by Lancelot on 10/6/2001
 
Wow. I bet you thought you'd never read an admittedly good review for the musical underscore of a Pokemon movie. Ah, well -- if somebody's going to write something about it, it might as well be something good.

It's an animated movie score. It's a subject that doesn't quite take itself seriously, but still tries to tell a story with a bit of magic. That magic comes across quite nicely in the music, in a flute melody representing Mew. A darker, more ominous theme signals Mewtwo's theme (it's not the Imperial March, sure enough, but it's dark enough without striking terror into the hearts of 10-year-olds everywhere). There is a pleasant, serviciable "flying" theme in "Dragonite Takes Flight." There's also a touch of bittersweet emotion(!) in "Tears of Life," a surprisingly sad moment for a Pokemon cartoon.

Generally, most folks will probably overlook this one, simply based on the fact that it deals with hyperactive, Japanese gremlins that are genetically ambiguous. Well, every generation's gotta have their pop-culture anime square filled, from Speed Racer, Voltron, Transformers, and now Pokemon. We'll survive this phase as we survived those that came before... but if you like cartoons and animation scores, and you're looking for something unique, touching, and not too heavy, this is a pretty good investment.