TYTD Reviews

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/

‘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/

Its probably a quite well known ‘fun fact’ that whenever a Pokemon movie is released in cinemas, it’s usually preceeded by a short film featuring the franchises main mascot ‘Pikachu’. The ‘Pikachu Shorts’ as they’ve become known are on the front end of every single ‘OG Timeline’ pokemon movie released in Japan, and *were* at the front of most of the EU/US releases, though I believe a few of them were either missed out, or relegated to DVD extras…

In either case, these shorts are usually sans human characters (or feature them in a VERY limited capacity) and instead focus almost entirely on pokemon oriented stories. They usually play like silent films in the sense that theres minimal to no dialogue and the films are very easy to understand the plots of…Realistically I think these were aimed at the younger pokemon fans of the day who maybe wouldnt fully understand the complexities of the ‘main feature’ but still wanted to feel like they were part of the experience and could have some fun.

And thus! the first short film ‘Pikachu’s Vacation’ featured as the opening film to ‘Pokemon: The First Movie’ and…im actually quite surprised that somehow I had a much nicer time with this movie, than with the main feature.

The premise is basically that Ash, Brock and Misty need to run some errands, and they arrive in a town featuring a pokemon resort! Basically a place you can dump your pokemon off at filled with all the stuff pokemon love, to give them a well needed rest and vacation from trying to ‘be the very best like noone ever was’.

But this will be FAR from a well rested vacation! as almost immediately Mistys ‘Togepi’ realises its SUPER hungry and begins crying uncontrollably, leading Pikachu and the gang to try and find a way to pacify the rogue egg…Unfortunately for them; ALSO staying at the resort is a group of boistrous overly loud pokemon. A Snubble, A Marril, a cubone, and the teams leader a Raichu.

They refuse to play ball when Pikachu tries to politely ask that they quieten down to help calm Togepi, instead they get louder and more aggressive, which in turn prompts Ash’s pokemon to race to back up Pikachu, which in turn starts a battle of wits! With Squirtle and Marril having a swim race, and Pikachu and Raichu racing on foot! When they accidentally step on a Charizards tail however, the team will have to put aside their differences to save the day and salvage what they can of their vacation! discovering friendship along the way!

And, this is just a really kind of nice, sweet little short film. Its something of a slapstick comedy, it isnt taking itself too seriously, and it tells a simple story entertainingly and light heartedly.

The short runs to approx 20 minutes, and there is some minor pacing issues here and there, particularly in the opening act when they’re trying to pacify Togepi. I feel like they linger on that aspect a little too long and I would have preferred to have seen that time been repurpoused into a Bulbasaur v Cubone battle, or something a bit more meaty. As it stands its a joke that kind of overstays its welcome, but the whole thing is short, so I cant really complain too much.

One thing that is a bit odd about this one is they have these SUPER trippy scene transitions where they get pokemon on a ‘tie-dye’ backdrop making rhythimic dances and chants to an acoustic backing…It wouldnt be SO unusual if the film was longer, but for at least the first 2 acts they basically cram one in every 2-4 minutes. I can imagine watching them on a big screen must have been a bit trippy honestly, but then frustratingly in the 3rd act they stop bothering with them really…It felt a bit inconsistent.

That being said the scripts lightweight and going for comedy over all else, and I think it succeeds at that. the characters are about as complex as they need to be, the pacing outside of the first act runs at a clip and the act structurings maybe a *little* weighted in favour of that first act…but the whole things 20 minutes…I cant really be too harsh on it.

The animation looks a bit lower quality (more in line with the TV anime) than the main feature, which is understandable…part of me wonders whether the plan with this short was to segment it up (framed by the transition slides) and pop a chunk at the end of each episode of the anime, as I believe its even in a TV aspect ratio…I could totally see them, last minute, deciding to just stick all of them together and bundle it with the film to try and offer ‘value for money’…that would explain a lot.

The soundtracks 90s pop-tastic, but also quite welcome…Honestly? I really kind of had a soft spot for this one. I didnt feel like the main feature had aged all that well, but this thing? I absolutely think you could show this to kids today and they’d enjoy it probably as much as kids did back then.

