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Review M20: I Choose You!

Well, I've seen the movie (mainly to understand what's going on rather than reading the summary), and I will say it's the best Pokémon movie. But here's a distinction I'll make. It's not the best movie from the Pokémon franchise, but it's the movie that best represents the world of Pokémon.

I'll say that the opening is a bit of mess, mainly rushing through the events of the first episode without giving it time to breathe, especially egregious since they cut out the nonessential parts like Gary and Misty. It's disappointing considering that I hailed "Pokémon - I Choose You!" to be the best episode of the Pokémon series. All it did was made me appreciate the original more. I really think they should have used the GameBoy intro just to really pump up the nostalgia.

But I did like the various snippets of Ash and Pikachu's journey and where he's going. There's something about it that captures what it's like to be a regular Pokémon trainer. I especially like how the legendary Pokémon are portrayed. Not like deities that communicate with you telepathically or be a keystone to the balance of the world as seen in most Pokemon movies. The legendaries are essentially powerful and mythical creatures that trainers want to encounter and battle. It's much more closer to how you encounter legendaries in the Gen I and II if that makes any sense.

Cross is truly brutal as a trainer. Not deceptive abusive as Damien, since Cross is brutally honest with Charmander and does have Pokémon he genuinely cares about. But he's a hybrid of Paul and Gary, with Paul's cold-hearted nature and Gary's egotism. Really, he's the anime's closet answer to Silver AKA Giovanni's son and the rival from Gold and Silver. In fact I wouldn't mind calling the G/S rival Cross from now on.

The world without Pokémon dream sequence is surreal. So surreal it's nightmarish. Seeing Ash in what appears to be modern Japan taking classes and looking out towards the horizon doesn't feel right. Especially when it's completely devoid of Pokémon. The world, despite being full of humans, is lifeless and dull. This is something that Takeshi Shudō would have written, and I wouldn't be surprised if they took a page from him. In a way, it explains why Ash is eternally ten-years old. The Pokémon world is a childhood world, unmarred by reality. Ash does not belong in the real world and neither do the rest of the cast. And because of that, he will always remain a 10-year old child even if his physical features have aged. Of course, that's my impression from the movie.

Speaking of Ash, this is really the story about the boy from Pallet Town. He's excitable, dumb, brave and has a big heart. Your typical Ash. I will say he's a lot adaptable in battles even without the Pokédex, Brock and Misty. Especially considering he has only two or three Pokémon with him and already has three badges. Pikachu is also a lot stronger here, given that he was able to flip a Snorlax with just Iron Tail when Snorlax attempts to do Body Slam. Despite their badass upgrade, both Ash and Pikachu are still recognizable and you get the feeling that they're a representation of everyday trainers rather than an exceptional skilled trainer right off the bat like in DP, XY and SM. Which makes sense considering that they are rookies in this movie.

There's a lot more to talk about, but I wanted to get some of my initial thoughts out.

Because it focuses on Ash and Pikachu's journey to find the legendary Ho-Oh, this movie captures what Pokémon is all about and what it means to be a master (they actually explain what Ash's definition of being a Pokémon Master is: It's striving to be the best and to make lots of new friends along the way). While movies like Mewtwo Strikes Back, Spell of the Unown and Lucario and the Mystery of Mew have exceptionally memorable characters and even intriguing plots, they have never captured that feeling I felt when I watched this movie. If people want to know what a featured-length live action movie of Pokémon would be like in terms of plot (and not the Detective Pikachu stuff), go watch this movie. It's not perfect; some of the plot points are a bit confusing and the pacing could use a lot of work. But it is the best movie about the Pokémon journey.
 
Felt pretty lonely after watching the movie. Had no one to go see the movie with. Had no one with whom comment the movie after it was over. 0/10 not going to the movies alone again.

...Anyways, it was an alright movie. But I didn't feel it had any... 'real' storyline. It was just a bunch of retellings of season 1 events, vaguely linked by an overarching plot.

What was nice is that this movie truly shows what exactly is the World of Pokémon, how do humans and Pokémon relate to each other and work together. Other movies are focusing much more on large-scale catastrophes and similar stuff to let us see the core aspects of this world.

