One Piece Movie 03: Chinjuu-jima no Chopper Oukoku

I'm surprised by the general negative reaction to this one. I can see that it disregards the canon timeline and just goes with the silliness while even including potential spoilers. But it's still the silliness that is always part of One Piece with the adventure spirit and the friendship among the crew always in the forefront. It's not the best but still maintains the spirit of the anime in some form and I was smiling throughout it. But it is pretty clear that this was not part of the vision of the mangaka and is more or less a short filler movie.

I enjoyed this one. It was a little more of what I was hoping for from these standalone, mini adventure movies. It does start off with one of the things I complained about with the first two-- that it literally just throws you into the adventure the second the movie starts... (I just feel like it would flow a little bit better if they eased into it. Like, 30 seconds of just a scene of everyday life aboard the ship before Nami pulls out the map or something. That's all I'm asking.)

But this one was a lot more fun. And had a specific focus. ... It's the movie meant to be watched right after Chopper joins the crew, so it felt really fitting that it was focused on Chopper. I think it would be pretty cool if they did something like this for all the new characters who get introduced.

This movie was subpar. The best thing I can say about it was that it had really vibrant colors. The lighting and bold color scheme made every scene feel reminiscent of a 90s toon. From the rich reds to the deep purples, this movie feels like the embodiment of a lively summer day. The lighting shifts dramatically through the movie, which transforms the scenes of the movie into like paintings. Even with the already colorful tone of anime and cartoons, this one stands apart. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for sunset colors.

It was cool that Chopper got a spotlight story. The supporting cast of ... animals and the little kid were kinda annoying though. Anyway, this movie got a bit darker than I expected. People get severely beat up. Even chopper and the little kid get walloped. Though I was disappointed that a lot of the fights were resolved by "willpower" rather than any tactics or anything creative. That's kinda par for the course with one piece.

The main villain always spouting off his plans was pretty funny. I always like the sillier one piece villains

The ED was bomb though. Good music.