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Pokemon EXTRAVAGNAZA! Mega Thread for Movies and Shorts

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DarkToph
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« on: May 16, 2014, 05:45:00 pm »

Finally getting this going. Welcome to the Pokemon Extravaganza where I will review all of the Pokemon movies both subbed and dubbed versions along with every Pokemon short that I can get my hands on.

This is really just an intro to get the thread going, I'll be posting my review on the Pokemon short Pikachu's Vacation (Summer vacation, whichever) soon, but let's cover some things first.

1 - Many of the reviews are long. Especially dub movie 01.

2 - Like my other reviews, I am keeping some reviews in reserve in order to ensure that I always have material to post regularly even if I haven't done one in a little while. I won't tell you how far ahead I am because I suck like that.

3 - I will not be doing sub dub comparisons on these movies or shorts. Dogasu on Bulbagarden/Dogasu's Backpack already has all of these movies compared. I will note some changes if they're not on the comparison or if I just feel like bringing it up during a review, but I won't be redundant and make more comparisons especially since Dogasu does such a good job anyway. I will put a link to the specific movie/short comparison in the reviews.

4 - I don't have all of the shorts. Some simply aren't available. I don't have a list of which shorts I don't have in front of me, but I think I'm missing like....4 or 5.

5 - Do you guys think I should go back and do mini-reviews/analyses on the older episodes of Pokemon before I started doing them regularly? I feel like I should for completion purposes, but I'd have to go back and rewatch all of Kanto again, though I'd probably be more infrequent with that......Hmm....

6 - You'll notice that I might start to get less and less knowledgeable and nitpicky when it comes to the more technical aspects of Pokemon in later seasons. Mostly past Johto. I just haven't watched a lot of the seasons that correspond with those movies.

7 - Enjoy!
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« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2014, 06:22:47 pm »

Pokemon Extravaganza Shorties! Pikachu's Summer Vacation Review



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!

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

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.



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.



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.



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.


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« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2014, 10:17:30 pm »

Oh hey, I've watched this!

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!



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.



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?



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.

I thought he would put everyone to sleep right there.

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

Oh, you know. James is into vore and Jessie likes the tongue. And you know that even if they have a decent chance of catching Pokemon, they'll never be able to do it anyway.

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.



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.”




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.

Dexter's completely forgotten about that second Pokemon movie with the legendary bird trio and Lugia.

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?

I'm guessing Charizard is well aware of how much of an idiot Ash is.

He shakes Snubbull's paw, which is weird. Shouldn't he have shaken Raichu's paw?

See, Dexter? Pokemon can be douchebags. Pikachu ain't havin' any of Raichu's shit.
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« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2014, 10:31:59 am »

Quote
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!


Holy crap, I forgot about that. Damn Psyduck. You scary.

Quote
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.

I thought he would put everyone to sleep right there.

I think that would be one of those times where Jigglypuff would make a situation funnier. Like they're all preparing to race then Jigglypuff sings and we get the credits. XD

Quote
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?

I'm guessing Charizard is well aware of how much of an idiot Ash is.

Yet another time where Dexter's translation would've been nice. "Yeah, I just act like an ass to piss the idiot off. He just keeps calling me out without trying to change my behavior, it's ridiculous. If he keeps me around for the Indigo League, it'll be HILARIOUS!"
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« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2014, 12:09:09 am »

Quote
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?

I'm guessing Charizard is well aware of how much of an idiot Ash is.

Yet another time where Dexter's translation would've been nice. "Yeah, I just act like an ass to piss the idiot off. He just keeps calling me out without trying to change my behavior, it's ridiculous. If he keeps me around for the Indigo League, it'll be HILARIOUS!"

This is frightening accurate for TwitchPlaysPokemon, except it's not the Pokemon disobeying, but the trainer.
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« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2014, 11:59:13 am »

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



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.



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? Sad

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,

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



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:

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.



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



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!



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...



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?”



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....
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« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2014, 10:40:06 am »

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



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!



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



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. Sad

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!



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!
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« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2014, 12:53:07 am »

Haven't read the sub review yet, but will do so. I've only seen the second and third flicks, and I found them to be quite alright back then.
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« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2014, 05:23:58 am »

That Mewtwo movie will always have a special place in my heart.
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« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2014, 10:58:15 am »

You'll be in my heeeeeaaaarrrrttt. No matter what they saaaayyyy.
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« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2014, 08:42:58 pm »

You'll be in my heeeeeaaaarrrrttt. Alwaaays.
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« Reply #11 on: August 16, 2014, 10:26:15 am »

Pokemon Extravaganza Shorties! Pikachu's Rescue Adventure!



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.

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« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2014, 12:10:22 pm »

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



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. Smiley ) 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.

