Everyone remembers Pokémon the First Movie, right? It was a 1998 classic that saw many a promotion, notable among them were golden collectible "cards" as a fast food toy, as well as the official Mew trading card if they went to the theater day one of it's release. But I'm not talking about that per say, as this was remade as a Netflix exclusive.
To those who made have saw it before, the premise is nothing new, but for those new to the series' works or too lazy to look back on the 90s classic, I got you covered. The film centers around what was back then the final 2 entries of the Pokedex roster. The first among them was the mysterious #151 - Mew: a nimble and playful Psychic-type Pokemon that's even more of a wild card that Eevee, with the uncanny ability to learn every TM and HM (Technical and Hidden Machine) moves at least for that generation. After pursuing this creature, Professor Fuji found a sample and extracted it, creating a clone of it which became its own entity: #150 - Mewtwo. Technically, it IS of anime canon, and the movie opened insight as two why, and its connection to not only the overall demeanor of Mewtwo, but more specifically its relation to the movie's plot.
Here's some small trivia: in the anime's Indigo League (or Kanto League) arc, Gary faced Giovanni for the Earth Badge, but his cockiness getting the better of him, he was handed the loss by Giovanni, who was not only the evasive Viridian City Gym Leader, but also the leader of the terrorist organization Team Rocket. At his command was an armored creature impossible to get a reading on. THAT was Mewtwo's canonical appearance in the anime, as after Fuji's team created it, but its disdain from being seen as only a project and not its own entity, Mewtwo rains carnage to both the lab and the scientists in it. The power shown stokes the interest of Giovanni, and under the guise of helping Mewtwo control its psychic powers, it donned the armor that instead made Mewtwo a tool for him. Fed up with the betrayals and deceptions, born from anger is a war launched to gain vengeance of humanity, and using New Island, the place of its birth, he invites trainer after trainer for a chance to battle the "world's greatest Pokemon trainer", one such invitation reaching the hands of Ash Ketchum. What seems to be a battle for the best is instead a means to extract revenge against the humans that made it, and ultimately, a battle for its own existence, to rise above a mere clone of Mew!
The film was done in entirely CGI this time around, likely borrowing a few elements from the current design style of the Generation 8 games. Despite this, it was done by OLM, Inc. Not only were they the studio behind the original Mewtwo Strikes Back, but also many other movies in the franchise as well as the anime itself (under 3 different teams). Not everything is the same, however, as given the many yeas it's been between the two, there are different vocals despite much of the dialogue being intact. While Veronica Taylor voiced Ash Ketchum in the first 8 seasons, plus the first movie and others, MSB: Evolution saw this role done by current voice of Ash, Sara Natochenny. In the anime, not much is under her belt beyonf Pokemon and two spots under the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, but she has also lent her voice to ash in a number of series- related movies, beginning from 2006's The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon DVD Redub. Speaking of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the all-too-familiar Dan Green, who voiced both the titular hero Yugi and his ancient spirit turned alter ego in the series, lent his voice for Mewtwo in 2000 with the direct sequel Mewtwo Returns, and reprises his role that also replaced the original VA Jay Goede, who was credited as Philip Bartlett back then.
The film was made and released theatrically in 2019 overseas, but we didn't get it until the following year here in the states, sneak viewing in LA side. What's more, this became one of those direct to digital releases, appearing as a Netflix Original, and only appearing there officially. It was also done in good timing for Pokemon Day 2020 (February 27th), though this was also, sadly, a month after COVID-19 swept the states, likely prompting this release method. The remake was teased at the end of 2018's feature Pokemon: The Power of Us. It marks the first time the Pokemon Company made a movie release on the streaming service themselves, as by that time, they already had Pokemon TV, and both Indigo League and Sun & Moon series were both on Netflix after their anime TV runs.
While I didn't expect much to change, I do love the delivery by Dan Green in here. Compared to Jay Goede, Green's Mewtwo comes of as a tad more sinister, even if his lines are Yami Yugi-esque, only more maniacal. The animations for the moves, in particular Mew's and Mewtwo's, are also a notch up from before, even if in Mewtwo's case, it comes off as a slightly edited version of a Shadow Ball, a Generation 2 Ghost-type move that Mewtwo uses in the Super Smash Bros. series of games. The execution is also similar in that regard. As I mentioned before, design elements may have been taken from the current generation of games, but to be more accurate, after looking at the models of Jessie, James, Misty and Brock, it's more apt to say that the design was taken from what was done for Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee. The movie is a little over 1 1/2 hours long, and unlike the original, there is no feature before or after the film. But it wasn't exempt from goodies outside of it, as over in Japan, the theatrical release was commemorated by an event Mewtwo for the current games, Pokemon Sun and Shield, and in global presence, in the augmented reality game Pokemon Go, a Tier 5 raid was launched with the Team Rocket-armored Mewtwo as the target.
Why they felt the need to call it Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION is a head scratcher, as despite the very subtle differences, it's essentially a copy and paste of the original, just 3D this time... but I suppose that in itself isn't a bad thing. I'll give it a 7 of 10, as it was just as enjoyable as before... maybe SLIGHTLY better,
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