Of course you're going to take your kid to see Pokemon The Movie 2000. You wouldn't deprive your kid of the experience, would you? Hey, you meanie, stifle that thought.

Once you realize you have to go, you might as well make the best of it by turning the flick into one of those magic parental moments: a learning experience. Here's how.

The plot of the main film (there's a short film beforehand) is simple, and not particularly different from most recent James Bond movies. In a nutshell, a bad guy wants to capture a powerful undersea Pokemon. 

To lure it out of the ocean, he captures two other powerful ones whose absence causes the world's weather to go haywire. The Pokemon trainer Ash must save the planet by freeing these force-of-nature Pokemon from captivity.

The filmmakers don't make the effort to twist this plot into an environmental message. That's where you come in.

Start outside the cinema with the movie's poster, which reads, "This summer, one person can make all the difference." Ask your kid if he or she can make all the difference in saving the planet. Don't press it. Just plant the seed.

Then, on the way home, explain how vulnerable the world's weather really is to small changes in the environment. For example, explain how volcanic eruptions, like the one in Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883, affect weather around the world by spreading a layer of ash in the air, cooling temperatures and damaging crops and even causing famine. Throw in that word "ash" and the kid will listen to anything.

You can segue from that into a talk about how the plastic rings that hold a 6-pack of soda can choke a seabird, and how maybe having fewer seabirds will lead to more or fewer of some other kind of animal. Or talk about how conserving paper might save a few trees that produce oxygen. Play it by ear.

The point is, whether the Pokemon creators intended it or not, the film is ripe for your re-interpretation on how your kid can make all the difference in saving the planet. Now that's $8.50 (plus popcorn, soda, candy and parking) well spent.