Review The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon

[Doctor Oak]

Yeah, the narrator was odd. Why bring back the original narrator if everybody else has to be replaced?

Well, the old narrator wasn't working for 4Kids anymore anyways was he? I thought the reason Pollock had to take over was 'cause he quit.

If he quit 'cause of 4Kids rather than Pokemon, I can imagine him happily agreeing to sign up with PUSA for the show.

I've heard the voices for Ash, Misty and Team Rocket through a YouTube clip and have to say, they really aren't that bad. Ash DOES sound like Ritchie, but it does suit him better - it's a lot closer to the sound of his Japanese voice than Taylor's. Misty sounds fine, a little different but it doesn't put you off - it works well. Jessie's is a bit broad but again, fine. Meowth is again fine - he appears to have become a cross between Blaustein's Meowth and the Japanese Meowth.

James, however was... :/. It's not that he actually was THAT bad, but the silly English accent he was forcing onto himself just wasn't right. However, it's no worse than Stuart's original attempt at him, I can only assume that further down the line, once the actor has gotten into the role better - the accent will flatten out more and he'll sound just fine.

Brock, reportedly is meant to be the worst hit - along with Prof Oak, so i'm interested to hear them but overall, I have to say that outside of them being different, I see no real glaring problems yet.

 

[Alyssa Myuu]

I thought the background music was good, too, though the opening was horrible and gave me bad One Piece vibes. Can the badly done rap music stop, please?

Voices: Ash actually sounded good at the very beginning of the special, but by the end I was just trying to tolerate him. I liked Jessie's voice, too. Thick and feminine, but she could be more bossy. James was the worst out of all of them when it came to trying too hard to sound like the character's old actor (but I did like his "That's peachy!" line ^^) Apparently Brock took up smoking or something. o.0 Oak was just bad. Really, really bad. Which is disappointing because it was neat seeing the old guy getting into some of the action (though his Dragonite looked pretty goofy). I mean, May sounded older than Oak. Overall, the actors need to do more acting and less imitating, especially when they're yelling or afraid, but I wasn't expecting anything great to begin with as it's the first time they're doing this.

Plot-wise, bringing together a whole bunch of pokemon favorites (Mewtwo, Mew, Entei etc.) was a good idea for the 10th anniversary special, but I would've enjoyed it more if they were the real legendary pokemon making cameos and not just holographic shells that were whipped up by the ultimate game shark. It was cool seeing Mewtwo pwning everyone (*loves the tail whip attack*) but it was just a Mewtwo that I didn't really care about and didn't even have a personality, although his animation for the most part was very good. One thing that bugs me is how Mirage Master knew about Mewtwo in the first place, maybe I missed it but when he was extracting those images from Pikachu's mind, they didn't show anything from the First Movie or Mewtwo Returns (Worked with Dr. Fuji?). Mew was my favorite. I can't really explain it, but it had an edge to its design that it didn't have in the movies and Mewtwo Returns, and it was still sooooo cute. ^^ And did anyone else think of V for Vendetta when Mirage Master appeared? He was a generic villan, sure, and his true identity was a little disappointing (my sister and I had been guessing everything from Domino to Lawrence III), but he had the best design, even after he took his mask off.

 

[Roses Ablaze]

I thought the voices were okay. Not great, but okay. They were appropriate (except for Professor Oak). I liked the old ones better, but I'm sure people will get used to these.

Plot-wise...*shrugs*, no better or worse than anything else.

 

[pkmn Trainer Zach]

I was actually hoping the Mirage Master would be a new character. Lawrence III was actually a good guess.

 

[Cybersai]

I did like the Tracey cameo.

All the main characters got to appear in this, so that's one thing good.

 

[Misty]

Pokemon USA obviously has a far better understanding of its nostalgiac audience than the original writers (see: Battle Frontier).

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

In the words of Coach Z--

"This is bad! This is rll rll bad!"

 

[Cybersai]

Yeah, but they have an absolutely pitiful way of hiring "sound-a-likes" that sound nothing like the original.

Except Misty, she was the only character that actually *did* sound the same.

 

[bell02+]

Ok, I'm watching it right now and I'm ready to write my letter now...

