Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku

Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku is a 1990 Japanese animated television special set within the Dragon Ball Z storyline. It follows Bardock, a low-ranking Saiyan warrior who conquers planets on Frieza's orders, and who is also the father of Son Goku. After an encounter with the last survivor of a world his squad has just wiped out, Bardock gains the ability to see events before they happen. His visions show him the destruction of his own people at Frieza's hands, and he sets out to prevent the massacre, even as those around him dismiss what he claims to see. The special also depicts how the infant Kakarotto leaves the Saiyan homeworld and eventually reaches Earth.

The film is directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, his first credit among several Dragon Ball features, and was written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and Takao Koyama, with Kouzou Morishita producing. Masako Nozawa voices both Bardock and his son, and the cast includes Kazuyuki Sogabe, Yuko Mita, Takeshi Watabe, Kozo Shioya and Ryusei Nakao as Frieza.

Running forty-eight minutes, the special has found a durable audience. On IMDb it holds a 7.8 rating from around 7,100 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.6 from roughly 790 votes. The two scores sit close together, indicating that viewers who seek the film out generally respond to it in similar terms.