Full transcript of “The Digimon Movie: From Excitement to Acceptance (Be Kind, Rewind)”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 Let's just get this out in the open, nice and early. I really like Digimon. Sure. Pokemon was all the rage when it hit the us, and I'm on record talking about my love for those little pocket monsters. But when a show has creatures that have their own personalities and can actually communicate with the other characters in a way that we understand, yeah, that sold me immediately. But what even is a Digimon? Well, for starters, they're digital monsters. Digimon was created back in 1997 as a series of virtual pets that were intended to be the masculine counterparts to the Tamagotchi. Man, F*** Tamagotchi for being too girly, digital pets all the way. I have three of these things; holding my keys in my pants pocket is
0:49 impossible. Anime, manga, video games, films, and a couple different trading card games. The franchise itself focuses on the digital monsters that inhabit the digital world, which is a parallel universe that originated from earth's various communication networks and the worldwide web. The first designs for the monsters were cute and iconic, even on smaller screens later, designs were much edgier influenced by the style of American comics. Digimon gained momentum early on in Japan with its first video game Digimon World releasing in January, 1999, and a short film that same year titled Digon Adventure, which was released in theaters. The film would be followed by the television series of the same name. Digimon Adventure airing in Japan from March of 1999 to March of 2000 with
1:36 54 total episodes. And then Digimon came to America. I've collected Digimon merch so much more than I think I've ever collected Pokemon Merch. I know I've got a Lickilicky plush, and a couple little pixel art Legos on my shelves, but when it came to Digimon, I actively liked the trading card game. I still actively play the new trading card game. I love the little gatchapon figure key chains that were out in the early nineties. It was something that was more interesting to me in terms of merchandising than Pokemon ever was. I had the first iteration of the Digimon TCG starter deck. You know the one that came with SaberLeomon. Sadly, I never learned to play the game, so maybe this Digimon official game guide will help me understand.
2:22 No, I still don't understand how to play this game. What about these fascinating D3 Digivices from Adventure 02? I remember these being a more interesting version of a Tamagotchi and I brought mine with me everywhere and oh man, do you remember those fantastic digivolving figures? Agumon Warp Digivolve too... Oh my God, it's horrifying. They updated some of them and rereleased them under the new Digivolving Spirits.... Oh, come on. They're still so F*****g expensive. Okay, I liked it, but apparently Digimon didn't actually have the staying merchandising power that Pokemon did. Okay, I can admit when I'm wrong, but one of the things that's always been weird about Digimon is how it handles movies. Now granted, most anime movies are not considered canon. In fact,
3:07 I think nine out of 10 times, maybe even 19 out of 20 times, just to make it a bigger number and a movie that takes place in the anime universe is not considered canon. The closest thing I can remember is one piece Film Red, which was considered like loose canon. Digimon is weird because it's actually kind of canon. In October, 2000, I managed to convince my parents to take me to the movie theater. There was this movie that I had my heart set on seeing, and it was so good. No, no. Get out of here. Pokemon the movie 2000. I've watched you eight times already. Get out. The Digimon movie had arrived and I was beyond excited. I mean, it was Digimon! Adventure had wrapped up and 02 was just a month into its run.
3:53 How bad could it possibly have been? So let's take a step back for a second and actually look at how this movie came to be. After the success of the first two Pokemon films, Fox Execs were like, you know what? We have this highly profitable brand. We have a butt ton of money, and there's already a bunch of existing films, so why don't we just throw money at it and see what happens? When has that phrase ever been used for good? Unfortunately, Toei Animation didn't have any full feature length films for Digimon. Instead, they had animation fairs every spring and summer with featurettes showcasing their current animated titles. In the case of Digimon, they had published Digimon Adventure in 1999, Our War Game in 2000, which was a follow up to Digimon Adventure, and Digimon Hurricane Landing:
4:40 Transcendent Evolution: the Golden Digimentals in 2000, which lined up with Digimon Adventure 02. In terms of the cast, these three films came out to a combined 120 minutes in length, and the Fox Kids team somehow used black magic to condense them down even further into a single, somewhat coherent story coming in in just under 85 minutes. Let it just be known in case it's not incredibly obvious. I was a Fox kid growing up. I grew up on Digimon, big Bad Beatle Borgs, and of course Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Jeff Nemoy, the voice actor for Tentomon, and the story editor on the film has gone on record stating that the first cut of the movie consisted of just the first two films,
5:25 and Fox had plans to release the third film separately as a television movie or direct to video, but the idea was overruled. I can't really imagine that being a bad decision, honestly. It would've meant that we had a better cut of each of those films. So before we can get fully into the plot of the Digimon movie, there is one little thing that needs to be discussed about this bad boy. There's two little things, two terrible, terrible words that no one ever wants to hear in their entire life. Angela Anaconda. For some godforsaken reason,
6:11 the executives at Fox Kids decided that not only should this show be a staple of Saturday morning cartoons in the nineties, but it should also have a special Digimon episode that plays in front of the Digimon movie, which by my calculations, already had the right amount of Angela Anaconda in it. None. It apparently caused some kids' parents to actually get divorced as well. Yeah, seriously, look it up. Angela Anaconda actually ruined someone's marriage. So we started off eight years ago, Kari narrates, talking about how she and her brother Tai found a digiegg coming out of their computer one night. I prefer my eggs free range, but to each their own. Eventually the egg hatches and causes a ton of trouble for the Kamia family, but most importantly, their cat.
