‘Pokemon: The First Movie’ proved itself to be a relative money printer…So, emboldened by the success and with two new Pokemon games AND a new series of the anime on the horizon. Our lads over at Nintendo and the pokemon company once again set to work on creating a sequel to, what was at the time, a juggernaut in full motion.

For context, when the first Pokemon film came out, ‘Pokemania’ was on the up…as in, it STILL had fans to attract and audiences to reach, but by the time of ‘Pokemon: The Movie 2000 – The Power of One (Ft: Weird Al)’ the franchises popularity REALLY began to hit its peak. a fandom primarily made up of kids waited with relish to find ANY juicy gossip they could about the mythical ‘Johto’ region, and when this film announced it would feature MULTIPLE new pokemon from that region (Bearing in mind, the previous film had introduced us to ‘Snubble’, ‘Marril’ and ‘Donphan’) INCLUDING what would turn out to be that series mainline legendary pokemon ‘Lugia’ well, things really got kicked up to the next level!

I had assumed that this was the first film in the ‘Johto’ series of movies…But the memory cheats! as this film takes place during the back end (if not THE end) of the ‘Orange Island’ arc of the anime. The orange island for folks not in the know, was essentially a bit of a filler season they made to fill in the gap when Pokemon ‘Gold & Silver’ wernt *quite* ready for release just yet. and saw our gang Ash, Misty and Bro- I mean! newcomer ‘Tracy’ travelling from island to island completing challenges.

My guess is that this film opens with the gang chilling out AFTER completing the orange isles challenge and getting ready to venture into Johto, as we open with Ash and co hanging out on a boat captained by ‘Maren’ I believe a one off character who somehow gets a pretty meaty chunk of this films runtime…

Anyway, the gang are having a nice time until dark storm clouds roll in, an unexpected and deadly storm begins to play havoc with the ocean and the gang find their boat landcrashed on a mysterious island at the center of the orange isles.

What caused the storm? Well that would be Laurence the 3rd! (Or Laurence III…I…I dont know his personal preference) Probably THE most forgettable ‘villain’ in film history, and I do NOT use that title lightly. What do I know about Laurence? he’s a posh boy with money who’s decided to become a pokemon ‘Collector’ what he means by that is that he intends to ‘Catch’em all’ (but here its bad because he’s bad) and he’s short 3 legendary pokemon in completing his set (im guessing he never saw ‘Pokemon: The first movie’ or he’d know he still needs Mew and Mewtwo…)

ANYWAY! – The three legendary birds are ‘Moltres’, ‘Zapdos’ and ‘Articuno’ and these birds are the guardians of Fire, Lightning and Ice respectively. They are heated rivals and have spent many centuries seperated across three of the Orange isles, hidden away but using their abilities to maintain the natural flow of the ocean and island life.

Laurence wishes to capture all 3, as theres an ancient folk tale stating that the person who is able to bring all 3 legendary birds together will summon the guardian of the sea himself ‘Lugia’ and bring with him carnage and ocean based terror I guess?

So Laurence has stolen ‘Howls Moving castle’ and taken to the skies with the aim of trapping the 3 birds in cages and forcing Lugia to appear. and with that, he disspears for a good chunk of the movie.

Meanwhile, Ash and the crew are welcomed by the locals of the island, who tell him the same legend and, because he’s a pokemon trainer, they assign him a not so simple mission to keep the island tradition. they want him to travel to the three legendary bird islands and capture an orb containing a remnent of their essence. by uniting the orbs on a central island, its said that peace shall be restored.

Ash wastes no time and heads out…and from here things kind of get a bit messy. Laurence reappears, catches the 3 birds, Ash and the gang (including team rocket) ALSO get captured by Laurence, who underestimates the group and leaves them WITH the birds…which they promptly release. The birds then destroy Laurences moving castle, causing it to crash to earth, leaving him stuck on a small island, watching the rest of the film play out via telescope for the rest of the movie. Yes…our MAIN VILLAIN, is relegated to watching the ENTIRE rest of the movie…through a telescope from a tiny island miles away from the action…and other than one final moment at the VERY end of the film…he does NOTHING else…I forgot he was even IN this movie by the time the 3rd act rolled around…I was genuinely surprised when he came back on screen.

Meanwhile the birds begin attacking each other causing violence and mayhem and turning Kanto and the surrounding orange islands into a chaotic weather storm freakout of hail, snow and heavy winds and rain.

Ash and the gang meet with a slowking (who they just…recognise IMMEDIATELY as a slowking without checking the pokedex or anything…which is odd) and the talking slowking (which again…is just accepted) tells them that their mission is more than symbolic and will ACTUALLY save the day…leaving Ash, pikachu and team rocket of all villains to ACTUALLY band together to recover the 3 orbs, summon Lugia and settle the legendary war before pokemon AND people get seriously hurt.

What I will say about this entry is it does feel like a sequel that learnt a bit from the mistakes the first film made. The first film felt a bit thrown together and gave out mixed messages that somehow took polar opposite sides of an arguement AT THE SAME TIME and STILL managed to somehow completely undermine the messaging of the franchise on the whole.

This film doesnt really go as deep or complex as that, at its core it almost feels like an extended episode of the anime series, but with a bigger budget and (for the time) higher quality effects. In that regard it does feel a bit cheaper and lower rent than ‘The First Movie’ but what it lacks in intricate design and H.R Geiger lawsuits, it makes up for with some interesting art direction and a more solid story.

