Movie Stats:

Japanese Movie #3:  "Kesshou Tou no Teiou"

("Emperor of the Crystal Tower")

American Movie #3:  "Spell of the Unown"
Japanese Air Date:  July 8th, 2000
American Air Date:  April 6th, 2001
Important Characters:  Mii (Molly), Shurii-Hakase (Professor Spencer Hale), Rin (Lisa), Jon (Schuyler)
Important Places:  Green Field (Green Field)

Mii is a little girl who loves her father very much.  After he mysteriously vanishes while researching the pokemon Unown, Mii becomes very lonely and begins to wish for her parents to come back.  Mii finds some artifacts left over from her father's research, and their power summons the mythical pokemon Entei!  Entei appears to grant Mii's wish, and so it takes on the role of Mii's father.  In addition, the mansion and the area surrounding it begin to become overgrown with crystal!  Mii is happy with having a father figure again, but she still yearns for a mother.  So Entei kidnaps the first mother he sees, and that woman happens to be Satoshi's mother!  Satoshi runs after her mother, climbing the mansion's huge towers in order to reach the top.  Mii interrupts the group on several occasions, challenging the trainers to pokemon battles.  Satoshi finally manages to reach the top, where he is reunited with his mother and meets the real Mii.  Entei soon bursts onto the scene and proves itself to be much more powerful than any of Satoshi's pokemon until his old pokemon Lizardon appears!  With the giant lizard's help, Entei is able to be held off until Mii comes to the realization that the outcome of her wish is wrong.  Entei soon sees the light and declares that the only way to make the crystals disappear is to defeat the Unown.  After a difficult struggle, Entei is able to blast the Unown and Green Field is restored.  Satoshi-tachi rejoice after a job well-done while Mii's father reappears in the ruins...

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Thoughts
Out of the first three movies, the third one is my favorite.  I feel that the plot is held together better than it is in the first two movies, and the characters are just a lot more interesting.  I mean, the first movie couldn't really stand on its own, and the audience had to have listened to the CD Drama in order to get the full effect of the film.  The second movie was too straightforward, giving the viewer absolutely no surprises.  The third movie really delivers in all the areas that the first two failed to.  As far as the human characters go, Mii is a lot more interesting than the humans in the other two movies.  Mii, a little girl who's sad at the loss of her parents, is a heck of a lot more interesting than the second movie's human (Jirarudan), who starts collecting powerful pokemon because he found a card somewhere.  Not very feasible, huh?  As far as the pokemon go, Entei is a lot more interesting than Myuutwo, Lugia, or the three legendary birds.  Myuutwo starts out as an interesting character, but gets pretty lame when he just abruptly decides that what he's doing is wrong.  And Lugia was just kind of there, without much of a real purpose other than promoting the sales of Pokemon Gold/Silver.   I think of the three movies so far, Entei was the most interesting "feature" pokemon.

There are other reasons I like this movie.  The animation is really well-done, and the computer animation used throughout doesn't look tacky or cheap at all.  And I like the fact that the Rocket-Dan aren't in this movie that much *ducks*.  I mean , do we really need to see Musashi, Kojirou, and Nyasu acting out of character for a third time?  At least in this movie, their motivation from the start to finish (getting the treasure in the crystal tower) remains the same.  Sure, the Rocket-Dan do the cheesy "let's save Satoshi-tachi" thing in this movie, but at least it's not like the second movie, where they go out of their way several times to help Satoshi.

As far as the dubbing goes, this is the best-done movie yet.  I really don't have much to say about it at all.  The script, for once, is actually a translation, and just about every line of dialogue (except anything Team Rocket says--their part is completely re-written, just like in the other two movies) is faithfully translated.  It's a really good thing they did, because the movie wouldn't make any sense at all if it was rewritten the way the other two were.  The voices for the new characters are pretty decent, but it's still kinda weird to hear the dub Mewtwo talking through Entei. 

