Pokemon: The First Movie

I’d honestly not heard of Pokemon until last Wednesday, when this insipid movie was released. Yet on Friday there were hordes of young kids traipsing through the halls of Tinseltown to see Pokemon: The First Movie. News reports say the film grossed $10 million nationwide on its first day of release. No wonder there’s a second one on the way. Nothing warms the hearts of Hollywood executives more than the ringing of box office cash registers.

The bothersome thing to me is that the Pokemon phenomenon is all hype, with very little substance. I’m old enough to remember hula hoops, Beatles records, skateboards, and every collectible that kids badger their parents to buy. Somewhere out there another entrepreneur is hashing out plans to introduce the newest money making franchise for kids. But that’s another matter for another day.

Let’s look at the merits of the movie. The "plot" follows the adventures of young trainer Ash Ketchum and his menagerie of pocket monsters known as pokemon. The most popular pokemon is named Pikachu, a cute little rabbit or something resembling one. Then there’s a new pokemon character called Mewtwo, a hairless cat with wings. Created in a laboratory, Mewtwo threatens to take over the world. Leapin’ lizards, Sandy!

There are two things I dislike about the film. First, there’s the film’s animation. The characters barely move. There are these pregnant pauses when they each just stand there. All of a sudden, only the mouth of one character moves, reminding me of the old "Clutch Cargo" cartoon series from yesteryear. Or the last Al Gore press conference I saw on C-Span.

Then there’s the violent theme of the Pokemon enterprise. There’s all sorts of fighting between pokemon (pokemonesians?) that goes on. No one ever seems to get hurt, but then there’s the obligatory "violence begets violence" homily at the end. Give me a break. Oh, by the way, I want the free Pokemon trading card I forgot to pick up at the theater window last Friday.