VGFlicks: Pokémon 3: Spell of the Unown (Part 1)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Starting the new year (and the reviews proper) with a Pokémon double feature! I’m not reviewing any Pokémon games this year, but I was dead-set on finally covering these movies, so I figured, screw it, I’mma do it anyway.

A collection of the most nostalgia-inducing
Pokémon movies.

What can I say of the Pokémon movies that hasn’t been said, really? (...No, wait! Don’t go away! Come back!) Several of us older Pokémon fans have grown up with them. Today’s movie came out in theaters in North America on April 6th, 2001. I was 8. As I mentioned before, I grew up with the first four animated films – I recall films from the Hoenn era airing on cartoon channels here, but my memories of those is spotty at best, so I’ll stick to the ones I know.

As I discussed in my reviews of the previous Pokémon movies, I love a theory that posits that the first three movies each deconstruct an aspect of the franchise. The first deconstructs these creatures as fighters, with its depictions of Pokémon used for wanton crimes, destruction, and in fights to the death. The second deconstructs them as collectibles, with one particularly terrible person’s quest to “catch them all” endangering the whole damn world. Today’s movie is “Pokémon 3: The Movie”, also known as “Spell of the Unown”, also known as “Pocket Monsters the Movie: Lord of the UNKNOWN Tower ENTEI”, and it was written by Takeshi Shudō and Hideki Sonoda. According to the theory, this movie deconstructs Pokémon as companions.

How about we see whether it’s accurate?

A void

Oh Arceus, this movie's gonna kick me right in the feels,
isn't it.

The movie wows from its very first seconds as we pan up from a field of sunflowers, onto a pretty view of a mansion. Pokémon researcher Spencer Hale (voiced by none other than Dan Green – I’ll try avoid the easy Yu-Gi-Oh jokes...) is spending time with his young daughter Molly (voiced by Amy Birnbaum), telling her about legendary Pokémon using a picture book. They flip to a page showing a group of Unown and Molly notes that this is the one her daddy is looking for. The next page shows Entei, and after Molly compares the two, Spencer plays along and pretends to be the legendary feline. They play for a bit, but they're interrupted by a video mail from Spencer’s assistant Schuyler. Since a new hidden chamber with clues about the Unown has been found, he must go and check it out.

Spencer puts his daughter to bed, asks her to keep him in her dreams, and leaves for work. Next we see him and Schuyler in a tomb, studying the engravings on the wall. The professor finds a tile on the floor showing an Unown and, picking it up, the- Aaagh! What the Heck! The Unown just appeared next to him! And it looks... otherworldly.

These things are an entire dimension above everything else.

Thanks to Typhlosion4President for the event's capture.
Yeah, Arceus using the Unown to create a new God out of
thin air, that's kind of a big deal.

Hey, I know this is neither the first nor the last movie to employ medium blending, but making the Unown CGI rather than traditionally animated was an excellent decision. It makes them stand out as the creepy things they are, highlighting how they don’t seem to belong with the rest of the Pokémon world. In the games, Unown are the worst Pokémon to exist, utterly useless in combat and good for little else than an extra collection side-quest. It’s implied that they’re only powerful in large numbers, but since you can only carry six, you’ll never see that happen. That said, there is an event in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver where, if you bring an Arceus to the Ruins of Alph, you’ll be taken to a place where the godly Pokémon, using the Unown, will create an egg containing a Level 1 Dialga, Palkia or Giratina, of your choosing. But because of their uselessness in terms of gameplay, these things will only ever be interesting lore-wise. Well... there, and in this movie.

I hope he didn't have plans.

Professor Hale finds a box containing a whole bunch of similar tiles and picks a handful. The Unown appear around him and suck him into their dimension. ...Well, he did want to find them. Mission accomplished. However, this leaves Schuyler alone in the tomb, and he must bring back the research and announce the news of Spencer Hale’s disappearance. Poor Molly, now both her mom and dad are gone.

Oh God, is that a tear already?

What's a kid to do, except play with the weird Scrabble set?

For the record, what happened to Molly’s mom depends on both the writer and the version of the film; Shudō intended for the mother to be deceased. However, he was hospitalized while he was writing the story, which led to Hideki Sonoda finishing it. Sonoda changed this to Molly’s mom having been hospitalized (though there are also debated reports that before that, she might have left Spencer due to him being a workaholic, but it's unclear whether that's true). This change clashed with Shudō’s vision and angered him so much that he swore off writing any other Pokémon movie’s story, a decision he stuck to until his passing in 2010.

And that’s before 4Kids comes in, with their well-documented tendency to make changes, filling in the silences and dumbing things down. What they did could’ve been worse; lines of dialogue in the English version imply that Molly’s mom was a researcher like her husband and may have also been taken by the Unown prior to the film. Which... okay, there’s an interesting emotional core there, but this would have benefited from being explored in greater depth, especially with the implication that Spencer threw himself into his work to find a way to bring her back.

This is every bit as creepy as it's meant to be.

Why the Heck is it that, out of all the villains in the first three
Pokémon movies, the goddamned LETTERS are the
scariest of the bunch???

Left alone with her dad’s research and the tiles after learning of the news, Molly starts playing with them, forming words. The stones light up; a group of Unown leave the chamber, going through a portal, and appear at the Hale mansion. She thinks the Unown want to play with her. From her spot, crystals begin to appear, covering the floors, then the walls. Schuyler and the house workers see the crystals coming out and break into the room, only long enough to see the terrifying scene before getting pushed away by more crystals, forcing them to evacuate.

"I am Entei." "Daddy!" "....Fine, if you say so."