‘Pikachus vacation’ is short, sweet and to the point, delivering an enjoyable experience that younger kids will likely love, older kids may find a bit babyish and adults?…well, adults will probably have more important things to do…But they’ll probably think its cute non the less! If anything this ones gotten better for me with age, its still not one i’d probably have on *regular* rotation, but if you havent seen this one and you like Pokemon, i’d say it was worth your time.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pikachus-vacation/

It really cannot be overstated just HOW impactful the world of ‘Pokemon’ was to a particular generation of 90s kid. It was essentially that eras ‘Beatlemania’. And between the trading cards, the video game series and the anime. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who grew up in that decade who DIDNT at one point know the entire ‘Pokerap’ off by heart. I guess what im trying to say is that, for a brief window between 1997 and 2001, Pokemon was essentially a global movement. So when they announced that they were releasing a feature length pokemon movie DIRECTLY into theaters (AND that by attending these screenings or by buying the home video release, you’d snag yourself some pretty ‘choice’ promo pokemon cards to boot!) You better believe that things got…somewhat chaotic to say the least.

I remember quite vividly when this film hit my local cinema chains, they essentially dedicated half the cinema screens to JUST playing the pokemon movie, from opening to closing, concurrently at times, and even then they basically sold out every single showing for its entire theatrical run AND they ran out of the promotional card allocations within the first 3 days…it was supposed to last the entire theatrical run.

I never saw this film in theaters, purely because there literally wasnt a free seat in the house, and I think my parents could absolutely think of better ways to spend their saturday/sunday than taking an ADHD addled hyperactive pokemon megafan to stand in a queue for up to an hour to be told that there were no screens available…and god FORBID there was a screen available, as they then would have been subjected to 95 minutes of something they didnt really like or understand, crammed in tight with 150+ other screaming hyperactive children, for whome this moment was likely the closest they have and ever will come to a religeous experience.

My folks DID however race for the opportunity to pick this up as soon as it became available in video rental stores. and we managed to nab a copy on the day it first hit home video. We literally had a party, me and a few friends gathered around a tiny 20 inch set fully embraced in…well, I dont think we were actually paying attention to the story. We were all just in awe that we were getting to see MEWTWO, the STRONGEST pokemon ever seen up to this point (praise arceus) kick ass and blow stuff up. That was my long standing memory of this film, watching Mewtwo beat the ever loving crap out of everything, and one scene where two psyducks slap each other and act confused…which me and my friends then replicated for about an hour, until my parents split us up and told us if we kept doing it, the party would be off.

I have incredibly warm memories of that time…and as soon as the film came to VHS and DVD in a retail capacity, my parents grabbed it for me and I pretty much played it to death…and then I discovered my love for women and Pokemon pretty much fell of a cliff face for the better part of 10 years or so…

Well! In 2015, MANGA (the UK’s mainline Anime distribution company) announced they were releasing the first 3 pokemon movies, for the first time in HD in a rather attractive steelbook set. The price was decent, and I hadnt seen the films at this point for about 14 years…So I decided to nab them, especially considering MANGA have a nasty habit of discontinuing their stock without telling people, and then watching the price spiral into triple or occasionally quadruple digits.

And then that steelbook basically sat on my ‘to watch’ pile (barring a one off screening of this film in 2016) until today…and that one off screening in 2016, It was on my birthday and I had done a LOT of shots…so it was really quite a blur…In essence what im trying to say is that I likely havent sat down and watched this film sober and with focus in about 24 years. But I recently made the decision to revisit the pokemon movies, as I only ever saw the first 3…and theres over 20 of the gits now. So I figured it might be fun to see if they still held up. This one? does not.

Honestly, for all the lead up I’ve made for this review, I have very little to say about this film. The plots pretty straightforward, it essentially plays out like an extended, slightly bigger budgeted episode of the anime, taking our heros (Ash, Brock, Misty and Pikachu) away from their current mission of taking on the pokemon league in Kanto (I believe this is set somewhere around the end of the Kanto arc, after Blaine, but before Giovanni really comes onto the scene) And our heros are having a bit of a rest. When out of nowhere they recieve a mysterious invitation to take part in a new championship being held by a self proclaimed ‘Pokemon Master’.

