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REVIEW: Pokémon the Movie: Everyone's Story

I will agree the dub music is the weakest part of the TPCI Pokemon dub though the theme songs are still pretty good to me. While I'll always love Veronica Taylor as Ash, I think Sarah Natochenny does a fine job as Ash and I appreciate she does her own unique take on the character instead of trying to copy Veronica and she doesn't deserve all the hate she gets. Team Rocket is the only ones that still sounds like copycat voices and I can't ever quite get used to but they're fine enough. Jessie is probably the best of the Team Rocket TPCI VAs. The post 4Kids characters generally sound fine to me and I don't have any issue with them. If the music is the biggest issue with the TPCI dub, I feel like the level of hate it gets from purist fans is a bit disproportionate at times. I feel like most of the hatred of the TPCI dub is due to the terrible way they treated the 4Kids cast which is a valid criticism and out of nostalgia for the 4Kids dub but not really a complaint about the actual quality of the TPCI dub.

From what I see it 4kids did a terrible job with the U.S dubbing of pokémon but at least did an excellent job when it came to providing original music to the show. When the pokémon anime switch over from what I have heard and seen a bit it would appear it has become the other way around. On the one hand it seems that we have been getting better quality dubs of the shows but a weaker music score.

which is the exact reason why diehard pokemon fans outside of japan DO NOT WATCH THE ENGLISH DUB and instead are watching both the TV series as well as the movies via fansub ever since nintendo & game freak have pretty much blocked the importing of the animax English dub version which are mean to be seen by English viewers of that region.

this is a practice that NEEDS to change if they want the series to be viewed by those that aren't in elementary school!

Actually, TPCI was better with original music than 4Kids was up until somewhere during BW, when they decided to only use their own music. Regarding this, I actually find it ironic that TPCI still credits Shinji Miyazaki in openings, even though they use no single piece of his music nowadays.

As for the movies, I too didn't see all of them yet, but from those I did, my favourites are definitely Deoxys and Darkrai movies, because they are the only ones which didn't glorify Ash. My least favourites, on the other hand, are Lugia, Lucario and Manaphy movies, exactly for the reasons I wrote before, because they glorify Ash to the point he will steal the shine from any other characters. That was especially sad in Manaphy movie, which was supposed to be about May and Manaphy, but in the end was about Ash saving the day again and stealing May's last time to shine in movie.

The voice-acting for both the dubs just felt really hollow and monotonous compared to Rika Matsumoto, Aoi Yuki, Megumi Toyoguchi, and other great seiyuu. Music is a pretty big deal, especially if you've seen that comparison clip on YouTube, but voice-acting, content cuts, and dialog are just as important I feel. I switched to the Japanese version like 15 years ago and haven't looked back since.

while little kids wouldn't care, some of the diehard fans skip sun & moon cause of those ugly designs, while others skip sun and moon cause of the storylines compared in the past. in best wishes and XY , the storylines involving villains like plasma and lysandere were dark in nature , but in sun and moon, other than the ultra beast arc involving nebby, its like their making the series so non dark in nature compared to the past arcs that some fans believe that its to appease to the US audience.

the viewership of sun and moon compared to XY in japan pretty much proves my case.

The voice-acting for both the dubs just felt really hollow and monotonous compared to Rika Matsumoto, Aoi Yuki, Megumi Toyoguchi, and other great seiyuu. Music is a pretty big deal, especially if you've seen that comparison clip on YouTube, but voice-acting, content cuts, and dialog are just as important I feel. I switched to the Japanese version like 15 years ago and haven't looked back since.

For as much as fans complain about the business practices of TPCI, having seen both the dub and Japanese version of Pokemon, the dub is about faithful to the original as it's going to get and it's pretty faithful for a localized dub for kids. The only significant changes I can tell have been made are changing the music and localizing the names.

I don't know about the viewership ship in Japan for Sun and Moon compared to the sixth gen anime, but for them to think they are making the story for the latest anime more light hearted as a means to appease the U.S fans, I feel, is not correct. I don't know the best way to say it (and it may be incorrect) but it feels like they are thinking this way because they think OLM should cater to their needs as appose to sticking with the idea that the Pokémon franchise is for children.

