Directors Kunihiko Yuyama and Jim Malone pull off a few striking visual effects. But it's still a Pokemon movie.
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05/16/03
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Pokemon - Heroes: The Movie (2003)
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Reviews Counted:36
Fresh:6
Rotten:30
Average Rating:3.6/10
Consensus: This series isn't getting any better.
Theatrical Release:May 16, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $663,187
Synopsis: The fifth installment of the phenomenally successful Pokémon series, whose Japanese title literally translates as "Guardian Spirits of the Water Capital: Latias and Latios," takes place in a... [More]
Starring: Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, Rachel Lillis, Maddie Blaustein
Director: Jim Malone, Kunihiko Yuyama
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Reviews for Pokemon - Heroes: The Movie
Top CriticThe new characters' voices are even more grating and annoying than in previous installments, and some of the animation seems downright archaic.
05/23/03
It's one of those little ironies that as interest has flagged in the animated Pokémon movie franchise, the scripts have actually gotten better.
05/15/03
Top CriticJudged purely as a movie for young children (10 and under, tops), this latest feature spinoff from the card-game, toy and TV-animation empire is, surprisingly, not bad.
05/14/03
Those less obsessed with the colorful creatures will squirm as the the uninspired story -- which could have easily been condensed into a half-hour series episode -- unfolds over the course of 80 long minutes.
05/15/03
The story's better but there's still the animal cruelty that's disturbing - the trainers have Pokémon battles that resemble 'cockfights for kids' and the wild Pokémon are kept captive in pocketsize PokéBalls when they are not being used for entertainment.
05/15/03
The film's traditional cel animation seems to have reverted back to the lackluster standard of television-quality cartoons.
05/15/03
Those who haven't fallen under the Pokémon spell will find little here to convert them.
05/17/03
There are, alas, the requisite new characters and this round it’s a pair of winged critters with high-pitched grating ‘voices’ that sound most awfully like Mr. Bill from Saturday Night Live.
06/23/03
You'd have to classify Pokemon Heroes as an action movie, but with the static long shots and inert faces, it's more like an inaction movie.
05/16/03
The pied piper of shameless kiddie-marketing strikes for the fifth time in as many years.
05/13/03
Top CriticWith the same vocal talent and weak combination of computer and hand-drawn animation, the film is about on par with the previous entries in the series.
05/16/03
A tedious, unimaginative affair.
05/16/03
Top CriticThe same old grab for the wallet.
05/16/03
Top Critic[I]t seems these things are being made and released by rote. If no one went, would the next one come out anyway?
01/04/04
If you still have Pokémon fans at your house, I suppose there's no harm in taking them to see this movie; but with Pixar's Finding Nemo set to open in a couple of weeks, surely you can find something better to do this weekend.
05/16/03
Having settled into a formula of maximum action and minimal whimsy for its battery of feature releases, the makers of Pokemon Heroes: Latios & Latias barely raise a ripple as they tread water in this fifth entry.
05/15/03
Top CriticSubjecting kids to such shoddy junk when they could be watching `Spirited Away' or `Finding Nemo' should count as cinematic child abuse.
05/15/03
Surely a form of child abuse.
05/16/03
Top CriticIt looks cheap and feels slapped together.
05/15/03
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