The – get this – 20th feature-length promotional tool for the media-spanning collectibles phenomenon turns out to be a reboot of the entire series. We are returned to the very first meeting between 10-year-old everykid Ash and totemic cat-bug-baby creature Pikachu, thereby allowing the rules of the game to be explained to a whole new generation with disposable income to squander.
As rebranding exercises cinemagoers are expected to underwrite go, I Choose You! forms a modest improvement on those headachy spinoffs that bedevilled the world around the last millennium. Though the Poké-matches rely on generic, TV-standard animation and become repetitive, occasional flourishes (some black-and-white backstory, a computer-assisted bad dream) suggest that those responsible may some day make art once they’re done bolstering a leisure conglomerate’s stock options.
Beyond these sidebars, it’s business as usual. The new movie preserves
that Hello Kitty-ish cuteness built into the franchise from the get-go, whether in Pikachu’s chittering or the message about looking after your pocket monsters (unlike those Team Rocket nogoodniks). However, you don’t have to look too long and hard to spot the insidious corporate-think slipped in alongside it. “Being a second late for a Pokémon can be life-changing,” lectures one father figure – so, you know, consume early and often, kids. Even the quest New Ash is sent on points towards an ungainly winged collectible, the questionably named Ho-Oh, which is surely now appearing in very limited packs of trading cards.
One of Ash’s contemporaries describes his encounter with this rainbow-hued bird as “a priceless experience”. Two decades’ worth of vanished, irretrievable pocket money would say otherwise.
