Pokémon 3: The Movie Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Pokémon 3: The Movie Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 28, 2016

Note: This film is currently available as part of Pokémon: The Movies 1-3 Collection: Pokémon: The First Movie / Pokémon: The Movie 2000 / Pokémon 3: The Movie.

For anyone who either grew up in the late 1990s or early 2000s, or who had kids growing up in that era, there’s a certain nostalgia inherent in the very name Pokémon. This oddly sweet franchise began life in the mid-1990s as a Game Boy outing (remember those?), and quickly became a multimedia sensation, one of Nintendo’s all time sales champions across a variety of different formats. For those not acquainted with the franchise, the name Pokémon is an Anglicized portmanteau of sorts which refers to so-called “pocket monsters”, a gaggle of beasts which assorted Pokémon trainers use in various battles. While the video games may have been the first introduction to Pokémon for at least some folks, many will probably best remember the franchise due to the long running Pokèmon anime series, a series which actually was a quintet of series, though some who saw the show in its international iterations may not have been aware of the different soubriquets assigned to various seasons. Beginning in 1998, Pokémon feature films started appearing virtually annually every summer, and this new collection assembles the first three films, Pokémon: The First Movie, Pokémon: The Movie 2000, and Pokémon 3: The Movie. While few would probably accuse any individual Pokémon entry as being High Art, there’s an undeniable goofiness to each of these three films that will at least remind some folks of their own childhoods, and others of watching their own kids grow up entranced by the adventures of Ash, Misty, Brock and (to name just one of the more adorable Pokémon) Pikachu.

None of the first three Pokémon films exactly set the world on fire in terms of critical response, even if all three did at least reasonably well at the box office. However, the third film actually met with what was probably the most relatively positive critical assessment of the initial triptych, and it’s interesting to wonder whether that might have had something to do with this film’s emphasis on a character who is outside the traditional Pokémon canon. That character is a little girl named Molly Hale, a resident of a supposedly sylvan paradise named Greenfield (creative, eh?) whose father, a Pokémon researcher named Spencer Hale, has been investigating so-called Unown (yes, it’s spelled that way), one of the stranger “species” to inhabit the often pretty bizarre Pokémon universe. Unown look like heiroglyphs, and in fact might be mistaken for “cave writing”, as they initially are in the film. However, they have a “life” of their own, which turns out to be the fulcrum upon which Pokémon 3: The Movie: Entei - Spell of the Unown hinges.

Professor Hale is in fact sucked into a void of sorts when he goes into a fortress like cave where his assistant has found some Unown. That leaves Molly a veritable orphan, since her mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances previously. Left more or less alone in her family’s palatial mansion, Molly finds a box of Unown tablets and begins playing with them, leading to what the outside world sees as pure havoc, but which Molly herself experiences as a sort of—well, sylvan paradise. She had previously played “horsie” on the back of her father, as her father pretended to be Entei, a rather Aslan like Pokémon (several elements of this film seem curiously similar to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). The Unown, seemingly telepathically attuned to what will make Molly happy, conjure up Entei, whom Molly assumes is her father. When Molly asks Entei where her “Mama” is, Entei helpfully cavorts over an expanding crystal edifice the Unown have been creating to house Molly, finding Ash’s mother Delia in the outskirts of Greenfield. Entei also seems to be telepathically astute, and more or less hypnotizes Delia, who is taken back to the crystal edifice where she assumes the role of Molly’s mother.

Ash of course gets involved, helped by his usual sidekicks as well as another Pokémon trainer named Lisa. There’s a kind of weird hallucinatory quality to the film once Ash gets inside the crystal edifice, with “reality” and “dreams” kind of fusing together in a malleable way which personally reminded me somewhat of Tenchi Muyo in Love 2. As should be expected, a rather calamitous Pokémon battle ensues, though the film is curiously undercooked when it comes to the actual reasons behind the ultimate “defeat” of the Unown (and for those who consider mentioning the defeat of the “bad guys” a spoiler, you must have never seen a Pokémon episode or film before). Things are wrapped up in a somewhat cursory fashion, including a brief tip of the hat to Team Rocket, who comically profess that a new chance for them to fail spectacularly will come soon enough in the next film.

Pokémon 3: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pokémon 3: The Movie: Entei - Spell of the Unown is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Viz Media and Warner Brothers with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a good deal sharper looking than the first film in this set, but occasionally lapses into inconsistency, especially with regard to some of the CGI (utilized to offer the Unown as well as the growth of the crystal world Molly lives in), that keeps it from approaching the more consistent amount of detail evident in the third film (all of these differences are at least relatively incremental). Colors are bright and vivid, and this film tends to deal in some subtler tones than the other two films, including some nicely lustrous purples and teals. That said, those incredibly distinctive reds and yellows that help to define elements like Ash's hat or little Pikachu (and which are also evident in Entei) Line detail is generally very sharp and there are no issues with image instability.

Pokémon 3: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While the lack of surround mixes for the first two films in this three disc set have caused some fan blowback, at least some previous releases of these films also only included a stereo mix for this film, and so the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track included on this particular Blu-ray might not be as potentially controversial. As I've mentioned in the other two reviews of films in this set, I have to assess what's here, not what's supposed to be here (or would be preferable to be here), and as with the other two films, this stereo track offers excellent fidelity, good dynamic range and well done prioritization. Individual sonic elements like Entei's booming voice resonant distinctly and clearly, and there are no issues with damage.

Pokémon 3: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately there are no supplements included on this disc. That means that the Pikachu and Pichu short is nowhere to be found on this release.

Pokémon 3: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Pokémon fans will each have their own favorite out of the first three films, but my personal recommendation for those not already acquainted with this endearing franchise is to start with this film. Strangely enough, that's because Pokémon 3: The Movie: Entei - Spell of the Unown offers something outside of the traditional formulations involving Ash, his buddies and the charmingly inept Team Rocket. Video and audio are very good to excellent.