Review M17: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

[Moe]

I just got back from seeing this in dub form - the first movie since Pokemon 3 that I actually got to see at a cinema - it certainly makes it feel more 'movie' like than watching it on DVD. Wish they'd dub the Pikachu Shorts and include them at the start though, but the run time seemed okay regardless - I don't know what the actual numbers are.

As I mentioned in the thread for the Diancie, Princess of the Diamond Domain short - the first impression has to be how inconvenient life as a Carbink or Diancie is. It's interesting though all the variations that the Carbink got - ranging from the small little ones to the elder - it's quite a versatile Pokemon. The slapstick stuff with the Carbink did help offset the tone of what ended up being a fairly dark movie at points.

I really liked the full version of the opening theme - though it did sound like they tried to mumble the 'Teach Pokémon to understand' line, instead of just making it perfectly clear what the word was. Put that up on iTunes already!

I absolutely loved what happened to Team Rocket early on, swimming in diamonds followed by them all disappearing. Dunno why Team Rocket spent the rest of the movie trying to capture Diancie when they got burnt the first time on those diamonds - I wonder how much it pained the writers not to slip in a few references to them being Rubies - they were certainly visually similar.

I imagine some might think it was out of place, but the shopping scene was rather fun - Diancie really did have the feeling of being introduced to the world outside her kingdom and enjoying all of the new things. I hope we see Serena utilising some of those outfits when it comes time to have her competing in the Pokemon Performances, there seemed to be so much effort put into those for just throwaway scenes in a movie. Ash and Clemont sitting outside complaining about how long it was taking them was also great.

"Science is so amazing" is probably not what I'd be saying while at the very top of a totally uncontrollable ladder. I've wanted Ash to use Hawlucha to land safely in a few episodes so far, so it was a really well done scene to have him swoop in and grab Diancie like that.

Serena getting to use her Rhyhorn racing skills to get Diancie to safety was nice, as was Dedenne using Nuzzle - while inevitably these movies are all about Ash, everyone seemed on the ball in the movie in a way that seems lacking in a lot of episodes.

I did get a bit annoyed about how Diancie basically got treated as a football for half the movie, rapidly being stolen and re-stolen in quick succession - though I did like how that glasses girl villain (apologies - names of characters flew out of my head as soon as I heard them) wasn't obvious the whole movie as not being on Ash's side.

The villains were all pretty good - the scene where the guy who is like Sanpei's evil cousin (are all Froakie-line trainers going to be ninjas?) just throws Delphrox-girl down into that pond after saving her was another one of those bits of humour that helped counter the scenes to follow. Honedge/Doublade and Ninjask as transportation is really amazing - why are we stuck with Skiddo and Rhyhorn!

The climax of the movie obviously was Yveltal - though after the amount of destruction, the final confrontation with Xerneas was really short and uneventful.

A big plus for Pikachu here - his thunderbolts not only withstood, but even pushed back Yveltal's most powerful attacks - that's insanely powerful. I suppose though it's more to do with the teams that Ash, Serena and Clemont have at this point being all unevolved Pokemon, there's no real alternate powerhouse, so it was Pikachu or nothing really.

The big moment of Pikachu turning to stone is something that manages to still be a moving scene despite how that happened to nearly every other living creature without anyone really batting an eyelid - I was thinking we'd be getting things going full circle and having Ash's tears for Pikachu bringing him back, but I suppose Xerneas magically fixing everything will do.

They did manage to humanise all of the villains with how that part was handled - though really, after this amount of time surely there could be a tiny bit more acknowledgement from Jessie and James of what just happened instead of mindless rhyming. The sequences in the credits did really well to further that point.

I did like how that first successful diamond seemed to be the proxy for Diancie's mega stone - at least it wasn't the ability to randomly change back and forth.

It's a bit annoying how the "oh, telepathy" thing is now always a fixture of the movies - can't the explanation ever just be that they actually talk? It was especially ridiculous when Xerneas was talking telepathically to Diancie, who then needed to repeat everything to make it so that Ash and the others could hear it telepathically.

Overall - there's some weak points and it feels a bit repetitive, both through the themes being fairly similar to other movies and the amount of thieving - but I liked it and want to see it again.