The entire sequence where Ash imagines a life without Pokémon had me on the edge of my seat. It was truly an amazing experience. What stands out about it is that it's pretty much just real life, but portrayed in a very negative way.

The scene where Pikachu talks... weird stuff. It was touching to hear the reason why he doesn't want to get in the Poké Ball, but really, just... WTF. Actually, that was the reaction of the entire theater: WTF. Lots of "huh?"s and "what"s.

Now, as for the music. Ugh. Sounds better than the main anime, but that's about it. At least they kept silent scenes silent, as far as I noticed. Not keeping Tears After the Cloudy Weather just shows they don't care, and they won't ever care.


Impressions on Latin American dub:
No idea about English acting, but the Latin American dub wasn't half bad. I could tell most dialogue was fairly accurately translated from English (no local expressions), but it was adapted enough to sound natural.

There were several sync problems here and there though. The worst offender was during the scene where Ash protects Pikachu at Mt. Tensei, right before he's attacked. There were five or so mouthflaps where no voice comes out of him. Even the most casual of viewers would notice and it really hurt the scene IMO.

Team Rocket was alright. They managed to sneak in one ad-lib. Still, we love them so much around here for what they used to be that the crowd cherished every one of their appearances.

I think Pikachu was voiced by the same woman who portrayed him in Island of the Giant Pokémon. There weren't any means to visually translate the subtitles back then, so all the Pokémon were translated via voice-overs. Sounds alright. I wish they could do better, but I sincerely doubt any actress could've pulled it of. WTF indeed.

And speaking of visual translations: for the first time ever, the on-screen movie logo was in Spanish. The local actors and staff were fully listed in the credits too, which was nice to see. The credits themselves were still written in English.


What stood out the most to me, and I'm going full rant-mode here:
Back in the first episode, Oak quoted the proverb "al que madruga, Dios le ayuda". An equivalent to "the early bird gets the worm", it literally means "them who rise early are helped by God". The same line made it into this movie, but was changed to "al que madruga se le resuelven sus problemas" ("them who rise early have their problems solved"). This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It doesn't even rhyme, it doesn't even make sense. If you want to say a well-known proverb, don't half-ass it like this.

Back in the 90s and 00s, Latin American dubs were dubs produced for the sake of Latin American people. We've become so fucking dependant on the United States, that now they're latching their censorship policies onto us too. It's terrible. No Latin American person has ever batted an eye on the G-word appearing on a kids show. Then why am I, a viewer from Chile, prevented to hear the word "God" on a children's show, in my own native language, as a result of overprotecting North American parents controlling what English-speaking media can or can't say in the United States. This is bullshit. Makes me cringe.

To put in perspective how stupid this is, there's a scene later in the movie where Ash discuss something about "saying goodbye". Wanna know how you say "goodbye" in Spanish? ADIÓS. Goodbye in Spanish is literally, "to-God". There was a little girl a couple of seats behind me who actually started to chatter about God to his dad, once she heard Ash talking about saying "adiós". Hold on, this is unacceptable. I'm going to report this to the media to let them know you can't say "goodbye" on television during children schedule. It's too religious. We can't have any of this indoctrinated on our beloved kids' minds.
 
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I just came home from the movies. I missed a small part of the beginning, but only part of the opening theme, which by the way, I loved the remake of the original song done for the movie. The song was much better than the mess of a cover that XY gave us.

I started writing this earlier but got distracted with trying to get dinner.



As for the movie, itself, I loved it. I was supposed to see it with my baby brother, but he wasn't feeling well so I'm taking him to see it on Saturday.



I thought it perfectly captures the magic of the first season while making it fresh and new. The travelling companions were an awesome addition, and I would love for them to come to the main series or for them to be in the 21st movie.

The only part that I found (and the other people that came with me) useless to the movie was Team Rocket. The dubbed lines for them were cringy at best, which didn't help to make their appearance mean anything to me. I love TR, but their moments were just odd and unneeded.

Even so, having them there celebrates the past 20 years of the series and kinda makes you realize that their stalking a 10 year old is a bit creepy.

The voice actress for Pikachu was perfect in speaking. It really matched his tone.

