POKEMON The Movie 2000
Film review

Not content with disappointing most of the post-pubescent English speaking world with the first instalment, kids WB have assaulted us with another attempt to dump a little pokemon into our lives.

After seeing the trailer on the Pokemon the first movie DVD, pokemon the movie 2000 looked as if it would step things up a notch in terms of action, and making the cartoon look a little more like the Japanese Anime we all know and love. But of course, this is the power of the trailer.

As before, the movie is spilt up into two portions. The first portion is similar to the first's 'Pikachu's Vacation'. Here we find Pikachu and several of his Poke-friends jumping down a ridiculously long and winding tunnel after Togepi the egg pokemon. Here they enter a mysterious new jungle/forest land where they discover a whole host of other pokemon and some new characters too. Ultimately teaming together to overcome the forces of nature to save Togepi and the other egg pokemon, Eggsecute.

This, however, seems nothing more than a plug for the new Pokemon Gold and Silver editions, especially the long sequence of very bad multi-layered cell animation where they seem to try to show as many pokemon as they can squeeze in.

As cute as it is to see all the pokemon teaming together and not one word of English being muttered (apart from Brooklyn cabby soundalike, Meowth), it lacks the friendly warmth and 60's drug induced weirdness of the first's 'Pikachu's Vacation'. And as sickening as many claim it to be, it's great to see the kind of co-operation and teamwork only previously witnessed on 'Sesame Street', which may help the next generation of youngsters turning out a little more mannered than the mouthy little scumbags which seem to have been spawned today.

The main feature begins with a lot of potential, a typically manga looking character in a beautifully rendered 3D CGI circular flying machine of Da Vinci-esque design, plotting, in his own unique way, to rule the world. The scene carries a certain degree of dark ambience for a kid's film and offers the expectation that this will be a more exciting film than the first.

But of course, Ash and his pals have to show up eventually, and you're soon reminded that this is after all a kid's movie. Now I haven't watched the TV series in a while, but the one humourous character of the gang, Brock, seems to have been replaced by some pointless kid in a headband. So gone are the moments of laughter when Brock falls in love with every girl they meet along their journey. It's things like that and evolving Charmander (probably the most lovable pokemon of the lot) that is plummeting this cartoon downhill.

Anyway, on to the story. The evil pokemon collector we encountered at the beginning wishes to catch three extremely rare bird pokemon. Each of the birds represents an element, Fire, Ice and Lightning, with each bird residing on their respectable islands (Fire Island, Lightning Island and Ice Island). If he succeeds in capturing each bird then the equilibrium of the planet will be thrown own of alignment spelling disaster. As he begins capturing, strange things begin to occur and the pokemon begin to panic.

Ash and pals arrive on a nearby island only to be greeted by a strange little island 'tribe'. During the show that night, Ash is informed that he is 'The Chosen One' (Pop Quiz! How many films (and name them) have featured a 'Chosen One'? Answers to popquiz@eyemachine.co.uk) and must retrieve three special orbs from each of the islands. This will help to restore the equilibrium.

And so Ash's adventure begins. Along the way we are introduced to some new pokemon, including a large Plesiosaurus type pokemon with a voice akin to Leonard Nimoy, which we found hilarious, but no-one else in the cinema seemed to.

Although reasonable in length, the film does begin to induce a sleeping factor similar to the first movie, with the adventure not being half as exciting as it could have been. The usual morals of co-operation and loving each other and the world we live in are introduced, which is great, but you can't help but feel it's a little hypocritical, especially in light of all the problems pokemon cards have caused kids, and the fact that the game's theme is capturing rare animals and fighting them against each other.

A reasonable film in all, but suffering from a serious lack of action and tempo that some of the lesser known anime cartoons suffer from, often sending the viewer to sleep, especially during late night viewing.

One final worrying note was that during the film, the evil collector stated that his immaculate collection started off with one 'Ancient Mew' card, and from that basis he collected all of his pokemon and turned into the greedy, selfish tyrant he was. Now when you buy your ticket for this movie you're given a limited edition pokemon card; to be precise, an Ancient Mew card. Clearly kids WB don't care who they corrupt.

5/10

david twomey

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