Akadot - Review: Pokémon 3: The Movie page 1


Akadot Retail - Pop Japan Mercantile

by Jonathan Decker

"Pikachu and Pichu" (Opening Cartoon Short)

Ash and friends leave their Pokémon in a big city where Pikachu meets the Pichu brothers and a host of inner city Pokémon.

The Spell of the Unown (Feature Film)

Archaeologist Professor Spencer Hale lives comfortably in a gigantic Greenfield mansion with his daughter Molly, an imaginative five-year-old girl whose mind races with the Pokémon mythology her father has dedicated his life to exploring. Leaving Molly alone one day, the professor embarks to inspect the discovery of a hidden chamber in the Ruins of Alph. The ruins may prove to be a clue in unlocking the secrets of the Unown, an unusual Pokémon with unbelievable psychic power. However, the professor disappears when he touches a mysterious chest of stone titles.

Knowledgeable for her age, Molly knows that her father may never return but longs for her family to be together again. The chest of stone tiles arrives at the mansion, and while playing with them Molly unknowingly summons the Unown, which begins to encase her home in a strange crystal. It also creates the legendary Pokémon Entei straight from Molly's imagination - a Pokémon Molly accepts immediately as a father figure. She then wishes for a mother to replace her long deceased matriarch. Fulfilling this wish, Entei kidnaps Delia Ketchum. Enter Protagonist Ash Ketchum who, with the help of Misty, Brock and Team Rocket, sets out to save his mother from what is now a great crystal palace rife with all of the dreams of Molly's storybook imaginings.

As the hype begins to fade, "Pokémon" continues to shine. Though the movie lacks back-story, a blend of sophisticated computer animation, rich, color-saturated backgrounds, a brilliant translation and noteworthy musical scores make up for its inherent flaws. And, more fundamentally, "The Spell of the Unown" is a story that everyone from reluctant parents to die hard fans can enjoy.

Deficient character development and dependence on the television show for back-story explication confuse aspects of the action. The main characters and the events that have lead them to Greenfield have only been established in the television show. Therefore in the film Ash Ketchum's goals and triumphs are left in the dark along with any idea of who Brock and Misty are and why a Charizard flies to Greenfield to save Ash.

Despite these narrative hiccups, "Pokémon 3," the feature and the short, are virtually mutually exclusive from the television show. The most humorous elements of the whole stem from the short "Pikachu and Pichu," which scores with laughs but does little more than depict a day in the city with some weird creatures. And though Pokémon-speak grates on the nerves, "Pikachu and Pichu" remains relatively tame compared to the shorts that open the previous two movies - the talking Meowth of Team Rocket, the narrator and the main characters Ash, Misty and Brock sprinkle some English into the nom-laden dialogue. One of the features that makes the short great is the Dixieland jazz-inspired imported straight from the original movie.

Team Rocket, usually cast as the antagonists in the television show, appears here only to add comic relief, serving as a convention to be able to end this darker tale on a lighter note. As with the last two movies, "The Spell of Unown" dons a serious tone. Reminiscent of the Twilight Zone episode "Its a Good Life," a town sits crippled under the power of a five-year-old girl's ungodly gift. Moving beyond this premise, though, the movie ostensibly focuses on Molly, but in actuality the core of this story is the mystery behind Pokémon Unown and how faith and imagination blur in human consciousness.

Throughout, the music, animation and acting deserve accolades. And music placement is perfect, especially during dramatic scenes when it's excised entirely. "Pokémon 3" also features a harmonious mixture of 3D and 2D animation that proves to be one of the best parts of the film.

Overall, "Pokémon 3" is the best thing to come out of the "Pokémon" franchise, superior to even the other two films - a shame considering the fad is fading. "Pokémon: The First Movie" had a first weekend box office take of a little over $50.7 million. "Pokémon 2000" closed its first weekend with $19.5 million. "Pokémon 3" wheezed in with $8.2 million. But if time is the ultimate crucible, perhaps this third cinematic installment will get the attention it deserves.