Dr. Slump: Arale's First Live-action Movie

Dr. Slump: Arale's First Live-action Movie would be a 2027 American buddy cop comedy-drama film directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Toei Company. It would be a live-action adaptation of the Japanese franchise of Dr. Slump, and the second entry in the Dragon Ball Live-action Universe. Lord and Miller would also produce the film alongside Kevin Feige and the franchise's creator Akira Toriyama, while the film would be written by Lord, Miller, Bill Kelly, Rhet Reese, Jim Reardon, and Jennifer Lee. The film would star Abby Ryder Fortson, China Anne McClain, Will Smith, Jim Carrey, and the voice of John Cleese.

Disney would first announce a live-action adaptation of Dr. Slump at the San Diego Comic-Con 2024, along with the hirings of Lord and Miller as directors. Filming would take place in Atlanta, Georgia, and would be during July and December 2026.

The film would be released on December 16, 2026, and would became a critical and commercial success, grossing 977 million dollars over a budget of 177 millions, and being praised for its direction, subject matter, screenplay, thematical depth, tonal faithfulness to the source material, humor, performances, visual effects, and music.

Synopsis
In the usually-peaceful city of Pengun Village (wait.... it says Penguin Village, but its a city......... nah, just maybe is just to stick close to the original.), things get a turn for the worst when everybody discovers that Arale Norimaki (pause for effect)..... IS A ROBOT!!!!!!! (that happens for not reading the source materal in prepara..... forget it nobody knew in the manga either). She finds herself facing discrimination (which is logical since robots + a movie+ a franchise means either a lots of deaths, less success than the predecesor with critics, or both), but she may be their only hope when multiple sentient obkects sudenly turn into robots and start destroying everuthing in bloodful battles (rings a bell to ya?). Now, Arale, her father Senbei, and her sister Turbo (SISTER!!!! Now blacklash for changing genders will come. Well, hopefully fans will get over it.) must find out the reason for this sudden event before the movie becomes terrible!!!!!!! (Wow! Sounds cool!).

Cast

 * Abby Ryder Fortson as Arake Noriamki, a robot who was created by Dr. Senbei Norimaki. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller would write and developed the character "with Winnie the Pooh in mind, only unknowingly smarter".
 * China Anne McClain as Turbo Norimaki, Arale's older sister. The chracter's gender would be changed because the filmmakers would felt that "in a film promoting equality" it would be the best to have a female charcter as "the hater who learns to stop hating", while she was mde older in order for her actions to make sense.
 * Will Smith as Senbei Norimaki, Arale's creator and Turbo's father. Producer Akira Toriyama would say that this version "tries to be a father for Arale", unlike the manga version, througth the direcotrs would still "aim to make a faithful representation of the character" in the film.
 * Jim Carrey as Dr. Masharito, a mad scientist who tries to difame robots in order to prevent future movies with robots in the franchise, as he seems them as "the movies' curse". Director Phil Lord would call Masharito "the discrimination incarnated", while Christopher Mller woudl call him "[the franchise's] take on a typical Pixsr villain". Carrey would improvise a lot during filming.

Voices

 * John Cleese as Tori, an anthropomorphic bird who serves as the film's "Greek chorus", acting as both a friend of Arale's, and the film's narrator. Tori would be modeled as a mountain birs, in homage to his namesake and Dr. Slump's creator, Akira Toriyama.
 * Jim Meskimen as the Reality Machine, a reality altering creation of Senbei's who was accidentally brougth to life by Arale years ago. Meskimen would call the character "a McGuffin who dosen't want to be a McGuffin".
 * Seth Rogen as Mr. Pig, the mayor's spokeperson, who always gives the latest news on Penguin Village.

Music
Michael Giacchino would compose the film's score, which would contain motifs and elements from both the original anime and the Dragon Ball anime's score by Shunsuke Kikuchi. Producer Kevin Feige would say that Giacchino was hired due to his use of puns in his tracks' titles, which the filmmakers would felt would fit with the franchise's humor. Score prodducer Hans Zimmer would say that the reasn the score would featue motifs from the Dragon Ball anime would be to have "musical connection" with the film Dragon Ball, which would also feature elements from Kikuch's score for that anime.

Pharrell Williams and "Weird Al" Yankovic would write the film's songs, which would be performed by several artists in the movie. Due to his reputation of parodying popular songs in his work, Yankovic would write the song's lyrics, while Williams would write the music.

Critical reception
The film would have an aproval rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7/10. The critical consensus would read, "A thougthful-yet-humourus take on an old franchise, Dr. Slump manages to tackle timely themes in a style that dosen't betray its franchise's nature." On Metacritc, the film would have an weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Sequel
During the San Diego Comic-Con 2028, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller revealed that a sequel to Dr. Slump: Arale's First Live-action Movie is in development, titled Dr. Slump 2: OH NO! WE GOT TO THE SEQUEL, and set after the crossover Dr. Slump/Dragon Ball: The Franchise's First Crossover. Bill Kelly, who co-wrote the first film, would return to write the sequel, with Lord and Miller acting as producers, while Kevin Lima and Bill Condon would direct the film, which would be a musical, with songs written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.

Trivia

 * According to Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Akira Toriyama would be "even more involved with this film" than in Dragon Ball in order to make sure the film stays faithful to the original manga's tone in spite of the film's tackling of themes such as racism.


 * Throught the film, Masharito (while undercover) would mention that "[he] can't watch Evolution without something happening". When he's revealed to be the bad guy, it would be shown that the Evolution he was talking about was Dragonball Evolution, which he would praise as "a wonderful work of art that accpets that you don't have to follow the previous version, instead choosing originality". This would not comically show Masharito's twisted mind and evil nature, but would also be a reference to the highly negative reputation held by Dragonball Evolution.