Pokémon 13: Zoroark: Mestra das Ilusões

I believe it should be noted that i am a massive Zoroark fan so you might want to take my review with a pinch of salt, but i think its important that people consider the opinion of the fans when measuring a film's success.

Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions is a fun movie centering on the title character of Zoroark. The film follows Ash and Zoroark on their journey to beat the main villain of the story. Theres appearances made by a few legendaries but the main focus of the story is Zoroark and its pre-evolution of Zorua. Overall its a nice film that has our favorite characters adventuring once more.

Okay, so that was the Pokemon fan in me speaking, let's get brutally honest.

The movie suffers from common issues that other Pokemon movies suffer from. The fact that its not written incredibly well in part due to the fact its made for a younger audience. The villain isn't incredibly interesting, the plot is easy to guess, and overall I get the feeling that if you've watched one Pokemon movie, you've watched all of them. I suppose you can't entirely blame it, the producers definitely knew that the audience who would be watching the movie wouldn't be the sophisticated critic type but instead younger fans, and to that end i think they succeded. If i were a child then this movie would definitely have entertained me, even now as an older person i enjoyed seeing my favorite Pokemon appear on screen.

As Pokémon movies go, POKÉMON: ZOROARK MASTER OF ILLUSIONS is on par with the others when it comes to spectacular visuals, fast pace, and abundant action and adventure. However, the cast of characters is a bit more crowded than most, stretching our sympathies too thin among too many new (and returning) characters and giving us a villain whose strategizing is unnecessarily complicated and whose motivation struck me as much too abstract for a movie like this. (But then, most of the recent Pokémon movies have veered into increasingly abstract territory.) The antagonist here, Grings Kodai, is a media tycoon who has gotten ahead because he's able to predict the future. How he got this "gift" forms a significant backstory, complete with a flashback to a violent engagement with a "time ripple" that first appeared 20 years earlier in the locale of Crown City and which has now appeared again. Kodai's actions at that time had a devastating effect on Crown City and threaten to cause equal damage this time. The emergence of the mystical nature Pokémon, Celebi, coincides with the appearance of the time ripple. It becomes the mission of our heroes, Ash, Dawn, Brock, and various allies they pick up in town, to return Celebi to the time ripple before Kodai can get there. (Celebi was a significant character in the fourth Pokémon movie, POKÉMON 4EVER, 2002).

Also mixed up in all this is Zoroark, a Pokémon that can create mass illusions. Kodai has imprisoned Zoroark's little companion, Zorua, in order to force Zoroark to perform illusions of disaster to cause the evacuation of Crown City's Old Town district, where the time ripple is located. Zorua escapes and joins up with Ash and company in town. Zoroark goes on a rampage in town to find Zorua and is pursued by Kodai and his army of dutiful Pokémon henchmen. Zorua has psychic powers and is able to speak to humans telepathically.

Also on hand in an already overstuffed narrative are the town's three Pokémon protectors, Entei, Raikoh and Suikun, who engage in a battle with Zoroark even though they're all, technically, on the same side. At some point, there are just way too many entities in play to keep track of and it was hard to concentrate on the ones most in need of our sympathy, Celebi and Zorua. The screenplay really needed some streamlining here.

The town of Crown City is based on streets and canals found in towns in the Netherlands and Belgium. The design and layout of the town provide a breathtaking backdrop to the action. The most beautiful scenes are those where Celebi flies through town adding color and vitality to the trees and flowers along the streets. No matter how convoluted the story gets, the images are always lovely to look at.

Kodai, the lead villain, operates out of a massive airplane HQ. He's got all sorts of little high-tech gadgets assisting him, including miniature floating TV cameras, spy devices, portable cages, and little boxes that take on the forms of various Pokemon to execute deceptive maneuvers. He's quite a formidable villain, the kind this franchise needs, yet I just didn't buy the notion of a "time ripple" and his use of it to gain the power to tell the future. By the time of the events in this story, he's already in "control of the mainstream media," as one journalist character tells us, so you'd think he'd be too smart to jeopardize his position by such a risky move as paralyzing Crown City to get to the time ripple again. Besides, such a man would have an army of staffers to do his bidding, but we really only see two humans working for him, one of whom turns out to have conflicting loyalties. Granted, this is just a cartoon, but for such an intricate and suspenseful tale, I needed a stronger reason to suspend my disbelief.

As usual, Team Rocket, the TV series' trio of perennial villains, is marginalized, always popping up at the periphery, but not getting directly involved in the action. In fact, no one notices their presence in town throughout the entire movie.

Of the last seven Pokémon movies, I would argue in favor of POKÉMON: ARCEUS AND THE JEWEL OF LIFE (2009) and the latest one, POKÉMON THE MOVIE WHITE: VICTINI AND ZEKROM (2011), as the best works among them. Still, as animated adventures for children go, all the Pokémon movies deserve attention.

For the record, I watched the English-dubbed version released on R1 DVD for this review. I do wish the DVDs of these movies would feature the Japanese language track also.

NOTE: The character of Zorua appears in an episode of the current Pokémon season, "Pokémon Black and White." The episode (Season 14/#38) is "Movie Time! Zorua in 'The Legend of the Pokémon Knight'" and it premiered on the Cartoon Network on October 22, 2011. Zorua appears as a new character with no indication in Ash's reaction to him that they'd ever met before, even though the events in this movie predate the episode.

