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Pokemon Extravaganza Shorties! Pikachu's Summer Vacation Review

(http://i.imgur.com/yfdF82Y.jpg)

Rating: 7.2/10

Plot: Pikachu and all of Ash, Misty and Brock's Pokemon are on vacation in a local park designed for Pokemon only. Pikachu is tasked with watching Togepi, but while he tries to keep Togepi from crying, a group of rowdy and rude Pokemon start making trouble with him Squirtle and Bulbasaur.

Reasons for Rating: The movies have a tradition of putting a short film, starring Pikachu and usually not including the human characters for the most part, before each theatrical movie. There are a fairly large amount of shorts, but I'm not entirely certain if the tradition remains to this day. There are also several miscellaneous shorts made for various reasons. I've always been kinda blasé about the shorts. They're usually cute and harmless, but they're not particularly interesting. Sometimes, the shorts are used to introduce new Pokemon from the next gen as teasers. For example, Marill and Snubbull being in this short, Elekid and Bellosom being in the second etc. Once you're introduced to that generation, though, there's really no hook anymore. These shorts are usually enjoyable, I just can't say I'm particularly in love with any of them.

Like I said, I won't do a sub dub comparison of the short. That being said, the two main changes between the dubbed version and the subbed seem to be the change in narrator and the lack of end credits (which were removed because 4Kids didn't want people walking out of the theater thinking the movie was over. Though that may seem dumb, apparently it actually was an issue with parents even without the credits, and their children had to tell them that the movie was just coming up after the short...wow.) And Bulbagarden's comparison can be found here http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/movies/mini_vacation.html.

Another reason I won't compare these shorts is mostly because, well, I can't. Many of them aren't readily available in both subbed and dubbed versions. Heck, on a good handful I had to deal with them being in Spanish and I think one's in Russian. Also, there's not entirely much point. These shorts consist of 99% Pokemon antics while the humans are away for nearly all of the short. Unless you're noting music changes, which I tend not to bother with, there's usually not much there to compare anyway. You can pretty much guess what they're saying in the scenes with the humans if the short isn't in English.

Without further ado, the short that accompanied Pokemon Movie 01, Pikachu's (Summer) Vacation!

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I am working off of the English dubbed version of this short just for note purposes. Ash, Misty and Brock are dropping off their Pokemon at some Pokemon park for the day to have a short break while they go off and do whatever.

We quickly get the title screen and our opening song “I Need a Vacation,” which is a fairly lame song, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that, despite going years between viewings of this short, I still get this song stuck in my head randomly.

The whole opening is just them letting out their Pokemon and the Pokemon walking into the park. Charizard is looking creepily happy through the whole thing, too. It's just so odd to see him smiling so much.

We hear our narrator and, no, it's not our regular TV series narrator....It's Dexter.

(http://i.imgur.com/gaUzTjg.jpg)

I wish. I mean Dexter, the Pokedex....How is this even working? Ash LEFT. How is the Pokedex recording and studying Pikachu and the others if it's NOT THERE?

According to the comparison, the original had a nice motherly lady narrator. Quite the drastic change.

The Pokemon rush off to have fun while Pikachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Togepi stay behind.....because no one....likes...Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto does appear in this short, in the opening and later when they're trying to help Charizard. That's it. It does nothing besides that. What do the writers have against poor Pidgeotto?

Anyway, Togepi's hungry so it starts crying. Pikachu cheers it up a bit by making funny faces. Squirtle pushes Pikachu out of the way and tries to help by making faces too, but it just upsets Togepi. Pikachu goes back to making more faces, but to no avail this time.

Squirtle, defeated, goes off and spots an apple in a tree. They get Bulbasaur to cut it down using its Razor Leaf, but before they can grab it, Psyduck grabs it and eats it in one bite......Holy crap. Psyduck doesn't even have teeth!

Togepi continues to cry and Bulbasaur decides to cheer it up by grabbing it with its Vine Whip and singing to Togepi as it rocks it back and forth. It quickly cheers Togepi up, and I do have to say this is an adorable scene. Togepi kinda annoys me (useless, annoying, deus ex machina) but this is still a cute scene.

Oh yeah, in this short anyway we get these somewhat odd transitions that showcase certain Pokemon going across the scene.....The first is this trippy Bellsprout one where get mirror images of a Bellsprout and odd earthy music as it slowly comes into frame and says its name over and over.....It's....weird.

Cut to Togepi sleeping on a...rock-chair? As we see the others are breathing a sigh of relief that Togepi's fine now....It's still hungry. You're never going to find a way to feed it? What piss poor Pokemon park where Pokemon are meant to be by themselves the entire time doesn't have any food source around?

However, the silence is disturbed by four unfamiliar Pokemon, a Cubone, a Marill, a Snubbull and a Raichu, also known as “far superior Pikachu.”

The laughter and whatnot is causing Togepi to stir in its sleep, so Pikachu tries to tell them to please keep it down. But this upsets the unruly Pokemon. As they get louder, Togepi wakes up, which draws Squirtle and Bulbasaur to face off against the group.

Pikachu doesn't want to fight and Dexter says that Pikachu's saying “We should set a good example for the baby!”.....Wait, what!? Dexter knows how to translate Pokemon speech?! How!? And doesn't that create a big plothole for that stupid Sunflora episode where they needed Meowth to translate what was wrong with the Sunflora? Doesn't that create a big plothole period?

Whatever, Togepi starts to wander off and we see it about to crawl across a log bridge and Pikachu chases after.

We get another weird transition where we see all of the Water Pokemon underwater, not moving, as they just pan upwards. Magikarp then blows bubbles in our faces and it's the next scene.

Well, technically it's the same scene because we just cut back to Pikachu chasing Togepi on the log.

(http://i.imgur.com/CDI8d9L.jpg)

While chasing down Togepi on the log, the log starts to roll. Pikachu starts freaking out, but Togepi just finds it fun. Pikachu falls into the river below and watches the log roll and fall into the water also. No worries, though, Togepi...magically jumped off the log and made it safely to the other side of the river.

We then get the awesome Slowpoke transition. It's just Slowpoke saying its name but drawing out the 'Slow' part but it's my favorite transition of the short. There's just something about it.

Meanwhile, Squirtle and Snubbull have a 'see how far we can puff our chests out for no reason' contest, but Squirtle loses and the other Pokemon laugh at him.

Bulbasaur then squares off against Snubbull by I guess instigating a staring contest but wins by making Snubbull dizzy by spinning its eyes round and round.....it's a little freaky now that I think about it.

Things start getting out of hand again, and Marill and Squirtle face off as Pikachu and Togepi return.

We get a Primeape transition, which is pretty okay. It's just a bunch of grunting to rhythmic music, but it's catchy.

Cut to a big pool where Marill and Squirtle are prepping to have a race. It's here where Dexter starts getting irritating. I can tell what's going on from watching, it's not complicated, and I don't need to know these insipid tid-bits about Pokemon that are also obvious. Shut up!

The race is about to start, using an Electrode's explosion as the starting gun (I love how happy Electrode seems afterward. Like 'Heheh, guys did you see that? Awesome.')

Accompanying the race is a pop song 'Catch Me if You Can.' Again, lame pop-ish song, but it's still a bit of an earworm.

I find this race to be the best part of this short. There are all sorts of funny moments.

Marill and Squirtle are neck and neck at first, but Marill gets a bit of a lead by diving underwater. However, this leads him to bump into a Starmie who Water Guns him back into a wall. Squirtle gains the lead as his friends cheer behind him. I love this shot.

(http://i.imgur.com/YOT9rHd.gif)

From Raichu's expression to the fact that they somehow have a Squirtle flag, this shot is just awesome.

Squirtle gains the lead, but is suddenly sent backwards as a Goldeen swims under him....I'm not sure if this is Misty's Goldeen, but I like to think so. “This is what you get for eating up all the Water-Pokemon screentime, you ass!”

Squirtle tries its hardest to regain his lead, but when he reaches the wall, Marill has not only already won, he got up on top of the wall to celebrate with the others. This is weird, because like half a second before he hits the wall, you can see Bulbasaur and the others still cheering and smiling. Why would they be doing that if it lost so badly that Marill actually had time to climb up onto the wall and start celebrating?

And HEY LOOK A TANGELA! I love Tangela! Too bad it gets featured in the show about as much as Porygon.

You'll also notice, on the balloon (how the hell did Pokemon launch a hot air balloon?) is Jigglypuff and his signature microphone. He's not announcing anything, but he's there as an unnoticeable cameo.

We then get an Exeggutor and Oddish transition that is boring.

Cut back to the two groups still harboring extremely harsh tensions. Raichu tries intimidation by making sparks come out of his cheeks, but this scares Togepi and makes him start to cry. Pikachu tries to pacify Togepi, but Raichu shocks him and Togepi while they all laugh....Why is Raichu always made out to be a prick? First Lt. Surge's Raichu now this. Raichu doesn't show up much in the show, yet it seems like he's consistently made out to be an ass in every appearance.

This pisses Pikachu off, so he challenges Raichu. They stick their cheeks together while making sparks and....somehow get stuck-ish or something, I don't know, magentism or something? And they start running together at high speeds while not caring about who or what they're plowing into in the process.

We get a Diglett/Dugtrio transition that's less boring than the last one, but still not entertaining.

Cut to somewhere else in the park where Meowth, Arbok and Weezing are also on vacation....Wow, how convenient. I'd say they were taking a note from Ash and the others, but if they knew Ash and the others just let out their Pokemon in some open area and LEFT FOR HOURS, you'd think they'd see this as a huge opportunity to steal Pikachu as well as the rest of their Pokemon. Hell this park as a whole seems unmonitored by humans. Team Rocket may actually have a shot of stealing stuff here.

Also, where are Lickitung and Victreebel? Do they get no vacation?

Raichu and Pikachu plow through them and continue running when we get a Farfetch'd transition. They plow through a Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan who are training before we get a Chansey transition.

Cut to Charizard who is napping. Raichu and Pikachu run over its tail, which causes it to chase after the two. When they start taking the lead, Charizard starts treating it like a race. When it runs out in front, it cheers and flaps its wings, which causes Raichu and Pikachu to be knocked off the cliff. They fall into the belly of a Snorlax and land on the ground, only to have Snorlax roll over and crush them. They get out, but quickly fall over as they're too exhausted to go on.

However, Charizard's hopped up and starts causing chaos. He flies a few inches above the group to pick on them, but doesn't watch where he's going and crashes into some of the nearby play...things and gets his head stuck in a pipe.

Charizard's roaring in panic, and Meowth, who has moved with Arbok and Weezing to a cliff directly above the pipe, tells Charizard to be quiet. But he's rewarded by Charizard Flamethrowering in the pipe, which is redirect upwards through another pipe, burning Meowth's face.

We then get a weird Magnemite transition that is constantly fading to black while adding more Magnemite to the picture.

We finally see the rest of Ash, Misty's and Brock's Pokemon show up with a rope to try to pull Charizard free. They try their hardest, but Charizard stomps his foot down and causes the other to fall down.

The other group laughs at them and Charizard starts crying...Not magical tears, mind you. Just regular ones.

Pikachu pleads with the other group for help and hey this might actually be one situation where a translation would've been somewhat helpful, but Dexter's been asleep at the wheel since the swimming race. Maybe I hurt its feelings.

Raichu, Snubbull and Marill discuss if they should help them and they say yes, but Cubone refuses.

They give it another shot while Cubone watches. They try in vain to get Charizard out and Dexter decides to chime in again saying “Cubone has earned its classification as the 'Lonely Pokemon' by caring only about itself.”

…..Uhh....Noooooooooooo. Every damn Pokedex entry for Cubone states that it's called the 'Lonely Pokemon' because its mother was killed by Team Rocket or simply died shortly after it was born. In its sorrow, it wears the skull of its mother on its head. There's also several depressing notes such as the skull having stains on it due to Cubone's tears and crying as it sees the likeness of its mother in the moon. Don't BS a different explanation as to why he's the 'Lonely Pokemon' just because....because...I actually have no idea why. 4Kids is just a prick.

Cubone eventually decides to help and they manage to get Charizard unstuck....I still don't get this. Cubone hasn't done anything but laugh and cheer this entire short but suddenly the fate of Charizard rests on its shoulders? Also, I love how a Cubone makes the difference here. Cubone barely has hands. An ONIX......AN ONIX is helping them, yet a Cubone makes all the difference in getting Charizard free.

Getting Charizard unstuck causes Pikachu and the others to fly backwards while Charizard and Psyduck (who keeps making everything more funny) go off in an entirely different direction for some reason....How would that work?

Meowth gets angry at the noise again and this time he wants to shut them up with a bomb or I guess it would be a 'blaster ball'. However, Charizard and Psyduck land on Meowth, causing the bomb to blow up on Meowth instead.

The other Pokemon cheer that they got Charizard unstuck and decided to fix what's left of the park together.

Dexter says his analysis concludes that Pokemon are kind creatures by nature and prefer cooperation to confrontation....Okay, look, you can't say ALL Pokemon are kind by nature. That's just not true. And they LEARNED that cooperation is better after working together towards a common goal and putting their differences aside. Plenty of Pokemon love to fight and compete and some are actually assholes.

Also, Charizard is again happily helping the others with a big smile....Is it only a little brat when Ash is around? I mean, the only time it's been mean here is when Pikachu and Raichu stepped on his tail and that's understandable. Does Charizard just choose to be an ass when Ash is around because he dislikes him for one of the many reasons Ash is awful?

We get a pretty cute Jigglypuff transition before cutting back to the Pokemon having fun in the park. We see Charizard again happily playing with the others by letting them try to seesaw with him by jumping on one end of the board while he smiles and lays there.

Dexter's final note is that "despite former uncertainties, Pokemon vacations are highly recommended.” What uncertainties? Just the fact that they ran into some douchey Pokemon? Welcome to life, Dexter.

Dexter deactivates, and we cut to all of the Pokemon watching the sunset. Ash calls out for Pikachu (and only Pikachu, of course) to come back because it's time to leave. Misty calls out Goldeen, Staryu and Psyduck....and oddly enough she doesn't call for Togepi....what the hell? Brock calls out for ALL of his Pokemon because I guess he's the only who cares. As the others leave, Pikachu stops and turns back to say farewell to the other group. He shakes Snubbull's paw, which is weird. Shouldn't he have shaken Raichu's paw? Raichu was Pikachu's main rival here. Snubbull's was Bulbasaur's and Marill was Squirtle's.

Oh whatever, Pikachu reunites with Ash and the short ends.

Bottomline: Despite Dexter being somewhat intrusive, this is a really good start to the Pokemon shorts. I wish we had gotten to see more of the Pokemon we just don't get to see very often like Goldeen, Zubat, Geodude and Pidgeotto, but they have to make the main ones the frontrunners....

Recommended Audience: It's Pokemon. The most offensive we get here......I can't even make a comparison joke, it's that tame. The shorts always seem to be aimed at an even younger audience than usual anyway.

Pokemon movie EXTRAVAGANZA! Pokemon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (Dub) Review

(http://i.imgur.com/widtyhy.jpg)

Rating withheld until end of review.

Plot: DNA has been taken from the legendary Mew to make a clone called Mewtwo, supposedly the most powerful Pokemon in existence (at least back then). Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket, orchestrated the creation of Mewtwo and wished to control him in order to take over the world. After being betrayed by Giovanni, Mewtwo decided he had more pressing matters to attend to besides the whims of a human. He wanted a purpose. He wanted to know why he existed. And more importantly he wanted to destroy the world too because humans suck, so do Pokemon and only clones shall rule!

Ash, Misty and Brock get caught up in Mewtwo's scheme along with several other trainers who assumed Mewtwo was challenging them as the greatest Pokemon master. Can the power of cheesy speeches save the world from Mewtwo?

Reasons for Rating: Ah....This is one of those things that is really a nostalgia bomb for me. This was the first movie I ever saw in theaters with a friend instead of my parents and this was right at the peak of Pokemon for me. The release for the movie was insane whereas now the movies can't even seem to get theatrical releases anymore, at least around where I live. And I loved it so much that I'd watch it over and over.

…..Now that I'm an adult, who still likes to watch and play Pokemon but sees it with a more critical eye, I......don't like this movie nearly as much as I used to. It's VERY preachy and hypocritical. 4Kids, despite advertising this movie like it was a cure for cancer, made several mistakes in the script and changed it severely from its original version (which I will review after this). And it's fairly cliché. At the very least it gave us a tiny bit of insight into Giovanni, but look where that lead us. Nowhere to the best of my knowledge. He does nothing, and he's much more interesting and compelling in the manga than he ever was in the anime.

That's not to say there's nothing to enjoy here, but I have a lot more problems with it than I had as a kid and my love of the movie has waned.

Let's get on with the story....Be warned, this ended up being A LOT longer than I intended.

Our movie starts out underwater where our narrator is getting all existential on us by wondering about life, the meaning of it and the mysteries surrounding our existence. We're also following a Mew flying through the sky as the narration goes on. Throughout the narration, we hear Mewtwo whispering stuff like “Who am I? “What am I?” before the narrator segues into our story and a new scene.

Enter Mewtwo....'s eye, as we see him staring through a tube filled with citrus Crystal Light at several scientists. He thinks to himself that what he is seeing right now is not the same place he was in before and that he believes he might've been dreaming. Is Mewtwo insinuating that he remembers being a Mew or that he has the same memories as the Mew that he was cloned from?......I'm no scientist but...is that in any was feasible? Because I honestly don't think so.

Mewtwo breaks out of his tube and one of the scientists starts explaining the backstory of Mewtwo to us and Mewtwo himself. He's the clone of the legendary Mew, but he has also been genetically restructured to be even more powerful than Mew and to be the strongest Pokemon in existence. Mewtwo doesn't much care for this and I can't say I blame him. If I was created with giant balls on my fingers I'd be pretty pissed too.

(http://i.imgur.com/9NksmLr.png?1)

In his rage, he starts breaking everything in the lab with his psychic powers. I will never understand situations like this.

Scientist: “We're going to create the most powerful being ever! Muahahaha!”

Scientist 2: “YES! How shall we contain it?”

Scientist: “A glass tube!”

Scientist 2: “....Uh....anything stronger?”

Scientist: “Weak metal robot arms!”

Scientist 2: “....Anything....else?”

Scientist: “Nope!”

Scientist 2: “Won't it break out then?”

Scientist: “I'm sorry, I can't hear you over all the world I'll be dominating!”

I'm actually somewhat surprised 4Kids didn't try to skirt the very obvious fact that those scientists all died in there. They never say it, but they couldn't have survived that and you never see them again.

Mewtwo gloats about how he's so powerful and lines like this really contradict the fact that the story's supposed to make us empathize with Mewtwo. “I'm just a clone? A shadow of Mew?.......I AM THE MOST POWERFUL POKEMON IN THE WORLD!!!!.........but why am I here? :(“

Giovanni shows up with an offer for Mewtwo. He tells him that his powers are out of control and he has a way to focus his powers to help him take over the world. I'd like to point out that this plot line comes out of nowhere. I mean, we know why Giovanni wants to take over the world..............he's.....evil? But why does Mewtwo want to do that all of a sudden? Because some scientists treated him like a science experiment and he wants to find his purpose? Seems a bit illogical is all.

Giovanni outfits him with some weird armor that is supposed to help Mewtwo focus his powers, and he puts it to the test in the Viridian Gym. Mewtwo slams an opponent's Onix into a wall and Mewtwo says “Sooo, THIS is my power!”.....Yes, Mewtwo, that's your big grand focused power....putting an Onix through a wall. You've finally found your purpose. Your incredibly useless purpose of throwing snakes made of rocks into walls...

You blew up an ISLAND earlier without breaking a sweat, why are you impressed with yourself here?

I guess Onix-Throwing isn't a big sport as he moves on to Tauros wrangling next. We see a montage of other battles in the gym after that with Mewtwo battling an Alakazam and a Magneton. However, most fans will note that part of that montage is Mewtwo's battle with Gary and his Arcanine and Nidoking that was seen in the regular series. I think that's a rare occasion where the anime poked at one of the movies.

Despite having fun making other Pokemon float in the air, Mewtwo still feels unfulfilled in life as he desperately wants to know his purpose.

Giovanni, ever so smart, responds to Mewtwo's queries about his purpose by saying Mewtwo's purpose is to serve him, and that all Pokemon are meant to serve humans not be their equals. In response to this betrayal and his arrogant words of stupid, Mewtwo breaks free of his bonds. Again, nothing in place to prevent this? Nothing at all? Just hope the all-powerful Pokemon with a temper will obey you without question even after you basically call him a slave?

Mewtwo blows up the place and leaves, showing us yet another shot that was included in the series.

Mewtwo flies back to the island where he was created because....Good memories there, right? He's still moping about his purpose and then states that he'll mow down humans and Pokemon if they decide to oppose him. Then he basically states straight out that he's going to take over the world.

4Kids breaks out the CGI and we get our title screen...Ten minutes into the movie. Dang.

We cut to a meadow where we see everyone's favorite protagonist, Ash,
(http://i.imgur.com/OxBcltu.gif)
And Misty and Brock who are preparing for lunch....They also have a huge table and a parasol for some reason. How are they carrying that with them?

Ash is lazing about because he's hungry when another trainer with a skull and crossbones bandana walks up them and asks if they know a trainer named Ash from Pallet Town since he wants a battle.....Who is this guy? How does he know who Ash is? How did he know he'd be in this meadow? Is he just wandering around random places wondering where Ash is? I wouldn't be so curious if not for the fact that he pops out of nowhere and leaves just as suddenly with no explanation as to anything about him; not even his name.

Ash points out that he's who he's looking for and they have a battle as the remixed theme plays. I like the remixed theme, but it's not as good as the original in my opinion. Ash calls out Bulbasaur first while the opponent calls out a Donphan, but Bulbasaur blasts him away with a Solar Beam that took way too short of a time to charge by the way...Ash praises Bulbasaur as we see that he's being monitored by cameras.

Now, stopping here for a moment, this next part confused me as a kid and I never figured out what the cause of this was until I got older. Actually I still don't understand what the cause of it is, but I understand what is actually occurring in this scene a little better. When Ash's opponent calls out his next Pokemon, Machamp, the scene of Machamp emerging and flexing his muscles is shown twice....And not only that, but we see Ash call out Squirtle without throwing his Pokeball. What happened? Well, according to Bulbagarden's comparison, apparently the original's footage is perfectly fine. The dub screwed with this for seemingly no reason. They repeated the footage of Machamp emerging and flexing to seemingly lengthen the battle maybe to match the new theme, yet cut the shot of Ash throwing Squirtle's Pokeball to shorten the scene. The edited version is the exact same length as the original. Basically they purposely made this scene look like it was edited with a chainsaw for no reason whatsoever. Sense: 4Kids doesn't make it.

Back to the show, it's Squirtle vs. Machamp now and Squirtle easily beats Machamp with one Bubble attack.....Wow....You fail, Machamp. You don't even have a weakness to water. Go sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

The opponent then decides to cheat (but Ash doesn't call him out on it for some reason) by releasing three Pokemon in battle at once; a Venomoth, a Pinsir and a Golem. Not fazed by this at all, Ash lets Pikachu give one good Thundershock and it instantly KO's all three because Pikachu can just do that okay? Also, if you're going to have a scene where Pikachu one-hits three Pokemon at once, why make one of them a Golem?....The Pokemon that...ya know....shouldn't even feel Electric attacks?

Misty: “Well that sure was a shocking ending.” Someone do me a favor and find out just how many times 4Kids has made a 'shocking' pun over the course of the entire series. The number has to be staggering.

Cut to Jessie, James and Meowth who are watching the group with binoculars and talking about how jealous they are of the others eating a big meal while they're starving.

James: “There's another credit on Pikachu's charge account.” Scratch the previous request; just check for any electricity related puns.

I should also note that Ash is feeding Squirtle and Bulbasaur here, but he's not feeding Pidgeotto or Charizard. All Pokemon must earn their meals through battle!

We cut to the camera again which is now seen attached to a Fearow's neck as it flies around. Back at Mewtwo's redesigned island of doom, a Nurse Joy, under the control of Mewtwo, asks if she should send an invitation to them as well. Well, I guess winning a battle that easily when logically it shouldn't have been and managing to defy the laws of Pokemon type in that last match are pretty impressive feats.

Mewtwo sends out his messenger Dragonite to give a letter to Ash and...this never occurred to me before now, but why exactly aren't Ash and the others amazed by this? The only exposure they've had to Dragonite before now has been in the episode with Bill where it was only seen in shadow as a giant and was touted as one of the rarest Pokemon ever seeing as how they had no real information on it at that time. They see one face to face playing messenger boy and they don't bat an eyelash?

Anyway, Ash gets a card that reveals a hologram inviting him to Mewtwo's New Island claiming that it's a challenge from the world's strongest Pokemon trainer (And he's called the world's greatest Pokemon 'Master' throughout the film.)

Ash can't wait to accept the invitation and immediately sends off his response. Dragonite starts to fly back to New Island when Team Rocket stops him with a frying pan. Well surely they're impressed by the Dragonite and want to capture—nope, they pay it no mind. Oh well!

The acceptance card falls out of Dragonite's bag and Team Rocket wonders what it's saying 'yes' to. I suppose sometime afterward they also discovered the hologram card because there's no real way they could've known what was going on the next time that we see them unless they did.

Meanwhile back in Mewtwo's lair....

Mewtwo is stirring up a storm with his psychic powers while we see Mew waking up in a bubble underwater. Sensing the disturbance in the force, Mew goes off towards New Island.

While that's going on, Mewtwo's storm has reached the coast and it's a doozy. So much of a doozy, in fact, that the ferry that was supposed to take this big group of trainers selected by Mewtwo to New Island is canceled.

The island ferry manager or whatever she is, tells us about how this is the worst storm she's seen in a long time and tells the tale of how a similar storm once wiped out nearly all Pokemon and the tears of the Pokemon that remained brought the other Pokemon back to life and opened the perfect opportunity for Midnight Sons to get a deal on the soundtrack.

Some of the trainers don't give a crap about deadly weather or old legends, so a handful of them want to head off on their Pokemon anyway. One of them says he'll set off on his Gyarados and claims all of his Pokemon are Water-type, something I will nitpick later. Officer Jenny says that's an awful idea especially since the local Nurse Joy has been missing for a month and it's caused the Pokemon Center to be completely closed down all month?!

Okay, I understand that somehow one Nurse Joy can handle an entire Pokemon Center, especially if the area's rather low in population, but there's no Chansey to pick up some slack? There's no other Nurse Joy that could fill in? A nearby Pokemon doctor? A temp? Intern? Anything? You'd think there'd be something in place for situations like this.

Brock can tell that the Nurse Joy in the 'missing' poster (the one that would be entirely useless to anyone but the sharp-eyed horn dog, Brock) looks familiar, alluding to the woman in the hologram letter.

So everyone's off to New Island and Officer Jenny says she's going arrest them if they actually leave....Arrest them for what? Being headstrong/stupid? Because Ash should have a life sentence by now if that's illegal.

Ash and the others want to follow too, but since they have no Pokemon who are strong enough to give them a ride, they're forced to give up. That is, however, until two vikings in a small row boat offer them a ride.

Spoilers: it's Team Rocket.

I have no clue why Team Rocket believes they have the boating skills to make it through this storm in a ROW BOAT, especially to a location they've never been to, but this is Team Rocket not intelligent people. You'd think, with all the insane robots and contraptions that they've had that a larger boat or plane or something wouldn't be out of their budget.

Brock: “I didn't know Viking's still existed!”

Ash: “They mostly live in Minnesota!”

Fun fact: Never understood this joke at all. I never understood until I read Bulbagarden's comparison of the movie where they say that it's a poke at the Minnesota Vikings, which according to my research is a team that plays the sport known as 'football'. I love how 4Kids is gung ho about pandering to what they think their main audience is (dumb kids who can't/don't read and believe Japan doesn't exist/is evil) but they throw in a random sports joke. I know some kids are into sports, but the audience for Pokemon is very mixed. How many people got that joke, and for those that did, is it funny to you? Just seems so random.

A giant wave crashes over the boat and knocks off Team Rocket's disguises.....which, by that logic, shouldn't all of them have lost their regular clothes? They discover that it's Team Rocket, but no time for the motto because another wave smacks into the boat and knocks them all into the water.

Misty calls out Staryu (I'd think Starmie, being bigger and stronger, would be a better choice, but whatever. Actually if the storm is that bad, shouldn't she call out all of her Water Pokemon?) She manages to save Brock who's just flailing around since he has no Water types and they soon reunite with Ash who is riding on Squirtle.

It's rough going for a while, but they manage to make it to the eye of the storm which just happens to be Mewtwo's island.

Nurse Joy meets them at the dock and Ash presents his invitation as proof to enter.....Wait, that means Team Rocket couldn’t have possibly seen the hologram letter.....Then how'd they know about all this?

Brock says he recognizes her as the missing Nurse Joy, but she denies this before welcoming them into the castle.

But wait a minute, what happened to Team Rocket? Well, they beat the odds too by using Weezing since it's the only Pokemon they have that can do anything in water. Not sure how it propelled itself through the water, but it does float well I'd imagine.

And then....I'm sorry. This scene is friggin' adorable and I refuse to say anything bad about it. Mew arrives at Mewtwo's island and takes a minute to play around on the windmills. It's just so cute and it's easily my favorite scene in the movie. :3

(http://i.imgur.com/LV8qPyk.gif)

Cut back to within the castle where Ash, Misty and Brock meet the other three trainers who made it to the island.....Guess the others died or something.

There's little point in having these trainers here besides adding more Pokemon to the mix to be captured later and to complete the starter trifecta. If this were a horror movie, they'd be those characters put in the story just to up the body count. I don't even think they get names, to be honest. At least not in the dub. If they do, they're never spoken. There's some guy in a blue shirt, some guy in an orange jacket and some girl wearing girl clothes. Also, she's voiced by Lisa Ortiz.....Well, at least she seems somewhat softspoken in this movie. The only notable trait any of them has that was mentioned earlier was the fact that the guy in the blue shirt has nothing but Water Pokemon. But, as we can clearly see:
(http://i.imgur.com/1MUkS5p.png)
that's wrong because one of his Pokemon is a Nidoqueen, a Poison/Ground type. This is a dub-only line, I believe, though. One of many mistakes 4Kids makes during the production.

That reminds me:

Mistake Counter: 3 (Counting the edit with Machamp and the one with Squirtle in the opening and now the all-Water-type claim.)

But don't get too comfy--

Mistake Counter: 4 (When introducing himself, the guy in the orange jacket calls his Pidgeot a Pidgeotto, which is an insanely dumb mistake considering Ash HAS a Pidgeotto and that's very obviously not a Pidgeotto.)

Nurse Joy tells them to let all of their Pokemon out of their Pokeballs and wait for her 'master' to arrive to explain the details. Dunno why they all did it. They're here to battle. Wouldn't any of them think that maybe showing all of your Pokemon to the guy you're battling might be a little...not smart? None of them ask why they have to do this either.

And while the other trainers do let out all of their Pokemon, Ash only has Pikachu, Squirtle and Bulbasaur out while Brock lets out Vulpix and Misty lets out Psyduck.

First of all, why didn't Ash let out Pidgeotto? I truly hate how little he seems to care about Pidgeotto. I'd understand not letting Charizard out, it doesn't obey him and would only cause trouble, but why not Pidgeotto?

Second, why did Brock only let out Vulpix? Despite not being kept out of its Pokeball like Togepi or Pikachu, it is very obviously Brock's most beloved Pokemon, but why only Vulpix? Onix might be a bit big but he also has Zubat and Geodude.

Third, why did Misty let out Psyduck? She doesn't like Psyduck and gets annoyed whenever it lets itself out. Why not Staryu, Starmie, Horsea or Goldeen? There's a pool ready for Horsea and Goldeen. They hardly ever get to do ANYTHING.

Fourth, why are Brock and Misty even letting out their Pokemon at all? They weren't invited to this shindig.

Fifth, still don't understand why they need to do this period.

“Because Mewtwo wants to steal the Pokemon and make clones from them.”

Good point. Except it's shown later that it doesn't matter if the Pokemon are in their Pokeballs or not. He can capture Pokeballs just as easily as Pokemon. It kinda makes this entire thing moot except to show the Pokemon that will eventually be fighting their clones later.

Mewtwo reveals himself to the group and everyone's confused as to how a Pokemon can call itself a Pokemon Master. Blue shirt calls him out on it, but Mewtwo tells him to be quiet and uses his psychic abilities to lift him up into the air and into the pool where his Pokemon are. Because if movies have taught me anything, you can survive any fall as long as it's into water.

Blue shirt is angered by this and sends his Gyarados to attack Mewtwo with a Hyper Beam, but Mewtwo just swats it away and back at Gyarados, instantly knocking it out into the pool.

Mewtwo releases Nurse Joy from his psychic control and explains that he essentially kidnapped her and took control of her to make use of her knowledge of Pokemon physiology. He also explains that he erased her memories of everything that's happened since I guess he took her, but I have no idea why. Why would he care? Does it matter? She's supposedly going to be fish food in a few minutes along with all humans and Pokemon, so why bother?

Cut to Team Rocket who has made their way through the innards of the castle and discover Mewtwo's cloning lab with a cloned Blastoise, Venusaur and Charizard in cloning tubes. Jessie accidentally activates the machine by sitting on it, and it quickly grabs Meowth for a DNA sample.

We see a projection of Meowth's tail fur which is being used to create a Meowth clone. As a shadowed picture of Meowth appears on the screen, Jessie and James say this:

James: “Who's that Pokemon?”

Jessie: “It's Meowth!”

Ugh.

Also, I find it so funny that they're choosing to bring up “Who's that Pokemon?” in a movie where they make THREE Pokemon misidentifications. One of them being with this very projection screen.

Soon after, a cloned Meowth appears in one of the tubes. Wow, Mewtwo really is impressive. It not only perfected the cloning process that the scientists started, he made it so that it takes less time to make a clone than it does to cook ramen!

A video activates...for some reason (No button was pushed or anything), and it's the main scientist guy from before telling us that they were contracted out by Giovanni to clone Mew and make the world's strongest Pokemon, Mewtwo. However, he went out of control with anger and started destroying the laboratory......What is the point of this video? Why did he start recording that right as Mewtwo started blowing everything up? It's not like he's saying anything particularly important or useful in combating Mewtwo, just that they were the ones who created him, Giovanni was behind it and Mewtwo's a clone of Mew. Also, how is there fittingly edited clips over this narration? Did the main scientist guy do some quick editing in Sony Vegas to provide proper visuals for this before his face was disintegrated by Mewtwo?

This just seems so pointless. We know this already, there's no point in telling it to Team Rocket since this information doesn't prompt them to do anything about it. They never tell anyone else either.

Back upstairs, Mewtwo explains his plan of wanting to wipe out both humans and Pokemon alike with his storm. Humans for being dangerous creatures unfit to rule the world and Pokemon for willingly being their servants.

Pikachu defies Mewtwo's claim by stating that he's Ash's friend not slave, which prompts Mewtwo to send him flying only to be caught by Ash.

Orange Jacket Guy gets fed up and tries to capture Mewtwo by battling him with his Rhyhorn. Right, because if a Hyper Beam by a trained Gyarados was easily swatted away like a fly, I'm sure your Rhyhorn charging headfirst at it will surely beat him.

It doesn't, obviously, as Rhyhorn gets thrown into the table. Ash challenges Mewtwo to a real Pokemon battle and Mewtwo accepts. He uses his psychic powers to activate the cloning tubes and wake up Blastoise, Venusaur and Charizard. Don't really know why the clones have dark markings on their bodies. It's probably so people could better tell them apart, but the most of the other clones later have no discerning marks.

Also, there's an animation error. Blastoise's bottom jaw is usually tan, but it's colored blue in this shot.

(http://i.imgur.com/oxEQmET.png)

Mewtwo then reveals that he has an entire stadium set up outside.

Brock: “A stadium! Mewtwo planned this all along!”

Oh my, really!? You mean the one who invited you all to the island to have a Pokemon battle was planning to have a Pokemon battle this whole time!? WHAT A TWIST!!

I should mention that only two of the extra trainers here can even participate in this battle since they're using the starter final evos and the guy in the blue shirt has no starter final evo Pokemon. Orange Jacket introduces his Venusaur, BruteRoot, while Girl introduces her Blastoise, Shellshocker. You just don't see many Pokemon have nicknames in the series, really. The only prominent example I can think of is Richie and the random CotD. Which is really odd when you think about it; you'd think that'd be more common. Trainers call their Pokemon by their species name; it's like calling your dog, Dog.

Ash has the Charizard (Oh God, no. *rubs temples*) so he lets him out of his Pokeball. Gee, wonder if he'll behav—nope. He instantly Flamethrowers Mewtwo in the face, but the fire is blocked by Mewtwo's psychic powers.

Mewtwo: “Your Charizard is poorly trained.”

Thanks for the effort, Mewtwo, but he'll do nothing about until nearly the end of the Orange League.

The battle has started, and BruteRoot's up first. Now that I'm seeing Orange Jacket's clothes in full frame, they're actually pretty cool. Nice design, and his Pokeballs attach to his pant legs....And that was your Pokemon Fashion Moment, girlfriiieeennnndd! <3

(http://i.imgur.com/ueeAhGk.png)

He starts off with a Razor Leaf attack and all of the leaves are swatted away by Cloneasaur's Vine Whip. And I do have to say, that is actually a pretty cool shot. Afterward, Cloneasaur grabs BruteRoot with the vines and throws it across the stadium.

Next up is ShellShocker, who tries a Hydro Pump, but Blastclone withdraws into its shell, spins around at high speeds, instantly plowing though the Hydro Pump and smacking ShellShocker into the wall. I know there's a name for that move, but I can't remember what it is.

Misty tells Ash to forfeit (Like he has a choice at this point), but Ash won't give up. Oddly, Charizard seems to be actually obedient in this one instance as he follows Ash's guidance to use speed instead of power and even waits until his command to fly off into battle. Maybe Charizard understands the gravity of the situation, I dunno.

It's a battle in the sky now, but Cloneizard is too fast for Charizard. He Seismic Tosses Charizard into ground causing an instant KO.

I'm kinda wondering...what the point of all this is....Does Mewtwo just wanna show off? Why did he really invite these trainers here? I know he wanted their Pokemon, but he was doing just fine getting Pokemon on his own. That's how he got Charizard, Blastoise and Venusaur. If he wanted a bunch of clones to lay claim to the world after humans and Pokemon die out from the storm, why not just do a Noah's ark kinda thing and get as many Pokemon as possible, make clones of them and be on your merry way? It's not like he's particularly concerned with getting the best trained Pokemon since he sees all non-clones as weak and it summoned ASH of all people there. I'd try to lure the Elite Four or at least some Gym Leaders if I wanted that. Hell, he actually had two Gym Leaders right beside one of the trainers that he invited. At least give some actual reason like “I'll destroy the world unless you find some way to beat me or at least hit me.” These battles and inviting these trainers to the island just seems to be a little pointless to me.........Oh and also, how the hell does Mewtwo hope to kill off the Water Pokemon?....Doubt they'd die from....ya know....WATER.

Anyway, as prize for winning, even though he doesn't need to earn it, he uses special floating black Pokeballs to capture everyone's Pokemon. Even Blue Shirt's, despite the fact that he never 'formally' battled Mewtwo. He states that he's going to use their DNA to make clones, and keep the clones safe on the island with him as humans and Pokemon get eliminated by the storm.

All of the Pokemon are getting captured, even when Ash tries to put them back into their Pokeballs (see?). Only one remains; Pikachu. So what does he do? Climbs the giant spiral ramp thing up and up and up. Pikachu, have you never seen a horror movie before? Never go upstairs, that just traps you!

Why does this ramp thing even exist anyway? Decoration? Mewtwo doesn't need it; he uses psychic abilities. Okay I'm getting too nitpicky here.

Pikachu tries to fend off the Pokeballs with its electric attacks and surprisingly it seems to work somewhat, but more and more keep coming after him as Ash gives chase.

Pikachu's getting exhausted and it falls off the ramp. Ash jumps after him, but a Pokeball snags him. Oh no, that means Ash will die from this like 15 story fall. If only there were some randomly placed tiny pool of shallow water beneath him. Oh there is! Yay! Thanks movie magic!

Ash chases Pikachu's Pokeball into the chute thing.

Ash: “YOU'RE NOT GONNA GET PIKACHUUUUUU!”

Yeah, you can keep my Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charizard! But don't you dare take my favorite of favorites, Pikachu!

Back downstairs, the cloning machine is analyzing the DNA of the newly captured Pokemon.

Jessie and James: “There goes...Alakazam!”

Mistake Counter: 5 (The Pokemon displayed on screen looks nothing like Alakazam, and there wasn't even an Alakazam in the room. There was an Alakazam seen for one short shot earlier, but that was way in the beginning of the movie. The Pokemon is actually Scyther.)

Meowth: (As the clones are entering the tubes) “Sandshrew...”

Mistake Counter: 6 (The Pokemon in the tube is curled up in a ball and that's the only reason I give 4Kids some leeway for this mistake. It's actually Sandslash.)

I just don't get it. I really don't. 4Kids is a company that does not care about their audience at all. They don't care about their shows, they don't care about making good dubs; they only care about money. Why, then, would 4Kids take its baby, one of the first shows it ever dubbed and arguably the best and most popular one they ever dubbed.....get a damn movie deal for it, one that was advertised heavily and got a huge theatrical release....and then drop the ball so much? One mistake? Sure. Editing flub? Happens. Two editing flubs back to back? Ehh. Mistaking a Pokemon for being one type because of color? Racis—I mean accidents happen and most of his Pokemon were Water-types. Three Pokemon misidentifications in one movie? After how long 4Kids has been dubbing the show at this point? That's just appallingly bad. Did they think no one would notice? I know 4Kids thinks their audience is about as smart as my toilet, but come on.

Jessie and James: “Who's that Pokemon?....It's Pikachu!”

REALLY?! You don't have to think about Dewgong or Vileplume's pictures, but you have to ponder about the image of the Pokemon whose image should be burned into your corneas and haunting your dreams at night? Come to think of it, they had to think about Meowth's too. So you know two Pokemon you hardly ever see better in a visual sense than two Pokemon you see and interact with every day? Wow, Team Rocket. Wow.

Ash is fighting fiercely to free Pikachu from the machine and causes the start of a meltdown in the lab because of it. Apparently breaking a few robot arms causes a bunch of stuff to blow up.

He succeeds and is reunited with everyone's favorite rat. As the lab is going berserk, the clones start emerging in droves while the original Pokemon get released due to the explosions that logically shouldn't be happening. Conveniently, Bulbasaur and Squirtle get released right by Ash and they have a happy reunion. But no time for all that, Mewtwo's gotta be stopped!

Back upstairs, Mewtwo and the others are....having a staring contest I guess. The clones emerge and side with Mewtwo as he states that his goal is drawing near. Oh dear, who could possibly save us now?!

Fear not, Ash is here! Complete with declarations from a cloud of smoke and slowly walking towards the enemy with an army behind him. He even has marching music behind him. Hey, he just survived a lab explosion technically. Maybe he got super powers!

He did! He got the power of super-psychic-cutting strength as he turns his hat around and dashes towards Mewtwo with breakneck speed! Fist clenched and ready to beat the threat before him, Ash bravely...gets his ass handed to him with no effort on Mewtwo's part....Whoo!

He's thrown by Mewtwo into the stone...roof? Whatever those are. But a strange giant pink bubble catches him. It's Mew!

(http://i.imgur.com/58ZSYTX.gif)

Mew starts playing around, but Mewtwo realizes what it is and starts attacking it. However, Mew easily dodges all of Mewtwo's attacks and even thinks it to be a game.

Mewtwo: “Mew...So finally we meet.”

Blue Shirt: “Mew?”

Mew: “Mew?”

I love Mew. It doesn't speak and is playing around for most of the movie, but it's always making me laugh and smile.

Mewtwo explains how it was cloned from Mew, which allows the others to get up to speed, then Mewtwo challenges Mew to battle to prove which one is truly the strongest.

And when you see the two side by side, it really does show how much Mewtwo improved the cloning process. Mewtwo really looks nothing like Mew. Mew's so small whereas Mewtwo's at least like five feet tall. Mew's light pink, Mewtwo's purple. And their designs, barring maybe their heads and maybe tails are completely different. I know Mewtwo was made to be 'better' than Mew, but Mewtwo also made 'better' clones without altering their outer appearance that much.

Anyway, the battle starts and Mewtwo is constantly throwing attacks at and chasing after Mew while Mew basically refuses to fight back and constantly dodges.

However, Mewtwo snags him with an energy blast and sends him flying into the clouds. Mewtwo looks on with a smirk as everyone else looks on with shock. However, Mew's not out of the battle yet as it sends its own energy blast down straight into Mewtwo, smacking him into the bleachers....Dunno why those bleachers are there. He wasn't planning on having an audience—eh, I'm getting off track.

Also, again, Mew makes me smile. He sends this powerful ball of energy down and smacks down Mewtwo like he's nothing then he gently floats down from the clouds like nothing happened. I love you, Mew. <3

Okay guys, it's starting. It's been bearable up until now, but we are turning the corner into PreachyCheeseLand and it's a long road out. If you have the following conditions:

Weak stomach
Lactose intolerance
Allergy to corn
A brain

Please go do something else until the end credits.

Thank you.

Mewtwo repeats the same stuff about how the clones are just better than everyone else because of their super cool powers and Mew makes our first corny speech (translated by Meowth) about how a Pokemon's worth is not measured by their powers; their real strength comes from the heart.

Mewtwo, angered by this, says his Pokemon don't need their powers to prove their worth...right before using his powers to try to attack Mew...Yeah, Mewtwo...

(http://i.imgur.com/QlmCIWt.jpg)

Mewtwo decides to start an all-out brawl between the clones and originals to see who is really greater. He blocks their abilities with his psychic powers (even though he and Mew are still using theirs...) and it's getting all ghetto up in dis bitch.

This ghetto-ness brought to you by some hippy song by Blessid Union of Souls. Yes, everyone, we're at Brother My Brother. Believe it or not, I actually fairly liked this segment when I was younger, but cut me some slack, I never paid attention to the lyrics. If you've never heard it, Brother My Brother is a very corny and preachy song about how violence is bad and love is the answer. This is also the point in the movie where many people call complete BS on the movie's message, at least from a dub standpoint.

Violence is bad. Don't fight. Love each other.

….No really, that's essentially the song lyrics. Look.

“Brother my brother, tell me what are we fighting for? We've got to end this war.
We should love one another. Oh can't we just pretend, this war never began?”

Why is this hypocritical? I doubt anyone who knows of the series really even needs to think about it that hard. Pokemon is a series based around FIGHTING. Animals fighting each other for the sake of their masters. Rarely do Pokemon ever get permanently injured or killed because of battles, mostly because it seems like Pokemon Centers are magical, but they still get beaten up badly on a regular basis for sport.

Here's what this movie is essentially saying. Fighting each other in fist fights is wrong. Let's all go back to the good ol' days when we fought each other with razor sharp leaves, beams of solar energy, electricity, giant rocks and FIRE. That was much less violent. And lest we forget that there are tons of Pokemon moves that really are just physical attacks and not really special powers. Tackle, scratch, cut, bite, slam etc. And also there's a whole damn type of Pokemon dedicated to fighting like that; FIGHTING TYPES.

And Misty and James both contradict this message by basically saying all fighting is wrong later in the movie.

If anything this whole scene and the following one seem like it's a really well-made anti-Pokemon cartoon from one of those old groups of parents who thought Pokemon was Satanic.

All the Pokemon start fighting along with Mewtwo and Mew who are fighting in glowing Zorbs while Ash tries to get down from wherever he is, I still don't know. I will admit that this scene isn't entirely corny as we see Psyduck fighting its clone by slapping it head once, them saying “Psy” in unison, then the other slapping its head and saying “duck” in unison. Kinda funny.

Pikachu meets its clone who is one of the few who has a small mark to tell them apart, the little spike of black on its ears. It's raring to fight, but Pikachu doesn't want to. Instead he allows himself to get his ass kicked without mercy.

The music cuts out and we get slow motion shots of the Pokemon falling over in exhaustion as emotional music plays.

Joy: “Pokemon aren't meant to fight...” One could make that argument, yes.

“Not like this.” Oh yeah, the....electricity and fire method.

“It's useless....What can come out of it?”

Girl: “Nothing....but pain.” To be fair, what comes out of regular Pokemon battles? Nothing really. The trainers get all the glory usually, there's no money involved (anime-wise anyway) it's really just battling for bragging rights whether to be the best trainer or have the most types of Pokemon. There's really no beneficial impact to anything for the Pokemon unlike Pokemon researching and....I'll go ahead and say it, Pokemon watching. *audience gasp* What? It involves research too!

Brock: “Why can't Mewtwo understand it's not right to make Pokemon battle this way?” Poison....paralyzation, freezing, burns....oh yeah there's a move called GUILTOINE! Horn drills, ACID.

Misty: “They're all living creatures....This just proves that fighting is wrong!” Self-destruct, spikes, destiny bond, seismic toss, TOXIC spikes, bind, should I go on?

Cut to Team Rocket where we get more cheesy BS.

James: “I was prepared for trouble, but not for this.” James, I want to ask you if you know of the organization that you work for. Team Rocket members are horrible, awful people. In the games and the manga, they've done things far FAR worse than making some Pokemon bitchslap each other.

Jessie: “Make that double...for me.”

James: “Now I can see how awful fighting really is!”

Who wrote this dialogue? It is awful. It sounds like someone's bad attempt at a stupid PSA from the '50s. Speaking of which, does anyone want any booze? Come on, don't be a square. Everybody's doing it. Don't you want to be hip and happenin'?

Then we get to—Oh no.....No. Please no! GOD NO! I will give anything to not watch this scene again! It stands as one of the corniest and lamest things I've ever seen in any show ever. Even as a kid, loving this movie, I hated this scene. Have mercy! ….Ughh....Guess I might as well get it over with.

We then see Meowth who sees his clone also ready to battle him. Meowth bares his claws, as does the clone, but they both stop what they're doing.

Meowth: “Get this straight, Copycat, You-owth ain't gonna push Me-owth around!”

Clone: “Meow meow”

Meowth: “You mean...we don't have to fight with each other? But how can I trust you, you was born different?”

(http://i.imgur.com/2676onK.gif)

And I do want to mention something about this. In the Bulbagarden comparison of this movie, Dogasu, the creator of the comparisons for Pokemon, says this.

“Meowth, on the other hand, develops this sudden prejudice against those who are different that lasts for this scene and this scene only. Which, y'know, is totally in-character for a Pokémon who was rejected by the love of his life because it walks on two legs and is able to speak human language.”

Good point, indeed.

Meowth: “I almost made a clawful mistake” is practically every word out of Meowth's mouth a damn pun? “but how do I know you're not gonna pull a past one on me?”

Clone: “Meow meow MEOW!”

Meowth: “You're right! We do have a lot in common. The same earth, the same air, the same sky.” Right, we all live on the same planet thus we are all trustworthy. Words to live by. Stranger danger's a bunch of crap, small children of the world!

“Maybe if we all started looking at what's the same instead of what's different...well, who knows?”

This is the other message that this movie is supposed to have but I can't really figure it out that much. Is it...like an anti-racism message? Or just another way of telling everyone to get along?

Also, if the clone Meowth is supposed to be better than the original, why can't it talk and why does it act and behave like a regular Meowth? I know cloning doesn't really work that way, but you can't tell me with all that stuff that we have to believe in this series and movie that they couldn't have done that without anyone batting an eye.

Mew and Mewtwo continue battling as do the other Pokemon despite a good chunk of them seemingly giving up during that little montage earlier. Ash is still climbing down the whatchamascrewit and sees Pikachu, the only Pokemon he cares about, getting his ass kicked still by his clone.

Pikachu and Cloneachu start that really funny one-sided bitchslap fight as Cloneachu's heart also grows three sizes that day and starts to cry as he fights.

Ash finally makes it down to the ground and we get more preaching.

Joy: “I'd rather risk my life out in Mewtwo's storm than watch these Pokemon destroy each other.” Can't say “kill”. Come on, 4Kids, drive your message home! Break the rules! Be a rebel without a cause....err well, I guess with one.

Brock: “Those Pokemon look like they're ready to fight to the death!”.....”Fight to the death” “death.”
*sigh* Not even going to try to make sense of them anymore.

Misty: “That's a fight that nobody's going to win.”
Yeah, yeah, flower power, we are the world, bite me.

Ash says the only way to stop this is if the Pokemon themselves take a stand and refuse to fight, just like our messiah, Pikachu.

Just then, Mew and Mewtwo crash into the ground with their energy Zorbs and prepare for a more serious face off with Dragonball Z auras that can shoot energy blasts.

They're stalemated and Ash takes a look around to see all of the Pokemon in pain and suffering from their battle. Wanting to stop the fighting once and for all, Ash runs out between Mew and Mewtwo and gets caught between their two energy blasts, causing him to turn into stone.

Now, like many fans, I was emotionally shaken by this as a child. And this scene still prompts cry-like feel emotions of humans.

As an adult who is making a hobby out of watching all the old Pokemon episodes and analyzing them with a critical adult eye.........FINALLY!! YAY!! HE'S DEAD!! HOOTHOOTHOOTHOOT!

Okay, saying he 'died' is a bit of a stretch and even Bulbagarden's comparison states that in neither version did Ash/Satoshi 'die'. He just got turned to stone....which, if you want to split hairs....isn't much better. Remember in Teen Titans when Terra got turned to stone? They put a memorial marker on her remaining statue and brought her flowers like she was dead. And if you count lack of a heartbeat and inability to breathe as dead, he's still dead in that regard too. :x

Despite having a fairly justified disdain for both Ash and Pikachu at this point in my life, it still makes me really sad when Pikachu tries in vain to bring Ash back through his electric attacks.

But we know they'd never do that. And we already alluded to a way to bring living beings back to life before. The Pokemon all start crying that Ash 'died' and the power of their tears cures him from his rock form and reunites him with Pikachu. I would question.....everything right now.....But it's not like this is ever brought up again in any way and I admit full out that it still tugs at my heartstrings. The music doesn't help. I think that's one of the few pieces of 4Kids' music that actually really had emotional impact with me.

Pft, I never noticed this. All of the Pokemon, even the ones who don't belong to him or knew him in any way are crying at this. Brock and Misty? Not a drop. Misty looked sad earlier, that's about it.

Well, let's wrap this up. Mewtwo, seeing the sacrifice that Ash made for the Pokemon sees that life is not about how you were born or what you are, it's about how you choose to live your life. Realizing his mistake, he and Mew psychically take all of the Pokemon clones away from the island to start a new life elsewhere. And in order to ensure this doesn't screw up continuity, Mewtwo erases everyone's memories of the events on the island and teleports them back to the wharf.

No one else but Ash is wondering why they don't remember why they came to the wharf, but whatever. I'd think that'd be a severe sign of mental issues, but I'm no doctor. Nurse Joy is also at the wharf....which creates a bunch of continuity errors, doesn't it? Nurse Joy was missing for a month before this point in time. Did Mewtwo turn back time or did he alter the memories of everyone else in town and remove the 'missing' posters?

They look outside to see that the storm has mysteriously ended quite suddenly, and Ash sees Mew flying through the sky while no one else does.

Ash: “The day I left home from Pallet I thought I saw a really rare Pokemon. And just now, I thought I saw another one.” I believe I get what they were saying, that he saw another rare Pokemon, but it also makes it sound like he's saying he saw another of that same rare Pokemon. Which it isn't. The rare Pokemon he saw way the hell back in episode 1 is Ho-Oh, not Mew.

