Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias

While taking a breather in the seaside city of Alto Mare, Ash and Pikachu encounter a pair of Pokémon siblings: Latios and Latias.  These two also happen to be the guardians of a treasure important to the history of Alto Mare, a treasure a pair of Team Rocket thieves have their sights on.  Now it’s up to Ash, Pikachu and their new friends to stop theft before Alto Mare becomes submerged by the waters its most famous for.

By the time Pokémon Heroes debuted in the US in 2003 (a year after it’s Japanese release), Pokémon fever had died down considerably and it went on to become the lowest grossing entry in the series stateside.  Now one could blame that lack of success on the movies being distributed by Miramax instead of Warner Bros. (deeper discussion there for another time).  Honestly though, Pokémon Heroes is a tough movie to market, much less release with any hype, when the movie itself is pretty lackluster and super underwhelming outing for Ash and Pikachu.  I really think this is the first Pokémon movie I’ve seen where calling it a “movie” feels inadequate.  Instead it feels more like the first time we’re seeing an episode of the series stretched painfully to feature length with some spiffy special effects and not much else to make it a movie level event.
 
Pokémon Heroes starts off well enough with a fun water race through the canals of Alto Mare.  It’s always nice to see Pokémon used in activities like these and they look like a blast to participate in.  The sentiment is equally shared in the movies best action sequence where Ash, Pikachu and Latias have to evade two revived Prehistoric Pokémon along the same watery pathways.  These two sequences are arguably the most fun and movie worthy Pokémon Heroes ever gets though as there isnt a lot of action in this movie at all and its all mostly just dull and devoid of any excitement, which itself stretches to the rest of the production it seems.
 
I mean where to even start with the many issues this movie has?  The story sounds like it fits in the same vein as all the others but never hits the same epic heights.  Latios and Latias look equally cute and cool and while I always enjoy Ash making friends with rare Pokémon, their “cooing” voices will test the patience of ones ears (even I was tempted to mute the movie and put on the subtitles).  The villains of the film, Annie and Oakley, are allegedy the top spies of Team Rocket’s Head Honcho, Giovanni.  That little detail hardly feels worth mentioning since they act more like vein and petty thieves in over their head, more annoying than anything else.  But nothing exemplifies the issues Pokémon Heroes has than how empty and devoid of life Alto Mare is.  There’s nary a human being walking the streets of this supposed important hotspot of a city that’s mostly made up of CG alleys.  Even with all the chaos going on in the second half of the movie, no ones outside freaking out over the action.  I get that these movies are churned out quickly year after year but wow even this feels lazy for such a pretty town.
 
Most of the films screentime is dedicated to the titular Latios and Latias.  Like I said, I overall think theyre fine but it’s their bond with Ash that’s…interesting to say the least.  I think this is the first time we’ve seen a love story in a Pokémon anything and this time it’s more than heavily implied that Latias has a crush on Ash, hence her closeness with him.  That is a whole can of worms probably best left sealed for the time being but the greater emphasis on these two overshadows everyone elses “role” in Pokémon Heroes.  This time Misty and Brock have just as much nothing to do as Team Rocket.  Indeed this is an instance of this probably just being an Ash and Pikachu centric story but we need everyone else here because series continuity or what not.
 
Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias is easily the weakest of the Pokémon films I’ve reviewed so far.  The story isnt epic enough.  The villains are the weakest and most annoying, a far cry from the treat of Mewtwo and the Unown.  The city of Alto Mare is said to be a beautiful tourist attraction but feels desolate and lifeless amongst all the CG used to make it up.  Not every movie has to have a world ending catastrophe to prevent but even Pokemon Heroes’ mission feels so lackluster and unimportant.  Those are probably the two words to best sum up this movie: lackluster and unimportant.  Definitely an entry worth skipping if you’re going to have your own little Pokemon Movie marathon.
 
2/10