Pokémon 4ever : Celebi, la voix de la forêt

Out of these Pokemon films (which are in order of best to least for me): Pokemon The First Movie, Pokemon 4Ever, Pokemon Heroes, Pokemon 200 and Pokemon: Entei and the Unknown, this is probably the one most concerning the environment, arguably the most beautiful and the most calming one. Whether these are good points for you or not, "Pokemon 4Ever," still has entertained many.

As well as the three points covered above, this pokemon film includes good humour and good CGI (as well as anime). The time travelling theme of the film is represented in a good way and Team Rocket (the comic reliefs/rubbish baddies) end up with quite good gags and end up being more main characters than sidekicks.

The flaws are, as always, the rather unnecessary violence and action and the baddie is pretty uninteresting, even more so than a few Pokemon film baddies.

A strange pokemon is being tracked down by a pokemon hunter in a forest. A young boy tries to save the pokemon and it takes him somewhere...

Meanwhile, Ash, Brock and Misty are entering a large forest...

Curious? Watch the rest...

Good for all Pokemon fans and "American" anime movie fans, enjoy "Pokemon 4Ever"! :-)

Another Pokemon movie has hit the theaters, and again, I'm hearing the same old, "Pokemon is dead, blah blah blah." The franchise's detractors couldn't be more wrong. Kids are still playing the trading card game, they're still watching the TV series, they're waiting for the Game Boy Advance games, and they want to see "Pokemon the 4th Movie."

That said, "Pokemon The 4th Movie" introduces us to two more "legendary" Pokemon: Suicune, the "north wind" of lore, and Celebi, guardian of the forest (and star of the show). Celebi transports itself and a boy named Sam 40 years into the future, to the present day, where Pokemon trainer Ash, his faithful Pikachu, and his friends Brock and Misty are traveling through Johto. Sam and Ash become fast friends, once they discover the other's mutual love for Pokemon (Sam's vintage Pokeball with screw-on top is a great moment). Together, they decide to protect Celebi from the villain of the story, the Team Rocket agent aptly named Vicious, who is hell-bent on capturing Celebi for his own ends. Will Ash and Sam be able to protect Celebi from Vicious' Dark Balls? Where does Suicune fit into the picture? Will Jessie, James, and Meowth have bigger parts in this movie than before? And just who is Sam, really?

Like with the first 3 movies, if you go into the movie deciding that you're automatically going to hate it no matter what simply because it's Pokemon (or just because your child/niece/nephew/younger sibling/et cetera "dragged" you into it), then you're going to hate it because you've decided that you want to hate it. That may be, but to blindly trash "Pokemon The 4th Movie" simply because it is a Pokemon movie, and especially without having seen it, is just plain stupid. Even non-fans can enjoy this movie without having to know every last detail of the world of Pokemon. I'm not saying that you WILL become a Pokemon fan because of this movie, but you CAN indeed enjoy it, if you'll let yourself.

Unlike the first 3 Pokemon movies, "Pokemon the 4th Movie" is being distributed by Miramax, who I've heard is also working on securing the rights to the 5th Pokemon movie, which was released this past summer in Japan. Miramax claims to have some boffo-aggressive marketing strategy for "Pokemon The 4th Movie," but all I've seen so far is a feeble limited release, which doesn't include the usual Pikachu short in the beginning, which I was really looking forward to this time. I hope that Miramax will see fit to put the Pikachu short, called "Pikachu's Exciting Hide-and-Seek," onto at least the DVD/VHS release, if not with a future wider release of "Pokemon The 4th Movie." I hope that the current release is just the tip of the iceberg for this very entertaining film.

The fourth installment in the Pokemon film series is quite a different one. With more of a time travel feel to it, this movie will entertain most fans of the show at it's use of this phenomenon. Attempting to show to use more of a moral about friendship this film does...and that is quite a little overdone. It should be noted that time paradoxes were very much avoided, and they ought to be commended for that. Still, it contained a little too much childishness for comfort, being not an example that Pokemon isn't just for kids. If you,like my father, are watching it for the sake of your child's happiness...don't worry. You'll be entertained somewhat and will not sit through as long of a film as the other three. Still not nearly the best they can do, your family Pokemon fan will like it.

As a Pokémon fan I enjoyed this movie very much. It introduces new legendary Pokémon (as each movie does) and adds depth to the relationships between its characters. I however do not expect those who are not Pokémon fans to enjoy it(This includes MOST adults). Some of the lines were corny, but that can be somewhat unavoidable when dubbing the movie over to English. The animation was beautiful, although there were a couple parts that did not look good. And although the villain is kind of corny, I think that the movies have done a good job of cycling through different types of villains, and I guarantee you that they aren't all like this one. Those who did not like it, I say to each his own, but Pokémon fans will love it.

Pokemon 4ever is just a kids' version of Princess Mononoke. Celebi is even called the "Spirit of the Forest." The monster is just like the Nightstalker from Mononoke. There is a healing lake, Suicune looks like the spirit and acts like the wolf gods from Mononoke.

The only good thing about the movie was its revelation at the end. If you pay close attention to foreshadowing, you can guess the secret as I did.