The most underrated which Pokémon film is the best, but that title to this day belongs to the series' very first movie.
Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back is a 1998 film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama that follows Ash and his friends invited to an island to meet and battle the world's best Pokémon trainer. However, they're shocked to discover that their host is actually Mewtwo, a genetically-engineered Pokémon that serves as a partial clone of the extremely rare Mew. The film then embarks on a wild cloning fiasco as Ash and his friends' Pokémon are taken and cloned, leading to an epic battle between the countless creatures. It's an exciting film with an interesting story, but the element that often goes unnoticed when talked about by fans is its animation, which is sorely missed when the film was remade in 2019.
Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution is a 2019 remake of the original First Movie. The story is fairly the same with similar lines of dialogue and story beats, but it also incorporated some significant changes from the original Pokémon film. However, the biggest change is how it's animated. Instead of being traditionally hand-drawn like its predecessor, Evolution opts for a CGI look using more modern technology. This change in animation though is ultimately what makes it fail. The use of traditional animation in the original 1998 film allowed for unique uses of shadows to complement the elements happening on-screen. However, the remake is unable to use this to its advantage. The human characters just appear uncanny and the Pokémon themselves look more like action figures than they do actual characters.
The Remake's Animation Change Lacks the Original's Heart
While the remake Pokémon: The First Movie does do its best to respect and enhance the original film with its script, the animation used drags it down because of how much it misses the original's emotional impact. Take, for example, the fight between Pikachu and his clone. The level of detail on both Pikachu and the clone tells the audience exactly what they need to know. Pikachu is tired and doesn't want to fight. His adversary is doing it because he feels like he needs to and will continue to fight until the job is done. The remake, on the other hand, has none of this detail. There are no shadows, no wear-and-tear, no impact on the punches. It's just two Pikachus fighting. This is just one of multiple moments where the emotion of the original film is lost. From Mewtwo descending the helix staircase to the moment where Ash turns to stone, the punch that hit hard in the original film just isn't there.
Remakes are typically difficult to make because the audience will always have the original in mind when making it. However, Evolution seems to have taken a page from the Gus Van Sant Pyscho remake where it makes a shot-for-shot film with different elements, making it feel like it missed what made the original so beloved. The animation for Mewtwo Strikes Back is what makes the original so underrated because it's as essential to this Pokémon story as the script itself, and it's something that its remake just couldn't recreate.
