Pokemon 2000: The Power of One, known in Japan as Revelation Lugia, is the second film in the series; it premiered in July 17 1999 in Japan, and released in July 21 of the following year in the United States. It was still a box office success, but the western critical reception to it wasn't much better. It even won “The Remake or Sequel Nobody Was Clamoring For” from the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards.
The film takes place during the “Orange Islands” arc of the anime, and its plot centers around a catastrophe caused by an eccentric man who wants to add the mythical Lugia to his “collection”. To this end, he plans to capture the three legendary bird Pokemon Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, which causes an imbalance in nature that threatens to destroy the entire world. There is a prophecy that the Guardian of the Seas will rise to try and pacify them, but his power will not be enough, and só a strong trainer will arise to save the world (yes, I know that's not what the dub says, we'll be getting to that in a moment). Ash and his friends get caught up in the middle of all of this and it turns out Ash may very well be the only person who can save the world.
(A small note: the villain in this film is never actually given a name in the movie itself. Promotional materials from the west, including the official movie summary and the novelization give him the name “Lawrence III”, so that's what we'll be calling him from here on out).
This was another film that I saw while I was still a kid into Pokemon. I don't quite remember, but I think I may have even gone to see this in theaters. As a child, I remember being thoroughly engrossed by this movie, and I think I have a pretty good idea as to why that was.
I was still very much into Pokemon and its anime at the time, so that certainly helped a lot, but on some level I think I was old enough to recognize that this film offered something that the series was lacking entirely, even if it wasn't something I consciously thought of. The anime at the time (and to this day, even) didn't really contain a lot of interesting, intense drama or grandiose storytelling. Most of the problems are and feel petty pedestrian, and not very difficult to solve. Pokemon 2000's featured a HUGE disaster that was going to plague the Earth. Literally, the fate of the world was at stake. This is something that has become pretty worn-out as time has passed (it seems like every movie past a certain budget point needs to have the fate of the world, galaxy, universe, etc in the balance), but at the time, it was a nice change of pace. The film also featured both known legendary Pokemon and entirely new ones from a generation of games that had yet to arrive, like Lugia and Slowking. Their presence was intriguing, as they were unknown elements to children and generated interest in the upcoming Gold and Silver games.
Ash has a grandiose, larger-than-life adventure, fulfills a prophecy, and saves the world. Team Rocket, in what was a real shining moment to children who watched the anime, actually help Ash in saving the world and deliberately sacrifice themselves to that end. In the japanese version, they even tell Ash that he's “the main character”, flat out. They recognize that at the end of the day, there is something more important than them.
Because of these and a few other factors, some fans who got sick of the anime's repetitive nature apparently consider this film a “finale” of sorts. It's as good a closing-off point as any, I guess.
I don't have too much to say about the music and animation in this film; they don't catch my attention as much as they did in the first movie (though Lugia's song is cool still), but they're more than adequate and not at all a weak point.
I do have some nostalgia attached to this movie, but after seeing it again for the first time in forever, there are some issues I have to bring up.
- I'm not a scientist, but Oak's explanation as to why the disaster is occurring...doesn't sound very convincing to me. I guess we can just chalk it up to artistic license or something, but it's something that I felt needed to be pointed out.
- I said that the human characters actually get to shine more in this movie. Indeed, Misty's stubbornness and refusal to come to terms with her potential feelings for Ash, Melody's flirty, informal nature, Ash's usual Shounen Hero-ness, Team Rocket's unusually samaritan behavior, etc make this film a lot more interesting in terms of its human component. It helps that it's really what the film is about anyway: unlike Mewtwo Strikes Back, the human characters are the protagonists of the film.
This is a bit of a double-edged sword, however. It's good because the first movie was sorely lacking in this area, but it's bad because the first film was still way more interesting than this one despite that.
Part of the reason why the human characters were a detriment in Pt FM (besides their blandness) was that there something actually interesting that they were detracting from. This film doesn't really have the philosophical depth and emotional hook the first one did. It's just a straight up adventure movie for kids who like Pokemon, and it doesn't have much to offer to an older audience.
