Review M10: The Rise of Darkrai

[Dogasu]

DP Movie 01: "Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai"
Movie 10: Pokemon "The Rise of Darkrai"

7:00pm ET, Cartoon Network
The (first part of the?) epic battle between Dialga and Palkia has begun! But as the two legendaries wreak havoc in Alamos City, a mysterious new pokemon appears and joins the fray...

This movie originally premiered in Japan on July 14th, 2007. Episode-wise, it aired between "Pikachu in Charge!" ("Steamboat Willies") and "The Champion Shirona Enters!" ("Top-Down Training!").

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

A minute and a half in and I have some thoughts:

-Awesome intro
-The captions SUUUUUUUCK. Seriously, the captions skip lines and then zoom past them really quickly.

Tonio and Godey keep their names, it seems. Although I can't recall how the latter's was spelled.

 

[Lord_Mewtwo]

So far, so good. As expected the opening theme was changed, but thank god it wasn't a new version of that god-awful DP Rap it was an all-new song that I wil call We Will Be Heroes

 

[Water Pokémon Master]

Hey guys, I am doing play-by-play updates on my website regarding any changes to the original, interesting notes, opinions, etc in case you are interested.

 

[Habunake]

Maxim was wrong on two accounts. Make that three.

*old news*

I wonder what those three rival trainers will be called...I don't recall their names being said outside of the movie site.

 

[Perxio]

YES!

YES!

HECK. YES.

They didn't use the "DP Rap".

They used something else that was horribly cheesy but I can bear it because it's not the DP Rap.

And apparently, Darkrai is the Phantom of the opera. Every time I'd hear that organ music that'd play with his appearance, I'd get that same vibe. It's way too funny for me.

And...Alberto...is Gaston? From Beauty and the Beast. I haven't even seen that movie since I was, like, seven, but they were so similar. Except Alberto's more likable. He's just a jerk. Still pretty amusing.

Waaay too many commercials...has there been a wait this long between the TV premiere and the DVD release? I forget the previous ones. There's just so much detail in the backgrounds and all- I dunno, the landscapes are gorgeous and they did pretty good with the animation. Random, but it'd have been so great if this had been on big screen in the US. There's a lot of scale, like in the towers, that would've been so cool to have seen in theaters. I don't know how to put it.

Edit:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

OH MY GOD THOSE BASTARDS!

*hissy fit*

I want to know if they left Where the Lost Ones Go! I NEED TO KNOW! Heads would ROLL if they pull the credits-flashing-by-on-blank-background BS in the DVD.

They. are. cruel. Those bastards. I need to know. They didn't let me down until now.

But at least I got to crack up again at Darkrai's little finale with his theme playing. THE PHAAAANTOM OOOF THE OOOPEERAAAAAAA~

 

[Spiritomb's Servant]

Pretty awesome movie, but I have a few questions:

What was that fireball attack that Dialga was using?

What was the blue lightning attack Darkrai used on Palkia?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Habunake]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS YUGIOH?!

Bagakugan? Is that what kids today watch?

 

[offkilter06]

Darn....so when CN said 7 ALL THIS WEEK. They meant 6C time. So we missed the first 30 minutes. We came in and watched it all turn to hell.

Basic thoughts (from my friend Julia and me)

Darkrai has been coined the emo Pokemon by us.

Lickylicky is creepy. Damn creepy. And Antonio's transformation made it all the more creepy.

Palkia is scary. Damn scary. I'm glad again that I have Diamond

Uhhh so.....what the eff happened to J&J?! Seriously!

I'll write a more in-depth report later

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

FINALLY I can get on! The site went down about three minutes into the film for me, so I had to type up my notes in Notepad!

*ahem*:


The cable summary for the film is "A powerful battle emerges when an ominous fog prevents people from leaving their town". It also gives the year as 2007.

Awesome intro

The captions SUUUUUUUCK. Seriously, the captions skip lines and then zoom past them really quickly.

Tonio and Godey keep their names, it seems. Although I can't recall how the latter's was spelled.

"Pokemon mastership"? And it capitalized "Heroes".

"Little blue book of babes"?

OK, for serious, you can't make that kind of noise with a leaf whistle.

Oh yeah Jess, that's a smart thing to do--try to catch something 10 feet away while you're a good 300 feet up in the air.

Yeah, Godey.

LOL, Ash doesn't know how to figure 100 years.

YES NO RAP THEME. Granted, it's generic, but it doesn't SUCK ASS like the rap does.

