Reviews for Pokémon 4Ever

quite honestly, i know the pokemon movies have been getting some eh reviews but i personally think they are pretty good.i understand that they aren't directly related to the shows but that's okay in my book really, this one is no different. the story does remind me of princess mononoke but i rather liked the nature feel of the whole thing. i enjoyed the art, a new yet familiar design to how i remember pokemon to be. i liked all the voice acting and characters..well lets just say i got a surprise with one of them. i enjoyed the use of the original group andi would say this movie is pretty good for anyone who is a pokemon fan and has some free time.

Pokemon 4EVER is not only the worst English Pokemon title, but also the worst movie among the original five. Shallow in every way, there's not much good you can say about this movie. Frankly, the only positive constant throughout the movie is the gorgeous art. In a few of its quiet moments you really feel like you've been transported into a heavenly forest. There's also a single fun sequence consisting of a fight with a pokemon trainer and the ensuing battle against time, as Ash runs to an already departing ferry. If that sounds like very little, that's because it is. On a more critical sideof things, the cringeworthy introduction of the main antagonist is hard to watch. As his terrible (in both dub and sub) evil laugh spreads throughout the forest, your brain hurts - how did he invent pokeballs that turn pokemon souls evil and have an effect of leveling them to level 100? As you wonder, he suddenly pulls out an awkward spider mech. Movie, can we please go back to Ash?

Another poor victim of the movie is the dialogue. After the pretty good (subbed) dialogue in the first movie, servicable dialogue in the second and some really good lines in the third, this movie treats us to really cringey writing period. Beyond that, the whole plot is filled with contrivances and nonsense in general. Following the bad choices from the second movie, all science and logic are thrown out of the window. Nothing makes sense and nobody tries to explain anything. The movie presents us with the first braindead Pokemon fantasy ride instead of a realized Pokemon world.

Character development doesn't happen. There's no complexity to anyone and there's a single forced designated character development scene, which, frankly, doesn't work. The movie feels like a made for tv production aimed at kids aged 3 to 5, inducing only cringe in anyone older when it turns to self parody as Ash graciously flaunts Celebi's dead body towards the screen as a cheap way of making us care (before reviving him because you can't have death in a Pokemon movie).

In conclusion, there's not much good in here. It simply exists. I can only tentatively recommend it to extremely hardcore pokemon fans who watched the whole anime series and after all of that have no standards left whatsoever. If that's you, you might enjoy some comfy moments it offers. For a few minutes at least.

This movie is good, but not the best Pokémon film out there. The art is beautiful, and even the computer-generated parts blend in without problems. The sound are the usual, and fit the film very well. The plot takes its time, but no matter how deep and touching it tries to be, all that's really accomplished is a good attempt to connect emotionally with the characters. That is where the movie fails most. For a change, it is nice to see there is someone in Team Rocket that gets the job done. And yet, like in all children's stories, the evil must not win. The good will prevail.No matter how strong and impressive the opposition, how desperate the situation, there is no way the good guys will lose.

Maybe I'm a bit old for this film and those alike it, but it also weakens the general structure of the film because they ruin the strong premise with something illogical that would never work in reality.

A BIG step down from the first three, but still generally enjoyable overall. The main problem was that the generic "guy tries to capture Pokemon" story was nowhere near as interesting as the stories of the first three. Though halfway through, with Celebi being possessed, things did get real, and it got interesting from that point. And aside from the weak story, it was great. Sam and Ash's friendship was really cute, and there was a lot of nice, cute bonding moments. The animation was beautiful, and there was a number of drop-dead gorgeous scenes. Celebi was very cute, and there was some good humor especiallyfrom Team Rocket.

But once again, what secured it's grade was the direction. Things really pick up halfway through, and it keeps getting better and better until the climactic scene, which is possibly the single definitive moment of the series.

As a whole, a big step down but a good movie overall.

Pokemon 4Ever: The Emerge of Broken CGI. See?! Even I could easily give this movie a much better title, and I'm so high on sugar right now, that you don't even know! I know, that I'm not supposed to have such a high expectations towards this movie, since the first three movies were awesome to me - if humbly flawed, to some degree - but this... Argh! This is not a good time, to be called a pokemon fan, spoiled by the awesomenes of Mewtwo, Entei and Lugia! To be honest, I'm not sure, what to call this movie. Technically, this should be rated as abad anime, but I can't really call this a shitpie-level bad, so... Yeah. Let's call this movie, with its real name. Pokemon 4Ever: The Fanservice - because, seriously... there's not much else, what this movie can really offer, even for a fans of the series!

