Pokemon Movie 06: Nanayo no Negaiboshi Jirachi

Though I'm not much of a fan of the main Pokemon series, I LOVE this movie, it's my favorite Pokemon movie! Jirachi is absolutely adorable!

Story:
Maybe the plot is rather simple but very enjoyable. Once Jirachi is known about, it'd be a real crime to stop watching. A couple twists but a couple obvious things. Overall, nicely done!

Art:
I noticed with the Pokemon movies they do an especially nice job with the art and this one is no exception. The characters look great, the backgrounds are great, it's all very good.

Sound:
The soundtrack for this movie is incredible and beautiful! I really wish I could find it because ... wow, it's great.

Enjoyment:
I love the movie and no matter how old I get, I always will. It's a classic for me.

Personally,in most movies from pokemon, Ash and the highlight legendary icon are the stars. But on this movie, Masato (Max in America) [known as May's Sister] leads the movie with Jirachi (in my personal opinion, a charming little legendary). The beauty is that it implements about the beauty of friendship on the early days, the middle days, and the day of separation. It's like something to compare with in school life. Meet them, enjoy the months, and bidding goodbye after graduation. Minus the Graduation hats and diplomas.

No matter how long or short the days, moths, or years last, the relationship between the intellectual Max/Masato and ... the kindhearted Jirachi the wishmaker (the gender is up to you to decide. But its a girl for me), it nicely implements as to how a powerful friendship lasts a lifetime. In the movie's case, it also shows a mildly dark reason in the near end of the movie on the value of letting the most treasured things go.

If you want to take your brain's imagination to the next level, you could compare Max and Jirachi's friendship to that of Ash and Latias' relationship. (this one is optional)

Jirachi The Wish Maker is a prime example of wasted potential. The film sets up characters and themes with so much potency, yet blunders them on a nonsensical plot. In the end we're left with a film in which anything goes and the audience is left out cold, only to warm up to the film if they find the overly long final fight engaging.

On the bright side of things, most of the characters and their interactions are likable.The first third of the film nicely establishes the new Pokemon cast. Generally, shenanigans in the camp are engaging. Establishment of Jirachi, although a bit too goofy, works. ... Even if he's not well characterized, Absol, a fan favorite pokemon, is nice to look at and keeps up with the plot without feeling out of place.

This is where the film drops the ball, though. After the plot gets rolling, we're treated to a flat good guy turning into a flat bad guy. The ensuing race to the final destination drops the underwhelming, but somewhat fun carnival setting, but doesn't really replace it with anything noteworthy.

Here we're finally given an explanation of the villain's motives, but it doesn't tell us any more than we already know. Futhermore, the character interactions continue like no twist happened, as if they were still at the carnival. Thus, instead of shaking things up to keep them interesting, film quickly turns boring.

Eventually, as the time for final showdown comes, we're treated to yet another one of those situations - you know, where the villain wields infinite magical technology already set up everywhere in advance. Why? How? Because the plot requires it, of course! This is where the film starts falling appart, but hope still exist. You think to yourself - well, the stakes are high, maybe this finally becomes interesting! Nope, he's resurrecting a Dark Jellyfish Groudon™ out of nowhere.

One of my gripes with the film which aren't imediately apparent is how unimportant details get overexplained. Right at the very start of the film we're treated to a voiceover explaining Team Magma, their dreams, goals and their favoite football team. This never gets relevant. The only reason I can think of for this being in the film is so the viewers aren't confused by a certain later monologue. In the monologue we're treated to a flashback showing Butler's ex-ties to Team Magma. This would be fine if it was used to give his character depth or set up evil Groudon clone. But it doesn't give us any insight into the character nor the plot. Since there's no payoff, the reason for this scene becomes clear - padding the film.

With characters not mattering and plot in the gutter, we're treated to a nonsensical plot wrap up, complete with a McGuffin and a cheesily written goodbye to Jirachi. Still, there were a few nice moments that shine here - a few shots of Ash and Flygon look really good. May forgetting to fold her last necklace piece gives us a very sweet character moment that was built up subtly throughout the whole film.

Ultimatelly, while there are around twenty enjoyable minutes in the film, most of it is wasted on a nonsensical plot and underwhelming character interactions. I'd recommend this film if you like to laugh at dull plot devices with your friends. I've done so and we had some fun nitpicking the problems. Otherwise, don't bother unless you're a Jirachi or Max fan and even then keep in mind that this is film Max at his least likable. How unfortunate, considering it's the only one focused on him.

Not the best Pokémon movie, but a decent watch that had nothing really wrong with it.

The animation was the usual, as were the voices and sounds. The only thing that really bugged me was that Jirachi, a Pokémon constantly referred to as "he", had a girl's voice. Just a minor detail that threw me off a little.

