Review - Digimon: The Movie

0:04 [Music] being a longtime Digimon fan for years I'm always surprised to see that Digimon Digital Monsters has been able to have and Achieve longevity ever since its birth in the late 1990s and still being admired for its fictional digital concept Digimon came out at a time where there seemed to be a monster fat going around around with Pokemon being the most notable while Digimon never reached the level of Pokemon's popularity it was still making fans with its creation of the digital pet its car game and probably most Know believe its anime series time has been the deciding factor and judge for these monster franchises while its par contemporaries have been lost the time and Pokemon's been kept

0:50 Alive by its impulsive collectible junkies Digimon has proven that it could stand on its own and has shown that it always did have Merit one amazing accomplishment that sticks out my mind when you talk about Digimon as a franchise is the creation of Digimon the movie a futur link film that was released in the Autumn of 2000 I showed you have fond memories where I learned about a digimon movie coming out and I consider it to be one of the best movie experiences I ever had especially since I saw it with a best friend who was also a fan when talking about Digimon the movie I think Digimon fans then and now don't comprehend just how big of a deal this was to have Digimon on the Silver Screen when it comes to more familiar and older franchises it's more easy to make a film adaptation since you already have an established fan base that's been growing with it over the years and

1:36 will'll go see them if nothing more than out of curiosity Digimon may have had its fan base but it didn't have that kind of attention to give it mainstream success so there was no reason at all to release this in theaters it could have easily have been a direct video release but despite the success or reputation someone gave the green light to have this in theaters an example like this is the reason why I always considered Digimon to be an Underdog it always treated itself as a high profile even if others look the other way and saw no significance to it the movie that was presented was a combination of three short films roll into one Digimon Adventure R war game and Digimon hurricane touchdown and one complaint that people point out is how hazy and uneven the presentation of this film is by lumping together these films it's a coherent mess there's no real story a

2:23 lot was cut from the original versions but does it still try to make a reasonable story with the few pieces it's got the best way to review this film is to break down each segment and see what each Act does with its own story and see how all three parts affect the overall Story the movie is shy to tell we start off with a Y Tha and Ki who meet their first Digimon coron and this leads to the height and view terrrace event where while Digimon parrotmon appears and the now evolved Greymon fights them off and both are sent back to the digital world the first thing you notice is the voice of C working as narrator throughout most of the film since this is a mix of three different stories this narration is made to work as a loose narrative to tie the movie together and to give some Exposition on who's who and on the events that unfold fans might roll their eyes at this since they already know

3:08 about the status quo from the TV series but this is a smart move to do it's made for the people in the audience who are not Digimon fans to understand the backstory and not to be left behind and wonder what's going on and to build some interest in a story they don't know about but we don't have to be told about every other thing that happens in a scene when CI points it out I'm sure we can figure that out ourselves the segment plays off as a fun Tom fery piece with Ty Cari and the Digimon for the first half and then builds to a suspenseful and action climax to finish the segment there's not much to talk about in terms of plot this first stack is just to get the ball rolling and to start off at some jumping point it does set the tone for the emotional impact moments for the rest of the film The Action the humor the Thrills and all these elements are balanced so well that anybody can appreciate and enjoy the entertainment being shown here for what

3:54 it is despite the Simplicity of this first part in fact I think this could have been good enough for American fans first introduction to the Digimon instead of starting off with the series it would have made it a bigger curiosity to check the show out and put things in a better perspective oh well one thing I find funny is how you have this battle between two Digimon in this one area and yet only the kids in the block see this event happened and no one else does I guess everybody works so hard that day or they're very heavy sleepers years after the events of season 1's Adventure a mysterious Digimon appears on the internet one day that also happens to be infected with a virus Izzy explains that this Digimon appears to be more dangerous than it seems to be and it happened to be created by this kid named Willis more on him later Ty Izzy then try to round out the rest of the group

4:40 but they're only able to get Matt and TK to join the fight against the virus and they can't get in contact with the other members for reasons beyond their control and if things couldn't get worse the evil virus plans to solve all its problems with a few mushroom clouds our war game is in itself a well-crafted piece of Adventure storytelling as a great example of what Digimon has to offer at its best as an anime the thing that makes our war gam so enduring is how everything in the segment just emotionally interacts with one another if it be a moment of Comedy a sense of suspense or just a random conversation between two characters the series always treat the digi Destin as fleshed out characters who over time become very likable and relate characters who have something to gain and learn and we become so invested in their trials and tribulations that you end up wanting to see more from this type of crew so when

