Pokémon: The First Movie Film Review

In the nineties there was two kids shows that really took over the world the first one was Power Rangers and the second one was Pokémon. With both properties not only really making a fortune in toy sales alone but also both oddly enough scoring more then one movie with the film that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today being one that is sure to be a huge nostalgia hit for those that first saw the film back in the nineties and so then join me as I review the film that actually has two different cuts of the same dubbed version of the film with the film in question being called simply just "Pokémon: The First Movie" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when a legendary Pokémon named Mewtwo wants to destroy the world and all Pokémon it's up to Ash and friends to save the world and stop him before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this films plot being truly worthy of being the plot of a movie as while all of the other films had good plots to them as well this is only one that truly feels cinematic enough where as alot of the other plots feel like that they could be plots for a two episode special of the show with this films plot whilst it is somewhat done better the Japanese cut of the film as there they at least explain something that this film doesn't do but to be fair to this film it does streamline it's plot to make it more suitable for American kids with there not really being anything lost in the process but at the same time tho this film does feel a bit weak in parts as even tho it does get well focused on it doesn't get alot of development with alot of the scenes that gave it that development being cut from this cut of the film which does hurt this films plot as even tho it is a good plot on it's own it's one that could be done alot more better with this being a good case of the fact that the people in charge of this cut of the film were thinking more about money then they were about the actual plot of this film with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Veronica Taylor as Ash Ketchum , Rachael Lillis as Misty and Jessie and Eric Stuart as Brock and James. Also starring in this film is Ikue Ōtani as Pikachu , Satomi Kōrogi as Togepi , Maddie Blaustein as Meowth and Pirate , Jimmy Zoppi as Fergus , Ed Paul as Corey and Giovanni , Amy Birnbaum as Neesha , Lisa Ortiz as Miranda , Jay Goede as Mewtwo , Koichi Yamadera as Mew , Lee Quick as Officer Jenny , Megan Hollingshead as Nurse Joy , Philip Bartlett as Dr. Fuji and Ken Gates as The Narrator.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well the  in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Which is something that's not really all that very surprising as alot of this films voice actors are not only reprising their roles from the show but are also a bunch of really good actors in their own right and given that they are reprising their roles from the original show it does make sense that they would be able to turn in a good performance in this film as they would know there respective characters really well and would therefor know what kind of performance would best suit there characters in any given situation and while the films newer actors are passable enough in this film they just can't hold a candle to the series more established actors not that the newer actors in this film are bad because there not it's just that the actors from the show are better because of the fact that they've had the time needed to fully establish there takes on the characters with the best actor in this film being none other then Veronica Taylor as Ash Ketchum who just simply IS the character of Ash Ketchum while Sarah Natochenny does make for a good replacement in the later films and TV shows noting will ever be able to top the work that Veronica Taylor does as the character in this film as she's just so good in this film with the film being more then worth watching for her performance alone with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by this films script as the script for the film doesn't really give all of this films actors alot to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which s something that really does hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the animation for this film is the legends and the really greats that are currently over at OLM Digital. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this films animation quality not only holding up really well compared to alot of the animation that get today be it in cartoons or anime but also being a vastly huge improvement over the shows quality of animation as well which was already pretty top notch for the time period with it being made crystal clear right from the get go that there's huge visual upgrade from what we were getting on the show at the time when compared to what we are getting in this film as here all of the characters have these nice fluid movements to them alot of the time and there's alot of detail in each and every scene which does make the scene where Ash is forcing himself out of the cloning machine with Pikachu all the more frightening as you can quite clearly see just how much pain he's in and how much the arms of the cloning machine are struggling to hold him back but where this films animation truly comes alive is in it's battle scenes as the animation really does make all of the battles in this film not only feel alot more different then what we where getting on the show but alot look like the kind of battles that you'd want to see in a movie and the fact that this was the first ever feature length film that OLM did and this was the kind of quality animation that we got from it is just astounding.

Whilst this isn't technically the first time that the Pokémon Mewtwo has appeared in the franchise as he did make a cameo appearance oddly enough in an episode of the show called "The Battle Of The Badge" from what is technically the shows second season of episodes. It's in this film however where the character does take centre stage with his character being made more evil in this dubbed version of the film which is something that could work for the film as it was something that was done to make him more of typical bad guy where as in the original cut of the film while yes he did do bad things there's no denying that but it was done because of the the fact that humans had hurt him in the past and he therefor didn't really know any better as to him acting in this way was the right thing to do but for whatever reasons the makers of this cut of the film decided to rob him of any nuance and make him more of straight up bad guy which again does work for the film and it's purpose but at the same time tho it would have worked so much more better if he had that nuance retained as then us the audience would be able to able to fully understand where he's coming from something that can't happen in this cut of the film as it's presented here as him being born evil with him only turning truly evil because of the fact that he met one truly evil person in this case it's Giovanni which does make him feel like an underdeveloped character where as in the original cut of the film he does come across as being more of fully developed character this is despite the fact that he does retain the same goal in both American dubbed versions of the film.

