Digimon The Movie Retrospective

0:00 [Music] welcome to we zilla's retrospective I'm your host wezilla I bet you're real proud of the fact that you were able to correctly guess what today's topic is I'm not going to point fingers but you know who you are then again given we ended our last outing with the Digimon Theme song I remember when I was a kid there would be serious shouting matches between classmates who assumed either this was a ripoff of Pokémon or the other way around because of the name when really that was just prepass and children being ignorant I mean sure both are anime and both have the mon suffix but when you compare Pokemon's prence to digimons

0:45 it's apples and oranges and digimon's appeal is undeniable being a series about a group of kids who team up with creatures from a digital world to face off against evil Digital Monsters the franchise has since taken to having each season be Standalone with a new group of kids known as Digi Destin and their Digimon Partners each time but that wasn't always the case with the second season being a direct follow-up to the first that format sounds familiar to me for some reason and during the second season it of course got what any good series gets a movie at least in America it's a single movie see Japan's approach to making a theatrical release for their particular shows are somewhat unconventional by the standards of this in the states I'll go into more detail about that when it becomes relevant now our opening is both good and bad good in

1:30 that it opens with the Show's theme song such a simple idea that you would think more movie adaptations would do it's bad because they decided for some ungodly reason to do a rap version of the song The digu is up and rning did you see did you hear did you know what's coming this may have come out in the year 2000 but the '90s still weren't over just yet the first 15 minutes of this movie is a longer retelling of the first time the digi dtin saw Digimon in the real world a bit unnecessary since it doesn't have anything to do with the overarching plot of the film save for the film's ongoing narration by its youngest team member Ki

2:15 revealing that while Greymon and parrotmon battle is going on in Japan a kid in America by the name of Willis was also getting a pair of Digimon of his own still it does show off some impressive animation that we never got from the show though the coloring is a bit murkier and as intrusive as it is K's narration isn't without its amusing bits he had a strange way of showing his appreciation the actual plot begins sometime after the events of season 1 where all the digi Destin are back in the real world and for a really poor reason Sora is mad at Tai who is trying to write an apology letter before Ki interrupts him we a shout out to one of Saban's other works I'm going to a birthday party I got my friend a pink Power rang cute though this will call attention attention to an issue a little

3:01 later and no I'm not talking about the shared voice actors between both shows because if I try to put out every familiar voice between the two I could fill a separate video entirely with them moving right along another member of the team Izzy discovers a digiegg on the internet a bit confusing since the relationship between the real world the digi world and the internet wasn't as played up as much in the show as it is in this film the second season showed computers were more or less a Gateway between the two but here the internet is treated like it's a whole separate Dimension like the digital world on that topic the Digimon hatches from the egg and is infected with a virus that makes it hungry for data and it starts eating up information from all over the world I wish auman was here to help

3:46 us don't forget me tenton who else is there check me out unfortunately because the rest of the digi Destin are otherwise indisposed only auman and tenton are able to travel through the internet to deal with this hostile Digimon which has already dig evolved to his rookie form karaman and the fact that it's only in its rookie form makes it all the more confusing when auman says it's tougher than the Dark Masters remember them the villains from the final Arc of season 1 the ones that killed off numerous secondary characters you'll have to forgive me for not believing you on that the though admittedly it does dig evolve to it

4:31 straight to its ultimate level in foron during the fight and displays some genre savviness by attacking Greymon and kabut teron before they get the chance to dig evolve into ultimate level two fortunately two more Digi Destin Matt and TK are able to get online which allows their Digimon partners gaban and paman to join the fights akuman and gaban warp digivolve to their mega forms War Greymon and metal guran but infermon still has the upper hand because and I can't believe this is a thing people all over the world are emailing the two and the emails are slowing them down an issue that never came up before and is only doing so now because they're fighting in the internet instead of the digital world how convenient which makes me wonder if people all over the world are watching this fight does that mean

5:17 they're also seeing the Digimon digivolve stock footage or are they seeing it in real time unfortunately for little patamon he doesn't get a chance to get into the fight as he is interrupted by infermon digivolving into his mega form diaboromon diaboromon unsurprisingly this is a dubbing error as in the original Japanese it is in fact diablomon and this is why I wanted you to keep that little Power Rangers reference in the back of your mind I said this movie came out in the year 2000 after all and do you know what else came out in the year 2000 Power Rangers Light Speed rescue a show that has a character named diabolico and keep in mind they didn't take the name of his counterpart from QQ cogo 5 and translated into English that's a name

6:03 Saban came up with themselves so diaboromon can't be an attempt at censorship not if they get the pronunciation right in light speed rescue I can only assume the dubbers misin interpreted the original Japanese dialogue and since the letters l and R are interchangeable in Japanese they just rolled with it though the next bit that happens isn't really their fault per se see if you're familiar with the movie War Games then a lot of this may seem familiar to you and to to complete the parallels with that film diablomon yes I am using the correct name from this point launches a pair of nukes one named at tyan Izzy and the other aimed at Colorado where that Willis kid lives Yeah Izzy mentioned him a couple times before and trust me he'll be relevant eventually diablomon multiplies himself into millions of copies and takes

6:49 advantage of War Greymon and melu man's slowed connection to pulverize them into unconsciousness and then Ty and Matt um travel into the internet yeah K's narration pops up again and e but even having her admit that they're not sure how these two got in there doesn't actually solve the issue of how it happened and then the very same logic that made the two Mega Digimon vulnerable is turned right around as the support from all the people sending the emails allows them to merge together into the powerful omnimon and this design I'm a bit mixed on it I like the arms representing the two Digimon with the sword and Cannon combo but the rest of the body doesn't reflect the combined nature of this thing fortunately Izzy's plan is less contrived as he forwards the emails to

