Pokémon the Movie Hoopa and the Clash of Ages   Starring: (Voice) Sarah Natochenny, Ikue Ōtani, Haven Burton-Paschall and Michael Liscio Jr. Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £TBC Certificate: PG Release Date: 24 October 2016

Pokémon: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages (2015. 1 hr, 18 min, 26 sec) is the second Pokémon movie in the XY series and the eighteen movie made and that’s on top of multiple hundreds of TV episodes and a successful string of games. The franchise is insanely popular, the proof lies in the amount of both children and adults wandering around with their smartphones playing Pokémon Go.

The film was directed by Kunihiko Yuyama from an Atsuhiro Tomioka screenplay who developed it from an original concept by Satoshi Tajiri. The film is presented in its original Japanese with English subtitles. The Blu-ray disc contained no extras. The picture is bright and well defined with good colour saturation and deep blacks. The animation can be somewhat variable in its level of detail.

So, the upshot of all of this is that content is produced which will appeal to fans rather than for the casual audience. The film is plainly aimed at children and the humour is equally suitable, if your kids are into Pokémon there is a lot here for them to enjoy. As often is said, the violence is mild and with moderate peril.

The story centres on Hoopa, a giant Pokémon who, when the film opens, if harassing a helpless village. His trick is to produce and remove things through the rings which adjourn his wrists. He is attacked by a number of other Pokémon, but only defeated by the arrival of an enigmatic stranger who traps him in a bottle.

Flash forward and we meet Ash hanging out with his friends. When a ring appears Ash and Pikachu are dragged into another world only to confront Hoopa.

The vocal acting is extremely mawkish making it a difficult watch for adults unless they are fans but it seems suitable for a children’s film. The plot isn’t particularly challenging and the characters are lightly drawn, the plot has a few holes in it but then who cares as this is an exercise in selling more tat. It’s not all bad, as well as the new Pokémons a number of classic creatures do make an appearance and the end battle over the city is well choreographed.

6

Charles Packer