Hello there Welcome to the world of adaptations My name is Naru This world is inhabited by creatures called Pokemon who live in harmony with the humans who capture and train them For some people Pokemon are pets. Others use them for fights. For others Pokemon are used for scientific testing stored in suspended animation in large glass tubes while individuals far less ethically inclined than myself attempt to use them to perfect the art of cloning. This may not include you an innocent and unassuming ten year old of indeterminate gender Seriously what are you a boy or a girl? Anyway one particular scientist wanted nothing more than to use cloning to bring back his deceased daughter Because it worked so well for Shou Tucker So they went on an expedition found a fossil of the ancient Pokemon Mew and while the artificial soul they created for little Amber may have faded away after several failed experimentswhich now exist in the wild as Dittos they eventually succeeded in combining Mews DNA with that of a humans to create a new Pokemon the creatively named Mewtwo. But the ability to think elaborately and ponder ones own existence apparently does not bode well for the young lab subject who doesnt take his imprisonment and subjugation lying down. He blows the place up kills everyone and after some illadvised soul searching with the leader of Team Rocket he decides to strike out on his own and prove to the world that cloned Pokemon are not only superior to real Pokemon but that theyre completely independent of their human captors He does this by taking over an island close to a popular port building a base and perfecting the cloning technology that was used to create three friends he can no longer remember the existence of. He employs a Dragonite that he met somehow to send out fliers advertising an event for only the best and brightest pokemon trainers in the immediate area to attend He creates a massive storm to separate the real challengers from the Well lets not beat around the bush corpses But by mistake he also winds up bringing in Ash Ketchum a trainer from Pallet Town and his friends along for the ride Will their maincharacterness get in the way of his perfect evil plan or will Mewtwo become the real reason Ash never turns 11? If youve ever seen the original Pokemon series it would be fair to say that it was a low quality affair at best and animation was one of the many things that you couldnt really call its strong suit. It was passable enough during battle scenes and the few repeated animations such as Ashs trademarked hat turn but for the most part the production company Team Ota kept costs low relying on the lacking standards of child viewers to keep the project simple and inexpensive Or thats what Im assuming they did but they didnt have that the rights to that excuse when they made Berserk. Yup the Pokemon people animated Berserk. At its worst the series was embarrassing to look at particularly in the early years. Most of the budget clearly went to visual effects like the lighting effects of Pokemon being captured Pokemon evolving and certain intense battle scenes. It wasnt badly directed or anything as it was more than serviceable enough for young viewers speedlines and other tricks are used more or less effectively and the motion that occurred on screen was never wasted. There were a few too many dialogueheavy staticky scenes and I can tell you from a recent rewatch that the animators did get noticeably lazy in the middle of the Kanto arc but it was fine for what it was. Having said that this movie was exactly what the anime analogue of a longrunning anime should be A giant step up in budget and quality control. The movie goes to a lot of really dark places so appropriately enough theres a darker palette at play and a far more frequent use of shadows than even the spookiest of episodes. There are a few moments that look to have had as low a budget as the series particularly with one of the earlier scenes of Ash Misty and Brock stopping for a lunch break but when its called for the animation can get surprisingly fluid at times. Theres also quite a few shots incorporating CG and yeah they stick out like a sore thumb but since the movie came out in 1999 we can give it a pass on that. It exercises a much better balance between the two styles than many of the newer movies which use CG to such lavish degree that the standard animation has to suffer to compensate. Its so effective overall that with help from the soundtrack certain scenes can feel unbelievably harrowing or at some points even creepy. For example in the scene where Ash and his friends first arrive on New Islandyeah they call it that and are greeted by Mewtwos assistant the atmosphere is so warying that you dont know WHATs about to happen. And speaking of the music Well its a bit bipolar. There are two sides to it the soundtrack and the score and they clash even more than the fighting Pokemon do. The score for what it is is great. Its not your typical collection of Pokemon background instrumentals albeit scaled up to better portray the