This ‘Master’ is non other than ‘Mewtwo’ the second manmade pokemon (after Porygon) and a clone of the, thought extinct, legendary pokemon ‘Mew’. Mewtwo was created in a lab and almost immediately he realises that the scientists who made him were more interested in proving the concept that pokemon can be created by man, than they were forming a bond and partnership with this living, breathing, sentient being who can speak fluent english via telepathy.

So; Mewtwo nukes the lab using is EXTROADINARY psychic abilities and flees. Eventually Giovanni (a jackenapes who is the leader of the inafamous ‘Team Rocket’) catches up with Mewtwo and offers him a partnership, as equals. Praying on Mewtwos ‘want’ to be accepted as an equal. He accepts and Giovanni immediately sets to work. Buidling Mewtwo a set of power channelling armour that allows him to concentrate and focus his immense psychic abilites. What mewtwo doesnt realise is that the ‘training’ Giovanni is putting him through, is actually just a series of heists and challenges, enabling team rocket to mass capture pokemon and seize assets.

Eventually Hubris gets the better of Giovanni who reveals directly to Mewtwo that he’s basically just been using him to bulk steal pokemon and wealth from people…which, as you can imagine goes down well (why would you even try to piss off the pokemon who could tear your body apart on a neuron level as easily as I bite through candy floss?!)

Mewtwo nukes Giovannis hideout leaving most of team rocket for dead, before returning to the island of his origin to set up his ‘master plan’.

Ash and the gang arrive at the island to find that Mewtwo has constructed a MASSIVE base, and, having kidnapped the regions local ‘Nurse Joy’ he’s used her knowledge of technology and pokemon physiology to construct a monstrocity of a machine aimed at building a clone army of genetically enhanced pokemon to do his bidding, his mission? to eradicate all human life, liberate pokemon from their trainers and create a pokemon utopia…Leaving it down to Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu to prove to Mewtwo that pokemon arnt subservient to their trainers, and that the bond and friendship between them is what unites them.

And probably the biggest problem this film has is simply that its just WAY too heavy handed in its messaging, to the point that it actually ends up raising some controversial issues in the process.

What the film is TRYING to say is best summed up by Mewtwo himself. That ‘The Circumstances of ones birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.’ Which is a good, wholesome message. However, Pokemon itself as a franchise is littered with examples of instances where the relationship between pokemon and their owners could amount to modern day slavery, and this film tries its DAMNDEST to play it off that in this world? the pokemon are TOTALLY okay with a bit of enslavement. Hell, even in this movie one of the characters scoffs at the idea that a pokemon could be a pokemon trainer. a point that NON of the other trainers really challenge.

It just feels a bit insincere on your first feature length outing to try and run with, what is essentially an anti bullying, anti racist messaging, when Pokemon as a series has MULTIPLE instances of discrimination and what at BEST could be considered gaslighting.

This wouldnt be SO bad, if it wasnt for the fact they push this message SO hard in such a narrow window of time. essentially, the message comes out of nowhere about 15 minutes off the end of the film. and then for that final 15 minutes its LITERALLY all they talk about, they *just* about stop short of directly addressing the audience to say ‘racism and bullying are bad m’kay.’ I know with kids you do have to be a little more simplistic and direct. But even so, this is almost to the point of patronizing.

Beyond that? it’s just kind of dull, really more a series of setpieces that they hadnt been able to find a way to insert into the anime series. Its literally like they just sat in an office during the pitch session and were like ‘Hey…we’ve never seen 2 Charizard have a flying battle to the death…lets put that in movie…Hey! we have this new season of the anime set in Johto coming out next year…lets put a pokemon from THAT series into this film and freak audiences out! HEY! lets give pikachu an evil doppelganger…AND we’ll make pikachu get trapped in a pokeball as an emotional scene, because he hates being in a pokeball!’