6:59 That cat puts up with so much shit. The little baby grows into the super affectionate Koromon and then ruins their apartment wall by Digivolving further into Agumon. Now, this is not going to be the same Agumon that Tai eventually befriend down the road. It is entirely a different Agumon. I think the difference is that he is just bigger, but if I had a nickel for every time that Tai and Agumongot bonded together, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice. Agumon takes Kari on a field trip around Heightonview Terrace, making sure that she has tons of sugary soda before bedtime and blows up a bus. Agumon has been a hardened criminal since the very beginning. Turns out Agumon wasn't the only Digimon to make the journey though as a massive
7:45 parrot Digimon hatches out of an even more massive digiegg in the sky fully formed and already an ultimate level Digimon. I'll give you three chances to guess. The giant parrot Digimon's name, your time starts now. Did you figure out that it was Parrotmon? Because it's f*****g Parrotmon. Agumon gets his ass handed to him by Parrotmon, but in an act of protecting those he loves, Agumon Digivolves into Greymon and proceeds to get his ass thoroughly handed to him again. In order to motivate him, Kari and Tai... blow their whistle. It is really freaking badass. The two Digimon disappear into the sky and Kari shares that those who witnessed
8:32 the battle would later become the Digidestined. And then we jump ahead four years. Oh look, it's the DigiDestined again, and they're slightly more grown up than the last time we saw them. It's summer vacation, meaning the kids are scattered across the globe. One day Izzy notices that an infected digiegg has appeared on the worldwide web and hatches into a starving baby digimon that immediately starts chowing down on code. This causes the world to be thrown into chaos, which is extremely funny at first, but then you think about what that would be like today and it stops being funny very, very fast. Meanwhile, Tai is apologizing to Sora via email because he's a dumb boy and didn't think about his actions when he gave her a hair clip for her birthday. She thinks that it means he hates her hat. He doesn't understand why she's upset.
9:18 It is a classic case of will they won't they where Sora ends up not picking Tai and dating Matt instead. Izzy runs over to Tai's and tells him that the egg is hatched, which makes Tai think he's talking about the chicken egg that he's holding. The boys are reunited with their Digimon partners over the web thanks to Jenai, and it allows Tentomon and Agumon to literally surf the web until they meet up with the now-Digivolved Keramon. They think they have a chance and everyone digi evolves giving us Greymon, Kabuterimon, and Infermon. Turns out that the newly formed Infermon is actually ultimate level though and not champion. So Greymon and Kabuterimon try to digivolve further to Ultimate,
10:07 but Infermon actually breaks the rules and attacks them while they're digvolving. This never happened in the original show and by my recollection, never happens again. I don't understand why more evil Digimon don't just attack in the middle of the digivolution sequence, like clearly and canonically It is able to happen. Why doesn't everyone do this? While this is all happening, Tai tries to reach out to the other DigiDestined, but Joe is in the middle of taking a test, Sora is ignoring him, Kari's at a birthday party and about to be saw in half by a magician, and Mimi is (It's a joke about being in America but didn't work as well as I wanted...) So he can only connect with Matt and TK. Gabumon and Patamon joined the net surfing shenanigans and the four try to take down Infermon again,
10:53 but Infermon did evolves into its mega form, Diaboromon, and it just absolutely devastates the Digimon, leaving only a battered and crumbling WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon to chase down Diaboromon. I remember as a kid seeing how just devastated they looked and how depressing it felt. And after coming off of Digimon Adventure and watching parts of Adventure 02 it was just so dark. There was never anything like that that happened in episodes. There were no threats. I think the worst we had was when SkullGreymon appeared. You knew it was bad things happening, but other than that, I don't think anything bad ever really happened to anyone ever. Diaboromon replicates himself and infects the Pentagon's mainframe, which is a sentence that I just had to read,
11:41 Launching all the nukes at Colorado and Heightonview Terrace, where the Digi Destined are located. Within seconds of arriving, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are all but destroyed, but using the power of love, Tai and Matt enter the internet and, with all of the kids watching and contributing their power through emails and support; oh God, was that supposed to be us kids watching and throwing our support at the movie? I feel like that's kind of what they were implying... The two Digimon combine into the ultimate creature, Omnimon, and this was so goddamn cool to watch as a kid.
