Pokemon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel Review – The Mechanical Mess

<p><em>Pokémon&colon; Volcanion&comma; Mechanical Marvel<&sol;em> seems like the same&comma; tired Pokémon story with a glossy steampunk mask and no heart&period; Set in the steampunk Azoth Kingdom&comma; the story has a lot of failed potential – new Pokémon are interesting&comma; new characters have promise&comma; and the setting is something the Pokémon series has never explored&period; However&comma; laughable voice acting&comma; a mediocre story and unexplored possibilities make <em>Pokémon&colon; Volcanion<&sol;em> a disappointing addition to the Pokémon Universe&period; Check out the trailer and then read on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"uBJ7yENNbTE" title&equals;"Pokémon the Movie&colon; Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel Trailer"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;uBJ7yENNbTE"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;uBJ7yENNbTE&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Pokémon the Movie&colon; Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel Trailer"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Azoth Kingdom is an ancient and successful kingdom that exists in the world of Pokémon&period; Ruled by the royal family&comma; the society explores something called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;arcane science&comma;” wherein science and Pokémon combine to create fantastic new inventions&period; Pioneered by a scientist named Nikola &lpar;a nod to Nikola Tesla&rpar;&comma; arcane science has flourished – but is now being abused by an evil arcane scientist named Alva&comma; who is close to the royal family&period; Mega evolution is being abused&comma; and a steampunk tech&sol;Pokémon hybrid called Magearna is the key to the mysterious &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Soul Heart” being used to take over the kingdom&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From a distance&comma; the plot seems interesting&comma; and the setting is a refreshing change from the Kanto hybrids that have been produced in the past&period; However&comma; Ash and the gang spend barely any time exploring Azoth&comma; and instead wind up chasing around the legendary Pokémon Volcanion as he spends time fighting Alva and preaching about the abused Pokémon who now live with him in a place called the Nebel Plateau&period; Volcanion hates humans but is forced to work together with Ash and his friends after being bound to Ash by a mysterious force&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is the same old Pokémon story&period; A super-smart&comma; talking Pokémon hates humans and any Pokémon that aligns themselves with humans&period; They believe Pokémon are better than humans&comma; and distrust even the purest and kindest of them &lpar;like Ash&rpar;&period; There is a force trying to abuse the power of Pokémon and use it for personal gain&comma; and Ash is the only trainer with the heart and the ability to stop them&period; Sound familiar&quest; That’s because this has been the plot to nearly every Pokémon movie since <em>Pokémon&colon; the First Movie<&sol;em>&period; There is no creativity in exploring another story or lesson&comma; with the message again being anti-discriminatory&period; Everyone should be equal&comma; and people should not be judged as a whole because of the sins of another&period; In a setting like the Azoth Kingdom&comma; this stale message feels like a waste when there were so many other messages to be explored&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1431px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;assets&period;pokemon&period;com&sol;assets&sol;cms2&sol;img&sol;watch-pokemon-tv&sol;movies&sol;movie19&sol;movie19&lowbar;ss03&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Image result for pokemon volcanion movie" width&equals;"1431" height&equals;"792" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Pokemon Volcanion the Mechanical Marvel&comma; VIZ Media&comma; OLM Animation Studio&comma; The Pokemon Company&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Like in any Japanese-to-English story&comma; the dialogue in this movie suffers&period; There is a lot of grunting&comma; yelling&comma; and substance-less dialogue between main characters&period; While it’s understandable that the dialogue must be accessible for a children’s movie&comma; it’s no excuse to dumb things down to the point of ridiculousness&period; What’s worse is ridiculous dialogue paired with terrible voice acting – something <em>Volcanion<&sol;em> has plenty of&period; The characters in the Pokémon series have undergone many changes throughout the series&comma; and for the most part&comma; the voice acting of main characters is alright&period; Ash is the same&comma; stubborn Ash&comma; and Alva sounds like a conniving&comma; slithering antagonist&period; Even the Prince of Azoth has a believable delivery as a little boy&period; However&comma; the voices only go downhill after that&period; Ash’s friend Clemont sounds like a grown man forcing his voice into a child’s tenor&comma; which is terribly distracting to the character&period; Volcanion sounds a little too old and sage-like&comma; seeming to force his &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;legendary” status a little too far&period; Worst of all are the new Jesse&comma; James&comma; and Meowth&comma; who deliver their lines so melodramatically that watching their scenes is almost painful&period; Silliness in a Pokémon movie is expected and even welcome&comma; but the new Team Rocket absolutely abuses it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The animation of <em>Volcanion<&sol;em> is good&comma; though at times lazy&period; The use of computer animation alongside hand-drawn makes for easy transitions and less work for the animators&comma; but it’s far less enjoyable or impressive when done hastily&period; Obvious 3D transitions seem like a copout&comma; especially when used in place of actual animation during battles or while exploring Azoth&period; Backgrounds are often flat and mismatched&comma; looking like a crappy attempt at green screening&period; Volcanion itself is almost completely computer-animated&comma; making it look strange and out of place next to the other Pokémon&period; It felt like very little love went into the animation of the actual movie&comma; leaving something to be desired and killing a lot of the potential the steampunk setting presented&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Pokémon&colon; Volcanion&comma; the Mechanical Marvel<&sol;em> is a decent movie for Pokémon fans&comma; but really doesn’t bring anything new to the table&period; One of the best parts of the movie is its soundtrack&comma; which is interesting&comma; varied&comma; and perfectly follows the scenes as they unfold&period; Overall&comma; <em>Volcanion<&sol;em> lacks charm&comma; heart&comma; and creativity which makes it a real disappointment that’s hard to watch more than once&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A copy of the film was provided by VIZ Media for this review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;