Welcome back to Pokemon Movies in Review, a weekly recap of the entire Pokemon cinematic universe. This week we’re revisiting Pokemon the Movie: White - Victini and Zekron, as well as Pokemon the Movie: Black - Victini and Reshiram, with this week bringing the first double feature in the Pokemon series that adopts the dual-release style of the video games. Black & White tells the story of the People of the Vale, an ancient civilization that became displaced from their homeland after a war between two princes caused a magical energy called Dragon Force to become unstable and tear apart the kingdom. While it may seem obvious that Black & White is a metaphor for the Jewish diaspora, these movies are so completely bereft of any thematic or cultural meaning that even the most generous reading of the text has left me empty handed. After more than a dozen Pokemon movies with complex themes and thoughtful subject matter, Black & White feels like a total waste of time.
The story begins with one of two different scenes, depending on which version you watch. A descendant of the People of the Vale named Damon visits a distant settlement of other descendants - a desert village in White and a town in the frozen tundra in Black - and tries to convince the people there to join in his cause of reviving Eindoak Town where the People of the Vale once lived. In both versions he is rebuffed at first, but eventually wins them over by stopping a dust storm/avalanche with the help of a legendary Pokemon - Reshiram in White and Zekrom in Black.
From there, the differences between the two versions are as superficial as the differences in the two versions of each game. There are different background Pokemon in each version, and several of the main characters’ partner Pokemon are also different. Damon and Reshiram work together to restore Eindoak Town in White while Ash and Zekrom try to stop him, but in Black these team-ups are switched. If you try to watch the movies side-by-side, you’ll find they constantly fall out of sync due to tiny changes in the number of frames per scene in each version. Additionally, both movies were scored separately with different music, which is the most interesting thing about these films. If I’m not being clear enough, there’s no reason to watch both Black and White, as there isn’t any meaningful difference between them. In fact, I likely wouldn’t recommend watching either one at all.
The history of Eindoak Town is some of the most convoluted Pokemon lore of all time. Around 1,000 years ago, the People of the Vale prospered in Eindoak thanks to Dragon Force, a magical energy that enriched the land. One day, the princes of Eindoak went to war with each other over their beliefs. The Hero of Truth controlled Reshiram and valued reason, while the Hero of Ideal controlled Zekrom and valued conviction. The legendary Pokemon defeated each other and turned into Dragon Stones, which caused an imbalance in Dragon Force that threatened to tear the world apart. To stop this, the king borrowed the power of his partner Pokemon Victini to create the Pillars of Protection. He then ushered the citizens into the castle, called the Sword of the Vale, and flew it across the sky. The castle landed on a nearby mountaintop where the king died and the princes buried the Dragon Stones in the caves below the castle. The Pillars of Protection remained, forming a force field around the Sword of the Vale that kept Victini trapped in the town for 1,000 years.
Most Pokemon movies involve some kind of legend or prophecy that creates the central conflict for Ash to solve, but those backstories have never been this haphazardly constructed. What is Dragon Power? Why do Reshiram and Zekrom turn into Dragon Stones and why does this cause the Dragon Power to destroy the planet? How does moving the castle solve the problem? Why does anything that happens in this movie happen at all?
As the story unfolds in the modern-day, there’s no shortage of underdeveloped concepts and hand-waved plot points. Damon is the steward of the Sword of the Vale, and as a child he promises his mother he will try to reunite the People of the Vale. After discovering Reshiram or Zekrom is the caverns beneath the castle, he learns how to harness Victini’s power to move the castle once again. Ash arrives with his new companions Iris and Cilan just in time to discover Damon’s plot to drain Victini of its energy, and ventures beneath the castle to team up with the other dragon. The legendaries fight, but quickly discover that moving the castle has caused the Dragon Force to once again tear apart the planet. Now united, Ash, Reshiram, and Zekron show Damon the error of his ways and manage to return the castle to its place on the mountain. Victini destroys the Pillars of Protection with a suicidal blast of energy - since it's now a requirement that the title character of every Pokemon movie sacrifices itself - but it's later revealed that Victini is inexplicably safe and sound. The end.
Pokemon movies often appear to be simplistic children’s movies with surface-level storylines, but my exploration of the series has proven that that couldn’t be further from the truth. Whether exploring loss and grief in Pokemon 3, the inherent dangers of Mass Media in Zoroark: Master of Illusion, or simply exploring the conventions of different genres as Destiny Deoxys did with Kaiju films, the Pokemon movie series has always had something to say about the human condition. No matter which lens I examine Black and White through, I just can’t determine what the point of this movie is.
It had an opportunity to explore the intergenerational trauma of diaspora, but it doesn’t spend any time at all with people Damon is trying to reunite. The entire metaphor quickly falls apart when it is revealed that the people can never return home, and in fact, doing so would cause the world to end. You don’t need a degree in film criticism to pick up on the anti-Semitic undertones at play here. I don't really think that’s what this movie is about, but then I return to my original question: is Black & White actually about anything?
Black & White is the second movie to forgo a traditional villain in favor of a misguided but well-meaning antagonist, the first being Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. And while both stories suffer for their lack of drama and a weak third act, at least Mystery of Mew had strong, memorable characters. Damon is certainly sympathetic, but he’s also a completely one-dimensional character who has no other goals or motivations beyond restoring the Vale. Reshiram and Zekrom are only in the movie for about 15 minutes and have no personality whatsoever, and Victini is the exact same innocent-but-ultra-powerful cutie as Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, and Mew. The flying castle imagery might be the only interesting thing about this movie, but that certainly isn’t enough to carry it, and of course, it’s been done before.
Black & White is the kind of movie that people assume all Pokemon movies are. It has a paper-thin plot with nothing characters and predictable, emotionally manipulative moments that wouldn’t even move an actual child. The first 13 movies were an absolute pleasure to explore, so I’m maintaining hope that Black & White was a one-off dud and not the start of a dip in quality for the series.
Next week’s movie is Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice, a movie all about Pokemon’s beloved Musketeer Quartet. I haven’t lost faith in the Pokemon series yet, let’s see if the second Black & White era movie can change that.