Pokemon 3: The Movie – Spell of the Unknown (Entai) ((…Yes, that really is the US/EU translation of the title for this one)) kind of marks the beginning of the decline of the OG pokemon fandom (Yes…I am fully aware there is still 20+ movies to go in this franchise). By this point in time Pokemon had been a phenominon for well over 5 years it had spawned a (by this point) ‘long running’ TV series, 5 games across two different regions (with a 6th being released at Christmas of this same year) The trading card game was WELL underway and fully embracing the Johto region. And yet, this would mark the final time that a Pokemon movie would get a nationwide Cinema release, with the next entry only showing in select cinemas across the country and each film after that being either direct to DVD/VHS or an even more limited cinema run…OR in at least one or two cases, it just got dumped on kids cable TV and was told to fight for itself.

I remember this period of time well, with a lot of rumblings about a potential ‘Gameboy Advance’ pokemon title in the works, there was still an enthusiasm for Pokemon in the air! Buuuuut, you could begin to sense a feeling of fatigue. With other ‘monster’ based series like Digimon and Yu-gi-oh creeping into the frame, the former of which was sniping younger pokemon fans particularly, and the latter aiming for elder pokemon fans looking for a bit more ‘teen angst’ in their monster battling. Focus was kind of being pulled away from the series a little bit. And while the ‘Hoen’ era would still be another movie or so away. This kind of felt like a natural ‘closing/jumping off’ point for anyone whos attention was beginning to drift on the series.

I was one of those folks, as there was a slightly longer then usual gap between this film and the next entry. I pretty much hung onto playing Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal and the card games up to around the start of 2002, before dropping pokemon almost fully in favour of Yu-gi-oh. And, to be honest? if I was going to pick a point to jump out of Pokemon? This was probably about as good as it gets.

The film opens with a father and daughter, Molly and Spencer living in the rich and rural town of ‘Greenfield’ Spencer is a pokemon professor who specializes in legendary pokemon, and he regails molly with tales of the legendaries adventures from a historic book. While telling Molly about a tale involving the legendary pokemon ‘Entai’, Spencer gets a call asking him to come right away to the ‘Ruins of Alph’ where a significant discovery has been made, a secret chamber containing dozens of pokemon shaped runes and a box of carvings has been located. But on touching them, Spencer and the team unleash ‘The Unown’ Alphabet shaped pokemon which, when they swarm, can generate phenominal psychic powers.

Spencer is taken to a nether world by the Unown who shoot out of the chamber and into the sky. News of Spencers dissapearence is relayed to Molly, whos already only recently lost her mother, and her raw emotion summon the Unown to the mansion. who begin to congregate and generate the aforementioned psychic abilities, transforming Mollys raw emotions into a ‘safe’ alternate dream world for her to live in, in which her father is reincarnated as an Entai and shes free to live the life she wants forever and ever.

The Unown crystalize the entire mansion, lock everyone away from Molly and Entai and continue to build her dream world behind closed doors. Its here that we finally catch back up with Ash, Misty and Brock. Who are reunited for a tour of Johto and are on a mission to take on all the Johto gyms when they arrive at Greenfield expecting a serean countryside jaunt, and find a totally terrestrialized hellscape.

Teaming up with a local girl named Lisa who, after a battle, joins in on the sidelines to help Ash and co get up to the mansion. Also on the prowl however are Team Rocket. Who…really seemingly wernt expecting to be pulled into an adventure this week…letalone a cinematic one, but so as not to miss out, they tag along too just to see whats going on and scope if theres any opportunity to ‘prepare for trouble’

And so, we have the rest of the film. Ash, Misty, Brock and a hiding Team Rocket slowly try to infiltrate the mansion and get Molly away to sever the connection with the Unown, while the Unown warp and bend reality, weakening the teams pokemon, generating their own, super strong pokemon and warping the mansion to try and stop the gang progressing. With MORE than a few surprises along the way.

And, having rewatched all 3 for the first time in probably 20 years now. If I had to pick one of these for a ‘regular rotation’ pick…it’d probably be this one. It seems to me to be the movie where the Pokemon team FINALLY managed to get all their ducks in a line.

The plot is complex, but not TOO complicated that kids would struggle with it, they use symbolism to help visualise trauma and processing trauma in a way that is somewhat subtle, but creative and clearly marked. They pick a couple of plotpoints/plotlines and develop them fully, rather than throwing 2 dozen half baked ‘moral lessons’ out that flip flop all over the place and either dont really go anywhere, or contradict the fundamental messages of the series (the last 2 movies were TERRIBLE for doing this)

The characters (for the most part) all get something fairly meaty to do here, which is really welcome after ‘Pokemon 2000’ basically stranded Misty and Tracy out of the movie for 30-40 minutes. Even Team Rocket who have almost ZERO involvement in the plot for this thing get arguably some of their best character pieces to date here, breaking the 4th wall regularly to lament that they dont really understand WHY they’re in this movie, while also trying to hint to the film makers to make them be more involved in the next one…Which I thought was a nice touch.

