Hello everybody, here is my next Duckyworth’s Thoughts instalment!

This is the eighth review in the POKÉMON SUMMER!

‘Gotta catch 'em all!

Gotta catch ‘em all!
Po-ké-mon!’

.......Okay everyone... get the hate messages ready.

No, seriously, what I say next will no doubt want you to give them me – so, I’m suggesting right now for you to get them ready.... Scroll down to the comment box, click in it, get your fingers on the keyboards... Here we go.....

I don’t like Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.

*gets boos and death threats from every single member of the Pokémon fanbase *

You read right...... I DON’T LIKE LUCARIO AND THE MYSTERY OF MEW.

Do I HATE it? No! Do I think it has some good stuff in it? Of course. But when I was reading about this film before I saw it, I read people giving all sorts of praise – they said it was gripping, they said it was heartfelt, they said it was dark, they said it was creative, they said it was action-packed, they said it was intense, all that great stuff.... And what do I think of it?

Ehhh..... I think it’s okay... Y-yeah... it’s okay....

*feels the red intense heat of MILLIONS of eyes looking daggers at me* I can tell I’m probably just digging a hole for myself here... But if you could please hear me out, I’ll explain why I think this is the most OVERRATED of the Pokémon films....

I think I may have set my expectations slightly too HIGH before I watched this film – when I read what everyone had said about it, as if this film would bring stuff that had NEVER been brought to any other Pokémon film up to this point, I got really hyped. I thought the film I was GOING to get was a lot more interesting, a lot more epic, and a lot more creative. But this film does have SOME of these elements in.... But when I compare the film I thought I was GOING to see with the film I got, I personally feel it’s really LACKING.

So, why am I the only Pokémon fan in the WORLD who ISN’T ecstatic over this film? I’ll explain after I analyse the story.

Hundreds of years ago, a war was raging between two kingdoms. Why are they fighting? ..... I have no idea.... A region trapped in the middle of this conflict is ruled by Queen Rin (FINALLY, a queen who rules a region and NOT a princess, taking the title because it sounds cute! ), who has two loyal subjects called Sir Aaron, an Aura Guardian, and his strongest Pokémon Lucario. Seen as peace cannot be received between the two kingdoms (Queen It’s not like I have any kind of ruling power that can stop this conflict and protect my kingdom, so I guess we’re stuck. ), Sir Aaron rides his Pidgeot, tells Lucario he’s fleeing the kingdom and uses a crystal staff to trap Lucario inside. Because of this.... some tree named the Tree of Beginning starts ‘crying’... Er... okay... .... and we see that a Ho-oh that we saw earlier is really MEW. ........ Erm.... okay, so Mew has the ability to SHAPESHIFT NOW?! Let’s leave this plothole for later. As the battle begins, the staff is returned to the Queen, and the tree starts glowing, and the crystals that were used for Lucario and Aaron to communicate start glowing and stops the armies from fighting as they are amazed by the beautiful sight – seriously, it is very beautifully animated.

Hundreds of years later, our heroes arrive in Camaran Palace to take part in a Pokémon tournament – while there is a funny scene where they dress up and put a costume on Pikachu. We hear the new leader is a LADY (not a queen... so she’s probably just taken the title to sound cute... ), and we get something we’ve been waiting for for ages – a Pokémon battle in the opening credits! Why couldn’t Destiny Deoxys have this?! Anyway, it’s pretty cool.

After this opening tournament, which results in Ash’s victory against the should-be villainess of this film, Kidd Summers – I’ll explain later. Ash is handed Aaron’s crystal staff, and is named the Aura Guardian of the Year, but hears the voice of Lucario from the staff. As the ball takes place (which looks an awful lot like Beauty and the Beast, by the way ), we see Mew disguised an Aipom showing our heroes’ Pokémon to an attic with old abandoned toys which actually IS a pretty cute scene , Kidd Summers and her Weavile try to tag Mew, but Mew.... SOMEHOW turns into a Pidgeot and flies Pikachu and Meowth away to the Tree of Beginning.... Er... which character is the villain in this film? Kidnapping is just as bad as assault. I’ll explain THIS plothole later too.

