“Bardock- The Father of Goku” is a short film about Bardock, Goku’s Saiyan father, and his failed rebellion against Freiza. “The History of Trunks” is another short film about Future Trunks, the son of Vegeta, and a dark, alternate future where the androids take over Earth. In this timeline, Goku and the rest of his friends are dead, which pushes Trunks to go to the past to prevent this from happening. These movies aren’t required viewing, but add to thestory. 

The rest of the DBZ movies, however, are not canon. They were released alongside the anime and should be watched intermittently during every arc. You can group the different movies into the various arcs of Dragon Ball Z. For example, once you get close to completing the Saiyan Arc, you can watch “Dead Zone,” “The World’s Strongest,” “The Tree of Might,” and “Lord Slug.” A lot of these first DBZ movies are fun because they focus heavily on the martial arts fighting that the series started with. 

Once you finish the Frieza arc, give “Cooler’s Revenge,” “The Return of Cooler,” and “Super Android 13” a watch. Cooler is Frieza’s brother, and has a great design and really cool powers. He comes back as an android, and after that, the Z-fighters fight real androids! Once you get deep into the Cell arc, you have to watch “Broly: the Legendary Super Saiyan.” For a non-canon character, Broly has got to be the most iconic in the series. His dynamic with the rest of the characters, notably Goku, is interesting and fun too. He has a stellar character design and is wonderfully acted in both the Japanese and English dubs. After you finish the Cell saga, give “Bojack Unbound” a try. Bojack is a space pirate with a gang of brutal fighters that Gohan has to defeat. After the Majin Buu arc starts, I would watch “Broly- Second Coming” and then “Bio Broly.” Both these movies aren’t as beloved as the first Broly film, but they’re still a fun excuse to see more of the character once he returns. Don’t think too hard about how Broly returns in both movies, though, since they are pretty nonsensical. 

Once you finish the Majin Buu arc, I would watch “Fusion Reborn”, which gave way to Gogeta, one of the most popular characters in the entire series. It makes sense, since it’s a combination of Goku and Vegeta. Janemba is also a cool, evil character with an incredibly sick character design. The last Z-era movie to watch is “Wrath of the Dragon,” a fun, almost epilogue to DBZ. This movie has some incredible animation and shows off great character development for fighters like Vegeta. 

Those are all of the Z-era movies that were made in the late 80s to mid 90s. There’s also “The Return of Son Goku and Friends,” a 2008 special that introduces Vegeta’s brother, Tarble. This story is almost like a slice-of-life tale for the characters. It’s a very low-stakes story; it was really just an excuse for the animation studio to make more Dragon Ball Z content, since it came out years after the original anime ended. While this special came out of nowhere, it is considered canon, as Tarble is briefly mentioned in other canon projects like Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

The DBZ movies have a ton of really fun and iconic characters, so they’re still recommended. They have stellar animation, great fight scenes, awesome music, and some of the most iconic characters in the series, like the previously mentioned Legendary Super Saiyan,  Broly, or Frieza’s Galaxy-conquering brother Cooler. Another series that is not canon, but still beloved by some fans, is Dragon Ball GT.