Pokémon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back
BOX-ART
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The front of the cover predominantly features Mew & Mewtwo, with Pikachu & several other Pokémon behind them. Behind all the Pokémon renders is artwork of "New Island." The back features some more images of Pokémon from both the main movie and the Pikachu short. A brief description of the main film is also written. A listing of all the special features and extras is a the bottom of the box. As this is one of Warner Brothers earlier DVD releases, it included in a snapper case rather than a keep case.
As the box also mentions the Pikachu short, Pikachu's Summer Vacation, is indeed included in this release!
MENUS:
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The main menu offers, "Play Movie, Scene Selections, Special Features, Languages." Selecting the, "Play Movie," option will play the Pikachu short first followed, automatically, by the main film afterwards. This was how it was theatrically presented. In order to choose, specifically, which one you'd like to view you have to go through the, "Scene Selections," menu. The main menu is animated and shows renders of some Pokémon, much like the cover. My only complaint is that some of the renders look out of place and/or sloppily edited on to the menus.
VIDEO:
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The video looks good, however, it tends to look a bit splotchy at times due to have a low bitrate. Some slight film grain is apparent at times. The film is cropped from it's original widescreen aspect ratio, which is a huge bummer. Some scenes look obviously cropped and at times panning is employed to reveal things off screen.
The Pikachu short retains it original aspect ratio which of 1.33:1, and the quality is identical to the main film. I'm not sure how this was present in theaters, maybe it was pillar-boxed? It doesn't look open matte, as cropping to 1.85:1 looks incorrect.
AUDIO:
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This thing about these first three films is that 4Kids rescore them, in their entirety, with their own orchestral arrangements. The audio of both the main film and the Pikachu short are encoded with a bit-rate of 384 KB/s. There is also an audio commentary presented in stereo at 192 KB/s.
EXTRAS:
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I'd say the biggest extra included is the audio commentary from the dub executives. There is also a theatrical trailer, a preview of the
second film, a music video, etc.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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A boxset with the first three movies was released in 2009, but is also out of print and is more rare since it was only available for a limited time. I'm guessing that WB was about to loose the right to the films, and bundled them in a set right before they did. The contents of the discs are identical to these originals though.
It sucks that the Blu-Ray is missing so many of the features of this DVD, like the original surround mixing, the Pikachu short, and ALL extras! Yes, all of the extras on this disc remain exclusive to this disc. The re-release by Viz Media is just a downscale of what's on the Blu-Ray.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Cropped Full-Screen)
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (384 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, English Closed Captions, French
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 36 Minutes
Mewtwo's Return
BOX-ART
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The front of the box features Mewtwo, along with Ash & the two Pikachu from the special. Giovanni & Domino are also featured in the background. As with the first film's box art, there's not much to say, it's a nice looking cover. This is also the first, and last, time in the series that the artwork used on the American cover is identical to its Japanese counterpart. The back features some images from this special & one from the first movie. The special features and extras are listed on the bottom.
MENUS:
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The main menus features a render of Mewtwo & the specials logo. It includes the following options, "Play Movie, Scene Selections, Special Features, Languages."
VIDEO:
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This was the first, full length, Pokémon special to be digitally animated! As such, the colors and quality are much, much, better than that of the main series at the time. The animation is sharp and clear, which is an obvious benefit. Animation mastered this well would not be seen in the series again until the late Hoenn saga.
AUDIO:
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Audio is available in English, French, and Spanish. The audio tracks are all encoded with a bitrate of 192 KB/s.
EXTRAS:
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The Uncut Story of Mewtwo, which was supposed to be part of the first moviem is presented here as an extra. (Letter-boxed to preserve the original widescreen aspect ratio) There are also trailers for each of the three WB released films. Lastly is the Poke-Rap GS which served as a small preview of the, then upcoming, fourth season of the series.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This is the last film to be published by Warner Brothers, after Spell Of The Unnown. I believe this film has also never been re-released, making this DVD the only release of the film.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
REGION: 1 / NTSC (US/Canada)
AUDIO: English, French, Spanish 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, English Closed Captions, French
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 3 Minutes
Pokémon The Movie 2000: The Power Of One
BOX-ART
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This cover is best looking, dub, cover of the bunch I'd say. A silhouette of Ash, with various Pokémon standing on an earth/PokéBall. Above them are Lugia & the three legendary birds. The back has screenshots from the film along with a description in the middle. A box with a list of extras and some tech specs, with a menu image to right, is underneath. An at the bottom we get more technical specifications, along with the dreaded, "this film has been modified from it's original aspect ratio, " disclaimer at the bottom.
VIDEO:
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Aside from that fact that it's cropped from it's original aspect ratio, the video quality is decent. It's practically identical the the previous films presentation. Starting with this film, the shorts are also presented in widescreen theatrically, unlike the first one. This also means, unfortunately, that 4Kids crops them for home video.
