Pokemon: The Movie 2000 (2000) |
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Pokemon: The Movie 2000 (2000) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Anime |
Main Menu Audio Featurette-Pikachu's Rescue Adventure Music Video-They Don't Understand-Dream Street Featurette-Story of and performance by Alysha Antonino Music Video-Pokemon World-Youngstown featuring Nobody's Angel Featurette-Making of the soundtrack Theatrical Trailer-(1:32 minutes) Trailer-Pokemon 3 DVD-ROM Extras-Web Links, Game Guide |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2000 | ||
| Running Time | 97:20 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Sided | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Michael Haigney |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Veronica Taylor Rachael Lillis Ted Lewis Eric Stuart Addie Blaustein Ikue Ootani |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music |
John Loeffler Ralph Shuckett |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Dutch Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English French German Italian Dutch Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Here's the interesting bit: that note is wrong. It is not the only error on the back of the cover, either. The cover lists three audio languages - there are actually five.
Let me explain. This disc is laid out in an unusual way. It is double-sided, which is a nuisance (two sides you can't touch - harder to handle). On one side we find the movie, and all of the extras, in English, French, and Dutch. On the other side we find the movie, and all of the extras, in English, German, and Italian. If you want to watch this disc in English, then you can drop it into the player either way.
Anyway, on to the subject of the movie. If you are thinking about getting this disc, you probably know more about Pokemon than I do. I won't attempt to explain the Pokemon phenomenon. This movie assumes considerable familiarity with the characters.
When you put this disc into your player it displays a Warners logo, then displays the menu. There's some bouncy music accompanying the menu. If you wait a while, the movie starts - this seems like a really good idea for a movie intended for children. The movie is split into two titles: Pikachu's Rescue Adventure, and Pokemon The Movie 2000. There's no way, from the top-level menu, to play either title separately (most DVD remotes do provide this capability, though).
Pikachu's Rescue Adventure starts with the humans stretching, and taking a nap. It ends with them waking up. That's their total contribution, and that's almost all the dialogue you get. As you probably know, almost all Pokemon are limited to saying their name (over and over and over). The only other dialogue is provided by the Team Rocket Pokemon (sorry, don't know its name, but it looks like a cat) - it spends a fair bit of time complaining. This adventure involves our Pokemon friends falling into a pit, and ending up in a different place where they have an adventure and meet numerous other Pokemon. This adventure runs for 20:04 minutes, which is a long time to listen to Pikachu saying "Pikachu" over and over.
Pokemon The Movie 2000 is the main feature. It starts with a nameless villain capturing one of three legendary Pokemon - a titan called Moltres. The villain's objective is to capture all three of the titans, which will force "The One" to appear - this is his apparent objective. Then the credits start. After that, we see the familiar Pokemon team heading off for a holiday break on a boat. Little do they realize that they are heading for the very islands where our villain is capturing the titanic Pokemon. The villain's actions threaten "the balance of the forces of nature", and that's where our heroes get involved. That's all I'll say about the plot, except to mention that there are no Pokemon challenges in this movie - it is all about saving the world.
The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (close to the theatrical ratio of 1.85:1), and it is 16x9 enhanced. There is no pan and scan version on the disc.
Pikachu's Rescue Adventure is a little soft in spots. Pokemon The Movie 2000 is sharper, with crisper edges, but the difference is fairly small. Both are fairly standard Japanese animation, with good solid colours. There was no low level noise to see.
There were a couple of moments of light graininess in both titles, but you had to watch closely to see them. There were no marks on the film - one moment that looked like it turned out to be rain.
As I have mentioned previously, the cover appears to describe this disc as a flipper, but it isn't. I am at a loss as to why they chose to make this disc the way they did. I can't imagine that there is enough market here for discs with both French and German on them to justify the cost of a double-sided disc - they could have given us either side without raising an outcry.
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| Overall | |
There are three audio tracks on either side. All of them are Dolby Digital 5.1. I listened to all of the English soundtrack on Side A, and I sampled enough of it on Side B to become convinced that it was the same soundtrack.
Dialogue was clear and easy to understand almost all the time. There were a couple of words that weren't quite clear, but otherwise there was nothing to complain about.
Audio sync is always hard to judge with animation, but there are no visible problems on this disc.
The music is appropriate to the movie, and supports it well, without drawing attention to itself.
This soundtrack uses the surrounds at times to provide some excellent directionality. The subwoofer supported the music, and was called upon for an occasional explosion. It blended in well with the other speakers.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
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| Surround Channel Use | |
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| Overall | |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The video quality is high.
The audio quality is high
The extras, although few, are interesting.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-737, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics matte white screen with a gain of 1.0 (280cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC-A1SE |
| Speakers | Front Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5 |