So I just watched this fan made adaptation of pokemon red, the og.
And it’s amazing. So amazing I’m shocked I’ve never seen it posted around here.
Pokemon Red the Movie.
It has phenomenal story telling, arcs, highs, lows, pacing, every aspect of truly great filmmaking. With overwhelming aptitude it depicts a larger than life long form and detailed manifestation of the imaginings of many a youth including myself who’ve known this perfect game their whole lives. I’m beside myself.
Incredible callbacks to the anime just tastefully done at the perfect intervals, just the right amount of dramatization and theatrics to amplify that perception we have in our minds towards the games. Also background lore for not only rby but also a little gen 2 (and more) thrown in there for those who know all the inside jokes, fan theories, hidden stuff etc. I can’t think of an adaption from a simple base origin that more significantly expands in the story yet never deviates from what we attach to said origin story. Incredible realization they had for the execution.
Knowing what I know of animation and this scale of production, this undoubtedly was the vast majority and likely even consumption of this guy and his team’s (or was it just him alone??) life for the past few two years prior to making it. Even though it is a crude animation style thus shaving some time off versus a more frame by frame heavy animation, it still is a colossal undertaking and it was done with magnificent passion and moreover tender affection for the game, it is artfully done, the simpler style having nothing taken away from its storytelling prowess and success.
It does so, so much to uplift the story of red and his legacy, that status of a legend, portrayed unbelievably well.
If you know Red/Blue as well as I do (and gen 2 games as well for all the references to lore at large), you will adore this if you haven’t seen it. It’s too well done to not give them your audience. Wow. Clicked on it out of curiosity since I hadn’t watched anything pokemon related on youtube for some year or more and was immediately sucked in, realized I needed to engage thoroughly, grab a drink and just enjoy it as I would Titanic or some other epic.