(I'm assuming we're having a thread for the dub of the movie - if not, apologies)

 

[Ampharos King]

Looks like TPCi replaced most of the original soundtrack with its own music.

Astrid's Meowstic is female, not male.

The older, female Tourist from Pokémon X and Y can be seen walking about after Ash and co. saved Diancie.

Bonnie commanded Dedenne to use an attack for the first time.

 

[Ambipom666]

The movie's actually using dub music. This is a joke, right?

 

[Yash]

Was worried about bgm replacement after the Diancie special... just... ugh.

Did the theatrical version have lyrics? Because the one that just aired on CN didn't.

 

[Lord_Mewtwo]

Looks like TPCi replaced most of the original soundtrack with its own music.

Astrid's Meowstic is female, not male.

Really? good to know. Guess I'll be waiting until February when it comes out via other means. I can't believe that TPCi is actually replacing the music in the movies now. That's insane, I still wish FUNimation had gotten it back in 2006. At least they know how to make a proper dub because TPCi sure doesn't. We will never have a good Pokemon dub ever.

 

[Yash]

Just to put this in perspective this movie kept fewer tracks than the episode of Pokemon Advanced that aired before it

 

[Gabo2oo]

For crying out loud, you'd think that little by little a dub like Pokémon's can get better, but no, it just keeps going worse every time. I'm already picturing TPCi making paint edits to delete gibberish and filling battle scenes with impact stars on the movies by the time the Gen VII anime comes out. I also wonder why they didn't include lyrics in the TV version opening, but I call for Cartoon Network shenanigans again.

Spoiler

We didn't even get to see the credits scenes, so if I recall correctly the summary I read some time ago, dub viewers didn't saw how Riot proposed to Marilyn...

 

[UnovaCastaway]

Just saw it on CN. My first impression: better than the last movie. Diancie is really cute and grows as a character. The animation, especially the diamonds, looked really great, sometimes close to live action in some scenes. Team Rocket and the thieves with the Kalos starters fit well into the story, IMO.

The music I can remember sounded pretty good. I liked hearing the Sinnoh gym leader theme and that Kalos route song! I also wonder if the raw version has the TV theme with lyrics. (I remember the last movie having background noises of the characters playing around during the TV intro on CN but not anywhere else.)

I noticed that some of the locations looked really familiar, like places I've been in Canada (confirmed on the Bulbapedia article). I recognized Quebec City and Niagara Falls in the middle of a forest. Was the shopping mall Eaton Centre in Toronto? (I did like that mall, scene, though. The ladder bit reminded me of that water-jetpack scene with Keldeo.)

It took a while for Yveltal to show up, with it being referred to in the title and all. Pikachu ended up like Ash in the first movie for a second there, and that scene was shorter than I imagined. Interesting how Xerneas basically replaced Yveltal in that forest at the end.

The World of Pokemon intro reminded me of a Marvel movie, for some reason. I didn't expect it to show up after the Diancie and Carbink intro.

Did Xerneas only talk to Diancie with that aura thing? (that's why Diancie repeated it for Ash&co?) I think characters being surprised that a Pokemon talks telepathically is only ridiculous when they've met other telepathic-talking Pokemon before (had Clemont met any of those yet?)

I noticed some awkward cuts in the airing. I'll see what was taken out on the DVD.


Forgot to add: LOL @ Froakie's Cut being a knife! And did anybody else notice one of the racing Rhyhorn stopping after Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie galloped into the woods?

 

[Johtohfiller]

I think the TPCi dub is officially dead to me at this point. Replacing movie music is the last straw.

That said, I liked the movie a lot, it's one of the better ones IMO. I'm really glad that it emphasized Ash and his friends as a team, too often the movies focus too much on Ash and put his friends in the background. Most of the characters got pretty good screentime, even Team Rocket. My main complaint is that I wish they had skipped the Pikachu short and given the movie a longer run time. The movie as a whole didn't feel short per se, but I though some particular scenes could have been longer, and I would have liked some more detail with Diancie becoming familiar with the human world.

Cartoon Network did indeed cut out the end credits, as usual.

