Hellz Yeah: Toriyama!

Oolong / ウーロン

From: DragonBall

Oolong is a shape-shifting humanoid pig who meets Goku and Bulma during their first quest to find the Dragon Balls.  He is based loosely on the character Zhu Bajie/Zhu Wuneng aka “Pigsy” from Journey to the West.  He was prototyped in Toriyama’s earlier manga Dragon Boy, in the character Binyao - a shape-shifter with a bad attitude.  This type of character was also seen in the Donbe from Dr. Slump.

He was born in Octagon Village - a village filled with other humanoid pigs who shared his perverted desire to steal panties and other things.  He attended Shapeshifting Academy with Pu’ar, whom he bullied relentlessly.  He was later expelled for stealing the teacher’s panties which is why he can’t hold a form for more than 5 minutes.

While a major character throughout the early DragonBall stories, Oolong is relegated to a sideline character by the arrival of Goku’s Saiyan brother, Raditz.  This is mostly due to his strength not being able to match new threats to earth and he takes a back seat to the new main characters.

Oolong first met Goku in Aru Village - which he terrorised for money and girls that would become his brides.  Using his shape-shifting abilities he extorted cash from the villagers and kidnapped their young girls.  Because of the large form he took, the villagers never thought to fight back.  When Goku was set up to take the place of a bride he fought Oolong and won quickly.

Oolong led the villagers to his mansion where it was discovered that the girls had been pampered with expensive clothes, jewellery, food and more.  While Oolong had given off a terrifying aura to the villagers, in private he was easily pushed around and the girls had used him to get nice things for themselves.

Joining Bulma and Goku (albeit regretfully), Oolong travelled with them but made numerous escape attempts.  Each time he did, he would get lured back by Bulma tying her panties to a fishing line or using her Pee Pee Candy to stop him running away.  She uses Oolong’s transformation ability to bargain with Master Roshi to put the fire on Fire Mountain/Fry Pan Mountain.

While Oolong is usually cowardly he does have moments of bravery.  He intervenes during Emperor Pilaf’s wish to Shenron and stops the world from being taken over.  He has good deduction skills, identifying Chi-Chi as Goku’s mysterious opponent at the World Martial Arts Tournament.  When her identity is revealed and everyone is shocked, he remarks “I told you so!”.  He is also the first to think that Goku might not be human - which is revealed when Raditz arrives on earth.

Oolong is often depicted wearing a Chinese Communist uniform.  It’s thought that the design was a subtle message from Toriyama, and his character is also a parody of Mao Tse-Tung (aka Chairman Mao) as a literal “Communist Pig”.  With Oolong’s materialistic existence (surrounded by wealth and women) matching that of many Communist leaders this is likely intentional but Toriyama has never made an official statement on the fact.  It’s possible his outfit is based purely on the semi-Chinese setting DragonBall started in.

Oolong appears in two of the three live action DragonBall movies.  In the Korean film Fight Son Goku, Win Son Goku he is portrayed by an actor in a costume resembling his manga counterpart.  In DragonBall: The Magic Begins he is portrayed by a human and called “Piggy”.

Oolong’s name, like Pu’ar and Yamcha, comes from Oolong Tea.

In DragonBall GT, the character Zoonama lives in a very similar manner to early Oolong.  Zoonama terrorises villagers by threatening to make earthquakes if they don’t give him brides.  In this instance, Trunks plays what was Goku’s role in the original series - dressing up as a woman to infiltrate his scheme.

When Oolong transforms into a handsome man in Aru Village, he resembles Senbei Norimaki making his “serious face” (which Senbei can only hold for 3 minutes).

Dub names given to Oolong include MaoMao, Oscar, Pudgy and Goret.

He is voiced by Naoki Tatsuta, who is known for many other roles in anime and video games.  Tatsuta voiced Nurikabe in GeGeGe no Kitaro, Dr. Yuuri Kelllerman in Cowboy BeBop, Robita in Astro Boy and Sokolov in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.  He also voiced Porky Pig in various Japanese dubs of Loony Tunes.

(Source: dragonball.wikia.com)