Here in the US, the Pokemon fad has pretty much run its course.  Whereas a couple of years ago, my two sons and their friends could only talk about Pokemon cards, they have all moved on to Yu-Gi-Oh now, and even that is waning.  Apparently the franchise is still popular in Japan though, where a seventh theatrical movie was released last year, and has just made its way to DVD here in the States.  Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys, like the other features, tries to have a larger and grander scale than the TV show.  Even though it does have a villain of cosmic scale, this movie isn't very special and feels like just a drawn out TV episode.

Ash and his friends May, her little brother Max, and Brock are traveling to the city of Larousse in order to battle their pokemon in the famous Battle Tower.  There the meet Tory, a young boy who was traumatized by Pokemon as a child.  He still has a great fear of the creatures, but Ash and the gang decided that it's their mission to rid Tory of this phobia.

As Ash and Pikachu are doing their civic duty, Deoxys, a Pokemon from space, comes to Larousse.  Four years ago it crashed on Earth at the North Pole, and had a fierce battle with Rayquaza, a Pokemon that lives in the upper atmosphere.  It has spent all the time since regenerating, and is now searching the Earth for something.  When Deoxys reaches Larousse, it makes hundreds of duplicates of itself which proceed to grab every person and Pokemon in the city.  Though most people evacuate, Ash and the crew get left behind, and have to hid from the swarms of Deoxys while trying to figure out what it wants.

This wasn't the best movie of the series.  The plot, something that we've all seen time and time again, just left me cold.  In most of the previous movies there was some aspect that I enjoyed.  I liked the ending of the previous movie for example.  But this film didn't offer anything new or interesting.  The plot with Tory was very trite and conventional, and most viewers will be able to figure out the outcome of the Deoxys storyline five or six minutes into the movie.  Even the battle scene at the end, where Ash fights millions of robotic blocks, was just stupid.

There was also a fair amount of padding.  This would have fit well into a two part series, but there just wasn't enough meat there for an hour and a half film.  There are many useless scenes, everyone eating lunch for example, and Team Rocket make an appearance but add absolutely nothing to the plot.  (Ash & Co. don't even know they are in the same city.)  The music video-like segment where everyone plays with their pokemon at a park felt like it was included only to make the film reach a theatrical length.

The real test of a Pokemon movie for me is my kid's reactions.  Though I was expecting my 12 year old to not like it (he's getting much too old for such childish things of course!)  my 8 year old also gave it a lukewarm review.  He said that it was okay, but that there wasn't enough action, an assessment I would think most young children would share.

Audio:

The 5.1 English soundtrack sounded great. There was a good dynamic range, with the explosions sounding forceful and the higher pitched sounds coming through clearly. There was good use of the soundstage with effects coming from all around.

Of course, I really wish they had included the original soundtrack.  While I imagine that a majority of the people who watch this movie would be kids too young to read subtitles, it would be nice for the older Pokemon fans to be able to view the movie the way it was originally created.

There is also a stereo French soundtrack, and subtitles in both French and English.

Video:

Unfortunately, this movie is a pan and scan hack job.  I think this is a shame. I personally know many children who are not bothered by the black bars on the screen. I wish they would at least put the WS version of the film on one side of the DVD.

Aside from that major (for me at least) flaw, the picture quality is very good. The colors are bright and there are very few digital artifacts, none that children will notice. The image was a little soft, but I suspect that this is what the creators were going for.

Extras:

I wasn't that impressed with the extras on this DVD.  My main source of disappointment was the lack of a short, something the other Pokemon movies have included.  The other features were:

On Location with the Director: A 2½-minute interview with the animation director while he's in Canada scouting locations for the film.  Parts of this were included as an extra in the previous movie's DVD.

Trivia Game: A short series of questions about the movie. If you get them right, you are rewarded with a clip from the movie. There is no prize at the end for a perfect score.

Pokemon Characters: Pictures and stats for Pokemon featured in the movie.

Gallery: Images of three Japanese movie posters used to advertise the film.

There is also a series of trailers.

Final Thoughts:

This wasn't the best movie, and I was disappointed that they didn't include a short this time around.  While the 5.1 sound is good, the lack of a Japanese soundtrack and the fact that the movie is a pan-and-scan hack job are both very unfortunate (though not unexpected.)  I didn't find much of the film that was much superior to an average episode of Pokemon, and my two sons both thought the middle was lacking in action and excitement.  Unless you have a die-hard Pokemon fan in your household, this DVD should just be skipped.