 |
Title |
| Pocket Monsters:
Water Capital's Protector Gods Latias & Latios |
| International Title |
| Pokémon
Heroes: Latias & Latios |
| Music By: Shinji
Miyazaki |
| Record Label:
Media Factory |
| |
|
| Running Time: 45:22 |
Discs: 1 |
| Release: August 2002 |
CD Number: ZMCP-1457 |
|
| Comments |
 |
Anthony
Romero |
 |
|
|
This disc
from Media Factory, distributed under the "Pikachu
Records"
label, contains the soundtrack to fifth Pokémon movie:
Pokémon Heroes: Latias & Latios.
The score for this film is once again handled by series
regular Shinji Miyazaki,
who has become more or less synopsis as
the composer for the franchise. I will attest to being
a fan of Miyazaki's work, particularly the way he adapted
the music from the Game Boy title for the animated show,
but regretfully this isn't his finest hour. In fact,
the score for the fifth picture in the series feels like
the composer is on auto-pilot. It's a real shame as a
few of these cues seem just a shy away from greatness.
For example, always present Title Theme for the Theatrical
features starts off
magnificently, better than
from any other film, but ends with such a dreadful
horn solo that it ruins the whole thing.
Like a lot of Miyazaki's work, though, the score does
improve the more one listens to it. Cues like the "Theme
of Zanna & Rion", which has a nice mild jazz flavor that
compliments the Team Rocket theme nicely, tend to fare
better after hearing it once or twice. "Sortie!", which
is definitely the star attraction on this disc, is another
nice theme off this disc, with a good rousing march type
of pacing. Finally, the recomposed "Crisis!", which was
one of the original themes from the first season of the
show, sounds fantastic here, benefiting greatly from
an obviously more robust orchestra than the televison
show was allotted.
Sadly, the weakness of this disc is once again the inclusion
of the music related to the short feature that plays
before the film, in this case "Camp Pikachu". For
this feature, the score is composed by Atsushi Umebori who goes for a "folksy" type of feel,
utilizing a lot of banjo and fiddle segments. I will
be honest when I say there are times where you have to
smile as the tracks feel like a slight guilty pleasure,
but unfortunately these moments are brief.
As for the two songs attached, they also fail to entice.
The first, done by Ameagari Kesshitai and gang, has the
same "ho-down" type
of vibe as the rest of the short, and while it's amusing
at times it's definitely skip worthy. The second song
"Pocketari Monstari", done by Kana, is sadly
even worse. It starts with a short
fiddle segment, but then devolves into kiddy-like pop.
To be frank, she's trying to hard to sound cute, which
really makes the track painful to hear at times.
In regards to the three songs for the main feature, thankfully
they fare better. The first is yet another version of
"Aim to be a Pokémon Master", which was the
opening song on the first season of the show and several
subsequent seasons, done by Rica Matsumoto. This is probably
one of the less memorable remixs of the tune, as the
music almost drowns out the lyrics on occasion, but it's
none the less enjoyable. The second song is "Secret Garden"
by Madoka. This tune is actually nice on occasion, as
Madoka has a great voice and shifts between English and
Japanese effortlessly in the song. The problem is that,
at four minutes in length, it tends to overstay its welcome
before concluding. The other song is "No Solitude"
by Kazufumi Miyazawa. "No
Solitude" isn't bad, as Miyazawa has a nice tempo to
his deliver and the background music is enjoyable, but
all the same it's nothing particularly stellar.
To be fair, I wouldn't say this was the worst soundtrack
related to the movie franchise, that still goes to the
disc for Pokémon:
Lord of the "Unknown" Tower
(ZMCP-1102),
but it's probably second.
I feel bad about saying that as there are a couple of
really nice themes here.
"Sortie!",
"Theme of Zanna & Rion" and the updated version
of
"Crisis" are all fantastic, they just have a habit of
getting buried under all of the other music including the Camp Pikachu stuff by Umebori, which is
largely lacking.
Rating:  |
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| Tracks |
Camp Pikachu
By: Atsushi Umebori
- "Glittering Starlit Camp" Title Theme
By: Hirokazu Tanaka
- Aim for the Hill (Movie Version)
By: Ameagari Kesshitai, Hanako Yamada,
DonDokoDon
- Choo-choo Train
- Reunion
- Sudowoodo's Theme
- A Water Slide is Fun!
- Duskull Emerges!
- Volbeat Appears
- It's a Station!! Let's Go!!
- Oh What a Relief - Nya!!
- Pocketari Monstari
By: Kana
Pokémon Heroes: Latias & Latios
- Theatrical Pocket Monsters Title Theme 2002
- Legend (Alto Mare)
- Theme of Zanna & Rion
- Aim to be a Pokémon Master 2002
By: Rica Matsumoto,
Coba
- Team Rocket's Theme
- Enigmatic Girl (Labyrinth)
- Crisis
- The Enigmatic Girl Returns (Labyrinth)
- Secret Garden (Theme of Latias & Latios)
- Secret Garden
By: Madoka
- The Origin of Latios
- Sortie!
- The Danger Passes
- Canon
- No Solitude
By: Kazufumi Miyazawa, Coba
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