#tldr old pkmn movies good but m20-universe movies better

[rosyreef]

hoooly shit long rambling about pokemon movies below the cut bcuz what the fuck was i thinking writing so much

uk now that i think abt it i rlly like where pokemon movies r going w the m20 universe, since i was thinking the other day i was like hmm, its weird how not many pokemon movies r just like, incidentally about the title pokemon? like m3 is one of the only ones i can think of where its more about the life of molly hale and it incidentally includes a legendary pokemon (well. it doesnt. it includes the unown and an illusion of an entei which is raw for a pokemon movie to begin with). like, how in m20 and m21 its never like, the titular pokemon befriends the main crew, it follows them around, the movie-of-the-day city is saved thanks to the power of that one pokemon... they have breaks in the formula i enjoy

like, shaymin/lucario/genesect/hoopa/magearna/manaphy/lati@s/etc etc all befriend and follow the group around, and most other movies have a final clash that either entails fighting the big bad legend/saving the big bad legend/or whatever the fuck pokemon heroes had going on.

idk, m20 was just the audience experiencing this alternative ash’s journey through kanto anew, and it only ended with a big final showdown that was technically between ash and his rival, not really marshadow/ho-oh. marshadow didnt befriend the group, it followed them and only intervened to emphasize ash’s own character arc. ho-oh wasnt even an initial goal for ash to hunt down and fight, it was a reward for his arc being complete.

m21 saw the legendary/mythical-of-the-day befriending a side character, one that hearkens back to the molly hale of yore as she’s another very young girl (whos name starts with m... hmmm) and develops kind of a codependency with it. that was cool, since this whole movies thing was watching the personal character arcs of various characters, most of which didnt even have any connection to the poster legend in the first place. you cant really say that about most pokemon movies - that the movie-introduced characters go through significant growth.

im not saying that a movie MUST not have the poster legend befriend the main group, or that the focus HAS to be on movie-introduced characters. temple of the sea is one of my favorites because it focuses on may and her own growth alongside manaphy and that relationship is one of the most heartwarming (and wrenching) ones ive ever watched, period. what im saying is that clearly the m20 universe was a great excuse for the movie writers to break conventions and start writing new stories that didnt have to necessarily lean on tired tropes and the inclusion of anime-specific characters. they no longer have to shoehorn in brock, misty, dawn, clemont, cilan, WHOEVER! they can write in whatever characters they want with this franchise and i think thats something really cool its got going on.

keep in mind that ofc this is written before ive seen coco/secrets of the jungle or whatever m22 is but im still excited for it and i think no matter what, even if it turns out to be bad, that this formula break was much-needed