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My experience/review watching Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! in theaters (NO SPOILERS)

The day has finally come...I WAS LOOKING FOWARD TO THIS ALL WEEK! After it was first announced in December 2016 that the 20th Pokémon movie would be paying homage to Ash’s origins, I GOT SUPER EXCITED! I was always updated with the news surrounding this film, and got excited every time new information came out (despite some negative reaction by some fans). You can tell by searching through my blog archive...so I pre-ordered the tickets by September, and got the earliest showing with the best seats in the house!

When the day finally came (which was yesterday lol), I got my good ol’ high school buddy to go with me, who was a fan of Pokémon and the anime. Of course, it was a special premiere day, and had to dress for the occasion by wearing my Ash Kalos hat, and the original Team Rocket shirt.

Now for my thoughts on the movie...is it my favorite out of all Pokémon movies? Nope, but it’s definitely up there! First off let me just say, that THERE ARE SOOOO MANY EASTER EGGS (a.k.a. past anime/movie references) IN THIS MOVIE! When I get the Blu-ray copy for this (hopefully there is one?), I will be going back to multiple scenes pausing so many shots!

Anyway, the movie overall was really awesome and a fun adventure to watch! It was (as advertised) a retelling of Ash’s journey starting out as a Pokémon trainer, and his road to becoming a Pokémon Master. The ultimate goal in this movie was to see Ho-Oh after it left its Rainbow Wing for Ash to pick up. To be honest, I’m not really sure if majority of the movie even takes place in the Kanto region o_O A couple nostalgic scenes were re-done beautifully, and teary :’( Some of those scenes really took me back to my childhood watching the old episodes in my VHS player. It wasn't exactly as portrayed in the canon anime, which makes this alternative universe really interesting to think about Ash’s journey. The most notable thing I would have to say about this movie is Charmander’s development. It’s really surprising how different it is from the disobedient one we knew when it evolved as a Charmeleon. At one point of the movie (I won’t say much), Ash really did something UNCHARACTERISTIC of him that really caught me off guard with his Pokémon and friends. Then again this is an AU, so I shouldn't be surprised if his attitude is not exactly like the character I grew up with. Definitely keep your eyes on it when watching!

One of my favorite parts was definitely towards the climax when Ash was is in this BIZARRE but familiar environment that really didn’t seem to fit when you usually watch Pokémon (you’ll have to see it to find out). Again SO MANY REFERENCES caught my eye during that scene, and it doesn't just apply to Pokémon. But I’m pretty sure what EVERYONE in the theater was shocked about, EVEN ME, was what happened between Ash and Pikachu at the very end of the film...very touching and very cute is all I can say. One final thing I would like to say is THE ENDING + CREDITS SCENE WAS A BLESSING. I WILL NEED TO GIF THOSE WHEN THE DVD COMES OUT (ᗒᗨᗕ)

As for the characters, the main supporting stars take spotlight! Verity and Sorrel...LOVE THEM! A lot of people might say how rushed their characters were rushed, but it was a 90+ minute movie and they could only do so much. Ash is the main star, and most of the story should revolve around him, so I honestly think both they had enough time to show off who they are, and what their purpose is in the film. Besides both of them being from Sinnoh, Sinnoh Confirmed their backstories...OH MY GOD BRO! I may got spoiled beforehand why Verity was traveling alone with her Piplup (this Piplup really gave me a lot of vibes similar to Dawn’s Piplup), but I DID NOT anticipate one of Sorrel’s flashback scenes which pretty much broke everyone’s heart in the cinema including mine (it’s still sad thinking about it ಥ_ಥ). Both have solid goals, although Verity’s seems to be more of a personal issue she wants to avoid. Also you definitely have to pay attention to Verity’s scenes since her personal issue with a certain someone wasn't directly given to the audience nor even Ash and Sorrel...just pay attention to detail 👀 Oh yeah, and if you’re a shipping type of person (multishippers to be exact), there’s definitely some cute scenes that Verity has with her companions ;) It just makes me wish that Verity and Sorrel can be future canon traveling partners because all three have great chemistry in the movie together as friends, even though if it was just for a short period. Their Ho-Oh adventure/journey is what really made them close.

