Pokémon 4Ever is about as contrived and forced as most of the other cinematic and/or film-based material that has come out of everybody’s favourite merchandising juggernaut from the 90s, Pokémon. With a title that seems a little too comfortable with the notion that it’s the fourth in a line of movies, you’d think that they would have put a bit more effort into making this movie which even received a cinematic release work a bit better for people other than obsessed fans. Set in the all-to-familiar world of Pokémon, Ash, Misty, and Brock (voiced by Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, and Eric Stuart) travel to a forest area that apparently holds a Pokémon with an ability to travel through time. With the luck of the draw on their sides, the Pokémon warps to their time along with a young man named Sam (voiced by Tara Sands). The Pokémon in question named Celebi is being hunted by an evil Pokémon hunter named the Iron Masked Marauder (voiced by Dan Green) who has the ability to capture Pokémon and turn them evil. With the risk of losing the spirit of the forest, the group try to get Celebi back to its time while trying to find a way to get Sam back home as well. Even if this movie did go to cinema and earned $40.8 million at the box office, nothing about this film outside of its upped animation quality and distribution from Miramax screams being cinema worthy (even in comparison to its predecessors). You can tell the agenda on the minds of those attached to the project through every line, visual and even plot decision, resulting an overall dull and even weightless sit. It’s hard to imagine a Pokémon-based property that didn’t feel like somewhat of a corporate shill and it’s not like the previous Pokémon films were anything that amazing to begin with so it’s not a change to the formula, but this movie didn’t do anything to evolve the brand to a new level. but this movie does not help its case at all.

Even describing the plot for this movie is a chore in itself as there’s barely any meat to work with in the first place. The bullet points listed earlier are merely options and hinted-at components that are slightly called to attention rather than actively focused on, leaving the whole thing feeling incredibly hollow and uneventful. The whole movie feels like a compile of scenes that have very little matter and purpose sticking them together to the point where it can barely hide how little purpose it has for existing outside of advertising their brand as well as the season of the anime that was out during its time of release. This is a bit of a shame as this concept had potential to turn into something interesting, as a kid being teleported through time by a mythical creature is  a tale as old as cinema, and watching the bond grow between the two of them could’ve resulted in some nice moments that could’ve been presented in a visually pleasing manner, but no such level of effort or thought was really put into this story. It’s not that there’s zero passion, as the original director Kunihiko Yuyuma and writer, Hideki Sonoda, have been attached to this franchise enough that they do seem to care about making it work for the fans of the series (Yuyuma has been the director for almost all of the Pokémon films, and Sonoda just recently became a screenwriter for the films), but it just doesn’t feel like anything more than a basic presentation of a brand that’s very shallow and bland rather than something really stand-out and distinct. The Pokémon franchise has manga series that have taken its idea to a realm where stories and characters are fleshed out and interesting, so those mediums do try and concoct something that can be engaging, yet anytime it connects itself to the anime, it’s hard to expect anything above safe, formulaic, and predictable. On the opposite side, for those specific fans of the anime who never look for anything that memorable, deep or even new and just want to see the world and characters do their usual stuff, it’s here and even to the film’s credit, there are certain quiet moments that are at least visually pleasing and have a sense of sombreness to them if the content was the least bit interesting, mainly a scene in the middle involving butterflies. However, the ending is a complete cop-out, as after an out of nowhere, but still averagely effective death scene, its immediately retraced with the lamest of excuses and keeps itself in its nice little non-creative bubble.

It’s funny how practically every single character in this movie has no sense of identity or personality in the slightest. They are all the blandest, safest most stock characters seen even by early 2000s TV show level, which is saying a lot. The characters from the show are as interesting as cardboard, and the new characters are about as riveting, and even from a ”self-insert” standpoint, there is only so much that can be done with that excuse. It could be argued that the anime character’s involvement in this story actively hurts the film more than anything. The character of Sam (the one taken back in time) should be the main focus because he’s the main catalyst for this whole movie’s existence, yet he’s quickly side-lined for Ash and does relatively nothing for the rest of the movie, making his connection with Celebi feel empty and his inclusion in the movie seem pointless. Even with that said, the main characters feel equally as pointless; Ash mainly just feels like any standard anime-hero who doesn’t contribute much to the grand scheme of the story, and Misty and Brock actively could’ve been removed from this movie altogether and nothing would’ve been missed. It felt like they were intruding on another movie and that they needed to be here because they come from the ever-profitable show. The bad guy has a cool design to him, Dan Green provides a pretty good voice, and even the idea of capturing Pokémon and turning them evil is a good idea for a threat in this world, but that doesn’t change how his plan is about as complex as his non-existent personality. Celebi is the mascot Pokémon for the movie, and while it’s clearly just there for the next big toy brand, they do a decent job making it look pretty cute in moments and even pretty intimidating when it needs to be during the film’s climax, it’s not that badly done.

What’s strange is that for a movie that obviously just made to sell toys with a story that backs up that notion, the animation is surprisingly really good and actually feels like it’s the best-looking film made by Pokémon at this time and is one of the few with a quality that actually deserved its cinematic release. It was done by Japanese company, Oriental Light, and Magic, and while they did work on the previous three Pokémon films as well, this is easily their best looking one. Its smooth, it’s fast-paced, its colorful and vibrant, it’s got a nice scale to it, it can do the slow moments good as well, it gets some fun angles, and even with the early 2000s CG showing through in some moments, it honestly doesn’t look that bad. Since the movie takes place in the forest, it does lead to some nice visuals associated with the location, showing the woods in various different lights and colors and that all look pretty great and even pretty atmospheric in certain points. The climax at the end also benefits from this, with the visual of the actual threat being pretty memorable and though obviously CG, it leaves an impression in an otherwise woefully forgettable picture. Even one of the best shots of the movie is just Celebi skimming across the water near the end; it’s completely pointless and could’ve been cut without missing much, but it’s great looking none the same. What’s strange though is that there’s almost no action in the movie, which is very bizarre for a brand like Pokémon. People coming to see that stuff won’t get what they want, even the Pokémon fights involved aren’t that interesting to look at, as they’re very slow and lack any strong unique flair, it’s pretty sad when the stable point of the show is barely a factor in one of its own movies.  The movie also ends with a pretty bad rock song which just feels completely out of place and no doubt came from the American dub deciding to force in something modern (its dated and stupid, but for the time, it just has to be stomached).

Its shouldn’t be a surprise that a Pokémon movie doesn’t lead to cinema gold, but the least it could have done was give people want they wanted, and it’s hard to see even fans get something out of this. To the film’s credit, it’s not a painful viewing experience or even forceful in its advertising, it’s just a weak loosely put-together film with little action and horrible characters, but with great looking visuals. With better handling and more focus on fleshing out the idea of what Celebi could do, this could have been a cute movie, but what was given instead should be just for the fans, if even that. It got some nice visuals and a pretty memorable climax, but outside of that, not much else is worth catching in this. If there’s one thing that this movie got right, it’s that Pokémon does seem to go on forever and ever.

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