First off, I should just say that out of the whole Pokemon franchise, I’m really just a fan of generation one. I mean, I don’t particularly hate the other generations, it’s just that I was already in High School as Pokemon was first airing so, after I attached myself to 151 Pokemon, I really didn’t care to learn of any more.
I came across this DVD accidentally while browsing PlayAsia.com and had no idea it even existed. But enough about that, let’s just get right into this…
This (region 2) DVD has the Japanese version and an uncut English version not seen here in the US. This English version has about 12 minutes more than the version we know of thanks to three (deleted?) scenes that are now spliced into the movie. One of these scenes can actually be seen on the original Pokemon: The First Movie (US) release as an extra. Later, two of these deleted scenes were put on the “MewTwo Strikes Back” (US) DVD release as an extra. But, what exactly were these deleted scenes? Well…
The first scene centered around a group of explorers who found an ancient engraving of Mew, and then finding Mew’s eyelash. This is the clip that popped up as an extra on the Pokemon: The First Movie (US) DVD release as an extra…
The second scene detailed the history of Dr. Fuji and his attempts to clone Mew as well as his daughter who had died as a child. You can see why 4Kids or WB didn’t want this scene in the movie as it’s a bit dark for Pokemon.
The final deleted scene detailed a young Mewtwo’s interaction with clones as well as AmberTwo. Also, this kinda explains how Ash was able to be brought back to life by Pokemon tears later in the movie.
I feel like these scenes needed to be in the movie. They definitely give the film a bit of a darker undertone. But it explains a lot about Mew\Mewtwo, his motives and why he does what he does. I do feel bad for him after seeing these scenes.
I should also mention that this feature is in widescreen as appose to the original (US) DVD release which was in 4:3. This is definitely an upgrade since it originally was intended to be seen in widescreen. I would notice some shots in the US release would look a little cluttered or that some characters would be cut off or cut out of the shot, but that’s not the case anymore…
You can also notice in that shot that the colors are bumped up in the English version. This seems to be a typical practice when distributing kid anime in America. I usually don’t really like when it’s done but, here it doesn’t look that bad. I’ve seen worse. But, like I said before – the widescreen version wins by default just because I can see the damn characters.
So, what else is different in this English version? Well the movie itself has all the Japanese visuals but with the English audio track placed on top of this, so while watching the English version you do get things like the Japanese title card…
…The Japanese credits on the opening and closing…
This isn’t a bad thing. I always rather have the original Japanese title cards and stuff like that even when I’m watching an anime in English. This is probably the only time you’ll get to watch English Pokemon like this (well, unless you buy other “complete edition” movies) but, you know what I mean.
I think that’s all I can say about this particular English version. I could dig into the actual movie and the plot but, I’m sure if you’re reading this you at least have some idea what goes down in this movie.
Next let’s dig into the actual DVD itself. The disc art is pretty basic but still pretty cool looking…
The DVD menu’s are pretty straight forward… if you know Japanese… which I don’t. So, I just had to do click everything until I found out what everything was. The main menu is pretty basic but hey, sometimes basic is alright…
There is a scene selection option under the “MewTwo Strikes Back” and “Pikachu’s Summer Vacation” logos. Those two menu’s at the bottom are language options and extras. The language option is a bit overwhelming if you don’t know Japanese, they just throw so many options at you…
Basically your options are – English, Japanese, English with Japanese subtitles, Japanese with English subtitles as well as 2.0 and 5.1 options for both. A thing about the Japanese version with English subtitles is, they’re not actually a translation of the Japanese version. They’re actually dubtitles, meaning they’re just writing out what the dub is saying. That’s a bit disappointing but hey, to have the Japanese version and English version on the same disc is still pretty awesome so, I won’t fuss about it but, yea…
The other button under the “language option” is extras…
The extras are three videos. Two of the videos are trailers for the movie, one is the Japanese version and the other is the American version. The other video is a little odd. They’re pretty generous size samples from every song in the American soundtrack. There are songs that actually had videos but for those that didn’t they just play some clips from the movie during the song.
The bottom line: this is a great release. Sure it has it’s flaws… well, really just one flaw and that’s the dubtitles but, to actually have the English version the way it’s presented here is a huge plus. The way it’s laid out in this version almost makes it feel like a real anime movie and not just a Pokemon movie trying to peddle it’s merchandise to kids. Throw in the Japanese version and you have an awesome release. You’ll also be happy to hear that this is a line of DVDs meaning there are other “complete edition” Pokemon movies out there with the English and Japanese audio!