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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!
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« Reply #13 on: October 07, 2014, 10:03:38 pm »

I remember holding quite a bit of nostalgia for this film, and I remember liking it a lot for the action scenes and for it containing my favorite legendary Pokemon, Lugia. The sounds it makes is really cool and memorable to me, probably because of the melody or something. Still, it doesn't hold a candle to the first movie in any way. I found Slowking weird as hell, forgot who the villain was, and even forgot about the Chosen One thing. Shows how forgettable this movie is aside from Lugia.
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« Reply #14 on: October 20, 2014, 03:16:36 pm »

Pokemon Extravaganza! Pokemon Movie 02: Mirage Pokemon: Lugia's Explosive Birth/Revelation Lugia Subbed Version Review



Rating: 4.5/10

Plot: Satoshi and the others are heading to their next Orange Island destination when a sudden storm beaches them on a nearby island called Earthia Island. The villagers are holding a legend festival and Satoshi is chosen to be the 'great controller' from the legend. He's tasked with retrieving three spheres from three neighboring islands and returning them to Earthia to stop the destruction of the world through an imbalance in nature. However, he soon discovers that the legend is coming true. 

Reasons for Rating:
Okay, the good news is that they seem to have gotten better at making movie posters. The bad news is, it's still a pretty bad poster. I mean, Lugia looks fantastic which is the main thing, the three legendary birds don't look too small, but Satoshi is oddly placed. I find it weird that he's even making that pose, considering that's hiscapture pose. It just seems like everyone's picture is clipart that they pasted onto the cool Lugia and legendary birds poster. What is Okido even doing there? And just to solidify something without a doubt, I want you all to take notice of something. Who is oddly missing from this poster?.....That's right, Kenji. Proving just how useless he is in the movie and the series as a whole. Less than Okido, less than Slowking. That is just sad.

Now, since this movie doesn't appear to be anywhere as drastically changed as movie 01, I won't bother doing a complete run though of the entire movie. Instead, like I have done in the past with other review projects, I will break this movie up into chunks (of ten minute segments) and give my notes of each segment of the movie. Let's begin!

Ten Minute Mark

As expected, Fire, Freezer and Lightning (Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos respectively) are called the gods of fire, ice and lightning as opposed to titans. Lugia is also called the ocean god.

Shamuti Island is actually called Earthia and it wasn't until they said that that I noticed his computer labels the island in green. Then it hit me. Earthia corresponds with Flame, Ice and Lightning as representing life and the balance of nature; earth as a whole. That also explains why the light at the end of the movie is green...I know 4Kids changes the names of practically everything, but Earthia actually seems to have a clear point in its name, so that's disappointing. Plus, like the comparison says, it seems odd that 4Kids would purposely change its original name to something more foreign-sounding.

The title is, of course, different, but something I found odd is that the Japanese version only uses fire effects during its title whereas the dub utilizes fire, ice and lightning to represent the birds. Gotta give 4Kids props for actually being more thorough. Also, I do miss the awesome electric guitar.

The original's theme song is also pretty good. I don't know why it still has a Charizard/Lizardon's roar and Pikachu sounds on it though. Without visuals to match that, it just seems random.

I'm just now realizing how much I miss Scyther/Strike. It was the only one of Tracey's/Kenji's Pokemon that got both a backstory and a personality; and it was pretty interesting too. It was just the shot where it's trying to protect Venonat/Kongpang for a minute, but that did spring to mind.

Twenty Minute Mark


Ohhh THAT'S why they specifically needed a Pokemon trainer. The original's legend states that a 'great controller' will calm the anger of the gods. They're equating a trainer to a controller to fit the legend. Also, that is what equates to 'the chosen one' in the original. IMO, it sounds better and doesn't insinuate that Ash was like destined at birth to do this. One could say that since the dub legend says the chosen one will 'tame the beast of the sea' that that may also be poking at that, but I think that's more of a stretch.

The song is obviously different, but it's surprisingly not all that different to my ears, really. The original one has higher pitches and some different tones, but it seems to follow roughly the same melody. )

Again, applause with no moving hands. What the hell?

Furura (Melody) doesn't seem to be quite as upfront with her flirting as the dub would insinuate.

Thirty Minute Mark

MistyxTracey fans may be sad to note that the one hint of that pairing (Tracey wondering if the girls are talking about him when they discuss Misty liking Ash) is not present in the original. He just says 'I'm going too!' If it makes you guys feel any better, the original line makes the scene much funnier.

Musashi actually asks why they're bothering talking about Kasumi and Satoshi's love-hate relationship since they're ten years too young to be caught up in that stuff. Kojirou chimes in and says even they don't talk about it much. Nyasu's line is kept the same. I know I keep delving into sub dub comparison stuff, but the Bulbagarden comparison doesn't cover much of what I'm talking about, probably because it's not REALLY important, but still noteworthy to me.

Forty Minute Mark


I love how Kasumi's line to Jirarudan (Lawrence; who btw hasn't been named yet (if ever) in the original either.) makes it seem even worse. She yells at him to put the legendary birds in monster balls because trapping them this way is a waste. Yes, it's awful that he's forcing Pokemon into small technologically advanced cages to look at them when he could be forcing Pokemon into small technologically advanced cages and making them fight. Shame!