Those are some small Wormadam. Seriously, they're like the size of someone's head. Aren't they supposed to be pretty big? Bigger than that anyway.

Haha, Happiny carrying Quagsire.

Gallade's voice SUCKS. Seriously, it's all gravelly and stuff.

So back in movie 4, Meowth thought the IMM was a Mexican Wrestler, and now he thinks Alberto is a rock star?

Hahaha, bad CGI when that think falls on Tonio.

Did Alberto just make an innuendo?

So if Unown and the two battling legendaries are from the same dimension, does that mean Spencer Hale knows about them from his time there?

"What a nice looking chap!" If the first dub "made James gay", this dub is making him British.

"[Ominous Music]" CAPTIONS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO CAPTION THE SCORE (unless it's something like MST3K and they make a joke about it)

And on that subject, it captioned "Roseraid" as "Rose red"

Alice's voice reminds me of someone and I finally figured out who--Domino! Or, you know, anyone else voiced by Lisa Ortiz.

Wait...Alberto likes model trains?

If that was meant to be the vendor from movie 6, they didn't make him look enough like he originally did. The buttchin came and went.

"The only way to fly!" Does that count as a real-world reference?

I'm surprised Pikachu didn't hop on Ash's head to get up the stairs.

"[tower music]" See that's something that *should* be captioned, since the characters can hear it too!

The score music sounds pretty much the same as it does in every other movie, and frankly it's getting boring.

Is this the first time we've heard a pokemon say its own attack? Or has Meowth announced Fury Swipes in the past?

If Dark Void is a Ghost-type move, it shouldn't have affected Lickilicky at all.

How do you feel the heartbeat on a creature made of stone?

And of course everyone looks exactly the same as children as they do grown up.

Mach Punch shouldn't affect Darkrai either.

Hey, is that Rhydon using a fire attack? Awesome.

"Stop fighting right now!" Yeah, like that's going to have an affect on anything. I was hoping she'd be doing it in the hopes of summoning Darkrai, but she seemed surprised when it showed up.

Darkrai and Alice pronounce "Alicia" differently than Tonio did, didn't they? Tonio said it "Al-ee-cee-ah" while the other two say it "al-ee-sha"

Ok what? Magic song ripped from movie 2, complete with Legendaries battling over a city no one can leave frmo movie 7. ORIGINAL IDEAS PEOPLE. It's not that hard!

Ack! It's the Standard Old Woman voice!

Hey, did the Female of the Day just figure something big out on her own?

Wow, Croagunk's kicking ass. But really, Brock gets relagated to his typical side role.

That handgrab scene wasn't nearly as shippy as people made it out to be.

Chimchar is facing forward when it lights the balloon, but the flames go *upwards*.

And of course they couldn't have Alberto save her, speaking of gratuitious shipping.

Hah. And Darkrai pulls a movie 1 Ash, crossed with Sir Aaron.

Buneary's actually *doing* things for once!

Wait, did Tonio and Brock just repeat themselves? I swear they said the exact same things just a few minutes ago.

That song isn't nearly as soothing on the bells as it was when Alice played it.

Haha, Swiss Army Tower!

Alexandria Castle from FFIX! Does this mean there's going to be airships and summons now? (traditional airships, not like the Hikoukyuu)

So how exactly does Ash get Palkia to *listen* to him? I mean come ON. I know he's got a quota on world saving, but can't they let Alice and the music have their moment to shine? That came totally out of nowhere! Palkia DOESN'T LISTEN TO HUMANS. That's one of the POINTS of the movie--that it and Dialga don't LISTEN TO ANYONE.

How does Darkrai cast a shadow that big if it's no bigger than usual? Also HOW THE HELL DID IT COME BACK? I MEAN COME ON.

Blah. I was all right with it until the last ten minutes. I MEAN WHAT NOW?

 

[flaming infernape]

It was all really good in my opinion, until they got to the ending credits. STUPID CARTOON NETWORK FOR SKIPPING RIGHT OVER THAT PART!!! *bangs head against computer in disappointment*

Also, Darkrai is a dark-type, so not only would mach punch hit, it'd be super-effective. Man, now I really want Darkrai to be released soon.

 

[Ket Makura]

I'm sorry, but this is probably my least favorite Pokemon movie. It started off all right, and then it all promptly went to hell.

Alberto transforming into Lickilick was just so damned weird I couldn't take the movie seriously after that point.

And the way it ended? Biggest Deus of the series EVER, and that is saying a lot for Pokemon.

Overall, very disappointed.

 

[Lucifer Angel]

Wasn't that bad a movie thought Darkrai was a nice pokemon and the other two were cool as well.

