I never thought we would see the day we would get something like this. In the 2000s, I was a kid taken to see a film called Digimon: The Movie, an original film based on one of my favorite franchises, Digimon. At the time, I thought the film was fun, and I re-watched it numerous times on VHS…only to find out as I got older that the film was more akin to Frankenstein's monster. Digimon: The Movie was a wholly rewritten film utilizing footage from the first three Japanese animated Digimon films to make one big Americanized original movie. Those films were originally called Digimon Adventure, Digimon: Our War Game, and Digimon Adventure 02: Hurricane Touchdown in Japan.

These are three separate complete films, but Digimon: The Movie attempted to create an overarching narrative that connects them. What was done with the materials was impressive. There is a cohesive story that was doing everything in its power to make even the most mundane elements of those original three films into something more epic and exciting. It was clever of them to take the introduction of a brand new character specifically for the third film and have him almost act as the inciting incident for a lot of the events that happened throughout the movie.

However, even if you didn't know that this film was chopped up and stitched together using parts from three other films, you can tell that something is off. Objectively, this fails as an adaptation, but it's also not trying to be. It makes sense why there is a lot of contempt for this film by Digimon fans and even general anime fans because it represents the epitome of what people hate about anime dubs. These practices are no longer the norm outside of very rare examples, but it is fascinating to look at this film as a time capsule for the extremely different dubbing standards that were indicative of the time. Obviously, there's cut content and a completely different script, but we also have dialogue where there wasn't any for the sake of exposition (seriously, I don't think there's a minute where characters ever stop talking), puns everywhere, dumbed-down dialogue, and a wholly replaced soundtrack.

This soundtrack has to have one of the most aggressive early 2000s soundtracks I have ever heard. There are trumpets and intrusive instrumentals as if the film producers were terrified about there being even a single moment of silence. However, the film also features a plethora of licensed music from LEN to Smash Mouth. It's utterly ridiculous, but I would also argue that it has become so ostentatious that it loops to being charming (you will also never convince me that the original Digimon songs by Paul Gordon were bad). I almost can't fault Fox for taking that approach because that's how kids' movies used to be.

While the film has its fans and works as a time capsule for what anime dubbing was like, it is a shame that Americans never had the chance to legally appreciate those films in the original format…until today! Not only does Digimon The Movies contain the original American Digimon movie in glorious HD, but Discotek also got the rights to the original three animated films. Thanks to them, we now have a legal way to watch them in high definition to see what we originally missed out on during 1999 and 2000. It doesn't stop there because Sound Cadence Studios and Marissa Lenti went the extra mile, bringing us a dub of those three films with as much of the original cast as possible using modern-day dubbing practices. This is the type of thing that feels utterly unheard of. A lot of other shows from that era are still distributed with the English dubs that they had back during the late '90s and early 2000s, but here we have a chance to give something a modern coat of paint with that original cast.

Or rather, we got to see these films with as much of the original cast as possible because unfortunately, not everybody returned due to some of them passing in the past couple of years. It is a shame that these films could not be dubbed sooner for what could've truly been a grand reunion of everybody. I want to praise the dubbing staff for scouring the internet to find the best soundalikes they could for some actors who could not return, like Michael Lindsay and Philece Sampler. It helps that a lot of the characters with deceased actors don't play a major role in any of these three films and probably make up an accumulated ten lines altogether. Despite unfortunate circumstances, I want to give a lot of respect to newer actors like Elsie Lovelock and Eli Farmer for being a part of this project.

The returning casts sound great; you would think they never left the booth. Special shoutout for getting Michael Reisz back as Matt, which not even Digimon Tri or the final Digimon movie was able to do. A lot of performances are still in line with the original series, although this time, things are noticeably less silly to reflect the tones and stories of the films properly. This is most evident in the third film, which was arguably the most cut up and edited when making that original movie. The first two films, Digimon Adventure, and Digimon: Our War Game, had the least amount of edits and story changes but the third film takes on a completely different style. The new character introduced in the third film, Willis, has an entirely different personality than the original Digimon movie, so shout out to Bob Glouberman for playing the same character with far more nuance and depth.

I could talk about the English dub for this all day and how many deep cuts are present. When the films can get away with it, some lines are ripped straight from the original American script, but those are more so done like little Easter eggs to replace hardly important dialogue. Most of the dialogue is faithful to the original Japanese version, and now that we have these films unedited, we have better context for how scenes were depicted in Digimon: The Movie. No aggressive music or additional dialogue was added. Scenes are allowed to play out more naturally with a lot of ambiance since we also get to hear these scenes with the original Japanese soundtrack in the background. Not only does the soundtrack use familiar light motifs from the series showing Japanese scores, but each film has specific music to reflect different plots in all three of these films.