Ash and the others continue their Pokemon journey as we fade to black and back to Team Rocket who for some reason didn't get teleported, but did have their minds wiped. *shrug*

They also believe a sudden onslaught of amnesia is perfectly fine since they're on a nice island.

Meowth: “You know I'd really like to go sailing in one of them Catamarans. Haha!” Yup, every sentence he says is a damn pun.

That's the end of the movie, but we still have the ending credits. I do actually very much like the soundtrack for the movie, even if they do everything in their power to cram as many songs into the ending credits as possible without giving any of them a full playthrough. Remember, buy the album!

The only song that seems kinda oddly placed is 'Free Up Your Mind' mostly because it starts with someone saying “The government!”

Also, 'Don't Say You Love Me' doesn't really belong in this movie since romance was not a part of anything at all.

The background footage for the end credits is boring, but nice to look at. It's just Ash and the others walking, visiting some places and camping but the art and animation make it look nicer than usual.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well that was Pokemon the First Movie: Dubbed version. So what is my true final verdict?

Rating: 3/10

I just can't deny the fact that, as much as my nostalgic side is crying right now, this movie is a rampant mess. I understand that the movie was drastically changed from the original version, and 4Kids dropped so many balls while dubbing this movie. From the awful dialogue to the hypocritical message to the preachiness to the several mistakes that should've EASILY been fixed if there were any sense of quality control, there to the confused motivations for Mewtwo and a bunch of other stuff.

What of the original Japanese version? STAY TUNED!

Art: In terms of art and animation, they're slightly better than the TV show, but it's not very noticeable. There were several uses of CGI both by the original art team and 4Kids that kinda clashed with everything. Like, why exactly did the door need to be CGI? Or the windmills? Fairly good use of CGI for 1999 though.

Music: The soundtrack is pretty good in my opinion. Some points have over-the-top music for emotional scenes and heroic scenes, but it's nothing that bad.

Bottomline: The dub isn't worth much as an actual movie. It holds nostalgic value for many people, myself included, but nostalgia can't cover this mess. This is some of 4Kids worst work and I can only praise them for not slapping a whole bunch of digital paint onto this. Not that there's much to paint anyway, but they find ways. They even left the wharf signs, which have both English AND the evil language of JAPANESE on it! I look forward to seeing the subbed version as I really don't want to leave my view of this movie as a whole in such a dismal state.

Recommended Audience: 4Kids....

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Pokemon the First Movie: Myuutwo Strikes Back (Subbed Version) Review

(http://i.imgur.com/UiuE73S.jpg?1)

Rating: 6.9/10

Plot: Myuutwo was a clone created from the legendary Pokemon Myuu. Uncertain of his purpose in life, he rebels against the scientists who created him and Sakaki who betrayed him. He wants revenge, he wants a purpose, he wants his life to have meaning...And no one will get in his way.

Reasons for Rating:

Prologue—I am actually excited to be reviewing this. Not sure how many times I've been excited to review much, but I am about this. My views on the first movie in terms of the dubbed version have been so tarnished. My nostalgia goggles weren't removed for that review, they were stomped on and eaten by glasses-eating sharks, which breaks my heart. As much as I like to nitpick and rage at the TV series and from all I've seen of the subbed TV series, the dub pales in comparison but still many of the flaws are there, I can still enjoy many episodes because it has that charm and relative harmlessness to it. It's not teaching bad lessons (usually?), it's not mean-spirited, it's just....stupid sometimes.

However, the movie (dubbed) was a complete train wreck. Despite it trying to give a good message, it was being way too overly preachy about it and didn't seem to realize that the message it was trying to give was completely hypocritical given the show they were using. There were too many errors that couldn't be forgiven, the side characters they introduced were complete throwaways and they supposedly changed the entirety of the script and story; including Myuutwo's motivations and overall goal.

The original version is supposedly entirely different and much better. Well, I don't see how it can be any worse.

Before we start, I want you to look at that Japanese poster......It sucks. Badly. I mean, wow, in addition to no effort it's also got messed up focus. First of all, Satoshi isn't even in a good chunk of the movie, yet he takes up half the poster. What is he even doing with his other hand? Is that a ballet move? Second of all, Pikachu's in it TWICE. Once on Satoshi's shoulder, another down below. Despite this movie being called MYUUTWO Strikes Back, look at how small Myuutwo and Myuu are in this poster. I didn't even realize where they were when I first glanced at it. Next, wow, that's really the best shot you could use of Kasumi and Takeshi? Come watch Myuutwo Strikes Back to see Kasumi and Takeshi eating lunch! Next, why are Gallop/Rapidash and Dodorio/Dodrio in silhouette at the bottom? One of the other trainers has a Gallop, but it does quite literally nothing over the course of the entire movie but stand in the corner. And there's no Dodorio whatsoever so I have no clue where that even came from. Finally, why does it look like Zenigame and Fushigidane are flying? I know their clones fly off at the end of the movie, but these are the regular ones.

Compare that to the dub's poster which, while being simplistic, is much better. It showcases a good chunk of Pokemon in back because they're trying to promote the fact that they're the 150th and 151st Pokemon, Mewtwo and Mew are huge on it and looking towards each other (Hell Ash and the others aren't even on it) and the only reason that Pikachu's on it is to promote the short that came with the movie. I don't usually pay much mind to movie posters, but damn Japan, you dropped the ball. You dropped all sorts of balls. And they ended up on Myuutwo's fingers.

Movie: We start off.....wondering if I put on the right movie....Why are we in the jungle? Oh hey, explorers. Oh hey Myuu; so it must be kinda related. Wait, the running time is longer too. What's going on?

Oh yeah, in the original American theatrical release and my version (the VHS, not sure if they fixed this in the DVD), this entire ten minute segment is removed. You may recognize it, though. It was released quite a few years later as a stand-alone short called 'The Birth of Mewtwo.' Since that was released stand-alone, I guess I might review the dubbed short later on in its own review too, but I don't understand why this was removed to begin with. Sure, keeping this segment in means it's a whopping 20 MINUTES until the title screen shows up, meaning we also don't see Satoshi/Ash and the others until 20 minutes in too. This isn't even counting the time for the Pikachu's Vacation short, which means it's technically over 40 minutes until we get to our title.

Maybe 4Kids thought this was too boring or maybe they wanted to save time, maybe they could only get so much time allotted for the theater to run it.....or maybe, and this is just my theory, maybe 4Kids erased this part because it really showcases that Myuutwo has a kind heart, was actually a child at a point and is just really confused about various aspects of life. They wanted to make Mewtwo an evil world-taker-over so they can't make him too likable! Plus, they could always release the segment later as a stand-alone short and make bank off it! It may sound farfetched (hah, Pokemon pun) but would you really put it passed them?

Anyway, a bunch of researchers/explorers are walking through a jungle as Myuu watches over them. They discuss the various legends surrounding Myuu; how it can supposedly cause huge floods, produce crops on barren lands and is supposedly immortal. However, since there have been no confirmed Myuu sightings in recent years, it's believed to be extinct (The extinct immortal Pokemon!).

They arrive at the ruins of....some place that used to exist and we see a familiar stone tablet with the carving of Myuu.

One of the researchers shows that they have discovered a fossil (which is supposedly an eyelash) from Myuu and plan to make the strongest Pokemon in existence with it. Cue the science!

(http://i.imgur.com/Pb5Du2Z.gif)

Once the science is done, we cut to awwwww, wittle baby Myuutwo. <3 ….floating in purgatory, but awwwwww.

(http://i.imgur.com/y0Ee5Ci.png)

He's wondering the same questions as the dubbed version; where am I, who am I? Etc. Outside of the test tube, the researchers are wondering why he won't wake up. Myuutwo opens his eyes in whatever world is in his head and wonders what the noise is. A small girl replies that he's hearing human voices.

Myuutwo doesn't know what humans are and asks if he's one too. The girl replies that since he can talk, he might be human or she might be a Pokemon. Myuutwo doesn't know what Pokemon are either and damn he is too adorable. I'm serious. He has a perfect voice and he's adorable as hell. If my theory on why 4Kids didn't keep this segment is correct, I can really see why they'd think that way.

Anyway, the girl says it doesn't matter which one either of them are since both of them are about the same. She also says that there are many others like them there and we're introduced to some more semi-familiar faces; clone-Fushigidane/Bulbasaur, clone-Hitokage/Charmander and clone-Zenigame/Squirtle. They're not the same clones as the ones seen later in the movie, however, as we'll soon see.

The researchers outside are monitoring Myuutwo's brain activity and saying it's fluctuating and seems to be reacting with the clones or communicating telepathically. A mysterious cluster of light in a test tube is apparently the girl Myuutwo is seeing; Aitwo, a clone of a girl named Ai.

Back in...wherever this is. Clone purgatory? Aitwo introduces herself and says that the one thing they all have in common is they're all 'twos', so I suppose the clones are technically called Fushigidanetwo, Hitokagetwo and Zenigametwo.....That's a mouthful. Myuutwo wonders if he's a 'two' too and they all start having fun spinning around with each other.

Cut back to the lab where we learn that the only distinguishable researcher there (the one with the funky hair and made the tape that Team Rocket listens to) is actually Ai's father. We get a flashback back to a small town where we see a woman and the researcher. He states that he's made a beautiful hologram with which he can recreate their dead daughter (how she died, I don't know.) His wife says nothing they can do will bring her back, but he won't listen to her.

We cut to a note left by his wife telling him that she can't live being controlled by old memories and is leaving him. On the note is her key and wedding ring and behind the note is a picture of them and Ai, leaving the researcher with only the hope to recreate his daughter, Ai.

…..Already this movie is a million times better than the dub. It's given me a whole new view on both the scientist and Myuutwo and introduced me to a very interesting part of the story, but seeing as how this segment was never included to begin with, I can't make huge judgments.

Soon after, he gets contacted into doing some work in a Pokemon cloning facility where they have recently gotten the Myuu fossil and here we are now.

I can't really reflect the mood of this next part, but back in clone purgatory, Aitwo is showing Myuutwo visions of her old home town. She shows him the sun, wind, moon and stars. But something's wrong. Hitokagetwo starts to vanish and cutting back to the real world shows that it's dying. Fushigidanetwo and Zenigametwo also start vanishing and dying in the real world.

Aitwo also starts to vanish.

We see the other clones tubes are now empty, and Aitwo's light is dimming. The clone world starts blackening as Aitwo says goodbye to Myuutwo. He starts to cry, and he wonders what's coming out of his eyes. Aitwo explains that they're tears. Living beings shed tears when their bodies are in pain, humans shed tears when they are sad. She thanks him, thanks him for his tears, and tells him to stay alive and have fun in the world before finally vanishing completely.

Myuutwoo starts getting out of control with sadness and starts to activate his psychic powers. The scientists, to keep him under control, inject him with a tranquilizer in order to put him into a deep sleep.

We then see Myuutwo back in the darkness as we watch him grow up in the tubes and eventually forget Ai before we cut to where the dubbed movie started.

Wow, that was an awesome backstory. In 10 minutes it made me feel more emotionally invested than many shows can't do in several episodes. Screw you 4Kids for not including this to begin with. I feel so friggin' robbed. Granted, I still feel a little robbed considering that Myuutwo does completely forget about her and this is never brought up again over the course of the rest of the movie.

Now that we're back to where the dub movie started I will change it up a bit. I'm going to gloss over stuff if it's exactly the same in the dubbed movie. It's a bit redundant to repeat the same things. Unless there's a major change or just something of note, I'll just be going along at a CliffNotes rate. I'm going to TRY anyway. If this movie is changed as much as I hear, it likely won't go that way. Also, despite this not being a sub/dub comparison or at least not as detailed in nature, it should be noted that most of the lame jokes are not present in the original version.

No narrator on this scene, instead we hear Myuutwo asking where he is we see the scene underwater. He says he keeps having dreams of a strange world but has no memories of it. As he sees a Myuu swim by, he asks who it is, but Myuu won't won't acknowledge him and just flies away. As we fade out, we hear Myuutwo saying he'll never forget that dream world with the strange flying creature.

Back in the lab and orange Crystal Light, we see Myuutwo as he's waking up. He asks where he is and who brought him there before losing consciousness again.

He starts to awaken again and asks the same questions. Who is he, where is he, why is he there? He states that he is just there, that he wasn't born into the world. He asks who he is again before using his psychic powers to break the tube.

The scientists explain what he is and who he is as well as his origins like the original, but it skews from the original after that. Myuutwo asks if Myuu is his father or mother, but the researcher says it's neither yet both. He was created from Myuu and made even stronger. Myuutwo asks if he wasn't born then was he created by God? The researcher says only God and humans can create new life (…..I'm assuming he means new life out of essentially nothing, because breeding is creating new life and basically every living thing can breed.)

Myuutwo is outraged by this. As the scientists congratulate one another, he stews in anger. He asks who he is, where he is and why he was born before activating his psychic powers and getting out of control.

Myuutwo blows up the island and we see Sakaki/Giovanni arrive. Myuutwo asks if what he has done is a show of his true power and if he truly is, as the researcher stated, the strongest Pokemon in the world, even stronger than the legendary Myuu. Sakaki says basically the same thing about how Myuutwo needs to control his powers, but he also says that Myuutwo may be the world's strongest Pokemon but humans are powerful still, but combining the powers of humans with Myuutwo will give them the power to take over the world.

Myuutwo agrees and gets outfitted with the focusing armor and Sakaki gives him the orders to simply fight and take care of anyone who gets in their way.

We cut to the montage of ass-kicking where Myuutwo fights Foodin/Alakazam, a herd of Kentauros/Tauros, Rarecoil/Magneton and of course, Shigeru/Gary's Nidoking and Windie/Arcanine. All the while he continuously asks “Who am I? Why am I here? For what am I fighting for?”

Cut back to Myuutwo in his little storage area where he's wondering why he lives. Sakaki arrives and gives the same speech about how, since he's a Pokemon, his purpose is to serve humans and nothing else. Oh good, for a second I thought Sakaki was smarter than his dub counterpart. *phew*

As he destroys the place, Myuutwo states that despite the fact that he was made by humans, he's not a human, but he's not a Pokemon either.

He blows up the place and escapes, landing on the island on which he was created. He asks himself the same questions about his existence before stating that, and this part's important, that 'not as an attack or a proclamation of war, against those responsible for his existence (he)'ll strike back.' This is important because it shows that this Myuutwo is not looking to end the world or end existence, he's just going to exact revenge in some way while searching for his meaning.

We get our title screen, which is arguably cooler than the dubbed version's, but it's a tossup kinda.

And we all know what the title screen means! It's time to see everyone's better versions of the characters that annoy me usually, Satoshi/Ash, Kasumi/Misty and Takeshi/Brock! They're preparing their lunch in a meadow when the bandana'd trainer shows up.

Oh gooodddd.....ahahahahahaha! He's American. I kinda knew this going in, because I saw a very short clip online before, but every line he says clearly has a thick American accent and he sprinkles English words into like every sentence. What's really great is that it actually sounds like the VA is a native English speaker and this isn't one of those times when a Japanese person is just speaking broken Engrish to act like an American (*coughyugiohcough*).

He states he's looking for some trainer around who supposedly has eight badges. Ahah! So it is before the Indigo League. He does still have Pidgeotto, and thus!......it sucks that it's never once shown in the movie even more now. Pbbt.

The battle commences and we get the Japanese theme song over the battle, of course. I've always been kinda ambivalent towards the Japanese theme. It's alright, but I much prefer the dub's, plus the original's is kinda annoying at times.

The scene with Kairiki/Machamp and Zenigame is perfectly fine, as expected. And wouldn't ya know it, the scene's a lot better and doesn't look like it was edited by a blind hamster.

The scene that I watched of this btw is the very ending after Pikachu's attack. The opponent yells out “OH MY GOD!” and it is just hilarious.

Cut to the Rocket-dan/Team Rocket, and even though I'm using the Japanese names for mostly everyone else, I'll just say 'Team Rocket' when referring to them. It just seems more natural. They're talking about getting Pikachu and how hungry they are, big surprise.

Cue the Onidrill/Fearow and the first shots of Myuutwo's island where Joy sends out Kairyuu/Dragonite out to give the invitation to Satoshi.

Still no 'Wow, A Kairyuu!' but whatever. It delivers the message and, here's something odd, it actually is inviting all of them as 'promising Pokemon trainers', which is weird because Misty and Brock didn't battle so how does Myuutwo know this?

Kairyuu starts to leave, Team Rocket sees the reply card and we cut back to Myuutwo making his storm.

Back at the wharf, the storm has started and the ferry to New Island has been canceled.

The wharf manager, named Voyager, which has to be one of the coolest names I've ever heard, says that this is the worst hurricane that she's ever seen and she cannot risk the lives of these people. Thus the ferry is shut down.

….Wait, that's it? No long practically unprompted story about how most every Pokemon was killed by a storm and brought back to life by the surviving Pokemon's tears? Oh I get it, that was probably shoehorned in to give a reason for the connection with the tears later in the movie since you guys removed the beginning 10 minutes. Lovely. However, I'm still not certain how the scene with Satoshi later will work. They didn't say anything about Pokemon tears being magic or anything. Ai just said 'Living beings shed tears when they are in pain. Humans shed tears when they are sad.' That doesn't really explain how that ends up curing Satoshi's rock-ness, it just basically states that Pokemon have human emotions, but I guess we'll get to that later.

The trainers want to go anyway, Junsa/Jenny says that the local Nurse Joy is missing and the trainers go off into the storm.

I should mention that the trainer with the blue shirt only says his Pokemon are strong in water, not that all of his Pokemon are Water-types, which means this doesn't cause a mistake later.

Oh hey an animation error I missed last time. When Gyarados pops out, his lips are blue for a second before changing to their rightful tan color.

Though you don't see many trainers leaving (despite the fact that there were many at the wharf and supposedly many that left), there is someone on a Onidrill who doesn't show up at New Island. Guess they died. :(

Satoshi and the others want to leave, but can't because they don't have strong enough Water Pokemon, which is slightly ironic in the sense of Kasumi now that I think about it. You really need to get hoppin' on that 'greatest Water Pokemon trainer' thing if your Pokemon, even combined, can't go through this storm when plenty of others apparently can. Hell not only is that guy in the blue shirt a way better Water Pokemon trainer than Kasumi at this point, but the girl trainer can also make it through on a Water type without issue. Also, Satoshi could've gone perfectly fine if his Zenigame was a Kamex/Blastoise right now, but oh well!

So they see Team Rocket, Musashi/Jessie, Kojirou/James and Nyaasu/Meowth arrive in disguise as vikings and offer them a ride. I'm just noticing that Musashi and Kojirou are rowing on the same side with nothing rowing the other side. Doesn't that make them go around in circles or am I just being stupid?

A huge wave crashes into the boat and reveals Team Rocket and another wave follows, destroying the boat. Satoshi and Kasumi use Zenigame and Hitodeman/Staryu to rescue Takeshi and ride out the storm.

How Satoshi is managing to keep his hat on during all of this is beyond me.

They arrive at New Island and are greeted by Joy. Takeshi realizes who she is, but she claims she's not Joy. They make their way into the castle and we see that Team Rocket survived the ordeal as well on their Matadogas/Weezing.

YAY IT'S MYUU'S WINDMILL SCENE!......IT'S STILL ADORABLE!!! <3

They enter the castle and see the trainers who have arrived. We're still not told why the hell they all have to let out their Pokemon, but whatever. Cut to Team Rocket who are preparing to go through the sewer to get in the castle.

We're 'introduced' to the three trainers; again they're not given names so I guess it's TO WIKIPEDIA!

(http://i.imgur.com/xl16F6h.gif)

Okay, the first guy with the cool orange clothes is named Corey in the English version and Sorao in the Japanese version. And hey, he identifies his Pokemon correctly! Wow, that must've been difficult to pull off!

The guy in the blue shirt is named Umio (fitting of his love of Water types) in the Japanese version and....Fergus in the English dub. Wow, he got screwed there.

Finally the completely bland girl is named Sweet in the Japanese version and Neesha in the dub.

Myuutwo arrives and announces his presence through Joy as the world's strongest Pokemon trainer as well as the world's strongest Pokemon. Umio won't accept that a Pokemon can be a Pokemon trainer, let alone the strongest Pokemon trainer, but Myuutwo quickly shuts him up by psychically tossing him into the pool.

Umio sends out Gyarados to Hyper Beam Myuutwo, but he swats it back at Gyarados.

Myuutwo releases Joy from his psychic control and explains that he used her for her knowledge of treating Pokemon for his experiments.

Cut back to Team Rocket where they discover Myuutwo's cloning lab. I find it weird that Nyaasu calls the cloned Lizardon/Charizard, Fushigibana/Venusaur and Kamex/Blastoise 'cute'. Musashi activates the computer and we hear the researcher from before explaining the project. Nyaasu gets grabbed when the researcher says they need to gather a DNA sample from the Pokemon to start the process.

They get Nyaasu out and--

Kojirou: “Who's that Pokemon?”

Musashi: “Nyaasu!”

…........Oh so 4Kids just mirrored that............You win this round, 4Kids.

The tape continues and I still don't really understand how the researcher had the time to record this, but whatever. He also never says that Sakaki funded the project. Team Rocket doesn't even seem to be related to this from all I've seen. The researchers just wanted to clone Myuu and make the world's strongest Pokemon. Sakaki may have just caught wind of the project and wanted to get Myuutwo for himself.

Speaking of Sakaki, cut back to Myuutwo where he's mentioning how he thought he and Sakaki shared the same ambitions, but he ended up betraying him. He claims that humans are the worst existence on the planet and also says that Pokemon aren't much better since many of them serve as slaves under humans.

Pikachu combats this by 'saying' he's not a slave of Satoshi's, he's with him because he likes him. Myuutwo says that doesn't matter because simply being with him is his main mistake and sends him flying.

Sorao sends out his Saihorn/Rhyhorn to Myuutwo, but of course he easily swats him away.

Myuutwo says it's pointless to battle him since he was born specifically to be the strongest Pokemon in existence. Satoshi says he hasn't proven that, and Myuutwo asks if he wants to test him. Satoshi says yes, and he prepares for a legit battle.

The clones wake up and emerge while Myuutwo reveals his stadium. Sorao prepares for battle with his Fushigibana, Benard. Sweet prepares for battle with her Kamex, Kusukusu. And Satoshi prepares for battle with his....*sigh* Lizardon.

Lizardon attacks Myuutwo as soon as it's released, but this obviously doesn't affect Myuutwo. Myuutwo also doesn't say that Lizardon is 'poorly trained' like the dub. He just says he's an ill-tempered Lizardon.

The battle begins and we know how this goes. Fushigibana gets its ass kicked, Kamex gets his ass kicked by RAPID SPIN! That's what that's called! I knew it had a name. And Lizardon gets its ass kicked.

I know I keep delving into sub/dub comparison stuff here, but Kasumi doesn't tell Satoshi to forfeit like Misty did.

Myuutwo takes their Pokemon with his weird black monster balls to make clones, and everyone tries to get their Pokemon away to no avail.

Pikachu makes a run for it up that weird ramp thing while Satoshi follows. Pikachu falls, Satoshi dives after him, but Pikachu gets captured by the monster balls.....Oh but falling in CALM waters causes his hat to come off!

Before the monster ball can get away, Satoshi follows it down the tube. Also, Satoshi just yells “Pikachu!” not “you're not gonna get Pikachu!” I know that's not a big change, but it changes the message of that shot from “Pikachu's the only one I care about!” to “Pikachu's the only one I can save at this point!”

Back in the lab, Musashi and Kojirou do more 'Who's that Pokemon?' and wouldn't ya know it, they get the Pokemon identifications right! So does Nyaasu as the Pokemon come down the tubes.

Satoshi saves Pikachu from the machines, causing it to malfunction. The clones emerge and the machine explodes sending out the real versions. Satoshi reunites with his Pokemon before heading back out.

Here's another big change; Myuutwo says he has no intentions of going so far as to kill the humans. In fact, he's letting them go. The only hitch is they have to survive his storm again....Which is basically a death sentence without returning their Pokemon to them, but still.

I know, I know, I keep comparing instead of reviewing, but I wanted to make a note. 4Kids completely rescored this movie in order to 'better reflect what American children would respond to.' whatever the hell that means. Bulbagarden made the point of saying that was incredibly stupid since the original score is wonderful and plenty of the music stays in the regular TV series and has for many years. I've heard so many pieces of music in the original that I've heard plenty of times in the dubbed TV series, so I also have no idea what 4Kids was on when they made this decision. The original score is very well done. The organ music's kinda cliché, but it's still really good and I don't see how it couldn't have meshed well with American audiences. I guess they REALLY wanted a full soundtrack deal.

Anyway, the clones emerge and Myuutwo wonders wtf is going on when Satoshi emerges from the smoke with the real Pokemon proclaiming that he'll never forgive him.

He says he'll protect his friends, the Pokemon and tries to punch but Myuutwo just launches him into—I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS! Anyway, he's caught by Myuu's bubble and Myuutwo attacks him.

YAY THE SCENE WHERE MYUU REACTS TO HIS NAME IS NEXT!......IT'S STILL ADORABBBLLLLEEEE!! <3

Myuutwo seems to be more about proving which one of them is truly the real one so Myuutwo starts attacking Myuu. He seems to have won after knocking Myuu into the sky, but Myuu returns the favor by knocking him into the ground.

Myuutwo wants to pit the copies against the originals and Myuu gives a speech, translated by Nyaasu in which he basically says the real ones are real no matter what. No matter how much they may beat them down, the real ones will always be real.

Myuutwo is outraged by this and sends the Pokemon off to fight each other to prove once and for all which ones are truly real. Two things should be noted here; No Brother My Brother (Yay! In fact, it's very basic Pokemon battle music, just rescored a little.) and no echo effect on Pikachu's voice at the very end of this scene to make the scene more corny.

The Pokemon fight as Satoshi climbs down from wherever he is and dammit is is so much better to watch this scene without that song in here. It's way more emotionally impacting.

Oh great, we're getting to the really preachy parts. Don't let me down original version!

So as we see the Pokemon start to tire from battle, we cut to Joy and the others talking about it. Joy asks why would they fight over such a thing as whether they're real or copies. They're both living creatures. Kasumi and Takeshi chime in and say no matter how they were born or created, they were created as living beings. They're both equal living beings, so no one will win in the end. YES! We got past that part without being barfy.

Team Rocket, don't screw this up!

Team Rocket basically says this situation is pitiful. It's like bullying yourself or seeing your self and seeing yourself now. Okay, that was also good.....Nyaasuuuuu....I'm watching you!

Nyaasu comes face to face with his clone as well. They bear their claws, but quickly put them away. Nyaasu says the claws must hurt. Then as Nyaasu meows, he says with all the other Pokemon fighting each other, he's unfair. Clone-Nyaasu says Nyaasu's the one who's unfair. Why does he have to fight him? Don't those claws hurt? Nyaasu asks if his claws would hurt even more. Clone-Nyaasu talks about how round the moon looks and Nyaasu agrees. He's says it's poetic that they're talking about the moon at such a time and asks how everything ended up this way....I also have to say regular Nyaasu's voice, the one you hear the clone speak in the dub, is really adorable.

Wow, we got through most of the preachy stuff without being that preachy. I am flabbergasted.

As Myuu and Myuutwo continue fighting, Satoshi keeps climbing down to help *sigh* just his Pikachu. I know he's, of course, worried about all of the Pokemon, even ones that aren't his, but the only one he calls out for is Pikachu.

The next dialogue's a bit weird, but Bulbagarden says Joy's talking about how Pokemon defend their territory and they won't stop until the other is driven out of it. They're both fighting for their territory, which is the same land, and thus they'll never stop. And, okay they're getting a little preachy with the 'they're all living beings' thing but it's not NEARLY as bad as the dub is.

Myuu and Myuutwo slam into the ground and go Super Saiyan. Satoshi, seeing the PG carnage around him, rushes to stop the two and gets caught between their blasts, turning him into stone and FFS what is up with this scene!? Why I can't I watch it without feeling like crying!? I don't even like this idiot!

*sigh* Anyway, Pikachu tries in vain in wake up Satoshi and when he finds that it's to no avail, he starts to cry as do the other Pokemon. Their tears turn into magical flying tears and collect on Satoshi with Pikachu's tear being the final one. A beam of light shines on Satoshi and he's reverted back to normal while reunited with his Pikachu.

…...So, uh......No one's ever going to address how that works or wtf just happened? The dub may be stupid, but at least they made it a point to explain why such a thing would be possible...Okay not they didn't, but they did establish that such a thing has happened before. The original gives no reason. They mentioned how only humans cry when they are sad, but human tears aren't magic! I don't understand!

Myuutwo also doesn't get preachy, yay! He just says that it's really true; they are both alive. He decides to take the clones away and wipe everyone's memories. As Satoshi asks where they're going, Myuutwo responds that they have been born, they are alive and thus they'll go on living in this world, somewhere.

Satoshi and the others get encompassed in light and we cut back to the wharf where all that stuff that I said makes no sense makes no more sense here. (Joy magically reappearing after being gone for a month and not one person knowing why they're at the wharf and seemingly not giving a crap about their sudden onset of amnesia.)

They go outside to see that the storm has cleared, and Satoshi sees Myuu in the sky. I would say he doesn't act like Myuu's the Ho-oh he saw in the first episode, but it's somewhat unclear in the wording.

Cut back to Team Rocket being on the island also with amnesia but also not caring because they're on a great island. I still don't understand why Myuutwo left them there instead of teleporting them back to the wharf, but whatever.

And that's the movie! But wait, we still have the end credits songs!

Oh hey 'Raymond Johnson' as the pirate trainer guy. So he was American/Native English speaker (I assume anyway).

Well, I guess there's only one song and it's pretty okay. I can't see myself downloading it anytime soon, but it's pretty okay.

And we see our final shot of Myuu flying away before we actually end.

/////////////////////

Bottomline: Well, that certainly was EONS better than the dubbed version.....but I can't say I still love the movie. I like it, sure, but I wish the thing with Ai was brought up again, I wish some other aspects were tightened up and I wish the damn tears thing was explained in any way shape or form. Plus, the original still gets a little preachy with the 'living beings' stuff. Still, it's a pretty original concept, and Myuutwo's fairly easy to empathize with.

Next up, after the short of course, I review Pokemon the Movie 2000 because dammit, back in 2000 we had to put 2000 in EVERTHANG. I'm less emotionally connected to this movie and it's fairly blah-ish in my opinion, but we'll see.

Recommended Audience: E for everyone!

Pokemon Extravaganza Shorties! Pikachu's Rescue Adventure!

(http://i.imgur.com/lZNrREb.jpg)

Rating: 3/10

Plot: While napping in the woods one day, Togepi wanders off and falls down a tunnel. It's up to Pikachu and the others to save Togepi while finding some new friends along the way.

Reasons for Rating: Ah, Pikachu's Rescue Adventure........I remember like nothing about this short except the opening. I know there's an Elekid and some other 'new' Pokemon and a storm.....and Togepi gets lost....That's about it.

…....Well, let's start, shall we?

We start off with Ash, Misty and Not-Brock deciding to take a nap on a tree. They let out SOME of their Pokemon to nap too (Scyther, Staryu, Snorlax and Charizard are noticeably absent. It's understandable that Lapras and Goldeen aren't there since they'd need to be in water (even though there's a suitable body of water mere feet away), but why not Staryu, Snorlax, Charizard and Scyther? Are they not 'cute' enough for the shorts? And yes, the short and movie do supposedly take place after Charizard starts behaving so there's no real excuse for him.) Togepi wakes up and sees some Ledyba flying by and tries to follow them, but ends up tripping and rolling down a huge decline.

While falling, it knocks Meowth over who seems to be traveling by himself because Pokemon short law says he has to be alone and they both fall into a nearby hole that leads into an incredibly long and fairly clear tunnel that leads into a gigantic tree that is so huge it's basically its own forest. You know, now that I've wrote that out it seems incredibly convoluted...

Anyway, Pikachu and the others reach the hole and try to call for Togepi, but a crazed Psyduck crashes into them while trying to catch up and they all fall into the hole and through the tunnel.

It's here where we get our short's theme song “Comin' to the Rescue” by O-town. Remember O-Town? Yeah, no one else does either. I actually really like this song and as with “I Need a Vacation” it's an ear worm that sometimes gets stuck in my head randomly.

They tumble down the long tunnel and land on a passing swarm of Ledyba who bring them into their tree home. I think this is the first sighting of Ledyba in the series. The Pokemon then meet an Elekid, who was actually teased in one of the Orange League episodes through one of Not-Brock's sketches. They fear that the Elekid wants to fight, but Pikachu makes nice with an Electric Pokemon ET finger touch.

After they become friends, the other Pokemon in the forest feel comfortable to come out and damn man, if you really wanted to become a Pokemon Master, just go to this forest. It's like there's nearly every Pokemon in existence.....Kanto-wise....in this forest.

We cut to Meowth who is stuck on a limb overhanging a waterfall.....which would indicate that Togepi died because that's a nasty drop and Meowth and Togepi fell at the same time, but of course we know the little egg's not scrambled.

Pikachu asks if Elekid knows where Togepi is and Elekid leads them someplace.

Wow, Bulbagarden was right, the animation is horrible; and it's in this scene with the Pokemon in the trees that you start noticing. We just get like 15 seconds of seeing Pokemon in trees standing completely still while making Pokemon calls as we move through them.....and they're all cardboard cutout 'animations'. Not deliberately like how Kare Kano sometimes used crayon drawings and cutout animation to be funny; this is just really, really, really lazy animation. Most of what you see behind the trees is either pure black or more trees, which just adds to the laziness.

Elekid leads them across a vine bridge and we actually learn something about one of the Pokemon; Squirtle's really afraid of heights. Not scared enough to not do it, but he's holding onto the vine with his 'hands' and feet instead of just walking across like everyone else did.

Elekid leads them to a tree filled with nests of Exeggcute eggs and we see that Togepi is perfectly fine in one of the nests........how he got there....or what the unholy hell Exeggcute are doing in trees is beyond me, but there it is.......I mean, Exeggcute don't 'hatch' or evolve into birds....why are they in trees? Why are they in nests period!? They're not Pokemon eggs. They're egg Pokemon. There's a difference! We already know at this point that Pokemon come from eggs anyway. Hence the Togepi. So why not just make up some random Pokemon eggs and put them in the nests? It would make more sense and it's not that hard. Tons of adoptables sites do it. None of this makes any sense.....

Pikachu and the others try to retrieve Togepi, but the Exeggcute in the nest won't let him go. They're missing one of the their eggs so they've adopted Togepi as one of their own. Pikachu and the others then embark on a journey to find the missing Exeggcute egg to get Togepi back.

They arrive at some oasis and some Bellosom (first appearance) along with every other Pokemon in the oasis start doing a random dance number out of nowhere. Because....padding? I mean....I have no problem with this little number....except we get ANOTHER Pokemon misidentification since 4Kids makes a Poliwhirl repeatedly say 'PoliWRATH' and it's just pointless.

They run into a cave because Pikachu senses a disturbance in the force and finds a bunch of Clefairy hopping around like fleas. He freaks out because he knows they're doing Metronome and if Togepi's taught us anything, that move nearly always results in becoming Explosion.

So the cave explodes and sends the group + Elekid flying off, and they land on a bunch of insanely convenient leaf-springs....I'm not kidding, they're leaves with huge springs on the bottom that I guess just grow that way. Huh, I had no idea Tigger had a green thumb.

Pikachu and Elekid hop all over the springs and goddamn this short's boring. I am well aware that these shorts are aimed at an even younger audience than the TV show, as in the kinds of fans who just want to see the Pokemon being cute instead of being interested in battles or plot, but damn this is some boring short. Nothing's happening. Just a bunch of random nothing. Random dance numbers, random leaf springs, random Meowth appearance, random explosions, random random.

At least the last short was interesting due to the rivalry between the main group and the bullies. It made for some funny and memorable moments. This is just harmless boredom in a can. And you know what I thought was the most boring and vapid part of the first short? Taking care of Togepi. So now we've based our main plot on that boring side plot. And it's already resolved too. Sure, Exeggcute are keeping it hostage, but Pikachu and the others have already found Togepi and have more than enough muscle to just take it away. The only reason this short is continuing is because Pikachu and the others are too nice to take Togepi away from the Exeggcute.

Anyway, cut back to Meowth who is still stuck in the tree. However, Pikachu and Elekid fly out of the trees and crash into Meowth, knocking him off the branch and into the waters way way way way below.....but don't worry. It's water. And we all learned in every movie ever, including Pokemon movie 01, that landing in any body of water from any height means the fall is survivable. They also somehow grab onto a Gyarados who tries to climb up the waterfall. Meowth tries to kick Pikachu away for whatever reason and this prompts Pikachu to use Thundershock. Since Gyarados sucks due to it's 4x weakness to electricity, the shock causes them all to fall/fly off, which makes them land in a Snorlax's belly (did they just rip off the first short?) and Snorlax slingshots them out of his fat and makes Meowth 'blast off'.

I'm just now realizing, there's a crapton of the Pokemon just being flung around random places in this short.

Immediately afterward, a bunch of insanely dark storm clouds charge into the sky when no indication of bad weather has appeared in the slightest until now. I swear, it comes on so suddenly that it's almost like Mewtwo was back to his old tricks again...in fact....I'd say this storm actually comes on faster than Mewtwo's, which is just baffling.

The resulting wind causes the Exeggcute nests to start flying around, so the Pokemon try to save them. Geez, the bad animation is really highlighted during the storm. That tree is just awful. Fade animation and hastily painted stills? That's the best we can do, huh?

More Pokemon come to help and I find it funny that one of the Pokemon that arrives in the nick of time to help is a Slowpoke. I have nothing against Slowpoke, it's one of the more entertaining Pokemon (though Slowking can bite me...Eh, I'll save that for the feature presentation) but I just find it weird that one of the Pokemon who rushed to the scene to help in a clinch was a SLOWpoke.

I also find it funny that a Wigglytuff is helping Pikachu. Yes, I'm so sure the BALLOON POKEMON would be a great asset in a WIND STORM.

Snorlax tries to block the wind with his body, but the lightning becomes a problem as it strikes the tree and causes a branch to nearly fall on the Pokemon.

In an effort to repel the lightning, Elekid and Pikachu match the lightning bolt for bolt, but they miss a particularly powerful one that causes the tree to catch fire. Fear not, though, Marill and Squirtle are here to save the day.

Once the fire's out, the wind picks up some more and the nest with Exeggcute and Togepi starts flying away. All of the group's Pokemon plus a few others from the forest including Snorlax who keeps getting the focus set to him for some reason even though he has no character (Cubone syndrome I guess. It's not even like this is Ash's Snorlax, it's a wild one). He tries to hold on, but gets distracted by apples flying by and lets go of the Pokemon. Pikachu tries to hang on, but can't. However, Snorlax comes back to save the day. Yay, the reason we were about to die in the first place has saved us, yay!

Snorlax reels them all in and, I'm just now realizing that considering the fact that this short has made a point of saying that you can be flung thousands of feet through the air and always land without harm, it seems kinda stupid to have this 'keep Togepi and Exeggcute from being flung thousands of feet through the air' plotline.

The instant that Togepi and the others are safe, the sky clears up. Because there's nothing else to do with this storm plot. Geez, look at how quickly those clouds went away. Were they late for an appointment?

Pretty rainbow and sudden Dragonair flying by indicate that all is well. Pikachu and the others reunite with Togepi who still won't get left alone by Exeggcute. A Chansey comes by and reveals that the egg it had in its pouch was the missing Exeggcute egg....Well, where's Chansey's egg? Why was it in there to begin with? Did it sneak in there without Chansey's knowledge?

So the Exeggcute reunite and hop happily on a leaf stone, turning them into Exeggcutor. I would say this was completely random, but earlier there was a shot where Psyduck gets hit in the head with a rock and you can see for a second that it's a leaf stone. Still fairly random, but they did kinda set it up.

Pikachu and the others bid farewell to the other Pokemon and head back to Ash, Misty and Not-Brock. Cut back to Meowth who did nothing whatsoever during this entire short. He's floating down a stream and he tells us that he never wants to go to camp again. Oh that's why he was alone I guess. Wait, what camp? There was a camp in there? Or did he mean 'camping'? Who cares, he was pointless in this short anyway.

Cut back to Ash, Misty and Not-Brock who are waking up from their nap....It's nearing night time now....they slept ALL DAY? Also, how far away were Pikachu and the others? They couldn't have been that far considering they went there, did all of that stuff and then came back before Ash and Co. woke up, yet they didn't seem to weather that HUGE FRIGGIN STORM or even hear it off in the distance? They must be deaf in addition to blind.

They see the Pokemon playing in the water and assume they must've been playing the entire time. Pikachu hops up in the air with the group and they freeze frame like we're in a cheesy 80's movie. The End.

That....was boring. Even the stuff with the storm wasn't all that exciting. I laughed several times in Pikachu's Summer Vacation yet it seems like they weren't even trying to be entertaining in this short. What a waste of time. No wonder I don't remember it. I guess if you have really little kids this would hold their attention just because the Pokemon are doing cute things, but for anyone else it's incredibly boring.

And now....our feature presentation....

Recommended Audience: E for everyone! Or Exeggcute. Whatever.

Pokemon Extravaganza! Pokemon Movie the Movie 2000/Pokemon 2: The Power of One

(http://i.imgur.com/oga6hvx.jpg)

Rating: 4/10

Plot: Set sometime during the Orange League, Ash and the others are traveling when they get caught up in a storm. The storm lands their boat on a nearby island called Shamuti Island where the locals are holding their annual legend festival. The legend states that the harmony caused by the three legendary birds, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, will be disturbed and cause all of nature to fall out of whack. Only the chosen one can bring together the three spheres of fire, ice and lightning to restore harmony back to the world with the help of the legendary Lugia. And if you didn't catch that, don't worry, you'll be reminded about it a lot. Ash is selected as the chosen one this year because he's a Pokemon trainer (even though the legend doesn't say anything about the chosen one being a Pokemon trainer.), but as he's going off to find the spheres for the sake of the festival, he finds that the legend is actually coming true.

Reasons for Rating: Ah, Pokemon the Movie 2000. Even you couldn't resist the allure of naming yourself '2000' in the year 2000. One of the most annoying things ever.

I don't have as much nostalgic love for this movie. Don't get me wrong, I do hold nostalgia for it. I saw it in theaters with my friends when it first came out, I got excited for the release and I enjoyed the movie fine.

My problem with this movie is that it is just so damn cliché. Ash being 'the chosen one' is one of the most cliché plot threads ever. The whole aspect of collecting element themed jewels might as well have 'property of Final Fantasy and a crapton of other video games' labeled on it. Tampering with the gentle balance of nature by the will of an eeeevil human is also not very original (Hell, someone call Captain Planet), plus they totally rehash that in a big way in movie 04. And the legendary Pokemon here don't really do much besides Lugia and even it's kinda moot. I do love Lugia and the legendary birds. Articuno is my favorite followed by Moltres then Zapdos. I just wish they had done more in the movie.

Our main baddie is also completely forgettable in my opinion. Hell, I don't even remember his name (apparently it's Lawrence III.) To be fair, though, I don't think the dub movie ever GIVES his name (suffers the same fate as the three trainers from movie 01. But it's much more forgivable for them to be nameless. They were forgettable side characters. This is the damn MAIN VILLAIN OF THE MOVIE.) I remember he likes collecting legendary things and had an ancient Mew card that he started his collection with (I remember getting one when I saw this movie. Still have it. :) ) other than that, he's boring. Notice how I wrote an entire synopsis for this movie without even mentioning this guy once? And you know what? That was in no way intentional. I completely forgot about him until I had already started writing the actual review. I wish I was lying.

Apparently on the Japanese release of this movie, the audience members were given a booklet which contained background information on the character.....Which I find a tiny bit dumb. I mean, it's nice to have your own little booklet of information, but shouldn't that information be...ya know....IN THE MOVIE?

The plot is way too obvious giving us really no room for surprises. This is made even worse with the recited legend which literally lays out the entire story nearly beat for beat (and made increasingly worse since the legend is the first thing stated in the movie and is frequently being repeated). Apparently the original doesn't explain as much, but the dub's version explains the entire movie. How the hell can you have any tension when the entire movie's story is laid out on a plate for you right when the movie begins and it's constantly being relayed to you throughout?

It's definitely not all bad, and I can at least be thankful that this movie's not ungodly preachy like the first movie, but it has its flaws.

For the Bulbagarden comparison of this movie, see here. http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/movies/mov02.html

Let's get started.

=================

Our movie starts out with a shot of the three islands, the Islands of Fire, Ice and Lightning. And a sneak peak at Slowking. I guess I'll get him out of the way right now, I do not understand Slowking. We have two really entertaining Pokemon in Slowpoke and Slowbro then we get....a talking sage-like unfunny Slowking.....for no reason. What does this thing do during the movie besides stand there and tell us things we already know?

We see Lawrence III in his flying base thing while his computer explains that the three titans of the elements fire, ice and lightning are Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos respectively. His computer then says that the islands containing said Pokemon are on islands adjacent to Shamuti Island and goes to capture them for his collection with Moltres first on his list.

I would question the mechanics of that entire ship, but this is a world where a small ball can shrink and capture huge monsters.

Wait, was he already at the island? Because it's like he didn't travel far at all. If he was, why was that information about the birds even given? Wouldn't he have known all that before now?

At Fire Island (considering Moltres' Japanese name is Fire, this island doesn't seem like such a secret location of Moltres...) Lawrence starts attacking the island with ice bombs, which prompts Moltres to come out. When Moltres emerges, Lawrence uses his super rings of technology to trap Moltres and capture it in his ship.....And that was Moltres ladies and gentlemen! Give it a round of applause! (unenthusiastic applause.gif.)

He says he's going to go after Zapdos next, then Articuno and finally draw out Lugia before we get our title card and man 4Kids was really feeling the electric guitar in this title. Kudos on matching the drum beats with the lights on the word 'One'. That reminds me; seeing as how this movie was not in any way advertised as 'Pokemon: The Power of One' (at least no where around where I lived, and my VHS copy says “Pokemon the Movie 2000”) I was confused as hell by this title when I first saw it. It doesn't even say “Pokemon movie 2000: The Power of One” it's just “Pokemon: The Power of One.”

We fade in to Ash, Misty and Not-Brock on a boat heading to their next Orange Island destination that is never given. Not-Brock suggests that they should let their Pokemon out for some fresh air and that prompts our movie theme which is okay. Just seems like a more pop-ish sounding version of the Orange League theme. I think this is a rare occasion where the opener isn't accompanied by a battle sequence isn't it?

Anyway, I should note that unlike movie 01 and tons of times in the TV series, 4Kids actually doesn't give a crap that there's no background audio from the Pokeballs, Pokemon or humans during the song despite the fact that you can see that the video prompts sound. Since I haven't seen the original yet, I'm not sure if that was a choice to be more loyal to the original or if they really wanted you to focus on their soundtrack.

Surprisingly, all of the Pokemon in the current group make an appearance. Charizard isn't left out because it's still out of control (meaning I guess this is before the episode where Ash tames it) and Snorlax doesn't stay out because he's too heavy for the boat.

We also see that Team Rocket's following them in their signature Magikarp sub.

I should also note that Pikachu's acting oddly like it senses something, but none of the other Pokemon are being disturbed. Is it just because Zapdos is the next target or is Pikachu secretly a Psychic type?

A storm comes about because I guess the Pokemon movies love storms. Hell, we just had one in the short!

The captain, Maron, says they're at Shamuti Island, which is very far from their intended course. Luckily, she used to live on that island. What a coinkydink.

Team Rocket, in their wake, makes a bunch of puns and crashes into a cliff.

Cut to Pallet Town where we see Delia Ketchum tending to her garden and her Mr. Mime sweeping the grass....Sweeping the gra--Wah?

Professor Oak comes up to chat and we get this line:

Professor Oak: “Well this is the time of year when the sun shines every day!”........What time of year is that? I assume summer, but the sun shines in every season. There are rainy/cloudy days in summer too. Is this an actual saying?

The weather takes its cue and starts to get really crappy. It rains heavily for like five seconds, stops then starts snowing and we see that there's a really odd pattern in the sky and all sorts of Pokemon are going nuts.

Professor Oak says that since Pokemon, like animals in real life, are more in tune with nature than humans, they can sense when something's wrong, and since the Pokemon are acting so weird it must mean something's very wrong. Yeah, this would've had more weight if not for the random five second downpour, snow storm and sudden aurora borealis that came and went in ten seconds preceding said Pokemon freakouts. Pretty sure we could gauge from that that something was horribly wrong.

Back on Shamuti Island, Ash and the others have arrived at the shore and are met with natives wearing traditional garb and odd masks. They scare Ash and the others for a bit until they realize that one of the villagers actually knows their boat captain, Maron. The villager woman, named Carol, explains that they're preparing for their annual legend festival. Carol explains that since she's too old to be the maiden of the festival her snarky brat of a little sister named Melody will be taking her place.

Maron introduces Ash to the group and explains that he's a Pokemon trainer. Before she can introduce the others, the villagers go nuts because he's a Pokemon trainer and apparently that means he's the chosen one from the legend. Well, wait, Misty's a Pokemon trainer too. Why can she not do it? Was it just because Ash was introduced first?

Melody says he'll do as the chosen one for the festival and gives him a welcome kiss, which makes Misty visibly perturbed. This is our first indication that this movie will have a pro-AAML (Ash and Misty Love) slant. Don't get me wrong, I fully support AAML. My problem with this part of the movie, as with any AAML I see now, is the fact that now I know this pairing will likely never ever happen, especially since the show essentially got rebooted and Misty hardly ever makes appearances anymore. And there's the frustration that is the weird TraceyxMisty BS they apparently have in later seasons. Made even worse by the fact that I think Tracey's supposed to be like 15 and Misty's 10......Now watching AAML just makes me sad....

Melody asks if Misty's his little sister, Misty says no. Then Melody asks if she's his girlfriend, which she is appalled at and says is gross, but Melody says she doesn't think so. She invites them to the legend banquet and tells Misty not to get jealous, which just pisses her off even further. You know what's annoying me? I can't find Melody's age anywhere. She looks like she's at least a couple years older than Ash and Misty, though she may be the same age as Tracey which may or may not make this situation slightly icky.

So the festival starts and we cut to the banquet where we hear this...

Maron: “So she said 'No, but I have Krabbies!' Ahahahaha!”.....What the hell was the start of that joke?! That seriously sounds like a play on words to implicate someone having crabs (the gross kind). Am I looking too much into this? Because I never noticed that until now.

Anyway, we see Misty's still stewing over Melody's comment about being Ash's girlfriend and we see Melody come out in her purty festival garb playing the legendary song AKA the theme of this movie on her little seashell flute thing.

Tracey and Ash are enamored by her, but Misty calls her a show off.....well...considering that she's putting on a show....yeah. Also, she's just dancing a little bit while playing the song, it's not like she's got a pyrotechnic display set up.

We hear applause afterward but no one in the audience is visibly clapping so I dunno.

Melody explains his part in the legend as the chosen one; he's tasked with bringing back three glass spheres from Fire, Ice and Lightning Islands to the shrine to 'restore peace' back to the world through the guardian's song. The way she explains it....I'm assuming they do this every year with a different 'chosen one' who all get the glass balls and return them to the shrine, right? And then one of the villagers returns the spheres to the islands after the ceremony's over?....So...Is Ash really a 'chosen one' or is that all BS? Because if there really was a 'chosen one', you'd think only they would be able to remove the spheres from the island and/or place the spheres on the shrine and make the ceremony work. What would happen if Misty were called the chosen one when she really wasn't? If she retrieved the spheres, would she have to return them to the islands and then have Ash give it a try or would him just picking them up and setting them back down make it work?

Eh, I'm probably thinking about this too much.

Melody flirts with Ash some more, and Ash gets ready and raring for his role in the festival. He's also being a pushy douche about it like he doesn't realize that it's all in good fun and that the world doesn't seriously rest on his shoulders (but it does end up as such because then we wouldn't have a movie.)

Ash and Maron head out on her boat. Ash asks if Misty's coming but she replies like this.

Misty: “No thanks! If you want someone to do whatever you want whenever you want, you should find yourself a girlfriend!”.....Is that your view on what a girlfriend should be, Misty? Because that's kinda dumb. Just because you're someone's girlfriend doesn't mean you're obligated to doing whatever the boyfriend wants at their whim.

Pikachu steals Ash's hat and drags him to the boat because....I don't know why. I know Pikachu's all upset at the imbalance in nature, but Ash was already going to the boat....that very moment....Why did Pikachu find a need to steal Ash's hat to get him to the boat he was already planning on heading to?

While heading to the first island, the boat runs into Team Rocket while they're on their ruined submarine.

Cut back to Slowking who just recites part of legend and sighs. Such an important character.

Ya know, I know Maron's all like 'I like your spirit, Ash!' but she didn't find it in the least bit dumb to head out on the water during a terrible storm? That same storm that beached them mere hours ago? Just for the sake of a festival that is done for fun? It wasn't raining when they left, but the sky looked awful, there was a huge storm earlier and they were close enough to shore when the storm started to turn back.

Maron gets worried since they're out in a huge storm for the sake of a stupid festival. (Seriously, it's not like he even gets a reward or anything. Melody clearly stated that he brings back the spheres, she plays a song and it's over.) And she says she wants to go out on Carol's boat to go find them and bring them back.

Misty and Tracey come along and Melody asks Misty “Why are YOU coming?”....Because she's been Ash's friend a hell of a lot longer than you have? I know these two hate each other, but that's a dumb question.

Misty goes on a tangent about denying that it's because she secretly likes him because she doesn't and Melody calls out Misty for being touchy about the subject. They leave to find Ash and Maron with Team Rocket stowing away on their boat under a tarp.

James: “What we won't do...”

Jessie: “To get Pikachu!”

Yeah you'll hide under a tarp and stow away on a boat.....really, out of all of the times you guys could've said that line it had to be in one of the most tame schemes to get Pikachu?

Despite the storm ending, the sea only gets worse, and Ash and Maron 'crash' the boat on the shore of one of the Islands. Pikachu runs off the instant they hit shore and Ash immediately follows.

Cut to Melody and the others who are continuing their journey to Ash and Maron. Melody rides a huge wave sideways to the island and along the way flips the boat but somehow it manages to land rightside up. They lose Team Rocket along the way, but they use the tarp as a parachute to ride the wind to the island. They also crash on the island and meet with Maron who stayed behind with the boat to make some tea. She tells them that Ash is at the shrine place to get the sphere and we get more unbelievableness when Melody suddenly transforms the boat into a sailboat and uses the wind to fly to Ash.................Oh and along the way the bottom of the boat is being scraped to hell by the stone stairs beneath them yet doesn't seem to be causing any damage.

We then get Melody, who I guess is starting to warm up to Misty, saying that Ash's girlfriend is here. Misty denies it again, but Melody uses Misty's words from before to validate it. (She's a girl and his friend, thus she's not technically wrong in saying 'girlfriend.')

Cut back to Ash who follows Pikachu to the shrine where the Fire Sphere is. Wow, thanks Pikachu. Without your help, Ash never would've known that that he needed to climb the steps to the shrine and grab the sphere. That thing he came here to do.

They go back to the boat, but on their way they come across Team Rocket who break the fourth wall by saying:

Jessie: “Prepare for more trouble than you've ever seen.”

James: “And make it double, we're on the big screen!”

And even Ash gets in on this:

Ash: “I'll have to catch this on video!”

Video, yeah....that won't be dated to say in another.....two maybe three years, 4Kids.

