Hearing that the Pokémon anime was celebrating its 20th
anniversary last year made me realise two things, firstly, I’m old, and
secondly that it’s crazy that some weird game about collecting creatures and
pitting them against each other in battle would be so popular and so
recognisable even after twenty years, so much so that we’ve now come full
circle and Nintendo are re-telling and re-releasing the original animated
Pokémon story in movie format.
Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! is a feature-length reboot
of sorts, we’re re-introduced to Ash Ketchum, excited ten-year old and Pokémon
enthusiast, who, on the morning of finally becoming a Pokémon trainer, manages
to oversleep and arrives at the local expert and Pokémon-professor’s lab after
everyone else has been and gone with their freshly chosen Pokémon pals, not
being able to get his choice of a regular ‘mon, Ash has to settle with a
disobedient and feisty electric mouse named Pikachu.
What follows is more or less a condensed version of the
first season of the original anime, Ash and Pikachu struggle with a first
encounter against a flock of Spearows and Pikachu is injured, on their way to
the Pokémon Centre a mysterious Pokémon flies overhead, dropping a rainbow coloured
feather, Ash pockets the feather and decides once they’re rested up that they’ll
hunt for this unknown legendary Pokémon.
Whilst getting healed at a local Pokémon Centre, they
overhear a conversation where another trainer has encountered the legendary
Pokémon “Entei”, Ash decides he wants to find it himself, on their way they
meet and befriend a Pokémon trainer named Verity and an aspiring young Pokémon
Professor named Sorrel, who then join our duo on their way, as they travel, Ash
learns about the legendary Pokémon “Ho-oh” and Sorrel informs him that the feather
he has in his possession is in fact the Rainbow Wing, only ever bestowed to the
“Rainbow Hero”, a chosen Pokémon trainer destined to fight Ho-oh.
As our group heads from town to town, battling other
trainers along their way, they discover a young Charmander that has been abandoned
and insists on helping it, after getting it healed Ash enlists it to his team,
working together so well that it even evolves into a Charmeleon, and with this
literal fire behind him, Ash thinks himself unstoppable, until a fight against
the Charmander’s previous trainer “Cross” proves too much and he loses, upset
by this, Ash wallows in disbelief, causing the Rainbow Wing to temporarily lose
its colour.
Talked round by his friends and Pikachu, Ash regains his enthusiasm
and they set back on their route guided by the glow of the Rainbow Wing, during
which they must bid a reluctant and emotional farewell to an old friend, the same
farewell as the original series, but if you don’t feel a lump in your throat
for this moment even now, you may as well be made of stone, eventually a final
confrontation with Cross puts our friends in a perilous situation, forced to
defend themselves and their Pokémon atop the mysterious Mount Tensei.
Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! is an odd creature, what we
have is a massively abridged version of the Indigo League first season of the
anime, with a hint of the very first Pokémon movie, acting as a re-introduction
to Ash’s beginnings, who at this point in the anime’s twentieth season is a
long way from home in the Alola region and should be at least thirty two years
old by now, but by that logic Bart Simpson should be thirty eight, so I guess
we’re expected to treat the passage of time in animated features much like dog
years, but I digress.
Given that we’re seeing Ash setting out as a brand new
Pokémon trainer, initially struggling to decide whether to pick Charmander,
Squirtle, or Bulbasaur, why do we then see Pokémon from future generations?
Especially the likes of Lycanroc and Incineroar from the Sun and Moon games, are
we to suspend disbelief that Ash has travelled across multiple regions over the
course of the one hundred-plus minutes runtime of the movie? Or am I just being
too nit-picky and cynical in my old age?
Other bugbears of mine are the lack of any depth to Sorrel
and Verity, mostly serving as an aid in exposition, why no Brock and Misty?
Also, what is the point of Team Rocket? They’re not after Pikachu, they’re not
hatching any dark and nefarious plans, they’re just there, at least until they “blast
off again!” through whatever accident has caused them be catapulted out of the
current scene, and speaking of scenes, don’t get me started on “that” scene, I’m
not going into anymore detail, you’ll know it when you see it.
Despite these little foibles of mine, this is a solid
feature-length Pokémon adventure, watching these early travels with a fresh
coat of paint, compacted down and told with a slight twist is really nice and
comfortingly familiar, the standard in animation has come a long way since 1997
and really shows here, stunning scenery and smooth character animations breathe
new life into these halcyon days in the Pokemon universe, fantastic lighting
and colours set the tone for scenes perfectly.
The storm during the sequence where Ash and Pikachu are set
upon by a flock of Spearows is beautiful, hurriedly running across sodden
fields through torrential rain until Pikachu leaps into the air and blasts
their airborne pursuers with a single thunderbolt attack, lighting up their
surroundings with glorious arcing forks of yellow electricity, and the eventual
clear skies that follow, a crimson and golden sunset as our duo encounter Ho-oh,
gazing in awe as a shimmery rainbow feather flutters down from overhead into
Ash’s hand.
Everything looks so nice, it’s just a shame it’s not backed
up by better character development, but I doubt I’m the target market so we can
discount the issues I have with the film personally, for youngsters who enjoy
the current iteration of Ash’s adventures this serves as an excellent prequel,
but for those of you like me, who watched the original stories first time
around, it’s all your late 90’s, early 2000’s Saturday mornings rolled into a neat,
enjoyable, harmless two hour romp.
Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! is out on DVD 12/02/18 and Blu-ray 30/04/18