7:35 diablomon so it will slow down long enough for amiman to strike the final blow destroying it with a second to spare of course how this stops the nukes from exploding upon impact isn't clear since the countdown was to impact not launch And yet when one lands in the water all it does is cause a single large wave and with diablomon defeated you think the movie's over right Tech teally yes it's about time I explained something to you Japan does things a little differently when it comes to making movies based on their shows it's very very common for any given Japanese show to have anywhere between one to three movies a year taking place during the events of the current season but unlike a feature film these tend to be the length of an average episode from the show sometimes

8:23 stretching at length of a two-parter and while the stakes of the movie itself tend to be slightly higher ultimately it plays are like an episode with a larger budget and rarely will it affect the series proper being completely Standalone especially when it contradicts continuity Digimon the movie is three of these movies the Greymon parmon battle Diablo Mon's attack on the internet and our third segment are all Standalone movies released during the Airing of the season 1 and two in respectively in Japan however releasing a pair of films that short here in America would not fly especially with Digimon being so popular at the time that's why K's narration has repeatedly mentioned the American kid Willis as well as why diablomon launched a separate missile at him because he's

9:08 supposed to be the link between the three stories when in the original Japanese version of these movies he was only involved in the last one and it's by no means a seamless transition I called K's narration intrusive for a reason and then there's the fact that Izzy is in contact with Willis despite the fact he should not know about any other Digi Destin outside of the original eight from the first season it's feels like a DUB Edition that doesn't flow with the rest of the action because it is and at this point I'm just stalling our final segment takes us place during the events of the second season where we see TK car paman and goaman in New York where we finally get to the Willis plot as one of his Digimon has become hostile and the other one terriermon is defending him all right tell me what do you

9:57 want uh I think it's a a little late for him to go back now considering we're at the point where he's actually going to be relevant Willis and terman make their way to Colorado with the ditch Destin following his Trail though incidentally TK and Ki the ones who first spotted him are stalled on a train and left out for most of the action it's Davis Coy yolay and their Digimon Partners who arrive and reach Willis first a real shame because well I have nothing against most of these characters even Davis's own Digimon vmon isn't too bad but Davis himself is a character I never really cared for I think K's narration sums it up best yeah I know Davis looks a lot like my brother Ty they even have the same Personality yeah I think that's it his infatuation with Ki herself is something that could get really annoying

10:43 especially in this movie honestly even as a kid I knew it wouldn't go anywhere and yet people still hate the epilogue to season 2 Willis explains he tried to create another Digimon of his own somehow but it got infected with a virus the one that turned it into diablomon and after his defeat it infected the ones he already had he just can't fight it I know this won't end until he's destroyed but I can't do it it's all my fault not his what's the matter with you that's the saddest story I have I'm the one with the problem not you get over it okay well that was quick Davis agrees to help Wills get his

11:28 friend back and terriermon Promises to be there for him no matter what like any good Digimon partner would there's nothing really wrong with this material in and of itself but it highlights yet another issue with these Standalone short movies in Japan they have a habit of focusing on a new character exclusive to the film which often will not appear in the show proper they will get support from one of the main casts But ultimately it's their story Our Heroes face off against the Hostile Digimon as it continues to dig evolve and somehow makes them D and then TK car part show up late to the party just so paman and guman can use their neverbe seen and never again will mega forms which in turn only exist to create never seen before never established before golden Digi eggs which allows vmon and teron to armor dig evolve to Golden versions of

12:15 their up G did I mention the Aris was originally a standalone feature that had no impact on the series proper well the virus gets destroyed and so does the Hostile Digimon but he subsequently rebored as a Digi egg during the end credits despite the fact that Digimon who die in the real world can't be reborn like that but at this point is anyone really surprised they're breaking their own rules what is surprising is that while saan probably did this specifically to keep kids from being confused I don't think I would have been if they had just made an anthology because when I was a kid and saw this for the first time I saw it was only fitting that the two teams of Digi Destin would get their own segments in the movie since there wasn't a feature length for each one because what they ended up doing only hurt the third segment mind you it was the one that was

13:01 the most flawed but the additions didn't help they did give diablomon a backstory not pres the original Japanese version so at least one thing was done right though on the flip side the whole War Games homage plays more into the second segment than the general formula into the show which might be why it feels slightly off it does have the only good song of the original tracks of this movie since the rest are all pop songs that feel really out of place and ain't that something where there's one thing that was good in one segment but the exact same thing was bad in another it's like the give and take version of quality so what did we learn today well perhaps trying to combine unrelated stories by use of narration and a few throwaway lines are not enough that the way Japan does its movies don't work the same way they do elsewhere in the world

13:48 and though this movie does have its issues it did set the stage for things that would be used in later Digimon Works since it mostly takes place in the real world the third segment wouldn't be too out of place in an episode of the Third season I mean you already got terrierman who is a main character in that season a virus serving as a villainous force would also Drive much of the plot of the third season second half and Digimon combined would also be seen in season 4 and Beyond and at the end of the day that's what the Digimon movie is a standalone piece that really just influences ideas for Future Works rather than have any impact on the actual series that probably affects people like me more than people who just aren't as interested in continuity and things that affect the overall franchise which is why when I first learned about the existence of our next

14:34 topic my first reaction was to scratch my head in confusion [Music]