Anyway, Lucario, inside the staff, suddenly sees the silhouette of Ash, and as he was blinded by an attack hundreds of years ago, he thinks Ash is Sir Aaron. Hope he doesn’t get future shock like Fred Flintstone did in Billy and Mandy... He then opens his eyes and soon realises he is in a different time.... When Ash learns that Pikachu has been captured, and it’s said that Mew has a knack for stealing toys and taking them away, never to be seen again – okay, okay - STOP.

....You cannot be SERIOUS, movie... There is no way that you are turning cute, lovable little Mew into a COMMON THIEF! We have ONE villain to hate in this film – Kidd Summers! We don’t need ANOTHER one...

Sigh... anyway, Ash and his friends then start travelling to the Tree of Beginning to save Pikachu from one villain, Mew, while Kidd Summers, ANOTHER ONE, tricks them into allowing her to come with them, while Lucario travels with them – discovering the truth behind why Sir Aaron trapped him in the staff, and just how important the bond between a trainer and their Pokémon are.

The funny thing about Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is that, when I think about it HARD and remember all the praise it’s received.... this one SHOULD be my favourite... It’s been declared the best of the Pokémon films by a wide majority of Pokémon fans, and it’s even been said to bring in new people to the franchise. It also has one of the most tragic endings to a Pokémon film, so like Heroes, it could be seen as trying to take a more mature turn. So, why DON’T I love this film like everyone else does, especially when all the other Pokémon fans consider it a masterpiece? What DON’T I like about this film that has been declared the ultimate STAPLE of Pokémon fans to introduce outsiders to the fandom?

Yeah.... I guess a lot of people feel this is the ONE film that explains what Pokémon ARE... I’m a LITTLE confused by that, as Pokémon 4Ever, Heroes, Jirachi Wishmaker and even DESTINY DEOXYS tell us what Pokémon are in the openings, and this one doesn’t even tell us the NAMES of the heroes, so if anything, this film does WORSE in this department than those films do.... So, I think it’s  a bit odd THIS one gets the credit and is the one non-Pokémon fans talk about and love the most – but... *looks back to Destiny Deoxys* ... eh, could be worse...

So, what don’t I like about this film? I can sum it up to you in TWO words...

BORING and CONFUSING.

MOST OF IT isn’t even focused in Lucario, it’s instead building up this so called Tree of Beginning that Sir Aaron went to before, which SOMEHOW involves Mew, and..... I just don’t find it interesting! You have a TREE, and you have LUCARIO.

This film decides to focus more on... THE TREE. Come on guys, focus on the good stuff!

It’s like with Destiny Deoxys, where I SWEAR they mixed up two scripts to work in those stupid cubes... The tree concept... COULD have worked if it was a whole other movie, but here – it pushes aside Lucario and makes way for some outstandingly CONFUSING cinema! Real epic... real RUSHED FOR TIME EPIC!! The film SHOULD have been called The Mystery of Mew and Lucario... It seems like they just shoved Lucario to the front of the title to draw people in... It certainly seems that way with how popular this film became....

Sadly, I feel that there is a lot of potential for this story to be great – but unfortunately, too many elements in this film confuse me quite a bit and don’t seem right.

I remember reading a lot about people saying how cute Mew was in this film, and to be fair, when she’s herself, she is pretty cute, but... WHY CAN SHE SHAPESHIFT NOW?! Is she really ZORUA in disguise? When did they ever say in the first film that she could shapeshift?! The first one in The First Movie couldn’t, so why can this one?! It makes no sense... like a lot of things in this film... And unfortunately, I think Mew is shoehorned in here... Was there really any NEED for her to be put in this one?! It’s like the way they shoehorned in her turning into Ho-Oh in the opening (AGAIN, why hasn’t HO-OH got a film of his own?! ), and the way they forced the Regis (Regirock, Regiice and Registeel) to be guardians of this stupid tree The whole Mew plotline doesn’t really add much, and I just wish for Mewtwo to come in and make things more interesting... Like Destiny Deoxys, I’m not really sure if the writers thought these plot elements through before they worked them into the plot.

