Pokemon 4Ever: Celebi - Voice of the Forest

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.

Of the first four Pokemon feature films, Pokemon 4ever has the strongest Disney vibe, and I feel like it is a good choice for the youngest pokemon viewers. For the more adolescent fans (however many there are), I am more dubious to recommend this. Pokemon 3 may have been dark, but the story was imaginative and had some wisdom and emotional depth. Whereas Pokemon 3 could almost have been a family movie, Pokemon 4ever is easily just a kids movie.

Pokemon 4ever takes Ash and friends out of the darkness and back into sunlight. As beautiful as this fourth entry is, it is also quite corny. All pokemon movies integrate a new legendary pokemon into the story. Pokemon 4ever showcases Celebi; a forest spirit who is chirpy, but nothing more. Celebi has about as much personality as the sugar fairies in Fantasia. She may be a pokemon, but a character she is not. Equally unmemorable is the cackling antagonist, who dresses like the terminator's second cousin and behaves like a shallow Disney villain.

Pretty much the entire film takes place in the Johto region forest, (having been aired at the end of the fourth season) This is a visually spectacular piece of landscape, which becomes the setting for a less than spectacular storyline. Pokemon 4ever, may be concise and simple in plot, but not only is it rather shallow, but it feels strangely rushed.

Pokemon 4ever also has the kind of syrupy ending that tries to pull to emotions out of us which it has not earned. The pokemon world can offer a variety of strong story possibilities, but this movie does not exploit them. This is essentially a Disney movie, that has pokemon in it. My conclusion is that Pokemon 4ever is a visually strong but thinly written entry in the adventures of Ash Ketchum.

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.

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"! :-)