higher stakes and more epic nature of the story. Even when listened to out of context these tunes convey very clear emotion so I dont think I should have to tell you how effective it all is in context whether youre hearing it in the movie in real time or on its own terms on the extremely rare Score CD and you have the actual events of the movie to pair it to. Quite a few of the tunes have an almost Danny Elfmanlike quality to them and I dont mean in the bouncy Springfieldlike kind of way Its more like what youd hear from him in a Tim Burton project with that sense of mystery and wonder guiding you through an otherwise bland and formulaic story. Some of my personal favorite tunes involve Birth of Mewtwo which I believe only plays during the oftenexcluded origin story of the title character the exciting track Freeing Charizard and the bellchorus/greek choir combo in Three on Three. The Soundtrack on the other hand Woof. Im going to start by saying that its not QUITE as dated as the soundtrack to the Digimon movie but thats mostly because the songs that actually got crowbarred into the movie are all from noname artists who might as well have died in the nineties for all the world would ever care. Seriously Ive met modern day Hanson followers who have no idea who M2M ever was. Well maybe thats not entirely true I mean Christina Aguilera and one of the Spice girls made it into the closing credits which had four different songs jammed so tightly together that they actually kinda wound up bleeding into each other. Ill admit that Im a fan of the Billy Crawford version of the first Pokemon theme song so sue me it sounds awesome and it was a fitting choice for the first real Pokemon battle Ash has in the movie but it goes downhill from there. Artists like Brittney Spears and NSYNC were lucky to get away with their dignity intact somehow escaping with their least known songs being listed as Inspired by on the CDYeah right Soda Pop was based on the Dept. Store health drink gimme a break but perhaps nobody comes out as badly as Blessid Union of Souls whos track Brother my Brother has become synonymous with the films absolute worst moment. And yes its the American Pokemon release done by 4Kids so what are you really expecting me to say about the dub? I mean Ill give it this as bad as it was its considered The Glory Days now especially when compared to the newer dubbing efforts. Its bad but then again it was always bad and theres no real difference between this dub and the TV series dub. Theres still lame jokes and obvious rewrites theres still lines of dialogue that misidentify various Pokemon such as calling Pidgeot Pidgeotto and Scyther Alakazam No Im not making that up But for a show that always ignored its own logic these screwups are hardly anything new. The original cast is still present with voice acting legends Veronica Taylor Rachel Lillis and Eric Stuart voicing at least half a dozen roles together and of course Ikue Ohtanis still voicing Pikachu. Phillip Bartlett does an awesome job as Mewtwo having also played the character in Pokemon Live although he doesnt appear to have any other anime roles to his name. So yeah the writing and translating is your typical Pokemon faresave for a dumb Viking joke that not even the series would stoop to and the actings also predictably decent. Its difficult to find the original sub track but trust me its worth the hunt. When I was younger the fact that there was a Pokemon movie coming out was a huge deal. The series and games had been huge for years the card game was so lucrative that it drew accusations of basically being a form of childhood gambling it was an even bigger trend than Pokemon Go is now and I can personally attest that it was a major part of my childhood. Fuck childhood it bled into my teen years and I was straight up obsessed. It took over my life to such an extreme degree and yet I never saw the first movie in theaters. Nope. I waited for it to come out on DVD at which point I didnt even buy it I rented it. Why was this the case? How could such a forgiving loyal pokefreak like myself give up the chance to see his favorite cartoon western eastern or otherwise on the big screen and then not even bother securing a cpy for himself? I dont know. I seriously dont know. I have no recollection whatsoever about what it was that made me turn my nose up at the idea of seeing this movie in theaters. Did my parents refuse to pay theater costs to see something we could see for free on TV? No because we saw the second movie in theaters. Also both movies gave out promo cards and I distinctly remember having very low standards so What the Psyduck? I can only imagine that it was one of two things Either I thought the trailers looked lame which is entirely possible when you consider how Ive spent most of my life taking trailers way too seriously so I could have just looked at 4Kids advertisement campaign and said no thank you. More likely or perhaps even in conjunction with that issue I might have gotten pissed off about how the title was a blatant ripoff of Empire Strikes