The film does have one central message that feels at complete odds with the show as the massage here is that fighting is bad. Which is something that isn't a bad message to teach kids but at the same time tho the whole point of the show is all about these creatures fighting each other which makes this anti-fighting message in this film feel out of place weather or not this is something that was added in the American dub of the film or is in the original Japanese dub of the film is hard to say as it does feel like something that the American makers of the film would have included in order to appease parents rights groups but at the same time tho all the move movements match up pretty good so it is something that could have been done in the original Japanese dub of the film as well which is something that makes it all the more worse as they created the franchise in the first place so surely there could have been another message that the makers of this film could have included like for example "it doesn't matter who you are on the outside it's what on the inside that counts" which is something that would work with the plot of the film as Mewtwo is a clone and that is a message then even tho it's pretty vague and generic could be applied to him due to him being a clone and it's also a message that wouldn't go against what the whole franchise is built upon but on the other hand if it was something that was done to appease American parents then you have to wonder if those parents and if the people who came up with that choice even watched an episode of the show in the first place because there literally promoting a message that goes against what the entire franchise is built upon.

While thus film does have plenty of good things to be found in it it also has plenty of bad things as well like the fact that the shows main villains Jesse , James and Meowth barely have any impact on the plot of this film and are just there because of the fact that there in the show and that's really it. With another thing being the fact that whilst the film does have some intense scenes in it they don't last long enough to make a lasting impact on us the audience with the film just very quickly brushing past them for no reason whatsoever with the best example of this being the scene where Ash forces his way out of the cloning machine as barely a minuet after he does all of that all of the Pokémon that were captured by Mewtwo are set free with there not really being any reason as to why that's the case in the first placed as while yes it's strongly hinted that Ash broke the machine when he broke free of the arms that were pulling him but it's never outright said that that's the case and that is something that could have been explained a bit more as it is technically a key plot point in the film as without him doing that we wouldn't be able to have that truly emotional third act battle and yet it's something that's treated more as an afterthought with the same thing also being true for how the Pokémon crying is able to bring Ash back to life when he's turned into stone with this being something that the alternate American dubbed cut of the film actually explained and while it's understandable why alot of that opening was cut as it does go on for a quite a bit the makers of this cut of the film still could have kept in the bits that contained relevant plot information but for whatever reason they chose to streamline that part of the film and also chose to cut out anything from that part of the film that actually contained relevant plot information.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and fourteen minuets and twenty five seconds. Which is a perfectly solid running time for this film to have with the film even having more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time but at the same time tho this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as it's plot can't be that well developed due to the fact that it has to rush along to the next plot point and because of that all the films more emotional moments aren't allowed to just sit with us the audience with the best examples of this being the "Brother My Brother" song sequence and the nearly the entire middle act of the movie as from the second our heroes arrive on Mewtwo's island it feels like that the movie is just speeding towards to the end credits and with the song sequence whilst it does still work and helps to get across the films message just fine it would have worked alot more if it was something that was not only built up alot more all through out the film but also if it was allowed to sit with us the audience for alot longer as then we could take in what is meant to be this truly appalling sight but because the film has to reach the next plot point it just can't work as well as it perhaps could have done and while the characters from the show do fair a little bit in this respect but not alot of the films characters get a chance to get across what there personalities are like and even then the characters from the show only get off slightly better because of the fact that there's been several dozen episodes of the show that help to get across the characters personalities but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing it tho.

So now then as this an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action thats actually featured / presented to us un this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally tought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films action being so much more better then what it really had any right to be and yet because of the amount of storytelling that goes into all of this films action they all come off as being really cinematic with it being clear as day that the makers of this film put alot of effort into creating some really good looking action scenes as it's in this films action where the animation really does come alive and help to make what could have been seen as being some dull looking action be alot more better then anything in the show with the best example of just how good that this films action is is the films third act as we get to see lots of Pokémon fighting as well as both Mew and Mewtwo just going at it with the films action playing into the films badly done central message of how fighting is bad it doesn't change the fact that the third act fight is one that's actually really well done just due to how good the storytelling is during that sequence as we have three stories all going on at once there's the story of Mew fighting Mewtwo , the story of all of the Pokémon fighting there clones and finally there's the story of Ash trying to get down from the high tower that Mewtwo knocked up onto with all three stories coming together really well and while the rest of the films action is really good it's the films third fight that's the best of the bunch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall this film is quite easily the best Pokémon film out there just because of the fact that this one actually feels like a film whereas the other anime films just feel like extended episodes of the show and while this review is based off of the shorter American dub cut of the film this is film that's still worth watching just for the nostalgia hit alone as that's just how good that this film well and truly is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the and things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where In personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Bulbapedia , the official Pokémon fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.