My trek back through the old Pokémon anime, along with the accompanying films, thunders ever onward. My son and I have watched the first two seasons of the anime, as well as the first two films. We're currently watching Season 3 of the anime, which is the first chapter of the Johto leg of Ash's journey. Based on the pace that we blew through the prior seasons and movies, I figured we would've been past this point in the story by now, but I don't force my son to watch it, I just go off of when he's in the mood for it. He's been on his Curious George kick lately, as well as recently falling in love with Power Rangers and Superman: The Animated Series, so Pokémon isn't even really on his mind. But, I did have him sit down and watch Pokémon 3: The Movie with me the other day, as it was free on YouTube and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to see it without needing to rent the movie.
Spell of the Unown is a really fascinating film. I jokingly refer to this as "the experimental Pokémon film." Where the first film took some big, ambitious swings with an interesting, yet misguided story about violence and agency, those attempts largely fell flat and felt clumsy. The second movie eschewed attempts at any sort of a message, and just went all in on an action-adventure story, which I think worked better, yet still left a lot to be desired. Pokemon 3 took another stab at containing a heavier theme, and while the movie is far from perfect, it mostly succeeded in its attempt to carry a plot with slightly more emotional heft. The plot is centered around dark themes like childhood trauma, and the human psyche's response to that. It had been probably twenty years since I had last seen seen this movie, but with the previous two Pokémon films in my recent memory, I came away from Pokémon 3 pleasantly surprised at the relatively mature, slightly more sophisticated story.
The story is about a young girl named Molly, who lives with her father Professor Spencer Hale, a researcher of the mysterious Pokémon known as Unown. Hale and his assistant Skyler discover some ruins that have ties to the Unown, and Hale is sucked into some sort of pocket dimension, leaving Molly completely alone. She finds a set of enigmatic tablets in their home and upon arranging them, she unwittingly summons the Unown, who inexplicably sense her desires and create for her a massive crystal palace where she can hide from the world and have her own reality. The Unown also sense her interest in Entei, the legendary leonine Pokémon, from a book of her father's, and they create an illusionary Entei for her to serve as her father. The crystal palace is real though, not merely a figment of her imagination, and it has subsumed her entire town, understandably causing a bit of a stir.
Without getting too into the weeds and just regurgitating the plot, Molly's retreat into her "fictional" reality has dire consequences on the real world around her. Her desire for a family and stability, causes the Unown and Entei to go to great lengths to protect her fragile mindscape. At one point, Entei steals Ash's mom and brainwashes her into serving as Molly's mother. When Ash, Misty and Brock give chase, Entei and the Unown generate alternate versions of Molly, who are Pokémon trainers, to stand in their way and prevent them from reaching Ash's mom and the real Molly. Ultimately, Ash must battle Entei, and only upon the realization that Molly's conjured Entei is incredibly powerful and potentially dangerous, does she come to her senses and begin to unwind from her imagined reality. Finally, the Unown are sent back to their dimension and Molly's family is returned to her, revealing that her mother had also been lost in their domain for all this time.
While the themes of grief and childhood trauma weren't especially subtle or nuanced in the story, you have to remember that this movie is ultimately aimed at children. I was impressed at such a heavy topic being the core thematic element for a Pokémon movie, and that it mostly lands. It feels appropriately toned for a kid's movie, while still managing to wield some emotional weight, like an classic children's storybook. Elements of the story remind me of Bridge to Terabithia, a story about two young children who invent a fantasy world that they retreat to in an effort to escape the problems of their reality.
As a parent of two young boys, Molly's plight really connected with me. You can conceivably imagine the intense level of grief and shock that a young child would experience, as she suddenly finds herself utterly and completely alone in the world. Of course her mind would grasp at anything it could to create the stability and order that a child feels when they're with their parents in a happy home. While the powers and motivations of the Unown are vague and largely unexplained, they serve as an intriguing antagonist, and almost as some sort of opportunistic, parasitic lifeforce leeching off of Molly's intense emotions to exercise their powers. Because their goal isn't exactly clear, it's hard to necessarily blame the Unown as a nefarious entity, but when you learn that they've had the ability to easily bring both of Molly's parents back, which is what she truly wants, they really do solidify themselves as the villain of the plot for willfully inflicting that on Molly and endangering everyone else.
Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unown isn't quite as grand and bombastic as the first movie, and the action isn't as intense and prominent as it is in the second film, yet it manages to raise itself above its two predecessors and provide a genuinely satisfying story. It feels like the writers were able to finally strike a much-needed balance in the presentation of this narrative. They were able to tell a focused, mostly coherent story that effectively meshed together some entertaining action, along with a sensitive, thoughtful undercurrent. It shouldn't blow any adult's mind, but I could definitely see this being a childhood classic for many kids.
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