Pokémon: The First Movie (1998)

I'm going to be upfront with you: I cried at a Pokémon film. Again. As a grown adult. And I have absolutely no regrets about it.

The first time I saw Pokémon: The First Movie, I was nine years old, sitting in a cinema with my eyes wide open like I was witnessing something genuinely profound. And to nine-year-old me, it was. Years later, I got to do something I hadn't quite anticipated: sit down and watch it with my own nine-year-old daughter. Same age, same film, different generation. And here's the thing that surprised me. It still worked. Not perfectly, not without its rough edges showing, but it worked in the ways that actually matter.

Let's be honest about what this film is, though. The plot is essentially "gods fight." There's a genetically engineered Pokémon with a god complex, there's a legendary creature who exists to oppose it, and a load of kids get caught in the middle. It's goofy. It's cheesy. There are moments where the dialogue is so on-the-nose about its own moral message that you half expect a character to turn to the camera and wink. The storytelling isn't exactly subtle, and if you come to this as a cynical adult with no prior attachment to the franchise, you might find it a fairly thin experience.

But here's where I'll push back on my own cynicism, because the animation is genuinely bright and bold in a way that still pops. There's a real visual energy to it, especially in the battle sequences, where the colours crash against each other with real impact. And the score, particularly when the film decides it's time for you to feel something, does exactly what it sets out to do. It earns its emotional moments through sheer commitment.

And then there's that scene. You know the one. Ash turns to stone. His Pikachu tries desperately to bring him back. Every Pokémon on the battlefield stops fighting and weeps. I've seen it multiple times across two decades, and I will tell you now, my eyes were not dry. My daughter looked over at me and I had to do that thing where you pretend you were just rubbing your face. She wasn't fooled. She was also crying. It's pure, undiluted emotional manipulation, yes, but it's effective emotional manipulation, and I think there's a difference worth acknowledging. The film earns that moment because it's spent its entire runtime building up the bond between these creatures and the people who love them. When it pays off, it pays off hard.

It reminded me a little of the experience of watching anime that genuinely commits to its emotional register without apology. I reviewed Perfect Blue (1997) not long ago, a very different beast obviously, but there's something in the best Japanese animation of that era that trusts its audience to feel things fully, without ironic distance. Pokémon: The First Movie is nowhere near that level of craft or complexity, but it shares that willingness to go for it emotionally.

Is it a great film by any objective measure? No, probably not. The villain's motivation is a bit muddled, the resolution comes quickly, and some of the side characters exist purely to fill seats. But a milestone? Absolutely. For an entire generation, this was the film. The one you begged your parents to take you to, the one where you got a free holographic card at the door, the one that felt like your whole childhood had been given a cinema screen.

Showing it to my daughter felt like passing something on. Not just a film, but a memory, a feeling, a little piece of what it meant to be a kid who loved these daft little creatures. And she got it. She felt it. That's not nothing.

Three and a half stars. Not a masterpiece, but a genuine milestone, and a rite of passage worth sharing with the next generation.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 1998  | Watched: 2025-07-18

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Pokémon Amazon Channel
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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