The second of the Pokémon movies is made
up of two features - the short, "Pikachu's Rescue
Adventure," and the main movie, "The Power of
One."
Cert: PG
Length: 97 mins
Dir: Kunihiko Yuyama (Japanese Production), Michael Haigney
(US Adaptation)
Starring: Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart, Ikue
Otani, Adam Blaustein, Amy Birnbaum, Stan Hart, Ed Paul, Tara
Jayne, Neil Stewart, Eric Rath.
The second of the Pokémon movies is made
up of two features - the short, "Pikachu's Rescue
Adventure," and the main movie, "The Power of
One."
"PIKACHU'S RESCUE ADVENTURE"
Ash and the gang stop to rest somewhere along their journey, and as they sleep, Togepi wanders off, as is his wont. Pikachu and the other Pokémon are led to him by an Eleckid, and they discover that he's... er... well... joined an Eggsecute. After an entertaining little musical number from some random Pokémon, a storm whips up, and threatens the blow Togepi and the Eggsecute away - along with everything else. All the Pokémon team up to save him, with Pikachu and Eleckid using their powers to deflect the lightning, then a Chansey comes along with the missing Eggsecute that Togepi replaced. The Eggsecute evolve into an Eggexutor, and there's a typical Pokémon "wave bye-bye" sequence as the Pokémon return to Ash and co.
While it's no masterpiece of storytelling, "Pikachu's Rescue Adventure" is still more enjoyable than "Pikachu's Vacation," with nice animation that's better than that used in "Mewtwo Strikes Back." It's a cute little story with some particularly nice music, and Squirtle gets to whip out his ass-whoopin' shades, which is always a plus in my book.
"THE POWER OF ONE"
The animation quality of "The Power of One" is above that of "Mewtwo Strikes Back," but it gets iffy in some places, particularly when there's CGI involved - but we'll come to that later.
The movie opens up on an island shrine, as a crisply cool
British voice recites an ancient prophecy, regarding the titans
of fire, ice and lighting, the beast of the sea who will attempt
to stop the battle between the titans, and the Chosen One who
will save them all (the prophecy's actually in rhyme, but I
didn't notice that at first). The voice belongs to Lawrence III;
a Pokémon Collector (who's never referred to by name in the
film) who has plans all his own for the titans - the legendary
Pokémon, Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno (displayed on a
CGI-rendered computer read-out, which looks pretty nifty).
Lawrence, aboard his flying fortress (also CGI, but with a
horrible design), captures Moltres, setting in motion the events
of the prophecy, which will summon the powerful Lugia (who's then
shown in shadow, in the best example of cell animation being
mixed with CGI).
Then it's time to check in on Ash and crew, who are presently on
a boat with Erin, another Random Beautiful Girl in the Orange
Islands. We get a peculiar techno remix of "Pokémon
World," and see that Team Rocket are on our heroes' trail,
as a storm soon whips up and blows them off course, landing them
on Shamooti Island, where they find they've arrived in time for a
festival involving the legend of the Chosen One. Melody, the
"festival princess," selects Ash to be the Chosen One
for the festival, and gives him a "welcome kiss", which
promptly drives Misty quite, quite insane with jealously, but
Ash, bless him, doesn't even notice. That boy's a few sandwiches
short of a picnic.
Oh, and Melody, by the way, has that generic female voice that I
mentioned in my review of the first movie. And also knows Misty's
name when she hasn't been told it.
At the festival, Misty's rampaging jealous anger continues as
Melody gives her performance, and then explains to Ash that it's
his job to get three treasures from Fire, Ice and Lighting Island
to fulfil his part of the festival. Ash is intent on setting out
at once, and Pikachu steals his hat to get him moving faster
(though Ash gets unusually pissed about this). Ash and Erin head
out to Fire Island, but get caught in another storm, as the
elements all across the world are disrupted - Moltres's capture
has lead to a shift in the balance of power, causing the
underwater current running through the islands to spread across
the world, wreaking havoc with nature. Misty and Melody, arguing
all the way, head out after them with Tracey (who does absolutely
*nothing* in this film), and Team Rocket stow away in their boat.
Everyone crashes on Fire Island, where Ash finds the first
treasure, which glows in his hand. Enter Team Rocket, who once
again don't get to finish doing their motto, and as Melody and
Misty argue some more, a historical Pokémon scene occurs, as
James outs himself, happily proclaiming that he stays away from
the opposite sex.
Anyway... Zapdos then arrives on the island, intent on taking
over after Moltres's disappearance - but Lawrence and his
fortress then arrive and drain off Zapdos's powers, capturing
him, but accidentally picking up the kids and Team Rocket, too.
They are all pulled into the fortress in a particularly bad
display of cell animation overlaid on top of CGI, and Lawrence
introduces himself as Pokémon collector, much to Misty's
disgust, as Pokémon aren't just things to collect.
...heh.