The visuals, the score, and the voice acting was top notch.

In my opinion, this is the best Pokemon movie to date, even compared to Pokemon 3. This can be seen by anyone, and they would be able to enjoy it and love it.

The movie was iconic.

It took the most iconic scenes and made many of them more iconic.

That ending song, oh my god, is beautiful. I wanna look up the lyrics and listen to it all day.

What I most want is to watch it again because my uncle was with me (he's four years older than me and loved the original series) and he talked my ears off the entire movie.

I hope everyone gets a chance to see this and enjoy it for what it is.
 
The whole crowd bursted into laughter when Bonji said "Marshadow. Its one and only purpose is to observe the occurrences", which was clearly not intended to be a comical scene. Does anyone remember the exact line in English? I doubt it had the same effect on viewers.

NeoMiniTails said:
That ending song, oh my god, is beautiful. I wanna look up the lyrics and listen to it all day.
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Nice. I could barely hear it because everyone was standing up and leaving...
 
Gabo2oo said:
The whole crowd bursted into laughter when Bonji said "Marshadow. Its one and only purpose is to observe the occurrences", which was clearly not intended to be a comical scene. Does anyone remember the exact line in English? I doubt it had the same effect on viewers.


Nice. I could barely hear it because everyone was standing up and leaving...
Click to expand...

If you get a chance, definitely listen to it. Its so pretty, sounds like a wedding sing. The theatre stayed packed until the end where I was. Every seat was pretty much packed with a few people leaving. Most people were longtime fans and obviously some young people.

The ones with small children seemed to leave quicker than others. I waited until ending credits were over, and it seemed like mostly everyone had the same idea.

It was really fun seeing and hearing people's reactions in the theatre. While most people weren't talking much, I felt bad because my uncle talked through the entire movie. >_< He was whispering, but he whispers loud and we were in the front of the theatre since that was the only seats available.

Lol... The crowd had an entirely different reaction where I went. I thought it was funny because it sounded like a sitcom with people saying, "Oooh..."

The part that everyone started laughing at was when Ash told Joy about Ho-oh and she responded like a real life adult, "Oh okay." She did not care at all.
 
Wait hang on - Ho Oh wasn't even there when Satoshi rematerialised (seemingly for no good reason...)

Forgot to mention that one really nice thing was the audience reactions. There was a mixture of kids and 20-30-somethings at my cinema, and people were unusually free with laughing, awwing, gasping, singing along .etc. I felt like a proud parent when the cinema hall practically erupted at the first sign of the TRio :love: There was a bizarre amount of cuteness reaction evoked by Entei (?!) as well...
 
So, first part of the movie. "Ash falls on his face a lot. Ha ha he fell"

Middle of movie. Beautiful scenes and interactions with the beasts and other pokemon. Luxray also died in "nester the long eared donkey" fashion. Need more actually dark stuff in these films, great scene.

Last part was definitely the worst with only charizard somewhat saving it. I feel like they kept repeating lines waay too much near the end. Someone do a counter for how many times "rainbow" appeared in a sentence. Also ash coming back for no reason, pikachu talking, and ho oh being cut short at the end. Could have at least shown ash attempting to throw a darn ball at the bird he's been chasing all movie.
 
Not long got back from watching it at the cinema, was real heartbreaking to watch at times

Man, Luxray actually died, I'm surprised they didn't censor it

Butterfree's release was also a heartbreaking moment though not as much as Bye Bye Butterfree

Brilliant work from all voice actors for doing a good job but why was Team Rocket included, they appearances were as useless and boring as watching paint dry
 
I just got back from seeing this tonight. It was really enjoyable.

The film doesn't stray from what Pokemon does, which is fine, as that's what I'm there for. I recommend seeing it if you're a fan.

I back what people have been saying about the ending theme, utterly beautiful. I welled up.
 
The amount of hatred at my theater really surprised me because I loved the movie to death! Its probably not my favorite, but its definitely in my top 3. I loved the animation and the ending song so much too!

