Pokémon Heroes (2003)

Very well executed

A different way of telling a story

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This, the 5th Pokemon movie, is a step down from the previous entry in the series but is still better than a 5th movie ought to be. Ash, Misty, and Brock arrive in a Venice-type town called Altomare for a water Chariot race involving their Pokemon.The town is protected by legendary Pokemon siblings Latios and Latias, who can assume human forms. Meanwhile, Annie and Oakley, a couple of cat burglars from Team Rocket (this affiliation is only in the Western dub) attempt to steal a special jewel called the Soul Dew, which powers the city.It takes just a little too long to get going. Jesse, James, and Meowth are featured, but they don't really have much to do. However there are still some lovely moments, a bittersweet ending, and in the end they do add up to more than the sum of their parts. The animation and architecture of Altomare echoes the look and feel of Koriko from Kiki's Delivery Service. I just wish that Miramax didn't tamper with it before releasing it to Western audiences. There is about 5 minutes missing and its inclusion might have made the film a little bit stronger.

Let's make a few things clear:1. Yes, probably only Pokemon fans will be able to enjoy Pokemon movies. 2. Pokemon feature films are not stupid, but they are made so when dubbing. For example, in the first movie, during translation, the entire plot was dumbed down and changed and a twenty minute sequence was deleted. 3. The names of the characters were changed in the English adaptations to appeal to younger audiences. Name of the main protagonist is Satoshi, a normal Japanese name. But we got a boy called Ash. That is just epic fail.4. The names of the movies themselves were almost always changed(for the worst). This one was called "Guardians of Altomare", not "Heroes". 5. The music in the original versions is very good. But in the dubs usually we get some really low- quality stuff. 6. Don't complain that the whole Pokemon franchise is "cockfighting". Don't say the concept is immoral. Remember that it came from Japan, where they have a different view of the world. There, friendly battles are considered a key to individual's growth (Karate, anyone?). "We fight each other to win, only to give a helping hand to the defeated opponent". That's not so hard to understand. 7. In the end, Pocket Monsters (Jap. name) movies are great and should interest any anime fan out there.P.S. We should do something to stop animation in from being aimed towards small children only in the US. Teenagers and adults should be able to enjoy it too. American companies must leave the original music and plots intact to keep foreign animated movies interesting to us as they were originally made.

This is one of quite a few films based on the cartoon anime Pokemon TV series.Ash, Brock, Misty and their pokemon are in a town called Altamar for a big water race. Ash comes in the lead - but takes a wrong turn. It turns out Misty wins! The person who came second, a boy just older than Misty, takes her and her friends on a Gondola around the town.Meanwhile, two baddies working for the same person as Team Rocket are, are looking for two rare pokemon in Altamar, Latias and Latios...I think this Pokemon film is very good, due to the well-structured plot, the characters, the pokemon and the setting, which is based on Venice.However, there are often distracting songs in the background of the film and Team Rocket are very silly and most of their content is slapsticky jokes. Overall, a good film for Pokemon fans or just for people who like animated children's films. Enjoy! :-)7 and a half out of ten.

Pokemon: Heroes is a great movie, now that I finally had time to see it. I had been anticipating it even before the original Japanese version ("Guardians of the Water Capital") came out because back then I was a die-hard Pokémon fan. Now about four years later I have matured and I still loved this movie as much as I would have four years ago.Pokemon is a well done series, I mean it has to be popular if more movies, TV series and merchandise are cranked out all of the time. If you are not a Pokémon fan, anime fan or someone who is a fan of Japanese pop culture you will probably have a hard time enjoying this movie and there are some reasons why that I do agree with.First of all, the introduction of the "climax characters", Latias and Latios came a little too early. One of my favorite parts of the movies is building the anticipation of seeing the special Pokémon later on in the movie. I believe the concept of Pokémon being able to adapt human forms is a cool concept and one that could have been very well expanded upon for this particular movie which would somewhat take care of the problem I found with the movie, it's length. There is a lot of interesting work and content that would have made the movie longer and even more enjoyable.But on the other hand there were a lot of things about the movie I enjoyed. First of all, I know that Jesse and James are starting to become irrelevant at this point but they do help provide comic relief and they are characters recognizable to all Pokémon fans. I enjoyed the CGI work done in the movie; it was not top notch but it added a nice feel to the movie and it made the city of Alto Mare look quite nice. The storyline was only somewhat unique but the fact that it was being used in a Pokémon setting gave it a breath of fresh air.If your a Pokémon fan I recommend this movie for sure. If your a Pokémon hater, I'm sorry but if you don't know much about the series (which is sort of hard to believe unless your a parent maybe) I would at least watch it to try and understand why your kids enjoy Pokémon and so you can be almost knowledgeable on the subject of Pokémon yourself.