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Pokémarathon Parade

Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life

by Josh Max - May 16, 2011, 9:41 pm EDT

The Pokemon movie trilogy comes to a close, so what did Josh think of it all?

Okay, now this one starts off kinda funky. So Palkia and Dialga are hanging out in their respective dimensions, right? Minding their own business and all that. All of a sudden, we go to a NEW dimension. Not the time dimension, not the space dimension, not the reverse dimension, but a pocket dimension where a sleeping Arceus lay sleeping. Out of nowhere he wakes up and begins growling. He then jumps through all of the aforesaid dimensions and arrives into the normal world. He starts roaring about how humans need to receive judgment (actually, he does that A LOT in the movie).

Ash and his friends, as always, are minding their own business. They’re battling and eating and whatnot as they are wont to do. They end up meeting two kids who show them some awesome ruins that they immediately start to explore. But no sooner does the adventure start than water starts flowing upwards and dimensions start breaking as all hell breaks loose. Two strangers, Sheena and her boyfriend Kevin, appear. Sheena can talk to Pokemon’s hearts and actually summon Dialga and Palkia to assist her. She summons Dialga to help settle the dimensional rift and as this is happening GIRATINA COMES OUT OF NOWHERE and starts to fight Dialga. Again. Sheena and Ash end up calming Giratina down and he returns to his own dimension. But as soon as Giratina disappears, a pissed off Arceus shows up and starts blowing everything up! He deems humans backstabbing fiends. Sheena summons forth Dialga and Palkia to battle Arceus. Giratina even comes back to lend a hand. All three of these legendary Pokémon get the snot beat out of them. Dialga uses the last of its power to send the trio, along with Sheena, back in time to the point where Arceus was betrayed by humans.

The fate of the world lies in a Pokemon battle!

Without getting too far into the somewhat silly plot, Arceus basically helped humans create civilization by giving its life force to the humans in the form of a jewel. The land flourished, but when Arceus came back for the jewel, the humans refused to give it back. So when Ash and his friend showed up to do this, things went a little off course and got. . . worse. Arceus almost died. The god of all Pokemon almost died because Ash and his friends got involved. But in the end Ash delivered the jewel to Arceus and returned to the normal timeline where a pissed off Arceus was still destroying the world. Arceus immediately recognized Ash and time reset itself. Arceus was no longer mad at humans. Everything was reset to the way it should be, and Arceus flew off into the sunset, realizing he was part of the world.

I don't know why, but I think his hair is a form of symbolism

The cool thing about the trilogy is that in the credits of the 12th movie, it chronicles where all the characters from the first two movies ended up after everything. It was cute.

To sum everything up, the Pokemon that were featured in the movies were:

Palkia

Dialga

Darkrai

Shaymin

Giratina

Arceus

Now, I found this kind of interesting. Half of the Pokemon listed above were only obtainable via events and downloading at one’s local Toys R Us or GameStop. Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina could all be caught in-game, but the others were exclusives. It was clever of Pokemon to make each movie feature at least one of the obtainable Pokemon alongside an exclusive.

Also, the movies worked an overall arc. The main characters weren’t so much Ash and Pikachu as they were Palkia and Dialga, constantly paying for the mistake of fighting each other and distorting time and space.

Images

Talkback

CericMay 17, 2011

I remember when I saw the first one in the theatres it was a big deal for me.  I was in High School at the time so I had my Dad take me to the a showing away from where we would normally go and insisted on getting my Mew card.  I liked how the first one was in the shows continuety but, ended in such a way as to not mess with it.  That is the only one I've seen actually.

I saw the first film in theatres with a female friend. She cried when Ash died.


I remember there was a kid in front of me who kept saying the pokémon's names as they appeared on screen—"hey, kid! shut up, they say their own names!"

Ryan CannonMay 17, 2011

I always like the second generation the best for some reason...

SilverQuilavaMay 17, 2011

hehe! The Nostalgia Critic reviewed Pokemon The First Movie X)

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterMay 17, 2011

Quote from: Ceric

I remember when I saw the first one in the theatres it was a big deal for me.  I was in High School at the time so I had my Dad take me to the a showing away from where we would normally go and insisted on getting my Mew card.  I liked how the first one was in the shows continuety but, ended in such a way as to not mess with it.  That is the only one I've seen actually.

That's basically what killed the movie for me: the ending. It would have been slightly fine in itself if they didn't get very preachy about it. Having Mewtwo erase everyone's memories by the end kind of defeats the purpose of hammering the message home. Plus, it just feels cheap.

For what it's worth, it can be enjoyed, but the constant preaching and the ending kill it.

As for my top three movies in the series:
Pokemon 4ever (which I wrote about): I really liked the story and the twist at the end. It got very melodramatic more than once, but I still like it.

Pokemon 3: Entei is my favorite of the three legendary dogs, and I thought the story was both sweet and cool, especially with the Unown (which are useless in battle but amazing in concept).

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew: Now, it's been a while since I've seen this movie but I didn't find Lucario to be THAT angsty. Mewtwo was far worse, I think, since Lucario has a good reason for feeling this way.

RABicleMay 18, 2011

12,000 words...

I don't even know what to say.

I almost cried during Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.

ALSO IM VERY VERY SORRY FOR FOGETTING ABOUT MAFIA GUYS :( PWEASE FORGIVE ME!

CericMay 18, 2011

Vote RABicle

roykoopa64May 31, 2011

My friend and I watched this in the theater when it came out, it was pretty exciting. Good overview of the movie!

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