I used the VHS version to compare this movie, and this movie has the same cropping problem that the second movie did (you know, the whole "letterbox" and "non-letterbox" thing).  When Molly is using the tiles to spell out the words "papa," "mama," and "me," you can't see half the words because they're cropped off the side on the American dub.  Also interesting is that the VHS has a few commercials before the feature starts, and one of them is of the Kids' WB! fall 2001 block.  And you know what's funny?  Almost all of those shows have been canceled!  Cubix, R.L. Stine's The Nightmare Room, and The Mummy were all taken off the network a long time ago.  Come to think of it, Kids' WB! has a lot of shows that are canned early...

The Unown keep their Japanese voice. 

Music Edit
Just like the other two movies, the third movie has its soundtrack completely redone for the American dub.  After seeing the mini-movie, you kinda get hopeful that they left the music for the main feature alone, but they didn't.  And I don't think I have to tell you that the opening theme ("OK!") was changed for the dub, do I?

Dialogue Edit
4Kids loves to dumb down their movies.  This is said when Mii's playing with her father's Unown blocks:

Molly:  "They look...just like letters.  I can spell our names with the Unown.  Papa...and Mama...they're together with me."

No!  Really!?  Is that what she's doing!?  I mean really, did 4Kids feel it was absolutely necessary for Molly to explain what she was doing?  It's plain enough without her pointless ramblings.  In the original, she's not really saying anything at all...the only thing she really says is that she misses her "papa."  Way to ruin a scene, 4Kids!

Dialogue Edit
As the Unown appear and start crystallizing Green Field, Mii picks up the book that her father would read her stories from.  She looks sadly at the picture of Entei, says "Papa...," and then right as her eyes start to water says "Please come back to me."  Very sad, very emotional.

Meanwhile, the dub has Molly pick up the book while remembering what her father said (about how he's like an Entei).  By adding this useless talking to fill space, 4Kids really ruins the scene.  What's wrong with having the character appear on-screen without saying anything?  Is there some rule that when a character's face is on the screen, SOMEONE has to be talking?!?!

Title Screen
The title screen for this movie was actually done well for the dub!  In fact, I'd almost say that it looked better than the original title screen.  4Kids seems to have gotten better with making CGI (I'm sure their work with Cubix is the reason for that) because the title screen looks really good.  Good job!

Scene Shift--20 seconds
4Kids changed the order of one of the scenes at the end of the movie (wow, I got from the title screen to the end of the movie without any changes!?).  In the dub, right as Green Field is returning to normal, we see the windmill return to normal, and then we cut to the ruin from the beginning of the movie  We see a bunch of Unown swarm around, a flash of light appears, and then Professor Hale falls to the ground.  Then we go to the scene of Professor Oak and everyone else driving up to Molly's house. 

Originally, the 20-second scene with Shurii-Hakase isn't shown until the end of the movie, at the beginning of the ending credits (when the voice actors are being listed).  We just see the windmill return to normal, and then we see the sun in the sky and Ookido-Hakase driving up to the house. 

Kevin T. Rodriguez e-mailed me and informed me that the reason the scene was shifted around is revealed in the commentary, available on the DVD (that's what I get for using stupid outdated technology for my comparisons...).  Anyway, here's an excerpt from the e-mail he sent me:

In the commentary track provided on the third DVD Micheal Haigney explained that parent's almost never stay in the theater's during the credit's, in fact he believe's that most people get up ready to leave once they  know the movie is coming to an end.  So he said that he wanted to shift this one scean to at least assure the kids that Proffesor Hale got out of the Unown zone (Or whatever) safe and sound.

Well, at least now we know why the scene was shifted around.  Still, it doesn't make much sense because the scene in question was the very first part of the ending credits, so little kids would be able to see it even if their parents were trying to hurry up and get out of the theatre.  I kinda like the fact that the Pokemon movies tells you what happens to some of the characters during the ending credits, but I can also see 4Kids' point. 

Music Edit
The ending theme is replaced again, but this time we only get one song in the dub--"To Know the Unknown" by Innosense.  I tell ya, it sounds a lot better than having parts of five or six songs playing randomly. 

Final Thoughts
Wow...it was actually a well-done movie.  Hopefully, Miramax will insist that the original Japanese score to the fourth movie be kept and that I'll have nothing to complain about.  I mean really, the music is about the biggest thing wrong with the dub of this movie.  4Kids has gotten a lot better with the Pokemon movies since the first one was released, and I can only hope that they'll keep going the way they're going.

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