Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You! (2017) – Review

Released late last year came an unusual Pokemon Movie that made a buzz before the year ends. This version of the movie shows how it all began for the ever young protagonist Ash Ketchum and Pikachu. We’re assuming that this is because the Pokemon series has been ongoing for nearly two decades now and the young ones needs to know how it all began. A few alterations were made but still, the story is still nearly the same.

Here in this movie, the supporting characters Brock and Misty were replaced. The late Brock was a previous Gym Leader who aims to become the best Pokemon breeder while Misty was the youngest among the sisters who ruled the Cerulean city gym.

Aside from the sudden change of characters, the movie also introduced some latest generation of Pokemons including the three legendary dogs Raikou, Suicune and Entei.

The story shows the adventures of what came to be the legend of the Rainbow hero which we recalled as something that never came across the original series. Ho-oh was indeed shown in the early episodes but a story about Ho-oh was never mentioned until the release of the early Pokemon Gold / Silver and Crystal Gameboy games.

Everything was definitely great as the movie was remastered and the animation was definitely improved. There were also some 3D background scenes we’ve noticed.

But what on earth made it buzz before 2017 ends!? If everything were as good as we’ve remembered, this movie contains the only scene where the main protagonist pokemon Pikachu ever SPOKED! You’ve read that right folks. Pikachu here spoke to Ash Ketchum before the young protagonist disappear like a bubble after receiving combined attacks from wild pokemons.

The movie was indeed great and we think that this will play an important role in nurturing the younger generations about the origins of the brave Ash Ketchum. However, Pikachu muttering direct sentences was definitely ridiculous on our end. If you’ll ever come across the first Pokemon movie where Mewtwo made his first appearance, Ash there nearly came across a life and death situation but Pikachu was still the same doing his “pika” language. Well, it may be because it was under different circumstances but pokemons speaking in direct sentences would be just ridiculous! Other than that, the pacing of the movie was incredibly fast. Evolutions of both Charmander and Caterpie seems like it was compressed to fit the standard movie duration and the other starters were clearly left out!

Oh, and one last thing. Team Rocket never even made contact to the new trio! Team Rocket was the life of the series on an episode basis. They are part of the reason why it was enjoyable to watch due to their misfortunes and near-success attempts but here, sad to say they were just extras.

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