Lawrence proceeds to make the biggest mistake a villain can, and
leaves his captives alone in the room with Moltres and Zapdos as
he goes off to capture Articuno. Ash uses his cure-all answer for
stuff - he RUNS at Moltres, and gets zapped by the energy field
around him.
(By the way, I'm serious about that running stuff. Ash does it
ALL the time. First movie - he runs directly at Mewtwo. Third
movie - he runs straight into the Unown's energy field. Mewtwo
Returns - he repeatedly runs into the force field generators. The
boy is DUMB.)
The kids and Team Rocket all use their Pokémon, and Moltres is
freed. He then frees Zapdos, and for whatever reason, the two of
them start fighting, fragging Lawrence's fortress in the process.
It crashes onto Lightning Island, as the gang run out of it in
what's definitely the worst use of cell-on-CGI. Ash finds the
Lightning treasure, and they escape the battling birds and head
back to Shamooti, where a Slowking directs Ash to put the
treasures into the shrine there. I'm quite surprised that a
bigger deal isn't made of the fact that Slowking can talk -
likewise I'm surprised that Ash doesn't yank out Dexter first
thing (or at all, actually). Then, the sea erupts, and Lugia
appears, confronting the Legendary Birds, but being defeated by
them. Slowking explains that Ash is the true Chosen One, foretold
by legend, who will save the world - all he needs to do is get
the third treasure from Ice Island. Melody plays the festival
song, and Lugia is re-energised, protecting Ash from the attacks
of the other birds as he and his Pokémon head out across the ice
to retrieve the last treasure. Team Rocket arrive in a motorised
raft they've cooked up, and want to help Ash - 'cause they want
to be heroes for once! They all make it to Ice Island, Ash grabs
the third treasure, and Lugia flies him back, as Pokémon from
all over the world converge on Shamooti, to watch as the fate of
the world is decided.
However, it's not to be just yet, as Lawrence attempts to capture
Lugia, causing Ash to be hurled into the sea. Lugia destroys
Lawrence's fortress, but falls beneath the waters, as Misty swims
out to rescue Ash (I'm surprised she's not freezing her ass
off... she's still wearing her shorts!). Ash puts the third
treasure in place, and Melody begins to play the festival song,
as a green liquid runs from the shrine, restoring nature to the
way it should be. Lugia emerges, and he and Ash fly through the
air as the underwater current, the "beast of the sea,"
is returned to normal and the legendary birds return to their
islands. You have to wonder, though - what happens to all the
Pokémon who were standing on the ice? It was specifically said
that the land-based ones couldn't swim out to the island, so they
certainly couldn't swim back... they all drowned, I tell you!
As Ash and his mother get huggy, Lawrence stands among the ruins
of his fortress and vows to begin it all again. Team Rocket are
happy to have been the heroes for once, but they're disappointed
that no-one saw them. Slowking tells them that's not true, and
they all turn to look into the camera as he says lots of people
saw them and are watching right now.
"The Power of One" is a good story, that's better
constructed than "Mewtwo Strikes Back," and mixes the
best elements of Pokémon - action, humour and that little tiny
bit of romance - all together very well, in a tale with an epic,
world-threatening kinda grandeur that amps it all up. Musically,
the film's score is largely good, aside from the oft-repeated few
bars of "heroic" music that play mostly when the kids
are out in the boats before they reach Fire Island, which just
feels a little out of place, and the way in which the festival
song changes from a simple tune played on a shell into a massive
percussion-filled orchestral piece, making it look *very* odd
when we cut back to Melody during it all, who appears to be
producing all this noise from a single sea-shell. The film is
better for not using soundtrack tunes during the feature itself,
but anything that has 'Weird Al' Yankovic on it's ST gets my seal
of approval. Everybody, Polkamon! The film also has COLOSSAL
'shipper appeal, as it's main sub-plot is basically "Misty
Wants Ash Bad." It's one of those rare moments when they
actually make it incontrovertible that Misty's hot for Ash.
The movie loses points, however, for lack on explanation on some
things, especially Lawrence. A little time given over to his
history would have been great - he made a good villain, but the
reason behind his collector's mentality isn't really explained,
aside from "I started with a Mew card." Some insight
into his motivations would have been much appreciated. Also, for
the most part, the CGI is unsightly, not because it's badly done,
but because it doesn't blend well with the cell animation around
it.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
By the by, "The Power of One," like the third Digimon
movie, is out of continuity with the series (which I suppose
voids James coming out of the closet, but what can you do...). In
the series, Moltres was apparently the flame at the Pokémon
Stadium - I, for one, was content to believe that the flame
wasn't *really* a Moltres, and just assumed the form of one
'cause it was lit from a Moltres's fires, which didn't go against
anything this movie said, but then, in the fourth season, it was
shown that in the anime continuity, Articuno hangs out in the
Johto region, not in the Orange Islands, which definitely
contradicts this movie. Of course, if you can't wrap your mind
around that, you could always rationalise it and say that's his
cousin, Fred Articuno.