The first film is the shortest and focuses on Agumon's first introduction to Tai and Kari. It functions as a prequel to the original series. While it makes me question the canonicity from what I remember about the TV series, the tone is vastly different from the edited American film. The different soundtrack and toned-down dialogue invoke a more whimsical feel rather than an aggressively action-packed one. Even when you have two giant Digimon fighting in the middle of the streets of Japan, there is this sense of awe, if the film is trying to invoke that feeling of young kids watching giant monsters fight. It's intense and dangerous, but also captivating. It feels weird to call this a film because of how short it is, and it doesn't have a resolution.

The second film, Digimon: Our War Game, also isn't that much different from Digimon: The Movie and acts as a significant reflection of a lot of global fears during the Y2K era. The primary difference to the story, outside of the soundtrack and major scene cuts, is the inciting incident for the story's plot. In the original Digimon: The Movie, they tried to tie the plot of Our War Game to Willis in Hurricane Touchdown. In this film, it's just a random evil Digimon that gets born on the Internet. It isn't the most thought-provoking film, and I can see why Mamoru Hosoda would recycle much of this plot in his original film, Summer Wars. The tension is there, and I like how the film utilizes more somber, laid-back music for the sake of laying on the despair. The plot is a handful of kids trying to save the world on their computer while the rest of humanity is none the wiser.

It leads to some pretty interesting moments of comedy as the real world gets affected by all of the damage incited by this Digimon. My only problem with this film is that it only utilizes about a handful of the kids from the main cast. Only Tai, Matt, Izzy, and TK play any real part in the story, while everybody else is absent except for brief appearances. Some of the reasons make sense, like how Joe is going off to take an entrance exam, and no one can get a hold of him because you're not allowed to have your phone during an entrance exam, and Mimi is out of the country at the time. But Sora and Kari's lack of inclusion was frustrating when the former was not responding to the crisis due to her weird argument with Tai off-screen before the movie started. Kari's at a birthday party and refuses to listen to Tai, who tries to ask her for help.

The final film, Hurricane Touchdown, is probably the most interesting of the three on this list because while all the core ideas of the first two films were carried over to Digimon: The Movie, this one is almost entirely different. I mentioned Willis feels like a completely different character in this film and that's because the overall narrative structure and the film's style are radically different. This is the first of the three films that Hosoda did not direct. Most of the film takes place in America; maybe that's why the film feels almost otherworldly. The color palette is much more muted, the pacing is a lot slower, and the music is strange. The film is trying to go for an almost dream-like Western tone, but it doesn't always hit the mark. The music uses some rather unique instruments like the xylophone, but it appears during the most ill-fitting times, like action sequences.

The plot revolves around Willis trying to track down one of his Digimon companions, who appears to get corrupted by some vague and mysterious force. It's never really elaborated on or explained, but this Digimon is going around kidnapping kids with Digivices and de-aging them to find Willis. This explains why the Digimon Adventure 01 cast doesn't play a part in the film because they are captured and put out of commission almost immediately.

However, despite being paced better and giving more context, this is the weakest of the three films. It feels like a first draft. I give it a lot of credit for trying to go for something more emotionally mature and character-driven. Still, I am unsure what exactly the lesson of the movie is. How it goes about its story also feels so disjointed. It's funny that the part of the original Digimon movie that used this film felt the most awkward, but now I realize that the original film is similar, albeit for different reasons. It also doesn't help that this film looks the least interesting of the three visually, and arguably, the one time the HD upscale did not do it any favors. In the final act, I could almost see the separation between the characters drawn and the backgrounds, sometimes making them look like PNGs.

As for the special features, there are a few noteworthy things here. The standard art galleries are on the disk with the original Japanese trailers. I'm thrilled we got a few dub bloopers of the redubbed recording sessions in a day and age where those features are becoming more scarce. I was surprised that the Blu-ray contained some extra Japanese content, like a special interview with Mamoru Hosoda and a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the second movie. The extras feel a bit unfinished since we don't get anything about the third film, but there's still more here than expected.

Are these three original films masterpieces? Absolutely not, but the fact that I could experience them with a more loyal dub featuring most of the original cast is nothing short of a miracle in this day and age. In an era where digital media is getting lost, destroyed, or put on a shelf to collect dust forever, having a legal way to watch the first three films of one of the most influential anime franchises is incredible. Plus, we have them on a Blu-ray that features the original Americanized film for nostalgia! If you are somebody who grew up with the original Digimon on Fox or a longtime Digimon fan purist, this Blu-ray was made for you. While the quality of the original films may vary, and the original Digimon: The Movie hasn't aged the best, this is worth it. A massive thank you to everybody involved in making this happen because their passion for this franchise shines through.