by J. M. Alcala, staff writer, Inside AX- Anime Expo
As the thirteenth entry in the long-successful Pokémon movie franchise, Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions follows Ash, Pikachu and their friends in latest adventure to discover the secret of Zoroark.
The movie starts out with our familiar friends watching a sporting event at a Pokémon center; the event is the Baccer World Cup, which is basically soccer and basketball combined. While watching the match, Ash and his friends spot a team made up of three Legendary Pokémon: Entei, Suicune and Raikou. Inspired by the play of the three Legendary Pokémon, Ash and his friends decide to journey to Crown City, where the World Cup is being held.
While Ash and company make the journey to Crown City, hundreds of miles in the air, a Zoroark is fast asleep in a large airplane. While asleep, a small Zorua falls from Zoroark’s furry mane, causing her to wake up and and look over the little one. Before she can tend to her son, the door to the room where Zoroark and Zorua are resting opens to reveal Grings Kodai and his assistant Rowena. Immediately on the defensive, Zoroark tries to defend her son but Kodai is one step ahead as he unleashes Entei, Raikou and Suicune to subdue Zoroark. Zoroark tries to defend herself and Zorua by unleashing her illusion attack, which causes Zoroark to take the form of Raikou and summons several lightning clouds; unfortunately, Kodai and Rowena managed to see past the illusions and have Zorua taken from Zoroark to force her to perform Kodai’s wishes. As Zoroark unwillingly agrees, Zorua manages to escape from his captors and tries to head back to Zoroark but instead, the little Pokémon manages to escape from the plane completely.
Inadvertently ending up in Ash’s company, Zorua convinces the group to help him free his ‘Meema’, otherwise known as the Zoroark in Kodai’s control, to which Ash, Brock and Dawn agree to completely. At the same time, Celebi has made its appearance in Crown City, marking its first appearance in twenty years after the city itself was decimated due to a strange event. While learning of Celebi’s appearance, Kodai uses Zoroark’s powers of illusion to fool the people of Crown City into thinking that Raikou, Entei and Suicune are raging havoc on the city so that the people evacuate – which they do – leaving Kodai to search for not only Celebi, but also the portal in which Celebi travels. Wanting to use the portal for his own gain, Kodai begins to search the city for the portal, which is not only intact, but also free of nearly all of the city’s inhabitants.
Once Ash and friends make it to Crown City’s borders, they find that they cannot enter due to the ‘attack’ of the three Legendaries but they meet Karl, a reporter and citizen of Crown City. Using the city’s old tunnels, the group enters Crown City only to find that it not under attack nor devastated by the rouge Pokémon. Meeting up with Karl’s grandfather and family friend, the group of friends try to find Zoroark (at Zorua’s insistence) while also searching for Celebi. Eventually, Ash and friends learn of Kodai’s true intentions and plan to stop him, and with a bit of unexpected help, they manage to do so while also reuniting Zorua with Zoroark.
Packaging for the DVD is simple, just the DVD itself and no inserts. There are subtitles, but only English is available as both spoken language and in subtitles.
Pros:
- It’s the same Pokémon cartoon cast from the Diamond & Pearl run that fans have come to love
- Animation is clean and production is better than the regular television episodes
- Nice use of CG, which is used quite effectively for powers mostly
- Good introduction of Zoroark, Zorua and the three Legendary Pokémon
Cons:
- Feels like an overly-long episode
- Packaging is plain and nothing really special
- Lack of dual audio, despite there being English subtitles
- Story’s a bit too melodramatic
Tags: Pokemon, Pokémon: Zoroark- Master of Illusions, review
