****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
The sixth installment in the Pokémon films, "Jirachi Wishmaker", marks something of an interesting point in the whole series of translated versions. Namely, the point at which it seems that they FINALLY got an adaptation of one of these things dead-on perfect! Of course, at this point the films go direct to video and we'll never get to see this on the big screen...which is a shame, because the animation quality here is superb. Shogakukan's team has the integration between the digital and cel parts (which were not as 'seamless' in earlier films) just about perfect, and this makes it a real shame that we won't get to see this movie the way it came out in Japan.The plot, both in the original direction and in the adaptation, has been handled excellently. In fact, this has the feel of how the films should go, if one's ever had the pleasure of seeing past Pokémon movies in a subtitled, literal translation version. It doesn't erase the catastro-mix of that very first one, "Mewtwo Strikes Back" (which has plagued all of these films critically ever since, and which still, I think, needs to be 'restored'), but it comes very close. Note, also...this is really, really dark stuff, such as how "Pokémon Heroes" was as well; this isn't the lighter-weight fare such as in the TV series. The story touches on the darker side of personal ambition, and contains some really ugly and hard-taught, yet valuable lessons about how this can ultimately destroy all one has.But if you want funny, the short (which all of these films have) is actually worth watching a few times. It's something of an object-lesson in why Team Rocket should never leave Meowth in charge. Of anything. Period. And it's hysterical.A few faults, nothing enough to warrant removing a star. One big one, though, is that we STILL don't get a widescreen version. C'mon, 4Kids...the CREDITS and the SHORT are at least in 16:9, why not the whole shebang!? Enough kids have seen 'proper' anime at this point so that they won't panic about the letterboxing on regular screens, and for those of us who dropped a wad of cash on the big ones, it would be NICE to see this in the proper aspect ratio, without cropping, especially since some of us can't afford to burn up major plastic on a ticket to Japan every time one of these comes out from now on.But that's nitpicking compared to what we get here. This, folks, is as close as it gets to 'direct' from what I can tell, and while I'm sure there's been some editing to adapt this for the West, this time whatever's been done doesn't detract at all from the story, film, or even the soundtrack with the bilingual theme song at the end. That's right, a song with Japanese lyrics in a 4Kids-translated Pokémon film...what's the world coming to!?Just buy it, OK? Even if you thought the first film was a mess (which it was, unless you have a copy of the final Japanese edit) and it made you swear off of these things, this one may convince you otherwise. It's quality.