My biggest problem with this movie, is the story, which is suprising, since the premise to this movie is actually quite decent - at best - with time traveling, sacred forests, ever-so-japanese springs of life, new legendary pokemon, and all that good jazz. But, to follow that all-so-tired 90's trendmark of enviroment vs man, why oh why did we need that very same shtick pastered into this movie too?! We didn't - Blinky Bill took that part to the ludicrously preachy levels ages ago! Why not keep it nice, and simple for just a once, you guys, and let the story have conflict, without third-hand-policy?! Humans are boring, as a villains, if they're not correctly motivated, and this villain, is not - is he even a villain, I honestly cannot say! All he wants, is money, and power, but he's also so stupid, that he refuses to sell those 'dark' pokeballs of his, that will exhalirate any pokemon potential to the fullest possible point, thus turning them into... evil? Kay! Hook some brother in with those, and you'll have a mint in no time! Boring as hell, and just... stupid, as hell! And let's not talk about our favourite terrorist group, Cobra... no, the Team Rocket, because let's face it... they're not doing anything worth mentioning!

And Suicune... why was he there? No, seriously... why was he there - it is a 'he', right?! He kinda just... was there, and now he is there, and no... he isn't there. Really? That's it?! Really?! Seriously, what a wasted potential! What this movie desperately needed, was some serious re-writing, and better CGI - it hurt my eyes! Hear me out... If Celebi was this... protector of the forest, or what not, and Suicune was... also there, then why couldn't there be some sort of power strugle, between two legendary pokemon - with epic proportions, 'course! - of who's got the right to be the true protector of this... sacred forest, that no one truly really exactly cares anyway? And... Ash being there, for... some reason, because... he doesn't age? That would have been so much more interesting to watch, than this wild goose-chase, with this washed-up loser-bad guy, with stupid name - his name is Vicious, btw - with no real motivations, absolutely hollow and pointless plans, and a personality of a wallpaper! Kinda the same, what they did with the second movie, but... second movie was good! And this time, Ash wouldn't have to be this messiah, or martyr, or anything like that - just be there, and your MC-powers will prevail! And the ending... oh my Grisaia the ending! So stupid... so very, very... stupid! Ouch!

For what this movie actually was, it felt more like a Captain Planet episode, mixed in with pokemon, and I didn't like that! Usually, pokemon movies are very personal at their stakes and consequenses, when saving the world, and learning something new about the world, about themselves, or something like that, but this... I couldn't find any of these things, from this movie. Nothing was learnd, nothing was changed, and all that needed saving, was this stupid forest, that no one cares! Theres nothing for Ash to do, so... why was he even there?! And those steam-punk pokepalls... I'm not even going there - all the missed possibilites hurt my very soul! The story itself, isn't even that strong to beging with, so that no real stakes, consequenses, motives or themes can't really occure, when compared to the first three movies - expecially the third! - and Celebi... is just a another Mew, but less with personality. Lucky him... Suicune had absolutely nothing to give!

Giving this movie a solid 5, almost seems too high into my critical eye, but I must be honest... I actually quite enjoyed this movie. To the degree, with flaws and all! It was, what pokemon fans can expect it to be, but nothing else, really, and that poor CGI... ugh! Let's not talk about that! If only this movie could have gotten itself out of the woods - no pun intented - then this movie, could have been on the par, with the first one, Mewtwo strikes back, but, since we really got just this wattered-down 'movie-special' about professor Oak, and better explanation for his undying trust to this goofball-Ash - yeah, spoilers, again - theres really nothing special to celeb-r-a-t-e. This movie is a solid for a hardcore pokemaniacs, and some of the regular fans might find this somewhat decent, but for a not-fans... try to find something else.

And hey... who has a charmeleon, and makes it use a headbud, in a battle?! Or a water-type, against electric-type?! Now that's just... wrong!

