I Choose You plays out a little like a greatest hits of the show's first season. Ash and Pikachu are initially at odds with one another, they get attacked by a flock of Spearow, Ash catches his own Caterpie which later evolves up through Metapod and Butterfree, before being set free to migrate south, and he shelters an abused Charmander left out in the rain who later evolves up to become his trusty Charizard. However most crucially that brief, inspirational appearance of Ho-Oh in the first episode is not only present, but becomes the primary drive of the film's narrative. Seeing as that cameo never got any payoff in the show, and Ho-Oh missed out on its own movie, I was actually really happy this was the direction they decided to take. With this they also picked up a bunch of stuff from the games as well, such as the Rainbow Wing, Ho-Oh's tower being burnt down, and the creation of Raikou, Entei, and Suicune, making for a thoroughly compelling and unique legendary Pokemon hunt (unlike Mewtwo Strikes Back, The Power of One, or Spell of the Unown, Ash actively hunts down the legendary Pokemon rather than accidentally falling into its path).
There's other changes as well of course. This is less of a retelling and more of a complete re-imagining. Brock and Misty are nowhere to be seen, and honestly I didn't miss them. Why would a couple of Gym Leaders abandon their posts to go on an adventure with a ten year old? It makes more sense that Ash would attach himself to like-minded peers. Not only that, but Verity and Sorrel were much less annoying, and had some relatable and tragic backstories that made them instantly more interesting. Sorrel's backstory in particular is surprisingly dark and heartbreaking, while Verity's is itself an obscure reference. Charizard is also not a complete jerk to Ash, which not only saves a bunch of time in an already cramped movie, but also reinforces that this Ash is much more capable and sure of himself. It's not long into the movie's runtime that he's already gathered three gym badges, and he wins most of his trainer battles too. In fact on that note I Choose You has a whole bunch of actual Pokemon battles, something decidedly absent from the original anime, and they're all great to actually watch for once. There's no Gary either, replaced instead with Cross, who's basically the exact same character without the personal connection; all he cares about is winning and strength, and he views friendship as a weakness. This also ties Charmander into the film's story really as well, rather than it just being a random callback like a few others end up feeling like (looking at you Team Rocket).
In fact on that note let me start my criticisms, because the treatment of Team Rocket here potentially ruins an otherwise perfectly fine movie. When they first appeared I smiled at seeing some of my favourite idiots back on screen. But they're ultimate pointless fan-service. They don't interact with Ash at all, they don't affect the story even a little. They appear, make a bad quip, and then "blast off again". You could cut out their scenes and literally nothing in the movie would have changed (other than making it less cringeworthy and giving it a tighter narrative, I guess). Similarly the Bye Bye Butterfree homage is as nice as it was the first time, except without the twenty-odd episodes of build-up. In I Choose You, I felt nothing, because Metapod had only just evolved into Butterfree less than five minutes ago.
Then there's the third act. It some ways I liked it, in others I really didn't. Marshadow plays an uncertain role throughout the movie, never sure if it's helpful or nefarious. When the big climax comes along this is just muddied even further. Marshadow becomes a bit of an antagonist controlling other nearby Pokemon to attack the group, after being told it's there as a protector of the Rainbow Wing and the one chosen by it. Motives unclear, climax confusing. Then things start looking really bad for Ash, and Pikachu talks. I mean I cringed a little at this, but I could easily reconcile it as being Ash understanding more than Ash hearing, and then it turns into a cheap callback to the most heartbreaking scene in cinema history from Mewtwo Strikes Back (I still assert this claim, fight me), except nowhere near as heartbreaking, and it's resolved quickly and without ramifications. It felt cheap, forced, and made no sense whatsoever. That said I am kind of glad they glossed over Ash's ultimate battle against Ho-Oh. Showing Ash win would've squandered Ho-Oh untouchably legendary status, but showing him lose would felt like a bit too much of a downer to end the movie on. Good, albeit unsatisfactory decision on that one.
Visually it's definitely a step up from the original series twenty years ago, with the animation a lot more...animated and crisp, and the backgrounds and settings breath their own life. Pokemon battles are brought to life with fantastic viewpoints and camera angles. However I found some of background CG to be a bit off. It was often a little too detailed, giving it that air of 3D in 2D animation from the dawn of the millenium that always looked a little weird (Titan A.E. springs to mind as an example of this).
I didn't hate I Choose You, and evidently my attachment to the original show was nowhere near strong enough for me to dislike certain elements just because they're not the same. In fact I think I liked the changes more than the similarities. I Choose You didn't feel like a condensed version of that first season, but that's a good thing. It's its own story, giving us payoff to a plot-point twenty years in the making, by taking the entire franchise back to the beginning and reimagining it from the ground up. I give I Choose You an enjoyable 7/10.