5:26 we see the group in this segment we see that charm interesting characteristics come off the screen even if they're on their off time when you talk about the plot which is by all means a very simple plot bad guy shows up good guys have to fight the bad guy bad guy and good guy fight back and forth good guys defeat the bad guy in the end and yet the scope of this segment feels much more Grand and epic than it should be and that's due to the investment the script puts into the relationship of the characters and the weight of their situation the performances from the cast also add to the quality and enjoyment to the segment everyone puts 100% effort into their roles and you really get that sense of comradity coming from the main cast characters that have such a close history and great understanding with each other we know how they function off their strengths and weaknesses to make a good character as much as the actors who know how to bring out that believability

6:13 in the performance it is a bit disappointing that the entire group doesn't assemble together and are not present here even if the other members only make cameos so that we can have that Charming comity like there was in the series but I think one can argue that by only having a few teammates to fight the foe it builds suspense by making the impossibility of their situation more heavy some credit should be given when it comes to the humor which makes up for most of the light-hearted moments here fans always complained that the humor in the series was way too corny for its own good that's because the show was under heavy micromanagement and Jeff neore C of head for the majority of the English crew of Digimon would have made the series into a show with the same kind of tone that's in our war game the humor comes off generally funny here and doesn't feel contrived for the sake of having humor

6:58 and only having sour comments coming from the Digimon at times speaking of lighter moments there is a nice little treat for fans as the film showcases the banner between Tai and Soros developing relationship it doesn't have to do with anything in the overall movie but for nothing else it shows this character development that's happening in the background and if you keep track of the series you'll see this as a pivotal moment for others it just ask the fun Tom fery going on the virus that develops into dear Boron is one of the best villains in digimon's Rogues Gallery what makes him so impressive is that he's able to accomplish so much in so little time he's able to evolve into his other form so quick he doesn't have to go through a processing stage like the other Digimon do deliver beating to opponents in minut showing how powerful he is and how invertable he is in battle travel from one place to another in a

7:44 matter of moments duplicate himself into millions of De Boron copies while simultaneously able to obtain and control two nuclear missiles to throw at our heroes seeing how powerful and multitasking di Boron is he's got a reference sheet that would make the majority of Digimon villains blush while di Borman shows that he's an interesting threat we don't explore him as a digimon or even as an entity his motives for why he's doing for what he's doing though I like the scene where he's calling everyone in the world and happens to call Tai and give the line hello did you program me and a Sinister sarcasm way just to show off some personality by having such an Unstoppable Force You' got to have some major backup this is where we see the introduction of amimon and just from his appearance alone you can tell this Digimon commands a majestic magic and is a force to be

8:29 reckon with like that of Superman and his very introduction is without a doubt one of the best scenes in the film if not the best it's also our first introduction to a DNA Digimon which is talked about later in the second season which has to do with the ability of Digimon combining together to make a new digital monster our war game could be marked as the highlight of this film since it has so much to offer and even as a standalone movie it would still be great as an action-packed piece it's been said that the original intention was to make the first segment in our war game and and only used these two shorts to beat the entirety of the Digimon movie though I think that wouldn't have been enough to validate a theater release and would have fell short in running time unless the filmmakers had something else in mind to put in and use that as a third act it should be noted that while our war game and hurricane

9:15 touchdown are not in continuity with season 1 and two respectively they are both intertwined by the same story in this movie's context and hurricane touchdown leaves right off after the events of world war game with that being said hurricane touchdown is sad to say a really dull and may I add depressing disappointment in the progress of the storyline for all of its accomplishments war game was able to achieve interest and set up expectations so you would think that touchdown would be just as Grand or even better in its scope but strangely the segment does the opposite and the final execution of hurricane touchdown is a pale restrained downsized concept for story the plot Falls victim to one of the worst ideas you can have for storytelling where the whole plot centers around the group to get from one point to another with nothing