Story: 4

Art: 7

Sound: 5

Characters: 3

Enjoyment: 6

Overall: 5

Watching "Pokemon 4Ever" transports me back to a simpler time when the world of Pokemon felt boundless and full of possibilities. The movie captures the childhood of wonder and adventure.The story follows Ash, Pikachu, and friends as they travel through time to protect the mythical Pokémon Celebi from a villainous hunter. The themes of friendship, courage, and the timeless battle between good and evil. Celebi's ability to traverse time adds the little spice that was needed to get the plot going. In conclusion, "Pokémon 4Ever" is more than just a movie; it's a nostalgic trip that rekindles the joy and excitement of being a kid growingup with the games and movies. This might not be everyones opinion but idgaf this is a masterpiece.

Of the original Pokémon movies (meaning gens 1&2) Heroes is the one I never remember and 4Ever is the one I've never been able to get into. Like, the first three movies were all deep and moving in some way. This one was just dark and sad. I'm not sure that there was any real message it was pushing. Kind of just a generic villain looking to abuse Pokémon for his own gain. Celebi annoys me. I'm sure that plays a big part. And something about the way the movie looks makes it hard for me to stay focused and pay attention. Visually, it's verydark. Like, the animated equivalent of filming every scene of a live-action movie on a cloudy day. Even the 'bright' scenes have this muted look to them.

But for some reason, I remember watching this one over and over as a kid. The time travel element is kinda cool, and I actually really liked the Professor Oak connection and the tiny insight it gave us into how technology in the Pokémon world has advanced over time. Now that I've got something down for a review, it's probably safe to say that this is the last time I'll watch 4Ever, but it was a pretty big part of my childhood, and I was surprised as I was rewatching it to realize that I remembered just about every scene pretty vividly.

Wow! I guess I'm the only one who literally didn't find this enthusing. I have not seen much of Pokemon so I don't know if the story's kept interesting, the characters in-character or the art being changed, but let me review. Story: The plot takes place in a forest, much like movies like Princess Mononoke or Castle in the Sky. But these kids find this monster who happens to be a time traveler. But then they run into this vicious guy who tries to make the monster turn from good to bad and it's up to the team to turn him back into a good monster. Theart is alright, I guess. There were some computer-generated animated scenes, but I guess it's pretty decent. Not the best out there though, could've been better. Can't say anything about the sound, but from what I remember, it's pretty much kept as usual.

As a matter of fact, my cousins are obsessed with Pokemon and used to watch it all day and I used to watch it with them ever since I was like 5-7. But got tired of it, watched a Jiggly Puff special at eight-years-old, found that to be good, but I found this film to be very disappointing.

I used to watch Pokemon when I was little, but not very much. I guess I'm pretty much grown out of it now and I heard that there's a lot of hate out there for this show, Naruto and Bleach (mostly the old, kiddish anime shows).

I've reviewed quite a few Pokemon related anime as well as the games themselves. This time around we're looking at the fourth film from 2001. So, this was during the time of the best game generation, 2. Let's have a look. Story: We open with Celebi being chased by two counters, Houndoom and Scyther. Surprisingly for the anime, the type advantage seems to actually matter and Celebi seems to be in trouble. Until a young boy, Yukinari, comes to the rescue and the two go forty years into the future to escape. We enter the present day with Satoshi, Kasumi & Takeshi taking a ferryto explore deeper into the Johto region. They go to a treetop village in search of interesting Pokemon and they just so happen to see a bright light and find the young boy from the past. The group then has to contend with a Team Rocket Pokemon poacher who's using special Dark Balls to turn Pokemon evil. So, kind of the plot of Colosseum but before that game existed.

The big problem with the film is that the environmental themes get overly preachy. It really wants to emphasise the importance of protecting the woods. And, like many environmental works geared towards children, they undermine their message by having the damage that gets caused be easily fixed for a happy ending. You don't need to protect the environment, Kids, the fairy magic can fix any damage that gets done. Literally the most counter-productive way to discuss environmental issues. It's also a little weird that the film goes out of its way to put Celebi against type counters but doesn't worry about type matchups at any other point. I mean, Satoshi puts a Bayleef against a Scizor and multiple protagonist Pokemon are shown as having good matches against opponents they should have no problem with. So, I really don't know why they're going out of the way to use type matchups against Celebi and nowhere else.

