Ode to Pokémon
When I was a 10 year old kid with my game boy color and Pokémon card collection and commemorative Burger King pokeballs, I watched one Pokémon movie: the first Pokémon movie. I wasn’t a fan of the show (didn’t have cable), and the movie was good, but I’d rather play the games. Red, blue, gold, and silver were gifted to me from a friend who had outgrew them, just as I too would eventually stop collecting cards, and stop trying to fill that Pokédex.
For the next 8 years, Pokémon was a kids game, until I saw a friend playing the card game, in 2008, AS a high schooler. Shedding social convention was always amusing to high school me, so I spent a little free time picking it up, until shortly after when I was bored of getting my ass beat. That short lived experience taught me something. That, perhaps, there was still some excitement to be had by things I thought I’d long since outgrew, and I promised to make a point of revisiting those aspects at some point.
Cut again to 2016. Two years out of college and this thing from my childhood has come back in a completely new and revolutionary way. I bought my first smart phone just to play Pokémon Go and everyone who lived it fondly remembers that summer. That thing I loved as a kid was awesome again, and had always been awesome. It just took 16 years to remember that it is a great game. I leaped back in with Sun and Moon for the 3DS, and Let’s Go Eevee for the Switch.
30 year old me has just finished watching Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back-Evolution and the experience was truly spell binding. This movie threaded so many needles in terms of special effects. So many aspects were beautifully realistically styled from the fire, and pounding sea, but never created any dissonance with the anime styling. Big watery anime eyes are glossy and polished, yet still distinctly the art style of the original movie. The CGI breathed so much life into the universe. Movements were fluid and lively. Performances were wonderful: beautifully fluctuating between intense, and lighthearted. Crowning achievements were the set design of Mewtwo’s fortress. Organic looking membranes adorn every aspect of his island and the CGI really makes it pop.
I felt so many emotions flood back to me watching this movie. I was relieved they left out the cheesy 90’s soundtrack and replaced it with sweeping orchestration (with the exception of the beginning with the remastered theme sung by, not *NSYNC, which is a choice I liked). If you like beautiful animation, if you like Pokémon, watch Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back-Evolution.