There really hasn’t been much variation to the slew of Pokémon films released since the first few trilogies. After some time, narrations become familiar and repetitive. This leads to the law diminishing returns and lack luster praise from fans who crave a fresh new change. Believe it or not fans did get that, first in the twentieth season of the anime. The biggest noticeable difference was the animation style. While the anime’s look has changed over the years, much of it remained similar to how it began. Now though the designs were childlike and even more expressive than before. However, that wasn’t the case for the next film to roll out. For one, the year of this film’s release also marked the twentieth anniversary of the anime’s beginning. Rightfully so, it seems the film crew behind this production made sure to make this entry stand out from the recent films that came out.
What really shakes up the way this entry plays out is that it no longer follows the current anime and is instead a retelling of the first several episodes of season one. To some this may seem a bit blasphemous, but what helps is seeing this as an alternate continuity, not as a part of the original anime. Directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and written by Shôji Yonemura, viewers are introduced to Ash just starting his journey with Pikachu with the classic setup. Once he and Pikachu become best of friends they witness the Legendary Ho-Oh and catch a feather from the mythical creature. Along his travels he meets other trainers Sorrel (David Oliver Nelson) and Verity (Suzy Myers Jackson), learning and growing together about Ho-Oh and the stories surrounding it. The story itself actually focuses on why Ash receives the feather from Ho-Oh and the significance behind it. It’s a moment that has never been touched on in the anime other than being mentioned from time to time.
It is definitely thought out in a better way than Pokémon the Movie 2000 (1999) with the whole chosen one storyline feeling forced or random. What also makes this entry better than several before it are the numerous references shown in the film. Some of these nods are to parts of the season one anime, while others are spread out among later eras that aired in the past. It’s almost like someone was watching very carefully at each film from before and took note of what resonated most with fans. There they then insisted those elements would be included in various aspects of the movie. Shôji Yonemura is no newcomer to the franchise as they’ve been involved since very early on in the anime. The only thing in the writing that will show viewers not everything has changed, is one usual trope this franchise is notorious for. There are emotional moments that come up, but they are short lived.
The voice acting though is still as good as its been. While people wanted Veronica Taylor to reprise her role as Ash, many have become accustomed to Sarah Natochenny as Ash too and since this film takes place in an alternate timeline, it’s better Taylor did not come back. It would give fans false hope of further returns despite how much Taylor will always be the original Ash. David Oliver Nelson is good as Sorrel even though this remains to be their only voice acting credit. Suzy Myers Jackson though has worked with the anime before and works as Verity too. There’s also appearances from Billy Bob Thompson playing Cross, a selfish trainer and Mike Pollock as Bonji, a researcher who’s spent his life learning as much as he can from Ho-Oh. Of course there’s also the Team Rocket crew who are not as involved again like before, but do provide some comedy relief as expected at this point.
Visually as mentioned before the twentieth season of the anime experienced a change in character design. For this feature though the animation is closer to that of the seasons before it due to it being related to the anime’s twentieth anniversary. Cinematography is still a mystery with Aya Aoshima being credited for the work. As for music though, composing the score was Shinji Miyazaki with Ed Goldfarb attached for some reason even though an album release exists only in Japan. The music appears to be the most diverse sounding in its selection of orchestrations. There are number of different tracks that match the scenes depicted and are quite distinct in their sound. As an overall listening experience, the album is just over an hour long which is nice to see how much music there is to this entry.
Though it has not risen passed even the best in the franchise’s archive of films, it is one of the best in a long time. It may have the usual pitfall here and there, but the story focuses on an event that’s been given little attention throughout the entire anime run. References to other moments within the anime are fun recognizing too. Animation, music and voice acting are as credible as usual.