Another weird element involves the character I hate in this film – Kidd Summers. She’s voiced by Evelyn Lanto, who also voiced Sheena in Pokémon 13.The reason I hate her is that she reminds me too much of Annie and Oakley, and yet, no one even TRIES to give her the punishment she deserves. Just look at her face when she leaves Brock... how EVIL does that stare look? She tells her employer, Banks, who is in charge of some suspicious sounding ‘outfit’, that she plans to HUNT DOWN a Mew. Oh dear... we have another Iron Masked Marauder/ Annie and Oakley on our hands here... Even the way she says ‘Hello there Mew’ and when she tells her Weaviles to tag her with a transmitter, she sounds sinister.  The Weaviles... are another two Pokémon that remind me why I didn’t like Dark types when I was younger... They’re just too creepy to be liked, like Deoxys... Now, to be fair, I do like how they were animated to work together, but the way they try to grab Mew, PINNING HER TO THE WALL, cruelly holding that transmitter and the way attack her and they freeze all of our heroes’ Pokémon – CAN’T YOU TELL THEY’RE EVIL?! Wow... it’s a little bit early to throw in the fight against the villain, isn’t it? For that matter, what ROLE does Kidd Summers have – the way she tells her Weaviles she’ll send them to obedience school – er, they were only following your orders to attack Mew, Pippi Longstocking wannabe ..... She also manages to get away with her crimes because no-one else noticed her – grragh... like the Studio Ghibli villains! And even WORSE, she tricks the heroes into allowing her to come with her – Brock says she’s nothing more than a Trixie from MLP:FiM style show-off, and she says everyone can come with her... AS LONG AS THEY DON’T GET IN HER WAY. I was just waiting for her to do something horrible to our heroes... And she also does something COMPLETELY MORONIC – releasing robots that I SWEAR she brought from Annie and Oakley from Heroes to ‘survey’ the Tree of Beginning – and by survey, I mean DRILL into the crystals that make it up, no doubt trying to MINE the precious tree and make a quick bit of money from it... And because of this, she is technically the one who corrupts the tree and causes everyone to be in trouble at the end. YEAH, GREAT ONE KIDD... Why would you make robots that can drill into the crystals and technically PUT THE LIVES OF EVERYONE AROUND YOU IN DANGER?! She’s more a MOLLY HALE kind of villain – even though some may not consider her a villain, her stupid actions still make her seem like a genuine antagonist... Luckily, Kidd Summers DOES get the punishment she deserves when she gets taken by one of the... sigh, security blobs... She does ‘save’ Ash... but she still looks pretty intimidating when she saves him... She doesn’t even put much emotion into when she says that Ash’s friends are gone... God, show some emotion, you bimbo... And then, when everything is returned to normal, we then see her go off to FORINA, to see Butler and Diane from Jirachi Wishmaker... Why do I get the feeling she’ll try and steal JIRACHI, too? Hopefully, the next time she gets in trouble, she’ll be killed off for GOOD...

I may be thinking too hard about this, but they keep throwing all these confusing plot elements at us! There’s another weird scene where the Tree of Beginning is revealed to be some kind of rock formation, which not only has psychic bubbles floating about for some reason – which aren’t made by Mew – COME ON MEW – you can make your own bubbles, or have you TRULY lost your touch and replaced it with some stupid shape-shifting ability?! It’s apparently got the three Regis guarding it for some reason, it has some kind of SECURITY SYSTEM that is made out of... jelly that is a wannabe of Virus Groudon from Jirachi Wishmaker that SOMEHOW transforms into Pokémon and manages to ‘eat’ whoever trespasses it, and it somehow doesn’t consider Pokémon a threat.... And Ash SOMEHOW gains the power to run upside down on those crystal vein.... things....

.........WHY?! I straight up don’t GET this part! The whole MYSTERY of Mew is never completely solved, we DO learn that they’re symbiotic and depend on each other for survival.... or maybe not, because when Mew stops the security blobs, she somehow is drained of power... so, either she killed the tree, the tree is killing her, they’re both dying at the same time... or.....

*brain explodes from confusion... AGAIN*

Maybe some of you may have been able to follow it better than I did, but for the most part, I was scratching my head and racking my brains trying to figure it out.

When did this plot turn into the kid’s version of Memento?! Yeah... it gets REALLY NEEDLESSLY COMPLICATED, especially for something that’s meant to be so simple!

I’m.... I’M SORRY! I’m TRYING! I’m REALLY TRYING! I really want to join everyone who loves this film! I want to love it too! But every single time I see these scenes, I just fall ASLEEP!