Not conscious of the gravity of what’s going on, Molly picks up the picture book and looks at Entei’s page, thinking about her father. The Unown, who are said to be capable of reading minds, misinterpret that and begin to create an illusory creature for the girl, a large Entei also voiced by Dan Green. (A theory says that the Unown felt guilty after reading Molly’s mind but misread how they could make the situation right, hence their decision to become Molly’s wish-granters, despite the girl’s age and her state of mind leading to her making harmful wishes. Whether that’s true is up to you, but to me it makes sense!) Molly imprints on the Entei, thinking it to be her dad, and the mighty creature, which exists solely to bow to her wishes, embraces the role.

That’s just the intro, we’re 8 minutes in and I’m a bawling wreck.

Greenfield, the Beautiful Crystallized

We cut to Ash, Pikachu, Misty, and Brock, now journeying across Johto. They’re accosted by a teenaged Pokémon trainer, Lisa, who challenges them to a battle. Ash rises to the challenge, and we get an entire Full Battle, meaning both trainers use their six Pokémon. Those are rare in the anime, so seeing one open the movie is refreshing. It allows us to see the entirety of Ash’s team (the three Johto starters, a shiny Noctowl, Bulbasaur and Pikachu) while showcasing other species that were new to Johto (as Lisa’s team includes Granbull, Girafarig, Aipom and Quagsire from Gen 2). It’s a fun, no-stakes match that leads to friendship.

On the downside, the Pokémon movies are often used to feature glimpses into the next Gen; Snubbull, Marill, Donphan, Bellossom, Elekid, Slowking and Lugia appear in the first two movies and their respective Pikachu shorts. This is the only movie that doesn’t feature any new Pokémon whatsoever, no glimpses at new species coming in what would be the next Gen. It’s a minor detail, but still worth mentioning.

"We should trade PokéGear numbers!"
"Poké-what now?"

Being a news reporter in the Pokémon world has to be
anything but boring.

The trainers' Pokémon are tired from the fight, so Lisa walks with them towards Greenfield, known as a beautiful place. (You can’t miss it; they say the word “beautiful” 6 times in 20 seconds.) What they see when they get there is beautiful, but worrisome: An entire field of crystals that’s expanding. Team Rocket, ever present like a rock under Ash’s shoe, observes from afar. A news channel van arrives on the scene to report on the event. In Pallet Town, Ash’s mother Delia and Professor Oak watch the report from their respective homes, and since both knew Spencer, they travel to Greenfield together.

For some reason, the anime had a running gag for a long time
where Delia would spot Pikachu before noticing her own son.
She grew out of that, eventually.

Oak and Delia get to the Greenfield Pokémon Center, where Ash and co. already are. Pikachu is very happy to see his trainer’s mother. Their reunion is televised and Molly, who watches the news on a computer with Entei by her side, tells her new “papa” that she wants a mama too. And since it exists only to obey to her wishes, the beast runs off towards the Center. There’s no mama left at home? That’s nothing a little stop at the store can’t solve.

Entei arrives on the scene and is confronted by Ash’s team and Delia. However... Entei used Hypnosis! After drowsily asking to be taken to the girl... Delia fell asleep! The big cat lets her fall on its back and runs off, unaware that Pikachu has grabbed its tail. Ash and co. also give chase, but Entei is too quick, knocking Pikachu off and fleeing to the crystal palace.

“Mewtwo Strikes Back” and “The Power of One” are situations Ash and his friends stumble into, with large stakes they don’t have a direct connection with, outside of being Pokémon trainers (Pokémon 2000's dub is weird about this, but whatever). This time around, there’s crystals taking over the land and the Unown are a reality warper-level threat, but even as a kid I could understand that crap had gotten personal. Chosen One stories are overdone and I don’t feel a connection to those nearly as much as I do for stories about somebody rescuing a loved one. That may have helped make Pokémon 3 my favorite of the four films I knew.

Rescue Team

I'm sorry, but with Delia mind-controlled, I fail to see
what's supposed to be happy here. It's freaky, not cute.

When Delia wakes up, she’s still under the effect of the hypnosis, with Molly calling her “mama”. Sure, there’s the happy music as Delia holds Molly in her arms, but... what’s happening is actually creepy as Hell! But it doesn’t register for Molly, who’s young, so she doesn’t realize the extent of the harm. Plus, she’s grieving and possibly traumatized from the still recent news, so that's not helping. Having little letter-shaped genies granting a little girl’s every wish would be bad at the best of times, but in her current mental state? It’s a recipe for disaster.

Meanwhile, Prof Oak goes over the subject with Schuyler and the kids nearby. He explains about Entei and the Unown. Can I point out the repeated display on computer screens of Unown from other alphabets? Greek and Cyrillic in particular. Good thing the idea was dropped, we have enough with 28. During that briefing, the group receives a video message from Molly ordering everyone to leave them alone.

"Thanks for the PokéGear^Tm, Lisa!"
Now on sale at every toy store that existed in 2001.

Ash decides to go and save his mother. Misty and Brock join him; no way they’re letting him go alone. Especially with his tendency to headbutt the current problem, whatever it is. Lisa’s Aipom runs up to them and hands something to Ash. Lisa, showing up behind them, explains it’s a PokéGear, which will let them stay in contact with the Pokémon Center.

Meanwhile, Ash’s Charizard, who was left in an earlier episode of the anime at a place called the Charicific Valley, spots his trainer during a random glance at the news on TV. You can tell this dragon’s train of thought: “Oh great, what’s this idiot gotten himself into this time”. Sensing his help will be needed, Charizard flies off towards Greenfield.

Alright, let’s end that here for now. Come back for Part 2.