Thats all this movie is really, a vague plot around loving one another, glued together with about a dozen set pieces that dont really do anything for the plot, they just feel like they were scenes they either could do justice too on the animes budget, or they couldnt figure out HOW it would fit into the anime…and it gets repetative and dull…FAST.

Clocking in at 74 minutes long (104 minutes if you include the short film ‘Pikachus Vacation’ which played at the opening of all theatrical and home video screenings) It somehow feels painfully slow and dragged out. the pacing is WAY too stop start and the fight sequences, while cool from a pokemon fan standpoint. Go on for WAY too long and ultimatley dont really mean anything. The characters go to painful lengths to explain every single detail of whats being shown on screen. to the point that you could probably just have this as a radio play and it would work just as well…

The act structurings a bit botched too, its, for the most part a linear story, but they do flash back and forth a bit here and there. The first act (up to the point where the gang arrive on Mewtwos island) is fine. it feels like a pretty good episode of the anime…But the SECOND they set foot on that island, the film falls into a muddled 2nd act, where it doesnt really know what to do with itself. It starts repeating itself on plot points, throwing set pieces around with no rhyme or reason.

Its a real mess, and it drags out WELL into the point where the 3rd act should have begun, leaving the 3rd act about 15 minutes to not only resolve the story, but to try and wrap things up successfully…

Something I feel it fails to do as (mild spoilers for a 27 year old movie) they resolve *some* they are kind of bound to NOT drastically alter anything, because that would mess with the animes run…So they have Mew use its…magic?…I guess…to factory reset the entire film at the end. with only Mew and Mewtwo having any memory that this adventure ever happened. Mewtwo then flies off to be ‘the protector of pokemon’…Even for a kids film, making the last hour or so no better than ‘It was all a dream!’ is a pretty poor show…

Mercifully, from here on in things do pick up. The direction and art style IS a distinct upgrade from the TV’s anime style, it feels a lot more fluid and the extra screen space allows for grander, richer, more detailed depictions that I imagine must have looked incredible on the screen back in the 90s. I mentioned it feels like an extended episode of the anime, but with a bigger budget and more attention to detail and that really is the best way to sum it up. there are a few continuity errors I spotted here and there (probably the most agregious being Team rocket mislabelling a Scyther as an Alakazam) but these things do happen from time to time. It looks pretty solid honestly. With my only hangup really being that the CGI featured in this film REALLY has not aged well (seriously, it all looks like PS2 era graphics) and its SUCH. a contrast to the hand drawn animation, that to my 2025 eyes. its BEYOND distracting.

The animation itself is fluid and really showcases what could be achieved with Pokemon as a franchise with a good cash injection. On that side of things there isnt really much I can honestly complain about, its probably the best the series had looked up to that point, and later films only build on that.

On the performance front, I watched it dubbed, and it was nice to see the original Voice actors from the series in a film environment, Veronica Taylor specifically really ups her game here in voicing Ash, giving him some really nice and more complex tones and deliveries when compared to what was on offer in the TV series. they’re all pretty solid, I dont have much more to say than that. Jay Goede is a newcomer here as the voice of Mewtwo, bringing a slight ‘Orson Welles’ twang to the character, which I think was a really nice choice. Yeh…no issues from me really on the performance front.

And the soundtrack is…odd. But kind of emblematic of the era? the remixed take on the main pokemon theme is frankly incredible and still holds up, but then contrasting some genuinely nice original compositions that feel VERY much in step with the anime up to that point…you have 3-5 tracks that are VERY prominent in the film that are essentially just 90s pop songs…and a chunk of them are ballads at that…its weird…like imagine if ‘Akira’ had a celine dion song just crammed into the 2nd act at random? Thats kind of what we’re dealing with here. Like…I didnt HATE any of the song in this…But it did just make me wonder ‘WHY’ is that there?…

Pokemon: The First movie, as a first attempt at GETTING pokemon onto the silver screen? is fine. Not great! I probably wouldnt even go as far as to say its ‘good!’ Its too inconsistent and heavy handed with its messaging for me to really get on with it. But it has enough okay moments for me that stop it from being objectively bad, and that combined with some striking and pleasent visuals, some solid performances and a decent score are *just* enough to pull this thing back from the abyss.

