Review PK22: Pikachu's Summer Bridge Story

[Dogasu]

Last year's ANA Pokemon short is now available on DVD in Japan! Here's a plot synopsis, via Bulbapedia:

Ash's Pikachu and friends visit a town with a huge draw bridge, but problems arise when they come across Ash's Oshawott and Tepig, who have eaten the fruits that wild Gothita and Darumaka had collected. They head off to collect fruits from the forest across the bridge, but then Meowth appears and tries to steal the fruits. On top of that, the bridge is raised, blocking their passage. What will Pikachu do? The fight for the fruits begins!!

Has anyone had a chance to check this out yet?

 

[Dogasu]

So, since no one's talking about this: Pictures!

Spoiler

 

[PTOldMan]

Does anyone know if Yamask and Woobat show some traces of personality in this short? (I'm more curious about Woobat, Yamask has already shown some (even if few) traces of personality)

 

[Musashi]

The DVD came today so I finally got a chance to watch this. I find the narrator annoying so I watched the short non translated. I switched it on to see what Koromori and Desumasu were saying, but their dialogue wasn't translated. -_-

The special was really cute. Tsutarja was the mom of the group as usual, but outside of that didn't do much. Yannapu got tons of screen time oddly enough, but it would've been nice to see it more evenly spread out. Kibago only did one thing near the end, and Mijumaru and Pokabu only got the story started by eating the other Pokemon's apples and then not much else.

There's not much to say about the story itself. Pretty standard stuff on the gang trying to find apples and being occasionally interrupted by Nyasu, Koromori and Desumasu, as well as needing to fight off a few Pokemon. Though like I said Yanappu did the most aside from Pikachu.

The ANA plane flying by near the end was hilarious product placement. Just in case everyone forgot what airline they were currently using.

To answer @PTOldMan; Koromori and Desumasu were pretty much just Nyasu's lackeys and didn't really do much on their own except save Nyasu's ass. So I wouldn't really say they got to show much personality. However, it was really adorable when they flew him around. They should've just done that the whole time so poor Nyasu wouldn't keep getting hurt. I also couldn't help but laugh when they dug a pit trap from the twerps's Pokemon. XD It's too bad we didn't see them digging. I'm curious how Koromori would've pulled that off. XD

The only downside is that same stupid gag that's in all these shorts, where the Rocket Pokemon are put to sleep by some Pokemon (this time Chillarmy) using sing. It swept them away each time so that was kinda funny, but I'm just so sick of this gag. It couldn't even leave them be to watch the fireworks?

The ending song was BW Ierukana. No clips of the special, just the regular animation we saw in the tv show.

So while this wasn't as good as Pikachu's Big Mysterious Adventure, it was still fun to watch. BW066 (Buffron afro episode) was also included on the disc for anyone thinking of picking this up. The first press contained stickers of Chillarmy, Pikachu, Nyasu, Tsutarja/Pokabu/Mijumaru, and Kibago/Yanappu.

 

[Grave-E]

I like the sound of Pansage getting lots of screentime. Out of all the main cast pokemon included in this short, I think he's the one that kind of needed that moment in the limelight the most. He doesn't get much to do in the tv series.
Did he act a lot like Dent does, or did he get his own unique type of personality during this, I wonder?

The only downside is that same stupid gag that's in all these shorts, where the Rocket Pokemon are put to sleep by some Pokemon (this time Chillarmy) using sing.

God damn. It was looking so promising too, since they couldn't use that horrible Marill any more...

 

[Musashi]

Did he act a lot like Dent does, or did he get his own unique type of personality during this, I wonder?

All the Pokemon acted just like the do in the show so there's not much more I can really say. Maybe the translated version gives more insight, but there wasn't really enough of a plot for them to show off more personality.

Though we did get to see Tsutarja be a badass again. An air slash was coming towards Kibago when he was putting apples in a bag, and Tsutarja was able to sense it and block it away. Surprisingly it wasn't from Koromori, so hooray for this thing not being completely predictable.

God damn. It was looking so promising too, since they couldn't use that horrible Marill any more...

I know. :-( But as soon as Chillarmy appeared behind the surfboard Koromori and Desumasu found, I knew what was coming...

 

[Eitarou]

Oh, great. More singing Pokemon that aren't Jigglypuff.

 

[Dogasu]

So, here's the new Purin Marril:

Spoiler

 

[garrison-san]

I've finally had the chance to see this short, so here's a review!

By now, the ANA films have settled themselves into a familiar formula - Pikachu and friends go on a light-hearted adventure to assist some other pokemon, Meowth and the other Rocket pokemon follow them with mischeivous intent, only to have kismet routinely mock them in the form of an omnipresent singing pokemon, the ANA plane shows up for some random and seriously unsubtle product placement - making this a pretty by-the-numbers affair, though if you liked the previous ANA shorts then you'll probably find enough to enjoy here too.

If there's a weakness, it's that the Unova pokemon don't fit the formula quite as well as the Sinnoh cast did. Piplup's bumbling is sorely missed, and Woobat and Yamask don't have anything close to the chemistry with Meowth that Wobbuffet did (it was cute how they would fly him around every so often, though I agree with Musashi that it seemed odd that they didn't just make that their default means of getting across peril). That said, the balance amongst the Unova cast is surprising - the starters get pretty much nothing to do which isn't directly functional to the plot (Oshawott does not take Piplup's place as class clown here - which many would probably consider a good thing) and there were times when Pansage almost seems to supercede Pikachu as the brains/leadership of the group. Note that only Pika, the starters, Axew and Pansage appear...the rest of the main cast's teams don't get so much as a cameo at the beginning or end of the film.

I know that most people hate the running gag with the singing pokemon causing endless grief to the rockets, though it did lead to a pretty amusing scene, I thought, where Meowth goes off on a paranoid rant about the likelihood of Minccino showing up and sabotaging their apparent good fortune (I don't understand much Japanese, but it seemed safe to assume that was what was happening, anyway). As I say, the ANA formula is ruthlessly persistent, so it's fun seeing them actually get a self-conscious joke out of it.

If the ANA films have never been your thing, then I'm guessing that "Pikachu's Summer Bridge Story" is unlikely to do much to convert you, but you're a fan then it's definitely worth a watch.