 

[fate]

Loved the movie. Only complaints I have were Cartoon Network's handling of it, which are only limited to the airing, the DVD will not have these issues

The advertising. Fine, show all of your ads during the numerous breaks, but don't put the obnoxious banners up for about an entire minute. Even in widescreen, they blocked some of the picture.

Also... the credits got cut. I wanted to see all the of scenes during them. :/

 

[PokemonHero]

YES!

YES!

HECK. YES.

They didn't use the "DP Rap".

They used something else that was horribly cheesy but I can bear it because it's not the DP Rap.

And apparently, Darkrai is the Phantom of the opera. Every time I'd hear that organ music that'd play with his appearance, I'd get that same vibe. It's way too funny for me.

And...Alberto...is Gaston? From Beauty and the Beast. I haven't even seen that movie since I was, like, seven, but they were so similar. Except Alberto's more likable. He's just a jerk. Still pretty amusing.

Waaay too many commercials...has there been a wait this long between the TV premiere and the DVD release? I forget the previous ones. There's just so much detail in the backgrounds and all- I dunno, the landscapes are gorgeous and they did pretty good with the animation. Random, but it'd have been so great if this had been on big screen in the US. There's a lot of scale, like in the towers, that would've been so cool to have seen in theaters. I don't know how to put it.

I would have definitely loved to see this in theaters. I also think this would have been cool to see in an IMAX theater. Those battle scenes would have been awesome with the way IMAX theaters are set up. Some of those battles I could imagine in 3-D. That would be way cool. Kudos to the creators. Disappointed about not keeping the original opening, but this one wasn't too bad. Great movie, end of story.

 

[Jnoo]

Also HOW THE HELL DID IT COME BACK? I MEAN COME ON.

It didn't really "Die," but rather faded along with a good portion of the town.

At least that's my theory, but it's not worth bitching over, really. >_>


Good movie, but the only remaining matter is whether or not the real ending was kept.

THREE MORE MONTHS AHOY!!!

 

[NoodleChefKyle]

Finally. I don't know why my computer won't let me post.

I personally don't see why you guys hate the DP rap anyway.

That Dark Void was too many cool.

Ash said: "Balloons rock!" They would after climbing a 500 (estimate) foot staircase.

And yes, Antonio transforming into Lickilicky was damn weird.

Darkrai's just too cool. I expected him to say "Good night" at the end of the movie.

 

[pokemonmaster24]

This movie was totally awsome.
I would like to know what the song was on the credits but you know cartoon network messing evrything up.I geuss i will have to waight for the dvd.
some of my qeustions were:
Was there a pikachu short in the begging? (I did not get to watch until 7:15)
When the pokemon were flying around like ghost who was chasing them?

 

[Perxio]

It was a beautiful movie anyway. I'm a HUGE prick with animation (one of my more negative traits; I actually loathe a ton of cartoons and anime just on that, I'm horrible, I know, and half the time I don't watch the show because of it...) so I don't know whether I'm actually impressed by the animation itself or just compared to the usual for it, but I liked it. Everything else blew me away.

Man, I'd love to have the music from the movie. Just all of it. This stinks.

 

[Lesley_GSC]

*Takes a deep breath as not to explode/implode*

WIN. Just win.

Me and my freinds where very hyper. Every comercial:

Me: (to my sister) Yah, well your just a blue dog! Aleast I have arms!

Sister: *roars*

Me: *Looks at friend hiding beneath blankets* Hey, Dialga! Let's go beat up Darkrai!

*Me and my sister start beating up friend with pillows*

Anyhoo, the review:

The people:
First off, the movie was rather slow to pick up action, but made up for it with an entertaining kick-off. I hate Alberto even more now. Yes Ralli, I agree. That was the first thing I thought of aswell when he said that. Besides "eww" of course. And Godey seems like some kind of Poke-devinchi or something. Sniff...ALICE REALLY DOES LIKE TONIO! IT MUST BE CANON! (What? I love that ship)

The pokemon:
Did anybody else find the floating pokemon amusing? Bibarrel and Buizel the most. But even though they said the pokemon where dreaming about runnning away from something, they really didn't seem distressed to me. Except for Bronzor. Unless spinnning is it's natural mode of movement. And Lickylicky was dreaming of turning into it's trainer? Creepy. The vast number of fourth gen pokemon was kind of shockng. But cool, I've aways wanted to see Luxio in the anime.

Over all:
Very cool, but what else can you expect? Fandom, come hither and kill me.