Review of Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!

This movie was... interesting. Not quite what I thought it was going to be. I came into this expecting it to be just one big nostalgia trip-- a recreation of the major events of gen 1, just polished up a little. And we do get some of that. But this movie also tried to tell its own story. I don't have a problem with either of these two points by themselves. But they didn't mesh quite as well as I think the writers wanted them to... I think the idea for the new story had potential. Unless I missed that one, I don't recall there everbeing a movie with Ho-Oh at its focus, even though it's the first legendary the series ever introduces. And on the note of the legendaries, I think the movie does that aspect of the story quite well. Each battle really drove home the difference in power between the legendary Pokemon and the regular ones, something I think the actual series and many of the other movies kind of lost touch with after a while, because the kids interact with them so casually.

I didn't mind that they gave Ash new companions just for this movie, but I can't say I was terribly impressed by either of them. That is one point where the callbacks to the original series started to feel intrusive. As cool as it was (at first) to see those scenes all over again, it started to feel like they were taking time away from developing Verity and Sorrel. By the end, I can't say I was really attached to either one of them. And I know that with each new generation, it's a chance to introduce a new era of kids into the franchise, but let's be honest. I think it's safe to say that most of the viewers were going to be older fans, and this problem could have been easily resolved by just using Brock and Misty (though maybe with their stories reimagined as well) who really don't need a proper introduction at this point.

All in all, I enjoyed it well enough... Honestly, the original series is one of my least favorite seasons of Pokemon, so maybe the nostalgic scenes wouldn't have really impressed me anyway. I was kind of just expecting this to be a polished recap of the beginning for newer fans, so I did think it was pretty cool that it had its own story. And in the Pokemon franchise alone, I've definitely seen worse.