Melody and the others crash in on the scene right when Jessie says their ship has come in (which would actually be somewhat funny if that were a ship and not a motor/sailboat.) And of course there's not a damn scratch on that boat that should be in ribbons by now. Boats are typically made of fiberglass, aluminum or wood, not adamantium.

Melody and Misty have more banter about her being Ash's girlfriend, this time stating that they're going to get married some day. Jessie chimes in on the subject and says dealing with the opposite sex is nothing but trouble; and yes she actually said 'sex'. I know in this context it's innocent, but that is still high on a list of words I thought would never be uttered in a 4Kids production. James says he stays out of that stuff (which is likely a very tiny poke to his ex-fiancee back home, but maybe I'm giving them too much credit that they would think to reference that.) and Meowth wants to bring in the Rocket-shippers by saying they don't need the opposite sex (they said it again! :-0) because they have each other. This gets Jessie and James angry at Meowth because I guess the only person in the Pokemon universe who can talk about these things comfortably is Brock. Granted, Misty and Ash get a bit of a pass since they're so young but aren't Jessie and James in their twenties or something?

Zapdos appears and Pikachu tries to communicate with it by using Electric attacks. He asks why it's on Fire Island and where Moltres is, and Zapdos responds by saying Moltres is gone so he's running things on both Fire and Lightning Islands now.

Zapdos shows off it's electricity and we see that his lightning bolts are being absorbed by Lawrence' ship. Drained of its power, it's an easy target for him to capture. But this time's different because the rings are SQUARE now. OooOOOhhh. Also, for some stupid reason, the rings also pick up Ash and the others. I'd say those were horribly programmed, but it's probably just a lazy way to get them onto the ship to confront Lawrence.

Ash and the others meet Lawrence (btw where'd the boat go?) who talks about his legendary bird collection.

Misty: “That's disgusting! The way you talk, you act like Pokemon are things to collect, like dolls or stamps!”

….......I'm going to go ahead and say 'hypocrite' again. Pokemon is not only about battles, it's about COLLECTING all of the Pokemon in existence. You know how your tag line is 'Gotta catch 'em all!' and how Pokemon Masters are supposedly people who have caught all Pokemon known to man? I get it, you're saying that Pokemon shouldn't be viewed as objects in a collection and need to be treated as living beings, but you're specifically saying Pokemon aren't meant to be collected at all. Even if you truly love your Pokemon, it's insanely difficult nay impossible to give love and affection to all of the Pokemon that you have. Look at Ash's Pokemon. He favors one over all and keeps several Pokemon with Professor Oak who hardly ever see their trainer unless he's going into a league match. Misty herself does the same thing, she babies Togepi for eons even though the damn thing should've been kept in a Pokeball or used for battle purposes at least a year after it was born. Wasn't Ash using Phanpy and Larvitar soon after they were born? Eh I'm getting off track. Imagine if Ash really were actually good at catching Pokemon and caught more than a handful every year. His other Pokemon really would just amount to being marks in his Pokedex since he obviously dislikes switching out his main team.

And need I remind everyone that the Pokemon games are commonly seen as being more about collecting and getting new Pokemon than battling? Sure we love the stories, we like fighting gym leaders etc. but in the end what keeps us coming back is usually the desire to catch more Pokemon and complete our Pokedexes. That's also the reason why more and more Pokemon get released through the years. In fact, isn't that Red's mission in the manga? To fill the Pokedex? Doesn't that mean his main mission is collecting? I just think this line should've been worded a lot better to avoid seeming, like the last movie, hypocritical.

Lawrence' computer detects Articuno approaching and he goes off to capture it next.

I guess another thing that bugs me about this movie is the fact that the balance of nature just keeps going out of whack because the legendary birds.....are dicks. Oh Moltres is gone! I, Zapdos, will now take over its territory and show off like a colossal douche! Oh Moltres and Zapdos are gone! I, Articuno, will now take over all of the territories and show off like a colossal douche! The only one I can't really call a dick right now is Moltres because it was captured first, but seeing as how they all show basically the same mindset and personality, I can't imagine it would've been all innocent if either Zapdos or Articuno went before it.

Cut to the news reports where they're showing that extremely odd and severe weather conditions are occurring all over the globe and every Pokemon in existence is heading to Shamuti Island to help if they can. Professor Oak, Professor Ivy and Mrs. Ketchum are heading towards Shamuti Island as well in a helicopter. Here we get Professor Oak's science dump as he explains that the balance of nature occurring in the epicenter of Shamuti, Fire, Ice and Lightning Islands actually makes some sense considering that I guess life and in turn the balance of nature and the water currents in the sea of the Orange Islands gets created when you mix fire, ice and lightning. When any one of these factors is gone (and the others turn out to be assholes), the currents and balance of nature get thrown off which causes worldwide disturbances somehow.

But enough of what passes for science in the Pokemon world, we need another scene with Slowking!

Slowking: .......*sigh* “I need pants.”

And that was Slowking, everybody! Give him a round of WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN THIS MOVIE!?

We see Articuno freezing everything and starting perpetual winter before we cut back to Ash and the others. Melody, seeing that Lawrence has a stone tablet with the legend written on it, believes the legend may be coming true. They state that, if it is indeed coming true, they have to set Moltres and Zapdos free to restore the balance.

Ash decides to try to free Moltres by running into its cage like an idiot because he's an idiot. Oh yes, that cage keeping that LEGENDARY POKEMON captive is no match for me, a 10 year old boy. Come to think of it, he also tried punching Mewtwo in the first movie. Does Ash have delusions of being a super legendary Pokemon or something?

Lawrence proceeds with trying to capture Articuno by using fireballs while Ash tries to break Moltres' cage. I guess this takes place at least after Ash tames Charizard because it obeys him when he lets it out—wait that directly contradicts the scene with the theme song....I'm confused again...

Anyway, he uses Pikachu and Charizard to try to break the cage, but it's not working. Team Rocket tries to use Arbok and Weezing to free Zapdos, but obviously that won't work either.

Ash realizes he has more Pokemon and calls out Squirtle and Bulbasaur to help. Their combined attacks somehow make an explosion that frees Moltres....I guess if fire, ice and lightning can make water currents, life and the balance of nature, fire, water, lightning and vine whips can make a bomb....According to the Bulbagarden comparison, how this was accomplished is actually explained by Tracey who has been all but useless this entire serie—err movie. His scene was cut for the dub for whatever reason, but Dogasu seems to believe it may have something to do with the fact that Tracey's basically listing off instructions for how to make a bomb, but really they could've left that in with different dialogue. Not like 4Kids is afraid of dialogue changes.

Moltres frees Zapdos with its fire and they break out of the ship, blasting the ship with fire and lightning in revenge and to stop his actions once and for all......Yeah, you do realize that the kids who freed you are on that ship—nah, nah, let it crash. I'm sure they won't die horribly or anything.

They manage to escape the ship after it crashes and Ash stumbles (literally) upon the sphere of lightning as the shrine it was in gets crushed by the ship. Seeing as how these are supposed to be GLASS spheres, that thing should be glitter by now, but okay.

Anyway, the three legendary birds are fighting each other for some reason. (Did they really get drunk on the power they had over three uninhabited islands that they reigned over for a few hours each?)

The group heads back to Carol's boat which must've been made on Krypton, 4Kids makes a poop joke (classy), and the boat ends up getting flung all over the place due to the chaos. They fall off of a cliff and get caught by a water cyclone with the best timing ever. Team Rocket gets in a life raft before the boat is chucked on the shrine on Shamuti Island.

The group meets Slowking who tells Ash to take the spheres and put them on the shrine. Because God knows he wasn't intending on doing that all along.

He places the spheres in front of the views of their respective islands on the shrine, but he's still missing the sphere of ice.

We see the birds fighting some more and the water cyclone returns again to push them away from each other. The water disperses! What's that in the sky!? It's a bird! It's a plane! Its—Nope, it's a bird. Nevermind.

Actually, I'll give the movie credit. While Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno don't do much besides get captured and fight like children, Lugia does get some pretty good buildup and a nice reveal. I especially like the shot where we get a view from inside the water cyclone and see a silhouette of Lugia.

Lugia tries to quell the fighting, but now they're all teaming up against Lugia because....they're dicks. I really can't determine any other explanation besides that.

The birds all fight, and it's actually a pretty cool fight.....if it weren't for the fact that the legend outright tells us the outcome.....

Lugia falls from the attacks and gets sealed under the sea.

Cut back to the helicopter where Ivy, Oak and Delia just basically reinforce the plot for us. I really have to ask what their purpose is in this movie too. Oak and Ivy kinda make sense because they want to see if they can help, but the only reason that Delia's here is....I honestly don't know. She's worried about Ash, sure, but A) She only knows Ash is in the Orange Islands. There's no way she knows Ash is on Shamuti Island since even he didn't know he'd be going there that day. B) Bad weather is no reason to trek halfway across the country in a helicopter without even a rescue team or anyone qualified to do something if he was in danger.

Delia had a huge role in the third movie, which makes her appearance there completely understandable, but I don't get why she's in this movie.

Speaking of rescue teams, is there no military or coast guard or police or any damn thing in the Pokemon world? There's a news chopper heading to Shamuti Island with two professors and a worried mother on board but no official rescue crews or any other investigators or teams.

All of the Pokemon, even the ones who can't fly or swim and are using the ice Articuno made to travel, arrive at Shamuti and....stand there. Great job, guys! Keep it up and you'll almost be as useful as Slowking!

They talk about what they can do to stop this and say that the legend only says 'Alone its song will fail and thus the earth shall turn to Ash.' But wait, that can be a play on words! Don't we know someone named Ash?......*Gasp* ASH FROM THE EVIL DEAD?!.....Oh it's just sucky Ash... Ash suddenly becomes very unnerved by the idea of being the 'chosen one' now that he knows the world's fate rests on his shoulders....Dude, you already got two spheres that you were only collecting for the sake of a dumb festival. I think you can manage one more.

And I am really getting fed up with this 'chosen one' crap. My beefs with Ash aside, it really is one of the most cliché things you could ever do. I really think it would've been more interesting if either it was just a case of anyone bringing the spheres back or if they decided that Misty, Tracey and Ash needed to go to one of the islands each to get their spheres. Make Misty go to Ice Island for the Ice Sphere because it's related to water, Ash can go to Lightning Island because his trademark Pokemon is Pikachu and have Tracey go to Fire Island because that's the one that's left. Make each journey a really cool one that you can mesh together to make the bulk of the movie. Make Ash's the more 'epic' one if it's that important. But come on. Ash is really the only one doing things, besides maybe Melody, over the course of this entire movie. Everyone else has been relatively useless. It makes it both cliché and boring; and when you already have a boring villain who is barely even there, that makes a big problem to me.

Anyway, we get a kinda funny joke and Melody says Lugia sounds just like the legend song that she plays on her flute thing. As she plays it, Lugia starts to glow and get rejuvenated by the song. Then.....*sigh* Lugia talks.

I have no qualms against legendary Pokemon talking, and it's not like Lugia has a bad voice because he doesn't. Not as good Mewtwo's voice, but still good. I just feel like....we could've done without Lugia talking. Its lines are really almost entirely to tell us what we already know and what the kids could've easily figured out for themselves in a few minutes. Mewtwo had a point with it talking. It had an entire storyline all its own; in fact, the movie is basically about Mewtwo with Ash and the others just being a part of it. Entei was also a very focal part of the third movie and thus it was very understandable that it talked, but I can see no real reason why Lugia needs to talk here. We have quite literally everything laid out for us in the legend already. Lugia, despite being awesome, doesn't really have a story about it (just moreso around it) so I see no reason why it needs to talk. It doesn't even get many lines. It has like ten or so lines. It makes Lugia seem....less awesome to me is all.

So Lugia explains, as I said, what we already know ten times over, and Lugia explains why Ash is the only one who can place the spheres....because they only glow around the chosen one and they need to glow to work.....Still doesn't explain why someone else can't retrieve the spheres and have Ash just place them where they need to go, but it's something.....a really tiny still confusing something.

Ash is still unsure but Pikachu and his other Pokemon just pop out of their Pokeballs to tell Ash he can do it (besides Lapras because...*shrug*). Ash starts crying his eyes out, which, while being understandable, seems out of character to me. Ash has cried before but crying in the face of a challenge just seems weird for him.

Melody and Misty say they believe he can do it too and he instantly perks back up and says he can do it because he's the chosen one afterall. There's our headstrong annoying Ash!

We cut to Ash walking to Ice Island and, right after we cut away from him saying 'Afterall, I'm the chosen one!' he says 'right now I feel more like the FROZEN one!' HAHAHAHAH! Oh 4Kids, your sense of humor never ceases to make me roll my eyes.

Also, considering everything is mostly still frozen, it makes me believe Articuno is winning this fight.

Ash finds Carol's finally broken boat (yeah it survived all that crap but gets destroyed from falling like 100 feet.) and takes a piece of it to use as a sled while Charizard, Squirtle and Bulbasaur pull it....Pikachu's not because that type of menial work is beneath Messiahchu.

He races to Ice Island with Lugia behind him (I would ask why he's not riding Lugia, but Lugia needs to keep the other legendary birds at bay because they're still dicks who have taken to attacking Ash for no good reason).

Back on Shamuti, Team Rocket watches as Ash goes off to be the hero again and they want a chance to be heroes for a change. As they say that, the news helicopter crashes right next to them (everyone on board is perfectly fine) and they get an idea.

Despite their best efforts, the birds destroy Ash's sled nearly make him plunge into the water. Ash recalls Charizard because...I don't know. I guess they didn't want Charizard to be right next to him when he says he'll never find a way to get to Ice Island now....Because, ya know....Charizard is big and can fly.

Team Rocket shows up having turned the life raft into an airboat by using the propeller from the helicopter. I would also question this, but it's Team Rocket. And they state that they want to be good guys for a change and help out.

I much prefer Team Rocket when they're being good guys. I would say I'd like them to be good guys all the time, but I think I'd lose my appreciation for those rare moments when they are if they did. Having them being crappy villains who sometimes show their nicer side actually makes them more interesting characters to me.

Lugia holds off the birds while Ash and Team Rocket make it to Ice Island. Ash gets the sphere, but the birds return to cause trouble. They destroy the airboat, block their only exit and even fell Articuno in the process.

They manage to climb their way out and Lugia stops by to pick up Ash to return him to the Island....but wait, that means the excuse I gave before for Lugia not giving Ash a ride is void now. Moltres and Zapdos are still causing trouble, why does Lugia find it safe to give him a ride now if that was the reason for not giving him one beforehand?

Not that it matters because we'll soon see that it really wasn't safe.

Team Rocket manage to grab onto Lugia's leg and they head toward the island. The birds keep attacking and Team Rocket realizes that they're too heavy and are slowing Lugia down. Team Rocket decides to let go to lighten Lugia's load and we get one of my favorite lines from Team Rocket.

Jessie: “Let's not say goodbye!”

James: “Let's just say...”

Meowth: “We're gonna die!”

Not only is that legitimately (somewhat morbidly) funny, but it's also a very rare instance where 4Kids actually says 'die'.

But of course they're not going to die. Despite falling like 500 feet and crashing into the iced over and freezing cold waters below, they're perfectly fine.

Ash asks why all of those Pokemon are gathering at the islands and Lugia says because they know something's wrong and they want to be there just in case they can do something to help. We get the moral of this movie 'the power of one' and all that, and Lugia says they're not sure what they can do to help but even if only one of them could be of service, it would be worth the journey for thousands of them, but the one with the power to help the situation now is Ash.....So...yeah, the Pokemon being there is pointless, really, besides to drive home the moral. I don't particularly mind them there as it kinda adds to the weight of the ordeal, but there's really no actual point in them being here.

Actually, they could have a point. How about some of them fight off the other legendary birds instead of watching them fight like it's WWE?

Anyway, Lugia and Ash are close to the island, but Lugia is suddenly ensnared by Lawrence' rings! Oh yeah, I forgot he was a part of this movie! Also, these rings are triangles now. So....were Articuno's going to be pentagons or what went on there?

Lugia blasts through the rings and Lawrence' ship with Aeroblasts, but is so drained from the encounter than he falls into the water.

Melody wants to go after Ash after seeing them fall, but Misty says she'll go get him because we need some more AAML with this line.

Misty: “And Ash is never really alone because he has....me.”

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. The Orange League really had a thing about AAML now that I think about it. First Danny then Rudy now the second movie. Weird how the Johto League didn't follow up much.

So now I guess Melody and Misty are friends, and Misty goes off to save Ash.

….Ya know, seeing as how Ash's Pokemon have already shown once in this movie that they're not against letting themselves out of their Pokeballs for the sake of helping Ash with this, even if it's just a pep talk, why wouldn't Lapras think now's a good time to pop out and save Ash from drowning? Hell, Pikachu could let it out if it wanted to, it's done it before. Oh well, the rescue scene is pretty good so I can't complain much.

Misty saves Ash who gets revived merely by gently shaking him and he weakly goes to place the Ice Sphere on the shrine.

Slowking tells Ash to place the ice sphere on the shrine because this movie really loves to constantly repeat what the characters need to do.

Ash does so and the three spheres glow together to make green light....Pretty sure that's not the color you'd get with red, blue and yellow. I know you'd get green with blue and yellow, but the red would make it brown, right? Well, that probably wouldn't be as appealing of a color.

Green water also pours out of the shrine and surrounds it, covering the pillars in the water and crystallizing them. Melody plays her song, and I'm not going to lie, I really love this part of the movie. The song, both regular flute and orchestral, are great, the visuals match up with the song very well and it just seems like a really epic part of the movie.

The green water spreads out across the ocean to the various islands and the song awakens Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres....I don't know when Moltres and Zapdos fell, but they did. The birds start flying around, this time in a happy manner, and Lugia makes its grand reentrance.

Lugia takes Ash for a ride around the islands as the weather clears and they celebrate their triumph. A giant CGI water cyclone pops out because....I don't really know. I guess that's the water current that got out of whack when the birds got captured, but I can't be entirely sure. Only reason I'm uncertain is because the current is extending in the sky above everyone like a rainbow instead of just being underwater.

The birds return to their respective islands and we see that the worldwide weather disturbances have ceased.

Fast forward a couple of hours because sunset light makes everything look awesome. Lugia praises Ash for a job well done and takes his leave.

We get some reflection before Delia and the professors happen upon the scene. She's angry with Ash at first for....being in a place that just suffered from horrible weather conditions....Seriously, it's not like she saw footage of Ash during any of this doing dangerous stuff, she only knows that he was in the Orange Islands at the time that this happened. By all logic, she didn't even know Ash was on Shamuti Island. She then admits that she was just worried about him and that she constantly misses him while he's away. She says that Ash is always her hero. Awww. This line actually was a little more impacting considering I initially wrote this on Mother's Day.

That was real nice and sweet and all, but still I find no reason for Delia to be here at all.

Professor Oak and Ivy leave for their labs to tell the other Pokemon researchers about what they witnessed instead of asking ANY questions to the people who were in the center of it all or doing any investigating or doing anything they were supposedly here to do.

Cut back to Lawrence and his now completely destroyed ship. He sees his ancient Mew card and says “where it all began....and where I'll begin...again.” The line is said in a gentle tone, but that line has a severely negative implication. He's going to do this ALL OVER AGAIN in the future. What else could this line mean? They make off like this experience changed him when we have no evidence to support that beyond the gentle music in the background prompting us to think that way. Even after his ship was destroyed the first time and he saw the destruction that was going on around him, he still gladly tried to ensnare Lugia in his trap for his collection. We saw no moment of clarity or sudden change of heart due to something he was witnessing, his ship just blew up after Lugia attacked and now we're suddenly supposed to just believe he's turned good now. This villain is so forgettable and bland that I'm 90% sure they just up and forgot to write a legitimate story for him and just used him as a plot device to get the legend started.

In our final scene, Team Rocket climbs out of the water and says how great it was that they were good for a change, but it's a shame no one was around to see it. Come to think of it, Ash didn't want to go back and help them out of the water? Because it looks like it took them all night to get out. What an ass. They helped him save the world and almost died for his cause yet he won't even take Lapras out to give them a lift.

Slowking says people did see the good that they did and breaks the fourth wall by saying those same people are still watching right now. That cheers Team Rocket up and they banter about how they'll deal with being good guys now. It's fairly funny, actually. And the movie ends.

=================

In regards to our credits, like the first movie, I really like the visuals that accompany the music as it kinda wraps up some things kinda. One thing I don't get is Maron leaving on her own. We see her leave Shamuti Island and then cut to Ash and the others having a campfire in some mountain. It seems like her character was only useful for providing a second boat, because Ash almost always travels on Lapras.

Anyway, the first song is 'The Power of One' and while it's a fairly nice song, it's also our dose of preachiness for the movie. I commend them for waiting until the very ending to shove their message down our throats, but it's still there.

One of the shots focuses on Tracey drawing a passing boat that we don't see. And that's about as much as he does the entire movie. Whoo!

Hey, let's ruin this fairly relaxing song with shoving a sudden polka song, Polkamon by Weird Al, in our faces.

Don't get me wrong, I love Weird Al, but that is one of the most jarring musical transitions I've ever heard. “The poweerrr....of ooooooonnnnneeee.....” “DNANANANANANANA-NANANA KRABBY SNUBBULL VENONAT! MANKEY CHANSEY AND ZUBAT! SLOWKING DITTO BUTTERFREE! LUGIA AND CATERPIE! ONIX POLIWAG GOLDEEN! ELEKID AND NIDQUEEN! VICTREEBEL AND MAGNETON! EVERYBODY POLKAMON!” It's weird, though, I have memorized that song far more than the Pokerap. Also, this song is kinda wasted on Weird Al since there's no jokes in it. He's just listing off the names of various Pokemon.

Then we transition back just as jarringly with 'Flying Without Wings' by Westlife and I really love this song. It's also kinda corny, but I really like it.

Bottomline: And that was Pokemon Movie 02. I have to say that while it's not nearly as much of a vomit-worthy chore to sit through as the dubbed first movie....this movie is just not all that good. The plot is constantly being thrown in your face and it eventually gets to the point where it's like Dora the Explorer. Hey now we have the ice sphere! What do we do next?! *clicks shrine* You're right!

Not to mention the plot itself is cliché in nearly every aspect. The 'villain' really amounts to nothing but a plot device to make the balance go out of whack. He's boring, completely forgettable, and it even seems like the movie forgets he exists at several points. Many characters do absolutely nothing to further the plot. Delia, Tracey, Slowking and the professors may as well have not been in the movie period they were so pointless, Misty saved Ash once and we got various AAML fan-pandering and a slight love triangle with the guy being completely oblivious, but other than that she did nothing. Melody and Team Rocket (surprisingly) were the only other side characters who actually did anything useful during the entire movie.

I love the three legendary birds and Lugia is really cool in this movie. I will stand by what I said about not needing to hear it talking, but it's not that big of a deal.

Overall......Ehhhhh. Like I said, this movie's not a huge chore to sit through, and there are several parts that are awesome, but it's definitely not that great.

Art: Cleaner and more fluid than the TV series, obviously. It's actually quite nice for the most part. You'll notice several instances of CGI throughout the film, but they're actually really quite good about integrating it well with the cel shaded art. Sadly, past movie 03 they only get worse at this IMO.

Music: Pretty damn good. Some of the vocal soundtrack's a bit cheesy, but it's still good to me. The legend song in particular, especially the orchestral version, is awesome to listen to.

Recommended Audience: Nothing offensive, really. E for everyone!

Pokemon Extravaganza, SHORTIES! Pikachu and Pichu Review

(http://i.imgur.com/VTUTksa.jpg)

Rating: 7/10

Plot: Ash, Misty and Brock have arrived at nonspecific oddly American looking big city. Pikachu and all of the other Pokemon are let out of their Pokeballs to have some fun on the roof of some building while Ash and the others plan a big surprise. However, when Pikachu gets made fun of by a Pichu in a building across the street, he ends up falling from the roof and landing on the other building with the Pichu Bros. Can Pikachu make it back in time before Ash returns?

Reasons for Rating: And now for the short that accompanied Movie 03, Pikachu and Pichu, otherwise known as “That one with the Pichu Bros.” and.....I really don't remember jack about this short. I remember it taking place in a city and the Pichu bros., of course, I remember there being a Smeargle....that's about it. Oh and I remember the ending being the cause of much discussion seeing as how many people take this as proof that at least one year has gone by since the start of the series, which I don't really believe given how much has gone on between then and now. Also, it's hard to take that as canon when the series keeps insisting that Ash is and always will be 10 years old.

As for Pichu....I don't particularly care for it. Really its existence makes me think they wanted a 'chibi' Pikachu that they could market even harder than Pikachu. And lest we forget the pointless novelty of spike-eared Pichu and even Ukelele Pichu (proudly following in the footsteps of surfing Pikachu....also where are the damn novelty Raichu? What a friggin' rip off.) Pichu's existence never made full sense to me. That means Ash got an evolved Pokemon as his first Pokemon, and Pikachu was a huge brat when we first met it which makes it hard for me to believe that Pikachu evolved from a full happiness Pichu. Unless that's another part of Pikachu's backstory that they'll never explore.

I do remember the music being a snappy new change, so there's that. Well, let's start, shall we?

===============================

Ash and the others are in some unspecified city. They let out all of their Pokemon on the top of some random building/hotel(?) because they have stuff to do. However, even this doesn't make much sense to me. It makes sense that Ash wouldn't want Pikachu around to keep from spoiling the surprise, but why let out all of the other Pokemon, which they hardly ever do? Just to keep Pikachu company? They say they'll be back at six o'clock and leave.

At this point I should mention that the copy I'm using is the Japanese video spliced in with the English audio track, so the theme songs are not the same. The Japanese version has an entire theme song here, but they completely amputate it from the short in the dub. They skip the entire theme song animations just to splice in their own opening which is just the title card translated to English, Pikachu meeting with the Pichu bros. and having the city background appear for a second before a dual page transition goes back to the short.

The 'theme' is just the jazzy like track that was made for this short. The Japanese theme is okay, but pretty forgettable. I should also mention that this and the end theme removal are really the only two differences between the original and English versions.

As the Pokemon are playing, Pikachu comes across two Pichu, one of which starts mocking Pikachu from a building across the street. Pikachu makes faces back and Pichu climbs out on a ledge. Pichu's brother, let's call him tuffed hair Pichu, tries to keep him from going out on the ledge and getting hurt while Pikachu climbs out onto a flag pole to warn him as well, which just furthers the question of why the hell did they let out all of their Pokemon to play ON THE TOP OF A BUILDING!? I get it, it's all fancified meaning that people can hang out on the roof without issue, but there's no guardrails and it can't be all that safe if Pikachu can perch itself on a nearby flagpole on the side of the building with no problem. Imagine what would happen if dopey Psyduck got turned around up there.

Anyway, Pikachu looks down to realize where he is and wow, cars! Lots of 'em! Ya know, I keep feeling like they're in some American city from the way they keep portraying it. The buildings, atmosphere, music etc. just give the feeling like they're in America somewhere. It definitely doesn't give the same vibe as other cities seen earlier in Pokemon. Even Celadon city felt a lot different than this.

Anyway, not only does Pikachu freak out because of this, but a few Murkrow also come out and peck at him since he's on their perch. He falls, but grabs onto the always handy rope that is always below in these situations.

The Murkrow aren't deterred, however, as they also peck at the rope to make Pikachu fall. So, in conclusion, Murkrow are murderers....which makes sense because a flock of crows is called a murder. Next time on Law and Order: Johto Unit.

We pan down to Meowth who is washing windows sans Jessie and James, but this time they actually give a reason for this that makes a lot of sense. They tricked him into a window washing job so they could get extra money. Since it has been shown several times in the series that Jessie, James and Meowth do get jobs sometimes and many of those jobs tend to be separate from each other, this makes perfect sense.

Murkrow starts untying the rope when a breeze carries a bunch of Hoppip into the Murkrow's face, making him drop the rope and Pikachu. The rope somehow swings up which allows Pikachu to fly up and bounce on all of the Hoppip. However, when he gets to the last of them, he falls onto Meowth's washing platform, which causes a see-saw effect and sends Meowth flying into a nearby billboard.

Pikachu climbs up to meet the Pichu bros. but is upset when he finds out that none of the other Pokemon can hear him and help him get back to the other building. So that means that, unlike the other shorts where we got small groups of the Pokemon mostly made up of Ash's with some of Misty's Tracey's and Brock's.....this short just releases them for a few seconds and puts the entire focus on Pikachu and Pichu until the very end where they all reunite. I get it, it's the title of the short, but come on! The other Pokemon get such little screen time. It's almost mocking to let them all out for play time but give them absolutely nothing to do.

The Pichu Bros. offer to take Pikachu back to the other building. They make their way out, but land on a bus, which only leads them further away. The Pichu Bros don't seem to care (jerks) and the bus takes a sudden turn which causes the three to fly off of the bus and into a nearby river.

Everything seems okay for a bit until a ferry in the shape of a Lapras shows up and is about to run them over. Pikachu and Pichu try to get away, but they succumb to Prometheus syndrome with not realizing that there are directions beyond forward. Luckily, a Gyarados suddenly shows up and sends the three flying again....Pokemon shorts really do involve a lot of Pokemon being flung around like ragdolls. Also, this is a manmade river, why the hell is a Gyarados in there!? Do you love scaring the crap out of the people on the ferry boat and putting them in danger for no reason?

The three fall into some alleyway onto a Houndour who starts chasing them around. He corners them, but the wonder twins use their electric powers to shock Houndour. However, “Too bad Pichu can't use electric attacks without shocking themselves!” I didn't realize this, but according to the Wiki page, this is actually legit, which makes Pichu a pretty damn awful Pokemon to have in battle, if you ask me.

So the Pichu end up knocking themselves out due to the electricity, and to make matters worse, Houndour's not affected that badly and starts chasing them again, this time with Pikachu carrying the Pichu Bros. Pikachu bounces off of a random Snorlax's belly YET AGAIN! For the love of God, he's not a trampoline or an air bag! Stop making this a theme in the shorts!

Houndour tries to follow, but Snorlax moves when he tries to jump on him, causing Houndour to land on the ground instead and get squashed when Snorlax moves back. Well, he's dead. A moment of silence for Houndour.

(http://i.imgur.com/1qswFPL.jpg?1)

They arrive at some fort made of tires and pipes and we discover that this is actually a little hideout for the Pichu Bros and their friends, a whole bunch of other Pokemon with many of them being new pre-evos. Oh and we get ANOTHER Pokemon misidentification. This time a Voltorb says 'Electrode' instead. I'm going to give 4Kids a slight pass here since, like Poliwhirl/Wrath, they look very similar, but 4Kids should really know better by now or at least know to double check this crap.

They screw around with all of the Pokemon to eat up two minutes of screentime. When they're done, the other Pokemon leave and they realize that it's getting awfully late. Pikachu has to be back before Ash returns so he asks the Pichu Bros to lead him there. They start to leave but AH ZOMBIE!! Oh, I guess Houndour lived through that. Houndour arrives and starts chasing them around again, causing the big tire fort to fall over, burying Houndour in huge heavy tires. Well, I guess he's dead again. A moment of silence for twice dead Houndour.

(http://i.imgur.com/63Z57Kn.jpg?1)

Also, why is Pikachu not attacking Houndour? It's shocked people and Pokemon for lesser reasons.

Anyway, Houndour's not dead again, instead he's minorly stuck I think maybe. Pikachu and the Pichu Bros help him out and they're instant friends I guess. Another part of the fort starts falling over and Houndour and Pikachu try to save it, but they're slipping fast. The Pichu Bros then call their friends back to help out...where were they going anyway? Do they have owners? Where else would they be living besides at that fort?

The Pokemon band together to save the fort, even Cubone, the Pokemon who cares only about itself. And, really, guys, hire a licensed contractor next time. The design of that thing? No wonder it fell so easily.

So the fort is saved, hip hip hooray! And you know that's also a recurring theme in these shorts; a bunch of random Pokemon coming together to solve a problem and fix stuff.

Anyway, Pikachu realizes what time it is and he and the Pichu Bros help him get back to the building by rolling in a tire. And on the way they run over Meowth....I would complain about his completely pointless part in this short, but this short is already basically Togepi-free, so there's a bonus. However, the Pichu Bros kinda act like Togepi a few times.

Pikachu returns, the Pichu Bros leave and Ash and the others return to show their big surprise to the Pokemon (mostly Pikachu).

So the owner of this place has no qualms with a giant snake made of rocks being in what looks like a very nice dining room? Okay.

Anyway, Ash reveals his surprise is a big party in honor of it being the anniversary of the first day he became friends with Pikachu. Geez, look at that setup.

(http://i.imgur.com/hKKifq3.jpg)

So much food and decorations and reserving a beautiful room too? Where the hell did Ash and the others get the money for this? They can usually just barely afford to feed themselves. Did they plan the fireworks too? Because I can't see any other reason for that.

This, btw, I find to be even more blatant favoritism considering he never does the same thing for any of his other Pokemon. Then again, he'd actually have to have his Pokemon for over a year to do that...BUT Squirtle and Bulbasaur are still around at this point, which means it shouldn't be far off from their one year anniversary yet, but nope, no party for them. They should've just said they wanted to make like an annual Pokemon appreciation party instead.

And thus our short ends....in the English version anyway. The Japanese version stays true to their ending credits sequences with fan art and song behind it. While the fan art is nice...did the kids who sent in the pictures get like a template to color in? Because all of the pictures in the start have the exact same pose and drawing quality. Unless this is just crudely drawn official art.

Whoever made the picture with Pidgeotto despite the fact that it was long gone before this short, my hat's off to you good sir or madam.

Art and Animation: The art is crisp and the animation was actually quite a bit better than normal. Some scenes were shaky, particularly the last shot you see of Pineco, but nothing that bad.

Music: I really enjoyed the jazzy soundtrack. It's a welcome change from the average Pokemon music we're used to.

Bottomline: I can't bring myself to say I'm crazy about this short. By all intents and purposes, it's completely harmless fun, but then again it is just a lot of hijinks with not a lot of story and any message is one we've already heard before in previous shorts; teamwork basically. Also, the stuff with Houndour was resolved so quickly and easily it's almost like it was a non-plot point. That being said, it does have the best art and animation quality of any of the shorts so far. The city looks very nice, many shots look great, the Pichu Bros didn't get annoying and there were never lulls in the fun like the second short. It's a pretty good short, but it is disappointing that none of the other Pokemon get to do anything.

Recommended Audience: E for eggplants! And everyone. Eggplants are people too!

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Pokemon Movie 03: Spell of the Unown Dub Review

(http://i.imgur.com/S9YY9yp.jpg)

Rating: 8/10

Plot: A little girl named Molly has mysteriously lost both of her parents. In her grief, she starts writing their names together with tiles that her father collected that are somehow connected to the mysterious Pokemon, Unown. As her tears fall on the tiles, they magically summon a group of Unown into her house (Because tears are magic, haven't you learned anything from these movies?!) and grant her any wish that she desires.

Her first wish? To have her father back.

An Entei appears as a creation of the Unown since Molly and her father previously joked about him being like Entei and he tasks himself with doing everything in his power to make her happy including kidnapping Ash's mom to complete their family. As Ash and the others go to save his mom, Molly becomes more comfortable with her newfound abilities and gives them a run for their money. Can anything truly beat the power of the Unown?

Reasons for Rating: YES! Finally! Pokemon movie 03; my absolute favorite Pokemon movie ever! I love this movie. Not just as a Pokemon movie, but just as a movie period. It has a touching story, a great legendary (Unown is supposed to be the main focus, but Entei's the real star), exciting moments, great music, Charizard returns to be a badass, and practically everything has a point! Also, the fate of the world isn't on the line for a change. Not to say it's perfect, it's not obviously, but I still believe it's the best out of all of the Pokemon movies I've ever seen by far. Well, let's get started so I can eventually have nothing really to look forward to in terms of the Pokemon movies....except maybe Heroes and possibly the Lucario movie but meh.

================================

Our movie starts out overlooking a mansion where a little girl named Molly Hale is being read to by her father Spencer Hale. Her father as well as Entei are voiced by Dan Green. Mandatory cheering session everyone!

And damn I want that Ponyta rocking horse. I don't care if I'd look like an idiot riding it, I want that.

(http://i.imgur.com/O2RwI9i.png?1)

He's explaining to her about legendary Pokemon through a book filled with pictures of the Pokemon. They talk about Unown and it's gently hinted at that Molly's mom was taken by the Unown. According to sources online, that is the canon explanation in the dub.

They don't really explain what happened to her mother very well in the dub. In fact, they don't explain at all, making the whole situation confusing. They eventually start talking about Entei, one of the legendary beasts. Molly really likes Entei and believes her father is like him because he's also big and strong while also being really nice. They play make-believe Entei for a bit and have a bunch of fun even riding the Ponyta rocking horse. Lucky bastards.

However, their fun is interrupted by a video call by Spencer's associate, Schuyler. Look, I hate to be an ass, but naming your kid Skylar is already douchey enough without spelling it like that.

He says they've found a temple with signs of Unown in it and he should come to the site right away. Spencer agrees, tucks Molly into bed and bids her goodbye while telling him that he loves her and to keep him close in her dreams.

Well, he's a goner.

Seriously, even if I hadn't seen the movie before, a picture-perfect scene of family togetherness like that can only result in his instant disappearance or death. It's just a given.

(http://i.imgur.com/LbZOeXB.png?1)

As the scene pans out, we see a picture of Spencer and Molly with Delia and a younger Ash implying that they are pretty good friends with the two....I have no clue why this picture is in Molly's room. Keeping that picture on her desk next to a picture of her family must mean that it means a lot to her, but she doesn't recognize Ash or Delia at all later. Spencer was pretty good friends with Delia, but I doubt Ash and Molly were good enough friends to do that. Also, there's only a two year gap between Molly and Ash according to the wiki. Must be quite the growth spurt between 8 and 10 in the Pokemon world because I assumed she was like 6. In addition, if they're so close why do we never see these characters again ever? Alright, I'm just confusing myself. Let's move on.

Spencer arrives at the dig site and it is indeed a pristine Unown temple. Spencer finds some tiles with Unown markings on them, which triggers the presence of the Unown who promptly kidnap him.

This is another thing that bothers me. In the dub, the explanation for Molly's mom's disappearance and supposedly Spencer's fixation on the Unown is that she went missing while investigating the Unown too (Again, this is based on outside sources and largely assumptions as the movie doesn't explain practically anything of her mother). Why do the Unown keep taking people? And if they do just randomly take people who touch their tiles, why did Molly get fairy godmother treatment instead? Sure, they were basically holding her in their dream world, but she wished to be there.

Schuyler and their butler or whoever that is tell Molly the bad news and Molly actually tries to investigate what happened to her dad by looking through his laptop....shouldn't the police have that? Oh right, cops in the Pokemon world. They're sure helpful. They're probably collaborating with the Gotham Police department on the case of how to continue to get other people to do their jobs for them. How long has it been since he disappeared? Because it seems like they just up and stopped looking for him the night after it happened.

Anyway, she spots pictures of the Unown on his computer and drops the priceless ancient artifact on the floor to play blocks with the also priceless Unown tiles. She spells out 'Papa' 'Mama' and 'Me' with the tiles in Scrabble fashion and this prompts the floating Alphabits to appear.

It's at this point where I really feel compelled to mention that the CGI for the Unown is just blech. Every other instance of CGI is pretty damn nice looking, but it's like they didn't put as much effort into the Unown. They look like Gamecube graphics....which might make sense considering when this was made and what company owns the system....

(http://i.imgur.com/uUtOiCD.png?1)

Anyway, they start turning everything to crystal because...I really don't understand what the Unown do at all. I guess they're allowed to be confusing because well that's their namesake and whatnot, but yeah if there's one general problem about this whole movie it's that the Unown don't make much sense in what they're doing or why.

Remembering her father's words on the legendary Pokemon and looking at the picture book on the page with Entei, she strongly wishes that her father would return and a dream Entei appears to grant her wish. I really love Entei. It's one of my favorite legendaries. Just seems like a really cool and majestic lion.

The entire mansion is soon covered in crystal and we get our title screen. It's really nicely done, but I should note something. 4Kids decided to add a little plate at the bottom of Spell of the Unown that says 'Entei' in Unown letters. That's fine and dandy and it is kinda neat that they spelled it in Unown letters, but...I guess...Why? I know I said Entei seems like the more prominent legendary (Unown aren't even legendary are they?) in the movie, but he's still not part of the given English title.

Hey, including the short, it's been nearly a half hour. Isn't it about time we got Dumbash and friends? Yes! We see Ash, Misty and Brock continuing on to Theyreallyneverspecifiywherethey'regoinginanyofthemoviesland.

Narrator: “As they travel into unknown territory.” HAHA! I get it! Unknown and Unown! It's funny!

Ash and the others run into another trainer, Lisa voiced by Lisa Ortiz. I'm actually more bothered by the fact that they specifically named this chick Lisa when she's voiced by Lisa Ortiz than I am by the fact that she's voiced by Lisa Ortiz.

I do like her hat, though.

(http://i.imgur.com/5T43Lcm.png?1)

Anyway, she challenges Ash to a battle, he accepts and we get our movie theme song version of Pokemon Johto. I actually really like this theme and this battle is set very well to the music.

Ash calls out Totodile while Lisa calls out a Granbull, but Granbull gets beaten by one Water Gun. Also, Ash and Totodile do an almost cheesy high-five in sunlight shot.

Next up, Ash calls on, urgh, Chikorita, who obviously snuggles Ash before battling while Lisa calls out a Girafarig. After a bit of battling, Girafarig defeats it with a Psybeam.

Ash calls out his Shiny Noctowl while Lisa uses her own little partner Pokemon, Aipom, but it seems like Aipom doesn't have those almighty partner Pokemon deus ex machina powers like Pikachu because he gets beaten with one tackle.

Lisa calls out Butterfree while Ash calls out Bulbasaur and he easily gets beaten with a Sleep Powder and Gust combo. Wow, it's not a good day to be a Grass type apparently.

Cyndaquil's up next and he's up against a Mankey. Hehe, hey Mankey, steal Ash's hat!

The match goes to Cyndaquil with a shot of Flamethrower. If there's one thing that kinda bothers me about these theme song battles it's that, because they have to fit in the time frame of 2-3 minutes, all of the matches are incredibly short and almost unrealistically won. Doesn't help that they're always 6v6 battles either.

Uh oh. It's a tie. I wonder if Messiahchu can win! Messiahchu is matched up fairly badly as Lisa's final Pokemon is the doofy Quagsire. Pfft. Considering Pikachu's beaten Onix, Golem, Rhydon, Nosepass and all sorts of other Ground types with irritatingly little issue, I can't see this--

*one failed Thundershock later*

Alright, I'm confused on so many levels.

So Pikachu tries to physically battle instead to no real avail until it launches itself off of a nearby swingset and headbutts Quagsire in really funny shot. Here's the deal. The Wiki says this match ended in a draw (which, if that's true, is a rarity.) but this last shot is set up like Pikachu won because it stood standing, albeit wobbly, longer than Quagsire did. Ash is cheering in the end, so it just seems like they're implying that he won.

They have lunch together and Misty states that their match was the fifth battle Ash has had this week. Wow, five battles in a week!? That's almost like training and work!

Misty asks where the nearest Pokemon center is and Lisa replies that there's one in a nearby town called Greenfield. Misty's super excited to go to Greenfield since it's supposed to be incredibly beautiful, but when they arrive they find that the entire town is covered in the Unown's crystal. Also, there's a sloppy zoom-in during this scene...and Team Rocket's here.

(http://i.imgur.com/ILRvDon.png?1)

Cut to a news crew who is talking about the phenomenon and they also mention that Spencer's wife did indeed disappear, but we move away from the TV before we can hear how or where. It was supposedly two years ago, though. We see Delia watching the news and when she hears that Spencer's house is in the midst of it, she rushes to the fridge and peels off a bunch of papers to reveal the same picture that Molly has in her room. Hm. Molly keeps that picture framed in her room, Delia keeps the picture pinned on the fridge under Chinese restaurant menus, grocery lists and likely a big sign that says 'REMIND ASH TO WEAR CLEAN UNDERWEAR EVERYDAY'.

We cut to Professor Oak who is also watching the news with Blandy and he talks about how Spencer was his best student (supposedly Delia was also his student according to some online sources, which is how Spencer and Delia were friends, but seeing as how her knowledge on the Pokemon world is extremely limited and she seems like an airhead, I can't imagine she was a good student. I also don't know what she was studying for. Did she want to be a researcher?)

Also, we get this screenshot littered with Engrish which I'm not sure I can blame 4Kids for. I'll keep it in the original resolution to allow you to read it.

(http://i.imgur.com/KwSvbdL.png)

...Dammit, I have to peak at the subbed version.

Nope it's the original's fault. You win this round, 4Kids. But, trust me, I'll have plenty of opportunities to mock you in the future. Still, what happened there, TPC? There's really no reason to put that text into English. I know they're wary of using Japanese at this point and people can't read Poke-ese, but if you felt the need to make that snippet English, at least pay for a proofreader.

Delia arrives and asks Oak if he's seen the news. He says yes and that he's planning to go to the scene to investigate. Delia says she's going too because she's worried about Molly. Here's hoping Oak actually does investigate some stuff and be useful instead of just spouting science babble that makes no impact to the plot.

They arrive at the scene and meet up with Ash and the others. I love how blasé Delia is about first seeing Ash. I think the ten-year-old kid that you only see like once or twice a year warrants more than an 'oh hi honey' when you randomly bump into him.

Molly sees Ash and Delia hugging on the news because that's really vital to put on the air right? Town turning to crystal? TURN THE CAMERA TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS OCCURRENCE HUGGING! The ratings will go through the roof!

Molly looks at her pictures and tells Entei that she wants a Mama too. Entei says he'll grant her wish and we cut back to Ash and the others who are...eating lunch? How many lunches do you people need?

Anyway, Delia and Ash talk about how Spencer used to live in Pallet Town before he went off to be a Pokemon researcher and moved to Greenfield. They visited once two years ago which is where the picture of them came from. Also, I find it hilarious that Oak taught Spencer yet he lives in a small research facility in Pallet Town but Spencer goes off to live in a huge mansion in the most beautiful town in Johto shortly after he becomes a researcher.

Ash says he somewhat remembers them, which I actually think contradicts a later line where he tells Molly that they used to play together all the time when they were little. That's also in contradiction to saying they only visited once.

Entei comes down from the mansion and hypnotizes Delia into being Molly's Mama.

(http://i.imgur.com/Xg3oKs5.png?1)

He kidnaps her and Pikachu tries to stop him, but to no avail. Wow, Pikachu's sucking today.

Ash also tries to pursue Entei, but Brock stops him because he thinks it's too dangerous.

I'm a little confused again. The Unown had no trouble making Molly an Entei Papa, why did he need to kidnap Delia to make her a mother? All she asked for was a mother; and in both of the pictures her real mother is there, so why not make a fake version of her real mother...In Pokemon form, I guess? He also could've made a fake Delia. *shrug*

I'm also a little confused as to Molly's delusions. It's somewhat understandable that she believes that her dad came back to her in the form of an Entei, but she believes her mom is Delia? Is this part of the Unown's powers or is she just going
(http://i.imgur.com/9XLrIMq.gif) ?

Anyway, we see that hypnotized Delia has accepted Molly as her child and now they're all a big happy family. After a quick scene explaining things we already know back at the lab, we cut to the Charicific Valley where we see Liza (Huh, I'm just now realizing that's another character voiced by Lisa Ortiz that has basically the exact same name.) watching the news report of Delia's abduction with Charla. Outside the window, Ash's Charizard watches the report and looks up into the sky.

Cut back to Greenfield where it's now nighttime, and someone with a bulldozer is trying to plow through the crystal fields. However, Molly won't stand for that and demands that they leave them alone. Her declaration causes the Unown to become more powerful and they knock the bulldozer away and cover it with even stronger crystals.

Back at the lab, we get more stuff we already know until Oak gets an Email from Molly which contains a video file warning them to stay away from the mansion and leave them alone.

Cut back to the mansion where we see Molly riding around her room on Entei who actually looks like he's smiling and I have to say this is a really adorable yet also very sad scene. It's cute because of what they're doing, but it's also sad because she's trying to mirror what she did with her actual father and seeing it from a third-person perspective just showcases the sad state of the delusion she's in.

(http://i.imgur.com/2TKa2qV.png?1)

Ash is fed up with waiting and decides to run off to the mansion on his own, but Misty and Brock soon follow behind. Lisa also stops them to give them her Pokegear so that he can communicate with Professor Oak while he's there. And now Lisa can leave because she's served her only functions of battling Ash for the opener and giving him the Pokegear. BTW is this our first sighting of Pokegear in the series? Since Ash doesn't know what it is, I'll guess it is.

They go through the stream to get to the mansion....guess no one ever thought to do that before now. And we cut to Team Rocket following them in their balloon. They believe since Ash and the others are going into the mansion, there must be valuable Pokemon in there....Well, okay. I'm not going to expect Team Rocket to think of anything beyond food, digging holes, building insane contraptions and valuable Pokemon. They also have some fairly humorous banter involving how Meowth hears the word 'wading'.

Entei spots them and blasts them out of the sky, but they surprisingly don't really blast off, they just sorta fall and crash into the crystal and end up in some weird part of the mansion.

BTW, Entei doesn't notice when people are just walking up the least protected part of the mansion?

Molly and Delia are watching the news as Entei returns and we see that Ash is using Bulbasaur and Chikorita's vine whip to climb up the stream into the mansion. Delia watches but isn't really reacting since she's under the Unown's power until Ash suddenly slips. Delia freaks out that Ash is doing something so dangerous. Molly asks why she's upset but Delia just decides to pretend that everything's alright.

Ash and the others make their way through the mansion when Oak calls on the Pokegear. He's upset that he left suddenly and without telling him, but decides to help him find his mother either way. He relays more information about the Unown and how apparently they can read the thoughts and dreams of people and create their own realities, which they seem to have been doing for Molly.....Still doesn't explain why they kidnapped Spencer and his wife, but whatever. Maybe they dreamed to be kidnapped.

Ash tries to break through a crystal structure with Cyndaquil's flamethrower, but they soon realize that it just closes up instantly. One of them, surprisingly, decides to be smart and they come up with the plan of using Cyndaquil and Vulpix to burn a big hole in the crystal then using Staryu and Totodile's Water Gun to keep it open. It works, even though I don't know why the crystal can't affect water, and they make it through.

That's another reason I really like this movie. Many of the Pokemon, even ones from Misty and Brock, are actually getting plenty of stuff to do instead of just making slight cameos in the opening or just being let out for literally no reason like in the first movie. And what they're doing is actually needed and makes sense.

As they make their way upstairs, the Unown change the reality again and make the staircase into a bunch of floating panels that lead into a room that looks like a beautiful meadow.

(http://i.imgur.com/shkIJKE.png?1)

Cut back to Team Rocket where they discover the room with the Unown but nothing really happens.

James: “I haven't seen this many strange letters since the last time I placed a personal ad.” Haha. Team Rocket's actually getting some good lines today.

Molly's still watching the news (yeah kid you have a pet Entei and an entire reality all to yourself, but watch the news for five hours. That's much more interesting.) and she believes that Ash and the others are in the mansion. Entei asks if she wants him to send them away, but Molly, knowing that Ash is a Pokemon trainer, decides that she wants to battle them instead. She dreams of being a trainer and Entei disappears with a fake version-ish-maybe-her-consciousness-I-Dunno of Molly who says that maybe she's not old enough for Pokemon. Entei tells her to believe that she is and she magically transforms into a teenager. The minimum for being a Pokemon trainer is supposed to be ten years old, but sure why not?

Teenage Molly confronts Ash and the others for a battle, but Ash just wants to know where his mom is. They realize that the teenager is actually Molly and Ash decides to accept her challenge, but Brock decides to battle in his place so they can find Ash's mom while he staves her off.

Molly dreams up a battle field and they begin their battle. Brock uses Zubat while Molly uses a dream Flaafy. Brock gets the upperhand with confusion, but Zubat gets felled by a Thundershock.

Next up, Brock uses his Vulpix and Molly calls out a dream Teddiursa.

Brock: “Figures a cute Pokemon trainer would have a cute Pokemon.” GAH! Brock! She's still eight years old, you sick bastard!

They're pretty even for a bit, but Teddiursa wins by I guess a Fury Swipes or Tackle, it's hard to tell. Technically this match should be over since they're only dealing in one-on-one matches with no previous Pokemon continuing on into the next matches, meaning Brock already lost, but they keep going anyway.

Brock: “Guess if I want any chance at beating you, I better really start to rock and roll. *releases Onix*” Hehehe, get it? Because Onix is made of rocks? Hahaha! LAUGH!

Brock: “And using Onix is just how I like to rock and roll.” YES. We understood your pun. Thank. You. Brock.

Molly calls out her dream Phanpy who Rollouts towards Onix and flings it across the battle field. I'll just take these physics books and burn them.

Misty and Ash make it up into Molly's next reality, a beach covered in red flowers.

(http://i.imgur.com/pxf7rli.png?1)

Dream Molly appears, indicating that Brock lost. Molly asks which one of them wants to challenge her next and Misty steps up to the challenge declaring that she used to be the gym leader of Cerulean City. Molly then realizes that you don't have to be an adult to be a gym leader so she turns herself into a ten year old for some reason. I guess there really is a growth spurt between eight and ten because now she's just as tall as Misty, basically.

Misty tells Ash to go on ahead to find his mom. He agrees and runs off while Misty stays to battle. She says she'll only use Water Pokemon since she's a Water Pokemon trainer and Molly agrees that she'll do the same. She then takes the water from the dream ocean and floods the whole floor for the battle, but since it's a dream world they can breathe and even talk under the water. This is a really cool part of the movie. I'd love to see more themed battle arenas like this outside of gyms, but this whole 'breathing underwater' thing is obviously a one-shot.

Molly calls out a dream Kingdra while Misty calls out GOLDEEN!? GOLDEEN'S IN A BATTLE! QUICK SOMEONE TAKE A PICTURE!

Despite its efforts, Goldeen loses from a Headbutt.

Team Rocket pops up again, breaking the fourth wall by Meowth asking if they're going to get a bigger part in the next movie. Your part in the last movie was bigger than most of the regular side characters, quit whining.

Misty calls out Staryu while Molly calls out a dream Mantine. It catches Staryu in a Whirlpool, but Misty cancels it out by having Staryu use Rapid Spin. They then have a battle of Take Downs vs. Tackles and we cut back to Ash who finally finds his mom in Molly's room.

Delia: “I'd like to know where you got such a reckless streak.”

Ash: “Well, I guess I got it from you.”

Considering we have no clue who Ash's dad is, that probably is the only explanation. Also, considering Delia went off in a helicopter though a natural disaster on the off-chance Ash was in the midst of it all, yeah, that's probably likely.

Ash gets Delia up to speed on what's going on and Delia wakes Molly up. She tells her the truth about how she's not really Molly's mother and that she's really Ash's mother. She's shocked at this, which still is confusing to me. Maybe it's possible that she confused Delia with her real mom since they're in the pictures together, but that would indicate that she doesn't remember what her real mom looks like. She's only been gone for two years, so I'm not sure how plausible that is.

Anyway, Delia and Ash try to get Molly to leave with them, but Molly doesn't want to go. She freaks out, which causes the Unown to go crazy as well. They create huge spikes of crystal all around Molly's room and separate Ash and Delia. Entei returns to see what's going on, and Molly alerts him to the fact that Ash is taking Delia away.

While trying to get his mom out, another huge spike separates Ash and Delia completely while Entei confronts Ash.