AUDIO:
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An English 5.1 surround track is featured at 384 KB/s. Also included is a Canadian dubbed French track, also in surround sound.
EXTRAS:
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Extras included, theatrical trailers, a preview of the third film, a music video, etc. The interesting thing about the preview of the next film, is that it's referred to as "Lord of The Unnown Tower" which is a literal translation of the Japanese title. I'm guessing they made this preview very early on, before they settled on a dub localization.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Again, all extras, and the surround sound mix is exclusive to this DVD in North America. The Blu-Ray has none of the extras on this disc either. The re-release by Viz Media is just a downscale of what's on the Blu-Ray.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Cropped Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English & French 5.1 (384 Kb/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 42 Minutes
Pokémon The Movie 3: Spell Of The Unnown
BOX-ART
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Ash & Charizard face off against the "Entei" from the film, with the purple crystallization as the backdrop. The layout of the back is the same as the last two films, with screenshots, movie description, tech specs, etc.
VIDEO:
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Aside from being pan-and-scan format the video quality is, again, decent. The colors are a bit dull compared to the previous two films which were bright & vibrant. Still using single-layer discs leads to some compression as per usual with these first few films.
AUDIO:
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Again, 5.1 audio, in English & Canadian French. There is also an audio commentary with the dub's localization crew, similarly to the first film.
EXTRAS:
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Theatrical trailers, previews of the fourth film, music videos, etc.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This film, along with the Mewtwo Returns special, are the final films to be released by Warner Bros with Miramax taking over starting with the next film. And just like the last two films, the Blu-Ray has none of the extras or the 5.1 mix. The DVD re-release by Viz Media is just a downscale of what's on the Blu-Ray.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Cropped Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English & French 5.1 (384 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English & French
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 33 Minutes
Pokémon 4-Ever: The Voice Of The Forest
BOX-ART
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The cover looks kind of sloppily put together, with Ash standing on Suicune & Celebi hovering in front of them. The forest in the background is a nice touch, although seeing the villains and all the destruction going on in the background with our protagonists happily and smiling is a bit jarring. Also (SPOILER ALERT), Celebi is supposed to be the one controlling the forest monster from inside...so how is it with Ash on the cover? I guess, just don't over-analyze dub artwork?
VIDEO:
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Colors and clarity are decent, and discontinuing Warner Bros trend of compressing the films to single-layer discs, Miramax uses a dual-layer disc. These means there's significantly less MPEG noise! The only downside, however, 4Kids is still cropping from the original 1.85:1.
I'd like to note that this is the last time a Pikachu short will be presented in a cropped 1.33:1 format.
AUDIO:
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While Warner Bros compressed their 5.1 audio tracks to 348 KB/s to save space, Miramax eases up on compression with a full 448 KB/s track. This is the first film to not be completely rescored in the dub, and keeps the original music. With any vocal songs being the exception.
EXTRAS:
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Commentary with cast & crew, Pikachu's Pikaboo Short, trailers etc. Weirdly, the commentary seems to end about half way through the films. (I guess they couldn't find more to discuss?) Starting with this film, the Pikachu's shorts aren't shown theatrically in the U.S. Although, only this film & the next one are show theatrically in the U.S anyways. The box art mentions this, with the blurb on the cover talking about how it's "exclusive" to home video.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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A Canadian version of this disc is available & it's identical, with the exception that the film is anamorphic widescreen. ( Some pictures are in the gallery). This film, along with the next three were the first to be available on a Blu-Ray in North America. None of the extras, or the Pikachu short are available on any release after this DVD though, sadly.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Cropped Fullscreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias
BOX-ART
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This is the last film to use dub exclusive artwork for a while as following films simply use the Japanese theatrical poster with English logos. I do tend to over-analyze these dub covers, but I'm only going to say this...the Pokémon can fly, but how is Ash seemingly up in the sky with them, and what is his lead supposed to be attached to?
Like the previous films, there's a blurb on the cover about the "exclusive" short. It would have been show theatrically before the film (Like the previous films, and all of them in Japan) but like the last films, the shorts were just home video extras in the U.S.
VIDEO:
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The video bitrate is good, and clarity is nice, but the colors are quite controversial among fans. The film has this blue-ish-green tint that isn't present in the original Japanese print of the film. In addition to the tint, the contrast and brightness are on the darker side, obscuring some detail in the process. At the very least, colors are well saturated.
For the first time ever, the Pikachu short is present in it's original widescreen format; albeit letterboxed to 1.33:1. It exhibits the same color issue as the main film.
AUDIO:
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Two max bitrate Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound tracks are included, this time around in both English and French.
