Pokemon 2000

Image credit: IMDb

Recently my partner and I have been watching a lot of Pokémon, checking out various seasons we haven’t seen on Prime, revisiting the original series because it’s on Netflix, even checking out some of the original movies that we never got around to watching. The other night, film of choice was Pokémon 2000.

The film tells the story of an ancient Pokémon prophecy about the legendary Pokémon of fire, electricity, and ice, Moltress, Zapdos, and Artikuno, and how when the balance of nature between them is upset, only the Chosen One will be able to restore order and save the world. When a Pokémon collector upsets the balance by capturing the legendary Pokémon, it falls to Ash, Pikachu, Misty and Tracey to stop him.

After the first movie, which I still have a real soft spot for, Pokémon 2000 is pretty mediocre and flimsy in terms of its central plot and character development. I guess it must be pretty hard to have a story which features rare and legendary Pokémon, but having our heroes stumble across an ancient legend that just happens to directly mention Ash is pretty lacking in creativity. It almost felt like the writers’ hearts were not invested in this at all and so the entire film has this reluctant and half-hearted feeling about it.

Image credit: Pinterest

There is no real story or motive for the villain, if one could even call him that, and Ash and his friends go through absolutely no character arcs or growth. Where the effort does go is in the battle sequences between the legendary Pokémon and the animation of the villain’s giant robotic, flying, Pokémon capturer as well as the scenes following the currents underwater. While this animation is pretty cool, it does clash a little with the original style, having this 3D shine and more solid coating to it.

Pokémon 2000 isn’t by any means a terrible film, but it’s pretty boring and leaves a lot to be desired. I imagine that I would have probably loved it much more as a kid. Watching it for the first time as an adult it probably not something I’d really recommend.

Director: Michael Haigney & Kunihiko Yuyama, 1999

Cast: Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, Ted Lewis, Neil Stewart, Ikue Otani, Madeleine Blaustein, Amy Birnbaum, Stuart Zagnit, and Eric Rath