Why I Love The Digimon Movie

I was going to make this blog post in the same vein as some of my “Problem” posts, but I just couldn’t do it. Despite its flaws (which I will address some) I love The Digimon Movie. And since I just finished watching it again (I always put it in the viewing rotation when I finish the Digimon Emperor arc in Adventure 02–stay tuned for a post about Ken’s character development) I had to gush about it for a bit. The internet has no shortage of complainers, so I just wanted to be grateful for a moment that this movie exists. That being said, no movie is perfect (not even Emperor’s New Groove) so let’s start by taking a look at where Digimon fell short. 

I didn’t know until I was older that the English Digimon Movie was a Frankenstein’s monster of short films. I knew it was based on three movies, but I didn’t know as a kid just how unrelated they were. Not only did it take some extra work for the three movies to become one cohesive film (cohesive enough for kids and nostalgic grown-ups), but the plots didn’t flow together (not to mention the animation styles) without considerable work. In the end, this Frankenstein’s monster turned out alright, at least enough for me, but there were elements of Hurricane Touchdown (the Adventure 02 segment of the movie) that were lost and made the ending of the movie feel rushed.

The thing I’m most grateful for with The Digimon Movie is simply that it exists. Digimon has always had to compete with its cousin Pokemon, so when Mewtwo Strikes Back came out, I’m glad Digimon did something to attempt to be relevant in comparison. Digimon was never popular where I grew up (rural Canada), especially past the first couple seasons, so maybe it was a losing battle. All the same, Digimon has never been the franchise to give up without a fight. And that’s why we had the latest Adventure 02 movie and Digimon Adventure 2020 dubbed into English–still waiting on Xros Wars Season 3, Appmon, and Ghost Game though.

In the end, the biggest reason I’m grateful for The Digimon Movie is because of nostalgia. I remember my oldest brother taking me and my little brother to the movie theater and getting packs of Digimon cards with our tickets. Years later as adults we went to see some of the Tri movies together and had movie nights for the others and Kizuna. I’ve seen the three segments of the movie in Japanese and they're wonderful, but subtitles don’t mix well with chores and charting at work. So when all is said and done, I’m going to keep watching The Digimon Movie. Digi-Rap and all.

Though I could do without the Angela Anaconda short.