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Pokemon - Jirachi Wish Maker Directors: Masamitsu Hidaka, Kunihiko Yuyama Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Format: Animated, Color, Dolby Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 81 minutes Studio: Buena Vista Home Vid Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-06-01 Buy from Amazon |
 "Pokemon from a rock"Ash, May, Brock and Max are off to another feature length adventure in Jirachi Wish Maker, where they encounter a Pokemon that only comes out every 1,000 years. Max who is the youngest of our hero's is the one who gets Jirachi and the events sprial out of wack from there. With a magicians assistant helping them, they travel in the magicians bus that his assistant has taken from him in order to take Jirachi home. From the rough cross country drive to pushing the stuck bus out of the mud our hero's do their best to get Jirachi home. With well drawn animation mixed with CGI it will keep the young and old alike glued. Fantastic flight scenes utilizing new Pokemon are a wonder to look at. Team Rocket of course puts in their obligatory appearance with the usual and hilarious results. Special feature includes the Pokemon Let's Dance short and a very moving rendition of "Make a Wish" sung both in English and Japanese at the same time. Interview with the director is also on DVD. A music video of "Make a Wish" is on DVD in Wide Screen Format. "Jirachi Wish Maker's A Highly Recomendable Adventure!"Pokemon Advanced (aka Pocket Monsters: Advanced Generation) is one of my absolute favorite anime seasons and in my opinion far better than the Johto seasons. Naturally, I had high hopes for the movie and wasn't very dissapointed, either. The first Advanced Generation movie features many new changes that I'm asuming will be present for the future films as well. There's no opening music video with the theme song, giving a bit more mature look. The intro is different as well, with the new changes to have the film fit the changes the series went through as well. I was surprised with Jirachi Wish Maker (in the Japanese version called The Wishing Star of the Seven Nights). It stared Max more so than any other character...even Jirachi. Personally, I liked that because Max is one of my favorite characters. There are several adorable scenes featuring Max and Jirachi, and you can't help but feel bad for Max by the end. Jirachi Wish Maker also featured a lot of romance, something that most wouldn't expect in a Pokemon movie. No, it's not between any of the main characters...it's with the two new ones Butler and Diane, who guest star in this film. But for those looking for a little "shipping" with the main characters, hints of pokeshipping are given. As far as art/animation and so forth, what can I say, the Pokemon movies are excelent. The animation's smooth (even better than the TV series) and has an interresting detailing to the backgrounds that are quite eye-catching. Another nice thing was the singer of the Japanese theme sang the English version as well, and is very beautifull. My only grudge was that pace can seem slow at first, but picks up heavily as the story progresses. For an 80-min film that covers a span of seven days, nothing seems rushed at all, though I wish they didn't save all the action and drama for the final day... but all great movies save the best things for last, right? As for the Pikachu mini-movie: Gotta' Dance, I found it was the funniest of all the mini-movies so far. Perhaps not the best, but the funniest. Though I'm not overly nuts over the mini-movies, and the main featurettes really what I'm talking about, on that subject, I found it was highly entertaining for a 20-min short (Meowth is downright hilarious!). Overall, Jirachi Wish Maker is excelent and a must for Pokemon fans. Viewers unfamiliar with the show don't have to worry too much, because a breif intro to the series is given in the begining. Despite the slightly slow beginning pace, I found it great and was a nice change from the usuall Pokemon films with a bright atmosphere and darker inside. Though it's not my absolute favorite Pokemon film (my two tops are the 4th and 5th films) it's pretty close. It's very adorable, entertaining, and recomendable! "Finally, they pretty much got it right!!!"The sixth installment in the Pokémon films, "Jirachi Wishmaker", marks something of an interesting point in the whole series of translated versions. Namely, the point at which it seems that they FINALLY got an adaptation of one of these things dead-on perfect! Of course, at this point the films go direct to video and we'll never get to see this on the big screen...which is a shame, because the animation quality here is superb. Shogakukan's team has the integration between the digital and cel parts (which were not as 'seamless' in earlier films) just about perfect, and this makes it a real shame that we won't get to see this movie the way it came out in Japan. The plot, both in the original direction and in the adaptation, has been handled excellently. In fact, this has the feel of how the films should go, if one's ever had the pleasure of seeing past Pokémon movies in a subtitled, literal translation version. It doesn't erase the catastro-mix of that very first one, "Mewtwo Strikes Back" (which has plagued all of these films critically ever since, and which still, I think, needs to be 'restored'), but it comes very close. Note, also...this is really, really dark stuff, such as how "Pokémon Heroes" was as well; this isn't the lighter-weight fare such as in the TV series. The story touches on the darker side of personal ambition, and contains some really ugly and hard-taught, yet valuable lessons about how this can ultimately destroy all one has. But if you want funny, the short (which all of these films have) is actually worth watching a few times. It's something of an object-lesson in why Team Rocket should never leave Meowth in charge. Of anything. Period. And it's hysterical. A few faults, nothing enough to warrant removing a star. One big one, though, is that we STILL don't get a widescreen version. C'mon, 4Kids...the CREDITS and the SHORT are at least in 16:9, why not the whole shebang!? Enough kids have seen 'proper' anime at this point so that they won't panic about the letterboxing on regular screens, and for those of us who dropped a wad of cash on the big ones, it would be NICE to see this in the proper aspect ratio, without cropping, especially since some of us can't afford to burn up major plastic on a ticket to Japan every time one of these comes out from now on. But that's nitpicking compared to what we get here. This, folks, is as close as it gets to 'direct' from what I can tell, and while I'm sure there's been some editing to adapt this for the West, this time whatever's been done doesn't detract at all from the story, film, or even the soundtrack with the bilingual theme song at the end. That's right, a song with Japanese lyrics in a 4Kids-translated Pokémon film...what's the world coming to!? Just buy it, OK? Even if you thought the first film was a mess (which it was, unless you have a copy of the final Japanese edit) and it made you swear off of these things, this one may convince you otherwise. It's quality. "Jirachi Wish Maker"This movie is really good, and I personally think is the best movie that 4 kids ever dubbed. I really liked the plot, its finally something different. And the amination was awesome. In this movie, Ash isn't mainly the main feature but he's with MAx alot who actually the main one. This movie catches your attention by having a carnival festival first, then the main conflict that goes on. This conflict was really good and well thought, and in the movie, I really loved the lullaby. The lullaby was by the orignal track from the jap version, and you'll see it if you ever purchase it. There's a music video from this japanese singer who sang it from the lullaby. Then Gotta Dance, the Pikachu Short MOvie is funny. It's kind of like that dancing frog from WB. Once they hear music, they start dancing. Meowth narrarates the story about what happened. Please buy it or see it somehow! Its worth it!  "The worst Pokemon movie yet."Despite being a great fan of the Pokemon series, I feel that this has been by far the worst Pokemon movie. I really liked Pokemon Heroes and 4-Ever, so I still think Pokemon is a fresh and lively series. But this movie is simply not done well. The pacing is very slow, the BGM is uninspired, and the directing seems different from the earlier films. One thing you will notice right away is that the traditional introductory music sequence is missing for the first time. The dub has been done by the same excellent cast, however one can tell at times this was not a theatrical release in America. A few of the dubbed lines are noticeably raw and unrefined, suggesting not much time was spent to write this movie for American audiences. Don't be misled by clips and screenshots of this movie, which do look very nice. Some young viewers may enjoy this movie regardless because Jirachi is in it, but in reality this movie lacks the action and atmosphere of previous Pokemon films. This is the first movie to feature the new characters of Pokemon Advanced, but lacks the character depth and interaction of the related TV series. |