 

[Fabio92]

Wait Months for hear the full opening version... and they put only the Instrumental with audio effects and sound of battle in background... terrible!!!
The Theater version was different? I really hope in the goog opening theme, for the dvd version or maybe European (Like Genesect Movie)

 

[Galar Adventurer]

I think the TPCi dub is officially dead to me at this point. Replacing movie music is the last straw.

That said, I liked the movie a lot, it's one of the better ones IMO. I'm really glad that it emphasized Ash and his friends as a team, too often the movies focus too much on Ash and put his friends in the background. Most of the characters got pretty good screentime, even Team Rocket. My main complaint is that I wish they had skipped the Pikachu short and given the movie a longer run time. The movie as a whole didn't feel short per se, but I though some particular scenes could have been longer, and I would have liked some more detail with Diancie becoming familiar with the human world.

Cartoon Network did indeed cut out the end credits, as usual.

I don't see why this is a problem. TPCi has BEEN replacing music ever since they took over the dub.

As for the movie itself, I enjoyed it quite well. 92/100
It was cool to see Serena, Clemont and Bonnie and Ash pitching in to help Diancie like Serena
using Rhyhorn to get away from the thieves and what not.

 

[Odinn]

EDIT: @Odinn;, don't do that again.

Welcome to the Pokémon Anime Rules and Guidelines thread. The following are rules which should be followed or else you may receive a warning or infraction. If you have any questions about the rules or guidelines, feel free to contact any Pokémon Anime moderator.

The rules for the Pokémon Anime section are:

...

5. Unofficial versions of the Pokémon Anime (Copyright Violation)
The Anime forum is a place to discuss all official versions of the Pokémon Anime and not fandubs or other fan edits. This includes posting or asking where to find fandubs or edits.

 

[Idon'tcare]

I don't see why this is a problem. TPCi has BEEN replacing music ever since they took over the dub.

Yes and so have 4kids, both of them have been replacing most of the background music in the television series.

While in the movies; 4kids started off with replacing the music but then, by the 4th movie started keeping it and TPCI followed this. And now, for some odd reason TPCI replaced the music with this movie? I hope this is only in the TV airing and the DVD has the original background music kept, because it's so confusing to why they did this.

 

[Ambipom666]

I don't see why this is a problem. TPCi has BEEN replacing music ever since they took over the dub.

For the TV series yes, but not for the movies. Songs from the Japanese version aside, the movies have kept all of the original soundtrack for over 10 years up until now, so to see TPCi start replacing music in a movie now is really disappointing. It's like taking 2 steps backward and 0 steps forward.

 

[MRStealth64]

Well, it looks like I made the right descision to give up on the dub when XY started. Not that I'm surprised that they started replacing the music in the movies, but I had a sliver of hope that they wouldn't. The only chance the dub has at this point of ever being good is if yet another company secures the rights to the anime. I'm not holding my breath on that, of course.

 

[Moe]

I don't know if dub music was being used in the version I saw - it's not something that matters to me when watching regular episodes, so it wasn't something I was thinking about.

There were definitely words in the opening theme though - that'd be a really weird omission given how long that scene goes for, unless they also cut bits out?

 

[Yash]

Maybe they rescored it for the TV airing to better accommodate the time cuts and such and the DVD will keep the music.

I won't get my hopes up though.

I'll ask my friend from AU if anything was different in the theatrical cut.

 

[Dogasu]

"The TV series' dub isn't all that great, but at least the movies tend to be done well."

So much for that.

Amazon Japan, CD Japan, and Play-Asia all have the soundtrack for sale and I highly recommend you pick it up. I'd also like to remind the Americans in this thread that Japanese Blu-rays will work in American Blu-ray players so you'll have no problem playing the Japanese Blu-ray of this movie when that comes out next month.

 

[kantoskies]

Remember when the dub for Best Wishes first started and we had those five beautiful episodes of 0% dub music (well not counting the opening/ending/eyecatch) and everyone thought that TPCi finally got their shit together? Even after re-scoring their already dubbed version of the first two XY episodes I wasn't 100% sold on the idea of the dub being a "lost cause" but now I am. When they screw up something even 4Kids didn't in 2002 that's pretty sad.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Okay, I understand that people are upset about this decision, but it would be best to take the discussion regarding the issue of replacing the music and the TPCI dub in general to a different thread. This is a review thread for the newest movie, not to complain about the TPCI dub in general.