12:59 There were no words for what this was at the time. Everyone I knew kind of just assumed that they fused together and that they were the only Digimon ever able to do it. Later in02 would we find out that it was the same thing as DNA Digivolving. But the fact that this existed before it existed, I don't know, was really cool. Omnimon starts destroying all the Diaboromon copies to a absolutely killer ska soundtrack, but he has trouble catching the final real one. Izzy gets the smart idea to, and I quote, forward all the kids' emails to Diaboromon, slowing down his internet connection. Omnimon delivers the final blow as Diaboromon fades away into dust,
13:44 Its last words being {GO BACK}. The missiles are rendered inactive and crash into the water, and the day is saved... but not really because then... in the present day... The virus that created Diaboromon eventually finds its way to Colorado and infects one of the twin Digimon under the care of a boy named Willis. He's an OC who appears in this film and then has a cameo in another film over 20 years later. Willis is incredibly memorable. Anyway, TK and Kari are visiting New York at the time when they see Willis and his partner Terriermon battling a Wendigomon. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I mean Kokomon. (F*****g kill me) Kokomon has been corrupted by the virus mentioned earlier and keeps telling Willis to {GO BACK}.
14:37 The 02 cast, minus Ken, are asked by Kari to meet them in Colorado. So they hitchhike all the way there, which is absolutely impossible given the geography of Japan and North America. Wait a minute, did Digimon take place in America in the English dub? I swear Heightonview Terrace was supposed to be somewhere in Japan. Willis shares his sob story with Davis, Davis cries, then gets over it, and Terriermon and DemiVeemon become pals and everyone ends up meeting back up to fight Kokomon, which goes about as well as every other battle has in this film. Kokomon Digivolves into Antylamon, which is still called Kokomon, and then eventually Digivolves further into Cherubimon Vice... still f*****g called KOKOMON!! This bothers me in ways that are absolutely undefinable.
15:24 Kokomon is the baby, but yet he calls Terriermon Terriermon. Not Gummymon, but Terriermon!! It is enough to absolutely make me f*****g lose my Moumantai. Moumantai. (It's a Digimon Tamers reference) Angemon and Angewoman show up and, through the power of plot convenience, Warp Digivolve into Seraphimon and Magnadramon. I always thought it was really weird that Patamon went from being this tiny potato and then got sexier as he digivolved, and Gatomon started as like a little cat and then became a cat and then became a woman, and then decided to, when Digivolving to its final form,
16:11 go all the way back to furry status. I'm not shaming anyone, I'm not shaming anything. I just think it's really confusing. And yes, I know that Angewoman has split mega evolutions, but this movie decided to go from animal to animal to woman to animal again. Someone on the design team has some explaining to do. The two angels summon the golden digieggs, which allow Veemon and Terriermonn to Golden Armor Digivolve into Magnamon and Golden Rapidmon. More ska plays, which has been the absolute saving grace of this movie for me, like I am not f*****g kidding. The Golden Digimon are swallowed by Kokomon, allowing them to destroy the virus from within. And... oh shit, they actually kill Kokomon. That is kind of dark, even for anime. With that depressing conclusion,
16:57 the Digi Destined go back home, and Willis takes this opportunity to piss Davis off even more by kissing Kari on the cheek. He also kisses Yolie on the cheek, but no one cares about Yolie. And the music swells as Willis finds a digiegg floating in the water. It's Kokomon, and by that I mean it's ACTUALLY Kokomon, the baby form of Lopmon, which is basically just Terriermon, but Neapolitan. And that's been Digimon the movie. If you look up anything about the Digimon movie online, you find a lot of mixed opinions. The worst American adaptation. It sort of works. We should have known we were doomed as a society when this lost best picture to Gladiator at the Oscars. And a lovely critic rating of 24% on Rotten Tomatoes,
17:43 which is not the worst score, and it's still not great. It has been weird seeing public opinion shift back and forth so much on the Digimon movie as I've grown up. Like I said, I recall a lot of people loving it at the time, and then over the years we shifted over to "it's absolute garbage, why is this a movie?" And then now I feel like we've kind of shifted back to... Acceptance? It's gotten to the point where we actually are getting a redo of the original movie with most of the original cast and a couple new members as well. It's something I really love to see the OG casts getting to come back and do voiceover work for franchise that we've long moved past and to see that we're not only getting a remaster in HD with original uncut versions of the three
18:31 parts that make up the English release, but they're also going with mixed tone of the classic English dub along with some more straightforward points like we're getting in a weird way, the best of both versions and the Japanese soundtrack is coming back and the ska soundtrack that we all know and love is going to be featured as well. And the best part is... no Angela Anaconda sketch before the movie! Thank f***, now there won't be any more ruined marriages. I may actually talk about this again as a follow-up when it eventually comes out. I am constantly refreshing their Twitter feed and the webpage that this is going to be orderable on because it's been like a year since it was announced. It feels like, and I just want to know, just let me buy it from you,
19:18 but hey, at least that gives me plenty of time to go online, use my favorite Imperialdramon deck to play against some noobs and see how well I can do. Aaaand I've already lost six times. God, I am terrible at this game.