I just realized, when we cut to the water Pokemon traveling by sea to get to Earthia Island, we see Ekans in the water traveling this way too....I know some snakes can swim and some even slither on top of water, but I never knew they traveled by water too. Kinda makes you think maybe Team Rocket could've used Arbok in movie 01, but I'd imagine his cobra-like body isn't as hydrodynamic.

Hanako (Delia) actually solidifies that she has no clue where Satoshi is; just that he's somewhere in the Orange Islands. Considering how vast and wide the Orange Islands seem to extend, that is an incredibly flimsy reason to be out there. Hey, I can fix this in one sentence. Watch. Ahem....

”Satoshi/Ash just contacted me from Earthia/Shamuti Island earlier!”

…..Boom! Was that so hard? You can send me money now. I have a Paypal.

Fifty Minute Mark

Okay so we're at that scene with Kenji talking about the explosion made to free Fire. He's saying how the electricity affects the water separating the H2 and O. That coupled with flamethrower equals boom. I think it's going a bit far to say that's instructions for essentially making a bomb, it's moreso just explaining the chemical reaction going on and the explosion that proceeds it, but I guess 4Kids has removed scenes for lesser reasons. They honestly just could've said “Water...plus electricity...and fire....?!” And really, that's the only thing Kenji's noted as doing in this movie? He truly is a boring worthless character.

Also, I guess Fushigidane really didn't have any role in that. He was just there whippin' away.

Hour Mark

Nothing to note here, to be honest. However, the reason he's stuck with being the one who has to do this is really that he was chosen by the villagers, started collecting the spheres and has to finish it, not that he's destined to anyway.

Hour and Ten Minute Mark

Despite also making a pun or two (“Pikachu, we're gonna get 'chu.”?) Team Rocket has a funny line when they let go of Lugia.

Team Rocket - “You're the main character!” See, that's how you break the fourth wall, 4Kids.

Also;

Satoshi: “Amazing! Are those really Pokemon?”

Lugia: “Yes, every Pokemon living on the planet.”.......Yeah you won't come to eat those words in another year or so.

You know, if anything, the original movie has the opposite message from the dub. It seems like the original has more of a message of 'it's not what one person does, it's everyone doing their part towards a specific goal that is powerful.' whereas the dub is very clearly 'the power of one.' Lugia cements this further by saying everyone's doing their part to try to help; the Pokemon, Lugia and Satoshi. While he doesn't mention it, even Team Rocket and Furura have been helping along the way. In the dub, Lugia outright says that the one with the power to actually make a difference is just Ash. I'm not saying the dub's message is a particularly bad one. Many people succumb to the belief that just one person alone can't do anything to make significant change, but it's worth mentioning.

Finale

While I still really like the original song...I dunno, the dubbed version of the final legend song seems more impacting and epic to me.

Hanako actually says she saw Satoshi do...something dangerous. I'm assuming she saw him riding Lugia or something. She also doesn't say anything about her constantly missing him; just that if he were to die, she'd lose her whole world. Her final words are also asking Satoshi what he really wants in life. Satoshi says he wants to be a Pokemon Master. Hanako replies if that's really his dream then he can't overdo it. I like the original version better. It explains a little why she was so angry and it doesn't give us the slightly cheesy stuff about him always being her hero.

Surprisingly we don't get ANY extra bits from Jirarudan stating what he plans to do now. He just picks up his ancient Mew card and smiles. According to his Wiki page, it's supposed to imply that he intends to restart his collection but in a much more modest way. Whatever that means, I don't know.

Team Rocket and Yadoking/Slowking don't break the fourth wall at the end. They also rarely bring up the stuff about them being temporary good guys.

The song for the credits in the original is okay, but the song starts out with really irritating sing-talking. You know, not really rapping, not really singing. It also gets a bit repetitive. But at least it doesn't bludgeon you with a sudden polka.

Bottomline: And that was Pokemon movie 02 subbed....I see no real reason to rate it that much higher than the dub. While I prefer it to the original mostly because I like the original score, voices and dialogue better, 4Kids didn't change all that much. It's odd, while 4Kids seemed to get better and better at dubbing the movies (I find movie 03 to be their best work ever) they got progressively worse (IMO) with the series. Not saying everything was perfect after this movie-wise (there are definitely some stinkers and major issues) but they seemed to make more of an effort in the movies. Maybe they never wanted to suffer another backlash from fans and critics as they did after movie 01.

Anyway, if anything, maybe a .5 point for not being all 'chosen one' crap, but even that is still hinted at. Better than shoving it in your face, but still. Plus I do like the dub's legend song just a tiny bit more.

Recommended Audience: E for everyone....Unless your kid is smart enough to build a bomb by learning a bit of simple chemistry and has intentions of doing so once he/she acquires the knowledge in which case SV for Super Villain.
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