EXTRAS:
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Trailers, trivia, etc.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This was the last film to see a theatrical release in U.S for many years. Again, after this release none of the extras or surround sound are available on any DVD/BD's.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Cropped Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English & French 5.1 (448 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 11 Minutes
Jirachi Wish Maker
BOX-ART
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Unlike the previous theatrical films, which all used artwork made specifically for the dub, this film uses one of the Japanese theatrical posters as the dub's logo. My guess is that since they were no longer being shown in U.S theaters, they just stopped making their own artwork.
VIDEO:
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No major compression issues are visible. Colors and contrast are fine, the reds seem very bright though, almost to the point of clipping. This film is cropped to 1.33:1 but the end credits are in a letterboxed format.
The Pikachu short is presented in anamorphic widescreen, which makes it all the more disappointing that the main film is cropped. The quality of the short is the same as the main film.
AUDIO:
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A full bitrate English 5.1 track is featured. What surprised most dub fans, is that the ending credit song was partial dubbed from the original Japanese version! This would be the first, and sadly last, time the dub ever does this.
EXTRAS:
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Trailers, trivia etc.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This was the first film to be released directly to home video formats in the U.S without any theatrical screening. This is the final film to have an accompanying Pikachu short for years. Lastly, none of the extras on this disc are included on any of the later DVD/BD's.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Cropped Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 21 Minutes
Destiny Deoxys
BOX-ART
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Following the trend set with the last film, the artwork is of one of the Japanese theatrical posters with dub logos. Ash, Tory, and a few Pokémon, pose in front of the films logo. In the back are renders of Deoxys & Rayquaza. The background is an image of outer space. A blurb at the top specifies that all the original footage cut from the KidsWB premiere airing is presented here.
VIDEO:
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Despite being in pan-and-scan format, the film looks very good. Yes, there is some edge enhancement and quite a bit of grain, but where this DVD really shines is the bitrate. It's almost maxed out at around 8 MB/s for the majority of the film. The thing about this movie is that there is A LOT of motion throughout, and the whole point of video compression is to disregard motion data without it being noticeable to our eyes. Yes, the opening & bits towards the end STILL look rather blocky, but with the bitrate maxed out this is just not possible to clear up. These scenes are just too detailed and motion intensive for DVD MPEG-2 compression to resolve all the detail.
AUDIO:
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Miramax includes a full bitrate 5.1 English audio mix as well as a French stereo dub.
EXTRAS:
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Trailers, trivia, etc.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This film premiered on KidsWB before home media releases, albeit heavily cut for TV. This is the last film to receive a VHS release in the U.S as it was officially considered obsolete the following year. This is the last film to be distributed by Miramax with Viz Media, the distributes of the series, taking over for the films as well. This is the last film of the Advanced generation to receive a Blu-Ray release as of 3/18/24.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Cropped Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 KB/s)
French 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
Destiny Deoxys (2014 Re-release)
BOX-ART
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The box art mostly is identical the the original, but with a few differences. As far as the front is concerned, they removed the blurb on top referring to the fact that the film was new and featured footage cut from the KidsWB airing of the film. (The 2011 Re-issues did this too. It's still all here, it's just been years since the premiere, so why confuse people with the blurb.) A family friendly thing was added, along with the Miramax logo.
The back of the case is essentially just rearranged but with all the info. about extras removed. The Lionsgate logo as well as a widescreen indicator were added.
VIDEO:
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The film is indeed in widescreen...but that's about where the positives end. The video has an average bitrate of about 4-5 MB/s and it looks very splotchy. If only they had used a dual-layer disc and maxed out the bitrate like the original release, this could have looked very nice, yet it looks worse than a YouTube video at times due to poor compression!
AUDIO:
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Despite the original DVD having full surround sound, this film only has English stereo at 192 KB/s. The disc has about 600 megabytes of unused space, so they could have easily fit a full bitrate 5.1 track in! Yet another disappointment.
EXTRAS:
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None, there's no room on the disc!
FINAL THOUGHTS
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The only reason I wanted this version of the film (at the time) was because it was the original widescreen (& I didn't have the Blu-Ray) but the quality is so bad that I would still rather watch the pan-and-scan version! I'm hoping the rights to film make there way to Viz so they could release it on Blu-Ray, like they have with the other films. (Yes, the film was already released on Blu-ray back in 2011 or 2012 but It's out-of-print and insanely expensive now.)
Like most of the other re-releases there has been for the advanced generation films, it's just not good. Too much compression, no surround sound, no extras, and they keep using the same old transfer from the mid 2000's!
