Neil Young's Film Lounge

A great film… It is one of the most visually inventive films I have ever seen… Nature is rendered majestically… The artistry is masterful… A great achievement and one of the best films of the year.

This is typical of the ecstatic critical reception Film A has received in the USA, as well as in the other countries round the world in which it has been shown. Another verdict, this time from Desson Howe of the Washington Post:

Visual brilliance… in terms of animation, the details are remarkable… amazingly intense and vivid battles… The movie’s shimmering, eerily realistic depiction of water rendered me awestruck… A royal treat.

I know you have accessed Jigsaw Lounge to read my views, not those of American print critics, and I wouldn’t normally quote such chunks of another writer’s text, but there are special reasons in this case, so stick with it.

Let’s turn to Film B. Critical reaction : less than ecstatic. Roger Ebert, again, provides a representative example of how it went down in the USA:

It’s eye candy. The story seems very thin… there is no level at which it enriches a young viewer, by encouraging thinking or observation. It’s just a sound-and-light show.

The Post‘s reviewer (Mark Jenkins this time), meanwhile, was even more scathing:

Listless… dull, crudely animated… Pokemon is to Princess Mononoke what Bob Dylan is to Baby Spice.

Oops. Well, there we go, now you know. Film A is Princess Mononoke and Film B is Pokemon : The First Movie, the subject of this review, and a film which I have not yet seen. I haven’t seen Princess Mononoke either – and you’d be forgiven for never having heard of it. There, of course, is the rub.

During the week in which Pokemon was splashed out onto hundreds of British screens, Buena Vista decided that there would be no UK release of Princess Mononoke. This is why I’m having to quote from those American critics. I’d love to be able to provide a review of Mononoke, but until the video or DVD release – and the small screen, I think I can safely predict, will not be the best place to catch the genius of legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki – the only example of Japanese animation readily visible in this country will be the antics of Ash Ketchum, Pikachu and Mewtwo. To echo the Post‘s review, it’s like visiting your local Virgin megastore and being told that, while Bob Dylan’s brand new release isn’t deemed commercial enough to be sold to the British public, they’ve just taken delivery of the brand new CD single from Emma Bunton. Perhaps that will do, hmm?

So I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m unable to bring myself to endure Pokemon, when I know what we could and should be seeing instead. I can, however, relay the opinion of my eight-year-old nephew Sean Young, of Worcester, an avid Pokemon trainer and aficionado who queued at his local Odeon in Worcester to be among the first to see Pokemon : The First Movie.

“Well, Sean, how did you like the film?”, I asked.
“Ouuuaaaaaaagh!!” Came the reply. It did not sound like a recommendation.