If you know me personally, you would know that I boast myself as the biggest Pokémon fan in Bangladesh, and it is something I take a lot of pride in. When talking about Pokémon itself, the word itself would remind most Bangladeshis about the nostalgic days of the Pokémon anime being aired on Cartoon Network. However, as many would have noticed, the anime is incomparable to other anime in terms of plot, character usage, storyline and frankly, it is just downright crappy. If you didn’t know already, the anime is made mainly to advertise the popular Pokémon games, and showcasing the awesomeness of Pokémon existing in real life, the anime does a grand job with it. None the less, the Pokémon movies that are released each year tend to be an exception to the usual ‘crappiness’. Containing better storyline and unarguably better entertainment value, the Pokémon movies make a name for themselves every time they are shown on screen; however, some tend to be better than the others.

It has been quite a while since I’ve laid my eyes on any Pokémon movie. I stopped watching the anime long ago because it is an insult to the games and the manga, which is much better at portraying the reality of a world filled with magical and powerful creatures. In hopes of watching something better than the Pokémon anime, I laid my eyes on the movies, and not once was I disappointed (with the rare exception of Movie 12, which had problems of its own). Today I am going to review not one, but two Pokémon movies I have watched recently.

Pokémon Movie 13: Zoroark the Master of Illusions

Storyline

What I really loved about this movie is the way the story progressed. It starts off slowly, with the narrator describing the vividness and mystery of the Pokémon world, after which not much time is wasted in diving straight into the main story. The characters were steadily introduced, and I felt that there was no rush in plot progression. The story itself was fantastic, but I won’t summarize the movie for the sake of spoilers, so excuse me for that. Then again, Pokémon movies always have a good story, but this one seemed better than its predecessors. I will leave the viewer to judge that.

Characters

I will be totally frank here. I don’t like Ash Ketchum. Yes, he has the right heart and mind, and he is someone worthy of being friends with any Pokémon, but his naivety and stubbornness when it comes to serious battles and Pokémon training never fails to piss me off. The way the producers like to make him and his Pikachu overpowered is definitely not a good point either.

However, I was relieved after seeing Movie 13. Ash didn’t get to hog any considerable amount of spotlight, opposed to what he always does in every other movie. Almost all the time, the focus was on the Zorua who is trying to get back to its mother, the Zoroark who does literally everything to reunite with its baby, and the Big Bad of the movie, Kodai who does what villains do best: being a total jerk and making sure nothing stops his grand scheme.

Zoroark, the titular character, deserves special mention, as it more or less has the same amount of determination and willpower as you would expect in any anime protagonists. Even after being separated from its child, deceived, forced against its own will, framed, blamed for things it hadn’t done, and engaging in battles it would definitely die from, it still didn’t give up on its goal, which shows just how much a mother can love her child, and how much she is willing to sacrifice for the child’s happiness.

Battles

Pokémon isn’t Pokémon without the battles. Who doesn’t love Pokémon battles? The producers certainly love them, proven by the amount of battles they have put in to this movie. Though like always, the fights were nowhere as strategic as the ones in the games or nowhere as dangerous as the ones in the manga, but they did have their own flair. Especially the fights Zoroark gets into have extremely good animation and even an avid Pokémon battler like me was on the edge of his seat while watching the battles. If nothing else, they were certainly entertaining.

Screenshots

The villain Kodai and his two Ghost type Pokémon Shuppet and Mismagius, putting a stop to the meddling twerp who plans on stopping him.

Zorua and Pikachu, along with the Pokémon of the forest, meets Celebi.

Zoroark used Night Daze!

Pokémon Movie 14: Pokémon Black: Victini and Reshiram/ Pokémon White: Victini and Zekrom

Storyline

Yes, you read it right. There are two ‘Pokémon Movie 14’. That being said, the differences between them are extremely minor. The main story remains the same, and only the Pokémon used by the characters alternate (for example, one character has Zekrom and the other character has Reshiram, and vice versa in the other version). I understand that different versions of the same movie was made in order to tie with the Pokémon Black and White games, but making a differently named movie with slight alternations here and there was pointless.

Speaking of the storyline itself, it was bland. There is really nothing special about it, and the complicated background story seemed to come straight from a fairytale (of course, this is Pokémon, so fairy tales are to be expected). Unlike other movies, there was no real ‘villain’ in this one, which immediately makes the plot lose a lot of driving force. At times I felt like the plot progressed simply because it had to.

Characters

This movie pissed me off, and 90% of that reason being Ash hogging the spotlight once again. Once again, I can’t discuss the summary because I don’t want to spoil it for you, but honestly, Ash got so much focus in this movie that you would want to storm whoever wrote the pathetic story. Even while there was another character that could easily save the day like Ash did, she wasn’t even given a chance to do anything considerable, which was really disappointing.

The Pokémon characters in the movie(s) were awesome though (which goes without saying, Pokémon are always awesome). Reshiram, Zekrom and Victini, the titular characters, got the focus that they were supposed to get, with a lot of other Pokémon, especially a Golurk that fought Reshiram/ Zekrom, getting considerable amount of time in the limelight.

Battles

The Pokémon characters in the movie(s) were awesome though (which goes without saying, Pokémon are always awesome). Reshiram, Zekrom and Victini, the titular characters, got the focus that they were supposed to get, with a lot of other Pokémon, especially a Golurk that fought Reshiram/ Zekrom, getting considerable amount of time in the limelight.

Screenshots

Golurk used Fly!

Victini frolics around happily as it treats the Pokémon to berries.

Victini used V-Create, to save the day!

Personal Ratings

Pokémon Movie 13: Zoroark the Master of Illusions: 8/ 10
Pokémon Movie 14: Pokémon Black: Victini and Reshiram/ Pokémon White: Victini and Zekrom: 6.5/ 10

Comparatively, Movie 13 was a lot better than Movie 14. Even though both movies stayed loyal to the main idea of Pokémon, which is friendship and the responsibility that comes with great power, the storyline and character usage in Movie 13 far exceeded Movie 14’s.

However, with all that said, both the movies deserve a watch by anyone seeking good simple entertainment. Of course, if you are a Pokémon fan like yours truly, these movies are certainly not to be missed!

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