First off, thanks goes to Jessica Stan for sending this disc in for review!
This year the Pokémon anime turns 20. To celebrate, the 20th Pokémon movie is ramping up the nostalgia with an out of continuity, "otherworlds" release that retreads the events of the first few episodes of the TV show. However, in this version Satoshi/Ash gets Ho-Oh's feather rather than the bird simply flying overhead. According to the movie, this has huge ramifications for the time line, setting the character on a largely different path than the shows and movies have shown us. Ultimately, though, it allows the movie to both play on the nostalgia while giving us something a little new. For this event, naturally, they go with the series composer for the last 20 years: Shinji Miyazaki. Now while the plot is a mixture of new and old, Miyazaki goes full blown nostalgia, giving us a soundtrack of newly orchestrated but repeated themes. Normally that might be a bad thing, and would be if they try this again, but for this particular release it works, greeting listeners with familiar, great tunes.
Now much of the music from this disc is focused on the work from the early part of the TV show. If you have only collected the movie soundtracks, that means there will quite a bit of unfamiliar music to you. This includes the great battle music heard for "Pikachu vs. Piplup". In fact there are a lot of great battle themes on here, while others just ramp up the general energy such as the chaotic "Stop It! Onix!". Some of the themes are on the soothing side as well, such as the short "Riding on Lapras" which is a reworking of "The Sea" theme from the show. The best example of this, though, is the "Bye Bye Butterfree" theme. In this case, the theme encompasses the same moment as it did in the show, saying farewell to Butterfree. It's a mixture of piano, violin and drum work, and evokes just the right sentiment of sorrow and hopefulness.
Despite the wealth of themes from the TV show, some of the music here is from the movies, and some has been reworked before. For example, "Spearow Attacks!" is a great battle theme, and one of the best cues off the CD and from the original show. It had already been reworked, though, for the Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back (1998) soundtrack. Comparing the two, the 1998 version is better, although both are interesting and do slightly different takes on the theme. Other cues, though, were original to the movies themselves. "Battle with Entei" is a perfect example of this, as the soundtrack isn't afraid to tap into the always wonderful Entei theme from Pokémon: Lord of the "Unknown" Tower (2000). The motif is one of the composer's best, and had returned once before for Pokémon: Zoroark Master of Illusions (2010). Another movie theme is heard in "Pikachu vs. Ho-Oh". In this case, it's actually the 'movie edition' theme that has been heard at the start of most of the movies since its first use as the opening titles for Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back (1998). Speaking of, one of the best themes from this disc is "A Flaming Confrontation!". It sounds similar to some of the battle music heard in the second season of the show, but it feels a little more familiar from one of the movies... although I will attest to not being able to place it at the moment.
Now I'm sure a burning question for many is how these themes stack up to the originals. The answer is that they are good, but none of these versions eclipse the originals. Most of the themes feel like shorter versions, and a few like "Riding on Lapras" suffer for that. "Bye Bye Butterfree" is an exception here as it's actually extended. However, the extension doesn't really benefit the theme. The disc does boast an instrumental version of "Aim to Be a Pokémon Master", though, which was the opening song for the first season of the show. This is likely to get a strong nostalgia reaction from listeners, and stands out as one of the more memorable reworkings on the soundtrack.
In terms of the closing track, "Oración's Theme", this is an original song. It's sung by Asuca Hayashi, who did the closing song for Pokémon: Jirachi Wish Maker (2003). The instrumental part of "Oración's Theme", though, actually originates from Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai (2008). This lyrical version is okay, featuring a lot of piano and violin work to make it more on the soothing side. The lyrics themselves don't really engage the listener too much, though, which is the weakness of the piece.
Overall, while it's disappointing that none of these reworked themes really stand out as being superior to the originals, it's still a solid collection of music. It works well as a compilation-like album and is enjoyable for that reason... and let's face it, who doesn't want to hear the epic Entei theme one more time?
As a side note, I can't believe this soundtrack left off "Red-Hot Battlefield". This theme, sadly never used in the movies although it originated in the games, was a stable of the first season of the show and is an amazingly energetic piece. It's probably best remembered as the theme when Kadabara is attacking Pikachu, although was used regularly in the series. A close variant appears in Super Smash Bros. Melee, as the theme for the Poké Floats level. It's absence here is puzzling, although it should be noted that the soundtrack is light on guitar work, with "Spearow Attacks!" being one of the few exceptions. Given the original theme utilized a lot of guitar work, it's possible it was left out for that reason. |
