Digimon Just FIXED This Classic Movie? HURRICANE TOUCHDOWN REVIEW 2024

0:00 Did Digimon just fix this controversial movie? One of the more divisive Digimon movies might have just been fixed 25 years later. At the end of 2024, Disco Tech released Digimon the Movies, a new collection of the first three Digimon films uncut and dubbed in English for the first time with many of the original Fox Kids cast returning. I reviewed the overall collection in a previous video, which you should check out. I'll link to that below. But spoilers for that video, I loved the collection itself. The new cast members are wonderful. The returning legends sound fantastic. and the chopped up Fox Kids cut of the film somehow was included with all the pop punk and sca music you remember. But I promised in the last video that I would do individual reviews of the three films in their uncut forms. The third part of the Digimon movie, Hurricane Touchdown, or Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Hurricane Landing, Transcendent

0:46 Evolution, The Golden Digimentals. That film easily had the most cut and changed content when Fox got their hands on it. So, I'd like to review this film first. In Digimon the movie, act three certainly felt tacked on, showcasing brand new heroes, meeting a brand new kid, and fighting brand new enemies more than halfway through the film's runtime. As kids, we loved it, and as an adult, I still do, but I can't pretend it all flows flawlessly, especially with all the cut content. So, how does Hurricane Touchdown stand on its own? And how does the new English production handle the material? Did Disco just fix Hurricane Touchdown for the Englishonly fandom who has maybe only ever seen Digimon the movie? In the first ever Adventure 02 film, a terrifying new Digimon makes its presence known in the streets of New York City. While TK and Kari are visiting from Japan, the core group of 02, minus Ken, who had not joined the

1:32 team at this point, head to America to confront the mystery Digimon, where they meet newcomers Willis and Terrimon. It was the first Digimon film not directed by Mamora Hosod. Though it seems to me at least that it largely aimed to emulate the look of our war game which borrowed from the adventure anime series, but certainly had that distinct Hoda style we'd see in Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. To me, looking back, Movie 3 is really the armor evolution showcase film. Revenge of Diaboron moved past them. 2020's last evolution and 2023 Zero to the Beginning opted to showcase standard evolution and DNA jogress evolution. But for fans of the armor concept of Flame Drammon, Digmon, and Hulseimon, this film was and continues to be the best animated showcase of those monsters. It was also the world's first look at an animated terrier. Let's talk the big changes

2:18 between the Fox Kids version and the uncut version presented here in the Disco Tech package. The first and most obvious is the role of the series 1 Digi Destined. If you've only seen the Fox film, you may not have known that the Gen 1 team of Tai, Matt, Joe, Mimi, Izzy, and Sora are in this movie. Kokamon is looking for Willis, but only remembers what he looked like as a child. Willis is tangentally linked to the Japanese Digid Destin from season 1, and that they all acquired Digivvices and met their Digimon at around the same time. Kokan somehow picks up on that link and begins abducting the series 1 kids, hoping one of them is Teenage Willis, the boy he's actually looking for. In the uncut film, we see Tai, Sora, Matt, and the others trapped in that negative void inside of Cookman, the one that Magnamon and Rapidmon enter at the end of the film when they let themselves get eaten. The OG team's

3:04 presence in the film gives the English actors who returned for this new project a little bit more to do. It was a real treat getting some bonus Joshua Seth, bonus Colleen Oanessy performing these scenes for the first time ever. And newcomers like Eli Farmer playing Joe and Elsie Lovelock playing Mimi are given additional material, which is a huge relief. I thought those two in particular crushed it in Our War Game, but their characters have so few lines in that film that we barely got to enjoy their takes on Joe and Mimi. Thankfully, we get more Eli and more Elsie in movie 3. Visually, the Gen 1 kids being in this movie is a treat as well. Pokémon dees them during their time in the void space. This means we get to see their younger versions in this Hodotlike art style. We see them in their Adventure 1999 TV series outfits, but in the movie art style, and it rules. Now, despite the movie having a whole subplot about