I really think this is one of the better "Pokémon" movies, but being a huge fan, it's hard not to consider them guilty pleasures. I looked up and discovered that this had more pokemon than any other movie ever made! I actually was pretty blown away by the sheer number of random pokemon that appear in this. It did give off the feeling of an epic movie. Even the length was impressive. Okay, it's really nothing that new for the pokemon mythos, but for a fan, it's quite nice. The best part is probably the villain, Grings Kodai. I honestly don't think any pokemon movie has had a more evil villain than this guy.

What I love is how hands on he is. He outright has devices that directly attack the pokemon. He's even attacking Zorua, who's practically a baby! I actually liked the allusions to "Pokémon 4Ever" and this truly was a better version of that film. Zorua is very funny, especially with his transformations and how playful he is. I feel so bad for forgetting a lot of these pokemon! Well, at least I'm keeping up with my reviews of the series. I DO intend to review the episodes eventually. It's just great to see all these creative designs. ***

This movie is better than the 9th movie, but it's still sucks.

All the "illusions" fall flat, the "avataring" goes all the place, and the writing makes as much sense as a Batman fanfic.The moment of KodaI taking over the world goes no where. The Zoroark and Kodai battles are long and senseless. AND THE "MOTHER AND CHILD" Bond theme IS SLIGHTLY IMPROVED, but still JUST offensively remarkable too. This movie is as offensively bad as the 9th movie, but it's still seems lame and unnecessary. And another attempt for Pokémon to get Ash and His friends to get back into the spotlight. BUT HEY,I TAKE OVER ANY BATMAN ANY DAY.

SO A ROTTEN STARFISH FOR THIS POKEMON MOVIE,and Pokemon's status as "one of the most backlashed Kids Anime" is still going strong.

Pokémon's Diamond and Pearl generation may have started off uneven with fans but performed okay and has garnered a deserved following. The films revolving around the series though were just as spotty in their quality of storytelling. At least the last film for this particular generation sort of put itself back in place. Unlike the last three which added on legendary behemoths in each additional sequel, this film took the one off approach. This is actually good because the trilogy of films revolving around Palkia and Dialga were not that interesting to begin with. That's not to say this movie is miles better, because it does have issues. In short it's another standard film that fans would enjoy but nothing not seen before. Thankfully it ends the 4th generation of Pokémon decently enough.

Directed and written by the duo everyone should be expecting by now, Mr. Yuyama and Sonoda made a slightly better entry this time. Ash and company continue moseying onto their next destination when they encounter a new Pokémon by the name of Zorua (Eileen Stevens). As it turns out, the main cast learn of an evil business man who has the power to see into the future named Grings Kodai (Sean Schemmel). It's this power that he uses in order to make gains solely for himself by secretly using Zorua's protector Zoroark to deceive the public. Ash and company also meet Karl (Wayne Grayson), a journalist looking to uncover Kodai's secrets as well. Again, at least the story is different and explanations are given for certain characters' motivations. Then again, it also doesn't in some places.

One good example of this is the purpose of Zorua being telepathic? This feels all too much like Pokémon Giratina and the Sky Warrior (2008). When looking at the film, even if Zorua couldn't communicate in English, the story would've went along just fine. Also the concept of Zorua and Zoroark being a shape shifter isn't new either. Ditto was the original Pokémon who could do that. Despite that though, the supporting characters feel a bit more natural as opposed to the last bunch. There not some extraordinary group of individuals with hidden powers. They're literally just regular people. What's also gratifying to see is the acknowledgment of previous Pokémon that have appeared throughout the series run that take on the role of supporting characters too. Also don't forget that Pikachu and Piplup have come a long way in partnership chemistry.

Acting from the recurring voice cast and other members were fine. As usual the team rocket characters continue to run parallel to the events that take place. Even for Zorua who is not the most necessary of characters is voiced well by Eileen Stevens for her first time joining the franchise. Erica Schroeder who first played a role in Pokémon Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is fine as the assistant to the main antagonist. Wayne Grayson as Karl does well. For those familiar with his voice, fans may recognize some of his lines and how he reads them. The same could be said for Sean Schemmel who everyone recognizes as the voice of Goku in dragonball z. It's not always apparent, but when Kodai yells or makes certain statements, fans can pick up on that it's him.

When looking at the presentation of the feature the animation is now fairly consistent from the last couple of films before it. The cinematography was again handled by Takaya Mizutani, as expected and the reason for it still isn't there, which was also expected. Not like that's it though when it comes to expectations. Reason being that Shinji Miyazaki composes the film score to this entry. Didn't see that coming. What wasn't seen coming was that for this entry, Miyazaki's contribution is weirdly underwhelming here. Miyazaki really hasn't had any times that didn't work, but it can always happen. While the music isn't bad, it's just not memorable. The score does have different vocals in certain scenes but somehow doesn't overcome the blandness. Oh well, can't win them all.

Surprisingly music wasn't as impactful as previous entries. Also the addition of another telepathic Pokémon feels very repetitive in nature with the series of films before it. The animation and voice acting is good though. It also helps that the story is independent from the last three films and changes up some of the more typical aspects of the shown prior.