As for the plot of the movie, it was decent, although left a bit to desire. It didn't jump around randomly and wasn't confusing either, but it just seemed a little... simple. Between making a wish on a comet that appears for seven nights every thousand years and trying ... to take Jirachi back to where he belongs - and stopping a magician/scientist from grabbing Jirachi to awaken a legendary Pokémon of his own - there was nothing special in this movie.

So, an okay movie, and perhaps my rating is a bit low, but it didn’t have that something in it that would have made it better.

wow, another pokemon movie review. sixth in the series, jirachi wishmaker is one i remember from my childhood quite well and is the first one to feature the hero group from pokemon advanced. though a little on the random side from the series, the story does tie in somewhat from the reference to team magma and groudon. jirachi is a cute little pokemon and it's ability did come into play so i can see how it fits. it seems a bit simple, like there should have been some more there, but it's nothing that makes the movie unwatchable. for a side story like movie, i ... found it to be enjoyable and cute at times. the art, not much can really be said in that other than it's traditional pokemon. i feel like so far, that hasn't changed for any of the movies but that's personally a plus. the music was pretty good, though previous movies had better. all the original voice actors were there and that, in my book, keeps it relevant and classic. i enjoyed the characters well enough, jirachi was a cutie(despite HIM sounding a lot like a SHE but that's okay), and so on. this is a case however when the antagonist sees the light and error of what he did which was a bit different. normally they are defeated or something(not like with mewtwo in previous movies who had the same thing happen) but not this time. overall, it wasn't a bad movie and i would watch it again if i had the chance to though i admit, it isn't as good as the previous ones. it was simply and only "good"

Upon rewatching this movie, I was surprised to find that it was actually... pretty good. I can't remember ever really liking it as a child, and when it first came out, it played All The Time. Like, every weekend. I got sick of it real fast. But I'm thinking now that this is because so much of this movie's focus is on the bond between Jirachi and Max. And I can't say I ever warmed up to Max. He was just annoying. (Though maybe not as bad as Iris...)

But the plot actually had a pretty solid connection back to the actual story-- the main ... villain being a shamed Team Magma scientist-- and I liked that. Jirachi himself was really more plot device than character, but that was okay too. He existed to make the viewers feel when he and Max were invitably separated, and he was just never going to accomplish that with me. So I'll be satisfied with knowing our villain had an actual, concrete motivation for resurrecting him.

Something that really struck me while rewatching this one is how bright all the colors were-- fitting the carnival setting perfectly. This was something I took special notice of, having just rewatched 4Ever where everything looks kind of dull. My biggest complaint would be that this movie always feels so long... But I suspect that goes back to how much of a focus it puts on Max. No matter how good the story, it just wasn't going to appeal to me, and I've accepted that.

This movie is quite, average, when compared to the other movies. I got this movie as a gift from a friend, and it isn't bad. The sound and visuals are standard, and the story, while not bad, is not anything special. The characters are the characters (except for Brock, who is always a blast.), so why is my enjoyment a 7/10 then? Well, to be honest, its because this movie was one of the reason's why Absol became one of my favourite pokemon, but of course this is subjective. I recommend seeing the better pokemon movies instead, and while I wouldn't say this movie is ... awful, I would say it isn't the best.

So as of now I’ve watched 3 out of 4 of the Hoenn/Advanced Generation movies. This movie, like Destiny Deoxys, is a pretty mixed one.

First of all, since this was made when 4Kids was still in control of the Pokémon franchise, Ash and Team Rocket’s voices all sounded very off to me, similar to Destiny Deoxys.

However, one of the good things about Pokémon movies are their opening scenes. They really bring the setting and feeling of the story to life somehow.

And the first portion of the movie was the most hilarious portion of a Pokémon movie I’ve ever come across (I wonder if the weird ... voice acting played a role into that LOL)

The whole movie practically had a TON of Temple of the Sea vibes, with everything except the aquatic theme.

And EPIC BOSS FIGHTS!!!!!! However there are some flaws to the movie as well, which moves it to a point where it’s at the same spot as Destiny Deoxys.

But a 6/10 is better than a 5, right?

A decent movie, but definitely the weakest to this point.

The story was thin and lacked substance, it was mostly just Max and Jirachi doing cute stuff and it wasn't until the end that a clear conflict developed.

However, though yes it did focus on cuteness over story, it succeeded pretty well in that regard. There were Lots of cute, funny moments throughout, both between the bonding of Max and Jirachi, and Max and May's sibling relationship. The animation was great and there was once again a good share of lovely scenes, direction was nice, and when things got going, the climactic scene was the high ... standard i've come to expect by this point.

So yeah, it was the weakest movie yet, but it wasn't bad. Anyone who digs cuteness should get a kick out of this.