Sooooo....I'm guessing Misty lost? That was all we got for her battle? One and a half matches? We never even saw the outcome of Mantine vs. Staryu. I mean, since Molly's dream Pokemon are so unreasonably strong, she was probably doomed to lose anyway, but I still would've liked to have seen the full battle. Especially when you're in such a cool battle environment as that. How disappointing. :(

That actually means that Poliwhirl and Psyduck, Misty's most-seen Pokemon outside of Togepi, don't get seen in this movie. Weird.

Ash challenges Entei to a battle and uses Totodile, but it's quickly defeated by Entei's weird purple energy ball attack things.

Next up, Ash uses Cyndaquil. Yes, use a base evo Fire starter to beat a Fire legendary. That won't fail miserably or anything.

After that fails miserably, Ash makes Molly upset by vehemently stating that Entei is just an illusion. Due to her outburst, the Unown create even more spikes and Entei charges at Ash. Pikachu tries to fight off Entei, but ultimately doesn't do more than just just stave off its attacks and run. Entei gets in one good shot and blasts Ash and Pikachu out through the wall.

Well, they're dead.

Except.

Could it be?!

(http://i.imgur.com/bGjQg5G.jpg)

Yes! It's Charizard to save them in the completely unrealistic and insanely convenient nick of time. Awh but we forgive him mostly because that was awesome and everyone loves Charizard. Plus this means Entei vs. Charizard. Hell yes.

Charizard and Entei fight for a bit and nearly knock Ash out of the gaping hole in the wall again.

Well, he's dead.

Except.

Could it be!?

Yes! It's Misty, Brock and Team Rocket making a human chain to save the day. Congratulations Team Rocket, that is the only thing you've done this entire movie. Seriously, all they've done is walk around.

They also mention that the reason that they saved Ash was because if anything ever happened to him they'd be out of show business. While this is yet another instance of breaking the fourth wall, I can't say they don't have a point. If the creators of Pokemon ever decided to ditch Ash in lieu of someone else, I can bet you anything Team Rocket wouldn't be there. Their whole schtick relies on Ash and Pikachu. Unless Ash handed off Pikachu to someone else, they'd be out of a job TV-wise.

Through all the examples of friends and family, Ash tries to convince Molly to come with them, even offering the chance to have real Pokemon. However, Molly still won't believe them and freaks out again, prompting Entei to go on the offensive.

They have a really awesome battle, probably one of if not the coolest and best choreographed ones I've seen in Pokemon to date. Seriously, that coupled with the really good cinematography makes this look great.

Entei eventually knocks Ash and Charizard out of this sky and pins Charizard's neck to kill him with an energy blast.....Damn. Things just got real....or imaginary. I'm not sure anymore!

(http://i.imgur.com/U71LrnX.png?1)

Molly steps forward and tells him to stop, which he immediately does. Molly runs up and hugs Entei while pleading for him to stop the fighting. Entei looks gently at Molly and removes his foot from Charizard's neck.

Brock and the others then praise Molly for her wise choice.

Brock: “A big part of battling, is knowing when to stop.” We interrupt this movie for deja vu from the first movie.

And now back to our feature presentation.

Misty tells Molly that she could easily be a gym leader in the future if she truly wanted to, and they try to convince her to go with them including one more cheesy line from Brock about friendship being real.

She's still not sure, but Delia extends her hand to Molly and says that her papa would want her to go with them. Molly slowly walks towards Delia, grabs her hand and quietly wishes for everything to be real once more.

The crystals start to go away in response to Molly's wish, and Entei starts to walk away as well. Molly asks where he's going and Entei responds that he was created to be her father and make her happy in the reality made by the Unown. If she'd rather be in the outside world, he can't stay with her.

Suddenly, the crystal starts reappearing in droves and surrounds them with spikes. Entei makes them a path to the exit with his energy blasts and the group tries to make their escape.

Back at the Pokemon center lab thing, Oak tells Ash and the others that the Unown have generated so much psychic energy in granting all of Molly's wishes that they can no longer control it. If Ash and the others don't get away from the crystal soon, they'll be trapped in the Unown's reality forever.

They continue to escape, but we see that all of Greenfield is being covered in the crystal as well. The only way to stop it is by stopping the Unown.

They find the Unown and you will never, ever guess what Ash decides to do when he gets there. Multiple choice time!

Does he:

A) Develop a sophisticated plan of draining the Unown of their power.

B) Want to have a Pokemon battle with them to see if he can defeat them and stop them from getting out of control.

C) Create a way to contain the Unown's psychic powers through the use of thoughtful ingenuity

or

D) Charges headfirst into the cluster of Unown like a braindead antelope.

If you answered D, you obviously know our little Ash very well.

(http://i.imgur.com/3Jwyhmr.png?1)

I mean, what the hell? Is this becoming a movie staple or something? First he does this to Mewtwo in the first movie, then he does it to a cage that can restrain a legendary in the second and now this. Ash, sweetie, you are not a Pokemon. And even if you were, your Tackle attack sucks!

Anyway, he hits a psychic barrier because he's a dimwit, and then he calls on Charizard to try to blast through it. He seems to succeed, but ends up getting blown back by the psychic energy. Pikachu, in an effort to not suck for once in this entire movie, tries to do the same. He also enjoys a degree of success for a bit but gets blown back. What's wrong with you today, Messiahchu? Did they nerf you in the movie patch? He and Charizard then try to blast the barrier together, but still fail.

Entei returns with roar (also awesome) and starts blasting the crystal away. He jumps down and tells Molly that he was happy to be her father for the time that he was able to be, and the last thing that he can do for her is help her get out of the Unown's reality. Molly asks how he can do it and Entei responds that he was created from her dreams and if she believes in him there's nothing he can't do.

This may sound corny, and it is, but this is actually a rare occasion where “you just gotta belieeeeevvvveee” actually makes a lot of sense. Entei's right. He was created from the Unown's power to grant Molly wishes. This entire reality was made to sate Molly's wishes. If Molly believes in Entei, wishes he had the power to beat the Unown, then it's perfectly logical that the wish would be granted and he'd actually be able to overpower them.

So Molly gives Entei some encouragement, acknowledging him as Entei and not as her father. After some struggling, he shoots off a different blue and might I add pretty energy blast into the cluster of Unown, stopping them immediately.

(http://i.imgur.com/Rr3EwSz.png?1)

Entei bids his farewell to Molly and damn, this movie still tugs at my heartstrings, man. I'm gonna miss you too, Entei. :(

As he disappears, so do the Unown and all of the crystal that has covered the mansion and Greenfield. We also see Spencer being returned to the temple. Still don't know why they took him to begin with. Guess the explanation will always be. *sunglasses* Unknown.
(http://i.imgur.com/5HOKl0e.png)

The group gazes in awe at the beauty of Greenfield and Professor Oak and the others arrive to meet them. As they greet each other, Molly sees a cloud in the shape of Entei in the sky and dammit movie, stop it! I'm going to cry!

Our last scene is Team Rocket basically stating that they're stuck in the mansion because there's too many police outside and after some blah blah, they bid everyone goodbye by saying Team Rocket's fading out again.

And we start our credits, but unlike the other movies, the end credits actually continue the story a little bit. We see Molly and her father reuniting at the mansion, Ash and the other bidding goodbye to Charizard (for now anyway.) and then the group saying goodbye to Lisa. We also do get our regular miscellaneous shots of fields and the group traveling. We also see Oak and Tracey at the lab, Delia and Mr. Mime at home...Wait, it was more vital to see them saying goodbye to Lisa than his mom? That's just rude.

We cut back to the mansion where Molly is playing around with a real Teddiursa that I guess she might own when Spencer comes out to meet her and he's not alone. He brings out Molly's mother and it stands that this whole mother thing is the most confusing thing about this movie. I've read that the dub explanation, as I stated, was her disappearing from the powers of the Unown since she was also researching them, but they couldn't have been the same Unown from that temple or else she would've been released where Spencer was. Is she emotionally scarred from being in Unown purgatory for over two years? And keep in mind, I didn't get any of this from watching the movie even for this review. All they ever stated was her mother went missing and it was extremely slightly hinted upon that Unown may have had something to do with it. If I never looked it up, I never would've guessed that was the reason. In fact, when I first saw this movie, the best I could assume was that her mother was either on a long trip or randomly missing and suddenly found. Her mother could've been completely omitted from the movie and I never would've cared or questioned it.

In terms of ending themes, this is the first time that we only get one lyrical song for our ending, Innosense's To Know the Unknown and I really love this song. I have it on my iPod, I sing along to it. It's really nice. The only other song is gentle piano music that I think is Molly's theme or something, and that is really nice as well. It's very calming.

/////////////////////////

Bottomline: I do have my problems with this movie, but they're not really important, and I stand by my statement in saying that this is my favorite Pokemon movie ever. It may be one of my favorite movies period. The art is crisper, the animation is better while some shots may still be shaky, the CGI is actually really great barring the Unown, the cinematography and battle choreography was great, the backgrounds are lovely and Ash is actually really tolerable in this movie too. He actually thinks for a change, has good ideas and all he really wants is his mother back. Okay, he's insanely stupid once, but he's Ash, he has a stupid quota to fill.

Also, Misty and Brock actually not only get stuff to do but they get to friggin' battle. I think that's the first time in any movie that they've actually battled. Granted, you only saw half of Misty's cool underwater battle, which is kinda a ripoff, but still. Hell, Delia even gets plenty to do, though I do find it weird that we never saw a scene with her and Spencer considering they were supposed to be such good friends. The only ones who really did nothing this entire movie was Team Rocket. You could bring up that scene with the human chain rescue, but come on, they weren't all needed to pull Ash back up. He's a spindly ten year old boy not the Blob. Misty and Brock probably would've sufficed on their own.

Molly is also a very likable character. She's a believable little kid without being whiny or bratty and you really feel bad about her situation even if she's inadvertently causing chaos. I wish we had gotten to see more of her and Spencer in the series, but I guess they're doomed to the fate of 99.8% of CotD's. Entei is one of my favorite legendaries and Dan Green just did a fantastic job voicing him. The relationship between Entei and Molly is also very believable, cute and sad at the same time. You can truly tell that Entei truly loved Molly and Molly truly loved him even if he wasn't her real father.

I'll be a grouch here and doubt that they ever made another movie as good as this one. Granted, I've only seen movies 1-7, but they'd be really hard pressed to impress me anymore than they did with this movie.

Recommended Audience: It's Pokemon. It's 4Kids. It's not Scarface.

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA SHORTIES! Pikachu's Pika-boo! Review

(http://i.imgur.com/rDC5ztV.jpg)

Rating: 5/10

Plot: Some of Ash and Misty's Pokemon are left alone on a beach I can only assume because they're irresponsible and they go to a mansion and meet some Pokemon who live there. They decide to play Hide and Seek, but the game is interrupted by a psychotic lawnmower.

Reasons for Rating: I only watched this short like once or twice before on my DVD because the disk messed up on the short for some reason and everytime I tried to play it afterward I'd get that stuttering effect. I really don't remember this short very much.....except for the theme song. The theme song is yet another ear worm that 4Kids forged, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Before we start though....Pikachu's Pika-boo? Okay, first of all, that is an awful pun. Just awful. Second, I don't think there's any other word you could've used to basically toddler-fy this series. Third....they're not playing Peek-a-boo. I know the phrase is sometimes used in games with hiding, but peek-a-boo is technically an entirely different game than what they're playing, which is Hide and Seek. I don't expect people playing hide and seek to pop out from where they're hiding to yell 'peek-a-boo!'

With that out of the way, let's play Hide and Seek!

========================

We start out at some unidentified beach where the gang's Pokemon, at least some of them because screw the others, are playing in the water. Totodile, Bulbasaur (Wow, he stayed a lot longer than I thought he did.) Bayleef, Cyndaquil and Pikachu are present from Ash's team....no idea why Noctowl isn't there. I can usually make up an excuse, but I have no clue. From Misty's team, Togepi and Psyduck are out because they're always the ones who get let out despite the fact that being a damn BEACH Misty's Pokemon would have the most fun there, but nope. Go to hell Staryu, Poliwhirl, Goldeen and maybe Corsola. And guess what? NO ONE from Brock's team is at the beach. Friggin' nice, guys. He usually at least chucks Vulpix into the mix, but nope.

Togepi nearly drowns itself because Togepi just does that a lot, but a passing Wailmer saves it and shoots it up to a passing Yanma who flies it back to the beach.

And no it's never explained as to where Ash and the others are this time nor why they let their Pokemon roam without supervision again. These shorts are turning into Rugrats.

The narrator finally realizes the short has started and we learn that there's a nearby mansion with a beautiful garden near the beach. The owner, who is never seen (in fact no humans appear in this short at all), has three Pokemon who guard it; a Larvitar, a Kecleon and a Granbull, with Larvitar acting as an OCD leader.

Pikachu and the others decide to trespass because why not, and while Granbull and Kecleon welcome them, Larvitar becomes annoyed by the group's intrusion. Granbull calls the other Pokemon on the property, Sunflora, Azurill, Donphan, Sandshrew and Oddish to meet the group. Pikachu tries to call Larvitar over to play, but he just snubs them and walks off. Granbull then suggests that they play Hide and Seek, Pikachu agrees and grabs a stick to select who will be 'it'.

He throws it into the air as everyone stands in a circle and gee I wonder if it'll land on Pika—Yes, of course it lands on Pikachu. Why would it land on anyone else?

We get the aforementioned ear worm theme song “Everybody Hide, 'Cause Pikachu's Comin'” and I just found this song funny because of one line. “But not just any place, you have to find a space that fits your color and your size!” I'm just imagining little kids singing or playing this song while playing Hide and Seek and looking for places to hide that match their skin color. 'Aw man, I wanted to hide behind the couch but it's not white. :('

Anyway, the Pokemon start hiding while Pikachu counts. Sunflora tries to find a field of flowers suitable to camouflage in, Kecleon basically cheats by using its camouflaging ability to hide in front of a bird bath...I mean, I know it leaves behind a little zig zag stripe so it's not like he's completely invisible but that's still cheating to me. Bulbasaur also hides in the soil of a garden as a plant and Oddish does the same. Cyndaquil tries to hide between two large pieces of furniture, but Granbull tries to get in too, prompting Cyndaquil to ditch the spot.

I always hated that in Hide and Seek. You find a great spot and then some asshole likes your idea so he tries to muscle in on your spot and forces you to go somewhere else. Pfft.

Azurill hides underwater in one of the bird baths and we end on everyone else trying to hide before we finally get our title screen.

Pikachu finishes counting and goes off to find everyone, but Larvitar is not amused.

Cut to Meowth and Wobbuffet who have taken a job at the mansion doing landscaping work....uhh, okay. Why are so many people okay with hiring a talking Meowth to do menial chores? Their lawnmower breaks down and Meowth takes that as a cue to stop working in the garden.

Back with Pikachu, he's looking through a garden for the Pokemon and finds Sunflora acting as a regular flower, but he doesn't fool Pikachu and gets caught.

Pikachu gets to a yellow brick wall and we see that Sandshrew was actually pretty clever in using its design to camouflage in with the wall. Pikachu catches him anyway, though.

He reaches a fountain and spots a weird water spout coming out of the water. He dips his head underwater and sees that Totodile is using Water Gun to make it seem like it's a spout in the fountain even though there are no other spouts in the fountain. Pikachu shoves his hands on Totodile's Water Gun which kinda dickish and calls him out when he emerges.

We see Larvitar again who spots Donphan rolled up near a pile of tires (again, actually pretty clever) and when he spots Pikachu at the bottom of the hill, he rolls Donphan down to hit Pikachu....Wow, what an ****. Pikachu gets out of the way and calls out Donphan, which sucks because he didn't technically get found, Larvitar outed him by being a jerk.

Narrator: “Now Pikachu's going for a look inside the mansion!” Wow, thanks Narrator for telling us that thing that we will see happen in literally seconds. Are you just bored and looking for stuff to say at this point?

Pikachu looks around the mansion and spots Togepi on the couch who only has a suitable hiding spot because, for some reason, the owner has incredibly tacky blankets or pillows that have the exact same color and design scheme as Togepi's shell.

Next, they find Cyndaquil in the fireplace acting as a fire, which is also kinda clever.

Back with Larvitar, who is still salty from....I guess just not liking the other Pokemon or fun, he kicks a small rock angrily and it bounces off Meowth and Wobbuffet's lawnmower, which suddenly causes it not only start back up again, but also to go on on out of control rampage. It actually seems to be sentient as it purposely pursues the Pokemon and changes direction when prompted by other Pokemon. Oh yeah....that's not contrived or anything. I mean, I get it, a plot consisting of nothing but Hide and Seek, even for one of the shorts, is pretty damn boring and hard to fill up 22 minutes, but really you couldn't come up with some other huge crisis besides this ball of stupidity?

So the Pokemon all run away from the lawnmower, revealing Bulbasaur and Oddish underground while it causes havoc. I'm glad they got out of there, or this short would have a much higher content rating. Bulbasaur tries to stop it with its Razor Leaf to no avail, Donphan tries to destroy it with Rollout but it doesn't even dent it. Wow, where did the owner buy that thing? My dad's lawnmower is usually defeated by mildly wet soil.

Pikachu decides enough is enough and uses Thunderbolt on it, which actually seems to stop it for a bit, but then it starts back up again. Oh, but it doesn't just start back up again. It activates two hidden CHAINSAW ATTACHMENTS! What the unholy hell!? Seriously, this was contrived enough as it was, but two chainsaws that pop out of the sides?! How would that even be useful let alone safe for landscaping? And why was this little turn of events even needed? Was the lawnmower not scary enough with the razor sharp blades underneath it? Did someone hire Leatherface to do landscaping work? Come on!

Totodile tries it hand at stopping it with Water Gun, but it doesn't work. Cyndaquil tries stopping it with Flamethrower, but, get this, it actually continuously dodges Cyndaquil's attacks on purpose and even manages to get behind it to get the edge. Yeah, sure, crazy sentient lawnmower now knows basic battle strategies. I'll believe anything at this point.

Cut back to Meowth and Wobbuffet who just got done sweeping the chimney when Pikachu and the others cross their patch. Meowth and Wobbuffet are now being pursued by the lawnmower that can apparently hop across stone slabs now too. They try to fight it with the little chimney brooms, because that'll work right? However, the chainsaws destroy the brooms and the lawnmower knocks both Meowth and Wobbuffet into the air and down the chimney of the mansion. In the process, I guess the lawnmower also breaks off the chainsaw attachments, making those additions even more pointless.

The lawnmower chases the group through a hedge maze for some time before Larvitar helps them out and kicks the lawnmower into one of the walls, supposedly stopping it from continuing its rampage.....uh, I'd try to disable it before walking aw--

The gang then walks away thinking that they're safe, but then we see the lawnmower break through the hedges.....with BUZZSAW ATTACHMENTS!

(http://i.imgur.com/bInoqdc.gif)

I mean, really what the hell!? At least chainsaws might be used for some landscaping, even if their existence on the lawnmower is incredibly inefficient and dangerous, but buzz saws aren't used in landscaping! What purpose do those possibly have on that thing!? Next you're going to tell me there's a flamethrower and a BFG on it!

Also, am I the only one freaked out by the fact that we went from our main short issues being, in order, Charizard being stuck in a pipe, making it through a thunderstorm, Pikachu finding its way back to Ash to a murderous sentient lawnmower with chainsaw and buzzsaw attachments? Especially on a short called 'Pikachu's Pikaboo'? Just seems like a B-movie horror plot is all.

They keep running from the lawnmower and try to hide up a tree, but the lawnmower just saws it down and keeps chasing after them. They reach the beach and trick the lawnmower to fly off a dock and into the water, seemingly stopping it rampage yet again. Larvitar and Pikachu take a sigh of relief for a second but then realize that horror movie villains always come back from the dead, and it rips the dock up with its saws and continues chasing them.

The other Pokemon gather some logs to make a track for the lawnmower to follow to lead it away from them, even though I don't see how that would work considering that it sawed through a huge tree in less than two seconds and reduced a dock to toothpicks a second ago, but whatever. However, Psyduck trips and screws it up, causing it to continue the rampage.

Bayleef, who has been napping this whole time, comes into play by Vine Whipping the handle and throwing the lawnmower back into the track....Why Bulbasaur hasn't done that this entire time is beyond me.

They continue the track and lead it into some shed, shutting the door behind it. The shed bounces around in a barfy CGI effect that gives us a nice preview to the also awful CGI effects coming in our feature presentation, and the bouncing suddenly stops. The door opens and reveals that the lawnmower is now basically destroyed........

Really?....That's our climax? The ultimate weapon against that thing....was a shed? It was subject to Razor Leafs, Rollouts, Thunderbolts, Water Guns and being completely submerged in water with little to no issue....yet a track of small logs and a shed defeat Satan's lawnmower? What a rip off.

The gang cleans up the yard and Bayleef and Bulbasaur Razor Leaf a design of the Pichu Bros into the hedges.....for...some....reason, and we see that Meowth and Wobbuffet finally made it out of the chimney.

Larvitar picks up the stick from earlier and wants to play Hide and Seek with them this time. They all agree and he throws the stick into the air. Since we see Pikachu actively trying to blow the leaf/indicator on the stick now and Larvitar's not in the frame, it obviously lands on him this time and he smiles. They go off to hide again as the sun sets and Ash and Misty never see their Pokemon again.

The End.

I should mention that this is the first time that the short has ever had its credits kept intact. In the other movies, they were always put with the ending credits of the movie to keep people from thinking the movie was the short and had already ended. However, I suppose because this is the first movie that was released on DVD instead of VHS, the magic of DVDs granted them the ability to keep the credits with the short.

I have no clue if it remained this way in theaters because to the best of my knowledge it never showed in any theaters near me. Oh yeah, this was indeed the first Pokemon movie that I wasn't able to see in theaters. I don't have many theaters near me to begin with, but none of them ever showed 4ever and beyond to the best of my knowledge. Some people have told me that they still play Pokemon movies in theaters, but if that's true I must just live in an area that never gets them.

The credits, btw, just have an instrumental version of the theme for the short.

Bottomline: This short was boring. Cute, and sometimes made me smile with the way that the Pokemon hid themselves, but boring. And even with the INCREDIBLY INSANE AND CONTRIVED lawnmower chase scene, it was still boring mostly because the chase got really old and repetitive even with the craziness of that satanic lawnmower. In fact, it really just seems like that whole plot point was shoved in there because they realized Hide and Seek couldn't fill even half the running time without getting boring. It's worth one watch just because of how crazy it is, but has really no rewatch value.

Recommended Audience: Keep away from children who have completely reasonable and healthy fears of sentient lawnmowers that have several saw attachments and a thirst for blood. But it's okay for everyone else.

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Pokemon 4Ever: Celebi – The Voice of the Forest Dub Review

(http://i.imgur.com/D6GMpZ8.jpg)

Rating: 6.5/10

Plot: A boy named Sam (who is totally not Professor Oak) is transported 40 years to the future (Ash and the gang's present) by the legendary Celebi after outrunning a Pokemon hunter. While trying to find a way back to his time, Sam, Ash and the others have to deal with a new threat who wants to use Celebi for malicious means.

Reasons for Rating: Okay, I'm going to address something that might be confusing to some people reading this; why I don't bother talking about the American posters for the Pokemon movies. I've been making it a habit to analyze the Japanese ones simply because they, for some reason, just tend to be bad with the first being downright deplorable. However, the American ones have always been fantastic, in my opinion. The first was simple, yet effective with Mew and Mewtwo facing off and the, at the time, entire roster of Pokemon behind them.

In movie 02, they actually made what is my favorite Pokemon poster with the Pokeball like a planet, Ash's (? Is that even Ash? He actually looks more like Red...) silhouette with his Pokeball to the sky and surrounded by tons of Pokemon under the legends. That was just fantastic.

The third movie's was somewhat ripping off the Japanese poster with Entei's picture, but it was changed up plenty to actually mirror one of the best scenes from the movie.

All of the American posters have gotten rid of the clipart clutter and the pointless additions and have made great posters that I never felt the need to bring up....

Until now.

(http://i.imgur.com/D6GMpZ8.jpg)

What is this? Celebi's fine. The ripple effect is fine. The lake shot is fine. What is Ash standing on? He's floating in mid-air or he's simultaneously standing on an also-floating Suicune and Celebi. Why is he making that pose? With his hat backwards, that means that's his capture pose. Why is IMM almost microscopic, and why is he standing on his spider robot like that? Why are they showing the God-awful grass monster thing? And look at those taglines. That is the saddest attempt at shoehorning in '4' and 'ever'. Also, nice grammar 4Kids. You never start sentences with numbers you dolts. Well, that might be unfair. I don't know if 4Kids had any say in the poster design, but it's easier and more fun to blame them anyway. Damn you 4Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidddddsssssss!!

Though I did praise the poster designers for getting rid of clutter, there's one character who kinda needed to be in this poster.....ya know, SAM. The guy who's supposed to be the other main character? I mean, his spot on the Japanese poster is depressingly small, but at least he was there. He gets nada in America.

Well, let's get started shall we?

========================

Here's where we kinda start falling off of the nostalgia wagon a bit. I never watched Pokemon movie 04 in theaters simply because it never showed in any theaters close enough to me. And, according to Bulbagarden, that's not surprising. Miramax apparently released the movie in an extremely limited manner and those theaters that did have the movie never kept it for more than a couple weeks if that. In addition, this was hindered even further by the fact that they did no advertising for it. In fact, the first time I even found out there was a fourth movie was because I saw a commercial for the DVD release.

Also, while looking at the wiki I apparently found that this movie was a box office bomb (though I knew that much from Dogasu who justified it because of the extremely poor marketing and theatrical release strategy.) but was also critically hated and panned by fans as well. Ouch. I may not have paid much attention to this movie back in the day, but I never thought it was a bad movie, just overall unimpressive with somewhat ugly CGI.

I soon went out and bought the DVD and I never got much into the movie. I like Celebi and Suicune and everything, but after loving movie 03 so much, it just seemed to be not very impressive. Especially with the blech-y CGI. Apparently, this is actually Dogasu's favorite of the movies thusfar alongside movie 05 so maybe I'll see it in a better light once I'm done rewatching it for this review.

By the way, am I the only one kinda pissed at how Raikou was sufficiently snubbed in these movies? Entei gets a whole movie to himself (kinda playing second fiddle to the Unown, but it was his movie in terms of legendary Pokemon) Suicune gets a significant part here and what does Raikou get? A special three-part episode in Pokemon Chronicles; that series people watched just to see the usually forgotten side characters left behind (IE the BetterThanAsh squad) actually do stuff on their own without Ash. And hell, Ash wasn't even in that Chronicles episode; it was three completely new characters taking over for that arc. Poor Raikou.

There's also a very significant change between the two versions that I was debating on bringing up here or in the sub review. I would usually bring it up in the sub review, but let's just address this incredible moment of utmost stupidity that shows that 4Kids thinks so little of their audience that they are actually willing to lose their precious money, quite a lot of it in fact, to shove a plot point into the faces of the audience. But more on that later.

And let's address that title, eh? Pokemon 4Ever? Gee, 4Kids, you must think you're clever as all hell for not only replacing a part of a word with a number, but also recycling the same for=4 joke thing from your own goddamn name. Ending any title with 'Forever' just seems lame anyway.

For more information sub dub comparison wise, see the link to Dogasu's comparison here. http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/movies/mov04.html

And now let's actually get on with the show!

===========================

We start with narration from Brock for some reason (Brock killed the other narrator! CALL THE POLICE!) giving us the regular 'World of Pokemon' schtick as we see a bunch of Pokemon. I recall this part of the movie specifically because it is one of the extremely rare times you ever see Porygon. Yes, the Pokemon so banned that even its evo stages are sufficiently banned from being shown on the show. They might appear for a second or two, like Porygon does here, but they will never be given spotlight in the show ever again.........Even though the whole episode 38 incident was Pikachu's fault and thus HE should be banned. Ya know, I joke about Messiahchu because he's so glorified, but if anything Porygon and its evos sacrificed itself for the sake of the show's mascot. Everyone salute!

(http://i.imgur.com/fS6ysBD.gif)

Also, the wiki makes a weird note about this shot; Porygon's the only Pokemon to be shown behind a chain link fence. What's that note supposed to imply? That they purposely put Porygon behind the fence to make a statement about the character? “Oh yeah, we let Porygon in this shot, but it's behind a fence, guys! Don't worry! You can't get seizures through a fence! DON'T SUE US!”

Anyway, after going through the motions of the World of Pokemon opener, we get Ash's backstory.....Why? I mean, I'm all for sprucing up the old footage, but if you're watching the FOURTH Pokemon movie, chances are you know Ash's backstory by heart.

And let me get my nitpicky gloves on. Ahem, Ash wasn't wearing his regular attire when he got Pikachu. He was wearing his pajamas because he woke up late. In fact, that's actually somewhat important because he only got Pikachu instead of the Squirtle he wanted because he slept late and was only able to get a leftover Pokemon instead of the three main starters. Yet they actually remember that Pikachu's Pokeball has a little lightning bolt on it.

I love how they completely omit the fact that Pikachu was a little turdmuffin when he first met Ash. Can't tarnish Messiahchu's rep.

Our actual start is in the (Obviously CGI) forest (Because trees need to be CGI) with Celebi being chased by a Houndoom 40 years in the past.

Celebi is then pursued by a Scyther and actually gets hit. We cut to a boy traveling through the forest as he comes across a mysterious tunnel in the path. He is halted by a woman with green hair who tells him the story of the voice of the forest; a spirit who travels through time. She says that the time travel of the voice of the forest is noted by a peculiar sound and if you hear the sound you should stop in your tracks because if it sees you it could whisk you away through time. The boy, Sam, thanks her for her advice and says he'll be careful. They part ways but not before she gives him a loaf of berry bread as a snack.

(http://i.imgur.com/yKqAvbq.png?1)

Mmm, bread covered in gravel on top of leaves. Just like grandma used to make.

Cut back to Celebi's chase scene where it's being overpowered by the Houndoom and Scyther and we see that these Pokemon are under the control of a Pokemon hunter. Celebi escapes once more and cries out loudly.

Back with Sam, who has stopped to sketch some things, he hears Celebi's cries and sees the Pokemon of the forest running away in fright. The pursuit rushes in front of him. He runs towards the three just in time to see Scyther and Houndoom pinning Celebi down. He tries to yell at the Pokemon to leave Celebi alone, but Houndoom Flamethrowers at him to make him leave. Angered by this, Celebi wraps the two up in vines and weakly floats to Sam's arms.

The Pokemon hunter shows up and demands that he hand Celebi over explaining in unneeded detail what he is and what a Pokemon hunter does. Because of course he'd hand over Celebi after learning you basically enslave Pokemon and auction them off to the highest bidder. Sam runs off, but suddenly stumbles and Celebi activates its time travel abilities and whisks them away to the future!

(http://i.imgur.com/iGIGVsL.gif)

We zoom out of the forest and the scene turns into a framed picture of the forest. We pan to a picture of the Pokemon Hunter before we see an older version of the Pokemon Hunter being harassed by some guy in a helmet who is actually the villain of our story.....the *sigh* Iron-Masked Marauder. I don't really have that many qualms against this guy; I mean he's more memorable, interesting and threatening than Lawrence ever was, but why, 4Kids? Why the Iron-Masked Marauder? Were you going for a 'pro-wrestler' vibe? Because that's what I'm getting!

I'm not even sure that's proper grammar....

He's trying to get information on the Celebi from the Pokemon hunter, but he won't give it up. Hulk Hogan decides to persuade him by releasing one of the Pokemon the hunter captured, a Tyranitar, from its cage and using a dark ball on him. A dark ball is apparently a creation of Macho Man Randy Savage where not only does it automatically put any Pokemon you catch under your control (and maybe have a catching ability rivaling that of Master balls) but it also increases their strength to max level. Wow, that's really OP. Glad this movie is the only time they're ever seen or mentioned.

The now evil Tyranitar is commanded to Hyper Beam the place to ruins, even possibly killing the other captive Pokemon, and in the midst of the destruction the hunter gives up the location of where he found Celebi 40 years ago. Boy, I sure do hope Celebi didn't travel to this exact time because that would be a heap of trouble.

It's here where we get our title screen and I gotta say this is probably 4Kids weakest title screen attempt so far. The animations on the vines look cheap, like something you'd see on an e-card, and the actual title itself is presented like a title of a TV show episode not a movie. Also the 4EVER crap looks twice as dumb in huge bold 3D lettering....Wait, title screen!? That means! YAY DUMBASH AND FRIENDS!

This time, Brock and Misty are separated from Ash as they wait at a ferry that will be taking them to their next destination; Don'ttellthemwherethey'regoingbecausethatwouldestablishwhenthismovietakesplace town.

The ferry is about to leave and Ash is going to miss it, so Brock sends out his Crobat to find him. Cut over to Ash who is about to have a Pokemon battle with an Australian trainer....named Dundee. Really cracking out the awesome names today, huh 4Kids? His Wiki page seems to justify this because he has a Croconaw but no, screw that. Drastically changing a character for no reason on the flimsy basis that he has a crocodile Pokemon? Ya know what? Ash has a mouse Pokemon. Better name him Walt Disney!

I really hate when they set up scenes that very obviously show them in battle stances yet their first dialogue is like they're meeting that very second, never introduced themselves and didn't even realize they were going to have a battle.

Dundee chooses his Croconaw and Ash chooses, who else, Pikachu, and we get our altered theme song for the movie 'Born to be a Winner'. I always liked Born to be a Winner, and this movie version is pretty good....though I honestly could've done without the dumb and out of place record scratches.

The battle is rather boring for a movie battle. One on one; how dull. However, Ash does take this opportunity to prove his dumbness again because, after throwing Croconaw through the air and having him crash into Dundee, leaving both of them on the ground, Ash decides to Thundershock as a final blow. Hitting when the Pokemon is down is low enough, but he actually ends up shocking Dundee too because the two were still getting up from the fall. Nice going, idiot.

(http://i.imgur.com/2Y9d9lp.png?1)

As Ash goes to check on Dundee, Crobat calls him over to catch the ferry. And that's it for your movie opener battle, hope you enjoyed it. The rest is just Ash running to catch the ferry.

As Misty and Brock see Ash running to the ferry, they wave to him and hop on the boat, but Ash is held up by a transport vehicle pulling an insanely long line of trailers with boxes. When it leaves, the ferry has departed and Ash jumps from the second dock to get on the boat. I love this shot because he's jumping in slow-mo and trying to reach Brock, but as he misses his hand and nearly falls into the water, the song goes 'Born to be a winner, born to be the very best'. Yes, born to be a winner and the very best that one is.

After the song ends, they speak with the same deckhand who has the voice of Duke Devlin. As he learns that the group is really interested in Pokemon, he tells them that a lot of really unusual ones are near where he lives and he can take them there if they want. They agree and Pikachu spots a Suicune far off in the forest. He alerts Ash and the other to it and they're able to spot it for a second before it runs off.

Oh boy, and here we go. This next scene is the significant change I was warning you about. It's one of a few scene insertions.

“But DT!” you cry through your computer monitor, “Lots of shows you do SDC's for have scene insertions! Hell, movie 03 just had one!”

Yes, yes. Scene insertions are indeed common, reader. But this one is far different. This scene is not taken from the TV show nor is it taken from another point in the movie or another movie; it's not taken from anything.

Get this, 4Kids had contracted out the original animators and artists for Pokemon to make additional scenes to this movie that amount to over 4 and a half minutes of extra footage.

Now, why would they do that, you ask? You remember Sam from earlier? Well, spoiler alert, Sam is Professor Oak.

(http://i.imgur.com/ySxUJwt.gif)

Yeah, apparently in the original, the main connection the viewers had to this was the ending shot in the credits with Kenji finding the sketch book that Sam had, which is fine and dandy. However, 4Kids thought this was WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY the hell out of a kid's league so they purposely asked the original animators to create, from scratch, specific scenes for the movie with the only intent of pushing this connection so far up the audience's asses that you'd have to be medically diagnosed with brain-is-an-avacado-itis to not get it.

4Kids has always done dumb things before for no reason, but they are all about the Benjamins, baby. They wasted thousands of dollars to have all of this done. Not to mention how much time had to go into it. All in the name of 'Your kids are way too dumb to ever understand this.'

I mean, look, I understood in the last movie how they decided to move the scene where Spencer is freed from the Unown's purgatory place to after the Unown lose their power instead of in the ending credits like it was in the original. It may have been to make the fact clearer, but it was harmless if not better that way. This--! RUGHHH! THIS ISN'T EVEN IMPORTANT! Does it change anything whatsoever if you never realize Sam is Oak? NO. It's just a cool little factoid that is never brought up again ever and has no actual bearing on the plot or the series as a whole. Oak isn't even in most of this movie!

While I will note when scene insertions occur, I won't be comparing the scenes until I get to the subbed version.

Anyway, we cut to a video phone on a beach where Oak shows the gang a picture of a Suicune and asks if that's what they saw. They say yes and he says with confidence that it was Suicune. I find it funny how Oak was all 'stop spouting nonsense' when Ash first told him he saw a legendary Pokemon way back in episode two but now he's all 'Oh what you saw was this legendary Pokemon!' Granted, we know why he's saying this with confidence (because, spoiler alert, Oak is Sam) but that's Pokemon's really dumb continuity for ya.

He explains Suicune's abilities, how it's called the north wind and how it can purify water. And just to really get up in your face with this, he tells them that he knows for a fact that these abilities are true. Ash asks him if he's ever seen one before, Oak says he has once, but before he can explain when and how, the deckhand dude interrupts them saying they have to leave and they hang up.

(http://i.imgur.com/YjhUFz6.png?1)

Cut back to Oak's lab where he's thumbing through the book about Suicune and he asks himself if he should've told Ash before he hung up. He really would've told Ash about everything that's about to happen and about how he's, spoiler alert, actually Sam? Honestly? Isn't that bad for the space-time continuum or something?

Anyway, that entire scene was ordered up specially for 4Kids, and we have more coming up.

As we see the group traveling down a river to deckhand's neck of the woods (I guess he's never given a name) we also see Team Rocket following them in some sort of pedal kite thing. Jessie's leg cramps up, causing her to stop pedaling and a big wind blasts them off. So soon? It's not even 15 minutes in.

The group reaches a waterfall and can't climb up, but Deckhand has a special trick to his boat. The outriggers turn into blimps and they fly over it.....I would comment on this but this is a hell of a lot less ridiculous than the whole 'flying a sailboat' thing from movie 02.

They finally arrive at Deckhand's town which turns out to be a town made entirely out of treehouses. A concept I adore and I believe was the inspiration for Fortree City later in Hoenn.

They explore around, on the ground, because I know if I just arrived in a town made of treehouses my first goal would be walking around on the ground. :| The girl who talked to Sam before, now an old lady, shows up again at the same spot she met Sam with her granddaughter Diana. She gives them the same warning to listen for the voice of the forest and to be still if they hear it to avoid being whisked away through time.

Ash blows her off because he's in a hurry (no idea why. Not like he has an appointment for his next Gym match and the Pokemon aren't going anywhere...) and they go through the tunnel and into the forest. As they theorize as to what the voice of the forest is, something they would've known had they stopped and talked for two seconds, we see the trees glowing because of Celebi's time travel powers again.

They run because screw you old lady warning and they see an even brighter light at the shrine. Sam reappears as does Celebi, but it quickly hides behind the shrine for some reason. The group finds Sam unconscious but alive in front of the shrine and decide to take him back to town so that Diana and her grandma can treat him.

They arrive and suddenly Sam wakes up, but freaks out when he realizes Celebi is gone and pushes Ash. They get into a bit of a fight before Sam realizes he has no idea where he is or what's going on. The old woman arrives and instantly recognizes Sam. She happily hugs him, but Diana asks what's going on. She explains that Sam is the boy from the story that she told Diana who disappeared from the forest 40 years ago. They wonder how Sam can be that boy since he's still so young, but Sam also recognizes her from that day.

Later, in Diana's house, the old woman presents Sam with his old sketchbook stating that she kept it all those years just in case he ever returned. They then explain how Sam must've been taken away by the voice of the forest on a trip through time over 40 years long.

Sam asks where Celebi is, but the group says there was no Pokemon with Sam when they found him. The old woman tells him that Celebi protects the forest and lives in the Lake of Life, so Sam goes after Celebi because he believes he's still injured. The group decides to go with him and they start their journey.

Meanwhile, we see Team Rocket up in the tree after they crashed and as luck would have it the group is traveling right below them. I really have to wonder how the hell that keeps happening...

Pikachu's pika-sense goes off and it rushes ahead to see two huge felled trees and a bunch of Pokemon gathering at a small opening between them. Ash and Sam climb up to see what's up and find the weak Celebi in the opening. Sam reaches for Celebi, but it freaks out and psychically pushes the two away.

As Ash returns, Celebi creates awful CGI vines from the tree that start whipping at them.

(http://i.imgur.com/VmbtXtM.png?1)

I will never tire of seeing Ash Get smacked.

Ash and Pikachu want to retaliate, but Sam tells them how it's just scared from being chased by a Pokemon hunter before so they decide to try to earn its trust instead. After some persuasion and a gentle pat on the head, Celebi recognizes Sam and allows him to pick him up so that Celebi can have some much needed rest.

As the group rushes back to Diana's house, they're stopped by Team Rocket. However, as they complete their motto, Wobbuffet comes out to do his bit and his weight breaks the tree branch they were standing on, causing them to fall. The group then takes the opportunity to leave.

However, they're stopped yet again by John Cena in his giant robot spider. He lets out evil-Tyranitar to Hyper Beam the group in order to catch Celebi.

Side-Note, I love the enlarging animation for the dark balls better than any Pokeball. It actually looks like there's some mechanism to make it grow and shrink instead of the almost inflating Pokeball animation we usually get.

The group tries to escape, but Andre the Giant keeps attacking them until Team Rocket intervenes with Weezing's Smokescreen. However, they're merely attacking him because they want Celebi now too, even though a second ago the reason was that he was impeding on their Pikachu-grabbing, and they won't let him muscle in on their turf.

Tyranitar Hyper Beams through the Smokescreen and Meowth actually acknowledges that 4Kids must've been going for a pro-wrestler thing by saying IMM looks like a Mexican wrestler. Jessie recognizes his mask and they realize that he's actually a very prominent member of Team Rocket so they kiss up to him.

Meanwhile, the group is trying to get away, but Misty's knee gets twisted so they stop for a bit. Until, that is, a Scizor and a Sneasel that belong to the IMM....sorry I ran out of wrestler names, confront them. Ash prepares for battle and so does Sam, with a weird old gray Pokeball that you open by turning a little knob on the top.

(http://i.imgur.com/tEKE52b.png?1)

While I would say this is a cool look at how Pokeballs used to function, I have to put my nitpicky geek gloves back on because that directly contradicts an episode from way back in the Orange League episodes. Remember that episode with the Gastly and Haunter who were protecting their master's, a previous league champion's, Orange League trophy in his sunken ship for over 300 years? Yeah, well, their Pokeballs were exactly the same design as the ones used by everyone else today. In fact, the old version of the Orange League trophy has two Pokeball designs on it and both are the well-known Pokeball designs of today. Why would Sam have what seems like an old relic of a Pokeball 40 years ago when the exact same design and technology that they use today seem to have been used three centuries ago? I guess there could be some justification for it somehow, but they never give one.

Anyway, Ash lets out Bayleef while Sam lets out his Charmeleon. They battle and win against IMM's Pokemon and they bond a bit over their battling abilities.

Later, Ash and the others are having trouble finding their way out of the forest, and Celebi is getting worse as time goes by. However, an Ursaring and Teddiursa direct the group to follow them. They're passed on to a Stantler, because I guess Ursaring and Teddiursa can go no further or something. Soon after, they're passed on to a Furret because they're pretending the group is a baton or something, but they soon reach the Pokemon's destination, Celebi's home of the Lake of Life.

Sam walks Celebi into the water and they see all of the Pokemon in the forest have gathered around them to see if Celebi recovers. It soon perks up and jumps out of Sam's arms to swim around for a bit. It basks in some sunlight for a while before it starts glowing and really gets re-energized.

(http://i.imgur.com/PGdCnQO.jpg)

Celebi's all fine and dandy and even starts playing around with the group. Ash and Sam join in the fun by swimming around in the water. Misty and Brock don't join because they're not allowed by main character law. They swim around with Celebi for a while and Celebi uses its psychic powers to even allow them to fly around.

Pokemon: You'll believe an idiot can fly.

Celebi then fixes Misty's twisted knee with just a touch....Cuz it just can.

After the fun is over, Celebi leads them to a tree that has tasty CGI berries on it so they can all have a snack. Ya know, Celebi really is adorable in this scene.....Mew's cuter, but he's still really cute.

Oh goodie....this scene. Back with Team Rocket on the giant robot spider, they complain that they're hungry and see a peach tree nearby. They try to grab one, but end up falling off the giant robot spider. As they realize IMM is leaving without them, they run towards him to catch up and the scene ends.

This is another scene insertion; again, completely of 4Kids' own orders. Look, as much as I find it pointless if not insulting to add the scenes with Oak that scream that Oak is, spoiler alert, Sam, at least those do have an actual point to them. It's still an abhorrent waste of money, energy and time, but they could justify it if they wanted. THIS is filler. THIS is pointless. THIS is 4Kids saying 'What's that? I can't hear you while buried in this pile of money.'

And you know what else? Read the paragraph explaining the scene and tell me, does that seem funny to you at all? No? Well, trust me, it's no funnier with the animation and dialogue either. The slapstick's lame, the scene itself is stupid and the dialogue is particularly poor Team Rocket humor and puns.

It's a shame, really, because I actually would've given this bank-humping slice of self-indulgence a bit of a pass if they did it because they had an idea for a particularly funny scene. They do tend to give Team Rocket some good material sometimes, especially in the movies. But nope. Just awful.

Back with Ash and Co., it's bed time and Ash catches Sam staying up to sketch Celebi and Pikachu in his sketchbook. He shows all of his sketches of Pokemon to Ash and Ash compares the sketchbook to a Pokedex....Tracey did the same thing and you never said that to him. *shrug*

(http://i.imgur.com/z6czUxq.png?1)

While I get what he means, most people think of information on Pokemon when they think of the Pokedex, not just the pictures, but considering who we're dealing with I wouldn't be surprised if Ash's only focus when using the Pokedex was 'ooh purty pitchurrs'. Plus, the pictures in the Pokedex are usually posed profile pictures, not artistic portraits. I believe this line of dialogue was mostly included because Oak invented the Pokedex and, spoiler alert, Oak is Sam. So....Ash gave him the idea to make the Pokedex? I would ask a lot of continuity based questions right now, but I always get a headache dealing with time travel issues.

Oh and there's this.

Sam: “I guess you know a lot about the future Ash!” Well...yeah he's kinda lived there his whole life. He likes to refer to it as 'the present'.

Sam: “At least, more than I do...”

Ash: “Yeah, I guess so. But I sure am glad I'm not stuck in it like you are.”

WOW ASH! Was your mother too busy checking the status of your underwear to teach you tact?

Sam obviously gets upset at this, though Ash tries to apologize. Sam forgives him and he says he might actually like living in the future, but he feels sad that his mom probably worried for years and might still be worried to this day. Ash can relate with his own worried mother, but his grumbling stomach interrupts their conversation.

Sam gives Ash half of the loaf of bread the old woman gave him before (I love how she's a way bigger part of the story than Diana is yet she gets a name and the old lady doesn't.) and it seems like it also survived its trip through time just fine.

As they laugh....because bread is funny, Pikachu's pika-sense tingles again and also wakes Celebi up. They head off into the forest and Ash and Sam follow to see that a bunch of Metapod are glowing indicating evolution. They are soon surrounded by hundreds of Butterfree and marvel in the sight.

Sam: “Look at all the Butterfree!”

Ash: “I hope you'll be free, Sam. I mean to go back in time.”

That was a nice sentiment but a dumb line.

Some nice harmonica music plays as Ash and Sam decide to climb up a tree to get a better view. They happily watch the Butterfree fly around creating sparkles against the sunrise. They put their arms around each other and spawn untold amounts of creepy yaoi fanfiction. I mean, look, I remember this scene and it's really nice. But come on, this scene is way past the line into romantic. They're watching sparkly butterflies flying against a sunrise backdrop as they put their arms around each other.

(http://i.imgur.com/03yJHWx.png?1)

And just to get juvenile, they are literally Ash and Sam sittin' in a tree!

The next morning, the gang is well on their way back to town, but IMM and Team Rocket come back for another attack. This time they actually succeed in capturing Celebi and IMM uses a dark ball on it.

However, Ash, Sam and the Pokemon from the forest won't take that sitting down, so they climb on top of the giant robot spider to combat IMM. Ash manages to get the dark ball away from IMM, but the robot crashes and throws Ash from it with the dark ball in hand. IMM soon approaches Ash and starts crushing his fingers under his foot to get him to let go of the ball. Ash can't take the pain any longer and ultimately lets go, giving Celebi to IMM yet again.

The forest Pokemon gather to confront IMM, but he claims it's too late to save Celebi anyway and proves his point by releasing the now evil Celebi from the dark ball and commanding that he cause all sorts of ruckus. After blowing the Pokemon away, it uses its abilities to create a giant sphere of sticks and leaves, I mean of DOOOOMMM!!

And I guess it leaves because next we see Ash waking up. Diana, old lady and Deckhand arrive (seriously, people, just throw out a name. Anything. Prove to me that you give a crap, please.) in their blimp boat to pick up the kids.

And we interrupt this movie for cel-shaded Gamecube graphics and landscapes from 6 Angels. Did Suicune really NEED to be in CGI for this shot? Especially insanely obviously cel-shaded CGI? It's bad enough they think the trees need to be CGI, especially when we're supposed to be so in awe of the beauty of the forest, but this just clashes so badly.

The group is surveying the destruction caused by Celebi in the forest because I guess IMM really just wants to destroy the forest for no reason. The line for Captain Planet villains starts there, sir. We see Celebi in its completed...ahah...its....pbbt....giant spiky ball of sticks and what looks like fur. Pbbbahahahah. I'm sorry, I am....haha, it just looks like something my grandma's cat would hack up.

(http://i.imgur.com/1BW2USR.png?1)

The sad thing is these CGI shots would actually be pretty okay in a fully CGI film, especially for its time, but it just clashes so horribly with the regular 2D animation that makes up a bulk of it.

Back with IMM who is riding the giant furball, Jessie, who was whisked away by the winds earlier, asks to be released from the sphere but IMM says he can't because he needs a witness to his power to prove to Giovanni how powerful he is now and supposedly because he wants to take over Giovanni's job. He even states later that he wants to kill Giovanni to do so, in 4Kids-ese of course and eventually take over the world.

To prove his point further, he demands Celebi to increase his power level to super saiyan and create.....pbbbbtttt.....hahahahaha, what is that thing? A giant grass Nobody with crab legs and wings?

(http://i.imgur.com/1jmpWAT.png?1)

Anyway, it uses its leizar beemz to destroy even more things and even starts attacking the Lake of Life.

The group confronts Celebi, but IMM commands it to shoot down their blimp boat. They manage to land gently in the lake, because blimp boat, but that doesn't matter because Celebi shoots them again immediately after they land. They still manage to survive without a scratch, though.

They try again when Celebi comes back, this time confronting it with an attack from Pikachu instead of words, but to no avail. Celebi charges up his death ray again but this time Sam and Ash are saved by a better looking Suicune.

IMM takes the opportunity to also catch a Suicune so he sends out his Tyranitar to battle it. Brock actually GETS TO DO STUFF, OMG, and he sends out Onix to battle Tyranitar while Suicune tries to get Ash and Sam to Celebi. He eventually does, but Celebi just throws them off of the wheat monster. Onix continues his battle, and actually doesn't do half bad, which is shocking considering this thing is supposed to be max level, but he's still obviously losing. Tyranitar heads for Suicune, who knocks him down with a Bubblebeam and a slightly fallen Onix takes this as his cue to swat Tyranitar away like 500 feet into the lake like a friggin' boss. Really makes up for the crappy battle he got in movie 03. Still, he's exhausted either way and Brock recalls him.

IMM decides to attack them again with Celebi. Suicune attacks it with a Bubblebeam, but it doesn't faze it. Probably because Water is weak to Grass....Geez Suicune at least try to be slightly more competent than Ash. It ends up ensnaring Suicune, Ash and Sam in its vines.

Ash and Sam end up falling, somehow, but Jessie catches them both (wow, strong lady) and tells them to be careful. Sam thanks Jessie and they head towards Celebi without freeing Jessie. What jerks. Ash and Sam try to get Celebi to remember them to break free of the dark ball's influence, but it's having difficulty struggling against its power. Also apparently the dark balls gave Celebi Sith force lightning or something.

(http://i.imgur.com/kKzDOaK.png?1)

Haha, Ash is getting hurt again! Haha!

They keep trying to get Celebi to remember with even the forest Pokemon crying out to help. Celebi starts having a few flashbacks but the real kicker occurs when Sam hugs it.

So they are literally saved by the power of friendship as Celebi regains its control and this also causes the dark ball to explode in IMM's hands. With Celebi good again, the frosted shredded wheat creature starts falling, knocking off IMM and forcing Celebi and the boys to escape through psychic flight. However, Celebi is greatly weak from its ordeal and is actually dying from it.

I don't exactly know why. Just because it expelled too much energy or because the forest is all damaged? Either way, Celebi's shriveling up like the lettuce in my fridge so Ash tries to save Celebi by dipping it in the lake water. However, the forest is so damaged that the lake water is tainted and must've lost its healing capabilities. Suicune, with the power to purifying water, skips across the lake to purify the water and Ash tries again but it surprisingly doesn't work.

Ash says he has to keep trying and he sits on the lake side to feed Celebi the CGI berries that they picked earlier. Celebi still won't move, but Ash keeps trying in vain, all the while his hands are shaking and causing the berries to fall into the water.

He starts crying and says this;

Ash: “Celebi you can't die!”

(http://i.imgur.com/WIDTap1.gif)

4KIDS JUST SAID THE D-WORD! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?

I joke, but this is actually a really impacting scene rivaling Ash's 'death' in movie 01. They very very rarely ever tackle the subject of death in Pokemon and having a focal (albeit movie) Pokemon die is a pretty surprising thing for them, made all the more surprising that 4Kids didn't digitally paint Celebi away in this scene and say he went to the shadow realm because of the dark ball or something.

Sam: “Now it's too late to choose because Celebi's gonna die!”

(http://i.imgur.com/lbZobq7.gif)

Stop doing that!

Also, nice little subtle hint of preachiness with the whole 'it was a human being who destroyed the forest!'

Everyone mourns the loss of Celebi, even the forest Pokemon and Suicune in a scene that again reminds me of movie 01, which I guess just begs the question of why they can't use their magic Pokemon tears to bring Celebi back to life, but I digress.

Still, there's 15 minutes left in the movie and we all know Celebi will pull through, so give it up, movie. How's it go?

Well, a time warp opens and tons of Celebi pour out of it. Yeah apparently there's a lot of Celebi floating around the time stream and I guess they can sense when one of their own is dying or dead.

They carry Celebi off into the sky and create a circle of Celebi around it to start the healing process. This scene is actually really nice in terms of visuals and it really puts the CGI to good use instead of being pointless and ugly.

Though I really would've chosen a better song for this scene. I know 4Kids kept the score, points to them, but the la-la-laaa-lalaaalaa just seems...I dunno. Care-beary?

So yay Celebi's fine again and it thanks its Celebi friends from the past and future for helpin' a brotha out, and they depart. Wait, if there are Celebi throughout the ages, where's the Celebi for this generation if the Celebi here was the one for 40 years ago?

