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.