10:01 interesting happening in between their journey and we go through this already born act to begin with just to end up in the middle of nowhere in some abandoned County next to the Rocky Mountains I find ironic that our war game story mainly took place in a room and yet you were invested and on the edge of your seat hurricane touchdown takes the season 2 Team out in the open and around some places and yet their Adventure is as dull as dishwater I'm not blaming the L of interest on the characters the script doesn't give them anything to do to bring out any kind of personal charm and don't have much of an environment to interact with maybe they could have gone to a place like a beach park a small town a skybridge Disneyland anywhere really when facing the kind of threat they face there should be some high

10:48 stakes on the line in having the team interacting with people they meet with the kind of situation they're in where bring out that kind of character and give us a reason to care speaking of people one thing I kind of find funny is how the group no matter where they go there seems to be no signs of people anywhere even when TK and Cari are in New York it looks empty for some reason we see Ki and TK at the start of the segment and don't see them again until the very end and there's no explanation as to why it took them so long to catch up with the team now's a good time to bring up Willis since he's finally put into the Forefront of the film Willis is a Lynch pin that puts everything into Motion in the movie and is the cause of the evil virus that's Unleashed and we can tell that he's going to have to clean up this mess that he started so Willis is buil up as his Vocal Point and by the time we get to him he should be

11:33 this character that we have sympathy for and be invested in because of this nightmare scenario he puts himself in but at the end of the day Willis's character is not that big of a deal one thing he should have realized was how dangerous the virus was from all the destruction it caused that is if it went around causing damage to people places and things and see the kind of Burden he made for himself so that it would validate the remorse that's been building up inside and make his Arc have more impact the plot denies such big consequences to take place to make this happen and this also leads to another problem with Willis's conflict and that his conflict is portrayed as way too personal when anyone tries to get Willis to explain what's going on and what he has to do with all this his response is getting the cold shoulder and leaving the rest of the team out in the cold and he only spills the beans until their

12:19 last fight with the virus this is a dumb move to make on Willis's part and a bad way to make a first impression why not offer help in a problem you're in from the start ESP especially when you see others who happen to have the jimon too Willis also says he's been fighting off the virus that's been following him for 4 years and has done fine on his own with his partner teraman but after seeing how the virus attacks him and comes after him and how the virus is ultimately defeated by the end of the film just shows that Willis could have taken care of this situation all by himself really having him team up with the digi Destin doesn't add or take away from his strategy or the way he fights his battles it gives an excuse to have Digimon on the screen but ultimately the other members of the team don't do anything that Willis couldn't have done

13:05 also all he had to do was find a way to get terryon a golden armor evolved and find out that the virus's weakness was from inside so this really begs the question why have the dtin in here in the first place if they don't give out anything to help out the fight and doesn't this make them so perous they should also bring up cookon the Digimon that the virus embodies the virus in this is a let down since it didn't follow up as his apocalypse like virus that was building up in the last segment after seeing all the things the virus did as de Boron it shows that it's pretty powerful powerful enough to even turn back time as shown near the end so when we see this guy he should be leaving damage behind that would take out half a city instead it has fights that are equivalent to back Yi bras with

13:50 all that said there are two things I like in this plot I think this story gives good reason why Davis is qualified for being leader of the team even if Davis comes off as a character with a onrack mind he's fully aware of the situation he's in he knows what the goal is and he takes care of it and if the morale seams down he comes in sees what the problem is tries to find the answer so that the team doesn't fall apart teron looks like a fun Digimon to be around with and looks like he packs a lot of punch while Wheeling both Gatling guns and explosive Rockets his type of voice suits his character very well and while this was his introduction we would get to see more of him in the third season of Digimon for what it is Digimon the movie tells a good enough story with the material it's working with despite its limitations the animation is more fluid than in the show and while it

14:36 doesn't look as polished like it was in the series it didn't bug me and the acting from the cast is well done as it stands I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get in the Digimon like a compilation album this is a good introduction for what to expect from Digimon as an anime but the only thing is the show is not on DVD yet so you really can't check out the show Even if you wanted to this movie does lose some points though since hurricane touchdown is so weak it might as well come off as a copout so with that said if Digimon the movie gets a 2.5 out of four