3:50 the Gen One kids being abducted, I don't want to paint the false picture that the uncut film was flawless before Fox Kids got their hands on it, some of the headscratching, sometimes laughable moments in the Fox edition aren't much better in the original. Parts of this movie are simply weird and inexplicable regardless of what cut you're watching. The train scene with Kari and TK, where Cook makes every other passenger who isn't TK or Kari disappear, is one great example. Overall, the tone is creepier and more hallucinatory, but it doesn't make any more sense here. We don't know what happened to those people. We don't see or hear how TK and Curry get from that scene to the climax of the movie. Now, I don't think everything needs an explanation. I'm weirdly okay with the unexplained. I love Alan Wake and Serial Experiments Lane. I just want to dispel the myth here that the fox god butchered what was a perfectly coherent movie.

4:36 It's just not the case. There's also the ending with the angels summoning the golden digimentals that win the day. The leap in logic is arguably more laughable with the new more faithful to the Japanese dialogue. In the Fox cut, Angimon and Anjuan go to Mega for the first time in the series out of nowhere. And they say they needed to do that to unlock the golden Digi eggs. In the new dub, which is a more accurate translation, they say, quote, "If we ditch evolve to Mega, we should be able to summon something." They don't even know what they're hoping to accomplish by going to Mega. It's hilarious. And again, that's how it was in the original Japanese film. If you ever had a friend on the playground or someone on the internet tell you that there was more to the TK and Kari storyline and Digimon the movie butchered it, they'd lie to you. As for a story, the fundamental plot of the film does not change drastically, apart from the fact it's a rescue mission with the season 1 kids

5:22 missing. In the uncut version, it's more clear that Willis struggles with fighting and hurting Pokémon. A battle feels inevitable, and this makes the film feel heavier. It explains why Davis breaks down in the woods. He's horrified thinking about how he'd feel if he ever had to put down Vimon. A standout scene that was cut is one of the baby Pokemon bouncing around the void world, going up to little Tai, little Matt, and mistaking them each for Willis. Pokemon seems to have thought that one of these teens was surely Willis, and that by deaging them, he'd be able to recognize his old friend. And when reverted to kids, Tai and the others feel like lifeless dolls. It makes the scene equal parts tragic and creepy. I also liked how when Terrimon returns to Willis after destroying Cook for good, there's this wonderful line where Terrimon tells Willis, quote, "Cookan was smiling. It's like someone who got to be in the room when a loved one passed and who relays

6:08 those final moments to others in the family who couldn't be there. The choice of translation and the delivery by Mona Marshall's Terion was great. The film is ultimately about accepting change, the loss of loved ones, moving forward versus looking back. How allowing oneself to stay trapped in the past can also drag others you care about down into the depths of despair along with you. Watching the uncut disco tech version, something clicked for me for the first time. It became clear that Hurricane Touchdown is kind of the template for every adventure sequel story we've gotten in the modern era. Adventure Try, Last Evolution, and Zero to the Beginning all riff on Hurricane Touchdown's premise. A new Digi Destin appears with a Digimon they loved in childhood who's kind of lost their senses in the present day and needs to be stopped. Mako, Monoa, Rui, and their Digimon all feel based on this Willis and Lmon dynamic. Sure, they're all

6:55 slightly different. Willis had twins. Manoa was kind of worse than Morphmon, but it's got the same template. In that regard, while the uncut standalone version of Hurricane Touchdown may not be my favorite adventure film, I have to respect it for its heavier theme that future films would remix and retell. Now, I also want to say this new Disco dub's commitment to accuracy is not always a great thing. Willis is creepier than his Fox Kids counterpart, and I didn't need to hear him tell Davis that he wants to get back to camp so he can watch Yoli sleep. But that's the interesting thing about this project, right? If the goal was presenting the films to an English audience as accurate to the source material as possible, this works. They did their job. It just isn't as palatable at times. Take for instance the music. It's a swing in a miss for me. Probably the biggest swing Digimon has ever taken with its music, so I

