Pokémon 4Ever
Celebi, the Voice of the Forest
Pics found by: CBIzumi
Pics from: Serebii.net
Movie Edition Reviewd: VHS
A voice in the forest... A rare Pokémon being tracked by a vicious hunter... Time travel... All of this and more make up the movie "Pokémon 4Ever: Celebi, the Voice of the Forest." This has become one of my favorite movies, and putting any Ash, Suicune, or Celebi bias aside (^^;;; ), this is my review.
The Good
There are lots of things I enjoyed about this movie. The part that plays during the theme song, in the beginning, is one of them. It's classic Ash: battling when he's supposed to be elsewhere, then hurring like hell to where he needs to be.
Seeing a Croconaw was a plus too, and I have found out that Crobat actually has feet! Eh-heh ^^; Anyway... Jessie, James, and Meowth were their usual bumbling selves early on, and Brock still goes googgly-eyed over pretty girls. As if anyone expected any different :P
Plot-wise, the whole time travel bit can get a bit confusing for younger watchers. Aside from that, the plot is the usual Good Vs. Evil, one way to win idea that the other movies used. It's a little...okay, a lot predictable, but one should still enjoy the movie.
There's the usual scatterings of puns, mostly from Team Rocket. But for me at least, those are worth a good chuckle or two ^^
Both spots where Celebi gets healed (and what follows afterwards) were areas I enjoyed. The first time, though, led me to the conclusion that the Celebi is nuts xD But the second time is what really sticks out in my mind.
Some people may even find this spot touching, where they're trying futily to revive the Celebi. What really got me during this part is that people in Pokémon actually said "die"! *fakes shock*A few of the effects were pretty neat. The fighting was classic Pokémon, and a bit suspenseful here and there. Also, the Iron Masked Marauder (so help me, that was his name) had Dark Balls that captured Pokémon and turned them evil. Evil Scizor was alright to see, Evil Sneasal was pretty cool, but my favorite had to be Evil Tyranitar. Very cool. And one Pokémon you don't want to piss off.
Overall, the movie had its good points. Obviously, I've just been talking about them :P Now, however, is the usual time to step from the Good and go in to...
The Bad
My main gripe about the movie would have to be the CG. It's used A LOT, and half the time it looks out of place...sometimes really out of place to the point of annoyance.
I'll go over the CG a bit more in following section.Besides the CG, the only other complaint worth mentioning (that I haven't said already in either section) is Suicune. Seems like he was only in the movie to purify the lake near the end of the whole thing. I guess that's dealing with the predictable plot that I touched on earlier, which is why I pretty much let it slide. Is it me, or did Suicune sound more like a rhino than a wolf (or whatever he is). He's big and all, but those are two different things. Buuttt, I'm a big Suicune fan, so this is probably trivial ^^; :P
Short section, right? Like I said, nothing but minor complaints were what I had with the movie, and few of them were worth mentioning. 'Course, you could also say I've been saving my strength for the next section.
The Ugly
I said I'd go into more detail about the CG, which is what I'm going to do. So here goes.
First off, it's used really often; there's maybe 3 shots without any CG of some sort. Sometimes it looks alright (like cell shaded, CG Suicune on a cliff) but there's too many times when it looks really out of place.
One such part is when some vines are whipping Ash and Sam, as they try to help Celebi. Half the time those digital plants aren't even timed right (which means that the boys flinch when nothing touches them, and it's really obvious). Another such part where the CG looks horrible, is then Jessie's being held upside down (by more "vines") in Evil Celebi's so-ugly-CG-it's-an-eyesore forest matter monster. Fortunately, for the most part, these pieces don't last too long. Too bad it sometimes gives the impression of lazy animation, because it's used so often. Anything of real importance was either done with CG, or had something CG'ed interact with it. Trees, tornadoes, vehicles, water at one point I think, and other such stuff. Some of it, like I said, is tolerable. But please, for the love of Pokémon fans everywhere...FIX THE DAMN CG!
......*ahem*. Next section.
Overall
Bad CG and predictable plot aside, I enjoyed the movie. The voices fit--most of the time--and the music was cool. There was an appearance by Tracey during the credits, too ^^ The Celebi was nuts, Suicune was present, Ash was...well, Ash, and the old lady had a HootHoot staff that was neat-looking xD
I also happened to like the midnight talk between Ash and Sam, and the end of the movie (before the credits) with Professor Oak.This is a movie for any fans of the series, though the younger ones will probably enjoy it the most. I'm not saying that if you're older than 15 to avoid this; by all means, if you wanna watch, then watch it. Hell, I'm 19, and you can tell I liked it :P Give the movie a chance.
One sidenote before I end this review: fans of Pikachu should watch the short included on the VHS (and DVD too, I think), "Pikachu's Pikaboo." Though the lawn mower scene is a little "Ehh oO;", the rest is pretty funny, and kinda cute at times xD If you like *takes in a deep breath* Larvitar, Granbull, Kecleon, Azurill, Bulbasaur, Totodile, Donphan, Cyndaquil, Wailmer, Togepi, Pikachu, Psyduck, Meowth, or Wobbuffet, then it's probably worth it for you to watch :P (I know I probably left a couple Pokémon out, but oh well).
Alright, that's it for now, see ya later!
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