I saw this because I liked MSB and I thought the trailer for this one looked cool. Sorry, people, but I was mostly disappointed.
"Pikachu's Rescue Vacation"--Its one redeeming quality was that at least there were no unnecessary shots of Pokemon against those weird backgrounds. Other than that, unmemorable.
"Power of One"--Granted, there were some nice climactic action scenes, but the story just did not gel for me. And while I know that Lawrence III (the 'collector') is supposed to be a one-dimensional villain (by that I mean totally consumed with greed), he just did not have enough presence on screen or plotwise for me to consider him a real threat; instead, he merely came off as a nuisance. Mewtwo, on the other hand, had plenty of screen time and let it be known that he was truly a force to be reckoned with. And the term "villain" could not be loosely applied with him. Yes, what he did was wrong, but his motive was one I can identify with: being angry because of circumstances beyond your control (in this case, his "birth"). He saw the error of his ways and decided to change. Mewtwo is still the most well-voiced (thanks to Philip Bartlett) and well-developed character in the Pokemon world.
Music--I didn't care too much for the songs I heard. The music score was good, but not as good as MSB. For people who complain about the "bubblegum pop" in MSB, hear me out: There are 16 songs on that soundtrack album. Unless I miscounted, only 8 appear in the film (and mostly over the title/end credits). Therefore, MOST of the "bubblegum" is on the soundtrack album, NOT IN THE FILM ITSELF!! And remember, the songs and the instrumental music score are TWO SEPARATE THINGS. The MSB score nailed the action and drama perfectly, more so than the second did.
I guess it's time for me to get off my soapbox now, but here is the final word: The best part of my "Pokemon 2000" moviegoing experience was seeing the entertaining trailers for Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove" and--some people may hate me for saying this--Fox's "Digimon: The Movie."
"Pikachu's Rescue Vacation"--Its one redeeming quality was that at least there were no unnecessary shots of Pokemon against those weird backgrounds. Other than that, unmemorable.
"Power of One"--Granted, there were some nice climactic action scenes, but the story just did not gel for me. And while I know that Lawrence III (the 'collector') is supposed to be a one-dimensional villain (by that I mean totally consumed with greed), he just did not have enough presence on screen or plotwise for me to consider him a real threat; instead, he merely came off as a nuisance. Mewtwo, on the other hand, had plenty of screen time and let it be known that he was truly a force to be reckoned with. And the term "villain" could not be loosely applied with him. Yes, what he did was wrong, but his motive was one I can identify with: being angry because of circumstances beyond your control (in this case, his "birth"). He saw the error of his ways and decided to change. Mewtwo is still the most well-voiced (thanks to Philip Bartlett) and well-developed character in the Pokemon world.
Music--I didn't care too much for the songs I heard. The music score was good, but not as good as MSB. For people who complain about the "bubblegum pop" in MSB, hear me out: There are 16 songs on that soundtrack album. Unless I miscounted, only 8 appear in the film (and mostly over the title/end credits). Therefore, MOST of the "bubblegum" is on the soundtrack album, NOT IN THE FILM ITSELF!! And remember, the songs and the instrumental music score are TWO SEPARATE THINGS. The MSB score nailed the action and drama perfectly, more so than the second did.
I guess it's time for me to get off my soapbox now, but here is the final word: The best part of my "Pokemon 2000" moviegoing experience was seeing the entertaining trailers for Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove" and--some people may hate me for saying this--Fox's "Digimon: The Movie."