It was one thing watching this movie as a child, in the middle of the Pokemon fever, when you saw all of these characters regularly and were invested in them. I'm older now; I've seen much better stories than what Pokemon has to offer, have seen these characters amount to basically nothing even after all these years, and realized that the show was never that good and was at heart a promotional vehicle for the games. It simply isn't as engaging an experience now as it was then.
The characters themselves, while being improved, aren't actually that compelling or interesting in the first place. The anime characters are the same old ones we all know, and I don't have much to say about them other than the fact that they don't impress me that much (Tracey in particular is incredibly bland and has almost no lines in this movie; he might as well not even be here). In terms of new characters, Melody at least has something resembling a personality, but it doesn't really get to shine outside of the beginning of the movie when she's first introduced. Afterwards, she kind of fades into the background as the focus shifts towards the action and Ash's little journey to save the world.
Lawrence III...is not very smart, as far as villains go. The tvtropes page even posits that he might have a disorder of some kind. Despite a production sketch saying that he invented the technology he uses (which would make him a scientific genius), he doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that his entire goal of catching Lugia is going to pretty much doom the entire world, which means he and his collection will ultimately be destroyed. Not only that, but he lets Ash and friends along with Team Rocket free in his trophy room, despite the fact that they were clearly angry at him and could very well have wreaked havoc all over his ship (which they did). As the villain of the first movie, Mewtwo was also the emotional rock whose inner conflict allowed the narrative to explore meaningful questions in a way you wouldn't expect from Pokemon. In comparison, Lawrence just feels a lot more cookie-cutter and bland.
- Speaking of the anime, I don't think this film is any better than the first one in terms of accessibility. You still need some familiarity with the show, the characters, and the premise of Pokemon to really get much out of this movie.
- To be honest, after re-watching this movie, I'm not entirely sure why Slowking is in it, besides promotion for Gold and Silver. The fact that he can talk and that nobody seems to pay this any mind bothers me. It's very rare that Pokemon are able to speak the language of men, and whenever they can a big deal is usually made of it. It makes sense to me that a legendary Pokemon like Lugia can speak it, but it's a little harder to swallow with something like Slowking.
- Unlike the first movie, the dub didn't actually butcher or censor much (probably because there wasn't any interesting moral ambiguity or adult themes to tone down). In fact, I have to give the dub some props for a couple of decisions.
Firstly, the line from Lawrence III about him starting out his collection with an ancient Mew card was entirely absent from the japanese version. This information was released via a pamphlet in the japanese release, which also revealed that he was an orphan as well as the name of his ship. It adds a little bit more character to Lawrence, and since the informational pamphlet was japanese-only, it was nice that the dub managed to work this in so western audiences would know why the Mew card he picks up at the end was significant.
Secondly, the japanese version's prophecy is more vague about the savior. It only says that “an exceptional trainer” will arise to prevent the catastrophe. The dub used a clever little play on words by saying that “the world will turn to Ash”, which can be interpreted in two ways
a) The world will be destroyed.
b) The world will turn to someone named Ash for salvation.
It makes for a nice prophecy twist, and lends credence to the fact that only Ash could save the day. The original prophecy doesn't really convince me that saving the day was something only Ash could do; he does risk his well-being to get to the island and fetch the artifact that will calm the birds, which is commendable, but why is it that only he is capable of doing this as opposed to anyone else?
It might bear mentioning that the dub also added/changed a line for Misty that more heavily implied she had feelings for Ash. As I don't care about Misty and Ash's relationship (or lack thereof) and shipping in general, this line doesn't make much of a difference to me. It's not like their relationship ever went anywhere.
Otherwise, I think the only things of real interest in the japanese version are
1) the fact that the elemental birds are explicitly called “Gods”; legendary Pokemon are more or less deities in the english materials anyway, but it was interesting seeing them being referred to as such explicitly. It doesn't really bother me too much that this was changed though.
2) Oak's silly "scientific" explanation about why the disaster was occurring was cut out. As he also talked about the creation of the Pokemon world, the segment may have been removed due to religious reasons (or that's what bulbapedia says, anyway).
Overall, I don't think this movie holds up as well as Mewtwo Strikes Back. Its plot is much more standard, and thusly, less interesting. It's a mildly entertaining waste of time if you're a Pokemon fan with some nostalgia to spare for it, but not really anything more than that. Join me next time as we look at abandoned children's psychological issues.
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