I dont know if kids today would enjoy this, in fact, im kind of confident they probably wouldnt. its too slow burn and weird. Kids have ipads and HD graphic video games burning a hole in their souls these days, So anything slowburn that doesnt just get to the point immediately and then shut off is kind of a moot point for them.

I guess what im trying to say is, if your an elder millenial and your thinking of showing your kids what YOU grew up with in terms of film and cinema. You may be about to get a rude awakening when they waddle off to go play with an electrical outlet before Dragonite even turns up here…and IF you’re an elder millenial and you’ve decided to revisit this one after a long LONG time…be prepared to come to the shocking realisation that this film, while it may have been the greatest thing you’d ever seen aged 11…has NOT aged well, and is in fact a bit crappy in places…But thats okay, it does have good moments, and…if my memories of watching these holds up, the next couple of films DO learn from the mistakes of this one.

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

Watched on Saturday February 8, 2025.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-matter-of-loaf-and-death/1/

Watched on Saturday February 8, 2025.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-close-shave-1995/1/

Watched on Saturday February 8, 2025.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-wrong-trousers/1/

Watched on Saturday February 8, 2025.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-grand-day-out/1/

Its 1 minute and 15 seconds long, and has approximately 6 gags in it. The plot is its the day before the queens Jubilee and Wallace and Gromit have agreed to make all the bunting for Tottingham hall. Which they do.

Thats it. Its inoffensive, pairing the lads up with the National Trust was always going to be a relatively good idea. Short, sweet, to the point…Could have had more cheese and trouser robots for me though…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/wallace-gromits-jubilee-bunt-a-thon/

2005 Would see Wallace & Gromit head to the big screen for their first feature length outing in ‘Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ and it really does kind of feel like the culmination of nearly 15 years worth of trial and error in animation coming to near beautiful fruition.

The plot finds our lovable pair taking a turn at pest removal, specifically a sharp incrase in the appearence of bunny rabbits. These fluffy monstrocities are wreaking havoc on the local populations allotments and greenhouses ahead of the towns annual fruit and vegetable competition! ‘Anti-Pesto’ is the name and humanely removing bunny rabbits from gardens via a giant vaccume is their game!

While tending to a HUGE job on the estate of the RIGHT honourable Lady Tottingtons, Wallace strikes on an idea, what if he uses one of his OTHER new inventions (a machine that allows you to brainwash yourself or others) to brainwash the rabbits he’s captured into NOT liking vegetables,meaning they could all be re-released and the gardners and growers need not fear teeth marks in their giant carrots!

Well, of course the plan kind of backfires, when Wallace and a test rabbit called ‘Hutch’ end up having a bit of a ‘Runaway Brain’ moment, slowly turning Hutch into a Hutch Wallace hybrid, and turning Wallace into the most deadly Were-Rabbit!

Gromit cottons on fairly early to the situation, but with the town beying for the creatures blood and Wallace not being really aware of his near beastly side, will the pair find a way to restore law and order, or will Wallace find himself being stalked by Lady Tottingtons deviois suitor Victor Quartermaine?

And…I kind of felt myself in a bit of a love hate relationship with this one. Ultimately, it left me a little frustrated.

On the one hand, the script *feels* like a Wallace & Gromit script, which may sound obvious, but it IS a good thing that it does, ‘A Matter of Loaf & Death’ showed us what can happen when you make a Wallace & Gromit film without really fully throwing yourself behind the concept. This wholeheartedly WANTS to pull the audience into the scenario, and I think it largely succeeds with that. However, that doesnt mean its not without its flaws…

For a starters, as the longest running entry in the ‘Wallace & Gromit’ franchise, clocking in at 84 minutes and change, it really doesnt feel a comfortable fit. This felt like it should have been a 60-70 minute feature at most, and unlike ‘Vengence Most Fowl’ which is also feature runtime, this feels every bit as long as those 84 minutes are. It has some moments that are genuinely slow and not in a slowburn, pleasent way…in a ‘We have to stop the film to explain a bunch of stuff, so sit tight for 10 minutes…’ kind of way. Which really does hinder the pacing and causes the act structuring to feel a little wonky on the first and second acts…It manages to stick the landing with a genuinely well paced out 3rd act…but the build to that, I found to be a bit of a struggle.

