Digimon: The Movie (2000) – DVD

***/**** Image A Sound A
screenplay by Jeff Nimoy & Bob Buchnolz
directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, Mamoru Hosoda

At 10 years old, Sam Jonasson is FILM FREAK CENTRAL‘s youngest contributor yet. (Unless we’re talking mental ages.) Knowing the lad is a cartoon junkie, I thought Digimon: The Movie would be right up his alley. Sam squeezed in this report on the disc between homework and architectural–Lego–pursuits.-Ed.

by Sam Jonasson Digimon: The Movie is actually two movies in one: the first movie is about the first season of Digidestines and the second movie is the second season of the TV show, which is on lots of kids channels. You would need good eyes and at least a vague idea of Digimon to understand it. A Digimon is an imaginary creature (animal or human) with one single type of attack (besides things like hitting and biting) who can Digivolve into a stronger and bigger Digimon who has one new attack type. Sometimes, the stronger has two attack types. Digimon are born out of an egg and live in the Digital world, which is parallel to ours. Some Digimon warp or Armor-Digivolve, which means they skip a level or two. Evil Digimon usually take a longer time to Digivolve.

Digimon: The Movie is a complex movie for adults and kids who like fast action and a good story. At the end of both parts you’ll be on the edge of your seat. At each end the movie doesn’t take place in the Digimon world. For the first 15 minutes Kari, one of the Digidestined, explains how they became the Digidestined. The first movie is about a Digimon eating Internet data very fast and how the Digidestined stop him.

The second movie and the new Digidestinies is about Willis, who is also one of the Digidestined. He has twin Digimon, Cocomon and Terramon. In the first movie Cocomon gets attacked by a virus and eats part of the Internet. In the second he is back as a new character but with the same mind. His evolved form sends them back in time and then lets two of the Digimon inside his body to destroy the virus.

There’s very good animation, espescially when Diaboramon multiplies himself on the Internet and when Cocomon opens his mouth to swallow Rapidmon and Magnetomon. The movie is about 83 minutes long with cool Dolby Digital sound. (5.1 -Ed.) The animation is pretty even with Disney. The sound effects are very nice. In the special features the music video by LEN is not about Digimon but it’s actually about “Kids in America” and there’s also a trailer which is the same as the TV commercial.

I wouldn’t recommended this movie for kids between 4 and 7 years old because it might be too scary. Kids who are younger wouldn’t understand much of it so they wouldn’t be scared. Most girls would like this movie because some of the heroes are girls and some of the Digimons are girls too although some of them only appear once or twice in both movies. The part when Metalgarurumon and Wargraymon Digivolve together to form Omnimon is pretty interesting. There is comedy and even some scenes where a Digimon fan would feel proud. Weird things tend to happen in Digimon: The Movie. The moment you think the characters are relaxing something crazy happens.

For cooks, here’s a tip: never use any of the recipes Tai’s mother uses (like potato juice and lima bean cookies).

83 minutes; PG; 1.33:1; English DD 5.1, English Dolby Surround; CC; English subtitles; DVD-5; Region One; Fox