Okay so spoilers will be past the Keep Reading link... Uhh, if you are on mobile, I’ll put a lot of ***’s for you to scroll past I guess?
Overall, I felt the movie was super rushed. Since it wanted to tackle the Butterfree and Charmander arcs from the anime AND Ash obtaining Pikachu AND the Ho-oh plot AND Marshadow plot AND introduce TWO (new) companions. BUT I did have fun with it. I like how it handled a lot of things from Pokemon lore. So it was alright, in my opinion.
Sorrel really could have been Brock. He even cooks for the group. I guess the backstory might have felt tacked on (and weird with a rock pokemon replacing Luxray) but for the most part, while an enjoyable character, he felt like he provided the same dynamic Brock did.
Sorrel is an herb and why he thinks he can be a professor with a name like that is beyond me. Maybe shit professors are named after ground plants instead of mighty trees. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorrel)
The fact that this was a new timeline definitely was not clear to the audience. I only found out after the movie and I pay too much attention to Pokemon as is. Definitely made some “retcons” unpalatable to everyone given the many murmurs every time something happened that wasn’t supposed to.
Another movie, and another set of Team Rocket appearances that, while funny, do absolutely nothing to anyone other than themselves.
One of my favorite parts of the movie was how the legendary Pokemon truly felt legendary. They had the power, and a way of handling themselves that let them truly earn the name Legendary. Also, maybe it was the low growls on theater speakers but the sound mixing/quality/idk I don’t make films really helped sell it for me.
Ho-ohs fire having the colors of the rainbow was a great touch to me.
Also Sinnoh feels so confirmed after that movie. But with USUM ending the 3DS run and the Switch presumably not having DPPt remakes until after Gen 8 starts... It feels a ways off at best.
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So while they helped rush the rest of the movie, I liked what the Charmander and Butterfree plots added to the story thematically
I still have no idea what the hell a rainbow hero is. I guess it is a quickly passed title given the last scene with the old man waiting for the next one
That Lycanroc did jack and shit for so much of the movie. Like they wanted Inciniroar to fight Charmeleon for that fire v fire parallel, but why did they keep animating the Lycanroc in?
Best answer I have is so that Cross had a Pokemon not knocked out for the Marshadow fight... and maybe to have it appear as a parallel to Pikachu for that one line at the end of the movie where Cross mentioned how it bit him when they met?
Jesus, that Luxray was such a heavy scene to just casually be thrown into a flashback. Like, it didn’t tie into a character arc for Sorrel? Just some intense writing and a Pokemon corpse. I liked it though, and its not like it took too much away from anything else
The ending was so full of expositional “do this” “now do this because this” that all seemed like it came out of nowhere. Especially that random old man.
Also Ash died... Again. I thought it was a callback/retelling from the first movie, but Bulbapedia says this is the fourth time Ash has died so he’s batting at a 1 in 5 chance of dying in a Pokemon movie at this point
Honestly though the scenes at the end with Pikachu clutching Ash’s hat, as well as it falling on Pikachu did justify the Pikachu in a hat event. Maybe not 7 of them but hey, I restarted my spare game for multiple copies so who am I to judge.
I assume Ho-oh brought Ash back to life? I found it surprising they didn’t bring that up, but they did establish Ho-oh could do it so that’s important.
Other than using them to highlight Ho-oh’s power give back life, the legendary dogs really didn’t do much. Entei was used well. It established how rare and powerful Legendary Pokemon are, as well as allowing our main characters to meet. Raikou and Suicune only made cameos though.
Seeing everyone chase after a Legendary Pokemon sighting felt really right to me.
Marshadow never felt very well explained. I can’t tell if he had a corrupting influence over Ash, or if he was merely ever a “watcher.” Plus it feels like a retcon to have him have anything to do with Ho-oh. Any of the dogs would have worked just as well AND explained why they kept showing up. Definitely shoehorned in.
I guess it didn’t matter whether or not Ho-oh or Ash won their battle (and how great it was for a trainer to actually have a grand battle with a Legendary Pokemon like in the games) but I still would have liked to see it...
Nurse Joy’s deadpan “That’s nice” was the best part of the movie.
Oh right and that Pikachu line that had the whole theater go through something fierce. I didn’t mind the voice acting, given the line? But wow, what a wild line to include. I guess because Ash was dying and transcending the mortal world and it’s restrictions?
Also find it weird that dream sequence and Ash’s death had the same monochromatic color scheme. Is our Pokemon-less world the afterlife?
