One Piece Movie 03: Chinjuu-jima no Chopper Oukoku

One Piece: Chopper Kingdom of Strange Animal Island is like watching an extended episode of the One Piece and that's why it's a worth the watch. In truth fans of One Piece will get a bigger kick out of watching this then people who aren't familiar with the anime, it's more or less made for them. The story in the film is typical One Piece affair with one thing unexpected happening, resulting in the crew trying to resolve the situation while something else happens that will interlock with the main plot and then the situation is sorted through the power of courage and friendship.

Watching this ... was just like watching the series except with a higher degree of animation and it is the quality of animation that makes the film shine. One Piece episodes around the time of 2002 looked okay but the movie quality allows for some really smooth character animation and richer colours for backgrounds which really adds to the overall experience. The characters in the film are just as good as they are in the series and in terms of sound and music they happen to be in good supply too. Overall I really liked the film just because it was One Piece in a higher quality animation; it's definitely worth the watch if you can't get enough of the One Piece adventures.

According to the One Piece wiki, this movie is the least popular of the current twelve. Consequently, I went into it with pretty much zero expectations but was pleasantly surprised; though it’s not cinema gold, Chopper’s Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals was far more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

The plot is lackluster, and definitely the weakest aspect of the film. Honestly, one could probably tell that from the title. The narrative is silly and convoluted and does not fit in with the One Piece universe, which is saying something since the One Piece universe allows for a lot of silliness. The ... villains and movie-exclusive side characters are weak and unmemorable, and the two primary talking animal characters just come off as pointless.

Bonds between nakama are pretty much the backbone of One Piece, carrying the audience through occasional bouts of mediocrity. It is undoubtedly the most important aspect of the show and all of the franchise’s additional installments. What is great about this movie is that the chemistry between the Straw Hats is very natural, and touching more times than one would expect. Sanji and Zoro stand out the most in that regard. Everyone has a role in the plot, even though they don’t all get fight scenes. Luffy is actually the one crew member that stands out the least; Luffy is his normal lovely Luffy self and Mayumi Tanaka is a goddess as usual, but he does not do anything out of the ordinary when it comes to his role in the story.

Fight scenes in this movie are short and generally unimpressive, but they are still fun to watch. Fights including Sanji and Zoro pretty much always have some pay off. Zoro’s last little battle with one of the henchmen was definitely neat, and Sanji’s was as well. Mainly because of the return of a certain princely alter ego. Unnecessary, but still magnificent.

As a side note, the ending credits are cute and honestly justify watching the movie anyway, though I am a sucker for stuff like that.

Though the plot of Chopper’s Kingdom on the Island of Strange Animals is lacking, strong character interactions and entertaining fight scenes almost eclipse it and make this movie worth watching. My overall rating for it would be much higher if the plot was even the slightest bit stronger.

I know that only few people will read this, as One Piece is one of those shows a lot of anime watchers refuse to watch due to its length but here I go anyway. However, the movie is just 55 minutes long and you can watch it if you have seen/read at least until Drum Island arc, when Tony Tony Chopper joins the crew.


In this review I will talk about One Piece 3rd movie and first of all, I have to say that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE One Piece, but this film just pissed me off. This morning I decided to watch the first OP film ... and I enjoyed it a lot, so I binged two more. I just hope it doesnt keep getting worse, as I plan to watch them all.


So the movie starts the same way the other two did: The mujiwaras go after a treasure (what?) and they end up helping the good people defeating the bad guys. I have zero complainments about that, its a long running shonen movie so I didnt expect Toei to surprise me in that aspect. Then, why am I that triggered if I didnt expect anything from Toei? Well, lets talk about it.

The film's MC is supposed to be Chopper, as he is isolated from the crew and he is proclaimed as the king of the animal island. Then, why does he end up in a second place? Does every OP story arc - or movie - need the monster trio to have a fight?
Toei missed a great opportunity to develop Chopper and they didnt take advantage of it. But if you think a little bit about it... Chopper DID receive a development in this movie but, does it make sense?

In Drum Island, we meet Tony Tony Chopper, a timid reindeer with self-esteem issues, that keep being a coward until Arabasta arc, when he gets developed after watching Ussop suffering. So, if this film takes place after Drum Island (remember that this arc is part of the Arabasta saga, but occurs before the Arabasta arc) why does he overcome his personal problems dealing with the villains? It just doesnt make sense in the OP timeline (well, only few things in this series does make sense).

I love Chopper, but if you are going to let him behind after putting his name in the fucking title and you wont respect the canon timeline, I dont want him to be the "protagonist". Just fuck you Toei.


Early OP villains arent the best of the show, but the enemies of the movies are just pathetic. First movie had a nice story and it was related to some canon characters like Woonan and second one at least had some good characters as Borodo. But if you dont have a good story nor charismatic characters, the TRASH villains take more and more importance. Dude just give the guy the violin violin no mi so, at least, he doesnt rely on improvised power-ups.

As I already said, this movie does not have good characters. You have the mujiwaras, your typical OP child with a sad backstory, 2 weird animals that can talk and 3 sad villains. The rest are just animals that doesnt even talk. Trash out of 10 for the characters.


The first thing I noticed when I started this film was: why the fuck are the strawhats shining? are they using lotions now? The art style is so bad it made me cringe for the 10 first minutes of the movie. About the OST, I cant deny that OP soundtrack is amazing, but as a guy that has seen this show twice and that listens to it while studying I can say Im a little bit bored of some pieces.


In conclussion, this is the worst of the 3 first OP movies and I cant believe that something will be worse than this piece of shit. Hey, at least it was funny, they made strawhats interactions believable.

As always, I find myself losing time in MAL in exam time, I hope that some of you made it to the end. Peace!