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irritating, isn't he? Pokémon 3
The Movie

Go get 'em tiger. Who designs these creatures anyway?
dir Kunihiko Yuyama, Michael Haigney
scr Norman J Grossfeld, Michael Haigney
voices Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, Rachael Lillis, Ikue Otani, Maddie Blaustein, Ken Gates, Dan Green, Stan Hart, Lisa Ortiz, Pathy Pilon, Peter R Bird, Kayzie Rogers
release US 6.Apr.01; UK 13.Jul.01
01/US Warners 1h33  1.5 out of 5 stars

See also: POKEMON: THE FIRST MOVIE (1998)POKEMON: DETECTIVE PIKACHU (2019)

R E V I E W   B Y   R I C H   C L I N E

Pokemon 3 OK, I suffered through the first Pokemon movie and skipped the second. I don't know what possessed me to attend a screening of (shudder) Pokemon 3, but there I was, cringing with the rest of the London critics.

To be honest, this one isn't nearly as gut-wrenchingly awful as the first one -- the animation is better. But it's still so bad it hurts. As before, we have two parts: First is the 20-minute "Pukachu & Pichu," a comic adventure featuring the mischievous yellow Pikachu, who gets separated from his fellow Pokemons, meets a couple of new yellow guys, battles a dog and eventually ends up happy and giggly as usual. There is no plot, just a string of chase sequences and a little moral about togetherness. Aw shucks.

Then the main event starts, "Spell of the Unown," about a little girl whose father goes missing and she inadvertently releases the power of the legendary Unown Pokemon, which turns her manor home and the tranquil valley around it into what looks like a gigantic ornamental cabbage. Made of crystal. So the usual gang go in to save the day, have lots of adventures and end up joking and smiling.

Actually, the animation is much, much better this time around. Some scenes even look good, although the oddly designed characters still move with that jerky awkwardness. And it's just too cute, loud and fragmented to make any real sense at all, made even worse with ghastly narration that tries to tell us what's going on, as if anyone cares.

It's all so pointless and lame that you worry for the souls of children who think this is entertaining in any way at all. There are two small morsels that adults can enjoy if forced to take the kiddos to see this: The little girl is a really nasty piece of work, reminiscent of that terrifically creepy Twilight Zone episode about the boy who always gets exactly what he wants. And secondly, well it's very brisk.
violence cert U 9.Jul.01

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© 2001 by Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

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