Celebi flies around happily for a while and is about to reunite with Ash and the others when IMM suddenly bursts out of the water and grabs Celebi again.

IMM tries to get away with a jetpack but Ash grabs his legs and takes off with him. Celebi has the power to psychically make people fly but can't break free of the hands of one man? Pikachu shocks the jet pack, causing it to explode and sends them all falling out of the sky. But Celebi saves Ash with its psychic powers.

IMM is not so lucky and ends up crashing through the trees. The crash knocks his mask off to reveal.....just his face.

(http://i.imgur.com/XeOUmBZ.png?1)

So the Iron-Masked Marauder was wearing his signature iron mask....for absolutely no reason....okay. He's surrounded by the villagers (Diana, old lady and Deckhand anyway) as well as a bunch of the forest Pokemon who are ready to whup his ass for what he did to their forest. He tries to fight, but realizes he must've lost Sneasel and Scizor somewhere along the line. A bunch of Bug Pokemon wrap him up in String Shot (cool, the Bug types get the last hurrah for a change) and that's the end of him I suppose.

Back with the group, Suicune makes its departure and it's here where I realize Suicune has been basically pointless this entire movie. It takes nearly all of the movie before it finally shows up, is really only there to save Ash and Sam that one time and give them a ride up to Celebi, which other Pokemon could've done and yeah it purified the lake, but the purification did jack squat in terms of saving Celebi. Still like Suicune, but pretty pointless appearance here.

Since all is said and done, Celebi starts to bring Sam...back.....wait, it's had ample opportunity throughout the movie to bring Sam back, what was preventing it? I mean...no, no, just that. It was weak when it first arrived, sure, but it quickly got better and it had like a full day of good health. What was preventing Celebi from time traveling again besides just 'we needed a movie'? I guess I should take back that stuff I said about Ash with the tact because Sam never was 'stuck' in the future to begin with. He was just there and Celebi hadn't decided to go back yet. Well that's a big friggin' plot hole I never noticed. Geez.

Anyway, Celebi does the time warp again and Sam knows that's his ride back home. He and Ash exchange the whole 'no matter where or when you are, we'll always be friends' stuff and Ash actually cries at this which makes me unreasonably angry. He's known Sam all of a day and a half. Sure they bonded and became friends but he's refrained from crying after releasing numerous Pokemon, that he has bonded with, befriended, battled with and loved for months if not years, and he's said goodbye to other companions as well for God's sake without shedding a tear, yet he lets the tears flow for Sam. And I mean it, he starts sobbing afterward.

One could say that it's because, unlike his old Pokemon or the friends who have come and gone over the years, he knows he can always see them again someway if he wanted to (he just never wants to I guess) whereas Sam is off in another time. Well, Ash doesn't seem to consider the fact that he could meet 50 year old Sam anytime. He could've popped right up next to him after he vanished as an adult.

Also, I hate to bring up time travel stuff again but how are we living in a world where Sam was both gone for 40 years (See: old lady) and a time line where he came back and lived his life (See: spoiler alert, Professor Oak.)?

Also, what about the Pokemon Hunter from 40 years ago? Won't he pick up the pursuit when it returns?

Anyway—MISTY'S CRYING TOO?! Come on! And old lady? Shouldn't you be more happy for this considering his disappearance seemed to emotionally scar you?

Whatever, we get our final scene insertion which is another phone call to Sam—I MEAN SPOILER ALERT OAK! They relay their adventure to Samoak who asks Ash what's wrong since he looks down in the dumps. Ash says he's sad because he had to say goodbye to a good friend who went to another time, but Samuel Oak consoles him by saying that real friendships can survive the test of time and he's sure he and Sam will be friends forever. This cheers Ash up and they hear the horn for their ferry, prompting them to say goodbye to the professor, professor Samuel Oak, which can be shortened to Sam, but Misty suddenly stops and asks how Professor Oak knew Sam's name since they never mentioned it. They hear the horn again and start running when Brock gives us this stupid line.

Brock: “Professor Oak is amazing, he knows everything!” If there's one line in this movie I remember vividly, it's that. What a dumb thing to say. Yes, Professor Oak is so freakin' smart he knows things that would be IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW unless he was there or SPOILER ALERT WAS ACTUALLY SAM!

That would've been a good time to bring up a line like “Hey, isn't professor Oak's first name Samuel?” and just left it at that. Or hey, maybe not include this entire scene period! And why doesn't Oak just tell him? Not like it would mess up the time stream now.

But it's actually not even the end of the scene insertion because we cut back to Oak's house where he reminisces about that day while looking in his old sketchbook. And I guess I'll just bring this up here....Sam looks nothing like Oak. I know aging and whatnot, but he really looks NOTHING like him. Oak's hair always looks blond-ish or very light brown-ish to me, not gray so I can't even say the hair can be excused. His eye design and possibly color are entirely different as are their entire head designs. In fact, I'd say the only thing that could pass are his eyebrows.

We cut back to Team Rocket who are still in the lake. We see the Tyranitar, Sneasel and Scizor are free now I suppose, though Tyranitar still seems evil. They just decide to enjoy the waters of the Lake of Life and our movie ends.

Well, we still have the end credits to go through. The end credits showcase additional scenes like usual. Ash and the others bidding farewell to the people of the treehouse town, The scene I mentioned before where Tracey finds Oak's sketchbook....Wait, does that mean that.....Oak....is Sam?!

(http://i.imgur.com/3Abm5Uf.gif)

Also this scene now kinda creates a continuity error due to the last scene insertion. Why would Oak's old sketchbook be all dusty in a pile of old books in the back room if he was just reading it a little while ago?

Other than that, more landscape shots including the group and other stuff. I always enjoy these. As for the music accompanying it, it's a rather catchy little song called Cele-b-r-a-t-e but as with all 4Kids fare, this song may catchy but is ungodly irritating. It is fine for the first....45 seconds, but then it quickly gnaws on your nerves with how repetitive it is. It just repeats the same lines over and over and over. And just when you think you got some reprieve, the singers point out that they forgot to 'vamp out' whatever that means, and the lead actually says

Lead: “You mean this ain't the end of the song?”

Singer: “Nope.”

Lead: “Aw man.”

Did you hear that? The lead singer is DISAPPOINTED THAT THE SONG ISN'T OVER! What does that tell you?!

What's even worse is that after that they add two instances of the 'tape rewinding' noise just to grate on you even more. This song has references to time and rewinding so there's your connection to the movie. As for the title of the song, well, speak the first half and first letter....See? Cele-b? Celebi! Get it?! Yeah that is oh so clever.

============================

While I do find this movie to be better than I initially remembered, even if there is the stupid facts about the scene insertions, I can actually justify why this movie didn't impact me as much as the others. It just didn't seem as 'big'. The other movies seemed to be really big and had a lot of weight to them, no matter the stupidity or cliches. This one just didn't seem to have as much weight. The only thing that was in immediate danger was the forest, even though IMM did say he'd take over the world after destroying the forest and taking over Team Rocket. It would've sucked if the forest was destroyed, but it doesn't have the same weight as the possible destruction of the whole world or even a little girl being trapped in a reality of her own making after the loss of her parents. I guess it just couldn't really give me the impact I had come to expect.

Now I do appreciate the scenes with Sam and Ash's friendship even if I call foul on how he was crying so much after Sam left. Celebi was a cute and interesting Pokemon, and I like Suicune even if his role was kinda moot. IMM was actually a legit villain for a change, one who didn't seem like he was chucked into the movie for no reason and ultimately forgotten like Lawrence. They didn't try to make him cheesy or lame, they made him an actual threat and I applaud that. Though, to be honest, he's still not that interesting of a villain seeing as how his only drive is to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!

(http://i.imgur.com/4JpqTMW.gif)

Sam was a likable character, even if Ash took some of his thunder as he really should've been the one doing most of the stuff with Celebi seeing as how it seemed like it was built to go that way. Brock got to battle! Misty got to....twist her knee. I am glad that 4Kids didn't also try to shove an environmentalist message down our throats, even if there was a line or two that nudged it. The regular art and animation is a step up from the show like usual, but the CGI does just stick out like hell and is just plain ugly as a result most of the time.

Overall it's a solid and enjoyable movie. They may not share the weight of 01 or 02 or the sentimental value or interesting worlds of 03, but it is still pretty okay IMO. Let's see if it's even better in the sub!...It will be.

Recommended Audience: The word 'die' is said twice, so best to leave this for ages 18+

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Pokemon Movie 04: Celebi – A Timeless Encounter Sub Review

(http://i.imgur.com/bipOzBv.jpg)

Rating: 6.5/10

Plot: Yukinari is a young boy who was whisked through time by a Celebi 40 years ago after the legendary Pokemon barely escaped from a Pokemon hunter. He meets Satoshi and the others after his trip ends and wishes to help the Celebi who sent him through time since he fears he could be injured. After healing his wounds, a new threat shows up by the name of Lord Vicious the Mask who wishes to capture Celebi, make him evil and use his powers to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

(http://i.imgur.com/3oW6E5B.gif)

Reasons for Rating: I actually don't have much to say on the poster this time. Celebi looks decent, everyone's placement is actually spot-on for a change. Except Pikachu. He seems way too big especially when Satoshi and Yukinari are so damn small. And holy crap, she's a pointless character to begin with but they made Miku so small I actually completely overlooked that she was even there on the first few viewings. Why even include her if she's going to take up a penny's worth of space?

Like usual, I will merely be breaking up the movie into chunks instead of giving another play by play to save space. I decided on fifteen minute chunks for this one since I'll have to be addressing some removed scenes. So without further ado, let's jump into the original Japanese Pokemon movie 04!

15 Minute Mark

Ya know, I find it odd that the Pokemon of the forest never helped Celebi when it was being pursued by the Pokemon hunter. Later, they all gather to bring Celebi back to the lake to heal itself and then later to capture IMM, but they all run away from the Pokemon hunter instead of trying to help....

The old woman is named Towa. She supposedly keeps her name between the two versions, but I cannot confirm that because most sources explaining the English version just call her 'the old woman' and 4Kids never puts the roles of the voice actors next to their names in the credits.

Just to crack this out before we even see him, Deckhand is apparently named Mr. White. What a weird name. Even weirder considering that he's pretty young and most characters that young aren't usually called 'Mr.' in the series. I have no clue if this is his dub name, but we'll have to assume he was just never given one and that the dub adopted the Japanese one as an excuse.

I have to wonder, how did Vicious/IMM (Yes, IMM's Japanese name is Vicious. Much better name AND possible Cowboy Bebop reference....and 4Kids gives us the Iron Masked Marauder.....*sigh*) know that Celebi would be stopping in this time? Or did he not and just got INSANELY lucky. I mean, Celebi could've gone literally anywhen in time, past or future, and leaves no indication as to what era it's heading to.

Holy crap, the Japanese title screen is so much better than the dub's. And 4Kids was doing so well in that department too in the past few movies.

In the opposite extreme in terms of names, Dundee apparently gets no original version name.

Wow, how many times can they remake the same Pokemon theme song in the original? I mean, this version is actually pretty cool, but do they eventually change it? I mean, hell, even dub Digimon which just had slight changes in its lyrics and beat sometimes between the series eventually made entirely new themes.

Okay, here we are at the scene that was replaced before.

We cut to the kids talking to Okido Hakase on the video phone. He holds up a drawing from a book portraying Suicune and asks them if that was the Pokemon they saw. He says yes and Okido says it could've have been a Suicune. He's not smiling as he was in the original, he's not adamant about it being Suicune and Kenji is actually in this shot smiling in the background as Okido's on the phone.

They ask what a Suicune is and Okido says he doesn't know much about it besides the fact that it's a legendary Pokemon. Several people from the background are removed (and the angle is changed a bit) notably Mr. White is behind them as they're on the phone as well in the original but is not there in the dub. We keep it relatively the same for a bit, explaining Suicune's powers and how he's called the North Wind (I find it weird that a Water Pokemon's the north wind....shouldn't that be like a Flying type?) as he's exaggerating some stuff about Suicune to seem cooler with Kenji looking embarrassed in the background, when Betbeton/Muk hugs Okido. Because of this, Okido is the one who bids them goodbye and Kenji bids farewell as well.

If anything, seeing the scene that was cut makes me even madder at 4Kids decision...Why? Because it was basically the exact friggin' same as the dub version in terms of visuals anyway. They changed Okido to be smiling during this scene, got rid of Kenji for whatever reason, painted away the other people in town and Mr. White from the scene, put in another picture of Suicune from the book I guess to illustrate what he meant by water purifying powers, but ultimately what was changed was the dialogue which was changed to 'Oh yeah, that's Suicune. He's totally real! I saw him once! And you were there and you were there and you were there....because spoiler alert, I am Sam.' (Funny thing; Sam's Wiki page makes no mention at all of him being Professor Oak. I honestly hope they didn't miss that fact while watching the dub because I only have so much faith in humanity left.)

So, in essence, 4Kids honestly didn't NEED to drop a damn dime on this scene....They didn't need to do anything to begin with, but now they ultra didn't need to. Be creative with the clips you have and make dialogue changes. You practically changed the entire script of movie 01 and yet you didn't pay the original animators to make special scenes for that! Doesn't your toilet clog a lot with how much money you flush?

If you really needed that smile, why not Mew Mew Power his ass and flip his frown upside down? It'd still be insanely dumb, but it would save a ton of money and manpower.

Half Hour Mark

So I'm guessing that it's a thing in the original that Misty introduces herself as a 'beauty' or something like that. Every time Misty introduces herself in the dub she always says either she wants to be the best Water Pokemon trainer or that she loves Water Pokemon etc.

I find it dumb that the only Pokemon we see Satoshi use in this movie are Bayleef (Yeah, another instance of the English name just being the Japanese name misspelled.) and Pikachu....Considering this is the first Pokemon movie to have a legit human Pokemon trainer villain, it's pretty disappointing.

45 Minute Mark

Oh so Takeshi is just as obvious about the lake thing as Brock was....Okay. Sorry, 4Kids. Really, why would you dip him in the lake in the first place if you didn't think the water would heal him?

Satoshi doesn't explain what a Pokedex (Poke Guide/Zukan) is, nor do they start talking about how much Satoshi knows about the future. His tactless comment about being 'sure glad (he's) not stuck in it like (Yukinari) is' is also not present. Satoshi does say that the sketchbook is like a self-illustrated Poke Guide, but he doesn't take the time out to explain what it is. In addition, the conversation afterward is Satoshi asking Yukinari if he's aspiring to be a Pokemon trainer. Yukinari says he hasn't decided and was actually traveling to help him decide when, and then he trails off. There's a short period of silence before Satoshi finishes Yukinari's sentence and says '….you woke up in the future...' Which is far less severe than a line that basically equates to 'sucks to be you!' Also, I'm nearly certain that the extra line about the Pokedex in the dub was to further poke at Professor Oak.

Ash's dumb pun with the 'Butterfree-Hope you'll be free' line is not present. Satoshi just says he knows he'll get back to his own time. It always feels weird to me watching the original version of a 4Kids production knowing they left the original score in. I can't really explain why, but after making so many SDC's and getting used to constant noise and poppy bullcrap, it's just odd. I know they still inserted their own theme song and end credits song, but still.

I'd also like to point out to everyone that this movie broke the movie tradition of Satoshi tackling and/or punching something incredibly powerful that would obviously kick his ass or hurt him. Closest he gets is climbing the giant robot spider to wrestle the Dark Ball from Vicious. Darn, I really wanted to make that a tradition. Oh well, I can only hope it's in movie 05.

Sure is necessary to make all that wheat CGI. Seriously, you'd think they just discovered CGI when they made this movie. Use it sparingly, it has a better impact that way! Either that or make the whole movie CGI.

Hour Mark

I do appreciate that neither Celebi nor Suicune speak in this movie. I've never had much of a qualm against any of the legendaries speaking, except slightly with Lugia, but it's a welcome change.

I still don't understand how or why Celebi gets dark lightning powers when it's evil....

Oh come on, not even the original gives an explanation as to why Celebi's dying?

End

Hm, I wonder. Is this the first time we've ever seen a dead Pokemon on the show? I mean....it's very unclear in both versions whether Celebi's dead or just near death. You can say it'd be dumb for Celebi, even collectively, to have the power to bring another back to life, but uh yeah, first movie.

That reminds me, Kasumi didn't cry a drop in the first movie when she thought Satoshi was dead, but she sees Celebi dead/dying and out come the waterworks.

Now Takeshi's crying too. A boy you've been friends with for over a year dying and you barely react, a Pokemon you've barely known for a day dying WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!! :'(

Oh yeah, since 4Kids kept the soundtrack that means....more lalalalaalaaaaaaaalalala.

We get a scene that was cut in the dub to put the second call with Oak in there. Yukinari wakes up in front of the shrine back in his time, Towa finds him and asks if he's alright and he just says he had a wonderful dream. Yeah, I really don't get why this was removed. In comparison to the scene that was inserted, this is incredibly short to justify cutting it unless they had a serious time limit for some reason and couldn't manage it with their super shiny new scenes.

The ending theme is very gentle and nice to listen to. Such a drastic contrast to the dub's, and much more fitting. Yeah a movie mostly about friendship and the forest and whatnot, so have a big party song at the end with a bunch of record scratches. Makes sense. It's even dumber considering that the last three movies which were far more action-y and fast paced had mostly gentle and slow songs at the end of those in the dub.

Now, you may notice something odd. I didn't raise my rating on this movie at all. You'd think without the inserted scenes and with the actual footage that I'd be happier and give this a better rating...Well, you see there's a tiny problem in this little project of mine. Sometimes, when I rewatch the movie in the subbed version....my opinion lowers on the overall movie.

By all intents and purposes, and I honestly hate saying this, barring the inserted scenes and scene removals, 4Kids did a damn near perfect job on this movie....Perfect by 4Kids standards anyway. They kept the original score (though put in their own OP and ED and the ED does get teethscrapingly grating...) and most of the script barring some minor stuff was kept exactly the same. Like I said, the only thing 4Kids did in terms of changes was get off to their own bank accounts and beat kids in the head with something they honestly didn't even need to know....plus added in a Team Rocket scene which could've been cut to keep the scene with Yukinari—The point is, it's still basically the same movie.

The problem is that, when I rewatch the movie and there's not that many changes....I start noticing bigger flaws in the movie or the flaws I barely took note of before gain more weight.

The Yukinari/Satoshi friendship is still very nice, even with how attached they get to each other, you'd think they kinda had crushes on each other and not friends who have known each other for a day. The villain is still an actual villain, but he's still pretty generic. There's no real reason given as to why he's pursuing Celebi nor how he knew Celebi would be in this time period. While I do give props for showing death, of a Pokemon no less (because according to our crying index, Pokemon are more important than people) there's no real reason given as to why he's dying.

The main problems I have are with the plot outside of the time travel. That really is the better plot in the movie. It's rarer to see someone time travel to your own time and have to deal with that. It's more common for the main characters to time travel themselves. There's quite a bit that they could've done with that, but it's sidetracked by the stuff with Celebi.

Did you read that? I just said that the side plot was better than the main plot and that the main plot gets in the way of the side plot. If that's not a huge problem, I don't know what is.

The stuff with Celebi isn't that bad, but it's ultimately the reason why I believe I found this movie so forgettable. And yes I did say it's because it wasn't as epic of a movie as the others, but this is the part of the movie that is supposed to be epic so there ya go. I actually remembered the parts with Sam just fine, it was the plot with Celebi that fled my mind. It was predictable and made incredibly silly by the ugly CGI monster and spiky wheatball of doom. And there's the fact that the solution was literally the power of friendship.

Though neither version was really preachy about it, the whole thing about the forest being destroyed did stink of an environmentalist message, especially as Celebi's dying. I already talked about how the forest really was the only thing in immediate danger and that was only because Vicious wanted to show off. He might as well have had Celebi make a giant wheat and leaf wang.

It is sometimes welcome to take a break from the world being in immediate danger, but you can still have an epic feel without resorting to 'go green!' Movie 03, again, is a prime example of doing that correctly. The plot was so flimsy they had the villain do that lame reprise when they come out of nowhere to grab the powerful item/creature again and try to merely run away, which is even more predictable because do you really think any movie would end with the villain getting away that stupidly?

In addition, it felt like this movie should've been Yukinari's but Satoshi kept taking the reigns. I know it is his series, but you can't tell me Satoshi was really the forefront of movie 03 or 01, so it can be done.

While I will scold 4Kids three ways from Sunday for those dumb scenes until the end of time, and I, in all honesty, don't want to change the rating on the dub one from what I honestly gave it before. The rating stays as is. That was a roller coaster of an opinion ride that I haven't felt in a while. It's still an enjoyable movie, but there are very significant problems.

But the burning question still remains.....Who did Yukinari grow up to be?!

(http://i.imgur.com/f2N7R8V.jpg)

Recommended Audience: Still talking about death 50+!

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Pokemon Movie 05 – Pokemon Heroes (Dub) Review

(http://i.imgur.com/dP80c9h.jpg)

Rating: 4.5/10

Plot: Ash, Misty and Brock are in the beautiful town of Alto Mare partaking in the local traditions, competitions and culture. One of their most beloved legends is that of Latios (with special guest Latias, who wasn't even in the legend) who is known to be the guardian of the town after saving it centuries ago.....or less than 50 years ago depending on if Lorenzo's a vampire or not. Ash is lucky enough to meet a pair of Latias and Latios, but soon discovers that they're in danger from the thieving Team Rocket pair of Annie and Oakley.

Reasons for Rating: I watched this movie quite a few times On Demand back when it was released and I remember enjoying it perfectly fine. Annie and Oakley were fairly interesting, and I like Latias and Latios....

I guess this movie, like 04, just never felt that big to me. Latias and Latios, while I do really like them, don't seem like actual legendaries to me for some reason. I was expecting some movie about Kyogre and Groudon and maybe Rayquaza and yet we got these two. Instead, two of them are made into a special arc in the TV series and the other I believe gets a role in the Destiny Deoxys movie.

To be completely honest, I wasn't even completely aware of the existence of these Pokemon before this movie came out. I played Pokemon Sapphire but didn't know anything about them to my recollection.

I was pretty okay with doing the review until I remembered this excerpt from the Bulbagarden comparison.

“The problem with the Pokémon Heroes dub is that the script is really off. For whatever reason, 4Kids decided to completely throw out the movie's backstory and create their own, which is strange considering how they haven't had any script changes this major since Mewtwo Strikes Back.”

....I'm in for first movie level changes? Ouch.

Well, enough jabber. Let's get into Pokemon movie 05: Enter Super Generic Title Here—I mean, Pokemon Heroes.

(Also, slight swearing warning near the end.)

==========================

Brock murders the narrator again and gives us 'The World of Pokemon' intro that I still don't understand why they do in these movies. Also, it should be noted that this entire sequence is the exact same scene as it was in movie 04. They don't even fix the pajama mistake I mentioned last time.

I find it funny that in this intro Brock calls Ash 'the pride of Pallet Town'. Gary's a better trainer, capturer and battler and I will believe until my dying day that Ash ever winning against Gary is a complete fluke. Technically Ash is actually an awful 'pride of Pallet Town' seeing as how Red, the character Ash is based off of is so much better. He won the Indigo League while two other Pallet Alum, Blue (Gary's inspiration) and Green (who never gets an anime counterpart, which sucks...Also, these names are interchangeable because America and their silly renaming of Green to Blue because that game was never brought into American shores, causing a tad bit confusion when they came out with LeafGreen and not something like WaterBlue.) were second and third place respectively.

…..Sorry, I'm still very bitter.....and ramble-y.

And why do Misty and Brock get no explanation whatsoever? It's just 'and joining them is Misty and yours truly, Brock.' Sadly, this is the last time they can use that opener. This is the last movie that Misty is ever in. :(

Getting to the actual movie, we see a few pages from an old book and two thieves, Annie and Oakley, talking about it. They talk about how the book explores Latias and Latios as well as a jewel but that the book doesn't get into the really good stuff until the end. I don't know why they're spending time talking about it while they're still in the process of stealing it. Seems like a needless waste of time when you're pressed for it. A security guard at the library they're in nearly spots them, but they get away on cables. The guard finds a single rose in the spot where the book was as well a picture with two lip icons on it, one red and one blue.

(http://i.imgur.com/24Lx2X0.png?1)

They zipline their way back to their car with spy-like music playing and Annie asks what the ending tells about. Oakley says it explains how to control a machine called the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare. It's pronounced 'Mar' here, but it's spelled 'M-air' so I dunno.

They drive off a cliff, perhaps a nod to Thelma and Louise, but then we see the car instantly transform into a jet and fly away. You guys are really taking the spy thing all the way, huh?

As they fly, Oakley explains that the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare, really original name btw, is supposedly the most powerful weapon in the world. Annie says she doesn't care about the weapon and all she wants is the jewel from the story, the soul dew.

However, Oakley states that the jewel is needed to operate the machine and then goes on to explain the origins of the name soul dew; it contains the soul of a Latios and looks like a dew drop.

Annie says that while they're on the topic of Pokemon, they have to remember to capture Pokemon for Giovanni and then they head to Alto Mare. Ooh, Team Rocket's actually doing stuff for a change? Also, I'm surprised 4Kids even thinks viewers will remember Giovanni's name at this point. He's such a non-existent character and when he is brought up he's usually just called 'the boss'.

We get our title screen with the Pokemon logo over water, and they actually go to the trouble of putting the logo's reflection in the water. Fancy~

Then we get the word 'Heroes' in 2 ½D. It looks like it's unfinished. It's flat, obviously, but it's designed in such a way that makes it seem like it was meant to be entirely in 3D CGI. You know how in school you'd make those easy 3D boxes? This is basically that.

(http://i.imgur.com/X2MX0i0.gif)

Oh yeah baby, I'm making gifs now.

That being said, the animation and colors for the title are pretty good, so I can't fault them too much.

In Alto Mare, Ash and Misty are partaking in a water race where trainers stand on small boat things while their Water Pokemon pull them. Ash is using Totodile while Misty is usin--Corsola? Really? Out of all of your Water Pokemon, you choose the one based on an organism that is basically immobile and the Pokemon itself is known for being so sedentary that people build houses on them? Politoed, Staryu, hell this would've been great for Goldeen, but no you choose Corsola. Whatever.

So the race starts and we get our theme song, Master Quest, and unlike the other movie songs, this is just the actual TV version only extended with more instrumental parts and repeating the chorus a couple times. Booooooooo. You guys have been doing so well with the movie themes, yet you don't even try on this one? Shame!

Pikachu ends up getting knocked off the bridge he's on and lands conveniently on Ash's shoulder. Oh yeah, sorry Messiahchu. We didn't realize you weren't getting attention for more than five seconds.

The race is neck and neck....and neck with Ash, Misty and some dude named Ross with a Wailmer. Nothing much else is going on for a good chunk of this segment. Brock chats up a girl, there's a joke about Team Rocket getting splashed by water from the racers and we see translucent Latias and Latios flying around. Several of them it seems.

Ash ends up wiping out on a corner but is saved by one of the translucent Latias or Latios. If the rest of the movie is any indication, it's probably the Latias we see later. He gets back on his float thing, gets back into the race and is propelled by Latias who suddenly grabs the rope and drags him.

Surprisingly, the race doesn't end when the song does, and it's a race to the finish with Misty and Ross.

Latias is allowing Ash to catch up to Misty and Ross, making me worry that he's going to end up unwittingly cheating to get the win, but Latios grabs the tether as well and sends Ash down the wrong path, eventually throwing them back onto land and then they fall into the water.

Back with Misty and Ross, they're still neck and neck and they cross the finish line at the same time. However, video evidence shows that Misty won by the horns on Corsola. Wow, Misty actually won? Holy crap. I would say this is a nice movie sendoff for her, but she is basically non-existent for the rest of the movie.

Ross congratulates her on her win and offers to show her around Alto Mare. Damn, you're a really good sport.....or he's hitting on her and didn't expect that she'd take her guy friends with her. Either way.

And that medallion looks freakin' awesome.

(http://i.imgur.com/3ewkl76.png?1)

Ross explains that the symbols on the medallion tell the story of the town, and Misty points out the that symbols look like Pokemon, but he doesn't bother actually telling the story yet. They see statues of Latias and Latios and Ross explains that they're Pokemon that protect the town. No one sees them, but most people believe they're real.

Cut to a flock of Pidgey followed by a little flying gadget that flies by a drill on its head recording everything on the island, including the painfully CGI people down below.

When we get a closer shot, it's even more obvious how ech it is. It's that weird cel-shaded CGI we've seen before. These same people were traditionally animated and drawn a minute ago, so I dunno what they're doing.

We cut to Annie and Oakley watching the video feed with a thermal imager. Annie asks why they haven't seen either Latias or Latios yet if they're the guardians of the town. Oakley says it's difficult because they can take on different shapes, even disguising themselves as humans. The reason they're using the thermal imaging software is because either Pokemon in general or Latias and Latios specifically have lower body temperatures than humans.

They find one of them and leave on their boat. We see Team Rocket about to eat ice cream by the waterway. You'd think they'd eat indoors or further away from the water after last time, but then we wouldn't have this running gag.

After Annie and Oakley splash them with water as they drive by in their boat, Jessie yells that it was Team Rocket. James worries that they saw them and Meowth points out that they're spies for Giovanni and they decide to follow them to somehow make a big break for themselves.

Back with Ash and friends, they bid farewell to Ross and he tells them where to get great food and ice cream. They head off for the ice cream place first, but despite the fact that they're going to get cold desserts and drinks, Pikachu decides to make a pit stop at a rusty fountain to get a drink instead. Pikachu can't turn the tap on, I guess, but a mysterious silent girl turns it on for him and he gets a drink and cools his head.

Ash arrives to come get Pikachu for ice cream, and the girl gets all up in his grill and stares at him while circling him. He just stares in response before she walks away.

(http://i.imgur.com/APRaJA7.png?1)

She wanders by the river and Annie and Oakley catch up. They confirm that she's Latias and attack her with their Espeon and Ariados. They have custom designed Pokeballs, black with a red lipstick mark for Annie and blue lips for Oakley. Fun how custom Pokeballs really pop up most in movies.

Latias runs and Pikachu, still bathing in the fountain, hears the commotion and runs off. Ash follows after him and I love how he takes the time out to turn off the tap before running after Pikachu. Ash is such an advocate for water conservation.

Latias is cornered and captured in String Shot before Ash catches up and saves her, but Annie and Oakley aren't going to stand for that.

Oakley: “Whatever would we do if he attacked us, Annie?”

Annie: “Espeon, show Oakley what we'd do.”

(http://i.imgur.com/9uik1iO.png?1)

Ash: “That was a dirty trick!” What trick? That was the most obvious sarcastic set up to an attack I've ever seen. Even if there was no sarcasm, she clearly pointed out that Espeon was going to do something bad. You're just dumb.

Ash decides to fight back and has Pikachu Thunderbolt them. I'm now realizing that Espeon has an awful English voice. Ick.

Ash and Latias run away, and Espeon and Ariados chase after them. During the chase we cut to their view, I suppose, but the shot is too smooth so it's like they're flying through the CGI town. This is made even worse by the fact that, though you can hear Ash panting as he's running, you can't hear his footsteps.

Latias takes the lead when Ash realizes he's lost and she leads him right back to his friends before vanishing.

As Ash reunited with his friends, Annie and Oakley watch over with their little drill camera gadget thing from earlier. They note that Latias isn't with Ash anymore and will be ensuring that it stays that way......Really? You're that intimidated by a ten year old boy with a yellow rat? You really are from Team Rocket.

The gang heads to a museum and Ash gives us this line:

Ash: “Is this a fossil of a Pokemon?”

(http://i.imgur.com/FHw5GAk.png?1)

Ash, sweetie, remember that thing you were captured by a long time ago? That thing that spurred your old Charmeleon's evolution? Looked like a pterodactyl? Similar to that fossil? Come on. You can do it. I believe in younotreally.

Some old guy named Lorenzo who I think is a curator explains that the fossils are more than just fossils, they're the remnants of Pokemon who used to terrorize Alto Mare.

Lorenzo: “One was an Aerodactyl, the other was...”

Misty: “Kabutops?”

Lorenzo: “That's right!”

Wait, Misty remembers Kabutops but Ash doesn't remember Aerodactyl?

Lorenzo introduces the kids to the DMA, the Defense Mechanism of Alto....Mare....It's two words, so doesn't that mean it should be DMAM?—oh whatever.

Brock sees light coming through the stained glass windows and proclaims it's a sign that he'll meet a girl in Alto Mare.......kinda random there.

Lorenzo tells a story about how the people of Alto Mare were terrorized by an Aerodactyl and a Kabutops who were trained by an evil master to attack people. When this happened, Latios arrived and flooded the town, drowning the evil Pokemon and turning the streets into canals.....

That's real neat and all....but...uh, if Latios flooded the town....wouldn't that kill all the innocent people and Pokemon there too? And how did flooding a town kill an Aerodactyl? They can fly! For that matter, how'd it kill a Kabutops? They're part Water type! They just chose two Pokemon who have no real reason to ever drown to be the victims of a drowning. I'm surprised 4Kids even opted to say that they drowned. That's somewhat dark.

Also, I thought there was some preachiness at some point in time that said no Pokemon is evil, they just have evil trainers. I didn't hear him say the evil trainer was killed by Latios.

He explains that the story and the canals are the reason the town's called Alto Mare as it means high seas. It's also how the DMA(M) got built.

As he's telling more about the weapon, Ash notices a girl who looks suspiciously like the girl he met earlier, only with a hat, drawing up in the balcony.

Ash pursues the girl all over town, but when he finally catches up with her and asks why she disappeared, she says she doesn't know him. Also her voice sounds way too old for her body. She's ten like Ash, right? She sounds like she's 30.

The girl leaves but Ash still decides to follow her through town. We see some Murkrow, who btw also have have awful voices, and Ash gives up on his chase right as he sees her again. It's clear this time that it's Latias since she's now sans hat and art supplies and isn't speaking. She runs off prompting Ash to follow her. We get more 'flying' through the CGI town some more and it's even more distracting because now I can't hear Ash panting.

He's brought to a cool little part of town with a garden lattice and a fountain for the bird Pokemon. Latias suddenly disappears through a portal in a wall, so Ash and Pikachu follow.

(http://i.imgur.com/IAE4GE5.png?1)

They're lead into some cool looking park and continue to follow Latias. When they catch up, Latios springs from a nearby pool and starts attacking Ash while invisible, but Latias steps in to protect him and Latios becomes visible.

The girl from before who looks just like Latias walks up and starts bitching out Ash for attacking Latios. They try to explain, but the girl, Bianca, will have none of it and orders Latios to attack. They're stopped, however, by Lorenzo from earlier. He explains that the other girl is Latias and she just wants to play with her new friends.

Ash starts swinging on the swing with Latias who spooks him by turning into her actual form. Latios also apologizes to Pikachu for attacking it by licking its cheek. Pikachu plays with Latias and Latios while they fly around and Ash decides to ask why Latias looked like Bianca. As we learned earlier, they have the power to change their form, but the reason she chooses to look like Bianca much of the time is because they're best friends.

Latias plays around with Ash by stealing his hat and playing keepaway, but after he retrieves it, Latios decides to use the ability of sight sharing while he dives underwater. It allows Latias to not only see what Latios sees but also allows her to project the images to other people. So we get a neat rail-shooter-esque ride thought Latios' sight, even though it'd be more effective for the audience if they kept Ash and the others out of the shot, but it's still neat either way.

After that, we hear the story of how Lorenzo and Bianca came to know and care for Latias and Latios. They say that Lorenzo has not only known them since they were babies, but also knew their father, Latios, who was the one from the legend who brought water to the town, stopped the ancient Pokemon and created Alto Mare.

Wait, wait, wait, back up the truck. He was there when Alto Mare was formed? The whole event with the....evil....ANCIENT Pokemon? I mean, I guess it's not impossible for ancient Pokemon to live back then because, well, Ash and the others have awakened ancient Pokemon before, but that theory kinda gets squashed when you remember that the Aerodactyl and Kabutops fossils they saw at the museum earlier were the actual fossils. There's no way in hell those Pokemon fossilized in 50 or so years. Maybe if they were killed by lava, but they were drowned.

All of this, the museum, the ancient machine, the legend book, all of it points to stuff that happened a very long-ass time ago. This is made even more apparent by the fact that the story is laid out for us in what seem like ancient tomes carved into stone. Unless Lorenzo is immortal, I think this whole story is complete BS.

Anyway, he also tells us that their father died back then (and despite the fact that they say it 'vanished' Ash does actually say 'die'. Guess the movies have different rules now or something) because he expended all of his power to bring the water to Alto Mare......really? It's a legendary Pokemon and it didn't have the strength to take out two Pokemon without making a martyr of itself? Just because they're ancient Pokemon doesn't mean they're anymore powerful.

In Latios' place, a gem was left behind said to contain its spirit and was named the soul dew. The soul dew was then used to power the DMA(M). Lorenzo also adds that while the soul dew contains the soul of Alto Mare's guardian, it also contains the power to destroy their town if it gets into the wrong hands, thus its location must be kept secret.

Ash agrees to keep the secret when Latias comes up from behind him and tries to give him a ride, but he's too heavy for Latias and drops him. However, he's saved by Latios. Bianca points out that Latias is trying to play with him some more, but he says he can't because he needs to find his friends.

He bids farewell to them and Bianca decides to take him back. However, as we cut out of the park, we see Annie and Oakley's drill camera thinger. Dun Dun Dunnnn.

Later that night, in front of a glowing sapphire moon (this movie is so friggin' blue) Annie and Oakley head off over the rooftops to Latias and Latios' location while Team Rocket tries to follow. We see Lorenzo working in his workshop making a gondola when Espeon enters and knocks him out with its psychic powers.

(http://i.imgur.com/s9LMX3A.png?1)

They enter the park through the secret entrance in Lorenzo's workshop. As Latios and Latias sleep, Latios senses them and goes in to attack. Annie and Oakley start a counteroffensive, but Latios and Latias choose to go invisible. That won't work, however, as ♫ they wear their sunglasses at night, so they can, so they can, see Latios and Latiiiiiaaaaaassssss ♫.

They attack Latios and Latias and in an effort to save Latias from an attack, Latios takes the hit and they capture him in some sort of awful CGI electro-slime net.

Latias is shot down as well, and as they're about to capture her, Latios steps in to save her and tells her to run. She manages to get away, but now Annie and Oakley have Latios as well as the soul dew.

So wait, the soul dew and the DMA(M) are the two things needed to easily destroy the town? Yet, one's in an easily accessible museum and the other's in a park with the access to this place being either an unguarded portal in an easily accessible wall or a door in an old man's workshop. And the tablet which explains, step by freakin' step, how to use the soul dew with the machine is embedded in the floor mere feet away from the dew. You guys SUCK at security. It's almost like you want your town to be destroyed.

The tablet not only explains how to use the soul dew and the machine but also explains that using the machine must be kept as merely a last resort as using it will destroy the soul dew and cause the waters in the city to recede. Annie doesn't want to sacrifice her gem, but Oakley says it's probably a bunch of bull.

Annie and Oakley head to the museum and follow the instructions from the tablet. They lay Latios on a platform—wait, I thought all you needed to make the machine work was a soul dew and the machine. Now you need a live Latios too?

Lorenzo and Bianca, having discovered that the soul dew was missing, arrive at the museum to stop Annie and Oakley but get knocked out by Espeon again. You guys coulda called the cops ya know.....oh right....cops...in Pokemon. Yeah, you're better off on your own.

Oakley uses the soul dew and they marvel in the machine powering up.

Back with Latias, she finds Ash and the others at the local Pokemon Center sleeping. She transforms to her Bianca form, wakes Ash and hugs him in fright.

Ash explains the situation to Misty and Brock and says that the girl before them is actually Latias. They strangely believe him without question, but get instant proof when Latias returns to her Pokemon form.

Latios awakens and uses sight sharing with Latias to show Ash and the others what's going on. Oakley enters the machine, and I'm just now realizing that they never say exactly what the machine is supposed to do. It's a weapon of course, but what powers does it have?

Power 1 – The power to bring fossils back to life as pseudo-zombie Pokemon.

(http://i.imgur.com/DsS3oEQ.png?1)

I don't see how that helps defend the town....

Oakley uses the machine to bring Aerodactyl and Kabutops back to life through their fossils to make them fight on their side. It still bothers me that we never learn who this evil trainer was that trained these two. You'd think the legend of the evil person who trained these Pokemon to attack the town would be prominent than the Pokemon themselves.

Oakley commands the two to capture Latias, and Latios ends the sight sharing.

Power 2 – Close off all of the streets, pathways and all exits in town with giant grates.

Uh....Okay, I guess that's a defensive power. But if the danger is in the town, it's just locking the enemy in with you and making it impossible for you to escape from them.

Oakley causes a city-wide lockdown, performing the same function I just mentioned, to trap the citizens within the city as she takes it over.

Ash manages to escape and heads to the museum while Misty and Brock are trapped in the Pokemon Center for the time being.

Ash rides in a gondola to the museum but Aerodactyl attacks Latias. He manages to save Latias for a moment, but she flies off and turns invisible. Aerodactyl comes back with a Hyper Beam to destroy Ash's gondola and nearly drown him, but Latias saves him.

Latias pulls him through the water slowly since she's shown not to have the strength to let him ride on her back, and Ash stops her as they pass some of those little boat things from the race so he can use that instead.

Back with Misty and Brock who somehow managed to find a way out of the Pokemon center, but are still trapped by the grates all over town. They're trying to deliver Ash's other Pokemon to him in case he gets into trouble. Since they can't pass the gate, they open their Pokeballs outside of the gate to let Crobat, Politoed and Corsola deliver them for them.

Oh wait, scratch that, that would've been intelligent. Instead they keep Ash's Pokeballs and just let their Pokemon go off as support for Ash while they try to find a way out. Brock starts climbing the grate which really does highlight a big problem with that power. Some of the grates are inescapable because of what they're covering such as doors and windows, but the ones covering the streets and alleyways have no tops and are designed in such a way that is easily climbable. So...this power's a little dumb. Don't even get me started on the fact that in this town where most people travel by the city's waterways, the power doesn't block off the waterways at all....

Back with Ash and Latias, they're still being pursued by Aerodactyl but now are also being attacked by Kabutops. They crash the little boat thing and nearly get attacked by Kabutops, but Brock and Misty's Pokemon save them. Behold, the only thing Misty and Brock do all movie! No, I'm not kidding. Also, the only thing they do all movie is the one thing they're not even present for. Hooray!

By the way, Latios the legendary Pokemon had to flood the city and sacrifice its life to beat these Pokemon before. Three fairly unimpressive (power-wise) Pokemon from trainers who hardly ever get chances to battle beat them easily. Yay for making sense!

With Annie and Oakley, we learn of the next power of the machine.

Power 3 – Can see all over town like it's covered in hidden cameras.

That's a better defensive power. Leaves few places for the enemy to hide.

Oakley sees Latias coming towards the museum as well as Ash. Bianca and Lorenzo try to change her mind about using the machine, but Oakley's gone a little mad with power.

She uses the machine's next power--

Power 4 - ….Basically Water Bending.

(http://i.imgur.com/AFGcBE4.png?1)

I'm becoming increasingly baffled by this machine. Latios can't do any of these things, yet the machine uses its power and the power of the soul dew, which is just a Latios as well, to achieve these things. What magic is going into this thing? Who actually built it? Just the citizens of Alto Mare? Are they graduates from Hogwarts? Every other weird machine or monster that has appeared in these movies has had a reason behind their powers yet this is completely unexplained.

Anyway, Oakley attacks Ash and Latias with a bunch of tidal waves and traps them in a floating whirlpool in an effort to actually kill them. Holy crap, someone actually tried to murder another person on this show. Though I have noticed that whenever that happens, it's usually through drowning. Weird.

Latias saves the day by blasting the water away with its psychic powers. Because of the broken attack, the DMA(M) starts going haywire.

Ash arrives and saves Bianca and Lorenzo while Latias tries to free Latios from its prison that looks oddly like the prisons from movie 02. Also, this machine was supposedly made with the intentions of trapping a Latios in it and torturing it to uses its powers. Nice, citizens of Alto Mare. Real nice.

Pikachu Thunderbolts the cage, but the lightning gets redirected back at them. Strangely, this does cause the cage to be lowered to ground level though....Wait....it's in Ash's range now.....Could it be?!

(http://i.imgur.com/zMimMwK.gif)

YAY! THE EXTREMELY WEIRD MOVIE TROPE OF ASH RAMMING HEADFIRST INTO SOMETHING THAT OBVIOUSLY WON'T BE AFFECTED BY HIS PUNY HUMAN BODY AND THEN BEING THROWN FROM IT AND HURT IS BACK! Whoopee!

And he does it twice. You so silly, Ash.

Latias manages to break the barrier with its own psychic powers and Ash and the others pull Latios out of the cage, which causes the machine to breakdown. Misty and Brock arrive just in time to be useless and Annie reunites with Oakley. They're about to leave, and Annie tries to recover the soul dew, but she finds that it's black. As she touches the soul dew, she is thrown back by an expulsion of energy from the jewel.

The machine starts back up again and traps Annie and Oakley within it. Lorenzo explains that the soul dew's been out of the pool of water it was in for too long and now all the water in the town will dry up. Well, thanks for telling us that could happen. The only thing I heard of like that was the machine using too much of the soul dew's power, which is what I thought was going on.

The water in the town does indeed start receding, but we learn that the real issue isn't the water going away, it's the fact that once it does, the water returns in a giant city-destroying tidal wave—okay, you're just making things up as you go along now! This is truly the dumbest defense machine and mystical gem I've ever seen. Protect the town by using a gem that can't be out of water for more than ten minutes and its use results in the city being destroyed.

(http://i.imgur.com/kJi70j2.gif)

The tidal wave comes and does some awful CGI damage to some ruins and Latias and Latios go to combat it. They combine their psychic powers to split the wave and allow the water to gently return to the city.

Because he expelled so much power while being so weak, Latios dies. Wow, he does....he dies! And he doesn't get brought back to life.....Wow, I think that's the first ever legit death Pokemon has ever had on screen.

The water returns to the city, Aerodactyl and Kabutops return to their fossils, the citizens are none the wiser, and Annie and Oakley remain trapped in the machine until cops one day decide to get off their asses and find them.

Back with Ash and the gang, they grab a boat and start looking for Latias and Latios. They manage to find Latias who is saved by some passing Water Pokemon. They retrieve Latias and mourn when she tells them that Latios died to protect the city. As they mourn, Latias' sight sharing activates and they see what Latios is seeing, which is a view of the clouds and the earth from space. It's actually a pretty sad and well-handled scene.

Latios turns into a new soul dew and lands in Bianca's hands. They bring the new soul dew to the pool in the park and welcome a new guardian to Alto Mare.

Ash and the others bid goodbye to Lorenzo. Lorenzo tries to call Bianca down to say goodbye as well, but state that she must've left for the market. In her room, we see her hat on the easel and someone grabbing a drawing she had made.

As Ash and the others drive away on a boat, they see 'Bianca' waving them down. They stop at a dock, and Ash gets out to see what's up. She hands the picture to Ash and we get the big to-do about this movie, Ash's kiss.

(http://i.imgur.com/ar70Xqt.png?1)

The big mystery though is if the girl was Latias or Bianca. Given that Bianca left her hat at home, it's completely possible that it's Bianca and most fans would probably want it that way. But Bianca's a big mouth. She's always talking when she's on screen. Yet she's not making a peep here and suddenly runs off like Latias would do, so I'm inclined to believe it's Latias. I think most people want it to be Bianca because on the very rare occasions that we get anything romantic in this series, we'd like it if it wasn't humanxPokemon.

I'm not even sure why this was thrown in there anyway. If it was Latias then, well, I guess it's kinda cute but a little weird. If it's Bianca then why should we care? She was bitchy for half of her scenes, and it's not like we ever saw any sort of connection between her and Ash. The picture is of Ash and Pikachu so I guess Bianca could've had a thing for Ash, but we don't see any chemistry or decent scenes with them on screen, so blah. She wasn't even really memorable in the least and if you want to go the extra mile, the argument can be made that her character was basically pointless besides to purposely make this confusion.

Ash has had two kisses in the course of the show to this point, both of which he got in movies and both of which were on the cheek, which is why I didn't say this was Ash's first kiss like a lot of people seem to call it. She clearly kissed him on the cheek. It really feels like they're making off like this is his legit first kiss. With the bright background and closeup on the kiss, they're making off like this is a big deal, in spite of the fact that he got a kiss on the cheek by Melody in movie 02. The only reason I can think of for this seeming like his first kiss is that it kinda looks like Ash is kissing her on the cheek a little, but he's really just surprised at the kiss.

In summary, ooOOOoooohhhh kissy! Mwah mwa mwah!

They drive away from Alto Mare and we start getting our ending songs, which are just two snippets of songs found on Totally Pokemon, a CD I actually have. Yay me! And two from 2BA Master, a CD I don't have and never will own on principle because of that insanely stupid title. Just write it out, guys, stop trying to be 'hip'.

The first is a slower remake of the song 'You and Me and Pokemon', which I actually enjoy better than the original. Next is 'Pikachu (I Choose You!)' which is more catchy than anything. It's also not remixed for the movie. Next, we get 'The Time Has Come (Pikachu's Goodbye)' a song they're going to keep milking apparently. Finally, we get 'My Best Friends' even though it would've been better to end on 'The Time Has Come (Pikachu's Goodbye)' considering the death and all, but I guess ending on a lighter note's fine.

In terms of the scenes behind the credits, we have Ash and the others leaving on the boat (They never mention why they were even there, It looks really far out of their way to be a stop on his Johto journey) and seeing a few Latias and Latios flying through the air, confirming what I thought earlier in seeing numerous Latias and Latios flying around during the race instead of just two, which just begs the question of where the hell were you lazy sumbitches when Latios was dying and the town was nearly destroyed? Some guardians you are.

We also see a shot I never noticed before. We see Annie and Oakley getting captured by the cops in a picture that looks like brown comic book inking and then we see Annie and Oakley in prison reading a book about ancient treasures. However, on the right page we see Lawrence the Third and his ship thing. What a weird cameo. A villain who was basically there to get a plot going and was ignored most of the time gets a random spot in a book they're reading. What's he even in there for? Why isn't IMM in there? He was a better criminal.

(http://i.imgur.com/XQCPwk6.png?1)

Other than that we see the usual shots of Ash and the others camping and traveling, Team Rocket following them, Bianca drawing and that's pretty much it. The End.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{

So, how did this movie fare for me?....It was a lot worse than I remember it being. Annie and Oakley aren't as good villains as I remember them being. Annie's basically a non-villain as she more preoccupied with pretty stuff than power, and Oakley's your average 'gets drunk on power and nearly gets destroyed by it' bad guy. While it was one of her more tolerable performances, Oakley being voiced by Lisa Ortiz didn't help. And I find it a bit weird that they basically murdered a Pokemon and are treated like comic relief villains.

The story is stupid and makes no sense most of the time. The big machine is given no adequate explanation beyond it's a big mysterious machine with magic powers that regular people made.

I really like Latias and Latios. They're seemingly pretty weak for legendaries, especially if they couldn't beat two measly Pokemon without self-sacrifice, but I always liked their character designs and their personalities were likable.

One of my biggest disappointments was the lack of Misty, Brock and hell even Team Rocket. The only thing Misty did the entire movie was win a race that didn't even matter. I thought they'd do something with her awesome medallion, but nope. It was in one shot then forgotten. Brock did absolutely NOTHING during the whole movie except get a couple jokes. Sure, they let their Pokemon out to help Ash with Aerodactyl and Kabutops but they do one attack and are gone from the rest of the movie.

Brock and Misty's little mission to get Ash his Pokeballs wasn't even needed. He never used any other Pokemon besides Pikachu and Totodile this entire movie, and I don't even think they showed them returning the Pokeballs to Ash.

Team Rocket was even worse. They did 100% pure nothing. They didn't even talk to Ash and co. or Annie and Oakley. They got splashed with water, failed at following Annie and Oakley on the rooftops and that was it. They basically vanished from the movie after that only appearing in reaction shots to what the machine was doing with little dialogue, and we don't see them again until the end credits where we see them following Ash and the others like normal.

The visuals of Alto Mare were the best things to say about this movie because the city was incredibly designed and well-detailed. The whole city is a big rip off of Venice, and they even throw in some Italian words to push this further, but it's still really nice. The overall art and animation was back and forth. Some of the CGI was a huge step up from what they've been doing especially in regards to the CGI shots of the city, but some shots almost seemed unfinished they were so bad.

Not to mention that the colors are just wrong during most of the movie. It feels way too dark a lot of the time (not in the night scenes, for obvious reasons) and like the comparison said, it's almost like some scenes have a blue filter over them. It really tarnishes a good visual experience.

The animation and art of the characters is bumped up as it usually is, though.

Music-wise, they kept the original soundtrack besides the ending and beginning theme, and the original soundtrack is quite nice and builds a good atmosphere for the town. It was really disappointing that the beginning theme wasn't remixed in any way since I've really been enjoying most of the remixes. I find it especially weird that this wasn't remixed when 'You and Me and Pokemon' was remixed for the ending.

Extending the TV version like they did just seems lazy. The ending songs, while I enjoy them, also just seem like a big plug for their other CD's instead of trying to make legit ending songs for an actual movie soundtrack. Like why is 'Pikachu (I Choose You)' mixed in there? They were also a little bit too short for my taste as well. It's like they wanted to compact as many songs as humanly possible in there, though admittedly the first movie had a fairly similar problem.

Bottomline: I really don't understand how Dogasu can say this is their favorite movie of the five so far. Everyone has their own views, I suppose, and they may have been talking about the supposedly drastically different subbed version. It's an okay movie at its core for me.

The stakes, like I mentioned, aren't that high, even though a Poke-death does take place. And I'm not denying that the death scene wasn't sad or impacting. It was. However, it just didn't hook me in very well. There are too many characters doing nothing, side characters getting more impact than they deserve, story issues etc. And this also works on that whole trope of repeating a legend over and over and then have the legend either come true or be repeated. Nothing's really that surprising or interesting when everything is laid out for you that much. I can't even remember why I watched it so often when I was younger. Maybe I enjoyed Latias too much back then. My rating is mostly for Latios and Latias, the art of the town and the death scene.

Now what does the original have to offer?

Recommended Audience: Several mentions of death and one on-screen death, though not graphic. 5+

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Pokemon Movie 05: The Guardians of Altomare/Guardian Gods of the City of Water; Latias and Latios.

(http://i.imgur.com/34zVGfd.jpg)

Rating: 7/10

Plot: Satoshi, Kasumi and Takeshi are on an island called Altomare where they treasure the heroes of their local legend, Latias and Latios. Satoshi is lucky enough to see them after saving a Latias from the thieves Zanner and Lion, but they still have plenty of plans in store for the pair. Plans that could involve the destruction of the town.

Reasons for Rating: Now THAT is a much better poster, Japan. That is eye-catching, detailed, well organized, contains scenes from the actual movie and just looks great. If I would complain about anything, it's the lack of Kasumi, Takeshi and Team Rocket, but seeing as how they're basically not a part of the movie, I can't damn it too much.