The film FINALLY nails a good balance between cheesy anime comedy and some actually kind of deep emotional cinema. it mixes laughs and pathos well, and while I think the ending is maybe a little *too* schmaltzy in having to tie off EVERY lose end…That and I cant really forgive that they basically forget Lisa is even a thing in this movie by the final act. What it DOES manage to succeed with, it succeeds tremendously.

Essentially; this has been what i’ve wanted out of Pokemon movie since I started rewatching these. A plot that *feels* like it could cleanly be a plot from the anime series. Just given a grander scale and a bigger budget than normal to realise it. While ALSO taking care to try and slot it INTO the anime, rather than just vaguely gesturing at a time period it *could* take place in, and hoping noone tries to probe too deeply.

The animation is probably some of the best of any of the cinematic entries. theres a nice detailed smooth flow to the animation that reminds me of the stronger elements of animation from ‘The First Movie’, but they’ve FINALLY managed to really get the CGI to a place where it isnt aggressively upsetting to me. They combine the two in a much more subtle way (barring the Unown sequences…which…im assuming they REALLY wanted this film to be shown in 3D) and the results are a film where the hand drawn elements of the animation feel utterly delightful, and the CG elements, rather than working against that hand drawn vibe (as was the case with the first two films) here, compliments the animation, resulting in a kind of ‘best of both worlds’. I wont go as far as to say its perfect, as 25 years on, even this offering is beginning to show a little ‘creakage’. But hey, this is likely as good as its ever going to get. and I still think it holds up pretty well.

The art direction is superb, with some exquisit designs for the crystalized mansion and the town of greenfield. The fight sequences feel much MUCH more nicely choreographed than the last entry, with a lot more coherency and intricate fight moves taking place. They manage to capture something that WAS in the first film, but WASNT in the second, which is a sense of scale and grandness in pokemon battles. You feel every thud of a ‘take down’ the ‘flamethrower’ moves FEEL organic and give a sense of heat. This one clearly had a keen eye over it, and it shows.

Performance wise, The gang turn up once again, Veronica Taylor is on fire as Ash here, probably giving my favourite performance of the character so far with this turn. Rachel Lillis and Eric Stuart are fantastic as Misty and Brock in this one, and im particularly delighted that they ACTUALLY manage to bring more of the characters into this entry, something I feel was woefully missing in the last 2 films. Here? it feels like they actually had TIME to give these characters a bit more space and it makes the world of difference.

But for my money, I’ve got to say my favourite turn in this one has to be Rachel, Eric and Maddie Blausteins turns as Team Rocket, while they are here in a HEAVILY reduced role, every single line they deliver is frankly perfrect. they hit every comedy note, every dramatic moment. These characters are superbly written across the shows runtime, and given how little they are visible in this one? that makes it all the more impressive that they leave such a lasting impression.

One thing I am starting to get a bit fed up of though is the idea of every movie having a legendary pokemon voiced by a slightly deep set man. Not even a charasmatic or interesting deep set voice. Dan Green here as Entai is giving ‘Beige’ as far as voices go. He gets some fantastic lines, but like Mewtwo and Lugia in the previous films…I dont know what the obsession with giving pokemon passive deep voices is…but it does nothing for me honestly…

Aaaaand finally, the soundtrack! and this (I think) is the first film in the series to NOT have a star studded late 90s full pop album accompanyment. Insteadl; we have orchestral and poppy offerings that, essentially sound like grander stylistic plays for the TV series. and I absolutely loved it! I think it really gives this film a sense of its own identity, I thought it fit perfectly and was timed really well. Probably the best score so far honestly, with the remix/cover of the Johto era theme tune opening this film being a particular highlight!

Pokemon 3 may have been the beginning of the end for MAIN mainstream pokemon fandom. But if this is the movie that begins the shuttering, its going out with a BANG. I really enjoyed this one. With a decently composed script, rock solid animation, solid performances and a great soundtrack. This is probably the first Pokemon movie that I can confidently say HAS held up to the modern day, and its the first one that I think WOULD still appeal to a child audience. Its the first one I could see me revisiting again someday, and its one I can definitely recommend you revisit if you grew up with these movies and want a real nostalgia hit!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pokemon-3-the-movie/