I’ll explain what I meant by saying the word boring before. It’s nowhere near AS boring as Destiny Deoxys, at least, but once again, I feel that the film is a bit too long, and I feel that at times, a bit too much time passed inbetween scenes where we saw Lucario.... Come on, LUCARIO is the titular Pokémon, and I actually WANT to see this one! Almost 20 minutes pass between the time when we see him first and when we FINALLY see him again!

I mean, the scenes that are interesting are VERY interesting. The scenes with Lucario and Aaron in general  WERE very investing, I loved learning more about their friendship in the past and how Lucario and Aaron trainer and why Aaron left Lucario. The medieval settings were really interesting – it reminded me a lot of some medieval re-enactment events I’ve been to, and the medieval England level in Sly 4: Thieves in Time. The entire SECOND ACT involving Lucario becoming friends with Ash was great – I got pretty invested in that. I also thought the concept of the Time Flower – a flower born from the power of aura, allowing people with the power of aura to look into the past – was pretty interesting, but still... WHY CAN’T ASH LOOK INTO THE PAST AND SEE THAT KIDD SUMMERS MADE HER WEAVILES ATTACK PIKACHU, AND BE THE REASON WHY PIKACHU WAS CRUELLY KIDNAPPED?! But still... it is a pretty interesting concept.

I just wish it had more scenes LIKE this – the ones related to LUCARIO. It was anything involving the MEW subplot that I wasn’t really getting into...  As well as Mew being turned into a bit of a villain by being regarded to as a common THIEF - we have Pikachu forgetting in ONE SECOND that Mew KIDNAPPED him and playing in a, what I have to admit, a cute scene, and then later, we see Mew play with some funny Pokémon toys like a Hitmontop spinner and a Shuckle balloon... But still, if Mew wanted to play with Pokémon – why did he need to KIDNAP them.... Mew... FORCING Pokémon to become your friends is not the way, you’re not Nergal from Billy and Mandy...  This Mew doesn’t even SOUND like the Mew we know and love...

And also.... I feel that the Regis come out of nowhere too... It’s almost like the writers were desperately trying to throw in all of the Generation III Legendaries in any way possible... I also found their constant beeping pretty annoying..... WHY did you have to put them in here? Like Rayquaza, we never really learn WHY they’re here, what their origins are, and how they came to guard the tree...

Regirock, Regiice and Registeel are.... apparently the guardians of the Tree of Beginning, and they suddenly want to kill all of our heroes... even though, YET AGAIN, LIKE DEOXYS, they say they’ve done nothing wrong! Of course, Lucario is the only one truly kicking butt... And once again, Kidd Summers doesn’t get the justice she deserves by causing all of the pain she’s caused! And, when Mew REGENERATES EVERYONE (more on this later ), the Regis.... suddenly stop attacking... How does this work again? I know the storybook in the opening said the tree caused positive emotions to replace negative ones, but... still?

But, okay... how about I just move onto the characters now?

Another character I hate in this film is that stupid maid that looks a bit like Impa from those terrible Zelda CD-I games. She forces Ash into the chair saying ‘As Aura Guardian of the Year, you must stay still and look dignified...’ Come on, old crone... As dumb as Ash is... at least let him have fun! She also interrupts Max at one point... LET MAX TALK, OLD CRONE!

Ash is pretty annoying in this film... to put it lightly. While I do like the fact the conflict in this film is, like Ash’s mom being kidnapped, personal – Pikachu is kidnapped, this time – I still think Ash is a bit dumb in this film – like when he CLIMBS UP A CLIFF to get the Time Flower, instead of ASKING SWELLOW to fly up and get it... And, of course - he falls down into the water – NO ONE trying to catch him... Well, I wouldn’t be too bothered if he drowned either...

But still, I do like the reference to the VERY FIRST episode of Pokémon, where we see the Spearow attack Ash, with Fox and the Hound style music – AND ASH CALLS PIKACHU IT - and it seems just as touching as that first episode was. And it is pretty nice that Ash realises his mistake and apologises to Lucario.