When I say ‘A more solid story’ though, what I mean is that the actual plot makes more sense than the last entry, hangs together better, and doesnt end with the entire cast all getting mindwiped and forgetting the movie even happened…

This is a pretty straightforward, if not a little TOO straightforward 3 act single plot narrative. There are some nice little side avenues here (Team Rocket getting to play good guys for a while is fun, and Misty getting a bit embarrassed when shes mistaken for Ash’s girlfriend is good for a while) but it isnt trying to overcomplicate things, its just trying to tell a basic ‘Pokemon should be free and allowed to enjoy their lives’ plotline with a little bit of pokemon legend thrown in for good measure.

What I DO have problems with however is the structuring of the story itself, with two glaringly big problems really knocking this thing back. One being the fact they introduce a villain, give him LITERALLY nothing to do but kick off the birds fighting, and then they strand him on a rock for the rest of the film barring a final 5 minute pop up in the 3rd act. the films an hour and 20 long, and i’d be amazed if Laurence is in it for 15 minutes of that…and he’s supposed to be our LEAD VILLAIN. its rediculous, it feels like they invented him and immediately couldnt figure out what to do with him…

The other issue is continuity and resolution. There are multiple points here where the film does things that raise continuity issues, things like Ash recognising and even immediately befriending talking pokemon he’s never encountered before, an explanation for why Lugia and the legendary birds are now somehow all located in the Orange Isles, when the birds are native to Kanto and Lugia is considered a sleeping beast of the sea that should be located in the furthest reaches of Johto. The fact that Tracy and Misty LITERALLY do nothing in this movie. they stand next to Ash for most of the first act, and then for the rest of the movie they just watch whats happening from a distance (the same as Laurence) until the end of the movie when they all get to carry on their adventures. Its astounding, as those characters are our MAIN characters supports…and they do NOTHING here.

But probably the worst aspect of this is the ending (and mild spoilers here) but the film just kind of…stops. They resolve everything, the day is saved…but we dont even really get a ‘gang thank the locals, summerize the adventure and set off on more adventures’ sign off…the film just stops once Lugia flies off, leaving the film to trail off to black with Team Rocket just…weirdly rambling…NOT helped by the fact the credits are scored with 3 TOTALLY differently toned 90s pop songs, a R&B style poppy number, a Polka song…and ‘Flying without wings’ by westlife…I was as stunned as you no doubt are by that last one…

The actual pacing is a little on the slow side, but its at least consistently paced. the plot twists and turns are nice enough, but a little bit lower stakes than the Mewtwo plotline…It feels a little lumbering honestly, but i’d choose slowburn and consistent over erratic and inconsistent any day.

The characters are all fine enough, they feel much more in tune with the anime than the last film, no weird crying pokemon in this one is always welcome. But I wasnt a fan of the vocal choices for Lugia and slowking, the former sounding like a poor impression of Mewtwo (itself, sounding like a poor impression of Orson Welles) and Slowking sounds like Lugia, with just a rounder more yawning quality…neither I feel suit the character of the creatures, and i’ll be honest. I think making ANY pokemon talk that isnt Meowth feels a bit odd and disconnected from the point of pokemon…

Beyond that, my feelings are similar here to the first film. as mentioned the art direction is nice, but a little safer than the stylisations they went for in the first film, the CGI here is MUCH more prominent, and has aged MUCH worse than ‘The First Movies’ handful of CG moments…HD scans are NOT this movies friend with sleek, clean and beautiful hand drawn animation being superimposed over what looks like a PS3 Cutscene…its hideous frankly.

But beyond those moments, its a nice enough looking picture, the voice acting (barring the mentioned) is as solid as the first, no better no worse, the style feels a little more simplified than the first film (more in line with the anime from the looks of it)

The soundtrack is positively Schizophrenic. With entries by Donna Summer, The B-52s, Weird Al, Westlife, O-town and Dreamstreet. It all clashes horribly, NON of it works, not ONE song feels like it ACTUALLY should punctuate this movie…and yet SOMEHOW. its still marginally better than the first movie for me. I cant explain it. it has to be listened to to be believed quite honestly.

‘Pokemon – The Movie 2000’ is absolutely a flawed picture, but I do feel like it has learnt a few thing after the first film came out, and while its still a VERY messy production, it does feel like its trying to figure things out here, and as a result, we get a clear and pretty clean plotline with our characters feeling much more directly involved in the plot (unless they’re secondary characters, in which case they’ll have to watch this movie through a telescope from the outskirts) and the stake, while lowered, at least feel like they *kind* of make sense.

When this first came out, I probably watched it half a dozen times, and then didnt touch the thing again for 24 years. Rewatching it again tonight, im still not sold on these movies, I can absolutely see how younger pokemon fans would have lost their minds at this back in the day…But now the moments kind of passed, im left wondering how on EARTH this film has managed to maintain the goodwill it has over the years. Its absolutely not a great introduction to pokemon…and I think a modern kid audience would have wandered off by the halfway point.

Definetly one to chalk up to ‘The Memory Cheats’ and ‘Nostalgia is a siren’ my advice? stick with the memories…they’re better than the realities.

Edit – Oh yeh! and someone involved in writing this thing has never seen a boat in action before. because for some reason ALL the boats in this film spend more time sailing ON LAND, than they do on the water…I assume the guy writing this saw a photo of a boat on a trailer, and just assumed they were some kind of wind powered land vehical. BIZARRE.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pokemon-the-movie-2000/