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[Pokemon Movie 2: Pokemon 2000 box art]
AKA: Pokemon the Movie 2000: The Power of One, Pokemon the 2nd Movie, Pocket Monsters: Revelation Lugia
Genre: Monster battling
Length: Movie, 81 minutes
Distributor: R1 DVD and VHS from Warner Home Video
Content Rating: G
Related Series: Pikachu's Rescue Adventure, Pokemon, Pokemon movies
Also Recommended: Digimon, Sailor Moon S the Movie: Hearts in Ice, Pokemon
Notes: A short, Pikachu's Rescue Adventure, comes before the start of this movie.
Rating:

Pokemon Movie 2: Pokemon 2000

Synopsis

Ash and his friends make a pit stop on Shamuti Island while traveling around the Orange Islands. Unbeknownst ot them, though, a Pokemon collector has his eyes on three rare Pokemon, who live nearby on three separate islands: Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. It is said if all three come together, it will awaken the "beast of the sea". What is this beast, and will anyone be able to stop this collector from summoning this legendary Pokemon? All hope lies on our hero, Ash (as usual) to save the day.


Review

To tell you the truth, despite being a fan of the TV series, I've never been really interested in the Pokemon movies. They only seem to be made to introduce or promote a popular, legendary Pokemon a few months before the game that has that Pokemon in it comes out (or, if the game is already out, promote it some more). And this movie taking place in the middle of an arc of lousy filler doesn't help initial impressions, either. Nevertheless, I'll try my hardest to find something interesting to point out in my review.

.........

Well, I tried. And I just can't think of anything worth talking about. Perhaps the movie would be more interesting if they didn't make it so damn formulaic. Like all Pokemon movies, it involves Ash and (insert friends here) going to (insert place here) to stop (insert bad guy here) from summoning / pissing off (insert legendary Pokemon here), which will undoubtably (insert level of destruction here). Oh, and sprinkle random appearances by Team Rocket as well, as well as corny lines of dialogue in the English adapation ("I could use pants" says one Pokemon during a blizzard). Top this off with an unnecessary "one person can make a difference" message, a bunch of thrown-together songs for an "ending theme" in the credits roll, and you get Pokemon the Movie 2000 in a nutshell.

Animation fares slightly better than the first movie and especially the anime, but it's not going to win any awards. The music isn't bad in the English dub, but there's nothing outstanding here, either. The voice acting, however, is about as sub-par as everything else 4Kids dubs. One neat thing about the Japanese versions of the Pokemon movies is that they hire famous voice actors to work on them. So when you hear Lisa Otriz in a movie theater instead of professional voice actors that can actually act, you know you, the English-speaking Pokemon fan, are getting the short end of the stick. In fact, it's so short, you could use it to pick between your teeth.

So yeah, avoid Pokemon the Movie 2000 unless you have four year-olds to entertain. And even then they may be hard pressed to entertain with this movie. Don't forget to avoid the even worse short that comes before the film, Pikachu's Rescue Adventure. To quote the message one sees when arriving on the THEM Message Boards, "Life is too short for bad anime". This is one of them.

A boring Pokemon adventure that only fans and little kids can enjoy (one and the same, perhaps?).Tim Jones

Recommended Audience: Unless you're one of those parents who think anything Pokemon is satanic and deserves to be burned, you're not going to find a lot to offend you. The only objectionable thing here is some cartoon violence, and compared to the other movies in the series, it's pretty tame.



Version(s) Viewed: 35mm theatrical print, English dub: VHS, English dub
Review Status: Full (1/1)
Pokemon Movie 2: Pokemon 2000 © 1999 Nintendo / Creatures / Game Freak / ShoPro / Jr Kikau / Pikachu Project '99
 
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