On the positive side, the pacing is pretty solid. The film has some slow, quiet moments to showcase the beauty of the forest and allow the atmosphere to build. It's also pretty good about introducing its important elements early. There are also some cute scenes of Celebi just playing around that are reminiscent to the scenes in the first Pokemon film with Mew while also being their own thing.

Characters:

The characters are barely worth mentioning if I'm being honest. The main cast is the same boring trio we're already familiar with. The only thing semi compelling about Yukinari is the twist that you get at the very end and it's very much a case of "if they'd leaned into it earlier and actually gone somewhere with it it might have been interesting." The antagonist is just a one note arsehole who couldn't get hired as a CEO and decided to join Team Rocket as a backup.

Art:

OLM did a pretty good job with the artwork. The Pokemon look good. The nature scenes are very nice. The animation is pretty well done. The character designs aren't the best. The antagonist looks really dumb. The side characters are just kind of boring looking and I'm including Yukinari.

Sound:

The acting is fine. Matsumoto Rica, Hayashibara Megumi, Iizuka Mayumi, Ueda Yuuji and all of them deliver decent enough performances. They're just kind of limited based on how dull their characters are. The music is fine as well.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any.

Areas of Improvement:

1. If you're going to have environmental themes, don't go over the top with them. I get it, trying to keep the planet habitable by ourselves and dogs is very important. But when you go over the top, it hurts the message you're trying to convey. It makes it seem like environmental villains are these over the top caricatures and makes it difficult for people to recognise the more subtle, actual environmental villains who are usually causing damage for expediency or profit.

2. If you want your message to stick, you can't have everything undone through magical means. And I understand that that means you can't have a fully happy ending but sometimes a bittersweet ending just works better.

3. The characters really need more development. I understand that your main trio along with Musashi, Kojirou & Meowth aren't going to change ever but at least do something with your side characters and the film's antagonist.

Final Thoughts:

This film is pretty mediocre. Its ideas have some potential and seeing Celebi play around happily is cute but those ideas ultimately fall short through underdevelopment and it ultimately doesn't do much. My rating is going to stand at a 5/10.

My knowledge on Pokemon is very limited despite the fact that I recognize pokemon as the single anime that truly opened the floodgates with regards to popularizing anime in the west especially with young kids. Even though pokemon as a whole is truly marketed towards kids and I have caught a few episodes of the anime series here and there I do appreciate the fact that when pokemon enters the realm of making incredibly compelling films they surprisingly put enough effort to make the films not only enjoyable to kids but also enjoyable to adults as well. Before I watched this title, I had onlyever seen the first pokemon movie and I did enjoy what they did for the first movie.

First of all, you can't go into a film like this for high expectations. It is a pokemon movie after all, but while it's not nor will it ever be the most engaging piece of cinema it actually excels on what it tries to do. There are a lot of boxes you have to check off in order to make a pokemon movie engaging and fun and Celebi: Voice of the forest certainly does the majority of them with a few minor flaws.

Celebi: Voice of the forest focuses on a pokemon trainer by the name of Sammy who encounters and protects Celebi from a pokemon hunter. Celebi who is a mystical pokemon uses it's power to whisk itself and Sammy 40 years into the future where he meets Ash Ketchum and his friends who travel in the mystical forest in search of rare pokemon. They end up meeting and partnering up with Sammy in order to stop Celebi from being captured by a man and and a member of team rocket by the name of the Iron Masked Marauder who wants to capture and control Celebi by using a special type of pokeball called the Dark Ball that has the ability to capture a trainers pokemon, turn them evil, and max out their power to the highest level. He also enlists the help of team rocket favorites Jessie, James, and Meowth who are still on their never ending crusade to capture pikachu but they serve more as comic relief than anything else which is not really any different from their presence in the world of pokemon.

