The Pokémon Movie Collection brings together the first three Pokémon movies, and as such represents the days when the anime was in its prime in terms of popularity. In the first movie, Ash encounters Mewtwo, a Pokémon lashing out against the mistreatment by humans. In the second he must race to save the world when the legendary birds are thrown out of balance, and in the third, he encounters Pokemon who can bend reality.
The movies themselves are a mixed bag. The first movie might have had a good story going were it not executed so poorly. At several points, it seems like the audience has to take too much for granted to make the narrative work, and it really doesn’t hold up scrutiny. The second doesn’t try as much in terms of story but its vision is much better executed. Out of all three, the third is the best in this regard. It has a simple story, which still holds up and unlike the first movie the third manages to pull off the concepts it explores. It is the touching tale of a girl trying to come to terms with loss, and how to move forward.
As a group, the movies are cheesy, harmless fun. Besides a few moments in the first movie, and the third movie there isn’t much going on here but like similar anime of its type they have a goofy charm. Surprisingly Team Rocket’s appearances in these movies serve as the best metaphor for their quality. They don’t do much to justify their presence there but they are still entertaining to watch.
This collection was created as a way for Nintendo to celebrate Pokémon‘s 20th anniversary. In that regards it. During their cinema run, each movie had an animated short before the main feature. These shorts were included in the VHS and DVD releases but aren’t included here. It is bad enough that a Blu-ray release somehow contains less extra content than a 20-year-old VHS release, but this is meant to be a celebration of Pokémon‘s 20th anniversary. It is baffling that no effort was made in terms of special features. Even simply bringing over the special features from the DVDs would have been better than nothing.
The Pokémon movies are silly fun that are good for diverting your attention (each lasting just over an hour). If the lack of special features or the aforementioned shorts doesn’t bother you then you might want to check this release out. If you would miss those things you would be better off sticking to older releases.
THE POKÉMON MOVIE COLLECTION / CERT: PG / DIRECTORS: VARIOUS / SCREENWRITERS: VARIOUS / STARRING: VERONICA TAYLOR, RACHAEL LILLIS, ERIC STUART, IKUE OTANI, ED PAUL, STAN HART / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 14TH