Back. Like if this movies as lazy as its title I dont want any part of it. Either way I eventually did watch it on DVD rental of course and to my great shock yeah I had no urge whatsoever to purchase it. I know it has a lot of nostalgic value to a lot of people but theres a good damn reason that its tied with 4Ever for lowest critical score on Rottentomatoes. Honestly I think the first time I ever purchased a physical copy of it might have been the one I bought this week for reviewing purposes. Keep in mind this came out around the time that I thought Tim Burton created the superior Planet of the Apes movie. First of all out of all the reviewers whove torn this movie to shredsand thereve been quite a few I dont think Ive seen anybody call attention to just how badly executed the story is. Right off the bat were told everything there is to know about the titular character and primary antagonist Mewtwo. Were told about his creation his life with Giovanni and depending what version youre watching were even shown a part of his past that he doesnt remember. This was a terrible idea because not only does it ruin the possible mystery of his character it takes focus and screen time away from the actual main characters who are introduced in what can only be described as the thirdor fourth intro portion of the first act. Had Mewtwos past been kept shrouded in mystery for the first half of the movie and fed to us in snippets as each fact became relevantIE his history with Giovanni could have been glimpsed when Team Rocket heard their bosses name on a computer it would have improved the film tenfold. Of course going back to that example his history with Giovanni was entirely pointless aside from the connection it made to the series. And speaking of the first act Id also like to call attention to the fact that this movie doesnt even bother trying to follow the basic threeact structure. Any movie regardless of audience is supposed to have a distinctive beginning middle and end with occasional artistic diversions made for the sake of deliberately changing the norm and challenging the viewer. There are directors who specialize in this such as Quentin Tarrantino and Christopher Nolan but even when it comes to their nonlinear storytelling styles the final product can still be broken down into three distinct acts. This is one of the major reasons you cant approach screenwriting with the mindset ofThis happens then this happens then this happens then this happens and thats what about seventy percent of this movie amounts to. The first thirty percent which I GUESS you could call the first act is just a long string of introductions to various elements of the story only the fourth of which has anything to do with the actual protagonist. Not only is the villains backstory AND motus operandi revealed first giving it a feel of heavier important but Ash and Friends also take a back seat to an entire sequence whos only purpose as I mentioned before is to connect the film to the series. Who are we supposed to be rooting for again? The second and third acts if you can even call them that bleed together into one long scene that takes place more or less in real time. I guess you could kind of separate the storm sequence and the introduction of the three other trainers who were able to make it to the island as a second act but its a brief one that doesnt leave much of an impression until Mewtwo once again hijacks the movie for the extended third act. Honestly though the single biggest flaw in the movie is just how hypocritical and nonsensical Mewtwos plans really are and if the film had been paced and structured better we wouldnt have had so much time in between his appearances to THINK about how little sense it all makes. Smarter execution could have amplified the emotional weight of his story especially if the two major tearjerking moments of the film had been juxtaposed against each other with one happening in real time and the other happening afterwards as a flashback making the conclusion of Mewtwos character arc Because trust me hes the only character in this stupid movie who HAS an arc More effective on a more emotional level. Instead the tragedy that ends this conflict just feels like a ridiculous asspull. And yeah I hear what youre saying Its the first pokemon movie obviously there were going to be some flaws. The writers likely werent used to translating the pacing and structure of a TV episode into the higher demand of a full length movie and Ill admit that does play a huge factor in why this movie just doesnt feel right. Their approach would improve greatly with future movies even if said projects went downhill in many other areas but this first movie is structured like an episode of the show You do a brief introduction of where everyone is usually with the assistance of a narrator and then the plot is revealed which takes up the rest of the episode. Or in this case the movie. This isnt an entirely negative change as the extended run time allows certain scenes to run way longer than the limits of TV would normally allow making