May and Max don’t too much in this, but Max does break some important news to his friends, just before calling Pikachu IT. He also calls Lucario, who has a DEEP GRUFF MALE VOICE.... IT. He is NOT Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s IT, so stop calling MALE characters IT!! And at least May does give Ash the scolding he deserves when he insults Lucario. Well, with his mom not with him, at least May FINALLY does something to snap Ash to his senses. And Max does have a relatively cute scene where he offers Lucario chocolate... Oh... I can sense the kind of friendship Max had with JIRACHI seeping through here...

Brock at least gets some funny moments in this film – making up for his lack of humour in the LAST film. When he tries to dance with... ugh, Kidd, his monk costume is pretty funny, his lusting over Kidd, as dumb as it is, is pretty funny, and I do like how the cute little Mime Jr imitates him.

At least Team Rocket actually do stuff resembling their classical activities in this film. They turn up at the Pokémon tournament, and plan to steal some Pokémon at the ball. Jesses gets a funny moment when she dances with a handsome man, and James gets stuck with May... We also get a conflict with them, Meowth is ALSO kidnapped by Mew , and they do ask our heroes for help, and it is pretty funny seeing them come across our heroes again.

Why haven’t I mentioned Lucario, you ask, I’ll save the best for last.

The animation and music have DEFINATELY improved... It’s like in Pokémon 3, where the animation was not just focused on the trainer battle, but in the dancing scene, the fireworks, the CGI, and the big establishing shots too... This film seems to be the beginning of a new grand animation style – the animation looks much more crisp, clean and refined than in earlier films – as if the budget was slightly larger on the animation. And you know what – I love it. I REALLY feel emotions for Team Rocket in this. As stupid as the scenario gets, I really like the way they animated James sending Cacnea out... And I feel that the facial expressions are really well animated in this – even the lip synching is well done. The music in the end credits is also awesome, a much better written pop song than the one in Destiny Deoxys, and the rest of the music in the film is equally awesome.

This film also works in quite a few more dark moments which I find interesting and entertaining, and it reminded me quite a bit of the Pokémon films Heroes and Spell of the Unown, and.... yeah, like I said, I find it a little weird that some people treat this film like it’s doing stuff that’s never been done before...

But I’m fine with the film trying to be more mature by working in darker moments – when Lucario and Ash have an argument, as Lucario thinks Ash would abandon Pikachu, like he thought Aaron abandoned him, and they actually FIGHT, I was pretty intrigued about that – even if it was just a bit of a moody tussle, it was a cool bit of action, and it was a kind of dark moment that seemed pretty epic for what it was worth! Even if, okay... I know this is a bit out of place, but during this scene.... could we play the sound effects when Francis and Claudandus from Felidae are fighting – this seems a bit of a catfight scene...

 And the fact that Lucario sacrifices himself to be his trainer again after realising how important Lucario was to Sir Aaron, resulting in a genuinely heartfelt, if a bit bittersweet, farewell – that’s a GREAT idea! More of that please! More of that! :laa:

But NO... what do we get?! We get a stupid confusing scene in that stupid confusing tree where these kind of security blobs, that can somehow transform into fossil Pokémon shapes, start attacking everyone for some lame reason because of KIDD , and they start chasing and ‘eating’ our human heroes, who they consider food, and for some reason, Pokémon aren’t considered food. And then, only NOW, Mew finds a EXTREMELY CONVENIENT crystal that reverses the effect using her psychic powers... 

Er... WHY DIDN’T MEW DO THIS BEFORE TO DESTROY THE RED BLOOD CELL THINGS, MAKE THE REGIS GO AWAY AND STOP ALL THIS MISERY?!

And for that matter, WHY WAS THE TREE MADE TO HUNT DOWN PEOPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE! I know it’s because of KIDD that this misery is occurring, and it’s because of MEW that everyone is here, so our two villains seem to have worked together to KILL everyone – was this all just your big evil plan all along, Mew?! To lure all of these trainers to your lair so it could dissolve them into your evil hideout, and when you realise you won’t be able to get away with it, you give an actually kind of evil look and reverse everything back to normal?! I can’t feel sorry for these characters when the reason they’re gone is absolutely convoluted and idiotic, and when the Pokémon crying scene rips off the crying scene from Pokémon The First Movie... Especially KIDD, I’m GLAD she’s gone, she’s the reason this whole calamity started in the first place! What happened to Pokémon tears having healing powers? Why won’t it bring everyone back?!