Equally; this is really the start of the more ‘on the nose’ references to other films. ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’ would do this to frankly painful degrees. But here, we have references and parodies to ‘An American Werewolf in London’ , the Universal adaptation of ‘The Wolf Man’, ‘The Fly’, several Hammer films get a nod here…and…while they are a *bit* better handled here than in ‘Loaf’ I still really dont want to watch Wallace and Gromit to see it parody other movies, sometimes to an almost 1:1 degree. I watch these films for the charming ‘Northern England’ comedy that I appreciate because im a Northern Englander. I dont want them doing stuff that wouldnt feel out of place in a ‘Minions’ movie…

To that end, I need to talk about ‘Hutch’ as a character, While a vital mechanism to the plot. and the character did make me properly laugh once. AS a character he feels terribly out of place here and emblematic of a wider problem this film has. Which is that it essentially cherry picks several moments from the shorts and redoes them, but not as good as they were handled in the shorts. Hutch essentially being a redux of Shaun the sheep from ‘A Close Shave’, theres a plane sequence that harks back to the various plane sequences from ‘A Close Shave’…the breakfast machine from ‘The Wrong Trousers’ is referenced MULTIPLE times and at one point, is actually ANOTHER key plot device for the film. Its bad enough that this film has bad parodies of good movies in it, but when its stooping so low that its essentially REDOING it’s OWN ‘best bits’ but not as good…Well, I took umbridge with that…

This is also the first time that the wider town that the pair live in is explored. Wendy was obviously introduced in their last outing, but up until this film, she was the only other human character we’d seen…Here, we have a whole village! and apart from Victor and the Vicar, they’re all TOTALLY unremarkable and really quite rather dull…In fact, Victor and the Vicar only really work as characters because Victor is playing an amalgum of Christopher Lee Hammer/Amacus roles and the Vicar is essentially a parody of Dr. Pretorious from ‘Bride of Frankenstein’…Its nice to see archtypes like that on screen again…But Im still not sold on if they work here.

Beyond the script…I really dont have a lot more to say honestly, the direction and cine here is pretty good! Not *quite* the same calibre as the shorts or ‘Vengence’ but, its a studio production, with studio money and given the time and effort that goes into making these things, I have to say even when it doesnt feel particualrly ‘inspiring’ its still BLOODY impressive.

The performances are all pretty solid, Peter Sallis probably gives his final ‘good’ turn as Wallace here, and Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes both delight as Victor and Totty respectively. they bright, give great vocal ranger performances and the animation marries up to their delivery perfectly. Thats not to do a disservice to the rest of the cast who are all fine enough, but I do feel like the above are really the ‘best’ of this.

And finally, the soundtrack! which…well! it’s ‘Wallace and Gromit!’ big brass band orchestral pieces from tail to snout, its well timed, sounds inkeeping with everything that came before it…it’s probably not a *great* sign that, if you had told me this score was just made up of tracks from the shorts with no original music, i’d have believed you (given this was an entirely original scoring…) but hey it fits the bill and does the job…I cant complain.

All in all? I think out of all the films, this ones kind of the middle of the pack. If you’ve never seen a Wallace and Gromit movie, it’s probably a rock solid introduction, as if you start with the shorts, your likely to feel a bit spoilt by the time you hit this one. This? isnt their best outing in my opinion, but has more than enough good stuff going on in it that It feels at home with the better entries in the series. I really quite enjoyed it, I just wish it was shorter. and I kind of wish i’d checked this one out sooner, given its been 20 years since it came out…ah well, we live and learn. Worth checking out i’d say! go grab some cheese and crackers and enjoy the bunny carnage!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/wallace-gromit-the-curse-of-the-were-rabbit/