Clark Gable, Brad Pitt … Pikachu!
Pass the popcorn and the giant-sized soda! It was going to happen sooner or later. Pokémon has gone Hollywood! Over the years, a couple of other video game superstars have tried to make it on the big screen, but nothing like this. After the bestselling video game, the hit TV show and the mania over the collector cards, there was no place left to go except Super Stardom!
So when the Pokémon, The First Movie came to America, it was a pretty sure thing that kids would like it. After all, not only did it have Ash, Brock, Misty and, of course, Pikachu, it also had several new Pokémon, never before seen on these shores (their names: Donphan, Snubbull, and Marill). And the film was already a huge—HUGE, GIGANTIC!—hit in Japan where kids like Pokémon just as much, if not more, than in the U.S. The film was one of the biggest hits in Japan, ever.
But was the film the same in Japan as it is in the U.S.? The answer is “well, almost.”
So, what’s different about the Japanese version of the film compared to the American version? For one thing, the title in Japan was different: Mewtwo Strikes Back. Also, the first movie in Japan, Pikachu’s Vacation, is now in the U.S. as an “Opening Act” for Pokémon: The First Movie, rather than on its own.
Also, in the U.S. version there is different music. When the film was brought to the U.S., they gave it a whole new soundtrack so that American kids would like it more.
And a lot of the backgrounds in the film were changed, too. Backgrounds are the places where the characters in the film “act.” The backgrounds were changed with computers. Some of the things that they changed were very simple, like making a sign that originally appeared in Japanese now appear in English. And according to what I’ve heard, they also made some of the backgrounds look better. Japanese anime have a very different style of drawing than what American kids are used to watching. You probably notice this style on the TV show. It includes, like I said earlier in the book, big huge eyes, but it also includes backgrounds and characters that can seem almost “flat.”
If you compare anime cartoons to some other movie cartoons, you’ll see what I mean. This isn’t because anime is “cheap” or anything. That’s the way it is supposed to look. If you go to a museum or look in an art book, you might see two pictures of the same kind of flower done by two different artists. The flower in one picture will probably look completely different than the flower in the other picture, right? That’s because the two artists have different styles of painting the flower. The same is true for cartoons. The anime style is very different from the American style.
For example, art in one country is often very different from art in another country. It’s just like food from different countries; it’s, well, different, but still very good. Pizza, anyone? How about some nachos?
Another thing that was different in the American version from the Japanese version is that the story was changed so that American kids would like it better. I don’t know how different it was than the Japanese version. I’m told that they used the “original” movie and just changed the plot a little, so that American kids would appreciate it more.
I liked it, but then I’m a sucker for powerful super Pokémon and huge battles!