I'm a huge fan of everything Hosoda Mamoru has made in his subsequent career as a filmmaker, and it's interesting to go back and see things he helped to create before truly setting out on his own. This is to say nothing of how this 2000 piece served as major, obvious inspiration for Hosoda's 'Summer wars' in 2009, and of how this and its predecessor (1999's 'Digimon adventure') were recycled for Fox Kids' "full-length feature" of several months later. Of course, the latter also struggled heavily with its unwieldy, nearly constant dialogue that accelerated already swift pacing, poorly communicated its new story, and even distracted from the animation. With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable 'Digimon adventure' was when considered on its own merits; how might this hold up in and of itself? Happily, I think it's just swell - it's no revelation, but it's suitably fun and well made all on its own!
Now, it's true that those broadly unfamiliar with the franchise won't get as much out of this little picture; I'm given to understand that it takes place during the first season of the TV show, and one can discern as much from bits and pieces of the writing that suggest prior events. (Notably, without that outside context, some odds and ends just seem disjointed and extraneous.) It also readily comes across, as Hosoda has accordingly remarked as well, that he had ambitions for the plot that just couldn't be realized with the constraints of the Digimon property and a diminutive runtime; in turn, the plot development does seem somewhat forced. In a more general sense, I don't think the connective tissue is always that strong between some ideas. Even for all that, however, Hosoda drummed up some neat ideas, and scribe Yoshida Reiko produced a screenplay that does its best with the space it is given. As we saw with 'Digimon adventure' the short is rounded out with welcome tidbits that were cut from 'Digimon: The movie,' including nice touches of humor. Even with faults the storytelling is distinctly cohesive here, and duly compelling (rather simple though it may be), where it was not upon being recycled. Again we see how any given film really, really should almost uniformly always be left untouched, and never re-edited (or dubbed over).
I actually really like the music, too, both Arisawa Takanori's score and the poppy songs that join it on the soundtrack. And it's safe to say the animation of Toei is pretty great - not necessarily the absolute top of the line, then or now, but flush with excellent detail in creature designs, backgrounds, and some other active elements. The foremost action sequences are sharp and fluid, with superb effects laid on top, and where 3D digital rendering augments the predominant 2D style, it mostly looks fantastic. In such moments that take place within the Internet, like with the narrative as a whole, we see how very much Hosoda drew on his thoughts and experiences here to make 'Summer wars,' but the doing nine years before is unquestionably less polished in every way. In some measure it wouldn't be unfair to think of 'Our war game' as a rough draft of its spiritual successor. Still, all such rumination and nitpicking is perhaps beside the point: while it's not flawless, or totally essential, this flick only wanted to have a good time and expand the Digimon franchise. It handily achieved those goals. Unless one has a special impetus to watch there's no need to go out of your way for it, but not least at just over forty minutes long, if you do have the opportunity to watch then it's lightly entertaining to pass the time on a lazy day.