;_;|||

Not only did the VA change, but the Pkmn voices did also ('cept for pikachu for obvious reasons)

Its a shame really, Though what I really hope for is that only the VAs come back and not the 4KiDS company, as with the PKMN company not being cheap with intros and presentation (though the culture cuts and over sensitivity can stay out, and japanese music can stay in)

Hell, I'd be perfectly fine if they used Japanese Intros (though american ones would be nice also)

 

[deja0entendu]

the voices sounded stupid
overracted, and like crap

whatevs

the plot wasn't that great either

what a crappy 10th anniversary episode...

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

They even messed up the closed captioning. They capitalized random words and totally ruined any action scenes with [sounds of battle]. Heck, they even captioned the music, which really kinda defeats the purpose.

 

[Marill]

Omg, what's happened to James?? The others I can bare (though thatYoutube clip didn't have Brock, May or Max in) but oh no.. that's enough to put me off - bring back Eric Stuart, all is forgiven (really)

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I finally put my finger on who Oak sounds like. He sounds like Lupin the Third trying to sound really really old.

 

[Unregistered]

Garbage. So, how many of you are going to e-mail Pokemon USA now?

We must have the old people back for Season 9, if not then, then Season 10. Perhaps we'll get Season 9 redubbed and clear the garbage off.

 

[Porygandrew]

Pokemon USA obviously has a far better understanding of its nostalgiac audience than the original writers (see: Battle Frontier).

Umm... it's called "Let's throw in as many legendaries/rares as we can and create an almost-rip-off of a soon-to-be-released movie to hide the fact that although we can come up with interesting plot-lines, we fail horribly in execution."

 

[LightningTopaz]

Here's what I wrote to PUSA:

Dear Sir or Madam:



After watching "The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon" this morning, I feel very saddened about how the voices of the Pokemon cast have changed. Quite frankly, many of the new voices do not suit the characters at all. Ash sounds too high, May sounds too old, and Brock sounds way out of character, to name a few dislikes of mine about the new cast.

I feel I speak for English Pokemon fans around the world when I say that we've come to love the old voices--those voices were perfect for the characters, and many of us would rather be hearing those voices istead of the new ones.

I hope you'll reconsider the decision you've made, and bring back the old voices.

 

[Misty]

Umm... it's called "Let's throw in as many legendaries/rares as we can and create an almost-rip-off of a soon-to-be-released movie to hide the fact that although we can come up with interesting plot-lines, we fail horribly in execution."

Better than 99% of Pokemon episodes.

 

[Nomekop Oen]

Fucking Hell......

Um,first I'll start with the voices.

I'm pretty sure ASh is the same voice as Mikey from the Eevee brothers episode

That's it! Throughout the entire episode I kept trying to figure out where I heard that voice before. But yeah,I wouldn't be surprised if Ash's new VA is the same one who voiced Mikey.

Brock sounds like BUTCH.

Yup.I can confirm this as well.It sounds like a mix between Brock and Botch.



Anyway,Misty and Jessie sounded the most accurate to the originals,Max sounded okay,Meowth didn't sound good,and Prof.Oak and James sounded terrible.

But here's the thing,almost all of the new VAs' acting was damn horrible.May's VA leads the pack,her acting was pure trash with James not far behind.Everyone elses acting was pretty emotionless overall,it's only during the more intense moments that you hear the VAs *trying* to put some feeling into it but it just ends up falling flat.No,these VA's aren't guilty of overacting.If anything,they're guilty of quite the opposite.If you want overacting,go watch Yugioh.


Oh,and that was the old narrator.And Mirage Master/Dr.Young sounded a lot like either Ted Lewis or Dan Green.In the Tracey/Yugi voice that is.






As for the special itself,I was surprised to see that they basically combined two of my favorite things,Pokemon and The Matrix.Dr.Young's Mirage System allowed him to create living programs of any Pokemon in existence.However,Young is able to completely manipulate the data to create almost any Pokemon imaginable,hence the "Sharked Mewtwo".Mew,the "failed specimen" and/or "the anomaly",was a sentient program that seemed to have complete free will.There's no doubt in my mind that Dr.Young accidently created the Mew,which resulted in a program far from Dr.Young's original intentions.But the only way to destroy the Mew was to destroy the Mirage System(i.e. The Matrix),and there was no way in hell Young was going to do that.So overall,I thought this special was pretty good.Although it would've been much more enjoyable if it wasn't for the bad acting.


Animation was average.Not great like "Do I Hear a Ralts",but not bad like"The Scuffle of Legends".

 

[Osiris]

what pokemon did misty use?

 

[Misty Lover17]

She used Staryu and Gyarados in this special. It was great seeing them both again.