this greater than 2200 characters? Put simply youd need to stretch a lot of this out and wax philosophically about nothing to the point where you dont even know what youre writing. Now this isnt me bloating the word count of this review this is my posing a legitimate point as to the lack of depth this film or rather film its 40 minutes provides. I cant say much else and I dont see why anime films should be held to the same reviewing standards in terms of length as anime shows. Even a one cour anime will be invariably longer and most likely have more to talk about than the average feature film most of which run 90 120 minutes. Older anime films in particular adaptation side films like this one run on the short side. I dont see why they need to be held to the same standard it feels haphazard. This is a running theme throughout most Dragon Ball films. They are very lacking in substance to say the least and Im going to be honest of the first 6 films this one definitely has the most to talk about namely because you got fun facts like the different name variations and some smaller things Ill mention in the post script. These films not to shatter any lofty expecatations are very much made just to get Japanese kids in a theater during the Spring or Summer holidays and theres nothing wrong with that just take this review as a warning that this films and for the most part every other Dragon Ball film isnt worth your time. Youre not going to get some great filler adventures with the characters from this point on every film follows a loose outline of brief downtime followed by fighting fighting and more fighting. The one saving grace this film has is its colours honestly while every Dragon Ball film has great animation except Movie 6 few really have the beautiful colour work this one has. The next three will be in rather drab shades of white or gray so savour these moments. In summary Dragon Ball Z: Return My Gohan isnt the best. Sadly it also isnt the worst Dragon Ball Z has to offer. I dread the next few films. Also just a side note no this film wasnt meant to be watched in 4:3 it shows parts of the image not meant to be seen it was intended for a 16:9 presentation. I notice a lot of people getting mistaken on that subject so Ill just write about it here. PostScript: Its kind of weird how like Toei is still committing to the thing they did with the first 3 Dragon Ball films where they redo an arc or two usually with all the same characters but a different antagonist Movie 3 being the exception. What makes this one even weirder is that its not a recap its a genuine prequel at least for the anime and yes it is as the later Garlic Jr. arc in the anime is a sequel to this film. It makes me wonder if they have planned to do more films in the same style as this but that never really happened outside of Movie 8 which takes place after Cell and Movie 13 which is postBuu. Another thing about the film this one and its sequel The Worlds Strongest Guy both have a bit where Masako Nozawa performs a song in character as Gohan and both are really cute. Its really odd how this never got continued as well perhaps a lot of Dragon Ball anime original content is just ideas that never got continued well talk about that one in my Dragon Ball Super review.