EDIT: I'm SUPER glad they skipped the gym battles with Misty and Brock. I thought of it as a giant middle finger to the people who keep saying "I'm not going to watch because Misty and Brock aren't in it anymore" and I felt like this was a way of saying the creators could care less lol
 
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So I've had some time to consider my stance on this movie and to be honest I think it was... perfectly fine. It's not the best Pokemon movie, but it's definitely in the upper range.

First of all, the animation is AMAZING. Seriously, no other movie has looked this gorgeous and I'm really glad I got to see it on the big screen. When it comes to representing the world of Pokemon at large, this one beats them all (to be fair, this is the only one not mostly because it set in one unique location so it's not like it had to work hard for that distinction).

The story was fine for what it was, which was a loose retelling of Ash's first journey through Kanto. It interested me that Ash spent a good portion of his journey alone; he didn't meet Verity and Sorrel until after he'd won his third badge... of course, don't ask me how he managed to get that far with just Pikachu and Caterpie. My only complaint about Ash's character in this is that he doesn't seem to be that inclined to catch Pokemon. As soon as he's got Caterpie, that's it. Hell, if he hadn't stumbled upon Charmander he'd have ended the movie with just Pikachu.

Also, I couldn't help but laugh when Ash heard about Entei being nearby, ran out of the Pokemon Center and literally ran into it twenty seconds later without any kind of indication time had passed. That kid is way too lucky.

Also, there's another scene I wanted to mention; the one where he drives away Pikachu after he loses badly to Cross. The way people described it, I'd expected Ash to do something like scream "WHY DON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE? I NEVER WANTED YOU AS A STARTER ANYWAY!" to Pikachu but no... he just wishes for a brief second that he'd started with Squirtle and instantly regrets it. That doesn't seem so bad to me, we've seen Ash can say stupid things when upset. Hell, him telling Bayleef to get lost in the episode after it evolved was way worse than this, IMO.

Verity and Sorrel just came across as basic movie side-characters. Given a decent personality and somewhat of a backstory and that's it. Of course, I've already mentioned Sorrel's absolute nightmare of a backstory but Verity's is a lot more tame; she just wants to get away from her mom (and I don't care what anyone says, her mom is Cynthia... they have the same hair and face shape). Kinda reminds me of Serena, to be honest. Sadly, Piplup and Lucario don't really bring anything to the story than just being there... so hey, this really is like Ash's first journey in that his companions' Pokemon get no real personality.

Cross was a great rival, absolutely a mix of the best qualities of both Gary and Paul. I miss Ash having a rival he doesn't get along with and who really gives him a run for his money and forces him to knuckle down and work harder.

The story wasn't that great, it's basically Ash and friends heading towards a mountain with random events getting in the way. Also, Marshadow was wasted in this movie doing nothing until becoming a penultimate chapter villain like the Block Robot from the Deoxys movie... I'd heard Marshadow was forced on the writers by Nintendo as they had to advertise Sun and Moon and if true it definitely shows. Bonji didn't do anything and WHY WERE TEAM ROCKET EVEN IN THIS MOVIE?! They do nothing but appear on screen, rhyme a couple of lines (I haven't watched the dub for a while so it's nice to know Zoppi's writing is still terrible) and get blasted off. Remember the Kyurem movie when they made brief cameos and that was it. We needed that here.

Also, I wish we'd had an explanation as to how Pikachu talked. Still, it was nice to see Ash get him to go inside his Poke Ball for once.

So yeah, this movie had good stuff and bad stuff. All in all, I'll call it a decent experiment but not one I'm sure I'd like to see repeated.
 
SPOILERS BELOW!





Just got back from seeing it. Like many others, this was the first time seeing Pokemon on the silver screen in well over a decade. And I'm glad I went, I wasn't going to pass the opportunity. I don't think this was a great movie, but I didn't hate it either. And I'm going to have to start with Pikachu talking. WTF was that? As soon as he talked, everyone in my theater (about 30 people) laughed and were confused. It's all anyone could focus on for the remaining ten minutes or so. In fact a few minutes before that I thought to myself that it was nice how there weren't any telepathic/talking Pokemon in this movie. Also I thought it just as crazy that he went inside his Pokeball.

Cross was a decent antagonist I thought - kind of like Paul's arc condensed into 90 minutes. It worked for the film imo.