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Open Matte Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
Lucario & The Mystery of Mew (2 Disc Collectors Edition)
BOX-ART
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Viz continues Miramax's tradition of using Japanese poster art with dub logos on the DVD cover. A render of Lucario and Sir Aaron are featured predominantly in the foreground, with renders of Ash & co. in the back with various Pokémon. The background is of the crystals & tree of life we see in the film. This version has a banner at the top that says 2 Disc Collectors Edition, the 2013 re-release does not, since it excludes the 10th Anniversary special.
The back has renders of various characters from both films, with descriptions of them too. Tech specs are at the bottom. The box folds out into three sections, with each film having it's own disc and artwork behind it. The third section has a slot for pamphlets. The re-release is just a standard DVD case. The back of that case is entirely different, with renders and screenshots from the film. The contents of the disc are identical.
VIDEO:
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This is the last film to be cropped to 1.33:1! Also starting with this film, we get rather mediocre video quality. The colors are nice, and clarity is Okay, but the bitrate is too low, resulting in constant MPEG noise whenever there's any movement. It seems we're also back to using single-layer discs, which could account for why there is so much compression.
While I wont go into full details about the Mirage Pokémon special, just know that the quality very similar to the previous Mewtwo special.
AUDIO:
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This film includes only a stereo mix, despite all the previous films being in surround sound. It's unknown if 4Kids simply mixed the film in stereo, or if this DVD just doesn't use a surround sound mix. I don't know the circumstances of 4Kids licensing agreement, maybe they didn't have as much time or had a low budget. All we know is that The Pokémon Company took over around this time.
The Mewtwo special is also in English stereo.
EXTRAS:
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A character art slideshow, and a behind the scenes featurette accompany the disc. A second disc is included with the tenth anniversary special, Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, which also gives us a preview of the new voice cast. The special had actually already aired on KidsWB before this DVD release, and has an entirely different dub. I'd also like to note that there is an error in which a closed captioning logo is present at the start of the special.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This film marks the end of an era, as it is the final movie dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment. Also starting with this film Viz Media gains the rights to newer movies instead of Miramax. This is the final film to be cropped to fullscreen in the U.S, with every film onwards being presented in it's original widescreen format.
TECH. SPECS.
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MAIN FILM
ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Cropped Fullscreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 41 Minutes
TECH. SPECS.
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MASTERMIND OF MIRAGE POKEMON
ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English
RUN-TIME: N/A
Pokémon Ranger & The Temple Of The Sea
BOX-ART
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At the top we have blurb about the bonus disc with the Pikachu's Island adventure short. At the bottom is the film's title, with various character/Pokémon renders in the foreground. The background is an image of the Pirate's ship from the film. Interestingly we see Ash holding some sort of lead that is never seen in the actual film. The back has descriptions of both the main film, as well as the short with renders of Jackie & Kyogre in front of at the Sea Temple.
VIDEO:
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The film is presented in an anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio. It appears that the image was scaled at some point, probably stretching the image from 1.85:1 to 1.78:1, resulting in the film having this smeared haloing artifact throughout its entirety. The bitrate also seems rather low, resulting in some noticeable MPEG noise. At times interlaced ghosting effects are also noticeable. At the very least the video is very sharp and appears to have been mastered from a high definition source.
AUDIO:
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Continuing with the previous film, there is only a stereo mix included with the film at 192 KB/s. Not a great start for The Pokémon Company choosing to present their first film with no surround sound mix...luckily, they redeem themselves and every film after this will be mixed in 5.1.
EXTRAS:
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A character art slideshow is the only extra presented on the main film disc. A bonus disc is included, with Pikachu's Island Adventure on it. In Japan this is an OVA, & was not made to accompany this film, as they stopped making theatrical short after Jirachi Wish Maker. It's interesting that it was dubbed and included, but seems rather strange and out of the blue. Either way, this is the last dub film, for a long time to get any extras.
The version of the film I have also came with a CD with a few songs on it which, again, seems rather strange since they are all unrelated 4Kids songs. Some other versions of the film include a volume of Pokémon Advanced Battle or Pokémon All-stars instead of the CD.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Hooray for widescreen! After eight films & almost a decade they finally got it right, but aside from that this release is rather mediocre.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Original Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 2 (Some versions have 3)
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
REGION: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
The Rise of Darkrai
BOX-ART
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N/A
VIDEO:
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Much with the last two films, while the transfer is sharp and vibrant there is also a lot of MPEG compression. There's this strange ghosting effect any time something on screen moves, and it's throughout the entire movie.
AUDIO:
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A nice step up from the previous two films, both a stereo and surround sound 5.1 mixes are presented. The stereo is standard 192 KB/s and the 5.1 is full 448 KB/s.
EXTRAS:
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N/A
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This is the last film I own on DVD, so I cannot review anything after it. I do, however, have some of the Blu-Rays so head over to the Blu-Ray section for those.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1 (Original Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
Region Code: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO English: 5.1 (448 KB/s)
English 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, Spanish
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