7:41 commend it for that at least. It relies heavily on nylon string guitar, vibrophone jazz solos, and slide guitar. I don't hate the idea of funky jazz music scoring this American Digimon adventure, but couldn't it have been good jazz? I know taste is subjective. I'm not the gatekeeper of music, but I did play drums in one jazz band and bass in another. So, I do like the genre. To me, this music simply doesn't fit the action or the slower paced scenes. A quirky jazz soundtrack could have worked. Cowboy Bbop released 2 years earlier and was scored by an iconic jazz soundtrack that is still remembered fondly with the Bbop opening ranking high on many lists of the best anime themes of all time. Like with what I said about Creepy Willis being creepy, technically the Disco Tech collection succeeded here. Their goal was to get the original film into the English language as authentically as possible. I

8:28 don't happen to like the soundtrack, but Disco Tech did exactly what they set out to by leaving it untouched. What has changed audio-wise is the brand new English dub made up of mostly returning actors and a handful of new talent stepping in where necessary. Brian Donovan's Davis sounds like he never stopped playing this character. He's great. Ken is of course not a part of this film, but Derek Steven Prince got to play around here as Vimon. Steve Bloom is back as Flamemon. and both sound perfect. I mentioned how great Laura Jill Miller sounded in my previous video reviewing the collection as a whole. She is so perfect as the younger Kari in our war game and great here as a slightly older teenage version. Newcomers Jessica Peterson and Maline Doro play Yoli and Cody respectively. They're great. I struggled a bit with the new Yoli just because so many of the Fox kids lines are baked into my brain

9:15 like sorry but you're grounded and you have to give it time to heal. Bob Globerman returned as Willis. I'm stoked that he's back. Though unlike Brian Donovan, his voice does show signs of aging. Willis has a deeper and more mature voice in this cut, but it's only natural. It's been nearly 25 years since they first recorded the original version. Still, Bob understood the assignment and gave it his all. I don't dislike Willis here. I just noticed that he sounds a little different. Some concluding thoughts. I thoroughly enjoyed my rewatch of Hurricane Touchdown with its new uncut disco tech English dub. The film is gorgeous in HD, and I loved spending more times in scenes like the woods or the cottage where I could just absorb all of the gorgeous backgrounds the studio created for this film. The Adventure 99 team being a part of the story makes the stakes far more intense, too. And one of those scenes with them and Cook is

10:02 heartbreaking. I'm really close to saying I prefer this new version over the version we got in the Fox Kids movie 25 years ago, but I think the uncanny music is holding me back. Call it nostalgia, but I'll take the upbeat licensed soundtrack over the strange jazz any day. I do think this uncut version is an essential watch for any Digimon fan. Whether that is the original Japanese audio with subtitles or this new English production, you should really watch this movie. I don't really do numbered scores, but I would give the new English dub a watch it rating. I guess even if the soundtrack isn't your jam, you'll enjoy the brand new sequences in a story you thought you already knew and a great cast of new and returning actors who seem to care deeply about the material. So, I got to know, have you seen the uncut version? Was it the Japanese audio with subtitles or Disco's new English dub? Let me know

10:47 what you thought by leaving a comment. Subscribe for my review of our war game in the near future and for videos on series like Shaman King, Beyblade, and Mega Man NT Warrior, which will be the topic of my next video. I'm currently re-watching that show. I also want to mention June is the sixmonth anniversary of me releasing my anime inspired adventure novel Dot Monster Revolution. The support and interest has blown me away and it's been read by way more people than I ever thought would read it. The book is available and I'll put links below, but I have a mini update today. I just uploaded a reading of the first 20 pages on my second channel. It's me narrating the prologue and first chapter as if it's an audio book. Go listen to that if you're curious and if you like what you heard, consider picking up the paperback or digital edition. Oh, and if you've read the book and have questions, I'm planning to do like a Q&A kind of six months thing on

11:33 my second channel. So, comment with your questions about the story or the process, I guess. Thanks again for all your support on this channel and with the book. I feel very fulfilled right now creatively. It's weird confessing my happiness to the world here on YouTube.com, but I can't help it. I feel like a lucky guy. Anyways, enough yapping. Thanks for watching. Links to everything mentioned below. See you in the next video.