And after this, everything suddenly turns grim – Mew becomes ill, and the Tree of Beginning, and all the crystals in the kingdom begin dying... Again, if Mew had actually SOLVED THIS before everyone had been taken, this wouldn’t be happening – Mew deserves death as badly as Kidd Summers does for being so moronic – this is NOT the Mew that we loved in Pokémon the First Movie – this is some kind of faker, or INBRED version of Mew... Is she just kidding around with them, enjoying watching their pain, and faking the whole pain she has?!

And because of Mew being stupid enough not to solve this when she could have done, Lucario has to sacrifice himself to save the tree...

And for that matter, why did Mew kidnap Pikachu and Mew again?! If it wasn’t for her, all this misery wouldn’t have occurred! Lucario wouldn’t have needed to die! There wouldn’t have been that much misery caused in the insufferable last half an hour! Oh, and the fact that Kidd Summers gets let off the hook for the fact that SHE is the one that caused all of this trouble by sending her Weaviles to attack Mew in the first place, and using her stupid cameras that DIG INTO the crystal to cause everything to go haywire and attack everyone, and never having the guts to tell everyone about her evil plan all along, I.... DAAARGH!

I... I know, I’m probably being a bit too harsh on this film, but I just feel like there’s a really smart, inventive crew behind this... And like Destiny Deoxys, Legend of the Guardians: Owls of Ga’Hoole, Quest for Camelot and Disney’s Brother Bear... I KNOW that this film’s team was REALLY trying to put in a great effort into this. I know it may sound odd, but I really hate it when a film does one or two elements really well by putting most of their effort into it, but the other elements just have the effort.... poorly put into them... I wanted to see more of the more impressive elements... rather than the elements in this film that seemed pretty pointless, boring and cluttered – like they were thrown in at the last minute – that would explain Kidd Summers, Mew shape-shifting and the whole tree thing.

But now, I’ve kept you waiting long enough and I’ll give this film credit where credit’s due... I WILL say this about the main character Lucario.

A lot of people say that he is one of the BEST Pokémon characters to take the main role in a Pokémon film, and to that I say... YES.</b> With that statement, I agree COMPLETELY.

Voiced by Sean Schemmel, who sounds pretty gruff in this film, and who also voiced Archie, the head of Team Aqua, Cyrus, the head of Team Galactic and Grings Kodai , Black Doom from Shadow the Hedgehog, and Goku from Dragon Ball, Lucario is a BRILLIANT character to watch. Throughout all of the less endearing moments, I was happy to wait for a scene with him in – even though I wish they had done better with the rest of the film, I still think that Lucario is worth the wait. Apart from a pretty... awkward sequence where Lady What’s-Her-Face (she bores me, so I forget her name ) hugs Lucario and Lucario gets smushed against her bosom, and he has a really confused expression.... please don’t cop a feel like Pikachu did to Ash’s mom in Spell of the Unown, Lucario.....

My favourite scenes in the film are when he tries to put the pieces together as to why Sir Aaron trapped him in the crystal staff, when he learns just how important Pikachu and Ash are to each other as well as his own bond with his trainer Sir Aaron, where we see him eat a berry from a twig, and when he outwits ANOTHER thief in this film (wow, HOW MANY characters are evil in this film?! ) – a Bonsly who tries to steal the lunch of Kidd Summers (LET THE BIMBO STARVE! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT EVIL SHE’S CAPABLE OF!! ). Those awesome flashbacks where we see Lucario remember his life with Sir Aaron are also awesome, especially the House of Flying Daggers style training scene that is actually pretty intense and reminds of the episode of Samurai Jack where Jack has to learn how to fight blindfolded – and I completely sympathise with Lucario when he refuses to join in with our heroes – he still thinks Sir Aaron abandoned him, so he has the perfect reason to be bitter. It even leads to that awesome tussle I mentioned earlier, where Lucario FINALLY does what we wanted him to do though the first 50 minutes of the film – try and attack Ash!

Haha... yes, dunk Ash’s head under the river... hold him there until the bubbles come up and the final breath leaves Ash’s withered, broken, worthless, weak body....

Wow... I’m having a bit of a dark wave of thoughts today.... Must be some of the left over anger I had from Destiny Deoxys...

