September 19th, 2001

Professor Spencer Hale has been trying to unlock the mystery of the Unown for a long time. This group of 26 Pokemon shaped like the letters of the alphabet have mysterious powers. Before leaving on his latest expedition, he reads to his young daughter Molly a book on legendary Pokemon including Entei. Looking at the picture of the fantastic beast, Molly is reminded of her father. The two say goodbye as her father says, "keep me close in your dreams". At an archaeological site, ruins depicting information about the Unown are discovered. Upon arrival, a square chip is found with an Unown depicted on it. The professor picks its up and is sucked into an alternate world were the Unown exist.

Molly is informed of the bad news and in the evening she begins playing with the collected brown chips with the depicted Unown on them. Suddenly the world of the Unown enters our world and the effects are tragic as the landscape is turned to crystal. Missing her father so much, she glances into her storybook once again at the picture of Entei, who then magical appears for the young girl. The beast speaks to her as the young girl rushes towards Entei, mentioning that it is her papa and that he looks just like the legendary Pokemon. Entei responds with compassion as he reaffirms that he is her papa.

So begins the third Pokemon movie. After 2 successful movies from Pokemon: The First Movie which dealt with the ultimate Pokemon battle between Mew and Mewtwo and Pokemon 2000 were our heroes went out to save the world from catastrophe, the third movie is probably my favorite. Pokemon 3 is a personal adventure for Ash Katchum, our main hero whose mother has been kidnapped by Entei for Molly so that the young girl has a mother. Molly's mother mysteriously disappeared and has been missed since. With Entei as her papa and Ash's mother kidnapped, Molly believes her family is complete.

The action is non-stop. I remember exiting the theatre and calling it, "The Raiders of The Lost Arc of animated movies" (okay you probably think I'm a moron for saying so but dude... This movie rocked for me! Not just rocked... Rocked Hard!). Pokemon 3 has the speed of Raiders as things get on the go pretty much off the bat and the action set pieces are exciting as Pokemon battles and daring deeds of heroism are displayed colourfully on screen.

The narrative is surprisingly touching, as Molly's story is unfolds. Her missing papa and the tragedy of innocence is displayed as the world is affected by her wishes coming true, thanks to the Unown. It comes to one fantastic ending as all things are resolved with heartfelt intent as Entei tells the young girl, "keep me close in your dreams" a touching moment which brings the film full circle.

I really enjoyed this movie. The characters are interesting and fun. The world is colourful and very imaginative with sites and sounds you've never seen nor heard. Then there are those moments that really touched me. I've found the Pokemon series continues to be rewarding for the viewer as the mythology grows. Another great factor to the movie is that there isn't alot of humour. There are chuckles whenever Team Rocket appears to lighten the air but it's nice to see a narrative that is respected and is serious. Disney continues to downplay the audience, catering to the lowest denominator (which continues to be the Disney standard). Another plus is thankfully the humour doesn't reflect Disney's, which continues to be derived from pop culture references which is kinda sad since nobody will get the joke 10 years from now. The humour in Pokemon comes from its characters and world which makes it more enjoyable and thankfully timeless.

The DVD has a few extras in the package. The making of the "To Know The Unown" song, the "Johto Pokerap" from the television series, trailers for "Pokemon 3" and the Japanese trailer for "Pokemon 4", the animated short "Pikachu and Pichu" which ran before the feature in theatres and finally an excellent feature-length audio commentary from English adaptation director Michael Haigney and producer Norman J. Grossfeld.

The audio commentary is the best extra and was sorely missed on the Pokemon 2000 DVD. The two go through the story and translation process from the Japanese release to the English adaptation. It's great to listen to Michael and Norman as the bounce off of ideas and the making of process of the movie as it relates to the mythology of the games and television series.

Overall this is a nice DVD released from Warner Bros. The image is sharp, clean and colorful. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is exciting and the surround experience is excellent. There aren't alot of extras but the quality of the movie makes up for it and the return of the audio commentary track is welcome back.

It's disappointing that the 3rd movie didn't fare so well at the box office since it is the strongest out of the animated features. The Pokemon craze is slowing down and thankfully doesn't affect the quality of the products released. Pokemon Crystal was just released for the Gameboy Color and has sold monstrous numbers. The future of the animated movies being released in theatres are in question at this point due to the low box office, hopefully they will be released on DVD in the future. I hope so since the fifth movie was just released in Japanese theatres.

9 outta 10 Pikachu's!

- Kelley