The one thing I will really priase this film is the quality of animation. I do love the fact that you can see such a huge upgrade in the animation when seeing pokemon make the transition from a television series to a film. The animation is absolutely breathtaking especially when you see Celebi flying around in the forest and in some of the many battles you'll see against different pokemon there is some really great attention to detail albeit miniscule to the untrained eye about how intricate some of these pokemon battles are. When ash's pikachu battles a croconow during the opening credits and it's not as simple as each pokemon just performing a single attack against each other. It's a lot more detailed than that because there are actually a lot of playful wrestling and attacking from each pokemon but the animation is so fluid it feels so different yet so rewarding from any other pokemon battle that you ever seen. This style of battling and the fluid animation that comes from it is also seen in other pokemon battles as well especially when Ash and Sammy takes on some of the pokemon that the Iron Masked Marauder unleashes through this dark pokemon balls.

The movie in itself doesn't have the most diverse cast of pokemon. Since this pokemon film takes place mostly in the forest your going to see a wide array of bug and ground type pokemon but there are cameos of flying and water style pokemon as well. Beyond Celebi we also have the appearance of another mystical pokemon by the name of Suicine who is integral to the story because he helps Ash, Sammy, and the rest of the gang defeat the Iron Masked Marauder. For as basic as the plot may be, the final third of the movie is a battle of a very epic scale where they take on a dark corrupted Celebi who has taken residence in a giant forested golem wreaking havoc on the forest.

The music is incredibly fun with some really good English tracks and I have a lot of fondness for the opening track born to be a winner. The film does manage to have some very heartfelt sad moments and even though it doesn't have the most in depth character development, one theme it does showcase is that the concept of time plays an important part on how a friendship can be established and strengthened because by the very end the story manages to come full circle in the world of pokemon and you'll be amazed on how this film connects to the very first episode of the pokemon tv series because it shows great care with regards to respecting the source material while retaining the positive qualities of what makes pokemon enjoyable to begin with.

The film is very brisk 75 minutes so your not given a lot of time to flesh out the story as much as you would like to be but it does get the job done adequately enough. There is not much in the way of humor and team rockets antics might be funny to your average child but it kind of falls flat if your watching this as an adult because if you've watched any aspect of pokemon we get so use to watching Jessie, James, and Meowth fail so many times nothing really feels new and inventive. For as evil as the Iron Masked Marauder he is truly a shallow one dimensional villains that only seeks to overthrow Giovanni as the leader of Team Rocket and try to take over the world with his Dark Pokemon. That is pretty much hum in a nutshell.

With a simple story, some heartfelt moments, beautiful animation and a great attention to detail when it comes to pokemon battles - this film is still a solid entry in the world of pokemon. It may not give you biggest emotional heartfelt punch like the first film and the overall setting is very narrow minded but despite the tight time crunch of the overall film it manages to cover a lot that would make any pokemon film enjoyable to begin with.

Okay so my positive rating is just pure bias so you know. This was one of my favorite Pokémon movies growning up, and I'm not really sure why exactly. It's overall a pretty nothing burger movie, but for some reason I find the atmosphere of the movie to generally be extremely calming. It's definitely one of the prettiest Pokémon movies created, and the sound track is amazing too. The overall issue with this movie is that it feels like nothing really happens, I don't really know how to explain it more than that. The forest feels more restrictive than anything, and we don't even reallyget to see much besides it and it alone. Maybe if it was like another 30 minutes longer and we got a bit more something in there it would be good, but overall I feel like it's just something you'll watch and probably think it's pretty and beautiful, but then overall understand how boxed in it feels. I do have to say that the first scene we see of Vicious, Iron-Masked Marauder, is pretty awesome, just because we hardly get to see villains in the Pokémon anime actually be that imposing and threatening in a more realistic manner.... well besides the whole turning tyranitar into a giant evil Pokémon thing...

Also the Professor Oak scene in the movie was changed from the Japanese to English version. It was just originally him getting muk'd while saying a haiku about either suicune or celebi I cannot remember. Tracey was also there and he said NOTHING and just looked akwardly at the camera and waved. This got changed to an overall more dramatic scene in the English release. I also can't recall this but I'm also pretty sure there is an extra scene with us seeing Sammy go back in time in the Japanese version, although I could possibly be wrong about this and it's also in the English version. ALSO THE JAPANESE RELEASES LOOKS WAY BETTER THAN THE ENGLISH ONE TOO!

Anyways the movie is a bit bland, but it has some cool scene here and there. Mostly only involving the villian and that's it. It definitely not on the same level of awfulness as the Rise of Darkrai is... sorry :p