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.
 
Pokemon: The First Movie was a noticeably darker outing not just for a Pokemon Movie but a Pokemon story in general.  By comparison, Pokemon 2000 is way less complex and simple in its plot: Ash has to find three crystals corresponding to the three Legendary Birds and save the world.  Ash doesn’t even really go on any sort of heroes journey outside of acknowledging how big this task is and having some understandable doubts.  Yeah besides that, don’t look for any deep character explorations or ethical debates about clones or Pokemon violence.  Pokemon 2000 has one speed: GO and it doesn’t really let up once it gets going.
 
Unlike Pokemon: The First Movie, however, Moltres, Zaptos and Articuno aren’t denied their battle royale or their 3v1 match against the one that keeps them in check: Lugia.  We get a definite clash of the titans promised with Mewtwo vs. Mew here and it feels as large as it should.  Battling across arctic skies and frozen tundra, its not quite Macross levels of aerodynamic action but its still great.  Its definitely way above any action seen in Pokemon before cause this is how action in a Pokemon movie should always look and feel.  And while this ultimately goes nowhere, it’s still pretty wild to see an entire army’s worth of Pokemon marching directly towards the threat of impending doom if their Bird Deity’s don’t get their act together. 
 
Bigger and better action still cant make up for Pokemon 2000’s shortcomings.  The three tag along trainers from Pokemon: The First Movie were barely noticeable but new characters Melody and Lawrence III are front and center for the majority of the movie.  Lawrence seems totally oblivious to the chaos he’s causing because of his little rare Pokemon hunt and ends up being so inconsequential to the story by the end.  They couldn’t give him more personality or character arc other than “pompous and rich so he can do whatever he wants consequences be damned?”  Melody starts off as a rebel among her family but that never really sticks as she quickly becomes a core member of Ash’s team in the movie.  Heck with all of her knowledge of the Lugia legend why is she introduced so stuck up and bratty in the first place when she’s anything but for the rest of the movie?  Speaking of said legend, you’ll never forget a detail because Melody and Lawrence are repeating it over and over and over again as if the intended target audience of this movie has really short attention spans.  They aren’t the only ones guilty of this as special guest star Professor Oak’s scenes are mostly him sharing the same world ending intel he’s collected.  We get it and we only needed to hear it once.
 
Lastly is a nitpick but one that irks me a bit.  While they didn’t really serve much purpose other than “It’s Pokemon.  They have to be there,” in the first movie, Team Rocket has a beefier role in Pokemon 2000.  However, just like last time, they aren’t the antagonists they often play themselves up as.  Heck, they catch onto what’s going on pretty quickly and come to Ash’s aid a couple of times, particularly during the finale.  My irking nitpick: Why are Jessie, James and Meowth still bad guys?  It’s clear they can work together with Ash pretty well when the fate of the planet hangs in the balance.  They’re still thieves but when the chips are down, they do the right thing.  Heck, at one point they even discuss leaving Team Rocket but we all know the status quo isnt changing in a movie that could or couldn’t be cannon.
 
Pokemon 2000: The Movie-The Power of One is a straight up Anime action/adventure film and nothing else for 80 minutes.  It’s exactly the kind of larger than life Pokemon story to throw Ash and Pikachu into and has plenty of great battle sequences to get the blood pumping.  But the story is simple.  The characters don’t really grow or change or stand out.  And in cutting out all the complexity and darker elements of The First Movie, you ultimately make it passable but not better in the process.  At the end of the day, Pokemon 2000 is harmless and, unlike The First Movie, delivers what was promised.  It just could have done more in the process.
 
6.5/10
 
Next Monday we venture into the unknown, in more ways than one, as we check out Pokemon 3: The Movie-Spell of the Unown right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.