In an early issue of Hidenori Kusaka's 1997 manga "Pokémon Adventures," based on the game by Satoshi Tajiri, the definition of a Pokémon was laid down as merely "a mysterious species not recorded in traditional biological taxonomies." A look around the Pokémon universe, however, finds no animals that have been recorded in traditional biological taxonomies, either. There are no cats and dogs in this world, only Pokémon. Some have theorized that Pokémon takes place in a distant future, a post-post-apocalyptic world where animals evolved into superpowered creatures. Others simply repeat to themselves it's just a show and fans should really just relax, understanding that Pokémon exists in a fantasy world.
In this world, 10-year-olds are offered the opportunity to leave home with a bindle with a superpowered animal in their charge, all in the hopes of garnering the honor (there is no cash prize) of becoming a Pokémon Master.
The volume...
In this world, 10-year-olds are offered the opportunity to leave home with a bindle with a superpowered animal in their charge, all in the hopes of garnering the honor (there is no cash prize) of becoming a Pokémon Master.
The volume...
- 8/27/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Let’s face it, Pokémon has never been a great anime; its messy premise has always better served the mechanics of a video game than the plot of a cartoon. But regardless of format, it’s the sense of almost mundane exploration in a big wide Pokémon world that makes the franchise memorable. While the heroes of “Dragonball Z” and “Gundam Wing” were tasked with saving humanity, Pokémon’s cartoon protagonist Ash Ketchum was often barely competent, just trying to make any sort of mark as he explored the wilderness. Ash didn’t even advance to the finals in the Indigo League Championships that wrapped up the show’s first story arc. That was a bold anticlimax for a property then in its heyday, with kids around the world still in the throes of Poké-mania. Through his shortcomings, Irl Pokémon trainers working to master the game could see themselves in...
- 5/7/2019
- by Johnnie JungleGuts
- The Wrap
Sure, the decidedly low-tech, on-the-cheap animation makes Saturday-morning TV fare look rich and sophisticated by comparison, the storytelling is awkward and laughably arch and the tone is all over the place, but thanks to its brilliantly timed release, " Pokemon the First Movie" will handily buck the boxoffice fate of most non-Disney animated features, riding the mighty wave of Pokemania all the way to the bank for Warner Bros.
Most big-screen attempts at cashing in on a craze seem to arrive on the scene a year too late. And while this picture may have the look and feel of a rush job, that won't matter to the legions of card-trading, game-playing youngsters who have made Pokemon the sixth most-searched-for word on the Internet.
The Japanese production, which could have just as easily been called "Nintendo the Motion Picture", has been rescripted and rescored for American consumption and is packaged with a 20-minute short that serves as something of a primer for those who don't know Pikachu from peekaboo.
But while the sweetly benign "Pikachu's Vacation" seems to be targeted to "Pokemon"'s younger fans, the tone abruptly becomes much darker for the main event.
It begins with a confusing prologue in which strands of DNA from the legendary Mew have been bioengineered by scientists into a more powerful clone known as Mewtwo. Annoyed that he has been turned into a Pokemon equivalent of Frankenstein's monster, Mewtwo swears vengeance on mankind.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ash Ketchum and his fellow Pokemon trainers Misty and Brock are summoned, by mysterious invitation, along with their pocket monsters to New Island, where Mewtwo has orchestrated a fight-to-the-finish showdown against his newly cloned versions in his bid to become the World's Greatest Pokemon Master on his way to total global domination.
Adults may cringe at the preachy heavy-handedness and the extremely limited motion animation that sets the art form back a couple of generations, but youngsters will no doubt delight in seeing their beloved collectibles and Game Boy characters come to life (well, sort of) up on the movie screen.
On the musical front, aside from the zippy Pokemon theme song, which conjures up memories of the old "Solid Gold" theme sans the gold spandex, the Ralph Schuckett-John Loeffler score has been augmented with a CD's worth of kid-pleasing pop by the likes of Christina Aguilera, Blessid Union of Souls and erstwhile Spice Girl Emma Bunton, who knows a thing or two about the fleeting nature of pop-culture phenomena.
POKEMON THE FIRST MOVIE
Warner Bros.
Kids' WB! presents
a 4Kids Entertainment production
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Producer: Norman J. Grossfeld
Producers: Choji Yoshikawa, Tomoyuki Igarashi, Takemoto Mori
English adaptation directed by: Michael Haigney
Screenwriter: Takeshi Shudo
English adaptation written by: Norman J. Grossfeld, Michael Haigney, John Touhey
Director of photography: Hisao Shirai
Art director: Katsuyoshi Kanemura
Editor: Toshio Henmi
Music: Ralph Schuckett, John Loeffler
Color/stereo
Voices:
Veronica Taylor, Philip Bartlett, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart, Addie Blaustein, Ikue Otani.
Running time -- 95 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Most big-screen attempts at cashing in on a craze seem to arrive on the scene a year too late. And while this picture may have the look and feel of a rush job, that won't matter to the legions of card-trading, game-playing youngsters who have made Pokemon the sixth most-searched-for word on the Internet.
The Japanese production, which could have just as easily been called "Nintendo the Motion Picture", has been rescripted and rescored for American consumption and is packaged with a 20-minute short that serves as something of a primer for those who don't know Pikachu from peekaboo.
But while the sweetly benign "Pikachu's Vacation" seems to be targeted to "Pokemon"'s younger fans, the tone abruptly becomes much darker for the main event.
It begins with a confusing prologue in which strands of DNA from the legendary Mew have been bioengineered by scientists into a more powerful clone known as Mewtwo. Annoyed that he has been turned into a Pokemon equivalent of Frankenstein's monster, Mewtwo swears vengeance on mankind.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ash Ketchum and his fellow Pokemon trainers Misty and Brock are summoned, by mysterious invitation, along with their pocket monsters to New Island, where Mewtwo has orchestrated a fight-to-the-finish showdown against his newly cloned versions in his bid to become the World's Greatest Pokemon Master on his way to total global domination.
Adults may cringe at the preachy heavy-handedness and the extremely limited motion animation that sets the art form back a couple of generations, but youngsters will no doubt delight in seeing their beloved collectibles and Game Boy characters come to life (well, sort of) up on the movie screen.
On the musical front, aside from the zippy Pokemon theme song, which conjures up memories of the old "Solid Gold" theme sans the gold spandex, the Ralph Schuckett-John Loeffler score has been augmented with a CD's worth of kid-pleasing pop by the likes of Christina Aguilera, Blessid Union of Souls and erstwhile Spice Girl Emma Bunton, who knows a thing or two about the fleeting nature of pop-culture phenomena.
POKEMON THE FIRST MOVIE
Warner Bros.
Kids' WB! presents
a 4Kids Entertainment production
Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Producer: Norman J. Grossfeld
Producers: Choji Yoshikawa, Tomoyuki Igarashi, Takemoto Mori
English adaptation directed by: Michael Haigney
Screenwriter: Takeshi Shudo
English adaptation written by: Norman J. Grossfeld, Michael Haigney, John Touhey
Director of photography: Hisao Shirai
Art director: Katsuyoshi Kanemura
Editor: Toshio Henmi
Music: Ralph Schuckett, John Loeffler
Color/stereo
Voices:
Veronica Taylor, Philip Bartlett, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart, Addie Blaustein, Ikue Otani.
Running time -- 95 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
- 11/10/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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