He also gets a kind of... well, funny scene where he sniffs the chocolate Max gives him... Haha, the way they animated it... it reminds me of the way Okkoto’s nose in Princess Mononoke sniffs Ashitaka’s cursed hand. Lucario is also pretty smart, when he breaks the bridge that Registeel and Regirock are coming across... Smart AND strong! I love this guy!

The scene where he learns what happened to Aaron is also pretty interesting – he learns Aaron sacrificed his aura to the evil entity that is this film’s Mew, and because of this, peace was restored. Then, Lucario uses the power of Aura to reverse the damage KIDD SUMMERS AND MEW have caused.... And with the help of Ash in an awesome scene.... Lucario sacrifices himself to restore the Tree of Beginning..... He sees Aaron, after he had his life stolen by the EVIL Mew, who asks Lucario to forgive him, and says he trapped Lucario in the staff so he wouldn’t suffer the same fate Aaron did – being killed by Mew and turned into crystals in the same Xion did in Kingdom Hearts... This scene does remind me a lot of when Ambertwo died in The First Movie as well.....

Poor guy, you didn’t need to die... Like Latios... it was because of the dumb actions of the two villains, Kidd Summers and Evil Mew, that you sacrificed your life.... RIP Lucario... we shan’t forget you... That’s right, despite all the dumb illogical moments, this is one of the Pokémon scenes that made me a little teary eyed and cover my mouth in sadness... Wow... it takes a LOT for a Pokémon character to do that – especially in a film as mediocre as this... And at least now, Lucario is reunited with his trainer, as their auras are sucked up into the heart of the Tree – no doubt where Mew also drew in other people to steal their auras....

And we also get a cute scene in the end credits where Lucario and Aaron are reunited in heaven, and share a bar of chocolate. Bittersweet, sure, but it’s nice to see Lucario finally reunited with his trainer, and it is nice when he’s placed on the tapestry with Aaron.

In that respect, I can COMPLETELY understand why this film became as popular as it did – I guess a lot of people just knew Lucario would have more scenes, so they probably just overlooked ALL of the flaws – which I couldn’t do, unfortunately - and were able to use what they got out of Lucario’s scenes to overlook all of the flaws... And I’ll admit, with a great character like Lucario, with some of the best character development I’ve seen in ANY Pokémon film, I’m not surprised that it worked for them. He’s a great character to watch, and judging by how he’s one of my all time fave male characters – it goes without saying that I really enjoyed him too.

But.... sigh.... I still have to sit through.... tree stuff.... and Kidd Summers stuff.... and inconsistent Mew stuff.... and Ash gaining the power of Aura – oh yeah, I forgot to mention, later on in the film, we learn that Ash has the power to control Aura, and Ash uses the power of Aura to help out Lucario. That apparently made a lot of people cheer... I guess. Ash using Aura..... er.... yay?

Okay, it is pretty cool seeing him use it and the series referring to it in an episode of the anime... But, yeah, you really have to stretch your suspension of disbelief there, and again, why is it ASH that gets this new great power?! Give someone ELSE a chance! As if we needed any more proof Ash is the Messiah...

Truly he is the son of Arceus... Just joking, he’s far too stupid for that.

sad film but it put lucario in the list of my favorite Pokémon, and weavile too

Lucario made me like the Pokémon Lucario even more, but Ash just annoys me. Yeah, he's the reason I stopped watching them. I couldn't stand him.
I thought it was okay though, but I tend not to like any of the Pokémon movies that much.
I'm still mad Lucario died though. That hurt me way too much.

I think it was pretty good overall ^_^ but why is there a Sinnoh Pokémon..... as well as Munchlax and then manaphy in the next movie. All of my wat. Lucario is one of my favorite Pokémon and it was cool to see what aura powers can really do. It was sad to see him go though..... I also liked the armor on the Pokémon in the beginning, and the time flowers. The living tree sap things were kinda freaky and why do they look like the fossil Pokémon? The regis were just put there to get all of the hoenn legends in, like kyogre in the next movie. Why are they cramming in all the legendaries?? Ho-Oh still hasn't gotten one, and mew transforming into one doesn't count

Lucario is awesome. Although Ash being able to manipulate Aura seems a bit too convenient (as if we need any more evidence that he's the "Pokessiah":rolleyes: What's next, Ash getting telepathy and learning to speak to Pokémon? Hooray... ), I do like how the situation is a bit personal for Ash when Pikachu had been teleported to that tree. I was wondering what that lady's name was (Kidd Summers). I was confused about her role in the story. Seriously, when I watched it, I thought, "Wait, is she a hero or a villain? I can't tell!" Tis a shame. Most of the characters bored me.

