Pokémon: The First Movie (1998)
Stars: Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart
Runtime: 75 minutes
Synopsis: Scientists genetically create a new Pokémon, Mewtwo, but the results are horrific and disastrous.
Verdict: Since "Detective Pikachu" was postponed to early June here and I won't get a chance to watch it until then, I thought it'd be fun to revisit a movie that defined my childhood, and probably the first one to actually make me cry.
Released in 1998, I watched the first "Pokémon" movie about 6 or 7 years later, when I was about 9 years old and obsessed with the franchise. I used to collect the cards, play the games, watch the show, learn all the names (hey it rhymes!)... Ash, Misty, Brock, along with all the original 151 Pokémons had a special place in my heart and still do to this day (I still play Pokémon Red on Game Boy Advance from time to time).
"Mewtwo Strikes Back" feels more like a long episode than a movie. In it, our favorite trio travel to New Island to defeat the strongest Pokémon in the world: Mewtwo, the result of a genetic experiment conducted by some scientists.
Rewatching the movie as an adult, I can definitely pinpoint a few issues mainly in the film's script, but the dominant nostalgia factor overshadows them, even making them necessary for the movie to work by capturing what made the show so popular. I mean, can you imagine a Pokémon movie where the jokes are not all puns? Where the ending doesn't have a cheesy message (that still hit me hard, even years later)? Where the themes of friendship, love, and kindness are not explored? All these elements are very much present in "Mewtwo Strikes Back", a film I genuinely loved revisiting and would revisit again in the future.
If you're not a Pokémon fan and haven't followed the show when you were younger, I definitely wouldn't recommend this movie to you. But all you other fellow Pokémasters, this is definitely a must.
FINAL GRADE: 6/10
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