Digimon has been a part of my life for about as long as I can remember. I religiously watched the 1999 TV series as a kid along with the seasons afterward With the exception of Data Squad and Fusion. At one point I saw commercials for Digimon The Movie but I couldnt go see it in theaters at the time due to other obligations like school. Years after that I was able to rent it on VHS from a video store. It was...certainly something. I found out later that Sabans Digimon The Movie was actually three movies mashed into one cutting a lot of content in the process far more so than they did with the series. Later in life I saw two of those movies in their original format this one included with English subtitles and I was surprised with just how different they were from the edited versions that made up Digimon The Movie. Coming back and rewatching the Digimon Adventure Pilot as an adult with full knowledge of the TV series Im even more impressed by just how good this short film is as a prequel to the series and on its own merits. Two young children Tai and his younger sister Kari Yes Im going to use their English dub names are shocked to find that a mysterious egg magically popped out of their computer. The egg eventually hatches into a mysterious creature who calls itself Koromon. Although confused and baffled as to where it came from it doesnt take long for the kids to befriend Koromon. Later that night Koromon suddenly changes into a large dinosaur who begins causing mass destruction and wandering the streets of Tokyo with Kari on its back. Things get even more dangerous when another creature a green bird monster appears from the sky and fights with the newly evolved Koromon with Tai Kari and several other children caught in the crossfire. If youre thinking this movie is kinda short youre right. The Digimon Adventure Pilot is basically a 20minute short film that premiered in theaters the day before the TV series aired on Japanese TV fully intended to be seen as a prequel to the latter. The story it tells is pretty simple showing a bunch of kids befriending a monster and then getting caught in a monster fight in the middle of the city. Its simple but effective and it doesnt try to be anything it isnt. Helping this is the fluid animation and direction courtesy of Mamoru Hosoda who directed this along with the second Digimon movie to come after this Our War Game. The colors are muted and there isnt a lot of shading but no detail is ever skimped and the animation itself switches wildly from minimalistic to absolutely gorgeous and it really works here. The Greymon/Parrotmon fight is especially well animated actually showing their destruction in detail along with things like the movement of their claws and how their bodies overwhelm everything around them. The whole fight is brutal and visceral without ever going overthetop and it just works The soundtrack is especially interesting here because in the Japanese version its just one long song being Maurice Ravels 1928 musical composition Bolerohttps://www..com/watch?v=r30D3SW4OVw. I dont know whose idea this was but I think it was a stroke of genius considering the piece itself is only 15 minutes long this is a 20minute movie and its used to great effect as everything builds and builds as it gets to the end. I dont know if the producers had to pay royalties to use Bolero here or not as from what I can find Boleros copyright doesnt expire until January 1st 2025 so its not in the public domain in certain countries yet. Of course you cant have Digimon without the late great Kouji Wadas Butterfly which plays during the end credits. But dont tell that to Saban who felt the need to shove in a crap ton of unfitting electronic music and pop rock songs in a desperate attempt to cater to the 90s kids like songs by Fat Boy Slim and Smash Mouth. The characters are a bit harder to talk about because Tai and Kari are very young children in this special and the movie is mainly just about them befriending Koromon and getting caught up in the monster attack that follows. Then again this movie isnt really about giving them deep characterization. Thats what the TV series is for but the pilot does provide some important context for a major event that happens in the TV series showing why this event had such a big impact on the characters in the series. But thats not to say Tai and Kari dont have any charm to them here and the animation is good at showing their personalities through their actions and body language. Though I do balk at the idea of a sevenyearold Tai cooking for his toddleraged sister. Seriously no kid I know ever learned to cook while in the single digits. Seriously what is it with anime and depicting children as being more selfsufficient than they are? On its own the Digimon Adventure Pilot is a very solid intriguing movie that does an amazing job at laying the foundation for the franchise that spawned from it. If youre a Digimon fan you owe it to yourself to check out this prequel.