Pokémon 3: The Movie-Spell of the Unown (2000) Review

Pokémon 3: The Movie-Spell of the Unown (2000)

Pokémon 3 follows Ash Ketchum, who must rescue his mother after she was kidnapped by a little girl, who has turned a little town into her own fantasy illusion with the help of the legendary Pokémon Entei. 

In my youth, Pokémon 3 held a special place in my heart, probably for its emotionally packed backend or it’s excellent use of Pokémon like Charizard to further the story, but nonetheless, something about it resonated with me. Upon revisiting, while it’s certainly much more childish (to be expected, it’s a kids show) and fantastical, there is still a core theme of absent parents and wanting to fill that void at whatever the cost that still gets to me as an adult. Pretty much WandaVision 21 years before the fact, this third entry into the Pokémon movie universe is all about a little girl, Molly, who creates a magical world in Greenville in order to deal with the grief of her father’s disappearance, at the very hands of the Unown who tap into Molly’s imagination to create such a fantasy world. 

Like I mentioned above, Molly’s plight, at least at the beginning is a bit too childish for my tastes, coming off pretty selfish and silly, but realistically that’s grief in it’s purest form. Making Ash’s mission to rescue his mother all the more important, as he must also rescue Molly from her own grief, which threatens to destroy all of Greenville and with it, Ash and his friends. 

We get a load of series mainstays, starring Dan Green, Eric Stuart, Rachael Lillis, Ikue Ôtani, Amy Burnbaum, and Veronica Taylor. Taylor, as usual, throws so much emotion and heart into Ash, but I was particularly drawn to newcomers Green and Burnbaum, as they bring Entei and Molly to life with such a tortured innocence and protective quality that you can’t help but feel for them, even as the “antagonists” in this story. 

Pokémon 3: The Movie, directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, isn’t nearly as impactful to me now as in my youth, but its central message on overcoming grief before it consumes you and all you love is nevertheless an important and interestingly deep one, especially for a show about little animals with powers. 

6.1/10