* BaseBreakingCharacter: [[BaseBreakingCharacter/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]
* CatharsisFactor: After the sheer cruelty and brutality the Iron-Masked Marauder has committed throughout the movie, not to mention [[spoiler: almost causing Celebi's death]], it's truly satisfying to see [[spoiler: him fall from a great height into the forest, then see him rendered completely powerless and humbled by a bunch of ComMons.]]
* CompleteMonster: ''[[{{Novelization}} The Voice of the Forest]]'', by Howie Dewin: [[MalevolentMaskedMan Iron Mask]] is an exceptionally vicious agent of [[Characters/PokemonTheSeriesTeamRocketOrganization Team Rocket]] who schemes to claim Celebi's power for himself. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Introduced]] burning the camp of a hunter and threatening the lives of many Pokémon to extort information, Iron Mask uses his "Dark Ball" technology to corrupt Pokémon into his slaves. Later capturing and torturing Celebi into submission, [[WouldHurtAChild Iron Mask]] reacts to Ash trying to save Celebi by [[{{Fingore}} crushing Ash's fingers under his boot]] until the boy faints from the pain. Iron Mask then forces Celebi to begin ravaging the very forest it has always protected, endangering the lives of hundreds of Pokémon while Iron Mask proclaims his intent to [[TheStarscream take over Team Rocket]], then [[TakeOverTheWorld the whole world]]. When Ash and his friends stage another rescue, Iron Mask tries to force Celebi to torture and kill the children.
* EndingFatigue: The film feels like it's wrapping up when [[spoiler:Celebi is revived by the time-travelling ones]]......only for [[spoiler: Marauder to pop out one more time to try and catch it again, leading to ''[[PostClimaxConfrontation another]]'' confrontation.]]
* NightmareRetardant: The twig monster Celebi was controlling. It looks creepy at first, but as it gets more screen time, it just looks ridiculous and out-of-place with its conspicuous and aged CGI. Even the bellowing sound it utters becomes awkward when it repeats the same sound time after time, making it seem like a stock sound effect.
* {{Padding}}: The English version adds a sequence of Team Rocket fighting over a peach, which contributes nothing to the plot, even compared to the other scenes added.
* {{Sequelitis}}: While few will say ''[=4Ever=]'' is completely horrible, fans generally agree that it's the weakest of the original movies and pales in comparison to the first three [[note]]all of which were written by Takeshi Shudo, who wasn't involved in this movie nor any of the subsequent ones[[/note]], and it's often agreed upon that this is where the movies degraded to being SoOkayItsAverage at best.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: You can obviously tell that CGI was used for Celebi's twig monster, and not very good CGI at that.
* TearDryer: Celebi has been killed as a result of overexerting itself. Ash [[PleaseWakeUp desperately tries to wake it up]], but it's still unresponsive. [[EverybodyCries Ash begins to sob, and so does everyone else]], but then Celebis of the past and the future arrive and revive Celebi, much to everyone's relief.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** Despite his [[KnightOfCerebus darker presence]] and his brutal tactics, many people view the Iron Masked Marauder as an incredibly underdeveloped villain. While his goal to corrupt Celebi and use it to overthrow Giovanni would have made for an interesting villain arc, his motive for doing so is purely based on a thirst for power and a desire to TakeOverTheWorld, and there is no insight on the relationship between him and Giovanni. Furthermore, his goal to capture Celebi, the ''time-traveling Pokemon'', becomes even more staggering when he shows no interest in using Celebi's time-traveling powers towards achieving his goal. All things considered, a lot of people agree that [[Anime/PokemonZoroarkMasterOfIllusions Grings Kodai]] is more like what IMM should have been.
** Suicune gets an early appearance in the movie, along with a description that includes its ability to purify water, and serves as a partial motivation for Ash and his friends to explore the forest. But it doesn't arrive to help the heroes until the third act, only providing limited assistance against the villain and a brainwashed Celebi, and [[spoiler: while it does purify the lake, it's not enough to save the dying Celebi, requiring another DeusExMachina from the other time-travelling Celebis to do so]]. Ultimately, as cool and majestic as it is, it's contributions overall feel rather negligible.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** As [[WebVideo/ThatDudeInTheSuede Suede]] [[https://web.archive.org/web/20211112044128/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOAcTExhgHs pointed out in his review]] of the movie, [[spoiler:Celebi's death]] could've been used as an effective GreenAesop - if [[spoiler:Celebi stayed dead]], it would give the message that sometimes damage done to the environment can never truly be undone.
** The movie itself also ''caused'' an example to occur within the main series: the GS Ball storyline[[note]] which had been running for over 60 episodes and was the whole reason Ash and friends went to both the Orange Islands and Johto in the first place [[/note]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was meant]] to conclude with TheReveal that the GS Ball contained Celebi, in turn leading into a multi-episode story arc. When it was decided that Celebi would be featured in this movie, the writers shelved this and the GS Ball storyline went unresolved to this day.
* TheWoobie: Considering their usual depiction of evil, unstoppable juggernauts, the Tyranitar that gets caught by the Iron-Masked Marauder is this. When it first appears, it's so scared one just wants to give it a comforting hug. And it only gets worse for it afterwards.
%%ZCE** Celebi.
* WriterCopOut: Some people might see [[spoiler:the emergence of dozens of time-traveling Celebi to revive the main Celebi]] as this, especially since [[spoiler:the film, for some reason, faked the audience out once with a previous DeusExMachina that turned out to not do any good]].
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