There's also this poster, which is more complex

(http://i.imgur.com/xT5kjc3.jpg)

That is actually pretty good too, and Kasumi and Takeshi are included this time as well. Plus there's the awesome soul dew center piece. My problems are the slight nitpick that Satoshi wasn't wearing his vest or regular pants in the race, Kasumi was wearing a life jacket (wait, the Water Pokemon trainer's wearing a flotation device but not Satoshi? Weird) and the odder issue with wtf Takeshi is even doing there. That shot, to my recollection, is not in the movie, though his role really is just gushing over girls. It's a shame, it's like they wanted to include him but realized he did absolutely nothing the entire movie. They would've been better off using stock pictures to be honest.

Alright, well, since we may be dealing with first movie level changes according to Dogasu, I'm going to go through the movie step by step again. I'll try to glance over scenes whenever possible to avoid unnecessary text walls. Here we go!

The 'World of Pokemon' opener starts us off even though it seems faster and like it's missing a couple scenes in contrast to the original. For example, this version doesn't include the further shot of Satoshi in Okido's lab, and it includes scenes from the first episode with Satoshi and Pikachu running from the flock of Onisuzume/Spearow and the classic battle between Iwark and Gangar from stock Pokemon League footage.

Our movie actually starts off with....me wondering if I put the right movie on—oh man it is the first movie all over again!

(http://i.imgur.com/lkRIxRR.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/CvBiOy8.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/8DmdsGn.gif)

Alright, alright....deep breaths, everyone. I'm sure we'll be fine.

We start off with some pretty cool looking construction-paper cut-out-like animation of the town of Altomare, and yeah in the Japanese version Altomare is one word and two in the dub. I don't get why, but I'll bet it's because the Italian translation is two words...

A female narrator starts explaining that back in the ancient days of Altomare, an elderly couple found two children, a boy and a girl, injured and washed up on the beach. They took the children in and cared for their injuries. As the children were recovering, a gigantic monster that looks like a huge cloud made of dark gears appeared and.....wait, dark gears?....Black Gears?! Someone call the Digidestined, looks like Devimon's up to his old tricks again!

The monster took over and quickly started destroying the town. The elderly couple tried to shield the children from the monster's attack, but were startled when the children started transforming. The children became the Infinite Pokemon, Latios and Latias. Together, they called upon their other Latios and Latias friends to defeat the darkness with what seems to be the power of the Heart Drop (the soul dew in the dub).

As we cut out to the shots of the book actually seen in the dub, we learn that peace returned to the island, and the two Latios and Latias who were cared for by the elderly couple started frequently visiting the city of Altomare to ensure that the peaceful state remained.

The book is held by two thieves, Zanner and Lion, Annie and Oakley respectively in the dub, and they run off before they're caught stealing the book. Also, according to the Wiki, they're sisters in both versions, but I don't recall hearing them ever say that in the dub.

In the car, Zanner points out that the story is just a legend, but Lion says there's plenty of evidence to support that the story is real, and not only that but there's also a hidden secret in the book that leads to something much better than the jewel. They ride off and then fly off on Barbie's magic dream jet/convertible and head towards Altomare.

We get our title screen and it beats out the 4Kids one. They just did a better job with the jet transition and the tidal wave effect. Plus the actual title itself looks like FINISHED CGI.

(http://i.imgur.com/mTJBQGs.gif)

For comparison's sake, I made a gif of the dub movie's title sequence too.

(http://i.imgur.com/f94UGft.gif)

We cut to the start of the race and learn that it's actually Altomare's Summer Festival and this is just a water race for the festival as opposed to the actual race being the big event, the Tour de Alto Mare; and I'm just now realizing that 4Kids was probably referencing the Tour de France with that.....you know, the FRENCH BICYCLE race? France, Italy? They're both foreign, who cares? Bicycles, boats? They're both modes of transportation, who cares?

The race begins and we get our theme song which is just another remix of the same Mezase Pokemon Master song we've heard every single movie so far. Guys, it's a fine song, but change is good. As much as I love the original Pokemon theme song, even that would get old after hearing it for so long. Variety is the spice of life, people.

As for how this remix fares....it's okay. It's pretty poppy for my tastes. They remove the Pokemon sounds, so that's something.

Everything's fine and dandy throughout the race, except we don't hear Takeshi talking to that girl when he's on the bridge. Not a big surprise, even though I don't get why they'd leave it alone in movie 02 and 03 and yet add dialogue again here.

Satoshi wipes out, gets saved by Latias and then pulled by Latias and we cut to Kasumi and the other guy vying for first place. Believe it or not, 4Kids almost left his name intact. He's Rossi in the original and Ross in the dub.

Satoshi catches up, but gets diverted when Latios skews him off course and he crashes. Meanwhile Kasumi pulls out the win.

Rossi offers a ride in his boat to celebrate, and the gang heads off with him on his gondola. Kasumi marvels at her medallion, but there's nothing stating that the symbols tell the story of Altomare. In fact, now that I really look at it, the only symbols are Latios and Latias. How is that a 'story'?

Kasumi asks what the statues of Latios and Latias are and Rossi basically just gives the cliffnotes version of the legend. And now it makes perfect sense why Latios and Latias are both on the statues instead of just a Latios like the dub legend states.

Anyway, cut to Zanner and Lion's little camera thing and the icky CGI people below. They explain the same thing about how Latios and Latias can disguise themselves as humans so they're scanning the people. Latios and Latias have lower body temperatures than people, so the thermal imaging quickly spots Latias.

As they pursue Latias on their boat, they splash Team Rocket and Kojiro instantly recognizes them as two of the top thieves ever. Yup, another change between the two versions is that Zanner and Lion are merely great thieves, not spies for Team Rocket, not members of Team Rocket at all. I don't have any clue as to why 4Kids changed that. The comparison states that it was big rumor that the two were part of Team Rocket before the movie even came out, but that's not really an excuse seeing as how they eventually got and translated the damn script themselves. Unless they started writing the dub script before the movie even came out, which I wouldn't put it past them.

Sucks, actually. While they don't do a whole lot, I like when Team Rocket actually does villainous organization things. Like how I liked Vicious in movie 04. Though I'd prefer if one day the whole organization got off their asses and did something big and movie-worthy for once. All I remember is them taking over the St. Anne and a few things Butch and Cassidy did. They're a pathetic organization....

They get basically the same idea as the dub, only they want to outwit and beat them at thieving not follow them and try to learn from them.

Back with Satoshi and the others, Rossi bids them farewell and tells them of a great crepe shop, not an ice cream shop and seafood place like the dub. Surprisingly, the 'ciao' is also present in the dub, and I feel weird about that for some reason.

The gang runs off for some crepe-y goodness while Pikachu goes off to a fountain. Latias, in human disguise, turns on the faucet for him and Pikachu starts drinking and cooling off. Satoshi arrives and thanks Latias for turning on the water for Pikachu. Latias gets in his face, circles him and runs off.

Latias continues her stroll until Zanner and Lion spot her, out her as Latias and pursue her. Pikachu hears the fuss and runs off, prompting Satoshi to follow, and Zanner and Lion catch Latias. Satoshi to the rescue, but Zanner sends out Elfie/Espeon to attack Satoshi.

Satoshi counters with Pikachu's electricity and runs off with Latias while Ariados and Elfie pursue.

They run through the town giving us that 'flying' shot, but it's slightly helped by the inclusion of footsteps. It's still way too smooth to be running, though.

Satoshi gets a bit lost, and Latias leads him back to Kasumi and Takeshi before mysteriously disappearing.

Satoshi reunites with Kasumi and Takeshi and they head off to some temple. Oh, it's a temple and not a museum. I guess that makes more sense considering the only things I saw there were the two fossils and the machine.

Zanner and Lion spy on them with their little robot and Lion says he won't get away, which I guess means she doesn't want to keep Latias and him apart like the dub said.

At the temple, Satoshi and the others see the fossils of Ptera/Aerodactyl and Kabutops. As expected with the different backstory, there's no mention whatsoever about these two nearly destroying the city. In fact, they're not even the only fossils at the temple supposedly. I'm not exactly sure why they're there, but there ya go.

They're brought to the machine and Takeshi says his pointless and confusing line about finding a girlfriend in the city all because he saw stained glass.

As we cut to an outer shot, the old man explains that in ancient times the temple that they're currently in and a neighboring building called the Sun Tower were built for Latias and Latios as an expression of the people's gratitude for them saving the city. The machine was also seemingly built for the sake of peace, but no one knows how to operate it.

Satoshi sees what he thinks is the girl from before and takes chase. When he finally catches up, he asks the girl why she ran away but she just asks what he's talking about and walks away.

The chase continues, but he gets lost and gives up right as they spot Latias, who drags them through town some more until they reach the portal.

They go through the portal, find themselves in a park and find Latias yet again, but Latios springs up out of the water and attacks Satoshi and Pikachu. The assault is halted by Latias and Kanon/Bianca soon shows up to see what the fuss is about. Kanon hears Satoshi's story about how he followed Latias into the park, but she finds it suspicious and sics Latios on him. He's instantly stopped by Vongole/Lorenzo, however.

Everything's sorted out and they start playing together, and we cut to Kanon and Vongole talking to Satoshi about how they protect the secret garden as a sanctuary for when Latios and Latias come to visit the island. Wait, that just raises more plot holes in the dub. The city was supposedly just a regular land-based city before the evil trainer and his Kabutops and Aerodactyl attacked and then it became flooded with water that Latios delivered. Unless Latios made a damn OCEAN when it defeated Kabutops and Aerodactyl...in which case, why is Latios not a Water Pokemon?

They also explain that the Latios and Latias before them are indeed brother and sister with Latios being the older brother.

Latias steals Satoshi's hat and playfully teases him while Latios starts sight sharing, called Dream Projection in the original (though, to be honest, sight sharing is a more logical name) before diving underwater.

After that's over, we're brought back to the secret garden where we catch the tail-end of the legend of Latios and Latias and they solidify that these are not the same Latias and Latios from the legend nor are they the direct children of the one/ones responsible for it, they're their ANCESTORS.

They explain the stuff about the Heart Drop being used in conjunction with the device from before even stating that the many Latios and Latias helped them build it, which explains how it's all magical and stuff.

Satoshi is tasked with keeping the garden and the Heart Drop a secret, he agrees, and Latias and Latios try to play some more. He politely declines as he says he needs to get back to his friends, but promises to come back and play later.

They exit out the door in Vongole's gondola workshop while Zanner and Lion's camera captures images of Latias and Latios in the garden, and Kanon escorts him to the Pokemon center.

Meanwhile, back with Team Rocket, they see Zanner and Lion roof-hopping, try to follow them and fail. And thus ends their kinda-sorta-ish-maybe-a-little-okay-not-really subplot.

Zanner and Lion knock out Vongole again and break into the secret garden. Latios and Latias try to fight the intruders, but they ultimately fail. Latios is captured, but manages to let Latias escape.

By the way, Latios and Latias sound awful in both versions. In the dub, they have higher-pitched squeals, and in the original, Latias has a high-pitched squeal while Latios constantly sounds like he's saying 'Wha-hoo!' It's not unbearable but it is annoying.

Zanner and Lion steal the Heart Drop and Lion scans the tablets on the floor to figure out how to use the Heart Drop in conjunction with the machine. It's here where we learn the not-stupid explanation of what happens later in the movie.

The tablet warns that the Heart Drop should not be used for evil. If it is, the Heart Drop will be defiled and will vanish alongside the island. Basically it was a warning to the villagers saying that as long as they're responsible with the Heart Drop and the machine, their land will forever be protected, but if they decide to use the powers they've been given for evil nothing but destruction will follow. Much better explanation than 'Oh yeah, if the Soul Dew is used at all, or if it's kept out of its water tank for more than 15 minutes, our protected land will be wiped out by a tidal wave caused by the thing we used to protect ourselves.'

I still say that secret garden has the worst security measures ever. They don't even have a lock on that damn entrance in Vongole's workshop. Town-destroying jewel, the instructions on how to use it right next to it and two legendary Pokemon sitting right there and you can't be arsed to buy a damn padlock. Does Altomare have no hardware store?

Zanner and Lion head to the temple to use the Heart Drop with the machine, Vongole and Kanon arrive only to get knocked out, and they start the machine.

Meanwhile, Latias goes back to Satoshi in the Pokemon center, and Takeshi and Kasumi are made privy to the situation. Latios uses Dream Projection to show Latias, Satoshi, Takeshi and Kasumi what's going on.

Lion starts controlling the machine, revives the Ptera and Kabutops fossils to have them do her bidding, and sets up grates to block all exits and entrances, except, as I mentioned, the damn waterways, while Satoshi escapes the Pokemon Center with Pikachu before they're trapped as well.

Satoshi grabs a boat and heads to the temple, but Ptera attacks them, destroying their boat and nearly drowning Satoshi. Latias saves him and they grab one of the boat things I still can't identify to continue traveling.

Back with Takeshi and Kasumi, still trapped by the grates, they let out Crobat, Sunnygo/Corsola (Sunnygo?....That sounds really weird. And I keep thinking of Sunny D. I know it has actual meaning; the word Sunny mixed with sango (coral) but still, weird.) and Nyoromo/Politoed to help Satoshi.

Nyoromo has an incredibly cute and goofy Japanese voice, by the way.

So they valiantly go off to help Satoshi, ashamed of the fact that their combined strength can supposedly not support the weight of Satoshi's monster balls and belt. If only monster balls weren't made of dark matter!

Kasumi and Takeshi's Pokemon help Satoshi take down Kabutops and he heads back off towards the temple.

Lion, spying on them with the machine, realizes that Kabutops and Ptera failed, so she uses her waterbending to create a water spout that ensnares Latias and Satoshi. However, Latias uses her psychic powers to break the water.

This results in the machine going haywire while Satoshi, Pikachu and Latias try to free Kanon, Vongole and Latios, meaning I get to watch Satoshi the human battering ram again! Hahaha, he's so hilariously stupid. :D

They eventually do get Latios out, and the machine shuts down. Everyone's okay, even if Latios is worse for wear. Kasumi and Takeshi arrive because they exist, and Zanner retrieves the Heart Drop.

However, it's completely tainted by evil and expels a huge burst of energy when she tries to remove it. Zanner and Lion both fall into the machine as it powers back up again and spins them right round baby. Right round. Like a record, baby. Right round round round.

The legend starts coming true as the water starts receding into a giant town-destroying tidal wave. Latias and Latios realize that they can't depend on any of the other Latios and Latias who are around to come in and help, because that would just save the life of one of their kind and everything. The Celebi from movie 04, you are not. So they head towards the wave and use their psychic power to disperse the water in a harmless manner across the town again.

Latios dies due to expending too much energy and bids farewell to Latias.

The effects of the machine start to disappear over town, and Satoshi and the others head out into the water to find Latias. They find her being rescued by some Water Pokemon and are soon made aware of Latios' fate.

Latias' dream projection activates and Latios shows them his view of the clouds and the earth from space (or maybe it's heaven now that I think about it) and Latios either makes a new Heart Drop or becomes one, it's not entirely clear. In this version, the Latias and Latios who gave the initial Heart Drop just had one, no one died for it that I know of, but they keep saying 'Latios' to the new Heart Drop so *shrug*

Satoshi and the others are leaving the city, so they bid farewell to Vongole. They want to say goodbye to Kanon as well, but she seems to have stepped out for a second. Also, this shot lends more credence to the theory that it was Latias in the end and not Kanon. There's really no reason why Kanon/Bianca wouldn't have responded when being called numerous times unless she was Latias and couldn't speak. Not only that, but you'd think Kanon would hear that Satoshi and the others are leaving and ask out the window that they wait for a second while she gets the picture to give to Satoshi.

Satoshi and the others leave until they realize 'Kanon' is following them. They stop, she hands Satoshi a rolled up drawing, puts her lips to his face and runs off.

Satoshi opens the paper to see a drawing of him and Pikachu and they depart from the island once again, seeing a bunch of Latias and Latios on their way out, segueing us into the end credits. The end song in Japanese is 'You Are Not Alone' by coba & Kazufumi Miyazawa. I really like this song. It has a great melody, wonderful singing and the instruments being used fit in wonderfully with the setting. It's probably my favorite Pokemon end theme so far, movie wise anyway.

HOWEVER, if I have one complaint it's that the opening is a little too peppy to really fit the tone of the final couple of shots. 4Kids' little CD mashup may have been random, but they did purposely start off with a nice slow song.

And during the end credits we see Zanner and Lion in prison, Vongole fixing up the machine or temple, Kanon drawing and Satoshi and the others traveling some more. The end.

=======================

Okay, so that was actually a lot better than the dub, mostly because it actually *gasp* MADE SENSE!

I mean, I know I've mentioned that 4Kids, oddly enough, sometimes changes stuff to make it worse than it actually is to create drama and tension, but I still can't get over the fact that their revised story just involves so much death and murder. Kabutops and Aerodactyl get forcibly drowned, probably alongside the unnamed evil trainer, the citizens are left with the worry that their town will be destroyed and everyone will be killed if a ball accidentally dries out, and Latios from the legend dies while sacrificing himself for the town. The original story was perfectly fine and very sweet yet they made it so dark and terrible for no real reason.

Think about that. Let it sink in. The company that is so scared of death that it's basically became a meme to replace 'death' with 'the shadow realm' or something, PURPOSELY ADDED IN MUCH MORE DEATH TO THE MOVIE. I can't even begin to comprehend that.

What I really find problematic is I cannot in any way justify why they changed it. I mean, the whole thing with Mewtwo way back when, they probably changed that just to make it a more clearcut struggle of good vs. evil. Can't make Mewtwo too sympathetic and all until his redemption. Plus, I have a feeling they were really trying to shoehorn in a 'violence is bad and we don't condone it' message to the parents of the world who were outraged at Pokemon for the violence and 'cockfighting'.

However, I can't understand why the original story wasn't good enough. If it was really because the art style for the story part upset them for whatever reason then it's still not justified. They repeat the story without the special construction-paper animation, so they could just parrot the story without showing the opener. I see nothing wrong with any part of the original story to warrant changing so it's really just boggling my mind.

It's boggled even further by the fact that most of the movie besides that is left completely alone for the most part. Some minor changes, but nothing that major.

Bottomline: It's much better than the dub.....but I'm still not all that into it. I love Latias and Latios, Kanon's made to be more tolerable than Bianca, the story here actually makes sense, the death scene with Latios is on par with or better than the dub's, the town is probably the best location Pokemon has had to date, the music's great and very fitting for the location, but the plot is still predictable from practically the first scene with the only real shock being Latios' death. The giant tidal wave, once it's actually explained why it's happening in a way that's not out of the blue and dumb, makes for a pretty good scene as well. I can better understand why this is Dogasu's favorite Pokemon movie thusfar a little better, but it's still nothing that special to me.

Recommended Audience: I'll actually lower the rating for the original merely on principle that 4Kids added death. 3+

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA SHORTIES! Gotta Dance!

(http://i.imgur.com/bCWOlTb.jpg)

Rating: 6/10

Plot: Team Rocket has made a new base in a canyon, and they are making a party there for Giovanni so he can be super impressed. Jessie and James leave Meowth in charge while they go invite Giovanni, and Meowth uses this time to rehearse his music and dance number with three captive maraca playing Whismur. He forces them and the Team Rocket alum to dance using a magic baton.....In a world with sentient serial killer lawnmowers, please refrain from laughing.

Pikachu and some of the other Pokemon stumble upon this and try to save Whismur, but the power of dance is too much to resist.

Reasons for Rating: Ladies and gentlemen, the last short to accompany a Pokemon movie.

They continued to make shorts throughout the years, but this was the last short to be included with a Pokemon movie. I don't know why they ended this trend as I thought it was pretty nice to have these shorts alongside the movies, but what can you do?

Like the last one, I have no prior knowledge or experience involving this short. Pokemon movie 06 was the first Pokemon movie that I only just caught on TV when it played on Cartoon Network. This was probably due to the fact that the movie came out right at that time when I really didn't care much for Pokemon anymore because it was the post-Misty days. I was more into Digimon, Yugioh and whatever I could get my hands on with Toonami and Adult Swim.

I was bitter because Misty was gone, and I didn't take to May much. I especially didn't like Max, which may make the rewatch of the movie annoying....But I digress. What awaits us in this short? Hopefully a DDR contest.

===========================================

We see Lotad, Pikachu, Torchic, Mudkip and Treecko playing around in a tree as Meowth narrates over them. He muses over their frivolity and says he wishes he could be that way, but music recently ruined his life. I still have no idea why A) These Pokemon are wandering around in the woods alone with no sign of their trainers and B) why it's only these five Pokemon. I don't know their rosters at this point well enough to list off everyone who's missing, but considering there's only five here, they're likely missing around 15+ Pokemon between them. Ash's Pokemon are Pikachu and Treecko, Brock's are Lotad and Mudkip while May's is merely Torchic.

The Pokemon all get flung through the air by springing on the awful CGI tree branch because we're really vying for 'Pokemon flinging' to be an Olympic sport.

I love how Treecko won't get out of his laid back pose as they're flung through the air. Such a bad ass.

They continue falling after the ground breaks below them and they all slam into a boulder. No worries, though, because they slam through it and leave marks behind in the exact shape of their bodies like Looney Tunes.

(http://i.imgur.com/XUVM1vv.gif)

The horrendous CGI rock falls apart---seriously guys, just friggin' draw it. It's a ROCK.

They look up and see some fort embedded into the cliffside. It's decorated to look like dice for whatever reason and narration from Meowth says it's Team Rocket's new headquarters and they were about to show it to Giovanni when his story began. A base? What the hell do you guys need a base for? You travel all the time because you follow DumbAsh and the superfriends to get Messiahchu. More importantly why would Giovanni be happy that you're wasting funds on building a clubhouse?

They're preparing a big party at the base, complete with an ice sculpture of Giovanni, to impress their boss. Jessie and James, who remain mostly out of frame in line with the usual 'no humans' law of the shorts, leave to retrieve Giovanni and leave Meowth in charge. He takes this opportunity to rehearse the band, a trio of Whismur playing maracas.

He leads them with some stick that he says can control all Pokemon, forcing them to dance easily......Wait...you guys have a stick that controls Pokemon.....and you think it's more impressive to show Giovanni.....a fort painted like dice.......It's really no wonder how much you guys fail.

We get our opener which is really forgettable and not really the most dancey or catchy song ever. There's a noticeable lack of....well, music and Meowth is the one singing....

One interesting aspect is, it's almost like they knew this was going to be the last movie short because they show the Pokemon dancing in the main locations of all of the previous shorts. We get the Pokemon sign from the park in Pikachu's Summer Vacation, the giant tree from Pikachu's Rescue Adventure, the tire fort from Pikachu and Pichu, the mansion from Pikachu's Pika-boo, and the train from Camp Pikachu.

After that, we get bad CGI dice (what is with the dice? Am I missing something?) and our title screen. Despite the English dubbing, I am working from the Japanese footage, so I don't know what the title screen animation is like. I did track down a still of it, though.

(http://i.imgur.com/i4CCPmP.jpg)

The Japanese one, however, is just meh. The CGI text bounces and looks rough, but not that terrible considering what we've gotten so far.

The song soon ends, and Meowth gushes over his baton, imagining that Giovanni will be really impressed with it. I would say this makes my earlier poke moot, but he says he'll be impressed with how it can make Pokemon dance, not how it would help......take over the world and everything. At least easily steal every Pokemon you see.

They continue to rehearse while we cut to the main group heading towards Duke Devlin's wet dream.

Meowth and the others lock up the Whismur in a cage and Meowth says this:

Meowth: “You three wisenheimers....” Wisenheimers?! Wisenheimers?! My great-grandpa wouldn't even use that in serious conversation....that's probably because he's dead, but still how old are you ancient bastards?

How are the Whismur 'wisenheimers' anyway? For those of you who don't know and/or are under the age of 90, a wisenheimer is someone who acts arrogantly or makes sarcastic comments. These Whismur have done nothing but shake and worry when they're not under the baton's control. Are the guys at 4Kids really so lame that they can't even properly use slang that is the closest to their age range?

I'm not exaggerating the age of that word either. Look it up; the first known use of 'wisenheimer' in that definition is 1904.

Pikachu and the others spy on Meowth and the Team Rocket Pokemon in the base as they walk away from the cage to get something to eat. They fall through the window after they leave because I guess Lotad's another comic relief clumsy Pokemon.

They discover that the Whismur have been taken captive by Team Rocket, and they use Pikachu's lightning, Torchic's fire and Mudkip's water to blow the lock off the cage...........which is entirely unnecessary seeing as how the only lock on that cage is an easily accessible lever that one of them would just need to push.....but why do that when you can make explosions while trying to perform a covert operation?

The Pokemon hide as Meowth and the others investigate the noise. They discover the missing Whismur and Meowth commands the others to find them. In the process, they knock Meowth over, causing him to drop his magic baton thing, sending it flying to the barrel that Treecko is hiding in and suddenly activates.

It plays music and all of the Pokemon dance uncontrollably...wait....so...that stick really is only good for making Pokemon dance? What a dumb invention. I would take back my earlier comment, but if it can control these Pokemon to a degree, surely it can be reprogrammed to control them in other ways. But whatever, it will likely see the fate of the dark balls in 'just forget it exists-land.'

I do love that Treecko's doing everything in his power to not dance. I forgot how much I love that little guy.

During the dance, a Loudred that has been sleeping outside shows up to do some disco moves. Well thank god. Now someone do the macarena.

(http://i.imgur.com/0AuNx2I.gif)

Treecko, in his efforts to avoid dancing, falls over causing the baton to shut off.

Everyone stops dancing and Meowth notices Pikachu and the others. They attack, but Pikachu and the others knock them all down with the barrels. And when that's over they play a version of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxCdh1Ps48

Not even kidding.

A chase ensues and the Team Rocket gang chases the Pika gang to the balcony. Pikachu tries to Thunderbolt them but Wobbuffet Reflects it back, nearly knocking Mudkip off the tower. Treecko uses the baton to try and save Mudkip and in the process, it accidentally activates the stick, making everyone dance.

Mudkip is saved and joins the dancing. Their dancing, however, is causing the balcony to collapse and even makes the horrible CGI tower do a terribly animated fall into the river below. Well, at least we're destroying most of this eye abusive CGI....

(http://i.imgur.com/4Awqjix.gif)

They're about to dance off of the balcony and suddenly switch to a tango, making them walk onto a more sturdy part of the building while the barfy CGI balcony also breaks and falls.

They deactivate the stick again and start the chase back up.

They run into the party room and destroy it with the final blow being Cacnea using Pin Missile all over the room, resulting in him destroying three pinata/party balls which revealed three banners with poorly drawn pictures of Giovanni on them.....okay you got me, that was funny.

So they're destroying the base when Giovanni's supposed to show up for a party eh? I smell sitcom-level shenanigans!

Meowth gets up and accidentally hits the baton again. He additionally hits a button which changes it to hula mode, causing everyone to hula while covered in flowers.

It's deactivated again rather quickly since one of the pinata/party balls falls on Meowth. They run off again, and I'm gonna mention at this point that whenever they end these dance sequences....they focus on the Loudred for a bit....Just long enough to be awkward because much of the time he's just staring with his giant mouth agape or he's quietly saying his name. It's unsettling sometimes.

Anyway, you can see where this is going. They get chased, Meowth gets flung in the air, the baton falls on Wobbuffet's head and they start dancing again.

The baton gets flung up again and gets stuck in some sand, for some reason causing it to short out. They make three quick cuts to Treecko, who's been doing his damnedest to not dance this entire time, and I guess since the stick shorted out, he can't take it anymore and goes dance crazy.

They keep dancing and dancing and dancing....I actually think they repeat animation shots a few times with the excuse that it goes with the music, roughly. They also speed up a shot.

They have to keep switching from speeding up to slowing down and we crescendo as the baton explodes.

Everyone stops dancing, but now Loudred is going nuts and attacking the Pokemon with a pipe. He corners them in a room, Seviper tries to attack, but is interrupted by Loudred's pipe which breaks an important column in the base. The base rumbles and seems like it's going to fall, but doesn't. However, Lotad, a Pokemon I don't remember being quite this irritating, sneezes causing the whole place to come crumbling down.

Well, they're dead.

Nah, of course they're not. They're just riding such a terrible looking CGI wooden platform that my sides hurt from laughing at it.

(http://i.imgur.com/mESaBdE.gif)

(http://i.imgur.com/wifd9Sc.gif)

Seriously, this is some crappy CGI and it's just horribly integrated with the traditional animation. The guys at OLM just keep getting worse and worse at this. Please, either go back to training or save my eyes and stop using CGI where it's not necessary.

Their platform breaks in two sending Pikachu and the others flying one way and Meowth and the others in another. Pikachu and friends are about to crash into a cliffside when Lotad decides not to be annoying for a change and Water Guns them away from it, allowing them to land safely.

Meowth and the others end up back in the now destroyed base and as it crumbles even further, we get another

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxCdh1Ps48

It wasn't funny the first time, stop it.

The end!....Hey wait, what about Giovanni? That was a great set up for more sad trombone-y goodness.

Granted, I can't imagine Giovanni would've bothered humoring these idiots anyway.

Also, that Loudred seriously wasn't related to those Whismur? Why was it there then?

Like I said, the end, with those cute little fan art drawings of Pokemon. They also have Pikachu doing his impressions of the featured Pokemon, which I admittedly think is really funny. Then we have the Pokemon just doing random things.

An after-credits scene? Ooh maybe they'll tie in Pokemon to the Marvel movie universe!

Nah it's just them bidding farewell to the Whismur....something they could've done before the end credits, but whatever.

====================================

Bottomline: Well that was....something. What a random short. Pikachu and the others save some Whismur from Team Rocket and we get what is essentially a 20 minute long chase scene with really long dance sequences intertwined and then they destroy the place and fly away. That's it.

The art and animation, like always, get a bump up in this short. Except for the AWFUL TERRIBLE EW CGI.

The music, shockingly, is pretty poor for an episode centered around dancing. The main song is completely forgettable and definitely not up to the catchy ear worm standards of 4Kids. I would dance to a lot of 4Kids songs and this is one I wouldn't tap a toe to.

While I will admit that the short had its entertaining moments such as Pikachu's impressions, Treecko's desire to avoid dancing as much as possible and some of the dances, there's a lot wrong with it. There's so much padding. It's almost like this short is nothing but padding. The chase is padding and the dancing, while being the focal part of the short, is basically just padding. It's pointless dancing for the sake of 'oh how funny; Pokemon dancing!' It is entertaining a few times, and it made me smile once or twice, but it really gets old.

The sequences with Loudred were also pointless. They were causing enough destruction as it was, he didn't need to be here. And those times when they lingered on him after a dance were just awkward.

Some of the 'jokes' like Lotad's sneeze have poor timing, and I am forever perplexed as to how and why Meowth had a magic 'force Pokemon to dance' stick.

It's probably the funniest short since the first one, but it's too long for this non-existent story, very repetitive and, to be honest, poorly directed.

Well, we end the movie shorts on a mediocre note, but there's still more shorts to cover! I just have to pick them out by my own discretion now. What will come for movie 07?! Find out when it happens!

Recommended Audience: You need to ask? E for everyone!

Final notes:

…......WHAT WAS UP WITH THE DICE!? WHAT DID DICE HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING? I DON'T GET IT!.......DICE!

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Movie 06: Jirachi – Wishmaker Review

(http://i.imgur.com/XQ4qgvD.jpg)

Rating: 7.5/10

Plot: Every 1000 years, the Millennium Comet is visible from earth for seven days. Ash, May, Brock and Max visit a festival meant to celebrate the Millennium Comet. While enjoying a magic show, they meet the Great Butler and his assistant Diane who give Max a crystal that contains the wish-granting legendary Pokemon, Jirachi, as he's the one Jirachi has chosen to befriend in order to emerge from his slumber. They become fast friends, but it soon becomes apparent that Butler had malicious motives for giving Jirachi to Max. He wants to use Jirachi's power and the comet to power a machine to clone a Groudon as revenge against Team Magma, the organization he used to work for.

=======================================

I uhhh don't really know if there's anything I can say here. Like I said in my Gotta Dance review, I only caught this movie on TV once or twice. I really wasn't keen on getting into it for a few reasons;

1) Was still bitter about Misty leaving.

2) This movie's main character is Max. Ugh.

3) Despite liking him, I wasn't the biggest fan of Jirachi.

I still watched it when it aired on Cartoon Network and I don't remember entirely all that happens. I was either watching something else while watching that movie the first time or I just wasn't paying good attention.

The poster is really good yet again. I sorta wonder why only the starters and Pikachu are on it, but no biggie. Looks fantastic otherwise.

I'm actually a bit nervous for this review because Bulbagarden's comparison (found here (http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/comparisons/movies/mov_ag01.html)) says that the movie script is so drastically changed that it's on par with fifth movie's alterations. At least they didn't say first movie changes, but still. Hm.

Let's get on with the show then, shall we?

=====================================

Since Misty is now gone, we need to make a new 'World of Pokemon' opener, but this one's a bit different....and awesome.

This 'World of Pokemon' opener moreso focuses on the legendaries and the Pokemon lore as a whole. The thing that's really cool about it, though, is the fact that they showcase each of the Legendaries that have been spotlighted in all of the previous movies and in the TV show. They even show Ho-Oh first because technically that was the first ever legendary to appear in the show.

They show Ho-oh, Mewtwo who is strangely wearing a huge scarf, Lugia, Entei, Celebi, Latias and Latios (though it must be a different Latios) and Kyogre....who must've appeared in the show before this I guess. Each of their shots are just so cool, too. Entei's and Lugia's in particular look amazing.

Cut to a Pokemon battle in a stadium and holy crap, those are different Pokeballs!

(http://i.imgur.com/5Oavkc5.png?1)

Man, it's so rare to see different Pokeballs in this show. What's that black one? It's kickass!.....Wow, I think this is the most excited I've gotten during any of these movie reviews and I'm only at the World of Pokemon opener. Hopefully this is a good omen.

Oh my god, the person throwing them is Ruby!

(http://i.imgur.com/za4ii5w.png)

I'm so unreasonably happy right now!

The narrator continues on saying that Pokemon are sometimes used in battles alongside Pokemon trainers, and Pokemon and humans live together in peace and harmony. However, there are some evil people who want to use the strongest Pokemon for their own malicious means, such as Team Magma's pursuit of Groudon.

Cut to a cave where two people find a big crystal that supposedly holds the key to granting their strongest desire.

Now we're with Ash and friends, further explaining their stories. Well, Ash's dream of being a Pokemon master anyway. The narrator doesn't even bless the others with names just 'friends with hopes and dreams of their own.'

Also, you think I'm joking when I call him Messiahchu!?

(http://i.imgur.com/T550nK4.gif)

Since when is Pikachu so fast that he doesn't break surface tension? I don't even think he's using Agility!

The narration keeps going with basically saying dreams are great, but be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. Sure didn't see that moral coming.

We get our title screen and.....really good CGI?.....What the hell were the good CGI guys doing when Gotta Dance was being made?

Ash and the others are walking around in the middle of the night looking for some festival that is meant to celebrate the Millennium Comet, a huge event since the comet only appears for seven nights once every 1000 years.

They reach the place where the festival is supposed to be, but find it to be a completely empty field. They take a break to eat and soon after fall asleep until they're awoken by the festival workers setting up.

The credits are playing over this.....

But....but.....but what about the theme song? They started not including the theme songs in the movies? That's like a sin or something isn't it? Outside of the awesome World of Pokemon opener, it makes the opening really lackluster.

Wow, even the CGI trucks look really good; seriously where the hell were you animators in the short?

We see our main CotM (Characters of the Movie) and antagonists, basically, Butler the magician and his assistant, Diane, using cute tricks with balloons to make crates and tents suddenly appear and assemble. The place ends up looking good, but I don't think that assembly montage was 'opener-worthy.'

Cut to the daytime where Ash, May, Max and Brock are having fun at the festival and we see Team Rocket throwing fliers for the Great Butler's magic show. Way to litter, guys. I really never understood why people thought that was a good way to advertise. Yes, it's exposure but it's also really annoying.

Ash and the others find one on the ground and decide to go to his show.

Now the Bulbagarden comparison does make a note about this poster. There's Japanese text at the bottom of the title that is basically the exact Japanese translation of the English words, The Great Butler's Magic Show. In the dub, they erase this text, which isn't anything new by far. This is 4Kids. However, it is a new thing for the movies, because, outside of titles and credits, the text has been left alone in the movies.

They explain how this paint edit in particular is dumb because they left half the Japanese theme song to this movie completely untranslated, which is very much a rarity for them. They also have the full Japanese song and the Japanese title card available on the DVD, so it's yet another 'missing the forest for the trees' moment for 4Kids. Maybe they're just so used to removing this stuff that they did it on instinct.

What I'm more focused on is the sloppiness of this edit. If there's one thing I can always (backhandedly) compliment 4Kids for is that, when it comes to the editing involved in their changes, they're pretty good about whitewashing nearly every trace of the fact that they changed it. While their text replacements leave much to be desired most of the time, they're pretty good when it comes to removals. They're so good that there have been numerous times when I've tried to catch a screencap of the painted shot and it just goes by so quickly that it's either incredibly difficult or close to impossible to get it.

What they do may be stupid, but they did get pretty damn good at it; usually anyway. Nelvana and DiC also do similar edits sometimes and they suck at it for the most part. I remember those edits that Cartoon Network would make on Yu Yu Hakusho to censor blood and middle fingers and they were HORRIBLE at it. Colors never matched, the paint would shake very distractingly and it just looked awful. I can think of several instances where their paint and editing is off, but 4Kids was basically the best in the business at what they did. I've probably missed minute details that they've edited away in my SDCs simply because I don't have hawk eyes or the patience to go through episodes frame by frame.

The shots of Team Rocket throwing the fliers is perfect. You can't tell a damn thing was changed. Then when they show a close up shot of one of the fliers on the ground, there's one frame that they neglected to change.

What's worse is that, in addition to erasing the text, they seem to have moved the shot a bit, making the screen jump when it cuts to that shot.

This is the frame they neglected to paint:
(http://i.imgur.com/p0dG2NO.png?1)

This is the frame post-paint:
(http://i.imgur.com/vP9rTqJ.png?1)

Granted, their 'after' shot is a little better because they made the G visible, but that's still no excuse. This is such sloppy editing from 4Kids that I'd actually say I'm disappointed in them. They rarely ever miss frames, and editing mistakes that make the screen jump are a once-in-a-blue-moon deal with them.

The reason I brought up Team Rocket throwing the painted fliers is the fact that those are numerous, much smaller posters being thrown through the air. Meaning you have way more things to paint that are constantly moving and changing angles. That's a very hard and time consuming paint edit that they did perfectly.

This is a mostly static shot, up close. There's no reason for this. For shame 4Kids' editing staff. For shame.

….Last thing about this poster, I promise.....shouldn't it be 'Welcome to THE Great Butler's Magic Show?'

Cut to the magic show where magic happens. Butler is wowing the audience with his magic and he makes Diane and the stone they found earlier in the cave appear in a puff of fire and smoke. The stone is CGI and on its own looks fantastic. Diane is traditionally animated. So yeah, it still looks wonky when they try to meld the two in one shot and make the CGI move with the regular animation. It just doesn't look right.

Max starts hearing a voice emanating from the stone talking about wishes and the comet, so he rushes the stage like a crazy person. Ash soon joins him to bring him back to his seat, but Butler and Diane decide to use them as volunteers in their act instead.

I'm gonna stop right there and explain why I don't like the fact that Max is technically the protagonist of this movie.

I don't much care for Max as a character. I find him to be a little annoying know-it-all. He does love Pokemon, yes, and he definitely has a passion for training. But the fact of the matter is that he's annoying to me because of his attitude and the vibe he gives off. Even his voice irks me.

There's also little point in him being there. On the episodes that do follow him, they mostly just focus on the bare basics in terms of the spirit and technical aspects of Pokemon training, which makes sense considering Max is too young to be a trainer, but it's boring to watch unless you're just that new to the franchise.

If it is to help welcome in newbies who may be getting in on the new generation....Hi, we have May for that don't we? Isn't she supposed to fill the newbie role? I know she becomes a coordinator later, but my point still stands. Plus, he seems to be pretty booksmart in regards to Pokemon, so it's a little contradictory.

Other than that, his episodes mostly center around his childishness, which also makes sense because child, but that doesn't make it any better to watch.

Speaking of not being a trainer....Max isn't a trainer. Thus what he does is basically nothing in episodes that don't center around him. He basically takes a seat as yet another Ash Companion who is there to be there and not much else.

I guess I understand why Max is the main character in this movie, because it's cuter to have a younger kid being best friends with a cute Pokemon over the older kids. Plus the other kids have Pokemon they treasure and Max doesn't get to actually 'have' a Pokemon often. Still, couldn't they have just as easily used a new CotM? They did it in movie 04. Max will be gone from the franchise entirely in....what two or three years? And I will say it makes me stew a bit that who I consider to be the second most useless Ash companion (three guesses who the first is) gets a movie basically to himself but Brock and Misty never did and this really never happens again as Ash or a CotM takes over in practically every other movie.

I won't say Max doesn't grow over time. He does mature and gets slightly less annoying to my recollection. However, we will never see the fruits of this labor. The last we see of Max is him back at his dad's gym still working on becoming a trainer some day and I will bet everything I own that we will never see that day. He's barely made a cameo since his departure and in order to actually see him as a legit trainer, we'd need to hop ahead three years to make him ten, and Pokemon just doesn't age people. They may change their character designs a bit, but no aging. Worse yet is the horrible idea of making Ash 13! *gasp*

So, yeah, I don't remember him being quite a big annoyance in this movie, but I'm still not looking forward to an hour and a half of Max spotlight.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Ash and Max are set to perform the trick of 'the burning box' which requires them to escape from a box before it bursts into flames. May bitches about not being in the show and Brock does the same because he wants some of Diane's booty.

They start the trick and decide to make it more interesting by, instead of using flames, using a Dusclops' Hyper Beam as the thing that will destroy the box.

Meowth: “They're stuck in a dark place with impending doom and no way out. That sounds like my life.”

Wow, that's...kind of dark, 4Kids.

The Hyper Beam goes off and the bottom of the box falls out at the last second, sending Max and Ash under the stage. The Hyper Beam looks weird in this movie; it charges blue and then looks like fire when shot instead of the yellow beam we know and love.

They continue to ride under the auditorium and pop up back in the audience.

(http://i.imgur.com/8urfQvc.png?1)

As they take the applause, Team Rocket ditches their clown outfits and nabs Pikachu as well as Butler and Diane's Mightyena and Kirlia.

Butler defeats them with Dusclops, Pikachu lends a hand and Dusclops sends them blasting off.

Once the show concludes, Butler tells them that the rock is supposedly housing the sleeping wish-granting legendary Pokemon Jirachi. He only awakens once every 1000 years and in order to awaken he needs two things; 1) The Millennium Comet needs to be visible and 2) He needs to find a friend.

We'll be right back with Care Bears: Wish-Maker in a moment, but man that is some crazy coinky-dink. Jirachi can only be awoken when the Millennium comet comes around, which it only does once per 1000 years. How convenient that they happened to find it right as the comet's set to come in that very night.

They realize that Max is the one Jirachi has chosen to be its friend, and additionally his 'wish-maker' if what Jirachi said earlier is any indication....No criteria needed, it probably could've talked to anyone or everyone in the audience, but there ya go. So Butler hands the rock over to Max since he has the best chance of awakening Jirachi.

Later that night, Ash and the others enjoy the festival some more. May decides to buy a wishing star, which looks kinda like a dreamcatcher. The cashier says that the wishing star is a neat little contraption with which you use in conjunction with the seven days of the comet. On each day of the comet, you fold down one of the points and make a wish. When the final day is done, your wish will come true.

They watch the fireworks and of course there's a Pikachu one and of course it's the biggest one.

They also show a Psyduck, Treecko, Lotad, Torchic, Beautifly and Mudkip.....wow, that was just a big collection of random Pokemon Ash and his friends have owned. Huh.

Can I take the time out to step back and show how crazy Max seems right now? He's hearing voices only he can hear and he's carrying around a rock, cuddling it and treating it like it's alive. I, you and the Ash gang know or believe there's a Pokemon in there....but no one else does! I'm surprised more people aren't staring at the kid giving hugs to the giant purple rock. And I can't be the only one who thinks it'd be funny if it ended up to be just Butler yanking the kid's chain or Ash and the others humoring him until the guys in white show up to take Max away.

How is Max dealing with lugging that rock around this whole time, anyway? It's really quite big to be carrying around like a teddy bear.

They see the Millennium Comet, May makes her wish and Max falls asleep. May pats his head and Max mutters for his mommy. Aw. That is kinda cute......Though I am concerned that now it's perfectly fine for children at the age of seven to be traveling around the world with a bunch of other kids.

(http://i.imgur.com/SnhgTNR.png?1)

May starts I suppose I'll call it humming even though she's moreso going 'doodododdodododo' and another note Bulbagarden made was that they left in May/Haruka's original Japanese voice for this song......which I find baffling. Is Veronica Taylor really that bad at singing that she can't pull off a 'doodododododdooododo' song in her female voice? I'm not really complaining, I'm just curious.

May explains that the song is a lullaby their mother would 'sing' to them and as she 'sings', the rock glows and we cut to the woods where a green light is flowing through everything. It looks exactly like Celebi's time travel effects actually. An Absol views this and runs towards the rock I presume.

Jirachi emerges and I will say that Jirachi is very cute.....Not as cute as Mew, maybe on par with Celebi. And that they selected an equally cute voice for the little guy.

Diane arrives somehow knowing what happened and tells the kids they can sleep in their bus for the night. Remember kids, if a carny you barely know says you can sleep in their bus, it's A-Okay!

Diane then runs off to tell Butler who happily receives the news, revealing that he has big plans for the little star—Evil plans! Muahahahaha!! He doesn't have the voice to pull this off but MUAHAHAHAHAH!

Back with the kids, Max wants to test out Jirachi's wish-granting powers. So, being a kid, he wishes for a bunch of candy.

Jirachi's tags glow and he floats up in the air, but nothing happens.

Max: “There's no such thing as someone being able to grant wishes! I knew it!”

See, this is the kind of crap that makes me dislike this kid. Also, when the hell did you ever say that? You've been believing each and every thing about this situation since the instant you heard Jirachi's voice. If you didn't, you wouldn't have snuggled with a rock for the past six hours. Little brat.

Jirachi's wish-granting abilities start working and candy starts popping up all over the bus. I don't know when crackers and cheese became candy.....but I like cheese, so I'll allow this.

However, it seems that Jirachi works on the laws of equivalent exchange because we then cut to the vendors at the festival having their candy and foodstuffs disappearing.

Once Max's wish has been granted, the others fight over who gets the next wish, even going so far as to play tug-of-war with poor Jirachi until they burst out the back door of the bus.

Diane and Butler arrive and explain that Jirachi grants wishes, but the hitch is, like I said, he really just teleports things that you wish for. He doesn't make them from thin air.....So....Jirachi's a kidnapping and theft machine. Kinda takes away from the mysticism of this legendary doesn't it? That also means there's a crapton of wishes you simply can't make because of this fine print. This is the least impressive legendary ever.

I mean, at least they're giving rules and restrictions to how this magic works, which is more than I can say for a lot of magic things in kid shows....but when something is a wish-granting machine, you kinda just accept that it grants wishes. The fact that it just steals things makes him a really....lame legendary.

May flips her lid after discovering what Jirachi did and demands him to 'get rid of the problem' which prompts Jirachi to transport May into the pile of candy. I uh....don't get it? I mean, May's the problem? Because she's yelling? Or did Max find her to be the problem at the moment and Jirachi was only obeying him? I dunno. Also, how does putting her mere feet away into the candy pile 'solve the problem'?

Jirachi, exhausted from 'granting wishes' goes to sleep, but Butler assures Max that he won't return to hibernation until the comet leaves at the end of the week. Meanwhile, the kids are doomed to bringing back the candy themselves.

The next morning, Max is watching Jirachi sleep......Which is kinda creepy, but since Pokemon are technically animals I suppose it's no different than watching a pet sleep.

Max and Jirachi go off to play while Ash and the others prepare for the show. Apparently, Ash and Brock are clowns now while May's a stagehand. I have no clue why, but I guess it'd be fun.

(http://i.imgur.com/0N0ZqvD.png?1)

Jirachi starts causing trouble as it steals Max's glasses and coaxes him to chase him while Max is trying to help May keep a big lighting tower from falling over. The tower falls on May, causing a mess and she blames Jirachi, even if that was equal parts Jirachi and Max's fault. Max could've stayed and still helped. He doesn't need his glasses to push a tower up.

Max gets his glasses back and surprisingly isn't mad at Jirachi for nearly causing severe harm to his sister. The Absol from earlier appears and starts attacking Max with Butler noting that Absol only appears in front of humans when a great tragedy is about to occur.

May tries to stave off Absol with Torchic, but has no effect. Ash tries Pikachu and does a little more, but still doesn't faze Absol much. Jirachi says Absol is there for him and he uses his teleportation powers to teleport Pikachu and Torchic to the roof of the tent.

Despite the fact that Jirachi just said a second ago that Absol was there for him, Absol suddenly directs his attention to Ash and the others and charges toward them. However, Butler triggers a trap door in the stage that sends Absol to a cage and puts him to sleep using Kirlia's Hypnosis.

Jirachi then falls asleep again for some reason. He sleeps for 1000 years at a time. Does he really need to nod off after doing the littlest thing?

The second night is over, we can hear Jirachi snoring in his sleep through telepathy for some reason, and May heads out to use her wishing star again. When she's done, she spots Butler walking away from the bus where the kids are sleeping. He's kidnapped Jirachi and put him in the weird device things he has in his stage. Diane tells Butler that Absol is trying to bring Jirachi back to Forina where he originates and that they should let him go back to where he belongs, but Butler ignores her.

(http://i.imgur.com/XfgULDf.png?1)

He activates the machine, which causes Jirachi pain, and claims that when Jirachi sees the comet with his 'true eye' his ultimate wish will come true.

He holds up a glass container with a fossil within it and we get a flashback. Butler actually used to work for Team Magma as a scientist. He was presenting the council of Team Magma with the fossil, which was from a Groudon, claiming that he would create an actual Groudon from it before their eyes. He fails, claiming he needs a better power source, and is fired from Team Magma as a result. He reclaimed his fossil and vowed that he would make a real Groudon no matter what.

The flashback ends and Butler prepares the machine. He forces Jirachi into opening his true eye with Dusclops' Psychic, and a beam of light bursts from the eye towards the comet only to return and crash into the stage.

Max and the others arrive and try to protect the wounded Jirachi. Diane pleads with Butler to stop. He claims he's doing it for her, she says she doesn't want this and then Butler shoves Diane out of the way to get Jirachi before Max escapes with him.

'I'm doing this for you, Diane! <333 Now get out da way, bitch, dey be takin' mah 'rachi.'

The gang escapes, and before Butler can pursue them Absol escapes from his cage, attacks them and runs off.

They continue to escape in Butler's bus and Mightyena somehow catches up and places a tracker on it.

Diane explains Butler's backstory again and we actually hear Butler's legit evil laugh which itself is laughable.

May: “Groudon?”

Brock: “Isn't that the legendary Pokemon rumored to incredible powers?”

No no, it's the one legendary Pokemon on planet earth that does not have incredible powers. Oh wait, no, that's Jirachi!

(http://i.imgur.com/LM7DAjA.gif)

The only thing we really get from this that we may not have already known is that it's not Jirachi's power that Butler is using. He's merely used as a channel to take power from the comet and use its power instead. So yeah, Jirachi's one major talent really is to take things that don't belong to him. It's just disappointing.

So far we've had Mewtwo, who could do a gigantic list of things with his psychic powers from building a laboratory from scratch, perfecting the cloning process or making a WORLD ENDING STORM.

Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos who basically control the entire ecosystem of the world; plus Lugia who keeps them in line.

Unown who create their own legit realities from scratch.

Celebi who can heal wounds and travel through time as well as psychically make gigantic grass monsters.

Latias and Latios who have neat sight sharing abilities and the ability to transform or become invisible.

Then we have Jirachi; the thief. He's supposed to be a wish-granting Pokemon; that's not outside of the realm of believability for this show. Why is he so seemingly blasé compared to the other legends?

The group decides to head to Forina to bring Jirachi back home.....which is...understandable but a dumb plan. Even if Butler didn't put the tracker on them, do they really think Forina is the place to go? That's where Butler found him, Absol's been trying to bring him back and Diane suggested that they should bring him back earlier. Do they really think he's pounding his head going 'where could they possibly have gone!?'

It's night three, May makes her wish, Jirachi telepathically snores and May and Diane have a chit-chat. She explains that she's known Butler since they were kids, and she always knew they'd be together. We get a pretty nicely done flashback with everything in warm colors and the kid versions of Diane and Butler in silhouette, which I find to be pretty cool. Butler's practicing magic on her and after calling him great, he dons the name 'The Great Butler', which is good for his magician career and if he ever decides to become a butler.

(http://i.imgur.com/FsmLLfR.png?1)

The flashback ends, and Diane laments how much Butler has changed since the good ol' days. She can only hope that he'll return to normal once the comet leaves.

The next day, their journey continues. I want to point out that there's a shot during the 'next day' montage where they get stuck in the mud and even Jirachi is helping push the bus out but Pikachu's just chillin' behind them. Messiahchu is above this menial labor!

Night four and day five go by with May and Max seeming increasingly worried and down.

As we reach night five, May makes her wish and points out that there's only two more nights left, which upsets Max and makes him run off.

Ash joins him and explains that, while Jirachi may go away, they'll always be friends forever, because true friendship lasts no matter if you see them or not. He gives an example by saying he had to say goodbye to a friend and he misses her everyday while making some awkward facial expressions, but he says he knows they remain friends and will always be such. Ladies and gentlemen, the last known AAML poke. I believe anyway.

Too bad this is a dub-exclusive line. Funny how, even after she's gone, 4Kids still wants to keep the spirit alive. I miss her too, man. *sniff* I miss her too.

Day six and the gang arrive at Forina. Ah, it's beautiful. The landscape is crisp. The Altaria are singing. The Tropius are eating the slightly better modeled CGI fruit from the slightly better animated CGI branches. Truly a paradise.

Night six, May makes her wish, Max goes to bed and May hums her lullaby again.

Day seven; judgment day—Er I mean, the last day with Jirachi. The gang is lead by Absol into the cave where Jirachi usually sleeps. Once night falls, he is beckoned towards the comet, but Max pleads for him to grant his wish of staying by his side. However, Jirachi can't escape the comet's call and floats up to open his true eye in preparation for the absorption of the comet's energy and his 1000 year hibernation.

Diane explains that Jirachi collects this energy not only for itself but also for the sake of the land around it. While he sleeps, the land of Forina feeds off the energy to grow and thrive.

As Jirachi is about to collect the energy, mechanisms appear from the cave walls and trap Jirachi in a ball of light. It's Butler, if that wasn't obvious, and after one of the most overused jokes in villain history and trapping the gang in a purple lightning cage, he starts his preparations to gather the energy himself.

The process starts, and Pikachu tries to break through the cage to no avail. Hey Ash, aren't you gonna run head first into it, thinking you're the Hulk or something?

*doesn't*

….Wha....eh....Why are you being smart and mature in this movie!? I demand you cease this nonsense at once!

Absol and a Flygon from Forina come to destroy the mechanisms creating the cage, and Flygon gives Ash and Max a ride to Butler's giant platform thinger.

Butler's revival of Groudon is going smoothly, but Ash and Max arrive to save the day. Butler reveals that he has a friggin' Salamence and commences aerial battle with them......Awesome! I haven't seen an aerial battle since Movie 03.

Ash sends Max and Pikachu off to stop the machine and save Jirachi while he distracts Butler in the air. Now you're being logical? Who are you!?

