Miramax does a quick turnaround on this movie to home video, marking their third United States release in the franchise and the first direct to DVD for the series. Unfortunately the title is subpar on its video and audio presentation, although shows remarkable promise from a collection of extras that are actually worthwhile, including the debut of the Gotta Dance!! (2003) short.
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This release features the American version of the movie, with burnt on-screen text and a new title sequence. It terms of the video quality, the brightness is set a little too high here. As a result, at times it washes out a few details and robs the disc of a true black. Thankfully, though, the colors are quite vibrant and distinct, especially the reds. In terms of signs of damage, there is a brief scratch at the 24:53 mark, but otherwise the disc is relatively devoid of it. It does have a slight layer of grain throughout, nothing distracting though. Meanwhile, the level of compression causes some smearing, especially on Meta Groudon.
Pokémon: Jirachi Wish Maker is presented in an
aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This is cropped from the 1.78:1 original aspect, losing details on both the left and right side of the frame. This choice is odd given that the menu is actually anamorphic and in widescreen.
| Audio: |
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The disc has only one audio track, which is the English dubbed version in 5.1 surround sound. Thankfully this version does not replace Shinji Miyazaki's music, unlike earlier American versions such as the one for Pokémon: Revelation Lugia (1999) that gutted out the Japanese score. In terms of the actual vocal performances, the narrator is really annoying in this. The rest of the cast should be familiar from the early days of the animated show, and actually do a fairly good job on this one... with the exception of Jirachi. As for the quality, the directionality on the track isn't anything to write home about, although the track itself has no discrepancies and the clarity is good.
As a side note, for those who are patient on the end credits, if you wait long enough you can hear Asuca Hayashi's "Small Things" song that plays at the very end.
The movie can be accompanied by removable English subtitles.
| Extras: |
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Surprisingly, Miramax has done a good job with the extras on this release. While some of them are lame, a few are good and unexpected. Leading the way in that regard is the included animated short Gotta Dance!! (2003). This is a 22 minute film that was included with the Japanese theatrical release of the movie. It was not included with the US release, making this DVD the first time it's been available in the US. The actual short is dubbed into English, with no subtitles. The video has a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, the original aspect and not cropped like the main feature. Quality wise it's got distinct colors and is vibrant. There are signs of compression and noise, and the image is a little soft, but it's not bad.
Next up is the "Trivia Game". This asks questions related to the events in the movie, although sadly is done with a really dull, bored narrator that makes it a chore to go through. This is followed by a "Message from the Director, Mr. Yuyama" as Kunihiko Yuyama, who is in Canada, just gives a quick verbal teaser for the next film, Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (2004). Sadly, it's not insightful or interesting.
This leads us to the music video extra Make A Wish, which is actually the "Small Things" song by Asuca Hayashi. Yes, it's actually sung in Japanese and includes clips of Hayashi singing and snippets from the movie as well. Overall, it's a pretty good extra, despite being very compressed, although might have benefitted from subtitles.
Up next is the "Pokémon Character Scrapbook". This is a menu based feature that provides details on many of the Pokémon in the movie and the short. It's not all that descriptive, but does contain basic details. The disc also has the "Jirachi Wish Maker Artwork Gallery". This is another menu based feature, although this time focused on full screen artwork related to the movie. Some of these are completed cells and frames, which are more or less production stills. The last one is a piece of concept art, though. Finally one finds a host of adverts for home video releases for titles like Bionicle 2: Legends of the Metau Nui and Spider-Man: The Venom Saga. This aspect of the disc is worth skipping.
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Bottom
line, this isn't a great release... but since Gotta Dance!! (2003) has not been released to Blu-ray yet in the United States, it does hold some utility for those who want it and have a Blu-ray player. Also, while the video and audio presentations were nothing to write home about on the main feature, at least Miramax made an effort with the extras here to give something worthwhile.
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