Although Team Rocket’s involvement was very minimal in the movie, and was really there for comic relief background, it made me happy that they didn’t really interfere with the main storyline of Ash’s quest to find Ho-Oh. Ash and Pikachu developed well without their involvement, and writers probably didn’t want to put too much time giving a battle scene with them. Sure, I wish they could be used better, but better have them there than not at all right? They were still lovable as always with their goofy antics shown throughout the movie.

Cross, who served to be the big bad rival in the movie, really proved himself to be a real jerk. He is a bit like Paul, only thing is that Cross is more aggressive with his claims. He’s the type of trainer who is a self-centered brat and believes everything should go his way or else he does things by force. He does share a similarity with Ash though, but I’m not saying what it is since it is a spoiler. He served as the Alolan flavor of this movie since he was the only one carrying Gen. VII Pokémon. On the other hand we have the cute but mysterious new Pokémon, Marshadow that actually plays a bigger role in the movie than what you initially thought of. You’d think it’s just there all the time in the background, but you know something is going on as it lurks everywhere throughout the film.

Now there really isn’t that much to say about Bonjī since he only appears at the later part of the movie. I just wish that the old man had more of a backstory and a reason why he was chasing Ho-Oh all his life. Speaking of which, I was happy that the all of the Legendary Beasts get their big screen spotlight along with Ho-Oh. The other thing I wish was that we get to see what really happened with Ho-Oh in the end since the epic final battle of the movie was a bit questionable.

At the end of the day, me and my friend had such a blast! We even got the promotional TCG card of Ash’s Pikachu (FYI this is a really useful card in competitive play if you play the TCG) We both have A LOT of disagreements when it comes to the Pokémon anime, but both of us really loved and enjoyed the movie. Funny story, there were these 4 girls probably around my age (fangirls to be exact) beside me who were absolutely having a blast watching the movie. They screamed out of joy, shouted when Cross was being an ass, squealed in cute moments, cried in the sad moments, and basically were really into the scenes and characters like singing the Pokémon theme song at the beginning of the movie. Annoying? Yes, but I can’t really blame if they had a good time, and I think that’s the most important thing when you watch things you love with friends to share the moments with (though they probably could have toned it down a bit...I’m sure they were self-aware they were loud). My friend couldn't stand them, but I just tried to distract him with my noise since I didn’t want to ruin the girls’ fun time beside me. Plus I was a bit talkative too in several scenes of the film. Honestly I wanted to shout at the beginning of the movie because I WAS THAT HYPED, but didn’t want to embarrass my friend :p *Shoutout to the girl with the Charmander plush beside me at the AMC Fullerton theater if you’re reading this xD Hope you didn’t get too much tears on your plush from some emotional scenes in the movie (⋟﹏⋞)

The ultimate question is, should you go see this movie?

ABSOLUTELY! If you’re just a casual fan who doesn’t really keep up with the anime or movies after the original, you probably wouldn’t enjoy this movie that much. But I would say still watch it if you really love Pokémon! I count each movie as its own thing because none of them are really canon with the main series storyline. Movie 20 really stands out on its own because of how different it is from the rest, notably Ash’s journey getting a brand new fresh reboot, and the fact that there really isn’t an antagonist here who is trying to “rule the world” by getting an enormous power or whatever. This movie was a celebration of what the series has accomplished over the past 20 years.

However, this is just my opinion, and everyone has different tastes. All I’m saying is that you’ll only know how you truly feel when you see it! If you ask me, the best review of this movie is YOUR REVIEW. And from what I’m seeing, it really makes me happy to hear most of you guys are seeing it in theaters, and saying how much you enjoyed it. Let's support a great movie with a great dub! If you can’t, you can always wait for the DVD release and support them that way! If you want to watch the original Japanese version with English subtitles, be sure to buy the DVD too! Just support any way you can to show your appreciation and love for the Pokémon franchise.

As for my thoughts on spoilers, I will keep that to myself for the time being probably until a couple of weeks after the DVD release...will probably be making some GIFs or reblogging posts about it since I’m always late to the GIF making game LOL! However if you want to chat about it, feel free to message me OR join my Discord server and chat about it with other people who have seen the movie under the spoiler channel: https://discord.gg/mVSgxbp

Welp that was a long post! I’m pretty sure I have some text/grammar errors here, but whatever I’m tired and I want to get this posted already ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My next long post will probably be my 2017 PokéAni highlights...’til then, PEACE