As you can guess, this movie was my childhood, in fact every Pokemon movie up until Lucario, was mine and my siblings childhood, these Pokemon movies were just so engaging, endearing and awesome, despite being corny ( come on its Pokemon), i always felt i would never be the same without these films. I love this movie and all the others so much, my siblings and i always try to watch them at least once year. But enough about my childhood, lets get on to the review. So this movie takes place in a city called altomare which is basically Venice in Pokemon world, but just as gorgeous, you could tell the animators took their time designing the city. There is a story, that legendary Pokemon called latios and latias, would protect the city from evil people with evil Pokemon, and that they had to flood the entire city, drowning the evil Pokemon ( yeah dark right), and there were only 2 survivors, a brother ( latios) and sister ( latias); from the get go this movie establishes some very interesting lore, and i only wish there was more of it. The movie starts off with ash and misty in a water Pokemon chariot race, with the master quest song playing ( This song and this moment is so awesome and memorable, i got into wake boarding just to try to replicate it), through the race you notice that latios and latias have the power of invisibility and watch over the city, latias is revealed to be able to look like a human girl. Ash and his friends then explore the city and visit the museum which has the fossils of the evil Pokemon, and a weapon that was used to protect the city using the soul of a latios ( very rich lore). Meanwhile we follow 2 sexy cat burglars who work for team rockets boss Giovanni, these 2 women are named Annie and Oakley; let me just say that these 2 became some of my favorite Pokemon villains, just their intro is awesome ( its a spy car that can turn into a jet!) their spy like style is very cool, they even have cool Pokemon; a espion and ariados who also become antagonists. Annie and Oakley's goal is to capture both legendary Pokemon, find the crystallized soul of a latios, and use the city's weapon for their own agenda. The 2 end up being very intimidating as they ruthlessly pursue latias through the city, ( they can even see through the Pokemon's invincibility, using spy glasses). The movie is very short, and cuts right to the final climax very quickly, Annie and Oakley use the weapon to control the city and resurrect the evil Pokemon, making ( gasp) ZOMBIE Pokemon!!! So... as always ash is the only one who can stop them, and there is a very impressive chase scene involving ash, latias and the zombie Pokemon. And just when you think the day is won, the weapon actually causes a tidal wave to occur, as it comes closer to destroying the city, latios give up his life to stop it ( yes an actual death in pokemon!) This leads to a bittersweet ending involving latias saying goodbye to ash, which unsettling leads to a kiss from latias to ash ( in human form, Brock was really jealous), the movie then ends with ash seeing the ghosts of latias's family in the sky. Also it shows Annie and Oakley in prison looking at a book with a picture of the collector from Pokemon 2000, establishing continuity between these movies. The story is simple but engaging almost whimsical in fact, but the music is awe inspiring, it haunts me, the end credits sequence doesn't have 1 but 5 different songs that are all very good songs. The animation looked good but nothing special, there was a lot of CGI used in this ( that wasn't very good), but as your traveling through the CGI halls of altomare, there's this beauty and atmosphere about it, i think this sort of CGI worked really well with this movie. i love this movie, and despite it having its flaws like being too short, i couldn't imagine living without it! May it touch your soul as it has touched mine.
Review of Pokémon Heroes
