ポケモンレンジャーと蒼海の王子マナフィ (Pokémon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea, Manafi)

By on 23 April 2007

The English copy of this arrived over the weekend. Man, what a disappointment! I know that movies, particularly Pokémon movies, are supposed to be bad in multiples of 3 (Entei/Unown and Jirachi), but this was just woeful. In fact, this movie saw a reversal of roles between Max and May from movie #6, as May was placed in the role of the newly-hatched Manafi’s surrogate mother (like Max and Jirachi) . Hmmm… haven’t we seen this before? Misty and Togepi… And Manafi’s incessant crying even makes it sound like Togepi.

And then there’s Jack Walker, Pokémon Ranger Self-Righteous Twat. He’s managed to put me off the idea of Pokémon Ranger. Not much more to say on him, really.
At least TR finally play baddies throughout and don’t suddenly turn into pseudo-goodies, like they do in nearly all of the other movies. And of course, Meowth always gets the best lines. “…diamonds and pearls”. “Sounds like a good name for a game.” (Some free advertising here perhaps?)

However the absolute worst thing about the movie, and I guess it’s plagued the TV series as well, is the new post-4Kids voiceovers. Jari-boy has to be the worst one, with his voice now sounding like a cross between Raphael and Michaelangelo from the original TMNT cartoon. Sarah Natochenny was perhaps not the best choice of voice actors to replace Veronica Taylor. Sadly the criticism of the decision will rest with the Pokémon Company, and not where it truly lies, at the feet of the gouging 4Kids. At least we’ve managed to regain Ken Gates as the narrator. Nothing against his replacement Mike Pollock, but the change in voice just makes it sound somehow “wrong”. Most of the other changes aren’t quite so bad.

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