This CD from
Media Factory, distributed under the "Pikachu Records"
label, contains the soundtrack to the 2000 feature film
Pokémon: Lord of the "Unknown" Tower.
This disc would also mark the first from the firm that
also features the soundtrack to the animated short that
played with the main film, in this case Pikachu & Pichu. As
it turns out, this move was pretty much a necessity here,
considering that the amount of music for the main feature
only amounts to 20 minutes on this release, five of which
is a karaoke version of a previously included song. In
fact, a third of the entire disc is made up of karaoke
tracks. This, coupled with the rather mediocre selection
of music, results in thee most disappointing soundtrack
of the theatrical scores for the Pokémon films
to date. Of course it's not a total loss, as "Entei's
Theme" is quite nice, almost iPod worthy. The "Unown's
Theme", "Mii's Theme" and Rica Matsumoto's
theatrical version of "OK!" are also nicely
done. That actually encompasses most of the stuff related
to the main film, save the tepid "The Day a Rainbow
was Born" by Kumiko Mori, but at the same time only
accounts for nine minutes of the total runtime.
This leads into the music for Pichu & Pikachu,
which was given a "big band" type of flavor
to it by Hirokazu Tanaka. Unfortunately,
none of these themes are particularly memorable or even
pleasant, while the lyric accompanied "Pichu Pika
Swing" and "Friend Memorial Day" will have
one leaping for the "skip track" option.
Overall, there are some nice themes on this disc by Shinji Miyazaki... but
with its extremely short runtime, which is padded as it
is with karaoke versions, the rest of the CD just tends
to drown out the good cues.
Note: This soundtrack was later re-released in December
of 2001. This second release featured the same selection
of music, but came packaged in a clear plastic bag that
housed a CD shaped tin box with the disc inside. Due to
rarity, the tin release tends to fetch the higher price
of the two.
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