They do so, the process stops and the gang manages to escape Butler's evil clutches and even Jirachi's perfectly fine now. May and Max even have a little moment. Awww.

Despite the process being interrupted, a Groudon is emerging from where the energy was being displaced. And it looks AWESOME.

Seriously, I love Groudon's design anyway, but this 'shadow' Groudon or 'clone' Groudon whatever looks fantastic. It looks like it's actually made of legit lava with green (and later blue) neon shining through it. It's especially great right before it's fully formed. I kinda wish they have kept it more black to be honest, but this is good too.

(http://i.imgur.com/T9iCRav.png?1)

Butler's initially ecstatic for the creation of the Groudon but when he realizes that he used his crest of courage for selfish means and caused a dark digivolution of him, he is shocked and appalled.

They realize that, in a polar opposite manner of Jirachi who feeds the land with energy from the comet, the clone Groudon is actually sucking up energy from the land, causing the plants to die.

Absol tries to attack the Groudon in vain, and Groudon fires back, and holy crap it looks even better when it's attacking! I love this thing!

Anyway, Groudon's not only attacking Absol, he absorbs him into his body. The spikes on his back start to grow and change into neat little blue gooey tendrils to absorb all the other Pokemon of Forina.

Butler lands near the group and Diane asks if there's anything he can do to stop Groudon, but he is without ideas.

Team Rocket gets absorbed next...Oh yeah, Team Rocket. I forgot to mention them. Yeah, they've been popping up now and then for the past half hour to just make a quick comment and then go away.

Butler stares in horror at his creation and is about to be absorbed when Diane jumps in to save him and gets absorbed instead.

May and Brock get absorbed next and just as Max and Ash are about to get absorbed, Jirachi teleports them away.

Butler, changed in his ways in the wake of Groudon's destruction, helps out the boys and warns them that the Groudon is after Jirachi's energy. Butler and his Salamence do everything in their power to keep the tendrils away from the boys, but one gets through the defenses and tries to grab the boys only to be stopped by Flygon.

They hop on Flygon and try to get away underground, but the tendrils continue to follow. As they inch closer and closer, Jirachi teleports them yet again. They meet back up with Butler in the air and he tells the boys that he has an idea. They can drain the energy from Groudon if they can get Jirachi back on his machine and reverse the polarity. Ah yet another problem solved by reversing the polarity. Job well done, science!

Ash initially doesn't trust Butler, but after seeing his grief at losing Diane, he seems to start changing his tune. Butler's Salamence is grabbed by Groudon and Butler falls, but is saved by Jirachi by teleporting Salamence below him.

Which just leads to me question....Jirachi's one major power is teleporting anything he wants right? Then why doesn't he teleport everyone who is inside Groudon back to where they belong?

Also, why isn't Jirachi getting exhausted? A couple days ago he was going comatose from teleporting one or two things. It's been teleporting things all over the place tonight and he still seems fine, even in spite of being drained by Butler's machine.

Jirachi says that Butler can't be all bad because he loves Diane and that further encourages Ash and Max to go through with the plan. I feel like this past page has been kinda redundant.

Butler wants the boys to distract Groudon since he's intent on catching Jirachi while he tries to get the machine running.

The plan commences, but Butler accidentally drops the Groudon fossil from the platform only to be caught in a pretty cool shot by Ash as they fly on Flygon.

Apparently flipping the fossil's container around reverses the polarity...Uh...kay, and they place Jirachi back on the machine. The only thing left to do is to flip the final switch, but as Butler's about to do so, the platform starts to fall some more, causing him to slip off.

As Butler hangs on by a thread and Flygon and Salamence are absorbed, Ash channels his inner movie protagonist and pulls the switch. Jirachi starts draining the power from Groudon and putting it back into the land, but Groudon tries to stop his efforts by trying to absorb Jirachi with his tendrils. Butler stands in his way and gets absorbed.

Jirachi's efforts are successful and we get another really cool shot of Jirachi making another pseudo-comet, the light explodes in midair and creates a star shower as the Pokemon and everyone else reappear safe and sound.

(http://i.imgur.com/1PGcaqE.png?1)

Jirachi floats back down to Max's arms and thanks Max for making his wishes come true. Giving him a friend. Awwwwwwwwwwww.

Jirachi asks for one more wish to be granted by Max; he wants Max to sing him the lullaby before he goes off to sleep once more.

Max and everyone else agrees to grant Jirachi his wish. They start sing—Hahahahahaha....ahahaha....hahahahaha....oooohhh....Oh Brock my boy....Please stop. You're killin' me. Oh God.

Brock sounds awful when he's doing this song. He sounds unbelievably bored, like he just got done filing his taxes. And I know for a fact that Eric Stuart can sing. He's got a couple of songs on 4Kids' soundtracks that are actually good....AND HE'S A LEGIT SINGER. He's the lead singer of his own band. Man, maybe slow soft songs just aren't his thing.

For the record, Veronica Taylor is doing the 'singing' voice of Ash. I guess her voice isn't good enough to sing as a girl but okay to sing as a guy.

And I know this scene is supposed to be really sad and sweet, and for the most part it is, but the fact that this song is literally just 'Dododooododododdodoooododdodooo' makes it seem a little bit on the silly side. Was it really too difficult to give this song lyrics?

Jirachi thanks them all and goes back into hibernation. He reverts to his crystal form and merges back into the earth, causing it to glow.

Max bids farewell to Jirachi and says he'll always be in his heart. Great, now you have to pay Phil Collins' royalties. Way to go, Max.

After a weird scene with Team Rocket, we cut to the next day where we learn that Butler and Diane are going to stay in Forina because as long as they're together nothing else matters. Uh, you guys don't want to be magicians anymore? That thing you've been your whole lives? What do you intend on doing in Forina? Eh, whatever you guys want I suppose.

May congratulates Diane in getting her wish and then freaks out because she forgot to make her final wish on her wishing star. She says it doesn't matter because everyone has to make their own dreams come true (Shh, don't tell Disney). They're about to get a ride back to town with Butler and Diane when Max hears Jirachi's voice yet again telling him they'll be friends forever.

(http://i.imgur.com/bAXQiOB.png?1)

Jirachi! It is way past your bedtime, mister! You go to sleep right now or I won't make you pancakes for breakfast in 3015!

Is that a picture of an ouroboros, btw?

Max smiles and returns to the bus as our movie ends.

The end credits start and the song is pretty nice.....hey....wait, this sounds familiar....Do...dodoooodododo—It's the lullaby! It has lyrics!? Then why not sing the song in the movie!? Aw, forget it.

Now....I'm unsure about posting this since it might just be my copy, but since I distinctly remember this also happening when I watched it on TV, I'm going to say I'm not the only one who has experienced this.

During the end credits, May gets hungry, collapses to the ground and complains. A truck drives up and as we see the surprised faces of the group, the shot jars REALLY drastically to the left after about one or two frames. The exact same thing happens in the next shot of the truck driving down the road. The shots are perfectly fine in the original version.

Visuals:

First few frames (Group shot):

(http://i.imgur.com/VkoaZF5.png?1)

Rest of Shot (Group shot):

(http://i.imgur.com/p0bbvOc.png?1)

First frames (Truck shot):

(http://i.imgur.com/nPw8bsn.png?1)

Rest of shot (Truck Shot):

(http://i.imgur.com/4PloMFQ.png?1)

I have only one theory as to why this might be. See, there's one thing that Dogasu commonly brings up in the movie comparisons: the fact that all of the movies never get widescreen releases despite the source being released in widescreen.

This has caused several issues across the movies, most notably in movie 01 and 02 where people would be cropped out of shots or shots would jarringly shift to get another character who starts talking into frame.

This is the shot in the original Japanese version:

(http://i.imgur.com/j6SfWBS.png?1)

See how everyone's in the shot and how, at best, only May, Max and Ash make it fully into the shot in the dub? I think this was a SERIOUSLY SLOPPY effort to get everyone's reactions into frame. When the shot returns to the truck, the focus must've still been kept to the left for a frame or two and then they corrected it to be centered, making it jar there.

I don't really get why this was needed to be attempted anyway. So Brock's not in the shot. Who cares? I'd rather have Brock cropped out of a completely pointless end credits scene than have the footage jar all over the place like it was edited by Edward Scissorhands on crystal meth. This isn't like in the first movie where they basically had to move the shot suddenly to get Brock into frame because he had a line and needed to be on-screen after someone on the other side of the screen said their line. There is no point here.

Now that I think about it, the earlier cut that jarred the screen also fixed the positioning, so I'm guessing the standard format cut off parts of the poster (IE, the G I mentioned), forcing them to move the shot when it got to the close up. So it likely wasn't because of particularly sloppy editing due to painting off the Japanese text and moreso really sloppy editing due to cropping that occurred between versions.

The rest of the scenes are the group stargazing and pointing out Pokemon-based constellations and yup, the rest of this song is indeed in Japanese. I have to say, Bra-freakin-vo on whoever chose the woman to sing the English version of the ending song because she sounds almost exactly like the original singer.

We also get some shots of the group walking, a nice cameo by a good chunk of the group's Pokemon at the beach, them enjoying some of the same fireworks from earlier (the exact same ones) and finally them staring off into the sunset at the movie ends.

================================

Bottomline: You probably already got this, but....I kinda loved this movie. Surprisingly, to be honest, because I just didn't remember giving this movie much credit back when I first watched it, but now that I've sat down and watched it again, this is probably the second best Pokemon movie so far.

Practically everything about it works very well. The relationship between Max and Jirachi is genuine, and their departure was saddening and well handled. The May and Max moments were pretty heartwarming. Ash was actually pretty cool to watch for a change. Butler was a legit villain with a backstory, a non-stupid, but admittedly cliché, motivation and something to humanize him. Granted, his voice does not work, but what can you do? Max wasn't that annoying here. He was actually pretty sweet most of the time. He has his moments here and there, but they can be overlooked.

Team Rocket's part was basically pointless from start to finish, but since they didn't affect anything and barely had any screentime I can't complain too much. Speaking of which, outside of hitting on girls, Brock was also totally non-existent here again.

The clone Groudon was AWESOME......But he is one of the bigger problems in the movie mostly because they never explain in the least how this thing was made. Why was the cloning process corrupted into making this shadow Groudon? Was it just because not enough energy was fed into it or are we really going with my dark digivolution theory of using power for selfish means creates evil?

I may rag on Jirachi being a pretty lame legendary (mostly because practically every Psychic type can teleport things and him being a non-wish-granting wish-granting Pokemon is just really disappointing. The fact that he can channel energy from the Millennium Comet is really the only thing he has going for him.) but I will admit, he can be pretty damn cool when the situation calls for it. That finale was simply fantastic.

Story-wise, you can easily compare this with movie 04. That movie tried to combine action with soft and genuine moments of friendship, growth and reflection but the fourth movie pretty much failed. The conflict with Sam being 'stuck' in the present was a non-plot point as Celebi could've sent him back whenever he wanted. The conflict of Jirachi's impending 1000 year hibernation was very real and completely unavoidable.

The Sam and Ash friendship was pretty nice and genuine, but I think it was a bit too hammy. I think they overplayed the connection between the two, almost to the point where they seemed to have romantic connections with each other. In terms of him crying over him leaving as well as everyone else doing so was also over the top for someone who A) Isn't dying and B) could easily be seen again in their time if they thought to research who it was in the present.

The connection between Sam and Celebi is okay, but they didn't focus on it enough. Like I said, it felt like Ash kept taking the spotlight away from what seemed to be their story and slowly it started to be more like Ash was meant to have the connection with Celebi and not Sam.

The relationship between Max and Jirachi is a bit forced at first, downright creepy when Jirachi is a rock, but the way I see it is that Max views Jirachi as kinda his first Pokemon. As a non-trainer, but an aspiring one, he has no Pokemon of his own to care for, yet he really loves Pokemon. So it's not that far out there that he'd be that excited to have Jirachi choose him as his friend.

Additionally, the small bits with May and Max were well done as they have a very realistic relationship here. They fight, they make pokes at each other, but in the end they still love each other and aren't afraid to show it when the situation calls for it.

I didn't quite understand why May kept getting so angry with Jirachi, though.

Ash's role in this movie was damn near perfect. He was the smartest and most mature I've ever seen him, even better than movie 03, and he never seemed to take the spotlight away from Max and Jirachi's story. He obviously got focus and in the end had his little hero moment, but they had just the right amount of focus on him and Pikachu.

Ash's role in movie 04 overstepped his bounds. There were so many times where I felt Ash was stepping on Sam and Celebi's toes and taking the story from them. Plus he was pretty annoying and dumb in that movie.

Butler is the first villain that I would actually say is good outside of Mewtwo. He's fleshed out, has a story, has a human connection and has a believable reason for turning to the side of good at the end. He wants Jirachi for a legit reason, he wants to create Groudon for a legit reason, and everything he does has a purpose. He was a scientist bent on revenge who created a monster in place of his dream. He realized his mistake, he paid for it, and he helped fix it. Even Diane was well-used as a character, though she's a bit too passive for my tastes.

The Iron Masked Marauder may have been the first villain in these movies who was a legit villain, again outside of Mewtwo, but he was really cliché. He has no backstory, he wasn't fleshed out outside of he works for Team Rocket and wants Celebi's powers to take over Team Rocket and rule the world. We never learn why he's specifically targeting Celebi nor why he's destroying the forest. He never changes, he never grows and even the reveal of who/what was behind the mask was lame because it was nothing.

Lawrence the Third was complete nothing outside of a collector and Annie and Oakley were just thieves who, like IMM, wanted Latios and Latias merely for power and to take over the world. Their growth and change was really just giving up on resisting their punishment in the end.

Movie 04's seemingly pointless and cliché, sometimes cheesy and laughably animated, action gets in the way of what could be a heartwarming story of a boy (ACTUALLY) trapped in another time. That's a pretty interesting story. You could also greatly build on his connection with Celebi through a lot of quiet and soft moments, but those were too few and far between amongst the insanity.

This movie had what I think is a pretty nice balance of quiet, genuine moments and action. Plus, the action had a point, didn't seem to be in the way and was completely awesome from start to finish.

This movie is basically everything 04 could've been but wasn't.

Art: The art, animation and CGI are the best I've seen them. The CGI is actually the best of the movies so far I believe edging out movie 03 merely because of the icky Unown. The CGI here does have its spots of poor quality, but they're quick and not very noticeable. I think a lot of this is helped by the fact that much of the CGI is done at night, making imperfections more masked.

Shame on the editors for this movie though. One screen-jarring edit is bad enough, but THREE? And yes, I also don't understand why the hell they went through so many years of releasing the movies in standard format instead of widescreen when the source is widescreen. All it does is make more problems for them. That in itself dropped this movie down a couple of decimal points for me. It was probably fixed in future releases, if there were future releases, but the fact that it seems like this was at least greenlit for release on VHS and/or DVD and TV release once upon a time with these issues intact is enraging to me. Pure laziness.

Music: The music was great, though I do miss the OP. The lack of music at numerous moments was also a welcome change of pace. The ED is really nice, though the in-movie version will never sound not-silly to me. When May does it alone it's not too bad, but when they all did it it was hard to keep focus on the sad Jirachi departure because ech.

All in all, a pretty great movie. Not perfect, but definitely the most I've enjoyed a Pokemon movie since 03, and that's really saying something.

Now for the subbed version. Are you going to make me feel bad for liking the dub version?

Recommended Audience: Nothing that I remember. E for everyone!

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Pokemon Movie 07: Destiny Deoxys

(http://imgur.com/PyVE05E.png)

Rating: 3/10

Plot: A mysterious meteor lands on earth near the north pole containing the alien Pokemon Deoxys. It tries to take a strange stone from deep within the snow, but Rayquaza, angry at the intrusion on its territory, violently attacks Deoxys and ends up seemingly killing him before returning to the sky. Four years later, Deoxys regenerates its body and continues its search for the stone, and Rayquaza wants to take him down once more.

Meanwhile, Ash and the others meet a boy named Tory who suffers from a paralyzing fear of Pokemon after a traumatic experience with them as a small child. They try to help him get over this fear by getting him accustomed to Pokemon, but they find that helping Tory is a lot more difficult than they first thought.

==================================

Ladies and gentlemen, the last Pokemon movie I watched full out in the past before doing these reviews.

I caught Destiny Deoxys on Kids WB around the time of its release in the US and I remember being completely unimpressed by it. I don't like Deoxys at all. It has a weird design, especially in defense form, I don't care for its color scheme and I find its backstory to be rather silly, even if this is the first time in a long-ass time where we've revisited the concept of Pokemon aliens.

There is one aspect of this movie that I watched all the time and that was really for the song, which I'll address later.

Before I go onto the review, that movie poster has two different versions. The one you see above which is basically a mirror image of the Japanese poster barring the text, and I think that's the first time that's ever happened, and this version.

(http://imgur.com/J4NRgxX.png?1)

I honestly don't know why this was altered like this. It's still the same poster but the alternate forms have been removed, Rayquaza has been moved up, Max, May and Brock have all been removed, Plusle and Minun have been moved and Munchlax was added. I much prefer the original version, and I honestly don't understand the changes to the second.

I can, however, excuse it a bit because the speed form never appears in this movie; only the normal and defense forms do.

With that out of the way, let's start the show!

Be warned, this movie is quite a bit longer than the other Pokemon movies because it didn't need to take 20-30 minutes off to include the short, meaning the review will likely also be a little lengthier.

====================================

We start with not-the-World-of-Pokemon opener. This time, we're exploring the world of Pokeball. We as an audience even get sucked up into a Pokeball to finally see what it's truly like in there. Apparently it's a green world filled with green blocks of jello and hallucinations of various Pokemon. Hah, take that countless Pokemon message board posts!

Ah and we segue into the world of Pokemon as we cut to tons of Pokemon running across the screen. The last time I saw so many Pokemon running in one direction, the world was ending, so uh you're making me kinda nervous already, movie.

Oh god, what's up with the weird CGI Rhyhorn during this sequence? So awkward.

(http://imgur.com/BqbBhO0.gif)

After that we keep going back and forth between CGI and traditionally animated Pokemon. At least most of the CGI ones go by so quickly that I can't tell how bad they likely are, but the Arbok at the end that they focus on is a little off-putting.

As the opener continues with explaining the dynamic between humans and Pokemon, we cut to Ash and the others and they straight up steal the shot of the equally icky CGI Suicune from movie 04. Nothing like lazy shortcuts, huh animators?

But they “justify” it by having a full on clipshow of the past three movies with just one clip from each movie, Celebi flying around from movie 04, Ash and Misty in their race from movie 05 and Ash flying on Flygon from movie 06.

Ya know, I praised the last movie and even the last short with their homages to the previous movies. Showing the legendaries from all of the movies in fantastic and NEW shots was just great. Even seeing short shots of the locations from the previous shorts was a nice addition to the final legit short. This is just laziness. They didn't even pick particularly good scenes from those movies, nor did most of these clips show the legendaries of the movies.

Continuing on with the opening, yadda yadda, there are a lot of Pokemon on our world but there might be more on other worlds and cut to a weird meteor in space.

We get our title sequence and despite it being really nicely done in regards to color choice and animation, the actual graphics look flat and uninspired. The final shot itself is just a silhouette of Deoxys. I don't know why the gong sounds from my grandma's doorbell are playing at the end while lights flash in sync to it, though.

Onto our credits sequence which sadly still has no Pokemon opening song, where we cut to the north pole. A bunch of researchers are there doing researchy things when the father of our movie main character, Tory, and his assistant, Yuko spot him with binoculars as he plays in the snow and befriends a Spheal.

The same meteor starts heading for earth, right where these researchers and Tory are to be precise. A Rayquaza is watching the meteor fall from high up in the sky. I always loved Rayquaza but apparently I'm a rarity? I've been in at least two forum threads asking for favorite Dragon Pokemon and Rayquaza was treated like a leper in both threads for no given reason.

(http://imgur.com/gE4Heks.png)

The meteor lands closeby, causing Tory to fall and the nearby Walrein to stampede around him. He's so frightened that he ends up passing out. Tory's father saves him and out from the meteor emerges Deoxys. It uncovers a big colorful rock in the snow, infuses it with power and causes a light to shoot up into the sky.

Rayquaza arrives and starts attacking Deoxys for some reason. The battle rages on and Rayquaza actually manages to blow Deoxys' arm clean off. Uhh....by the way, parents, Pokemon the First Movie: We're Totally Against Violence We Promise, is on sale for everyone who skips this shot. Hehe...he....Broooother, my broooooother!

But don't worry, Deoxys is obviously from Namek and can regenerate his arm just fine. Deoxys starts fighting back, and Tory's father and Yuko take Tory and run off.

After getting a really good throat strike on Rayquaza, Rayquaza and Deoxys start to destroy the researchers' equipment while trying to attack each other. Deoxys manages to get the upperhand, and just as its about to finish Rayquaza off, we get a shot of Rayquaza through Deoxys' eyes which seem to constantly have a ripple Photoshop effect on them. Deoxys stops his attack, giving Rayquaza the opportunity to strike back again, but Deoxys defends itself with its defense form.

The battle rages on....and on....and on....Ya know, I don't much mind long battle sequences, hell I can sit through any arc of DBZ just fine, but this battle is going on for a bit too long with me not knowing what's going on nor who to side with or care about. Am I against Rayquaza for attacking a seemingly innocent Deoxys? Is it actually trying to protect something? It's obviously not protecting the researchers considering it's helping destroy the place. Does Deoxys mean harm? What was the rock? What did it do when it glowed? Does Rayquaza want the rock? Just keep pummeling each other and explain later. I have time.

Long battle short, Deoxys earns a hearty Hyper Beam right to the face and ends up being disintegrated, leaving only an oval-shaped stone, much like the one Deoxys found at the start, behind, sinking into the depths of the ocean as Rayquaza returns to the ozone layer.

Oh wait, is it dead? Did Rayquaza just murder Deoxys? Geez, this movie is much shorter than I remember it.

Okay, I guess the movie's going on without Deoxys now. The researchers take their only non-destroyed mode of transportation, a helicopter, out of the site while carrying the rock that Deoxys picked up earlier. Tory's dad says that the reason Rayquaza was so mad was because Deoxys entered into his territory. Thanks, I could've used that information sometime at the start of the battle, but better late than never.

Cut to four years late – oh now you're not afraid to use time cards, huh, 4Kids? Couldn't use them in the movie about time travel, but you'll use them here? Anyway, the researchers are now experimenting on the rock. They zap it with a laser in hopes of regenerating what I suppose will be a different Deoxys, but they overload the system before the regeneration can be performed.

(http://imgur.com/jWtoZFB.png)

Older Tory talks to someone unseen on screen, and as the researchers leave for the day, Yuko sees the stone glowing. Meanwhile, back in the old research site location, the ice begins to crack and break apart as a water spout shoots into the sky to reveal a newly revived Deoxys who spouts a bunch of pink light from his chest. Deoxys, you fool! Don't you know that too much pink energy is dangerous!?

We cut to Ash, May, Max and Brock riding a magnet train and enjoying the sites of Larousse City, known for its high-tech gadgetry. However, Ash is more interested in its famous Battle Tower.

We see our first example of the super high-tech city when a nearby child and his Poochyena throw a bottle into a high-tech trash can where apparently it needs to scan the item and open its lid for you before you can throw the trash away.

Yes, let's promote recycling and cleaning up your garbage by overcomplicating a trash can and making a half-second task take five seconds. Now you'd think the scanner would at least make the process more efficient. It probably only allows certain types of items or scans them to understand where to send them in regards to recycling, and it probably keeps animals and stuff out of it. Nope, it's just there to detect when something, anything, is there to throw away.

This is shown when a nearby pair of Plusle and Minun decide to play with it and the instant it scans Minun it opens to let it in, which, when you think about it, is even worse than an animal getting into a regular garbage can. At least in that situation the animal has a good chance of getting out on its own. This trash can closes up tight once the item is inside, meaning the animal would probably die in there. Thanks, technology!

Plusle and Minun screw around with the garbage can some more by having Plusle activate the lid while Minun is on top, launching him up in the air. They knock it over, garbage goes everywhere, they laugh and walk away. Littering is not funny, you little delinquents!

A nearby Munchlax sees this and kindly puts the trash can back up. He tries to kick one of the bottles into the trash can in a pretty funny scene, but fails and sadly walks away. Aw, I wanted him to get it in.

(http://imgur.com/slaociD.png)

Back with Ash and the others, we see another aspect of the movie that stood out to me and it's these weird floating block robots. Now, stopping myself for a minute, I like the idea of this city but it does weird me out that it's such a different environment for this show. Despite several shows of incredibly advanced technology, we've never really had them in such a high-tech environment before. Closest they get are the really big cities and even that's not terribly more high-tech than your average city in the real world.

Even having this take place in a city is a new thing for the movies since most of them have either taken place in a forest, a small town, or some desolate location.

I can't really bring myself to say it's all that great because, despite liking them in an environment that isn't a forest, forest, forest or, on the rare occasion, a forest, it doesn't really wow me at all. The only major note of this city, really, outside of the magnet train are these little colorful block robots that, for some reason, remind me of Cubix: Robots for Everyone and I didn't even watch that show.

But just because these robots are pretty unique in the show, that really doesn't mean they're terribly interesting or fun. In fact, they're downright annoying with their super-high-pitched voices.

Anyhoo, the group stumbles upon one of these robots and it suddenly takes everyone's individual pictures, strangely enough with a camera that looks like it was taken from the 1930's, and logs their origin data somehow. It spits out passports for everyone that are needed to give people access to pretty much everything in the city. So, yeah, not only does it randomly take your picture, but it transmits the picture back to some headquarters place, your personal data is somehow recorded by these people and they give you a passport which monitors where you go and what you do. Where's the fuhrer of this city?

Ash makes an idiot out of himself by accidentally getting on a moving sidewalk and trying to run against it. Some locals laugh at him for this, and one of them sends out his Blaziken to help Ash get on the proper sidewalk. He pisses Ash off by saying he was making a fool of himself and directs him to the battle tower.

Despite laughing at him and calling him a fool, Ash decides to be friendly to the guy, named Rafe, and asks to battle. He accepts and says he'll see him at the battle tower. With Rafe are his two little annoying twin sisters who basically do all the typical annoying twin things like speaking in unison, constantly agreeing with each other and repeating things others say, again, in unison. Doesn't help that their voices are terribly high-pitched that it hurts.

God, who does their voices anyway?.....Rebecca Honig? Hm, I don't recognize her other Pokemon roles. Let's see what else she's got....Cream the Rabbit from Sonic X?! I knew that level of annoyance was familiar. Careful, or you'll be battling Lisa Ortiz for top spot.

There's also some guy named Sid, another trainer on his way to the battle tower who quickly falls for May, and Rebecca, yet another battle tower trainer who uses her laptop all the time and also uses it to help in her battles.

They arrive at the battle tower and Ash goes off to register while May, Max and Brock go off to the stands to spectate. We get some more shots of all the gadgets around which again are not really that impressive. One of those cube robots makes a screen to create a map of the tower for guests while another doles out ice cream, which is apparently free just as long as you show your passport. Free healthcare AND free ice cream!? The Pokemon world is awesome.

Ash gets lost because that's what Ash does. Why didn't he follow Rafe, Sid and Rebecca? They were all going to the same place yet they seem to disappear when they get to the tower.

Ash sees that there's also a library at the battle tower for...some reason, and sees Tory walking out of it. He tries to stop Tory to ask for help, but Tory freaks out at the sight of Pikachu and runs away. Tory tries to escape in an elevator, but Ash manages to jump in just in time. He explains his situation to Tory and asks for help, but Tory is too scared to answer and runs off again when the elevator stops. The boys are both stopped by an employee at the tower who sends them on a conveyor belt track to their battle. A machine scans Ash and Tory and detects their passports, instantly registering them for the tower.

(http://imgur.com/hrFXs0d.png)

Rebecca tries to get in, but doesn't arrive on time. She was ahead of Ash and the others, and Ash was lost, how the hell was she late?....Wait, her voice sounded very familiar in that line....Lisa Ortiz? I was just kidding about competing with Rebecca Honig in annoying voices. Please don't try to defend your title here.

Also, this place is so high-tech that practically everything is a gadget yet it can't detect that Tory has no Pokemon of his own and thus wouldn't be able to battle? Hell, aren't Pokemon trainers registered in some mass system?

They arrive in the battle tower stadium to have a tag team battle, and Rebecca joins May, Max and Brock in the audience.

May: “I wonder how Ash got registered so quickly.”

Rebecca: “By cutting in front of me.”

How did Ash cut in line? There was no line. There is no registration line. You go down to the basement and some big guy throws you in there without even asking you any questions. The system automatically registers you once you're already heading to the stadium and your match is set up. You didn't get in because you arrived behind Ash and Tory for no given reason despite having a huge head start.

Ash and Tory's opponents come into the stadium and its, predictably enough, Rafe and Sid. The announcers gives the conditions of battle; a tag team match with only one Pokemon used per trainer, and Rafe and Sid release their Pokemon first. Rafe sends out his Blaziken while Sid sends out a Blastoise. Ash sends out Pikachu and asks what Pokemon Tory will use, but as we all have figured out two minutes ago, Tory has no Pokemon to battle with.

With no second Pokemon on their side, Ash and Tory are set to forfeit by default. Ash decides to lend one of his Pokemon to Tory to battle with. I don't understand why that wouldn't be against the rules but whatever. Tory figures he has no choice so he sends out Ash's Torkoal to battle.

The battle begins and Rafe starts by sending Blaziken out to hit Pikachu with a Blaze Kick. Pikachu jumps up to dodge, but Blastoise knocks it away with Hydro Pump. Sid commands Blastoise to use Bubble on Torkoal--....Dude, you have a Blastoise that still knows Bubble? I hate to sound like a Poke-snob, but that's kinda lame. The Bubble attack hits, and Ash tells Tory to give commands to Torkoal, but since he's not a trainer he doesn't know what to do.

Blastoise does a Rapid Spin into Torkoal, sending him flying and causing everything to slow down in Tory's perspective as Blastoise gets close to him while spinning. We flash back to Tory in the middle of the Walrein stampede, causing Tory to freeze up.

(http://imgur.com/OIciJ2Z.png)

This solidifies his fear in Pokemon, allowing me to bring up a big problem with this whole scenario. Tory is scared to death of Pokemon to the point where even cute little Pikachu sends him running off like a horror movie target.....Okay...before I get to the big picture, why the hell was Tory in, of all things, the Battle Tower? That place is crawling with Pokemon and the tower itself is meant to be a place where trainers can come together to battle each other. Why would he go there?

Yes, there's a library there and Tory, being a researcher's son, probably has a thirst for learning, but I assume with all the technology in this city and his dad having access to untold amounts of information surely there's really no reason for him to brave a Pokemon-ridden tower to read some books. Use a Kindle....use the Internet, have books delivered to your house; you have lots of options kid.

Next, how the hell does he get through life like this? He lives in the Pokemon world where practically everything is dedicated to Pokemon in some way. Where, if you are somehow a rarity who dislikes Pokemon, you'll be treated like a leper and eventually have to conform and like Pokemon after being ceaselessly prodded by others. Pokemon are everywhere in this series. Friggin' everywhere. How does he stay sane even merely leaving his house when the average person probably sees or interacts with at least one to five Pokemon per day?

Finally, really? The reason he fears Pokemon this much is because of the Walrein stampede? Granted, yes, this would probably be scary for young Tory, but he didn't get hurt in that stampede....at all. They ran around him. Would that slightly frightening experience be so bad that he would end up being this emotionally scarred for so long? And why does it encompass all Pokemon, even small cutesy ones? Shouldn't he really just be afraid of Walrein? That's like developing a fear of bears after having one run past you and then being afraid of bunnies as a consequence.

Back to the action, Pikachu tries to defend Torkoal with a Thunderbolt to Blastoise, but Blaziken defends him with a Flamethrower. Blastoise regains his composure and Skull Bashes Pikachu, knocking him into Torkoal and pinning himself under his shell.

Ash decides to take the reigns for Torkoal too—Okay now he's controlling his 'partner's' Pokemon. Surely that is against the rules!

Apparently it isn't, and Ash commands Torkoal to use Flamethrower. It does, but accidentally burns Pikachu's tail in the process. Torkoal, upset at accidentally hurting Pikachu, starts crying and sending smoke everywhere. Geez, I'm embarrassed for them. Rafe finishes off Pikachu and Torkoal with Overheat and Ash and Tory are defeated.

(http://imgur.com/98CxEdn.png)

Tory's dad and Yuko show up to the battle tower. They had watched his battle on television and went to the tower to tell him how proud they were. Tory tells them not to be proud because the whole thing was an accident and runs off.

Brock gushes over Yuko and – Since when does Brock discuss Professor Ivy without becoming a depressed lump in the corner? Anyway, Yuko explains Tory's situation with his childhood trauma and being afraid of all Pokemon because of it. Yuko believes he really loves Pokemon deep down, like he used to as a small child, but he needs to get to know them again to get over his fear. Ash, feeling guilty over pushing Tory so hard in the battle tower when he has a fear of Pokemon, decides to take it upon himself to show Tory how great Pokemon really are. See? I told you. You must all like Pokemon!

Back with Tory, the Plusle from earlier tries to get Tory's attention, but he shoos him away. Plusle runs to a knocked over trash can where his brother is trapped and begs Tory to help. Again, told ya so. Despite his fears, he decides to help them out and just as Ash comes out to meet him, Tory frees Minun from the garbage can. Plusle and Minun happily reunite and try to thank Tory by giving him a hug, but he backs away before they can touch him and runs off.

Munchlax shows up again to pick up the trash can and tries again to kick a bottle into the can. This time he succeeds. Yay! I love that little guy.

Ash follows Tory to some garden place where he speaks with the unseen being from earlier, only this time we get to see what it is.

A big sparkly glowy piece of intergalactic Flubber made of light....Yeah....yeah that pretty much sums it up.

He excitedly tells the Flubber thing about what happened with the Plusle and Minun when we cut to Deoxys. Oh right, the plot! I completely forgot about that part of the movie.....sad thing is, I'm not even really joking. We haven't so much as mused about Deoxys, legendary Pokemon or anything main plot related for over 15 minutes.

Deoxys lands in Larousse City and expels all his pink energy into the sky again, creating an aurora borealis effect. And....that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed it.

(http://imgur.com/ET5yCxd.png)

As Tory continues to talk with Flubber, Ash shows up and asks who he's speaking with. Flubber disappears in response and so does the pink light. Bye plot! He badgers Tory about who he was talking to and tries to talk with him, but Tory keeps telling him to go away. He accidentally spooks a flock of Wingull, which causes him to fall down in fright. Ash runs to his side to see if he's okay, but Tory knocks Ash down when he gets scared by Pikachu.

Angered, Ash grabs Tory by the shirt but May arrives to calm him down. Trying to give an opportunity to make everyone friends, Brock cooks up a fondue. Wasn't aware Brock was a housewife from the 1950's but okay.

Seeing the food, a bunch of other Pokemon arrive. Brock gives them some bowls of Pokemon food and May and Ash try to get Tory adapted to the Pokemon. Ash even offers to have Tory pet Pikachu. He starts to try, but ends up pulling his hand away in fear.

Tory thanks the group for trying to help him and runs off. Munchlax returns again to eat the group's lunch. Once he's done, he jumps up 300 feet in the air, lands quietly and walks off......What the hell was that even? Why is this Munchlax so adorably funny?

The Plusle and Minun from before arrive to have some food too and I'm just now realizing that these two are basically the Pichu Bros. They already look almost exactly like Pichu to begin with, they're brothers and they cause a bunch of trouble. Huh.

The plot returns again, and this time Deoxys is just destroying stuff in the city. He creates the pink light again and....we're back to Ash and the others again. Bye, again, plot!

They marvel at the lights and Rebecca explains that they shouldn't be able to see aurora lights since they're usually only viewable at the north and south poles. A bunch of awkward flirting goes on with Sid and May and Brock and Rebecca. Brock also gets really demanding with Rebecca for some reason, basically yelling at her to spend time with him.

Rafe arrives to give a few jabs to Ash for losing so badly earlier, and Ash asks for a rematch at the battle tower tomorrow. Rafe agrees and starts to leave. I guess he was only there to pick on Ash.

He stops when he sees Tory who came back to share a big basket of cookies with everyone. Oh did I say cookies? Let me clarify; they're Pokemon cookies because what else would they be?

(http://imgur.com/kiCsfM7.png)

Everyone lets out their Pokemon to have some cookies and enjoy the night, and this was the one part of this movie that I kept coming back to. This is really just a scene with the Pokemon having fun and playing while Tory gets slowly closer to them, but the real reason I liked the scene was because the song, while being kinda cheesy, was also really catchy. Yup, just a moderately decent and catchy song with nothing important happening on screen was the one reason I usually stayed to watch this movie.

Apparently Rafe's sisters also have Pokemon; a Surskit and a Masquerain. Not that it ever matters at all but there ya go. In addition, I guess the only Pokemon that Rafe and Sid have are Blaziken and Blastoise respectively.

And ya know what?....This scene is cheesier than I remember. The song's lyrics are cheesier than I remember, the scenes themselves get downright dorky sometimes like the sudden quick cuts of all the Pokemon playing in the pipes and its just so saturated with sugar.

Team Rocket arrives to take the food from their picnic. Oh yeah, they've been here the whole movie again, I just didn't mention it because, like always, they don't do anything but complain about food and get hurt. Only reason I'm mentioning them here is because Munchlax ruins their thieving plans by bogarting the food himself and running off, making Team Rocket give chase.

The light disappears and Deoxys knocks some more stuff and Pokemon over. And then he......Oh okay, back with Ash and Tory again. Don't worry, it's not like the movie is about Deoxys or anything.

Tory tells Ash that he's never really had fun with a bunch of friends before and believes it to be because of his fear of Pokemon. See?! Your life is ruined if you don't like Pokemon! I am on a roll.

Pikachu offers to have Tory pet him again to prove that he's finally getting over his fear of Pokemon. He tries again yet Corphish butts in and freaks him out, making him run off. Way to go, Corphish. Ash calms him, but the attempt to get closer to Pokemon is again ruined.

The next day, Tory brings the whole group to his father's lab where Tory introduces everyone to Flubber out in the garden.

The Pokemon B-Squad let out their Pokemon to meet Flubber while Rebecca tries to analyze it with her computer.

Back with the “main plot” Rayquaza is making its way to the city to confront Deoxys. Oh and apparently Officer Jenny is the leader of the security guys for this city. You're all screwed.

Professor Lund (Tory's Dad) tells Officer Jenny that if Rayquaza and Deoxys meet and battle there, the city will mostly likely be destroyed. He calls for an evacuation, and Jenny agrees with his request.

This is really random and minor, but when the people start evacuating a guy gets on a train wearing a dress, sways back and forth and says 'it's party time!' He's never seen or brought up again.

(http://imgur.com/59vSpCE.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/ST5ztVZ.jpg)

Ash and the others are trapped in the garden since Deoxys has been messing with all of the electrical devices in town, making the passport system not work. Professor Lund tries to get to Tory but ends up getting caught on the moving sidewalk when it reboots.

Millions of cube robots then come together to make a bridge away from the city and into a different one, which uh yeah, screw that. Everything is being disabled by Deoxys, meaning that once these robots get hit everyone on the bridge will be right in the water. Not to mention this bridge doesn't have side rails which Professor Lund could've really used to keep him from falling in the water like he does.

Officer Jenny drives by in a boat the instant he falls into the water and saves him. Really convenient considering she didn't know where he was or what he was doing.

Deoxys makes a bunch of clones of itself and starts kidnapping people. Rayquaza shows up and starts attacking Deoxys. It puts up a force field around most the city, somehow draining power from everything, which results in the cube bridge breaking apart and falling into the water. How many times am I going to say 'I told you so' in this movie? Luckily no one was on it because apparently a whole-city evacuation can occur in a minute and a half.

Rayquaza is trapped behind the force field, and we return to the group where Sid and Blastoise are trying to pull open the doors to the garden. Hey guys, you could probably save yourself a lot of trouble if you just broke the GLASS doors. Hell, Rebecca's Metagross simply walking into them would probably break them.

Deoxys arrives at the garden and makes more clones which kidnap Sid and Blastoise as they try to protect May. Tory leads everyone to the exit while Rafe and Ash try to buy some time by defeating the clone Deoxyses....Deoxyi....clones with Pikachu and Blaziken.

Ash: “Way to go, Rafe!”

Rafe: “All in a day's work!” Yeah, way to go, Rafe. You stood there and watched as your Pokemon did all the work after you merely gave it one command to do one attack. The skillz to pay the billz.

After they manage to unlock the passage for the underground exit, which is weird considering I thought most of the power to the city was drained, including the power in the garden which is why they couldn't get out the front door to begin with, the group calls Ash and Rafe to follow them.

Even the Pokemon are getting taken away by the clones, but Plusle and Minun as well as Munchlax manage to hide in a pipe.

Yuko explains the full situation to the group and its revealed that malfunctions of electronic equipment are so widespread that even the Pokeball management system is down, making it impossible to expand, contract or open Pokeballs. Wait that means that the main group can't use any of their Pokemon and they're reliant on Metagross, Blaziken, Pikachu, Surskit and Masquerain now? Do these movies do everything in their power to keep the other Pokemon out of the fun?

Also, how does Rebecca's laptop work if everything's so screwed that even the Pokeballs, which always seem to work no matter what, are broken because of these electrical disturbances?

After an unnecessary retelling of the story with Deoxys and Rayquaza, complete with flashback clip show of everything that happened, the group hears a strange noise in their hideout and Ash and Rafe go to investigate.

They discover that it's merely Plusle and Minun as well as Munchlax. Plusle and Minun run to greet Tory, but he runs away from them again. Ash, Brock, Rafe, Rebecca and Tory decide to leave and split up. Rafe and Rebecca go off to see where the Deoxys are holding everyone who was kidnapped while Ash, Tory and Brock go to find food. However, the food machines won't activate in response to the passports. Pikachu decides to shock the machine to power it up, and it starts shooting hot dogs everywhere.

As they try to catch the hot dogs:

Brock: “Gotta catch 'em all!”

Gotta vomit in this bucket for that terribly forced catchphrase!

(http://imgur.com/xTOcMjy.png)

There's a gay joke in this screencap somewhere, but I'm going to be classy and not even try.

Deoxys clones come to kidnap them, but Plusle and Minun arrive to fight them off. Sadly, Minun gets captured while trying to save Tory.

They run off and a Deoxys clone kidnaps the hot d—Noooooooooooo!! Not the hot dog cart! Do you have no mercy Deoxys?! You monster!

Ash and the others hide from the Deoxys clones in some warehouse, and Tory tries to pet Plusle to apologize for what happened to Minun, but still can't manage to touch it.

Back with Rebecca and Rafe, they see that the clones are putting all of the kidnapped people, Pokemon and machines into some domed building. The hot dog cart actually begs to be released and when it runs out of power, the clone drops it into the river! D:

(http://imgur.com/xLTjoSO.gif)

The next morning, the clones find the group and start breaking into their hideout so they decide to head to an underground laboratory to hide yet again. Yuko shows the group the stone that they were experimenting on and explains that it's a part of a different Deoxys just as the stone that fell from Deoxys' body four years ago when it was destroyed by Rayquaza. More specifically, though the movie doesn't mention it, it's supposedly Deoxys' brain.

Flubber emerges from the stone, revealing that Flubber is actually another Deoxys just in an incomplete form. Rebecca analyzes the light and compares the wavelengths to those of the lights in the sky that Deoxys produced. She concludes that the lights are actually communication signals and that the green light means 'friend' and the pink light means 'where are you?'

….Okay, I can swallow that she deduced that the lights were communicative signals sent between the two Deoxys, but how the hell is she translating Pokemon speak? Alien Pokemon speak! Alien Pokemon speak that is performed through lights! Just with her laptop?! They've been researching that stone for four years and haven't been able to do much with it, but Rebecca and her laptop have the whole situation figured out in two minutes.

Ash and the others conclude that Deoxys does not really mean harm, its just trying to find its friend. Yuko further explains that Deoxys sees through electromagnetic signals, and all of the people, Pokemon and machines, all beings that give off electromagnetic signals, were clouding its vision as it searched for its friend so it was breaking electrical items and kidnapping everyone to clear up its sight.

The group decides to regenerate the other Deoxys so he can reunite with his friend and they can leave the planet, hopefully sparing them from a city-destroying battle between Rayquaza and Deoxys. They don't have enough emergency backup power, which also shouldn't be working, so they team up to generate some power. They also formulate a plan to free all of the kidnapped people and Pokemon.

As they head to the building where the kidnap victims are being kept, Deoxys cuts them off. Ash tries but fails to reason with it before it clones itself some more and attacks them. They fend of the clones and start to find another way around, but Rafe decides to stay behind with Blaziken to buy them some time.

Rafe: “Just make sure nothing happens to my sisters, Ash.”

Oh yeah, those sisters who have contributed so much to the movie like.........Not getting names so far and being annoying.

Rayquaza uses a Hyper Beam to break through the force field and get into the city. Wow, it just now realized to do that about 12 hours after the force field was put up. Super smart, Rayquaza.

The clones surround Blaziken and Rafe and they allow themselves to get kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Rayquaza starts destroying Deoxys clones while Ash and the others continue to run and execute their plan. Munchlax runs in the opposite direction, but Max has no time to get it back.

As Ash and the others meet back up with Rafe and Sid and start their plan, the clones disappear and the real Deoxys and Rayquaza meet in the flesh. Oooh, it's time for the main event! Ladiiiiiieeeessssss and gentlleeemeeeennnnnnnnnn!! Let's get ready to rummmmmmmmmmmbllllllllllllleeeeeeeee!! In this corner, weighing in at 454 pounds, the Sky High Pokemon; Raaaaaaaaaaayquazaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

(http://imgur.com/fqxNSHJ.gif)

In this corner, weighing in at 134 pounds, the DNA Pokemon, Deeeeeeeeeeeoxyyyyyyyyyysssssssss!!

(http://imgur.com/moWTf0O.gif)

The two stare off, ready to battle and! We cut back to Ash and the others. *cough*

Ash and Tory command Plusle and Pikachu to feed power into the building while Minun does the same on the other side of the door. With power restored, the entrance is opened and everyone is reunited, including Plusle and Minun.

Back to the action, *cough* Rayquaza is chasing after Deoxys, leaving a wake of destruction behind him. Deoxys fights back and gets a good shot off on Rayquaza, but he maintains his composure before hitting the ground. The chase and destruction continue, but who will come out the victor? Find out after a word from our sponsor.

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(http://i.imgur.com/bi2P4iM.gif)

Amazing! Don't have small children? Child labor laws getting you down? Try using the force of a Water Pokemon's Water Gun and/or Hydro Pump! Having a strong Pokemon jump on the blades! You can even have a Psychic type move the blades with its mind! (Pokemon not included) Larousse brand windmills: Getting blown for over 60 years.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Tory and Ash go back to the lab to see how the regeneration is going as power is restored to the lab as well. Everything's set to start the process, and Ash gives Tory the honor of restoring his friend back to full form. He starts the laser, but they still need 20% more energy to get it to full power. Pikachu, Plusle and Minun get on the case and their power is enough to get the laser to finally work. The other Deoxys is restored to full form. As I guess a means of thanking them, Deoxys releases the Flubber light again and surrounds them in teal light.

Tory asks if it wants to go find the other Deoxys, and it lifts them up with psychic abilities and flies them along with it. It also destroys the roof of the place for no reason. Good job, Deoxys.

Meanwhile, Deoxys is getting its ass beat by Rayquaza again. After being slammed into the ground, the force field dissipates. *cough* Things are looking bad for Deoxys, and Rayquaza is all ready to celebrate its victory. The referee is about to call the match but what's this? Deoxys is getting back up and it doesn't look happy! Rayquaza shoots off another Hyper Beam, but Deoxys defends itself with a shield of rocks. And out from the smoke comes Deoxys who body slams Rayquaza into a nearby bridge. I hope they had insurance, most preferably from our sponsor, Shay Dee Insurance company. For when legendary Dragon Pokemon and aliens smash into your stuff; don't trust anyone but our Shay Dee Insurance salesmen!

Rayquaza doles out another Hyper Beam yet again, but misses, and Deoxys counters by smacking Rayquaza right in the face. Rayquaza is down! And Deoxys looks ready to finish the match with one of its Psychic Boosts! A direct hit and Rayquaza is not looking good. Will Rayquaza throw in the towel? Ooh, Deoxys is showing no mercy even while Rayquaza is down as it Night Shades him further into submission. Deoxys is set to throw another Psychic Boost, and I think this is the last shot for Rayquaza!

An upset! The other Deoxys has shown up in defense form to protect Rayquaza from the attack! Simply amazing! I haven't seen a move like that since the last time I saw a move like that!

*cough cough* Anyway, the two Deoxys meet and the one with the green stone sets off its green lights while Deoxys lets out its pink light. I don't know what they're saying, but if anyone does please enlighten me.

(http://i.imgur.com/N1xOZV0.gif)

Everyone marvels at the pretty lights which combine as the two Deoxys get closer and start to dance around each other but--

*cough cough*

Rayquaza shoots out of the rubble looking for trouble and shoots off a Hyper Beam towards the two Deoxys! The lights are gone, and we now have a sudden tag team match, ladies and gentlemen!

Rayquaza is shooting off Hyper Beams like they're going out of style, but the two Deoxys double Night Shade Rayquaza into a nearby building. Two small boys and an overpowered rodent nearly get hit by Rayquaza's body, but the two Deoxys save them in the nick of time. Rayquaza's down, but he's not out as he gets back up and continues his assault, even knocking over an—Nooooooo!! Not a different hot dog cart! This movie is turning into a hot dog cart massacre!

The city is being demolished at every turn, and the two Deoxys are doing everything in their power to restrain Rayquaza.

*ahem* The Pokemon crash into some building where I think is the main terminal for the cube robots over town. The Hyper Beam from Rayquaza causes a sudden surge of energy which somehow turns the newly restarted cube robots red, gives them an angry face and causes them to go out of control, creating a wave of blocks over the city.

Rayquaza gets taken down yet again and gets caught up in the wave of blocks. The two Deoxys get into defense form and protect Rayquaza while Plusle and Minun return to save Ash and Tory from the blocks. Tory's dad communicates to them through a screen behind them, though I don't know how he knew they were there, and tells the boys that they need to get to the chief block robot and present it with a passport. That should open a channel that will allow Professor Lund and the others back in the hub to disable it.

And let me just say, wow, there are way too many block robots in this city. There have to hundreds of millions of those things going crazy all over the city. The blocks are covering the battle tower and they soon smash into the screen that Professor Lund was talking to them through.

Tory, Ash, Pikachu, Plusle and Minun hitch a ride on a—the hot dog cart! Can't you leave that poor thing alone? As they try to grab onto some nearby towers, Munchlax emerges from the hot dog cart while eating some hot dogs and as it falls into the sea of blocks, it evolves into Snorlax. I guess in order to evolve Munchlax just needs a hot dog fix.

Ash uses Snorlax as a bridge to hop over to the towers and Snorlax sinks into the blocks. Ash and Pikachu climb the tower and hop on the floating blocks to the Chief robot and Ash tries to present his passport to it, but drops it.

(http://imgur.com/v3TGwy5.png)

https://youtu.be/1ytCEuuW2_A

Tory throws him his passport, but he misses the catch.

(http://imgur.com/17Kfk5I.png)

https://youtu.be/1ytCEuuW2_A

Pikachu jumps off, smacks the card with his tail so Ash can finally catch it, but he ends up getting carried away by the blocks.

Ash presents Tory's passport to the chief robot and it accepts the scan, allowing Officer Jenny to override the blocks and shut them down.

Everything's all fine and dandy, Tory, Plusle and Minun observe the stopped block robots, but the brothers fall off of the gigantic tower of blocks. Tory, in his big show of getting over his fear of Pokemon, jumps off and grabs them both. Tory dies from the fall, the end.

(http://i.imgur.com/Z7P4CYJ.gif)

Ahh, of course not. Deoxys....Uh one of them I can't see which, emerges from the blocks and flies up to save Tory, Plusle and Minun.

Pikachu emerges from the blocks as well....on top of Rayquaza's head. But he's plucked off of his head psychically by the other Deoxys and picks up Ash as well.

The two Deoxys and....Ray...quaza.....fly around....happily together...wait, what? Did Rayquaza really get over his insane blood lust of Deoxys just because it shielded it from completely non-lethal plastic and metal blocks?

I guess so, and then Rayquaza just friggin' leaves.

*cough cough* And everyone becomes friends, and lives happily ever after. Yes, folks this is a pretty damn crappy ending to this fight that wasn't even that great to begin with, but I must remind you that we have a strict 'no refunds' policy. If you want to cry about it, use Tear Dri tissues. Tear Dri; for when movies are especially disappointing. Now in new lavender scent.

*ahem* As I was saying, everything's all fine and dandy now. Tory reunites with his dad, he shows him his new friends Plusle and Minun who cuddle the crap out of his face, the two Deoxys bid goodbye to everyone with their pretty lights, Team Rocket continues to power the windmills with their stationary bike in the bushes for some reason, there is untold amounts of property damage to the city, millions of block robots lay brick'd on the ground and in several buildings, millions of people were unable to return to their homes for months, and all of this really means that they ultimately failed in protecting the city.

The end.

In terms of credits, we just get a longer version of the insert song 'This Side of Paradise' with a shot of Rayquaza flying, a shot of a block robot flying around the city, Ash and the others leaving Larousse City and bidding farewell to Tory, Professor Lund and Yuko, Ash and the main group riding on the magnet train with the side characters, Rafe and his sisters getting off the train, Sid getting off the train and bidding goodbye to May, Rebecca getting off the train and waving goodbye to a forlorn Brock, and then the typical shots of the group camping and walking, though for some reason, during the walking shot, they add the faces of the group in squares in front of the shot. Also, thanks to the way the dubbed movie is cropped, Ash and May's faces are sliced in half during this.

(http://imgur.com/cbHAfDG.png)

Then Pikachu does some cheerleading in front of a five year old's birthday card design, and the shot of him doing that is repeated in numerous blocks.....Okay...Then all of the Pokemon in the movie do some cheerleading...I don't know what's going on anymore but Blastoise cheerleading is priceless. God this song gets really repetitive. Not as bad as Cele-B-R-A-T-E But still really repetitive.... END. Okay, yes, pretty lights. End!

Thank you.

=====================================

So.....I don't like this movie. I don't hate it. I just don't really enjoy it much at all. Dogasu was pretty lenient with this movie, but I feel like laying into it a bit.

Like I said at the start, this movie was the first Pokemon movie to not be accompanied by a short film, meaning an extra 20 or so minutes was added to the runtime than is usually allotted for Pokemon movies, and I really don't think they used this time well at all.

Let's address one of the biggest problems here. Deoxys is really a side character in his own movie. Notice how much of the movie is dedicated to two things; the battle tower and Tory's fear of Pokemon. The stuff with Deoxys and Rayquaza never seems like its the actual focus, and most of Deoxys' screentime is shared with Rayquaza who is only there because of a very petty reason.

At first it was reasonable for Rayquaza to be upset that Deoxys entered into its territory of the ozone layer. The first battle, in that regard, was understandable. The fact that it somehow sensed Deoxys' return four years later, hunted it down halfway across the globe to kill it when it did not repeat the same mistake of entering into its territory is stretching it rice-paper thin to me.

Throughout much of the movie you don't even understand which of them is the bad guy. Deoxys destroys stuff too for seemingly no reason much of the time.

