Pokemon: The Movie 3-Spell of the Unown

The wishes of a lonely little girl accidentally summon a race of ancient Pokemon: The Unown.  As a beautiful town turns to crystal, Ash, Pikachu, Misty and Brock get pulled into the action when a legendary Pokemon: Entei, abducts Ash’s mother.  Once more, Ash and friends venture into danger but this time against an otherworldly forced they’ve never encountered before.  Can they save Delia and little Molly before the Spell of the Unown consumes the world?

I’ve said before and continue to say that if you’re gonna do a Pokemon movie, you’ve gotta go bigger than the TV show and that definitely includes rare and legendary Pokemon seldom seen on the small screen.  That’s one thing both Pokemon: The First Movie and Pokemon 2000 both did at the very least.  Pokemon 3, however, not only includes two of these types of Pokemon, it also manages to outdo both of its predecessors in story, animation and *gasp* actual Pokemon battles?  It even manages to have some nice emotional resonance that doesn’t feel as brutally forced as Pokemon: The First Movie.  I dare say it, this might just be the best of the Pokemon films I’ve looked at so far.
 

T5W#556-Top 5 Potential Sequels/Spin Offs Setup in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Mamma Mia, is it any shock to anyone that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie did gang busters this weekend at the box office?  It shouldn’t be.  Even if I and others didn’t think it was as good as the first, Mario Galaxy is still a Mario movie and that alone is enough to put butts in seats for a fun 90 minute romp.  One thing that the Mario Movie sequel emphasized more than it’s predecessor (believe it or not) was it’s cameos and Easter Eggs.  Nintendo clearly has plans for opening up it’s plethora of iconic gaming characters to enter their newly minted cinematic universe and I’m not gonna lie, some need those projects more than others.  So on today’s Top 5 Wednesday, I’m speculating about the Top 5 Potential Sequels/Spin Offs Setup in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.  Aside from our first entry, I’ll keep Spoilers to the bare minimum if I can, but still you should probs check the movie out anyway before checking out my ideas here. 

 

Pokemon 2000: The Movie-The Power of One

When a Collector of rare Pokemon begins ensnaring the three Legendary Birds, the world is thrown out of balance and is on the brink of destruction.  This time, Ash finds himself the literal chosen on a mission to return peace and harmony to the planet and quell the violent rage of Moltres, Zaptos and Articuno.  But he cant do it alone.  Not only will his closest friends and most dangerous enemies join forces, but they’ll get help from another Legendary Pokemon: Lugia.

Despite the heavily hyped and ancitipated battle between Mewtwo and Mew, Pokemon: The First Movie seemed more interested in teaching life lessons with tears than showing off exciting action.  By contrast, Pokemon 2000 is much less darker and way more adventurous than its predecessor and even delivers on the promise of seeing multiple legendary Pokemon duking it out on the big screen.  Sure it gives the fans what they want action wise.  The rest of Pokemon 2000 kind of suffers from a lack of spectacular storytelling.  This is as basic an epic adventure as you can get, so basic in fact that it makes all the risks taken by Pokemon: The First Movie more respectable.
 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

The Super Mario Bros are back in action when a Baby Star falls from the sky, begging for help to save it’s mother from an evil dictator.  It’s a journey that will take Mario, Luigi, Peach and friends both old and new to places once far beyond reach.  Waiting for them is an old enemy looking for revenge and the son he never happened to mention he had.  The Galaxy awaits and its fate rests in the hands of two handy dandy Plumbers.

Making a Super Mario movie should, in theory, be one of the easiest jobs imaginable.  You don’t need a super deep story, just some imaginative action sequences and the most basic of stories and understanding of what makes Mario special, and you have a slam dunk.  The Super Mario Movie understood this assignment and was an absolute blast.  Now we come to it’s much anticipated follow up, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.  Fundamentally, it does everything the first film did but takes things up a notch in terms of scope and spectacle.  Yet despite this, it doesn’t land as good as its predecessor.  Sometimes the movie does somethings right while also overdoing it in other areas, and in some cases not doing enough.  It’s underwhelming to say the least but does that mean it’s bad?
 

T5W#555-Top 5 Guilty Pleasure Video Game Adaptations

Three years after they crushed the box office, Mario and Luigi are back with their ever growing gang of Nintendo favorites for another cinematic offering with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.  If it’s even half as good as it’s predecessor, it’ll continue to cement just what kind of a new golden age of Video Game Adaptations we live in now.  The Last of Us and Fallout continue to reign supreme on the TV side while we still have more big screen spectacles to look forward to with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat II.  However, it’s hard to forget the dark ages of Video Game Adaptations, the ones that got it all wrong, that might’ve made money but made no one happy and…yeah I’ll admit some of them I do like in a so bad theyre good kind of way.  Maybe it’s because I grew up with a lot of them and watched them a ton, some bad video game movies can get an amusing chuckle out of me and I might, dare I say, even genuinely enjoy them.  So, on today’s Top 5 Wednesday, I’m counting down my personal picks for the Top 5 Guilty Pleasure Video Game Adaptations.