Also, Mew remains adorable.

What's next, Ash getting telepathy and learning to speak to Pokémon? Hooray...

SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD
it was sad

At the end of the day, I suppose I can’t really HATE this film, as it does have a brilliant main character, some genuine heart, some interesting moments and an upgrade in the animation – I was just surprised HOW popular it became – everyone was treating it like it was doing something really new and was the best the Pokémon films will ever be, and.... I don’t know... I’ve seen this kind of thing in earlier films, especially the darker elements placed in previous Pokémon films like Spell of the Unown and Heroes.... This film just DOESN’T really seem THAT new or spectacular for me....

And on top of that, I guess I wasn’t as invested in it as everyone else was either... 

Eeeeh.... I don't know, I was expecting a LOT when I heard of this, I KNOW it was really enjoyed by a vast majority, I KNOW Lucario is a great character, I LOVE the medieval settings, the animation, the music, the heartbreaking ending! I SHOULD love this! But at the same time, the whole tree thing was really confusing and overly complicated, the third act seems pretty cluttered, Kidd Summers was villainous - sending her Weaviles to track down Mew but they TRIED TO ATTACK THE HEROE'S POKÉMON and yet no-one questions Kidd Summers again, for some reason.... Mew and the Regis seems a tad pointless in this, I don't know why Mew can shape-shift, or how that stupid tree is attached to Mew in any way, and I just found the Mew subplot confusing, overly complicated and.... kind of boring and disappointing in places... It’s a shame it threw it was thrown in to a plot that would have worked perfectly on its own...

Still, what it does well, it does really well, but when it misses... it REALLY misses... It's not terrible, in fact, I wouldn't even call it THAT bad, it's Pokémon, it does have some definite appeal and it is MUCH better than Destiny Deoxys , I just really don't understand why THIS one is everyone's favourite when I just got buried in the flaws it has and noticed a lot of things that other films had done placed into it....

And then it hit me – maybe it’s JUST because it had LUCARIO in it that it drew people in. Think about it – if ANOTHER legendary was put in Lucario’s place, would this film have done as well at it did? Probably not... Maybe I’m being a bit of a conspiracy nut here, but I think that’s the TRUE reason the flaws in this film were overlooked by so many – but I’m sorry, a great main character is not ALWAYS enough to carry a film by himself.... The rest of it needs to be just as refined to suit that character.

But still, I can see why it's loved so much, they DO at least explain what Pokémon ARE for newcomers (even though some earlier films do that as well ), I love the back-story and music, and Lucario is a BRILLIANT character, I might add.... But still, I think I set my expectations slightly too high.... Like Tron, I felt it was pretty sad that this film turned out to be just.... okay. I know a lot like it, and I can see why, but for me, it just isn't as strong as I hoped.....

But clearly I’m either nitpicking too much or missing something REALLY important, as the Pokémon fan-base fell in LOVE with this film. Pokémon fans and NON-Pokémon fans STILL love it – they’ve watched it many, many times, it’s brought new fans to Pokémon, and it’s become a grand, cherished wonderful anime classic for them...

But I guess it’s just not my film....

Now, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea on the other hand.... We’ll get to that awesomeness next time...

COMING DUCKYWORTH'S THOUGHTS –

Beavis and Butthead Do America

The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists!

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas

An American Tail

Animal Farm

Brave ()

A Cat In Paris

Basil The Great Mouse Detective

Pokémon Films – ALL OF THEM!

Dracula (1931)

Hellraiser

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2

The Silence of the Lambs

Zombieland

Hot Fuzz

The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari

Freaks

Fright Night

Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein

Casablanca

The Godfather - Part 2

The Godfather - Part 3

We're Back - A Dinosaur Story

The Princess and the Goblin

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Stan Helsing ()

Twilight – New Moon ()

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Tron Legacy ( )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Friends:  

My sister