Deoxys' story as a whole is also incomplete. He came to earth to find his friend. Okay, I get that. Why is his Deoxys friend on earth? Why is it 'dead'? Why couldn't it regenerate after spending so long dormant in its stone form if the other Deoxys fully regenerated in four years? Why was the Deoxys' in stone form? What 'killed' it? How long has it been here? Why did it take so long for Deoxys to arrive on earth to rejoin his friend? It was embedded in meteorite, meaning it must have been in there for hundreds, thousands or even millions of years. How did they get separated to begin with? Why was the green Deoxys able to turn into a light while dormant in its stone form and move about freely? Shouldn't the pink Deoxys have had that ability too?

The movie doesn't even touch upon Deoxys' origins, which, according to its Dex entry, is that it was formed by the DNA of a space virus after being hit with a laser. It's a pretty silly origin to me, even if it probably has more basis in science than most other legendaries, but they at least could've worked that in there considering it's one of Deoxys' only forms of lore. Speaking of which, if that origin is true, how is there more than one Deoxys?

Why did Rayquaza just up and forgive both Deoxys after holding such an intense grudge? This whole battle against Rayquaza just ultimately seems pointless and poorly executed. The battle itself wasn't even anything that epic. It's just a back and forth of Hyper Beams and Psychic Boost with Night Shade.

Touching upon the battle tower aspect before we get back to Tory's plot line, this part of the story takes up quite a bit of time and yet ultimately amounts to nothing. It does introduce Tory to Ash, but that could've been achieved without the lengthy battle sequence and it was already established before the battle that Tory was afraid of Pokemon.

Don't get me wrong, I find the battle tower segment to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the movie. Mostly because, outside of opening theme sequences, we just don't get to see many legit Pokemon battles in these movies, but not only was it long and had nothing really to do with anything, but the battle itself was just painful to watch and awkward. Not to mention we didn't get to see Rebecca battle at all outside of one attack near the end.

The battle tower did allow us to get some other trainer side characters in a movie for a change; ones that actually get names that are said on screen and actually do things that matter to the plot. What a novel concept, huh movie 01? However, the rivalry between Rafe and Ash is never resolved. They set it up several times throughout the movie, even seemingly interrupting things to butt it into the plot. They say they'll battle again in the battle tower in a legit match, but they never have one. That could've been at least included in the ending credits, but nope. It's like they forgot about it.

Rafe's little sisters, as I said, amounted to absolutely nothing. Rafe doesn't make a big show of protecting them, they barely even talk to him, really, Ash doesn't focus on protecting them for Rafe, they don't battle or contribute anything, they're just set dressing. Annoying....annoying set dressing. Luckily they didn't get many lines.

Sid was a little entertaining, and I'm glad that they had May be nice and respectful of him instead of being cliché and being repulsed by him merely because he's overweight and has a crush on her. He was nice and not really creepy with his attention to May.

Rebecca wasn't really necessary to me. Her role could've easily been taken by Yuko with really nothing changed. I didn't mind Rebecca at all and she did dole out some exposition a la laptop, but still.

Getting back to the main plot issue at hand; the actual main plot of the story being Tory's fear of Pokemon and him spending time with Ash and the others as he tries to get over this fear. I didn't clock it, but I'm almost certain that this part of the movie really does take up significantly more runtime than the Deoxys one. Here's the deal, this isn't the first time that something like this has happened. Similar setups have occurred in movies 04 and movie 06. You can have a plot line that takes focus away from the legendary plot line and have it work to the film's advantage. While movie 04 had problems with this, movie 06 ironed them out, and both movies did a pretty decent job with it.

This movie does not.

I really don't have any problems with a plot point involving someone getting over a fear of Pokemon, but here it feels like it's merely an extended plot point from any average episode of Pokemon. In fact, I'm almost certain a similar plot has appeared in the show. My problem is that I find the reason for his fear to be pretty silly. I know phobias are irrational fears, and even here the fear is somewhat founded because Pokemon can be very dangerous. I also know that even if a situation doesn't seem traumatic, it can be. But looking at it as a storyline and not a realistic depiction of PTSD, it's just silly.

Walrein stampede around him as a child, he doesn't get touched by them, kinda faints because of it and as a result of this he is scared to death of all Pokemon for years. Like I said, even putting realistic logic in there would mean Tory would just be afraid of Walrein or at most all Pokemon similar to Walrein like Dewgong, but no, it's every Pokemon in existence, no matter how cute, cuddly or harmless.

Not to mention that it really does get old to watch him try to even touch a Pokemon and then run off. Over and over and over.

And you're telling me Yuko and Professor Lund never once thought over the four years that he's been struggling with this fear to help him out with this? This fear has left him with no friends and no life, and yet, like always, a group of random children have to solve the problem for them because it seems like they either won't get off their asses and try or they're too stupid to know what to do to try.

Speaking of Yuko, why is she not Tory's mother? It's not like his mother is ever brought up or made into a minor plot point, and I thought she was his mother from the second I saw her on screen. She and Professor Lund are always together, she speaks like his mother, she acts like his mother, yet she's not. It's not a big detail, but it's still a bit odd.

Anyway, one of the bigger issues with this plot is that it has absolutely nothing to do with Deoxys. What do the more human plot threads of movie 04 and 06, and in a different light, movie 03 have in common?

While the plot itself may not be completely centered on the legendary Pokemon, they are big parts of it. Movie 03; the Unown make Molly's dream reality to help her escape into a world with her 'papa', an Entei, to protect her and stay with her since her real parents are gone.

Movie 04; Sam is 'stuck' in the future because of Celebi's time traveling abilities after protecting it from a poacher. Celebi is the only one who can bring him back home.

Movie 06; Jirachi needs Max to act like a partner and guardian to him as his lives out his one week of being awake before returning to stone form. Max befriends Jirachi and learns about letting go.

Movie 07; Tory is scared to death of Pokemon after nearly getting trampled by a bunch of Walrein. Ash and the others try to get him over this fear to help improve his quality of life.

Tory's story has nothing whatsoever to do with Deoxys. Okay, yes, Deoxys caused the disturbance which made the Walrein stampede, but I don't even think Tory really got a good look at Deoxys back then considering it was bathed in light during this point, and that's mostly unrelated.

Also, his friendship with green Deoxys doesn't change things much either. Nothing would've really been different had Tory not befriended Flubber. It didn't affect Tory or green Deoxys at all. Them simply restoring Flubber would be enough for Green Deoxys to befriend them and bring them on a ride. He also has nothing to do with Rayquaza. Hell, it probably would've been better to have Tory nearly or actually get caught up in one of Rayquaza's many Hyper Beams. It probably wouldn't hurt him too much, being Pokemon, it would connect him to the legendaries and give him a stronger reason to be so afraid of Pokemon in general.

You can't give a legendary top billing, give most of the movie to a human character and then not have the human strongly connected to the legendary. It just makes the movie seem horribly disjointed.

As for Tory himself, he's another problem to me. Tory's basically dull as dishwater. His only trait is being afraid of Pokemon and being a nice kid. I suppose he also has an interesting character design with always-contracted pupils, but that's it. He's not particularly smart, skilled or fun. They didn't even try a little harder to make him memorable and just make him a little annoying. In fact, looking at it, it's almost like they took all the possible character traits for Tory and gave them to the battle tower group. Rafe is skilled with Pokemon and he's cool, Sid is fun and dorky, Rebecca's very smart and the twins are annoying. They just forgot to leave a character trait for Tory.

While we're on the topic of characters, May, Max and Brock barely got to do anything either. They were definitely more included than Brock and Misty were in movie 05, but they still didn't get to do much of anything. They help in trying to get Tory over his fear and help in getting the windmills going, but outside of that they don't get much to do. They can't really participate much anyway since their Pokemon are stuck in their Pokeballs for a good chunk of the movie, and for some reason they didn't let any out to meet Flubber like the battle tower group.

Finally, I find the ending to be flat out dumb. There are really THAT MANY block robots in this city? Enough to make a city-destroying flood of blocks? And they really needed to make that the big disaster of the movie instead of something actually related to the plot? It comes out of friggin' nowhere. At least in movie 05 the big flood was somewhat foreshadowed. This was totally random and again has really nothing to do with our main plot. Who is really afraid of a bunch of block robots with cartoony emoticon faces and six-year-old voices anyway?

This ending also could've been resolved very easily with Deoxys. Deoxys has been causing electromagnetic mayhem everywhere, right? It's been causing power outages and malfunctions all over the city. Even, coincidentally enough, disabling the block robots. So why could it just not disable them with those same abilities instead of just becoming a shield for Rayquaza? If you really needed to do that couldn't you have Deoxys, preferably the pink stone one, to protect Rayquaza while the green one disables the robots? Hell, why could Rayquaza not destroy a good chunk of these blocks with its Hyper Beams?

Oh what did you not want to take away from the epic ending of Ash swiping his passport to stop the robots? You know, I always thought the ending of Star Wars would've been better if Luke had just destroyed the death star by filing a complaint in to the empire.

Considering that the Rayquaza and Deoxys battle had no epic moment or actual ending, that means this movie has two lame climaxes. The only technically 'epic' part of the movie is when the two Deoxys meet and merge their lights, but considering we've been seeing these lights the whole movie and them combining really makes them less impressive in regards to color to be honest, it's really not something to write home about.

Even the credits were slightly disappointing because the movies usually use that time to let the art department have some fun by putting the main group in a bunch of detailed and usually quite visually appealing environments that we typically don't get to see them in, but here they spend most of the credits on the train, we get one detailed shot of them camping and then the rest is weird cheerleading by the Pokemon in front of a cheesy 90's-esque background.

Art and Animation: Better than the series, but I still noticed quite a few bad shots such as this.

(http://imgur.com/KoyTP2R.png)

What is up with James' face there?

The animation is on par with basically all of the movies and despite my poke at the CGI in the opener, the rest of the CGI with the robots is pretty decent, and I can thank God that they didn't make Rayquaza CGI. They did make Deoxys CGI a few times, but that was it and it wasn't bad. Also, I should mention that the cinematography in this movie is really great. Nothing breathtaking, but some shots were wonderfully lit, had great angles and really good atmosphere.

I will mention one part during the evacuation where the people are walking up a ramp to get on a plane and they're very obviously simple CGI walk cycles being slid across the ramp.

Music: Outside of the insert song, which is also the ED,

Pokemon EXTRAVAGANZA! Movie 08: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew Review

(http://imgur.com/f4RJlcZ.png)

Rating: 9/10

Plot: Many years ago, a kingdom was under threat of destruction from a war between two factions that had nothing to do with it. Sir Aaron, Guardian of Aura, is credited for saving the kingdom and being a hero to the land. However, it's revealed that he sealed away his student and friend, a Lucario, in his staff for hundreds of years. Lucario is suddenly released from the staff by Ash, and he believes Sir Aaron abandoned the queen, the kingdom and him all those years ago. When Ash and the others lose Pikachu to the Mew that lives in the mysterious tree of beginnings, they start a journey to retrieve him with Lucario reluctantly leading the way. Is Sir Aaron really a hero? Or is he merely a traitor?

=================

Obligatory poster babble: This poster’s pretty good, even if it does look slightly muddled. And why exactly does Munchlax take up more of the poster than May, Max or Brock, whose face basically gets sliced in half?

I will point out that Ash’s hero outfit is not purple like it’s being shown here. It’s dark blue as Aaron’s was. No idea why that’s like that.

----------------------------------

Finally entering into mostly uncharted territory. I say 'mostly' because despite the fact that I have never seen this movie outright, I have seen clips and heard a lot about it. There's a lot of praise surrounding this movie. Like I said, even some critics I watch who don't seem to be Pokemon fans have listed this movie as one of their favorite movies or animated movies ever.

But what makes it so good? And is it really as good as many people claim?

=========================

Our movie starts out, predictably enough, with yet another variation on The World of Pokemon intro. However, unlike the previous intros, this one actually doesn't mention Ash or his friends directly. Clips of him and his companions are put behind the explanation of trainers in their entirety, which I like. It doesn't put so much emphasis on Ash being the big hero of every story and instead allows him and his friends to just be a handful among the many trainers around the globe.

Our narrator brings us back into olden times 'before Pokeballs ever existed'. Really, movie? You're going to make me get nerdy before the title screen? Okay, let's do this. Ahem. Skipping ahead a tad, we see that this movie seems based roughly in medieval England-ish times considering Sir Aaron's outfit design, the fact that he's titled 'sir', indicating some knighthood, and some of the designs of the architecture. Plus, the description for the movie says this is a some hundreds of years in the past, not thousands.

There have been artifacts found in ancient times that have powers that were basically the exact same as Pokeballs – most notably in the episode The Ancient Puzzle of Pokemopolis. These artifacts were of varying designs and none of them were really similar to the modern Pokeballs we know today, but they served the exact same function.

If you want to make the argument that that doesn't count somehow, there is also an ancient Pokeball from Pokelantis that looks very similar to the modern Pokeballs of today and served the same function shown in the episode Battling the Enemy Within.

We see a rather beautifully animated Lucario traversing the mountains, and he uses his aura ability to seek out other living beings. Using this ability, he spots an army of people and Pokemon in red armor. I gotta say, while there's not a real point for a lot of these Pokemon to be wearing armor, such as Rhydon and Steelix, these Pokemon look awesome with this armor on.

(http://imgur.com/fRStIvh.png)

Using his aura ability again, he looks off into the other direction to sense another army, this one wearing green armor. I know it's unlikely, but I like to think that this is a poke to the original Japanese versions of the first games, especially seeing as how there's a Charizard on the red side. There's a Blastoise on the Green side if they're making it some kind of combination reference for the original Green and later released Blue.

As a Ho-Oh flies overhead, Pokemon from the Red army start to corner Lucario, so he contacts his master, Sir Aaron, through a nearby crystal.

At a really beautiful castle on an even more beautiful barring the sickly sepia-tone-ish colors everywhere landscape, we see Sir Aaron and the queen, Rin, whose hair must weigh 70 lbs, as Aaron answers the crystal. Lucario updates him on the situation and the Queen claims that the kingdom will fall once the armies reach the castle.

Lucario fights off the Red Army Houndoom with his aura abilities after getting temporarily blinded in battle while the Queen stands firm in staying with her people and the castle no matter if they all shall fall and perish. And yes, while they don't say 'die' they do say there won't be any survivors so....

Sir Aaron flies off towards the armies with his Pidgeot—Oh look, a Pidgeot. Isn't that quaint not-even-born-yet-Ash?

Aaron's Pidgeot gets badly wounded and crashes into the trees and Aaron doesn't seem to give a crap about it. Doesn't say anything, no visible emotion on his face, just 'well, that happened, where's Lucario?' Pidgeot can't catch a break.

As Lucario catches up to Sir Aaron, he reveals that he's no longer Lucario's master nor is he allied with the Queen or the Kingdom anymore. As Lucario tries to make sense of Aaron's seeming betrayal, Aaron recalls Lucario into the crystal on his staff before running away. I like the added bit of the staff shaking after Lucario is inside of it. Either it's a nod to how Pokeballs shake when a capture is in progress or it's showing that Lucario is so upset by Aaron's actions that he's actually causing the staff to shake. I prefer the latter.

(http://imgur.com/Ykup8Va.png)

The two armies converge, Pidgeot appears and seems fine, so that's good, Ho-Oh turns out to be a Mew in disguise and Pidgeot returns Aaron's staff to the queen. Suddenly, the tree of beginnings and all of the crystals across the land glow green. The story is then narrated by a woman who is telling her daughter a story as the scene turns into a storybook. She explains that Aaron went to the tree of beginnings and did....something with Mew that caused peace to fall over the land. The armies lost the hatred in their hearts and left the land, and the kingdom was restored. Sir Aaron was forever memorialized as the hero of the land.

We then get our title screen, which, despite some iffy CGI on Aaron's staff, weird animation effects on the text and holding on shots for too long, is a pretty nice intro. I like when they showed the evolution of certain aspects of technology through time.

We're back with Ash and the others as the narrator, the actual one, explains that Ash and his friends are currently at Cameran Palace where an annual festival is being held in honor of Sir Aaron. A bunch of awkwardly animated CGI Pokemon trainers gather together for a competition in which the winner will be crowned Guardian of the Aura. Ash, May, Max and Brock are also planning to partake in the festivities while Mew wanders the town turning into a bunch of different Pokemon for really no reason.

Ash and the others go buy some traditional costumes for the festival, and I do like May's outfit. She did a nice bow with her bandana and the Beautifly bow on the back is not only pretty but it suits May considering that she has/had one. Meanwhile, Brock chose clothes that make him look like a monk or a priest while Max chose an outfit that makes him look like Mickey Mouse.

Three guesses as to what Ash looks like....

Yup, he chose an outfit that made him look exactly like Sir Aaron. Well, I guess if we'll take him out of the World of Pokemon intro to make him feel more like an everyman Trainer we have to take the time out to purposely dress him like a real hero...who is also a storybook hero and a legend....and then later crown him as the Guardian of the Aura....essentially making him a pseudo-Sir Aaron...Hero of our story...I'm probably more bitter about this than I really should, especially since Ash has really only been a 'chosen one' hero in one other movie, but something about it just irks me. I do have to say, though, the costume does look pretty good on him.

Even Pikachu gets a spiffy new costume that makes him look like a court jester, and it does make him look pretty cute.

(http://imgur.com/7lJvJAV.png)

The costume that Jessie picks out looks horrendous. It's just so busy.

At the arena, Queen Ilene, descendant of and near mirror image of Queen Rin, announces the start of the tournament where.....We get our theme song? Again? Finally?! YAY!

While this is yet another opener with a theme song overlaying on a Pokemon battle, 1) I don't care, I'm just glad they have the theme song back and 2) Advanced Battle's theme song is great, so I still don't care.

Ash is up first against an unnamed trainer with a Breloom. I should note that the trainer's traditional garb costume clearly has a Pokeball symbol on it. That could just be attributed to non-accurate costumes, but considering the 'time before Pokeballs' line earlier, I felt like nit-picking.

Ash chooses Pikachu, because of course he does, and somehow Pikachu loses his costume between shots. One minute he's charging up his electricity with his costume on, the next he's landing a hit without the costume and it never returns.

Next we get a battle between some dude in cool looking armor and his Weavile against Not-Ash!? Opener battle showcasing someone besides Ash? Holy crap! Anyway, his opponent is someone in robes with a Tropius. Weavile wins the match.

Next battle is someone I can't see with a Misdreavus against a Ninetales! Awesome! We hardly ever get to see a Ninetales do anything. Not that it matters, because it ends up losing, I believe, by a rather cool attack from Misdreavus.

We get a quick montage of battles with the tournament bracket overlaying over the scenes, but they don't put the names or pictures on the brackets and animate it to show a passage of time, they just increasingly zoom in on the 'final' part. Obviously, Ash is a finalist and he's actually facing off against the armor guy and his Weavile. Nice consistency, movie!

Pikachu, of course, ends up winning the match through a gigantic, dangerous to the spectators and trainers, Thundershock.

As Ash is crowned the Guardian, the armor guy shows up to congratulate Ash and reveals that he's actually a girl named Kidd.

Later that night, in the palace, Ash is being formally presented with Sir Aaron's staff. Team Rocket are in the background and we see James' outfit, which is actually pretty damn tame compare to Jessie's. He just looks like a stereotypical 1800's Englishman.

(http://imgur.com/iTXZKtH.png)

Nitpicky again, but Ilene says that the staff of Sir Aaron is Ash's now....I only bring this up because the wording makes it seem like he can keep it. “The staff is yours now.” Which, since this has been a long-standing tradition with every winner getting the staff, can't be true.

Ash accepts the staff and as he marvels in it, he suddenly hears the voice of Lucario from within the crystal asking why he was betrayed by his master.

They have a ball in Ash and Sir Aaron's honor and all of the creepy CGI models stiffly dance.

May dances with someone who looks twice her age, Brock dances with Kidd, Pikachu dances with the Mew disguised as an Aipom and Max stuffs his face. Meanwhile, Ash just sits on the throne watching everyone else have fun. He's forced to do so in order to keep up appearances, and golly gee it sure is a nice prize to miss out on a party to sit in a chair and hold a pretty stick.

He lets out all of his Pokemon to have fun at the party....without asking the Queen if it'd be okay to do that. I mean, yeah, she has a Pokemon, a Mime Jr., and Pikachu and Aimew are able to be out just fine, but seriously you should ask first before letting a bunch of animals run loose in a fancy palace.

May does the same thing, again, without asking.

At this point, I have to ask....is there something different about the VA's in later seasons? Eric Stuart and Rachel Lillis sound weird for some reason.

Kidd breaks away from Brock for a second to make a call in private. We learn that she's actually working for some strange organization with someone named Banks. She asks for blueprint information to be sent to her visor in an effort to hunt down Mew.

Meanwhile, the Pokemon all head upstairs to the attic to play with a bunch of toys. I would ask why there are so many toys in a palace attic, but I want that Suicune rocking horse and legendary birds mobile too much to care. I will, however, complain again about the lack of supervision for these Pokemon. Letting them out in a fancy palace is one thing, not bothering to keep an eye on them is quite another.

(http://imgur.com/TSIRDJt.png)

Kidd starts to swing around the rooftops of the palace like she's Spider-man, and man, Kidd's hair is ridiculous when she's in her 'stealth' outfit. How does she get through doors?

She finally spots Mew when it transforms back at the worst time possible. There wasn't even any reason for it to transform back into its original state. Kidd sends out her two Weavile to place a transmitter on the Mew.

The Weavile pursue Mew, freezing all of the other Pokemon besides Pikachu and Meowth because, oh god, wouldn't want them to actually contribute or anything.

Weavile manages to blow Pikachu away by combining their Ice Beams and creating an explosion when combined with Pikachu's Thunderbolt. I do find it rather cute that Meowth not only catches Pikachu, but he carries Pikachu around afterward. Granted, yeah, Team Rocket wants to steal him, but I really don't get any bad vibes from Meowth when he's doing this. Then the Weavile dance and pose like they're a slightly more graceful version of the Ginyu Force.

*shrug*

Max spots the Pokemon upstairs, though can't get to them due to the ice blocking the door, and Mew teleports them away. Hey, Kidd, ya know, a good way to capture a Mew, a Pokemon that seems to love teleporting, might be with a Pokemon that knows Teleport. Then again, you seem way too surprised that Mew even could teleport.

Mew transforms yet again, this time into a Pidgeot, and flies Meowth and Pikachu away from the palace.

It should be noted that Kidd is actually angry that her Weavile were being so aggressive with Mew and the others, so her intentions don't seem to be very bad.

Lucario pipes up again as he sees the painting of Sir Aaron and as Ash holds the staff up to call for the fireworks to start, Lucario releases himself. Still blind....somehow (he was blinded by dust hundreds of years ago, why did he not recover from that yet?) he believes Ash to be Aaron since he's only using Aura to see. However, when Ash starts to talk to Lucario, he slowly opens his eyes and sees that he's not Sir Aaron. Has he been in stasis this whole time or has Lucario never thought to try and open his eyes?

...Actually, now that I mention it, maybe he was in some kind of stasis. That would explain why Lucario hasn't died of old age.

Lucario runs away from the party and looks around the palace, confused as to why people are celebrating when the kingdom is under attack and why everything looks odd. He flashes back to when Sir Aaron first brought him to the palace as his new home and started training him in using Aura.

(http://imgur.com/ob9Ect3.png)

Queen Ilene, Ash and the others meet Lucario in his old bedroom where they reveal the sad news to him that he's been sealed and asleep for hundreds of years, deeply shocking Lucario as he looks at the relics encased in glass like a museum.

In the throne room, Lucario explains what happened all those years ago, particularly why he seemed to disappear in the middle of the battle. Wait, if Sir Aaron and Lucario seemingly disappeared at the same time during the war and were partners, why not assume that Lucario also gave his life in some way to quell the fighting and save the palace? Why just believe he vanished without warning? Makes it seem like Lucario's a traitor while Sir Aaron is the only hero. Actually, if they knew Lucario was trapped in there, wouldn't anyone be questioning why Aaron did that?

Queen Ilene explains the legend as it has been passed on through the centuries, but Lucario argues that Sir Aaron abandoned the Queen and the palace not that he managed to miraculously end the war and save the palace.

Ash asks why Lucario thought he was Aaron and Lucario states that the aura within Ash is similar to Aaron's. Look, I have all sorts of questions as to how this tradition has gone on for so long without a single person triggering Lucario's awakening and release, but I suppose I can just accept the really unlikely possibility that Ash's aura is so much like Sir Aaron's that it spurred/allowed Lucario's release and that no other tournament winner ever has had an aura close to Sir Aaron's. But if I have to accept that, everyone else has to accept that that I'll be salty about this basically meaning Ash is another 'Chosen one' because I hate that trope.

(http://imgur.com/ctFfBDE.png)

James: “He was locked in that staff for over a thousand years.” Err...I guess I can also accept that the Pokemon world doesn't work on real world timelines because, given the setting they were in, it really just seemed like medieval England-ish, which was far from a thousand years ago. Then again, this is Team Rocket, so they could very well be wrong.

Max returns and relays the information about Mew, Meowth and Pikachu to Ash and the others while they catch him up on Lucario. This whole conversation showcases a really odd dynamic. Ash and the others are not surprised in the least that Max saw a Mew, only May asks if he's sure it was a Mew and not some other Pokemon. Though I do have to ask how May even knows what a Mew is. I would say Ash and Brock know and are cool about it because of movie 01, but they forgot about it so I'll just stand firm in my belief that Ash and his friends are just used to seeing legendary Pokemon now.

However, when they relay the information to Max about Lucario, Brock is prattling the info off like it's no big deal or even something odd while Max is going 'Whaaa?!'

Kidd is back in her ball garb because....I don't know why. She's explaining that she was on the roof and she doesn't have bad intentions really so there's no reason why she felt the need to change. Also, if you thought people pronouncing Charmander as Charminder was bad; Kidd pronounces Pidgeot as PIDG-IT. I've never been so badly irked so quickly. I got irk-lash.

Queen Ilene explains that it's not surprising that Mew took them and was probably playing with them as Mew is frequently around the palace playing around and taking toys to someplace never to be seen again. This freaks out both Ash and Team Rocket....well, James anyway, as this may mean that Pikachu and Meowth are gone forever.

The Queen tells them that Mew is likely at the tree of beginnings, which is revealed to not actually be a tree at all but a rock formation in the shape of a tree, which might explain all the weird crystals around the city. Ash is determined to go there and find Pikachu, but Ilene warns that Mew takes on many forms and doesn't usually show its true form to humans. However, Lucario's abilities with Aura allow it to see Mew's true form, so Ilene requests him to join Ash on his journey, which he accepts.

Kidd returns now in her stealth clothes..... Why'd you get back into that ball gown if you were just gonna change your clothes back 10 minutes later?

She says that she wants to join Ash and his friends on their journey when Brock suddenly gushes as he recognizes her as the legendary Kidd Summers, a woman who has broken the world record for most world records broken. She's basically perfect at everything, but that doesn't have much to do with anything. Thanks for adding some characterization, though.

(http://imgur.com/76iYxeb.png)

Also, I really like that Mime Jr. is mimicking Brock as he gushes over Kidd.

It is a bit strange that it took Brock this long to realize who she was, though. He keeps a book with her adventures on him at all times, he's seen her face several times and even danced with her and he knew her name was Kidd. How could a person who is so into women that he can actually tell the Jennys and Joys apart easily not recognize that this woman was someone he seems to idolize? It's not like Kidd is a common name either, nor does she have a generic face. He really needed to see her in her trademark pink outfit and weird illogical hair poofs to realize it was her? I guess that explains why she needed to change back into her ball gown earlier, though. Didn't want her backstory to interrupt the plot.

Kidd explains that the reason she's here is to explore and research the tree of beginnings and Mew to unlock the mystery behind them. Uh, okay....why not just ask the Queen if you could do that? Hell, considering the Queen seems to know Mew, perhaps she could've convinced it to wear the tracker, like a toy or something. Why did she feel the need to sneak around in order to do her work?

Ash and Lucario meet later that night in one of the chambers. Ash thanks Lucario for helping him out with Pikachu, and Lucario asks if he's Pikachu's master. Ash says no, even though that is technically correct, and says they're best friends. He asks Lucario if he'd do the same for one of his friends and Lucario says he doesn't have any nor does he want any friends.

(http://imgur.com/T3RHR7E.png)

Ash grumbles over Lucario's attitude, but dude, keep in mind, he still believes the one person he thought was even close to being a friend betrayed him by locking him away in a staff for however many years while abandoning the palace and the Queen. Lucario may seem a little emo, but he has a bit of a right to be.

Lucario leads the group through a dense fog using its aura abilities, and I'm just now realizing that there's no real reason why Lucario should be able to sense rocks....Aura senses energy within living beings. Plants I can buy; not rocks. And, no, I'm not counting Rock Pokemon.

While discussing the power of aura, they basically spoil a part of the movie by deducing that since Ash's Aura is very similar to Sir Aaron's (how is that really possible without reincarnation being a factor?) that he should be able to control aura too. Gee, I wonder if he'll do that in this movie....

I guess this is one way we might be differentiating this Mew from movie 01's Mew; its voice is entirely different....and not in a good way. Movie 01 Mew sounded like a kitten and was really cute. This one's voice is much lower, basically hums its one word dialogue and sounds like a baby.

The group stops for a nice lunch and a wild Bonsly tries to steal a plate of food. Lucario takes the plate from the Bonsly and scolds it for stealing while offering a bit of fruit to the Pokemon. I could've skipped this part, but it really does seem like a sneak peak at a more soft-hearted Lucario.

Pikachu wakes up in the tree of beginnings after being tended to by Mew and Meowth. Pikachu and Mew play for a bit and, again, I see legit caring for Pikachu from Meowth. He seems elated when Pikachu wakes up, gets worried when he sees Pikachu fall and then breathes a sigh of relief when Pikachu shows that he's fine and gets back up. Did Pikachu and Meowth bond somewhere down the line in the show and I never caught it?

Meowth leans against a knot in the tree which sends him through a portal, leading him into a green room with a bunch of green floating bubbles. Pikachu and Mew follows suit, bouncing on the bubbles and having fun. At the end of the line, Meowth, Pikachu and Mew find themselves in a beautiful spot with a gorgeous view.

(http://imgur.com/Bg7tcna.png)

As the group comes to a bunch of geysers in their path, they decide to stop at a hot spring to take a bath.....ya know, I let the lunch thing slide because they have to eat. I will not the bath slide. Pikachu, for all they know, is injured and being held in some place where Mew keeps all its toys for all eternity. Yet they decide to stop in the middle of their journey for a bath in a hot spring. Even if Pikachu wasn't injured, he's still being held in some strange place far away from his best friend/master. Again, for all they know, he's lonely and scared. Yet they decide that it's bath time.

Ash does bring up missing Pikachu....but dude, if you were really that eager to get Pikachu back you'd be in the car right now not bathing.

This does, however, set up another flashback for Lucario back to a time where he and Sir Aaron also enjoyed the hot spring.

Ash tries to invite Lucario into the hot spring, but he just walks away.

Ash: “Wonder what's wrong with it?” Did you not hear the whole 'my master betrayed me, abandoned me and the kingdom that was so precious to us' story?

May and Ash find a flower-like crystal in the rocks nearby and accidentally pick it, causing another flashback in which Sir Aaron reveals that the flower is actually a time flower; something that allows you to see the past if you have the power of aura.

Ash and the others decide to replant the time flower, which, when handed to Ash, starts to glow. So is it that it reacts to aura period or that it reacts to people who are trained in controlling aura? Because according to Sir Aaron, aura is something everyone has but requires training to control. Yes, Ash's aura is similar to Sir Aaron's, but unless he's a straight up reincarnation with aura control simply for being like Sir Aaron, it doesn't make any sense as to why this is happening.

When the plant responds, it shows Ash accidentally picking the time flower earlier and falling off the cliff......wow, such a useful flower showing what happened a couple hours ago....to the person holding the flower...

(http://imgur.com/xyhAxQ0.png)

When this happens, Kidd explains the legend of the time flower and says it reacted to Ash since his aura and Sir Aaron's are the same. Wait, we've jumped from 'similar' to 'the same'. How can their auras be identical to each other if reincarnation is not a factor? I guess you could surmise that Ash is a distant relative to Sir Aaron, but, to the best of our knowledge, Sir Aaron never reproduced before running off to his supposed death.

Later that night, Ash is, for some reason, recalling that Pikachu didn't like him at all when they first met and that they became friends after Ash tried to save the wounded Pikachu from a flock of Spearow and how Pikachu in turn saved him way back in episode one. Geez, that's a hell of a distant flashback.

Also, they loyally redid the entire scene from that episode instead of just ripping the shot straight from the episode. Good on ya, guys.

…..Though....I do have to point out a gigantic problem here....Ash, why the hell are you sharing such a touching tale of friendship blooming between a Pokemon and human....when Lucario is five feet away? Ixnay on the otentiallypay urtfulhay orystay.

In response to this tale, Lucario has another flashback about Sir Aaron training him in using aura by avoiding swinging logs while blindfolded. After the flashback concludes, Lucario angrily states that all humans are untrustworthy and starts to walk away. I have to ask why Lucario is still so loyal to the Queen if he now distrusts all humans. This isn't even the same queen he knew back then.

Hearing this, Ash confronts Lucario stating that he is trustworthy and would never abandon Pikachu, though Lucario doesn't believe him. In a rage, Ash accuses Lucario of lying about Sir Aaron's betrayal and even goes so far as to accuse Lucario of being the one who betrayed Sir Aaron and abandoned the Queen. Yeah, and then he sealed himself away in Sir Aaron's staff for hundreds of years because reasons. Good detective work, Ash.

Angered even further, Lucario surmises that maybe Pikachu wasn't abducted by Mew and that he might have ran off because he didn't want Ash for a trainer.

Ash then flips out and tackles Lucario to the ground, causing them to roll down a banking and into a nearby river where they have a wrestling match, which Lucario wins. After Lucario walks away, Ash dries off and after gaining some clarity on his words by May, Ash regrets what he said. Ooh wait, I just remembered. Ash tackling legendary Pokemon is back!

“But Lucario's not legendar--” *brick'd*

(http://imgur.com/MBUYkxy.png)

Later, Max meets Lucario on a hill and offers him some chocolate to cheer him up. Never having eaten chocolate before, Lucario enjoys the sweet new taste while not trying to openly show his enjoyment or appreciation to Max.

Back at the tree of beginnings, Pikachu, Meowth and Mew continue to enjoy themselves with neat toys like a music box that has a surfing Lapras and plays Jigglypuff's song. However, Pikachu says that he wants to go back to Ash and the others. In an effort to make him want to stay, Mew shows him more cool toys like a noisemaker that looks like a Shuckle shell that shows the Shuckle when you blow on it and a spinning Hitmontop on a yo-yo string. Pikachu resigns himself to staying with Mew, but sadly looks up to the sky while saying Ash's name (Pika-pi is Pikachu's way of saying Satoshi, Ash's Japanese name.)

Somehow, Ash immediately wakes up in response. I know this is meant to highlight what a strong bond the two have, but it's so instantaneous that it seems like Ash has psychic powers. He leaves the van and quietly stares at the tree before he says 'Pikachu' which Lucario overhears and sees.

The next day, Lucario stops in the middle of the path as he realizes that he's at the spot where Sir Aaron sealed him in the staff. He drops to his knees in front of a time flower, and I would say this is incredibly convenient, but it was established in that scene that there was a time flower nearby.....how it stayed there for that long is beyond me, but they did.

The time flower shows exactly what happened on that day. Aaron sealing Lucario away and then him flying away on his Pidgeot. However, we get even more than what we saw before as we see the two armies intersecting directly on top of where the group is now. Aw, does that mean the staff was shaking because the ground was?.....I'm still going with my theories, they're better. *pout*

(http://imgur.com/RY8TkIg.png)

Lucario freaks out and starts attacking the illusions, only to be brought to his senses by Ash before the vision ends. I don't really know why Lucario didn't figure that out for himself. He's a master of aura; he can sense life forces; he should've realized the armies weren't really there.

Brock: “You know what I think? Lucario was right.”

…........Brock....why do you always point out the obvious? Really, it seems to be a rather consistent character trait with you. Lucario's story was right? After you witnessed the entire event unfold in front of your eyes? No way. Hey, I wonder if this HD video evidence of someone committing a crime will be enough to convince a jury that the person committed the crime.

May: “But, I don't get it. How does that vision prove anything?”

…................................................May....are you retarded? No, it doesn't give proof that Sir Aaron completely abandoned the kingdom, but it does show pretty damning evidence that he betrayed Lucario and the kingdom because of what he said and did to Lucario, and it also shows him flying away on Pidgeot. It proves that Lucario's story was right. It's obviously an incomplete version of the story, but it's right.

Max: “I think I know. There was a big battle, and Sir Aaron must've abandoned Lucario.”

YES, we know that already. Lucario said that in his story, it's part of the legend and you just saw it before your eyes. Did you boil your brains in that hot spring?

Ash apologizes for what he said the other night in light of this vision, and he even cries about it. I know that him crying adds weight to this whole scene....but I am so tempted to hop back on my 'Ash is completely inconsistent on when he cries and when he doesn't' soap box.

(http://imgur.com/ZCCFxI0.png)

Lucario asks him to promise that he'll never abandon Pikachu. Lucario, you really should be saying 'promise me you'll never abandon any of your Pokemon.' Yes, Pikachu is his partner, but he still has plenty of other Pokemon that he should feel obliged to pledge that to. Ash agrees and Lucario suddenly senses something. He pushes Ash out the way as they're attacked by a Regirock.

Ah the Regis.......I don't care for them.....That's about it. I just don't care for them. Their designs, their names, their powers, their backstories....nothing. Regirock does have a stupid voice, though.

Lucario leads them to a hidden tunnel and on the other side is a beautiful oasis filled with Pokemon, even several fossil Pokemon that the group isn't batting an eyelash at. I guess they're alive because it's under the tree of beginnings?

Since they're directly under the tree of beginnings...somehow, I could've sworn they were still quite a ways away, Ash and the others rush towards the surface to find Pikachu. Meanwhile, Kidd sends out a bunch of cool little survey robots to send data back to Banks. She says this area has been isolated and protected for tens of thousands of years, but if it's only protected by a fairly easily avoidable Regirock, I don't see how that's possible.

Seriously, how has this place gone overlooked by scientists for so long? It's a place that is not only known to harbor a Mew, but has a bunch of extinct Pokemon living below it. Not like it's easy to overlook; the damn 'tree' is essentially a mountain.

(http://imgur.com/AtplDMZ.png)

The robots survey the area and start lightly piercing the crystals to investigate them, but Registeel shows up to crush them, and his voice is just as weird. One of the robots ends up being consumed by a crystal after it mysteriously starts turning orange.

Banks reveals that the tree of beginning is actually a living being, feeding off of sunlight, that is an active part of the ecosystem. So the tree rock is literally a tree made of rock......I feel like we're going in circles.

Also, Banks' beard looks like he has a huge chin that was painted gray.....That doesn't have any bearing on anything, but it's true.

Out on the surface, Ash and Pikachu hear each other calling each other's names and as Ash rushes to find Pikachu, he comes face to face with Regice.

Ash: “AGH! REGICE!”

First, how the hell do you know what a Regice is? To the best of my knowledge, this is the debut of all of the Regis.

Second, it's redge-ice. Not Reggie-ice. At least that's how I've always said it considering the spelling. If it was Regi-Ice wouldn't it be spelled 'Regiice?

Also, his voice is even worse than the other two because it's a lot higher pitched.

Lucario helps protect Ash with his poorly animated shaky ball of doom.

They realize they can't fight Regice, even if Ash doesn't bother trying with his own Pokemon, so they run off and get trapped in a cave where Registeel and Regirock join the party.

Man they really did up the animation in this movie by quite a bit. James is being animated like he's in a much better show.

But jeez, Eric Stuart is really phoning in his James voice. He can't yell or emote in the least today.

Jessie gets absorbed by a weird orange gooey Lileep while James gets absorbed by a weird orange gooey Omastar. Before he does so, however, he releases his Chimecho to save itself (Cacnea was already out, but I like to think he'd do the same for it.) Small thing, but a nice gesture. I know how much James likes Chimecho.

(http://imgur.com/Oj8V1nl.png)

Weird orange gooey fossils start pursuing the others as well, so now they have a bunch of powerful weird stuff attacking them from all angles in a confined area.

Kidd analyzes the goo and Banks tells her that the goo is essentially the equivalent to the tree of beginning's white blood cells. It's viewing the group as a threat and is assimilating them in order to protect the tree. Hm, that's actually a really clever idea.

As they continue running, Kidd almost gets absorbed, but Lucario takes the hit for her. However, the goo doesn't end up absorbing him because....

Kidd: “I guess Pokemon aren't considered dangerous.”

Whaaaat? Pokemon, of all things, aren't considered dangerous? Have you met Pokemon? They're pretty damn dangerous. I get that this probably means that, since it's a haven for Pokemon, it probably refuses to absorb Pokemon as a failsafe to protect the Pokemon housed within its walls, and humans are considered a bigger threat not only to it but to the overall ecosystem, but humans train Pokemon and they can be hella dangerous. It just seems like a weird way to put that.

Ash decides to stay behind and buy the others some time, and Lucario also decides to stay behind in loyalty to helping Ash find Pikachu.

Lucario: “And I know you'd do the same for me.”

D'aw.

Using Corphish and Grovyle, Ash starts his delay tactics. And damn it's cute that Grovyle decides to carry Corphish to help him run.

(http://imgur.com/dXEEkpx.png)

Later, Brock, Max and May also get absorbed, releasing their Pokemon as well to save them from their fate. Again, really great gesture.

I also find it weird that all of the Pokemon but Forrettress walks sadly to the spot where Brock and May disappeared. It's not like it'd be difficult to animate him going to the spot; did they just forget?

Pikachu and Ash finally meet back up, but they're on two different sides of a huge crevice with only the giant crystals connecting the gap. Ash and Pikachu try to make their way to each other while trying to maintain their balance on the slippery crystals as well as fighting off the severe winds gusting through the center.

Pikachu and Ash nearly fall into the abyss after catching each other in midair, but Kidd manages to catch them and return them to safety. And, ya know, as much as Pikachu tends to irk me, the way he nuzzles Ash's cheek when they're back on solid ground is endlessly adorable.

Lucario gets captured by Registeel, and Ash and Kidd get captured by the goo--

Lucario: “Ash!” I know you've really only bonded with Ash, but Kidd's getting captured too. Have some courtesy.

Ash and Kidd let out their Pokemon before they're consumed, and despite the valiant efforts of Pikachu and the others to save him (Guess screw Kidd, huh, Weavile bros?) they fail and Ash and Kidd disappear.

Well, Pikachu and the other Pokemon are crying. Does that mean Ash and the others will come back from being consumed by gooey Pokemon shaped white blood cells?

Oh did I say the other Pokemon? I mean only Ash's because apparently the Weavile really don't care about Kidd as they stand there with no expression.

Geez, Pikachu is legit sobbing. Stop, you're breaking my heart and giving me more than my fare share of movie 01 flashbacks.

(http://imgur.com/EZJP7R3.png)

Seeing that Mew can't cheer up the distraught Pikachu, he decides to take action and imbue his power into the tree of beginnings, allowing everyone to return. So...where the hell were they this entire time? If we take these things as real white blood cells then shouldn't they have really...died? Were they stuck in some sort of rock purgatory?

At least the Weavile express happiness at Kidd's return, though they're probably thinking “Damn, that was our best shot at getting her millions!”

Haha, I love the way the other Pokemon glomp Ash and Grovyle just walks up to him with his arms crossed like ''sup?' Damn I really love Grovyle.

Meowth explains what Mew did to the tree and Kidd surmises that the mystery of Mew's connection with it is that the two are symbiotic; they rely on each other to survive.....That...what? How did you come to that conclusion? All Mew did was tell the tree that the kids weren't 'germs', causing it to expel them. The oasis might be helping Mew survive, though FirstMovie!Mew had no trouble wandering around undetected and safe, but how is Mew really helping the tree survive? I don't think keeping the kids would've damaged it, and surely there has to be some way the tree tells between threats and non-threats, like the human body can. Also, that doesn't explain why this particular Mew has these strange tree powers in the first place.

Mew suddenly falls ill and the tree starts to become seemingly 'infected' and extremely hot. Wait, so does that mean Mew and the tree are essentially one in the same? Does that mean Ash and everyone else has been wandering around Mew's body for half the movie?

Banks tells Kidd that the tree is going into shock due to the sudden expulsion of energy on its immune system. If something isn't done soon, the tree of beginnings will collapse, as well as the kingdom surrounding it due to the various crystals from the tree covering the land. Since Mew and the tree are one in the same, this also means that Mew will not survive if the tree collapses.

(http://imgur.com/9LRMz1H.png)

The sickly Mew directs Ash and Kidd through the tunnels and into the heart of the tree of beginnings where Lucario finds Sir Aaron trapped in the crystals.

Curious as to why Sir Aaron is there, Ash conveniently finds a time flower right in the room which shows them exactly what happened with Sir Aaron all those years ago. In an effort to save the kingdom, Sir Aaron calls upon Mew in the heart of the tree of beginnings and offers his aura to Mew since they're one in the same, making the tree thrive and somehow quelling the hearts of those in the war. I don't quite get it as there was nothing wrong with the tree, but okay. Since his aura is essentially his life force, Sir Aaron had to sacrifice his life for the kingdom, making him a true hero afterall.

Lucario kneels before his fallen friend, deeply regretting that he had ever doubted him. While this should be a very emotional scene, Lucario's VA does a ****-poor job at conveying the emotion. Especially when he goes 'Ughhuh' when he bows his head in grief and shame.

Mew tells Lucario that he can help revitalize the tree with the power of his own aura, but Kidd warns him that doing such a thing will put Lucario in the same situation Sir Aaron is; in a state of suspended animation. While Sir Aaron's body is indeed encased in crystal and perfectly preserved....he died. Just say Lucario will die if he does this.

Lucario tries to transfer his aura into Mew, but finds he's not strong enough to do it. Ash, realizing he'd have to do what we all knew he'd do since they said his aura is like Sir Aaron's, dons Sir Aaron's gloves....that he took off and neatly placed on the crystal he's trapped in (*shrug.gif*) because they're.....magic I guess? (*shrug.gif*) and begins transferring his aura to Mew because he just knows how to do that all of a sudden without any training or instruction. Again, he's not Sir Aaron's reincarnation; he just has an aura like Sir Aaron's. Even if he was a reincarnation, like, say, Kagome was to Kikyo in Inuyasha, you usually still have to condition such powers in order to properly use them.

Kidd: “No. It's too dangerous! You'll end up destroying yourself!” Yeah, Ash, you might end up in the Shadow Realm!

So Lucario and Ash combine their auras into Mew and at the last second, Lucario knocks Ash away, cutting off his aura contribution, leaving Lucario to sacrifice only himself.

Lucario: “The aura is with me!”

May the aura be with you....always.

The transfer completes and after a beautiful light show, the tree of beginnings restores back to its rightful glory. Jessie and James reunite with Meowth in a legit happy moment for the three of them, not interrupted by a dumb insult or joke, thank god. Though I do have to point out that Jessie was the only one who didn't release her Pokemon before she was absorbed. Granted, she didn't know what the goo was doing to her, but still.

(http://imgur.com/pTBPUlc.png)

Everything's all fine and dandy now with Mew, and Banks congratulates Kidd on her findings, claiming it will be a media sensation. However, Kidd asks that they keep this whole thing between them to avoid tourism. Uh, they have a big festival where a bunch of tourists come together every year to honor the legend that includes the tree and you can easily see the tree as well as the copious amounts of giant crystals everywhere from the palace. How this place is not a tourist attraction is beyond me. How this place is not being investigated by scientists is beyond me. A lot of things about this are beyond me, but okay.

As Lucario starts to di—err, destroy himself, wow that sounds so much worse in this context, he activates the same time flower to see Sir Aaron's final moments. While they do show him taking off his gloves, I still don't understand why...They see Sir Aaron apologizing to Lucario for sealing him away, stating that he had to do it in order to protect him since he knew he'd follow him and sacrifice himself as well. Sir Aaron gives a rather touching final speech as his time twindles down, telling Lucario that he was his closest friend and maybe they'll see each other again some day. Lucario wants nothing more than to speak to Sir Aaron one last time, but the vision fades with Sir Aaron's life.

Lucario also starts to fade away, despite Ash's pleas to hold on. He holds no regrets and knows that his place is back at Sir Aaron's side. Lucario fades away and the auras of both Sir Aaron and Lucario meld into the tree of beginnings, causing it to shine yet again.

I don't know why Sir Aaron's body was placed in suspended animation while Lucario's sacrifice caused his body as well as Sir Aaron's to turn into aura light and meld with the tree, but okay.

(http://imgur.com/EDMdqpT.png)

I find it horribly tragic and a bit ironic that Sir Aaron went through all of that trouble to save Lucario from his fate and a mere two days after he's released from the staff, Lucario suffers basically an identical fate.

Ash reunites with his friends and shares the sad news of Lucario's passing, but his fate is not held in grief as Ash proudly proclaims that 'its' aura is with him. May referred to him as an 'it' too. Lucario very clearly has a male voice, guys. I know Mewtwo has a spontaneous sex change in a few years, but Lucario was a guy.

Our credits play, showing Ash and the others returning to the palace. We see that, somehow, the painting of Sir Aaron has been altered to include Lucario. Either Ilene has a friggin' quick painter on hand and wanted Lucario in that painting for some reason, or that was magically changed to include Lucario. In which case, that's a little dose of BS. A nice touch, but BS...Oddly enough, they show a closeup of Ash as he talks with no sound coming out. I thought 4Kids was paranoid of that...or not....do they ever make up their minds?

(http://imgur.com/SHktwGy.png)

They say goodbye to Kidd, Mew has found a friend in Bonsly, the Pokemon who had absolutely no role until that little shot, Mew also kept Sir Aaron's gloves in its stolen toy pile, we see the also unexplained Regis (were they guardians of the tree or parts of its immune system or what?) some more random shots of Kidd and Ash and co. just doing random stuff, then we cut to Lucario and Sir Aaron in...the past? Or a heaven version of the past? If they went into the tree, they can't be in heaven, right? Or is the tree creating a heavenly experience for them? Anyway, Sir Aaron eats a chocolate bar....I have no qualms believing there's chocolate in tree heaven.

And the group continues on their journey.

Throughout the credits, we get the song 'We Will Meet Again'. It's a pretty decent little song with instrumentals that sound very similar to the BG soundtrack and a singer who sounds like a higher pitched Vic Mignogna.

The end!

==================================

So that's Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, and I have to say that it's definitely the best made and most well-written of all the movies so far, and I'd definitely put it side-by-side in my top favorite Pokemon movies list as number one.

The art was amazing, the animation was fantastic, the story, while having some problems, mostly in how aura and the tree of beginnings as well as Mew work, was very well-written and emotionally impacting, the flow was great, the characters were mostly good, the music was outstanding and very fitting for the theme, and there were many more little details that I enjoyed than there were little things that irked me.

Even Team Rocket's role, while not being at all useful, didn't bother me. Brock, May and Max also got really nothing at all to do, but I wasn't that bothered by it this time around, plus their absorption scenes gave them a tiny bit of spotlight.

The tone was just right, and I actually didn't mind that the main Pokemon focus this time wasn't even a legendary. This story really is Lucario and Sir Aaron's even if Ash and Pikachu take the spotlight a few times. Mew is a part of the story, but could've mostly been removed without much trouble. Sir Aaron and Lucario could've just transferred their auras directly into the tree, though I guess having a living being personify its pain and vitality is a bit beneficial to the emotional impact of the story. The Regis were also relegated to basically being bodyguards (...literally?) for the tree, and they weren't even really acknowledged as legendaries.

I'm perfectly fine with the way this is because it really seems like this was one of those times where the writers had a legit story they wanted to tell and didn't feel like writing a movie plot around a new legendary that they were contractually obligated to make the star of the movie. Hell, Mew is an OLD legendary at that. The Regis are new, but like I said they're not given legendary focus, they're just powerful.

I also like how this movie didn't have a big baddie. There was conflict to be resolved in Lucario and Sir Aaron, Lucario and Ash, Ash finding Pikachu, traversing through the tree of beginnings and saving the tree as well as Mew from utter destruction. There was no big baddie to beat; no big threat come about by some evil person; just perils that our heroes have to survive. That's a pretty big breath of fresh air in this series.

It's also very appreciated that they didn't go down the terrible route of somehow just freeing Sir Aaron from the crystal and having him and Lucario live happily ever after or somehow talking to his ghost. They have Sir Aaron stay dead and Lucario follow, as it truly should be.

In addition, it was a relief that they didn't go too far with Ash's Sir Aaron aura stuff. Yeah, it allowed him to easily manipulate it at the end (with the help of magic gloves? I still don't get that) but it didn't give him some super mega deus ex machina power to make him this fantastic hero at the end. He's about as powerful as Lucario with no real example of true power outside of transferring it.

I do have to ask why Sir Aaron acted like he was betraying Lucario and the kingdom, though. Why not tell Lucario what he was doing but seal him away anyway? Lucario still wouldn't have been able to escape and he wouldn't leave the staff thinking so badly of Sir Aaron. Why say that stuff about not being allied with the Queen or kingdom anymore? Sacrificing your life to save the kingdom is about as loyal as you get. Plus, if Lucario really did believe that Sir Aaron was a traitor, how does he make any logic out of who or what stopped the fighting back then?

I can definitely see why so many people love this movie. It's almost hard to believe that they managed to find their way back to such quality after so many instances of blah to crap.

I also find it to be a fitting send off for 4Kids. Yes, this is the last Pokemon movie (and maybe the last Pokemon thing? It's difficult to confirm) that 4Kids dubbed before handing over the reigns to PUSA. Instead of being bitter buttmonkeys and making a terrible dub, they decided to actually make one of their best dubs, if not their best dub, ever. While some emotional scenes get lost in their impact due to lackluster voice acting (though I must admit, Jason Griffith did a fantastic job as Sir Aaron), and there's the whole 'can't say 'die'' BS, everything is incredibly well-done. Though I can imagine that, since changes and edits cost 4Kids time and money and they likely didn’t have much to spend at that point, they probably just didn't want to bother making too many changes either way.

Next is, obviously, PUSA's first venture into the Pokemon movies with Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. I honestly know about nothing about this movie, but apparently it's a ridiculous piece of schlock. Great.

I do have to say it's been quite a long time since I've bothered lending my ear to the PUSA dub.....I guess a small peak at a random early scene can't hurt.

*one mistake later*

OH GOD! MAX, WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOUR VOICE? It sounds like someone fed you helium and then pinched your nose and told you to read your lines!

Recommended Audience: The death scenes are a bit heavy for younger audiences, but it's definitely not on the same childhood scarring level as Mufasa or Bambi's mom. E for everyone!

Final note: Here's something to ponder; Kidd is responsible for Lucario's death and nearly destroying the tree of beginnings. If she had just asked Ilene about seeing Mew or properly instructed her Weavile, Mew never would've kidnapped Meowth and Pikachu and Ash and the others never would've gone to the tree at all. It could be argued that without her interference Lucario never would've found out the truth about or reunited with Sir Aaron, but I can imagine Lucario would've investigated on his own either way.

Also, Kidd never seems to admit to Ash and the others that her Pokemon attacked them and caused Mew to run off with Meowth and Pikachu. If she had, I can imagine Ash would be a little pissed at her. Pretty good character; kinda slimy with her methods and honesty.

Aisenfield

General Category => Otaku Haven => Topic started by: DarkToph on May 16, 2014, 05:45:00 pm