several action set pieces feel more intense like Ash and friends struggling to survive the storm and reach new island or an entire room full of Pokemon trying to either fight or flee from a hoard of Mewtwos flying Pokeballs which can somehow capture other Pokeballs. So yes the idea of this movie being an extended episode of the series can be sort of a double edged sword at least in these respects. But even having said that the argument falls flat when you look at just how stupid this movie is and how many obvious mistakes it makes. Sure the series was never what Id call wellwritten but most of its dumbest aspects come from the characters themselves being fucking idiots from Team Rockets frequent failures to our heroes not being able to recognize them to Ashs constant failures to capture almost any Pokemon he had the opportunity to catch. Oh you dont wanna trade your Tauros? You have fucking thirty of them And go back to pick up Pidgeot Sorry irrelevant but Ive been sitting on those rants for a while. Anywho the mistakes made in the movie are a lot more obvious and in some cases just impossible to explain. Some of them are even more inexplicable than the questions of how Mewtwo a freaking Pokemon was able to build or acquire a massively technologically advanced base without anyone noticing how he has the ability to brainwash people and why doesnt he just use this power to tell all the people in the world to stop being dicks and so on and so forth. Seriously imagine him mindcontrolling Giovanni like that. Back in the late nineties the only thing more exciting to Pokemon fans than the upcoming movie was the soontobe released second generation of Pocket monsters. The movie brilliantly enough decided to capitalize on this by teasing us with three new critters not including Togepi. The first two appeared in Pikachus vacation an OVA that aired before the movie but the one that was reserved for the movie was Donphan which you would think means he would be a big deal But no he gets beaten faster than CM Punk in UFC. Great representation there. After this we go to the docks where trainers want to brave the storm Mewtwo created to answer their invitations and we get this strange unnamed woman saying that the storm is some prophecy called The Winds of Water. This is of course not connected to anything or ever referenced again. The main cast take a freaking canoe to cross the ocean in a storm that a giant ferry isnt fit for which is probably the only mistake that feels like it would happen in the show and then the ending has the balls to tell us that fighting is wrong and that pokemon arent meant to fight each other in a movie based on a franchise thats based entirely around the art of strategic combat. This is the textbook definition of having your cake and eating it too and yeah theres a reason this is literally EVERYBODYS biggest complaint about the film. I my opinion though its not even its worst problem. Pokemon: The first movie is available stateside in a few different formats and Im not sure if theres any way to buy a region 1 version of the original Japanese release or even if theres a version with the original Birth of Mewtwo scene attached to it. The old DVD releases have slightly more features than the better looking recent releases and they can be found for much cheaper on Ebay than on amazon. It can also be found in a few different threepack formats included with the second and third movies for an okay price. There are a ton of other entries in the franchise including way too many seasons of the show and over a dozen other movies which I may or may not visit in the future. When I bring up my issues with this movie in the company of other people the most common defenses it gets arent the ones I mentioned earlier. The first one is the nostalgia argument which Okay yeah I kinda get that one. I liked Space Jam as much as the next child. You grew up with it its important to you so youre forgiving of it. This actually leads into the other defense that its a movie for kids. One day little viewers who watch it now are going to have the same nostalgic reaction to it. Well if all youre looking for is something bright and colorful to keep your kids quiet for an hour and a half this movie is fine. Its innocent and inoffensive and the fact that its moral is confused and hypocritical shouldnt damage them seriously. But if thats all youre looking for you wouldnt be reading a review right now. The fact of the matter is that there ARE really good movies out there for children movies that teach and enlighten while they entertain and that dont deserve to be lumped together with movies like this one just because they both reach the low standard of It exists and nothing offensive happens. This movie may check those two boxes but its also a soulless lazy cashgrab that does nothing important for the franchise other than set up the far superior Mewtwo Returns and even THATs just my opinion. Aside from that it really doesnt do anything to justify its own existence or continued relevance. I give Pokemon: The First Movie a 3/10.