Aquasakura wrote:

I don't know about the viewership ship in Japan for Sun and Moon compared to the sixth gen anime, but for them to think they are making the story for the latest anime more light hearted as a means to appease the U.S fans, I feel, is not correct. I don't know the best way to say it (and it may be incorrect) but it feels like they are thinking this way because they think OLM should cater to their needs as appose to sticking with the idea that the Pokémon franchise is for children.

well of course. its a kids series at its core no matter what language version. the problem is that some japanese fans and some diehard pokemon fans in general are complaining that the franchise is starting to pander WAY TOO MUCH to the western audience and it definitely showed when they premiered the character designs in sun and moon.

From what I see it 4kids did a terrible job with the U.S dubbing of pokémon but at least did an excellent job when it came to providing original music to the show. When the pokémon anime switch over from what I have heard and seen a bit it would appear it has become the other way around.

I am still holding my grounds for music in anime. At least for season 9 and whole DP that was mostly true. Yeah, like 4Kids, they had better episodes and worse episodes regarding music, but all in all, I am still standing behind my opinion that TPCI were better with music than 4Kids until BW, when they started to replace more and more music to the point where we are now, when we have no original music, which is sad.

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For some reason, Stuart's James simply couldn't stay serious, even if the script requires him to be, whereas, Cathcart has no problem to put seriousness to James' voice acting. I don't blame Stuart for this flaw, as I know well he could do better (and did even in Pokémon with Brock, mostly), but nevertheless, serious James never was good part of 4Kids' dub of Pokémon.

the problem is that some japanese fans and some diehard pokemon fans in general are complaining that the franchise is starting to pander WAY TOO MUCH to the western audience and it definitely showed when they premiered the character designs in sun and moon.

Disagreed, 100%- TPCi did a terrible job with the U.S. dubbing of Pokemon and 4Kids did a better job, if anyone: 4Kids not only kept more of the original Japanese music than TPCi has in both the Anime & Movies by this point, but contrary to the false rumors spread here, 4Kids' script writing was more faithful to the Japanese Version for Team Rocket than TPCi's, less slang-y for Ash & his friends, and unlike TPCi, 4Kids wasn't afraid to refer to God, Heaven, and Death in later years (Johto onward) in their scripts. TPCi has been covering up references to God & Heaven since the Diamond & Pearl dub began, and has been hiding death references since the XY dub began. So, no, they make tons of changes to the scripts still- Takato is lying about that.

That rumor that TPCi does script translations faithfully? No, they're even more unfaithful than 4Kids was at this point.

That rumor that TPCi doesn't censor stuff like 4Kids did? Another lie. TPCi has even censored stuff out 4Kids kept in their dub like wine cups, Meowth drowning, and souls coming out of bodies in the SM dub! And they were censoring stuff out in the XYZ dub, too, Ash being crucified as one example- 12 minutes long worth of re-animation, in fact!

And the voice acting was way better in the 4Kids dub than in the TPCi dub- Veronica Taylor actually sounded like a boy as Ash, not a woman with a deep, gravelly voice like Sarah Natochenny, Eric Stuart sounded like a 25 year old man with a suave voice as James unlike James Cathcart who sounds like a 60 year old goofy, snooty man with a cold, etc. I could go on all day about how terrible the voice acting is in the current dub, but I'll save that topic for another day. What you (and everyone) needs to know is that the TPCi dub had all the same flaws of the 4Kids dub, and none of the good traits.

It's inexcusable on the music, by the way, TPCi is going to re-score this film with dub music for the 5th time in a row, and even 4Kids only re-scored the first 3 films and kept the Japanese music for all the rest they dubbed until Movie 8. The Pokemon dub has gotten worse since TPCi took over than it ever was in the 4Kids days- watch this and find out how/why:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dummXsPn-hA

P.S. Peno is incorrect on the music as well, but then his laughably bad statement that JCC James sounds anything like Japanese James should tell you how wrong he gets stuff- 4Kids James was never as bad as JCC James is these days.

The truth is 4Kids kept most of the Japanese music in Seasons 1-3 as well as Movies 4-8, and the only time TPCi kept most of the Japanese music was in Season 14 and Movies 9-16. All the other dub seasons keep less than 50% of the Japanese music, and TPCi has been replacing more Japanese music than 4Kids ever did from late BW (Season 16) onward all the way into SM (Season 21) in the Anime, and the Movies are now re-scored again since XY started.