Pokémon: The First Movie

Pokémon: The First Movie is an average movie that could have been a great movie, but for a few glaring problems:

1. The picture quality was inconsistent. The original Japanese film is noticeably blurrier than the enhanced American sections.

2. The humor isn't very localized. There's about one joke that is specific to the US. Also, the movie needs to have more self-satirization. These two areas provided the best humor on the screen.

3. Little, if any music from the game makes it in this movie. There's no PokéRAP. The new version of the Pokémon theme is lame. Most of the rest of the music is forgettable.

4. (spoiler) There's a total cop-out at the end, where all the character's memories are erased. This effectively says, "you know all that stuff that we told you about? It's not important." In case you're wondering what that moral is, it's, "you can have all the strength in the world, but unless you have heart, it's pointless," or something like that. The movie's pretty vague about what it's trying to tell you.

5. There's no major Ash/Misty argument. Granted, there are a few disagreements, but nothing major.

My score: 2.3

The Final Say: Should you see Pokémon: The First Movie? Yes. Should you see it seven zillion times? No. I'll make a pretty big claim here: I could write a Pokémon movie better than this. Really, I could. Fortunately for Pokémon, it still has a TV show. On the other hand, the movie should still make a profit, and there's a sequel planned for summer. Perhaps the sequel will be better (sure...).