I'm a bit confused as to Marshadow's role. It was clearly antagonistic for all of it (causing, or augmenting, Ash's negativity) until the researcher said it guides the Rainbow Hero, and seals the color/light of the Rainbow Wing (protecting it?). Which I inferred as a bit of a benevolent attitude and role. But I don't know. Maybe I missed something.

As generic as the two traveling companions were, I actually want to see more of them, I think they have potential as characters.

I give the movie a 6/10
 
Okay, guess I'll leave my review after going to the theaters to watch it:

It was nice actually. Went from being an alternate take on ep 1 to becoming its own tale very very quickly (should we call this the "Ash receives Ho-oh's feather/Rainbow Road Ash universe?). I like how and why Ash meets and travels with Verity and Sorrel. I also loved it more that the group were a trio of equals moving together towards a temporary similar goal than what we get on the shows.

Cross (who looks like he came straight out from one of Level-5's works, well so does Marshadow but, hey) was a pretty decent antagonist and jeebus that first Charmeleon fight was brutal (that animation quality really took the injuries and aftermath home).

I'm also gonna say this: I LIKED Ash's behavior after that crushing loss. His actions were childish, but pure like any child who wouldn't see the different aspects of virtue and victory. This was further taken home in his dream (world without Pokemon) and his (admittedly awkward from an adult's perspective) views on what being a Pokemon Master is before this fallout. The boy is a kid, a pure legit (though very durable) kid who loves life and wants to travel the world with his friends.
The movie had it's many flaws (and there were many) but as far as probably explaining to the audience, reminding the audience old and new who Ash Ketchum is at his core was one the movie did wonderfully.

I also give it a nod on actually making me happy to see Charizard for a change. Never liked the fellow.

Team Rocket was kinda just there, but I like the fact they didn't get in the way.

It was an alright movie and worth the big screen watch if you want to go for it. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing more of THIS Ash & Pika and the countless adventures they're having.
 
I just got home from watching the movie and overall, I think it was a good movie that caters to both people that grew up with the OS, and also the newer generation of watchers.

I do feel that some parts were kind of rushed and unnecessary. The Butterfree scene is a good example of that. As Caterpie, it was caught during the openning montage, and there was not enough time for Ash to bond with it the way he did during in the main Anime. By the time he released it, it wasn't as sad to me as it was when I watched the actual episode. I feel like Ash should've just kept his Butterfree in this timeline, and used that Bye Bye Butterfree scene to improve or add more to the main plot of the movie.

I also noticed that they tried to mimic some moments from the original anime and fit them in the movie. Like when they were inside the cave and they were telling their Pokemon to go in the ball because it's cold, but they come out of their ball regardless (reference to Snow Way Out) and in the end when Ash, and his companions go their separate ways.


As far as the dub goes, it was unsurprisingly the same old TPCi style dub. But I do give credit where it deserves, and that goes to Sarah Natochenny. I feel like she did a good job as Ash, and I feel like she really tried her best to take on Veronica's version of EP01. Cathcart's Professor Oak was slightly beter than his usual take during the main anime. But his James and Meowth were still cringey, but thankfully Team Rocket's appearance was kept to a minimum. It was also nice to hear Michele Knotz reprise her role as Piplup (Its one of my top favorite Pokemon) I grew up with the 4Kids version of Pokemon but I always try not to be baised when reviewing the dub, because I know that both the TPCi and 4Kids versions have had their pros and cons.

One thing I always wondered since I saw the Japanese trailer of this movie, and that was who would voice Charmander now that Tom Wayland was no longer with TPCi? (I was not a fan of his Charmander voice during BW and early XY) I was hoping his original VA would return to voice him in the movie, but it sounds like Bill Rogers voiced him instead. His take on Charmander sounds like if Brock's sudowoodo learned to say the word "charmander". It made me prefer Wayland's version instead . That's just my opinion.
 
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If that is true about Charmander, this movie needs to burn. Nobody, nobody comes anywhere close to Michael Haigney who is Charmander’s original VA. It was bad enough he got voiced by a rapist. Now we have Bill Rogers. Yuck.
 
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